by Anna Wells
“What’s your relationship to the patient?” Niasha asked.
“I’m her brother and this is her…”
“Fiancé,” Jordan finished Donovan’s sentence. Donovan gave him a questioning look but didn’t contradict him. “Michaela we’ll be right behind you,” he told her.
She gave him a wan smile. “You better be. I hate hospitals.” She looked at Niasha, “Please, tell them where you’re taking me.”
Addressing the two men she said, “We’re taking her to Massachusetts General.” With the help of her partner, Niasha pushed the gurney into the ambulance. They hopped in and closed the doors and the ambulance roared away.
Jordan looked around and for the first time noticed the chaos that had expectedly erupted around them. There were police questioning witnesses while other police officers were trying to herd the crowd away from the crime scene. He ran his hand through his hair, holding his suit jacket in his hand that was now covered in Michaela’s blood. He was standing on the sidewalk in just his shirt. He had left the office without a winter coat assuming that he would just step into the Bentley. Snow flurries were swirling around his head but he didn’t feel the cold as he tried to assimilate the recent events. He had been concerned for Michaela’s safety, but her actually getting shot was unbelievable to him. Did this involve the undercover investigation? Joyce had seemed as shocked as the rest of them when the shots were fired, but maybe she was just a good actress. It was difficult to say one way or the other.
He had to get to Michaela. “I’ve got to get to the hospital,” he told Donovan. He could feel his anxiety level growing. God, she’d been so pale, he thought.
“We both do, but you go on ahead. I have to make sure this scene is secure and talk to the agent in charge. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He paused, putting a reassuring hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “She’s going to be okay. The shot hit her in the shoulder, she was breathing fine and her pulse was strong. I wouldn’t lie to you, she’s my sister.”
“Marsh,” a voice interrupted. Jordan looked away from Donovan to see Special Agent Gonzales approaching. “Gonzales, I’ve got to get to the hospital. Anything you want to ask me will have to wait.”
“I wanted to let you know, we arrested Joyce Landau. Agent Barrett blew his cover when he went after the shooter.” Gonzales informed him.
Jordan had been so focused on Michaela that he hadn’t even been aware of the other events going on around him. As he glanced around, there was no sign of Joyce or Samuel Barrett. “Did he catch the shooter?”
The agent shook his head. “No, unfortunately not, but he did get a good look at him and can give us a good description.”
“Look, this is going to have to wait. If you need to talk to me further, catch up with me at Massachusetts General. Donovan should be able to fill you in, he was here when Michaela was shot.” He strode toward the Bentley not in the least concerned with Joyce’s fate. Paul had already gotten back into the Bentley and was waiting for him.
He opened the door of the car and quickly got into the back seat. “Paul get me to Massachusetts General.”
Chapter Twenty
Michaela opened her eyes slowly squinting against the light. Her brain felt foggy and she was so tired. How was she ever going to get out of bed this morning? She looked around the room feeling confused and realized she was in a hospital room. She had no idea how she’d gotten here. She tried to move and moaned. Her whole body felt sore.
Jordan was suddenly at her side stroking her cheek lightly. “Michaela relax, don’t move, you’re still hooked up to an IV. How are you feeling?”
She was instantly soothed by Jordan’s touch and voice. Looking up into his eyes she said, “I’ve felt better. What happened? How did I get here?”
“You don’t remember?”
Michaela searched her brain trying to remember something. She gave slight shake of her head. “The last thing I remember, we were going for lunch and Joyce was there.”
Jordan reached down and grabbed her hand giving it a squeeze. “Yes, we were going for lunch and then someone shot you. The ambulance came and then you were rushed to the hospital for surgery. The bullet lodged in your shoulder and didn’t hit anything vital. The doctor says you’ll need to do physio to build up your strength, but you’ll be fine.”
As she lay in the hospital bed she tried to absorb what Jordan had said. It was unbelievable that someone had actually shot her. She thought for a minute. “Joyce was right there. She didn’t shoot me and she was the police’s only suspect. If it wasn’t Joyce then who was it?”
Jordan shook his head. “They have no idea. Michaela I have to tell you something about Joyce.”
“Am I going to want to hear this?” she asked, afraid of what he was going to confess.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. “Probably not, but here it goes. After Joyce and I broke up the FBI approached me. They told me that Joyce has a long history of corporate espionage. She becomes involved with company executives to gain access to things like company passwords. She then steals corporate secrets. She’s been getting away with it because the victims are too embarrassed to report the crime.”
“Was she able to steal anything from you?”
“No, she hasn’t been successful. I’m more careful than that, but the FBI wanted me to give her a chance. They wanted to find out who’s paying her. So they asked me to give her a job after the breakup and set up a sting. That’s why you saw me with Joyce today. She has been working at my office for months.”
“Were you ever going to tell me about this?” she asked finding it unbelievable he had kept this from her.
“Yes, today in fact. We were actually going to meet the FBI agent in charge of the investigation so he could brief you. You have to understand, I wasn’t permitted to share this information,” Jordan explained.
She thought about that, trying to put her emotions in perspective. She realized he probably hadn’t had much of a choice. “I guess that makes sense.” Then another thought occurred to her. “That’s why your file was red flagged.”
