by Karen Anders
He also was well aware that just because everything had come to light, it didn’t mean the nightmares would go away. Now that he remembered everything that had happened to him, those images and the pain he’d suffered at the Cartel’s hands would have a lingering effect if he didn’t deal with those memories.
Olivia had also made him think about the future and a family of his own. Not something Sam had entertained even a week ago. It may have been in the back of his mind, but without that special woman, it hadn’t been immediate.
It had just become immediate.
The thought of letting her go and walking away from her hurt more than a bullet to the heart.
She stirred against him. After her mind-blowing stunt by the bedroom door, he’d recovered enough to make slow, hot love to her. Then she’d dropped off to sleep, but he hadn’t been able to relax. They were still in danger. Probably more so now that Trey was still alive and Sam hadn’t fulfilled what the Cartel wanted.
He suspected they weren’t just going to shrug their collective shoulders and go, “Oh, well, we missed.”
Her hand smoothed across his chest, and his thoughts fragmented.
“Hey, there, sleepyhead.”
She yawned and then smiled. “Hey, yourself. I’m starving.”
He gave her a wicked smile. “For me?”
The hopeful look on his face made her laugh. “Later for sure, but your brother probably thinks were in here screwing like rabbits.”
“My brother can mind his own damn business. And we are in here screwing like rabbits.”
She laughed. “I just think it’s a good idea to feed all aspects of the body. I need food.”
“All right. Shower first, more screwing like rabbits, then food.”
She laughed again as he dragged her out of bed and into the shower.
When they emerged from the room, Thad was watching TV. He straightened and gave his brother an amused look.
Sam gave Thad a warning stare. “We’re going to order food. You hungry?”
“Starving. I was wondering when you’d be done sleeping and we could eat. But I guess I shouldn’t rush you since you have to be out of here tomorrow.”
Sam looked at Thad and said softly, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Thad looked at Olivia and she looked at Sam.
“What did you just say?”
“I’m not going anywhere until I make sure Olivia is out of danger.”
“Sam, this is nonnegotiable,” Thad said as he rose and came toward him. “Mom pulled strings to get you the rest of today, but they want you back in D.C. tomorrow. They’ll send MPs here to get you. I know you want to avoid that.”
“They can send whoever they want, but I’m not leaving Olivia, Trey or Mom until this is done.”
“I know that voice,” Thad said, and looked at Olivia. “You better talk some sense into him, and now, Olivia.”
She huffed out a breath. “Sam, it is done. Your brainwashing has been identified and you avoided killing Trey—now you’ve got to do what was ordered or they’ll just drag you back.” Her eyes pleaded with him, but he wasn’t moved. He simply wasn’t leaving until he was satisfied. Even if he had to go off the grid.
“I might have been a bit bruised and battered after Mike and the shock of what happened to me. But I can guarantee you both I haven’t forgotten a bit of my training. They can try to take me back, but they’d have to find me first.”
Olivia grabbed his arm. “Sam, stop being stubborn about this. I’m not in any more danger.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You have no intention of going after the Cartel to make sure that your brother gets justice?” he challenged.
She bit her lip and looked away.
“Now who’s being the Lone Ranger?”
He saw the war on her face and in her eyes. He understood that war, and if he was honest and he was in her shoes, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t go after the Cartel himself. She struggled with her own convictions and principles. Sam knew all about that struggle and he understood it.
“Olivia, you might be a very competent P.I., but these people are out of your league,” Thad said, backing up Sam, who looked at him with gratitude.
“How is my brother supposed to get justice if I don’t expose these people for who they are so they can be stopped?”
“By letting this situation be handled by people who are fully capable and trained to do that,” Thad said.
Sam sighed and gave Thad a quelling look. “Olivia is very capable, but I have to agree with him. You need to leave it be.”
Olivia looked away, her eyes bruised and sad. “Who’s going to make sure my brother gets justice? Who, Sam?”
Sam dragged her against him and held her tight. She fought a bit. “Go ahead and use your superior strength, but no amount of sweet-talking is going to—”
He cut her off with a kiss.
“I’m...still waiting...for—”
He kissed her again, this time deeper and softer.
“Dammit, Sam,” she said when he broke the kiss.
He watched tears well in her eyes.
“I know what he meant to you, and if it’s even half of what my family means to me, I know I’d put on my gear right now and set up tactical to bring these bastards down. I swear it, Olivia. But I also recognize that sometimes, this time, you’ve got to let someone help you. That’s what you taught me, sweetheart. Trust me.”
He released his breath when he saw the acquiescence in her eyes. Tears slipped down her cheeks and he brushed them away.
“He was the only family I had left and they took him away just because he was a dedicated and caring man. Promise me, Sam. Promise me that whoever masterminded this whole thing will pay for my brother’s death. If you can promise me that, I will accept that we at least identified the man that pulled the trigger.”
“I promise you, Liv.”
“Sam, this doesn’t solve the problem of you staying here. I’ll watch over her.”
