“Ashlynn!” Bridgette rushed to her side, crunching on the shards and kneeling beside her. “Are you okay? What happened?” She hurried back to the door and opened it, shouting out. “Someone get help. Ashlynn’s been attacked.”
Pain was radiating from her neck, but the dull throb from her head overshadowed it. She’d hit the cabinet hard and the room was spinning, but that could also have been from being drugged.
“You’re bleeding,” Bridgette said grabbing for a towel and pressing it to Ashlynn’s forehead, where she hadn’t even known she’d been hit. She must have fallen on one of the shards or cut herself when she hit the cabinet.
“Who did this to you?” Bridgette asked, her face full of concern.
A wave of nausea rolled over Ashlynn before she could respond. She leaned over and the next thing she knew she was flat on her back. Bridgette’s worried face hovered over hers then faded away as Ashlynn slipped into darkness.
* * *
Garrett hurried to the ER when he got the call from Vince about Ashlynn being attacked at her office. He kicked himself for being so foolish. He never should have left her, but at the time it had seemed like the only way. He’d never dreamed she would be in danger in her own office.
He hurried inside and found the room where she was being observed. His gut clenched when he saw her lying on the bed. She looked small beneath the hospital blanket and had an IV hooked up to her and a bandage across her forehead and around her hand. But she managed to give him a weak smile when she saw him. “Hi.”
He reached for her non-bandaged hand and squeezed it, as much to comfort himself as to comfort her. “What happened?”
“Someone attacked me in the break room. But that’s not all, Garrett. I think I was drugged. If Bridgette hadn’t come along, he might have killed me.”
“How could someone drug you?”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “Judge Warren brought me a plate of brownies. I had one before this whole incident happened.”
“Judge Warren? Why would he want to drug you?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t see how else it could have happened.”
Guilt rushed through him. He should have been there to protect her.
Vince knocked on the door and entered. “I’m glad you’re here, Garrett.” He glanced at Ashlynn. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” she said, but her voice was small and weak.
“Did you find out who did this?” Garrett demanded.
Vince shook his head. “I’ve spoken with several of the people in the office at the time. No one saw anything.”
Garrett sighed wearily. “How could they not see anyone?”
“It’s a busy office and people are always coming and going. They don’t have security cameras in the offices but they have them on the front doors. We’ll search through the footage, but honestly we don’t have a clue who we’re looking for.”
Ashlynn shook her head. “I didn’t get a good look at him. He had that same mask covering his face as before. I grabbed it.”
“No one saw a man in a mask, but that’s easy to pull off and stuff into your pocket. We were able to get fiber samples from under your nails. They might provide some information. I also spoke with your assistant. She claims she also ate one of the brownies the judge brought you and nothing happened to her.”
Ashlynn nodded, obviously thinking back. “Yes, she did have one. I watched her eat it.”
“She also said she brought you coffee. The drugs could have been in that.”
“Do you think Bridgette is the one who tried to drug me?” Ashlynn asked.
Garrett shook his head. “That’s not likely. If Bridgette was the one drugging you, she could have easily told the police that the brownies made her sleepy, too. That would have focused suspicion away from her.”
“True, and it was definitely a man who attacked me in the break room and Bridgette is the one who spooked him. And I can’t think of one reason why Bridgette—or Judge Warren, either, for that matter—would want to kill me.”
Vince glanced at Ashlynn. “Well, we’ll follow up with Judge Warren and we’re also having the remaining brownies and your coffee mug, what’s left of it anyway, analyzed, but those will both take some time. Meanwhile, I’ll have an officer posted at your door.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “They’re releasing me soon. My injuries aren’t that serious.”
“And I’ll be here until she’s released,” Garrett said. He wasn’t leaving her unprotected again.
Vince nodded. “I’ll let you know if we have any further questions,” he told Ashlynn, then he walked out.
Garrett looked at her. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
“No, you had to focus on Jacob. Did you find out anything?”
“Not yet, but I’m not giving up. I don’t want to leave you unprotected again, though. I’ll phone Josh and see if I can drop you off at his place. You’ll be safe there for the rest of the afternoon and it’ll give you time to rest up. Don’t worry. I trust him. He won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Are you sure he won’t mind?”
“I’ll call him but I know he won’t. He does private security for an international company so if he’s not off on an assignment he generally works from home.”
“Fine, but I’d like to stop by my office first. I was going through my case files. I can pick them up and continue while I’m at Josh’s.”
“Ashlynn, you’re supposed to be resting. You were nearly killed.”
“Maybe you’re right, but Jacob is still missing and I won’t get any rest until he’s home.”
He had no choice but to agree, knowing she wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing while her son...while their son...was missing. Wow, he still couldn’t wrap his brain around the notion that he had a son.
He made the call to Josh and confirmed that, yes, he would be home and, no, he didn’t mind one bit keeping an eye on Ashlynn for a while. Garrett stayed with her while the nurse finished the discharge paperwork and removed the IV.
