I glanced at Hayden. That sounded like someone with a little experience at this sort of thing. Like someone who’d served time in the military.
“When you hear from Cadence, you’ll have her contact me?”
“Of course.”
Blake ran his hand over his shaved head. “If you hear anything…”
“What’s going on?” a woman’s voice asked from behind us.
I turned and found myself looking at a familiar face. Annie Kincaid Zimmerman. She’d been a model before she married Blake at the height of his career. She’s pretty much just become a trophy wife since then, always on his arm at important events, but never in front of the cameras any other time. I’d heard a rumor she’d been ill, but she looked quite healthy as she stood in front of us.
“Cadence is missing,” Blake said, crossing to her. “And someone shot up our cabin.”
“What?”
Annie seemed to grow a little faint, falling into her husband’s arms. He lifted her up and carried her to the couch, laying her with a carefulness that was heartwarming. He glanced at me.
“She’s got a heart condition.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
He shook his head. “If you could show yourselves out…”
Hayden laid his hand on my arm, guiding me out the door.
We drove back to the office in the same silence we drove there in, though my thoughts were on Annie Zimmerman now. The poor woman. First she couldn’t have a child of her own because of her health issues, and now her surrogate was missing. It must be incredibly stressful.
“Do we know if they’d completed the surrogate stuff?” I asked aloud, aware that Hayden wouldn’t know.
He glanced at me. “I think our main concern should be her safety right now.”
“I know. I’m just wondering if we’re protecting a woman, or a woman and a child. These are the kinds of things that Sam asks the clients, but I didn’t think to ask.”
“It doesn’t really matter.”
He fell silent again until we reached the office, clearly not in the mood to talk. I knew Hayden well enough to know that meant he had something on his mind. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when he grabbed my wrist as I started to get out of the car in the parking lot.
“What’s going on between you and Dante?”
I stared at his hand on my wrist until he let go.
“That’s none of your business.”
“You’re my friend, Megan, more than you were ever my boss. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I’m a big girl. I can handle my own stuff.”
“You’re wrapped up in Peter’s case and Cole’s getting married, I know those things are bringing up a lot of ghosts for you. Don’t let Dante take advantage of that.”
“I’m not.”
“We don’t know anything about him.”
“I know that, too.” I studied him for a second. “What’s going on with you and Sam? All the whispering that’s been happening lately?”
He looked away. “Sam’s worried about you, too.”
“So the two of you are talking about me behind my back? That’s healthy.”
I started to get out of the car, but he put his hand on my shoulder.
“Just promise me you’ll be careful.”
I glanced back at him. “I’m going to be fine. You…don’t break my best friend’s heart.”
He just nodded, his expression thoughtful.
Chapter 16
Marcus
I caught her just as she passed out. Blood was seeping from a wound on her shoulder. I lifted her, carried her into the bedroom and wrapped her in the bedspread on the bed. She was shivering even though the water had been warm and her skin was hot. Fever. I set her on the bed and rushed back to the bathroom, grabbing a couple of towels to press against her shoulder.
It looked like a through and through. Not a lot of damage, but she’d lost some blood. And the fever. That worried me. She should have told me sooner.
I didn’t have any bandages. Didn’t have any medical supplies at all. I had a bottle of cheap wine that I bought on a lark. Nothing else. I put pressure on the wound until the bleeding began to slow. Then I grabbed the wine and poured the whole bottle over the wound. She moaned, but she didn’t wake.
I hated to leave her, but I had to get some bandages on her wound. I lifted her higher up on the bed and wrapped her a little better in the bedspread. I was careful to lock the door behind me and drove back to the Walmart, making my purchases quickly. Tylenol. Bandages. Antiseptic. Cold packs. Thread and needles. A couple more bottles of wine.
She was in the same place when I got back. I pulled the towels away from the wound and it was seeping blood again. It went right through, but it was a significant hole in her shoulder. I had to sew it closed or she’d just continue to bleed. I expected her to wake when I pierced her skin with the needle, but she only groaned. It was a quick procedure, one I’d done before. But it hurt more doing it to a woman I cared for than a man I barely knew.
When it was sewn up, I bathed it in antiseptic and covered it with a thick, heavy bandage. Then I laid the cold packs over it, hoping it wouldn’t swell too much.
She was burning up. I needed to do something to bring down the fever. But I didn’t know what to do beyond putting her back in the shower and that would require getting the wound wet, something I really didn’t want to do right now.
I crushed the Tylenol and put it in a cup of water. It wasn’t the best solution, but at least she drank a little of it.
All I could do now was wait. If anything happened to her…
I grabbed the burner phone and stepped out onto the little concrete porch outside our room. It only took a second to put it together. I punched in the appropriate numbers and listened to the phone ring some nine hundred miles away.
“Grosbeak.”
A second later, Megan’s voice filled my ear.
“Where the hell are you?”