“No, Thad. Not because you’re not good enough,” he said, his gaze never leaving her face. “But because I’m better.”
Thad huffed out a breath. “Why are you being so stubborn?”
“You know why, Thad. I told you and Mom. Someone planted a gun in the desk in the study so it would be there when I needed it to shoot Trey. There’s a mole in the house.”
“And I told you we’d flush the bastard out. You agreed—”
“I never agreed to go back. I know I need to and I’ll honor that agreement. But I never said I would go back tomorrow.”
“Dammit, Sam! I will cuff you and take you to the airport myself, over my shoulder if necessary.”
Sam let go of Olivia and faced his brother. “Thad, don’t push me.”
“You think you’re tougher—”
“Oh, stop it, both of you,” Olivia said, getting between them. “The level of testosterone is getting too high in here.”
Thad let out a soft chuckle. “Maybe you should kiss her again, Sam. I’ll have to remember that move. Lucy can really be a handful.”
“How about we get something to eat and we’ll discuss this later?” she said, giving Thad a quelling look.
“Nothing’s going to change.”
“Later, Sam. I’m going to go get my cell phone and call. What do we want? Pizza? Chinese? What?”
“Pizza,” Thad said.
“Chinese,” Sam said.
“Oh, for the love of God. Why did I give them any choices? I’m making the decision and you both are going to like it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sam said with a salute.
“Men,” she said as she left the room.
Thad nudged him. “Tell me, man, that you’re smart enough to hold on to that woman.”
<
br /> Sam gave him a nudge back. “Things are complicated, Thad. I don’t know.”
“Some things are worth fighting for, brother. She’s one of them. Oh, and by the way, Mom loves her and so do Debra and Lucy. That’s like triple estrogen coming your way and I don’t think even Ranger training prepared you for that. No pressure, though.”
He gave Thad a wry sidelong glance. “Right, no pressure.”
“Sam!”
At the sound of her voice, he ran for the bedroom, Thad close behind, pulling out his weapon.
When they hit the open doorway, she looked up from her phone.
They breathed a collective sigh of relief when they saw her unharmed holding her laptop. “What is it?”
“The company who hosted my drive called and was able to retrieve some of the video I took and downloaded into your file. Maybe there’s something on here.”
They both walked over and Thad holstered his gun.
Both of them looked over her shoulder as she pulled up a file and opened it.
“Subject is Samuel Winston. I have been following him for two days now. Not sure what my brother was worried about, but so far he’s just doing routine stuff. Running, going to the coffee shop—the guy likes his caffeine.”
He saw himself in nothing but a pair of shorts stretching on his front porch. Then suddenly the camera zoomed in on his lower body, the thick muscles of his thighs. Then panned up his body in slow motion, getting a tighter shot of his chest. When he turned around, the camera panned down to his butt and stayed there.
Thad snickered and Sam elbowed him, but he couldn’t help the grin that slipped across his face.
He heard Olivia say, “Oh, crap,” so softly he almost missed it.
“Wow, Olivia, when you do surveillance on a guy you certainly cover all the bases.”
“I was on stakeout and I was bored and Sam is...quite...spectacularly beautiful.”
He curled his arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest. She leaned back and those guilty, sheepish eyes met his. “It’s true, Sam. You are beautiful.”
It hit him then hard how much he cared for Olivia. She was so direct, so sweet, so smart, and tough and every damn thing. He wanted to hold her and never let her go.
The scene changed and he saw himself at the coffee shop, waiting in line, then making his order. He looked preoccupied, tired and troubled. He wondered if he still looked that way.
While he was getting creamer, Olivia panned around the area, then pulled the camera back to him.
But he caught a glimpse of someone. “Wait, go back.”
She rewound. And there he was as plain as day.
“I knew I’d seen that guy before, but I couldn’t place him.”
“Son of a bitch!” Sam said.
Robert D’Angelis, the Secret Service Agent who had been on his mother’s detail from the beginning of her vice presidency.
And he was talking to Jesse Carter, aka Lenny Jeffers.
* * *
Trey rushed into his mother’s room, clutching his arm. “We’ve got to move now, Mom!” He grabbed her arm and started pulling her toward the door.
“What is it? What’s happened? I heard the gunshots... Oh, my God, you’re bleeding.” His shirt sleeve was ragged and soaked with blood. “Will this madness never end?” Her wide blue eyes met his and she tried to see his injury.
“There’s no time for that,” he said firmly, strain in his voice. “It’s not serious.”
“What is happening downstairs” Her son looked at her with sympathy in his eyes and she braced for the news.
“It’s Robert D’Angelis, Mom. He tried to kill me, but Agent Miller, my detail...he saved my life by giving his own. Robert is busy downstairs, pinned down by two other agents, but I have no doubt that both of us are on his killing agenda.”
She gasped, the man who had pledged his life to protect hers had been corrupted. Steadfast and true Robert. “Oh, no...that can’t be. He’s been with me from the beginning.”