Finally they left the hospital and drove downtown, back to the DA’s offices. Ashlynn was pale as he parked and cut off the engine.
He gently touched her arm. “Are you sure you want to go back in there?” He hadn’t considered how going back into the office where she’d been attacked would affect her, and by the ashen tone of her skin he doubted she had, either.
“I can run upstairs and get the files. Or, better yet, have someone bring them down.”
“No,” she said doggedly, unbuckling the seatbelt and jutting out that determined chin. “I’m going. I won’t be terrorized this way.”
He grinned at her stubbornness. When it didn’t infuriate him, it made him proud.
* * *
Garrett walked with her to her office where she loaded the stack of files she’d requested into a box.
She was stuffing a few more, along with her notepad and pens, into the box when she turned and saw him staring at the photo of Jacob on her desk. He picked it up and outlined Jacob’s image with his finger.
“He has my eyes,” Garrett noted, his voice cracking with unguarded emotion.
“I know. You can’t imagine how confusing it is to love someone so much who reminds you of someone—” She stopped herself. She’d been about to say “someone who’d let you down so much,” but she realized how that would hurt him.
But she hadn’t caught herself in time. “Someone you hate?”
“I don’t hate you, Garrett. I never did. Even when I thought you’d rejected us, I couldn’t hate you.” She placed a comforting hand on his arm.
He covered her hand with his own, then replaced the photo on the desk and moved his hands to her face, softly caressing her cheeks. “I know I’ve let you and Jacob d
own before, Ashlynn, but I promise you, I won’t rest until I bring Jacob home.”
She stared up into his eyes. She saw a man where she used to see a boy and she saw determination and grit and...something else. A vulnerability she recognized. His finger stroked her lips and she saw him glance at her mouth as he drew nearer to her. Her heart jumped a beat. Was he going to kiss her? And what would she do if he tried?
She couldn’t deny there was still such an attraction between them and she couldn’t stop herself from remembering the safety of his arms embracing her. He’d always been her rock of strength and faith.
But then the cold reality hit her.
He hadn’t always been her rock.
He felt the change in her too and backed away.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. How can I allow myself to fall for you when I can’t trust you to stick around? I loved you so much, Garrett, and you shattered me. I can’t go through that again. Besides, I need you to put Jacob front and center now.”
He nodded and stepped away from her, but she saw the pain in his eyes at her rejection. She didn’t really want to hurt him, especially now that she knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her, but she had to keep her focus. She couldn’t lose herself in Garrett again. She had Jacob now and she had to protect him. He’d already lost so much.
Garrett walked over to the box of files. “Is this everything?”
“Yes, for now.”
He picked it up. She noticed how his muscles contracted beneath his shirt and felt a sigh of regret for what might have been.
* * *
They were back at Garrett’s truck when Ken approached them with a file. “I’m glad I caught you,” he said. “I didn’t want to talk inside. Judge Warren checks out. He has no outstanding debts, no family connections with legal troubles. In fact, he’s set to retire from the bench in a few months. He and his wife are planning to travel once he’s retired. He seemed shook up when he learned what had happened to you and he was adamant that the brownies were not drugged. I think he was kind of hurt that anyone would even suggest it.”
Ashlynn shook her head. “I have a hard time believing Judge Warren would try to harm me. He’s my mentor. He’s been like a second father to me all these years. I should talk to him and apologize.”
Garrett nodded, but she could see he was more anxious to question the judge than apologize.
“What about Bridgette?” Garrett asked. “She brought you the coffee.”
“Yes, and she’s brought me coffee many times before. She’s never drugged it previously. Besides, she wasn’t the one who attacked me. In fact, she probably saved my life. And why would she want to hurt me?”
Ken ventured a guess. “Could be jealousy.”
“Over what?”
“Everyone in the office knows Bridgette and her husband have been trying to have a baby and can’t. Maybe she snapped and decided she would just take yours. It’s possible she’s obsessed. She snatches Jacob and then tries to kill you to get you out of the way. Jealousy has a way of making normally rational people do things you would never believe.”
“That’s ludicrous. Lots of people can’t have children. That doesn’t mean they’re willing to resort to murder and abduction in order to become parents. There are other ways to have a child. Adoption, for instance.”
Ken shook his head. “Maybe but not for former drug addicts. This is the reason I didn’t want to talk inside the office. I ran a background on Bridgette’s husband, Bruce. He spent six years in prison on drug charges and burglary. No agency is going to give someone with his background a child.”
Garrett seemed excited about this new bit of information, but Ashlynn shook her head, dismayed. “I never knew that about her husband, but that still doesn’t mean she’s behind this. I find that very hard to believe. She’s been a loyal friend to me.”
Ken put away the files. “Well, I turned over what I discovered to the police so they can follow up on it.”
“Ashlynn, we can’t discount these incidents,” Garrett said. “Whoever drugged you was nearby. No one saw anyone suspicious in your office or around your car when the bomb was set. Don’t you see? Whoever is behind this is someone who can get close without raising suspicion. This person, or people, are targeting you. They have Jacob and now they want you out of the way. We can’t just discount people because of an emotional connection. We have to follow up on every angle.”