“How do you know about that? Oh, let me guess, your dear brother told you.”
“Oh yeah. He wanted me to move out of your house. He was convinced you were some kind of evil billionaire,” she said, her voice laden with amusement.
Jordan stared at her thoughtfully. “So why didn’t you run in the other direction when Donovan told you there was a red flag on my file?”
“I guess I just know you too well to believe you were involved in something illegal. You have too much integrity for that,” she said with a shrug. “Ouch that hurts,” she exclaimed. She shifted trying to make herself more comfortable.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a concerned tone. The strain of the day was showing on his face.
“I’m a little sore. Apparently getting shot will do that to you.”
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Don’t ever do that again. It scared the shit out of me.”
“Do what?”
“Get shot. I can’t take another day like today,” Jordan told her in a gruff voice.
“Well, I’ll try,” she said dryly. “Except were back to square one now since we know Joyce isn’t the one trying to shoot me.”
“The FBI is certain she’s working for someone. Maybe it’s one of them.”
A frown marred her features. “But why would I be the target? I have nothing to do with your company?”
He shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“You know, when I got out of the car and saw you with Joyce my first thought was that you’d been cheating, but then I looked at you and I realized you’re not like the other guys and you’d never do that. Although I knew something was up, I just never thought it was an undercover operation.”
“I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you believed in me. You’ve been holding a part of yourself back. I’ve felt it and it’s been driving me crazy.”
“Yes I can understand why yo
u would be frustrated after four days of dating that I wouldn’t commit to marrying you and having your children.”
Jordan laughed. “Michaela, I’ve been dating you for a year. You’re the one that thought we were just friends.”
“You’re an insane man, but I love you anyway.”
He squeezed her hand. “And this time you said it like it was a good thing. I love you too curly top.”
Their intimate conversation ended when a nurse walked in the room with brisk efficiency wearing blue hospital scrubs. She looked like she was close to fifty and had short, dark blond hair. Her attitude was no nonsense but her smile was warm as she asked, “I see our gunshot victim is awake. How are you feeling?” Her nametag read, NANCY.
“Sore and tired, but I guess that’s to be expected.”
“Yes, that’s normal under the circumstances.” Nancy looked up at Jordan and said, “If you’ll excuse me. I need to check her vitals.”
“Of course.” Jordan let go of her hand and stepped out of the way.
Nancy quickly wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm and held her wrist. After she recorded the information she then checked her temperature. “You’re doing okay, but your blood pressure is still a little low from blood loss. You need to get as much rest as you can.” She looked over at Jordan before saying, “Maybe your visitor can come back later.”
Jordan didn’t look like he appreciated Nurse Nancy’s suggestion. “I’m her fiancé, but I will let her get some rest now if you think that’s best.”
“Come back in the morning after she’s had some more time to recover. Really there isn’t anything you can do for her now. She just needs to sleep at this point,” the Nurse said as she pulled out a bedpan from under the bed. “Look, I don’t want you getting up so use the bedpan if you need to go to the washroom. I’ll leave it right here on the table next to you so you can reach it easily. If you need assistance just press the buzzer.”
“Okay,” Michaela said looking askance at the bedpan. Yuck, like she wanted to use that thing.
The nurse smiled encouragingly and left the room.
“Well, I guess I’ve been told,” Jordan said. “I’ll leave and let you get some rest, but I’m going to have Paul come and guard your door. I don’t like the idea of you being here unguarded.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine in the hospital,” she told him.
“Just humor me. When I’m not here I’d like Paul to be here.”
“Okay, whatever. I’m too tired to argue.” The exhaustion showed clearly on her face.
He stroked her cheek and then he leaned over and kissed her gently. He straightened and, tapping the bedpan, said, “And have fun using this thing.”
“Ha ha, very funny.”
He chuckled. “I don’t want to go, but that nurse is a tyrant. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Her eyes drifted close as she watched him leave the room.
Michaela wasn’t sure how long she had been sleeping when a noise woke her. She opened her eyes to see Noah standing over her bed with a grim look of determination on his face. Her first thought was that he looked the same as the last time she had seen him. He still wore his sandy brown hair short and spiked up slightly at the front. He was immaculately dressed wearing a jeans and a blue oxford shirt as if he had just come from teaching one of his classes.
“Noah? What are you doing here?” She felt oddly nervous at his presence.
He folded his arms over his chest. “I have to admit. You’ve been a pain in the ass since the very beginning. You know I only dated you so Joyce and I would have a chance to meet and exchange information. But what happens? Marsh becomes fixated on you and loses interest in Joyce.” He shook his head in bemusement. “No one ever loses interest in Joyce.”
“What are you talking about? Jordan and I just started dating.”
“God, you’re such an idiot. He’d stopped sleeping with her and Joyce and I both noticed his interest in you. If you hadn’t caught us in bed, he would have broken up with her anyway. Shit he’s been glued to your side ever since.”
“So you were using me so Joyce could pass on Jordan’s company secrets to you.”