“They got to him.”
She was trying to absorb the shock of being betrayed by one of her own people, stricken to the core. Just like Sam had to deal with Mike’s betrayal. She had to deal with this. Would this ever end?
With her hand clasped in his, they moved to the door, but Robert had already dispatched the other agents and was coming up the stairs. Trey slammed the door closed and locked it as he opened fire on them.
Trey didn’t hesitate. He grabbed her and pulled her out onto the balcony.
“There’s nowhere to go, Trey. We’re trapped here.” She looked back at her bedroom door. Robert was trying to get through and that lock wasn’t going to hold him for long; he was going to come through it at any moment.
Trey looked down at the pool and back at her.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Mom, we have to get out of here. Now let’s go! Jump.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said as she flung herself off the balcony. When she plunged to the bottom, she immediately swam to the surface and got out of the way. Shortly afterward, she heard another splash and Trey rose to the surface and swam strongly toward her.
When she looked up at the balcony, she saw Robert. Her heart sank to think that these ruthless bastards had gotten to him.
Trey grabbed her waist and dragged her to the stairs. Pulling themselves out of the pool, they ran for the shelter of the pool house just as Robert opened fire.
* * *
“Robert D’Angelis. He allowed Mike access to the estate during the wedding reception. He was the one that planted the gun and alerted the Cartel when I was alone with Trey. He’s their damn inside man.”
Thad was on his cell, calling for backup, but when Sam reached the estate he didn’t wait. As soon as Thad was done calling for backup, he was going to sweep the perimeter. This was not the time to take chances. There were other shooters around the estate or an ace in the hole—a sniper. He was out of the car, running for the house. When he heard his mother’s scream from the pool house, he veered in that direction. When he turned to find Olivia there, he opened his mouth.
“Don’t tell me to go back, Sam.”
“We’re in this together.” He was just simply no longer the Lone Ranger. “Let’s go, but be very careful.”
Olivia pulled out her gun and Sam smiled, wishing he had his own, but the cops took the guns at his house and hadn’t returned them. “A gun-toting P.I. How did I get so lucky?”
She smiled. “Okay, let’s go.”
They inched around the house and a bullet whizzed by his head. “Dammit, he has some backup.” He did a quick glimpse and the rifle discharged again. That was what Sam was looking for. He ducked back.
“I’m going to cover you. Make a run for the low stone wall bracketing the pool,” Olivia said.
“All right.”
“Ready?”
He nodded.
“Go!”
He ran and Olivia pulled off three shots. Then she was beside him.
“What now?” she said as he crouched down next to her. “He’s heading to the pool house, Sam.”
Sam’s cell buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Thad.”
“Two shooters down.”
“Sniper on the ridge north of the pool house. Take him out, Thad.”
“Got it.”
He shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Thad’s going for the sniper. I’m going for Trey and my mother. You keep D’Angelis busy.”
“Sam,” she said. She pressed her mouth to his. “I love you.”
He met her eyes. He’d known for a while what he felt for her, but it was unfair to make that declaration when he couldn’t make any promises. “Ah, sweetheart. You’re killing me. You k
now how I feel.”
“I know you, Sam. It’s okay if you don’t say it back. I just needed to tell you. To let you know. Just in case.”
“No, sweetheart. We’re getting out of this.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. Be careful.”
He slipped around the wall and headed for the pool house. Just then a man dressed all in black rose out of the nearby brush and pointed a gun directly at Sam.
Olivia rose and shot four bullets in him and he went down.
Sam looked back at her. “Hooyah, sweetheart.”
“Go, Sam.”
She focused her attention on D’Angelis, and Sam ran for the pool house. As soon as he tried to get a bead on Sam, Olivia fired, putting his ass back behind cover.
When he was almost to the pool house, he heard the unmistakable sound of an empty gun click. He was in the open, and exposed and Olivia was out of ammo. D’Angelis came out from behind the big planter he was using for cover, getting a bead on Sam. As he pulled the trigger, Sam rolled.
Olivia bolted toward D’Angelis. He was so focused on what he thought was the biggest threat, he ignored her. She hit him full out and they both went into the pool.
“Olivia!” He tried to get to her, but shots came from the hill. “Dammit, Thad, take that guy out,” he muttered. When no one surfaced, Sam took his chances and sprinted for the pool
No shots. Thad must have gotten the sniper. He could see the bastard holding her down. Jumping off from the pool deck, he dived in.
He and D’Angelis grappled in the water and when they broke the surface, fists flying, he was suddenly aware that Olivia wasn’t moving. He let go of D’Angelis and dived for her as D’Angelis swam for the edge of the pool. Sirens wailed in the distance. And Thad was there, putting his foot right into D’Angelis’s face as he fell back into the water.
As Sam hauled her up out of the water, Trey and their mother came out of the pool house and both of them ran to him. He was listening for her breath. “No, baby,” he said, and started giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation. “Breathe, Liv. Breathe,” he said through his gasps. “Come on.”