“Wouldn’t I know if someone close to me was trying to kill me? Or wanted to take my son?”
“Not necessarily. Betrayal hurts so much because it is someone you trusted not to betray you.”
She saw something in his face and got the idea he knew a thing or two about betrayal. Well, so did she because she’d been betrayed by him. She bit back that comment. He didn’t need that reminder and it would only be cruel to bring it up again. She had to focus on the fact that he hadn’t intentionally abandoned his family. He hadn’t known about Jacob when he’d ended things with her. She needed to believe that because it helped to ease the sting of rejection.
* * *
Josh greeted them both then ushered Ashlynn into the den where she would have privacy while she sorted through her files but where he could also keep an eye on her.
Garrett shook his hand. “Thanks for doing this. I shouldn’t have left her alone in her office, but I thought she would be safe there.” He grimaced. “I was wrong.”
“Not a problem,” Josh assured him.
“If I text you a few names, can you do some background work on them?” He was starting with those in Ashlynn’s inner circle—her ex-husband and her coworkers, including the DA and several of the police officers she worked closely with. “Her nanny was also killed. I would be inclined to think this was about her if Ashlynn’s ex-husband hadn’t been killed, as well. Someone is targeting her. I need to find out who.”
Josh nodded, understanding. He knew about betrayal, having discovered his friend was behind his niece’s abduction and a human trafficking ring operating out of their hometown. “Consider it done. Levi is coming into town tomorrow for an appointment at the neurologist. Want me to pull him in, too?”
Garrett nodded. “I’m hoping this will all be over and done with quickly, but I wouldn’t mind having you both on alert in case I need backup.”
“I’m here if you need me,” Josh told him.
Garrett thanked him, said his goodbyes to Ashlynn and turned to leave.
I’m here if you need me. Garrett had known he could count on Josh to be there for him. It was one of the great things about having a band of brothers he trusted completely. He would always be there for them if they needed him and he could count on them to be there for him. Having that kind of backup was one of the reasons he’d decided to end his solitary lifestyle and return to life among people. He’d been in too many situations where he’d gotten in too deep and no one had had his back. He’d had to fight and claw and too many times shoot his way out of trouble.
He’d been shot, stabbed, beaten and even poisoned once, and each time he’d struggled with knowing he was alone in the world with only his determination and skill to protect him. They had protected him and they’d brought him home each time he’d rushed headlong into peril, but more and more the times between assignments had begun to feel more like loneliness than solitude. It was a feeling he doubted any of his ranger brothers understood. He knew they worried about him and his willingness and determination to find danger.
The doctors he’d seen had called it survivor’s guilt and assured him it would eventually eat him alive or get him killed if he didn’t deal with it. They’d surely been right and even though he was still plagued by the feeling that he shouldn’t have walked out of that ambush alive, he didn’t want to nurse it alone any longer.
Now, with Ashlynn in trouble and his son—his son—mis
sing, he was more pleased than ever before that he had the backup of the rangers on his side.
SIX
Years ago when Garrett had been a dumb kid working the streets, Mike Webb’s chop shop had been housed on Raymond Street. He started there but was unsurprised to find the building had been torn down. The very nature of Mike’s business meant he had to relocate often. But there had been a few meeting points, places where people would go to be found. Usually it was to buy drugs, a pastime he’d never ventured into, thankfully, but they were also places where someone could find information.
Garrett drove to several of those places and posed questions to people he encountered, but he saw no one he recognized. The players were all young kids and they either didn’t know the names he dropped or were playing dumb. He figured it was probably the latter. They didn’t know him from Adam and they weren’t giving out details to strangers.
He sighed as he got back into his car. This was another dead end, just as Ashlynn had predicted. He hated most that he’d let her down again. She’d acted as if she hadn’t been too optimistic about this panning out but he’d seen a glimmer of hope in her eyes and he disliked dashing that.
There had to be some way to reconnect with his old crew, aside from just parking his truck with the doors open and yelling at the top of his lungs that he was leaving the keys inside, then waiting to see who showed up. Although he would be willing to do that if he thought it would help him find Jacob.
He was definitely feeling the pressure as the hours passed with no ransom demand and no leads. He would do whatever it took to bring Jacob home. He wanted to get to know his son and have the opportunity to be a dad. He’d grown up without a father and now that Stephen was dead, Jacob could be looking at the same kind of future. Garrett didn’t want that for him. He’d never thought about being a father, but now that he knew he was, he wanted to be a part of his child’s life. But first he had to find Jacob and bring him home safely.
He tried three more spots where his old crew used to hang out but still made no headway. Things had changed too much in town in the years since he’d been gone. And more than just the town was different. He was, too. He’d once been at home here, but he wasn’t that same dumb kid who used to steal cars for Mike Webb for a hundred bucks a pop. He’d made it out of this neighborhood. The army had cleaned him up and given him a skill and a purpose.
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