He shrugged. “More or less. Joyce was getting close. It was just a matter of time before she would have been able to hack in through his home computer, but once he stopped sleeping with her she no longer had access to his home. You’ve delayed everything by over a year. My employers are impatient and if I don’t deliver soon, I’m a dead man.”
“You shot me?” she asked, her voice incredulous.
He threw her an irritated look. “Just figured that out, did you? You’re a hard woman to get rid of. I had just met Joyce for coffee at the mall to get an update on her progress and there you were right in front of me at the crosswalk. It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. When you managed to get to the sidewalk in time, I came up with the simple plan just to torch your house. You were always tucked in bed early on a Sunday night, but that night, for some reason, you weren’t there. So shooting you seemed like the next thing.”
“Why are you trying to kill me Noah?” she asked totally confused. “How is killing me going to get you closer to your goal?’
“It’s not. I should have killed you a year ago when you started getting in the way. Right now, killing you is only going to give me satisfaction and if I’m lucky it might distract Marsh enough from his company to make things easier for Joyce.”
“Are you freaking nuts? You want to murder me because you think I messed up your plans? Is revenge worth the risk of ending up in jail?”
“Michaela, I’ve been committing treason by selling proprietary corporate information to the Chinese for over ten years. At this point murder won’t make much of a difference and I love the idea of destroying Marsh this way. He’s ruining my reputation. I’ve always delivered what I promise.”
He sounded so calm as he said it and Michaela concluded that, yes, he was indeed freaking nuts and rationalizing with him at this point was not going to work.
She went to reach for the call button for the nurse, but Noah grabbed her arm stopping her from reaching it. Pain speared through her body as her wounded shoulder was jostled and she almost lost consciousness. She went to scream but Noah grabbed her pillow from beneath her and shoved it over her face. Shit, he was going to smother her.
His voice was close to her ear as he whispered, “Die bitch.”
Michaela was pissed, she was not going to die today. Reaching over with her good arm she grabbed the bedpan and swung as hard as she could, whacking him in the head. A loud clang erupted as the bedpan made contact with Noah’s skull and he gave a grunt as he collapsed on top of her. Michaela removed the pillow from her face searching frantically for the call button. She pressed it and screamed at the top of her lungs. She was trapped under Noah’s dead weight and couldn’t move.
Suddenly Jordan and another man holding a gun burst into the room and came to an abrupt halt when they took in the scene.
“Michaela, what the hell happened?” Jordan asked in an astonished voice as he took in the scene.
“Could you just get him off me?” she yelled.
Noah moaned as the other man moved forward and dragged him off of her. He looked at Michaela, “I’m Special Agent Gonzales. “Do you know this guy?”
She nodded. “Yeah, we both do. That’s Noah Jenkins. He was my fiancé until I caught him sleeping with Joyce, but he just told me that Joyce was actually working for him.” While she talked, Gonzales managed to handcuff Noah’s hands behind his back and shove him in a nearby chair. Another groan emitted from Noah’s mouth at Gonzales’ not so gentle treatment.
“What did he want with you?” Gonzales asked.
“He was trying to smother me until I bashed him in the head with the bedpan. He was furious with me and Jordan. Apparently he blamed me for Joyce losing Jordan’s attention. According to Noah, this is the first time one of his corporate espionage operations hadn’t worked. Killing
me was just some sort of sick revenge against both me and Jordan for spoiling his perfect reputation.”
Jordan gave Noah a disgusted look. “The guy is freaking nuts.”
“That’s what I told him just before he tried to smother me,” she told him dryly.
Gonzales shook his head in wonder as he pulled out his cell phone. “I’m glad he went a bit nuts, it’s made it easier for us.” He started punching numbers into his phone and put it to his ear. “This is Gonzales, I have the shooter in custody in the Prentice case but I’m going to have to get him medical attention before I can bring him in. Yeah, I’ll call you back and let you know. In the meantime send a couple of agents to guard him.” Hanging up the phone, he turned his attention to Jordan. “Could you get a nurse, we need to him to get a doctor. I think Michaela probably gave him a concussion.”
The door suddenly opened and Donovan and her parents came rushing in. Her mother gasped at the sight of Noah unconscious in the chair. “What happened?”
Gonzales looked at Donovan. “Friends of yours?”
Donovan nodded. “You could say that. These are my parents, Vivien and Will Prentice.”
Gonzales gave a nod of his head. “Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Prentice. Thanks to your daughter’s skill with a bedpan, I’ve just apprehended our corporate espionage suspect and attempted murderer.”
“Noah was involved in corporate espionage and tried to kill you?” Vivien Prentice asked, obviously stunned by the news.
Her dad pushed everyone aside and grabbed her chart checking all the information. He then came over to her side and said, “I want to take a look at how they stitched you up.”
Michaela didn’t even argue as her dad started to peel back the bandages. The nurse finally arrived looking confused at the amount of people who had invaded Michaela’s hospital room. “Dr. Prentice what are you doing here?”
Her father gave the nurse a stern look before answering, “Checking on my daughter, of course.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize she was your daughter.” She looked around the room and noticed Noah still unconscious on the chair and blood trickling down his forehead. She immediately rushed forward and checked his pulse. “Did no one notice this man needs medical attention?”