“We were ambushed. We had to get out of Ruidoso in a hurry.”
“I know. I sent Dante out there when we hadn’t heard from you in three days.”
“We were snowed in.”
“Know that, too. Where are you?”
“Lubbock.”
“Good. I’ll send Hayden and Vincent to pick you up.”
“Cadence is sick. She was hit in the shoulder and didn’t tell me right away. She’s got a fever.”
There was silence on the other end. “Okay. I’ll let Hayden know and he can make the appropriate arrangements once he arrives.”
“Does anyone know who’s behind this?”
“No. Use caution. Don’t leave her unattended for long. And the Bronco?” There was a touch of appreciation in her voice. “I’d ditch it somewhere.”
“Will do.”
“I’ll call you back when I have details on Hayden’s arrival.”
I hung up and slid the phone into my back pocket. The Bronco was sitting in the parking lot of a Red Lobster down the street. I debated over taking it somewhere further away, but I didn’t want to leave Cadence alone that long. I was careful not to be seen by any video cameras or to allow the guy in the motel office to see which car I got into. It shouldn’t be traced back to us.
But there could always be something I overlooked.
In the end, though, I decided to leave it where it was. I ducked back into the room with Cadence, pulled the curtains tight and pushed the deadbolt into place. I checked on Cadence. Her forehead seemed cooler, but it was so hard to tell. I left her long enough to shower and change into the clean clothes I’d picked up at the Walmart on my first trip. I rinsed her clothes out in the sink, not sure why, but finishing what she’d started. I hung them up to dry, then went into the bedroom and climbed onto the bed beside her. And waited.
It was going to be a long night.
I must have drifted off sometime after dark because I woke with a start when Cadence moved against me, groans of pain slipping from he
r lips.
“Hey, babe,” I mumbled, touching her face in the dark. “It’s okay.”
“My shoulder hurts.”
“I know. You were shot and I had to sew it up.”
She moaned, not really awake, but not really asleep anymore, either. I flipped on the lamp beside the bed and touched her face again. She was still burning up, her cheeks red with the fever. It was time to do something more drastic than just crushing up Tylenol.
I went into the bathroom and filled the tub with lukewarm water. Then I untangled her from the bedspread and carried her into the bathroom, laying her carefully in the water. She hissed as the cool water touched her burning skin. But then she focused on me and I could see that she understood what I was trying to do.
“You should have told me.” I carefully cupped the water and poured it over her skin. “I could have helped you sooner.”
“You were driving. In a hurry.”
“I know, baby, but you’re more important. I could have done something.”
She shook her head. “Didn’t hurt. I didn’t know until later.”
I nodded. I understood that. Sometimes the men I served with in Afghanistan, they would suffer the most incredible wounds, but they wouldn’t feel them until the fight was over, until the adrenaline pumping through their bodies was spent. It was an odd phenomenon that kept some of them alive until they could get to a hospital where proper care waited.
She seemed cooler after a few minutes in the water. I got a bottle of wine and brought it to her, helping her sip the warm liquid in hopes that the alcohol would aid with the pain. She closed her eyes after every sip and sighed.
“Not the best. But it’ll have to do.”
She peeked at me. “Does this constitute our first date?”
I laughed. “Maybe. Wine. Romantic lighting. It just might be.”
She smiled, but then her entire body suddenly stiffened and her eyes rolled back into her head. She began to shake, the water splashing everywhere as her head slammed back against the porcelain again and again. I grabbed her shoulder, mindless of the bandage, and held her still, hoping to keep her from doing any more harm. When it was over, she was unconscious again, her breathing a little shallow.
I couldn’t just sit there and wait for Hayden to come find me. I had to get her some help.
I carried her back to the bed and dressed her carefully, constantly afraid she would begin to convulse again. I had no choice but to go get the Bronco. I knew from Megan’s warning that it was hot now—that the police were looking for it—but it was the only set of wheels in this area that I could hot wire. I drove it back to the motel, aware of the outdoor security cameras, and I quickly loaded Cadence into the front seat. I cleaned up the room as best as I could, getting rid of all evidence that we were there. Then I drove to the nearest emergency room.
And I lied.
“What happened to your wife, Mr. Rudolph?”
“She had a bad rotator cuff. The doctor’s said that it would need just a few little adjustments here and there, but I told her…the doctors in Mexico, well, that may not be the right place to do this. ‘But they’ll do it cheaper,’ she said. ‘They know what they’re doing.’ They clearly didn’t.”
They didn’t question it. How many times did they hear lies in the emergency room? It was an American pastime to tell lies. I was just hoping they wouldn’t recognize the wound as a bullet entrance and exit.
They took her into a trauma room and set up an IV. After the doctor came and examined her—more lies—they cleaned up the wound, sutured it properly, and injected antibiotics into her hip. She woke suddenly just as the nurse was wrapping a bandage around her shoulder.
“Where am I?”
“I’m here, babe,” I said, leaning over her. “You’re in the hospital, but you’re going to be okay.”
She stared at me for a minute, but then she lay back down, her eyes slowly sliding closed.
“The doctor wants to admit her for a few days,” the nurse said as she cleaned up her mess.
“Why?”
“To make sure the fever breaks. These things can get pretty serious pretty quickly.”
“Don’t I know it. But we don’t live in the area, we were just passing through.”
“I’m sure we can work it out with your insurance.”
“No insurance. I’m paying cash.”
“Well, either way, she needs to be observed.”
The nurse left. Cadence was still asleep. I slipped out of the room and went down the hall to the drug cart they’d left unattended. It was protected by an elaborate computer system that only allowed certain drawers to be opened at a time according to the needed medication. But the last user had forgotten to log out and hacking computer systems had been a hobby of mine since high school. I quickly manipulated the system, convincing it that there was an emergency that overrode its protocols. All the drawers popped open and I had my choice of what I wanted to take. I filled my pockets with antibiotics and opiates, and a few additional analgesics for good measure.
Cadence was sitting up when I walked back into the room, struggling to pull the blouse I’d bought for her at Walmart over her injured shoulder.
“Let me help.”
“I thought you’d want to get out of here when the nurse left.”
“You read my mind.”
I lifted her up and carried her, setting her in a wheelchair as we turned a corner in the corridor and heard voices come close. No one seemed to notice us or wonder what we were doing. Cadence jumped out of the chair the moment we were out of sight of the triage. We walked around the corner of the building, searching for a car that would suitable to become our next source of transportation.
“There,” Cadence said, pointing out a 1980s era pickup truck.
“Perfect.”
I hotwired the truck, loaded our things from the Bronco and we were on the highway in a matter of minutes.
“Now what?”
“We just keep moving.”
“Okay.”
Chapter 17
Cadence
I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. My shoulder felt as though someone had drilled a well into it, like those pump jacks that we could see scattered all along the barren landscape. My ribs ached, my back hurt. My thigh felt like I’d ripped out every one of the stitches they’d put in. I was nauseated and my head pounded. I wanted to curl up and sleep for a decade or two.
I moved close to Marcus and lay my head on his shoulder as we drove through the night, headed south again. He slid his arm around me and pulled me close to him.
“I’m going to make this okay for you, babe.”
“I know.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“I thought I was doing something wonderful when I agreed to be a surrogate for Blake and Annie. I never imagined it would bring me to this place.”
“It is a good thing you’re doing.”
“Do you think so?”
“I do.”
“And if I decide I don’t want to do it anymore when this is all over?”
“I don’t think anyone could blame you.”
“What if I go through with it?”
He glanced at me. “That’s your choice.”
“It wouldn’t bother you if I carried another man’s baby in my belly?”
He didn’t answer for a long time. He worked his hands on the steering wheel, squeezing and letting go, squeezing again.
“You were just hired to protect me. None of this means anything.”
“I never said that.”
“That’s what I hear when you don’t answer my questions.”
I sat up, my head spinning with the movement. And that made my stomach do unpleasant things.
“Pull over!”
I jumped out of the truck and managed to miss the tip of my shoes as I lost what little water and wine was still on my stomach. Marcus got out and came around to help me, pulling my hair out of the way.
“Wh
en the fever comes down, you’ll feel better.”
I leaned back into him. “Some first date.”
He swung me up into his arms. “The second will be even better.”
We drove till nearly dawn, and then pulled into a small motel several miles outside of Abilene. I think I slept for a good twelve hours. I don’t remember much besides Marcus forcing a couple of pills down my throat before I fell back onto the bed. But when I woke, Marcus was gone and I was alone in the dark.
I stumbled into the bathroom, my body hurting in ways I’d never experienced before. The dry heaves were back, but they passed fairly quickly. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and hardly recognized the woman I saw. I tried running my fingers through my hair, fixing it back at the base of my neck in a little knot, but it didn’t help much.
I carefully removed the bandage over my shoulder. Now that I was a little more coherent, I understood what had happened to me. The wound was showing a few signs of infection, but I assumed the pills Marcus had given me were antibiotics. And the shot at the hospital…that had done a great deal toward getting me back on the right road. It would be okay as long as I had those pills.
I checked my thigh, too. No signs of infection there. It was healing quite nicely, really. The stitches could probably come out in a day or two.
I was going to survive, assuming no one started shooting at me again.
I pulled on the jeans I’d been wearing the night before and stepped out the door. Marcus was there, leaning against the hood of another black SUV, two equally tall and tanned men standing near him, both so much like him that they could be brothers.
“Cadence,” he said, pushing away from the SUV and crossing to me. He started to touch me, but then stopped himself, clearly aware of our small audience. “My boss sent reinforcements.”
He turned, drawing me closer. “Hayden Dubois and Vincent Caplin.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I inclined my head slightly.
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