by Nicole Helm
“You saved me.” It was all she could think to say, standing in this basement, surrounded by injured men and lawmen and this man. This wonderful man who had saved her from the worst thing she’d ever faced, and that was saying something.
His throat worked for a few seconds before he spoke. “I never should have let you out of my sight.”
“But—”
Suddenly men were pouring through the door. Police and FBI, all talking and ordering things, radios squawking, paramedics jogging.
And somehow she was being led out of the basement, away from Bennet, too many questions being asked of her, too many hands prodding at her when all she wanted to do was cry in the comforting circle of Bennet’s arms.
But he was still in that basement, not looking at her, and Alyssa realized she might have been saved, but nothing much had changed. He was still a Ranger, and she was still a Jimenez.
Nothing could change that.
Chapter Seventeen
Bennet was doing everything in his power not to shove the paramedic working on his arm. He didn’t particularly feel like having his wounds tended to right now.
Nor did he feel like answering anyone’s endless questions, not when Alyssa had been taken out of the basement that was now crawling with all manner of law enforcement.
“We’re going to have to transport you, Ranger Stevens. Even a minor bullet wound is a bullet wound.”
Bennet tried to make his face do anything other than scowl, but it was a lost cause. He didn’t want to go to a damn hospital. He wanted to sit down and go through everything that had happened. Not with FBI or other Rangers or anyone. Just Alyssa.
Who had been led away and hadn’t reappeared.
“I’ll go see if the second ambulance is here, if you’ll wait.”
Bennet nodded, staring at the chair Alyssa had been tied to when he’d gotten inside. Tied up. This close to dying. Because of him and all the mistakes he’d made along the way.
Jaime reappeared from wherever he’d been outside. Bennet glanced up at the man who’d helped him. Bennet didn’t know much what to say. What could be said when you’d made this kind of a mess of things?
“Paramedics checked Alyssa out, and she was cleared to go home. Vaughn is taking her back to his house. Gabby’s there, and she’ll take good care of her.”
Bennet nodded. “They’re going to make me go to the hospital.”
“Bullet wounds will do that to you. I’ll let Alyssa know once she’s had some rest. Don’t want her rushing off to the hospital.”
Bennet laughed bitterly. “I’m the reason she was put in this position. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Come on, Bennet. We’ve both been doing this too long to talk like that.”
“I let my guard down. I trusted the wrong people. She could have been killed.”
“But she wasn’t. You know those seconds matter. The end result matters. Justice matters in the end.”
“It’s different,” Bennet said flatly, because some man he barely knew, no matter what help he’d offered, couldn’t absolve this black cloud of guilt.
“Why? Because you’re involved with her?”
When Bennet didn’t respond in any way, because yes he had been involved with her but he wasn’t so certain he would be from here on out, Jaime continued.
“Been there, done that, buddy. It’s really not different. Not when you’ve both survived relatively unscathed and have a chance to build a very nice future.”
“She was knocked out, tied to a chair and seconds away from being killed. We must have different definitions of unscathed.”
“We don’t get out of life unscathed. Not a one of us. Alyssa’s tough. She’s had to be. If you think she’s going to wither away—”
“I don’t think that. I know she’s tough. She’s tougher than she should have to be, because she’s had shit thrown at her her whole life.”
“Then how about this? Don’t be more of the shit. I didn’t get to save Gabby when she was in trouble. She mostly saved herself. I didn’t like it, but you know what I did like? Getting someone I loved and wanted to marry and have a family with out of the deal. So. Stop being a dumbass.”
“Thanks for the pep talk,” Bennet muttered as the paramedic reappeared.
“Go to the hospital. I’ll let Alyssa know you’ll be by when you’re released. Don’t disappoint her, or you’ll have a whole slew of intimidating women to answer to.”
Bennet nodded absently as Jaime went over to talk to another FBI agent and the paramedic started leading him out of the house.
He was being a dumbass, feeling sorry for himself, blaming himself, and as much as it felt right to wallow in that, Jaime had a point. This was over now, and Alyssa was safe.
There’d be fallout to deal with. His father was a part of this, and Bennet... He didn’t know how to absorb that, or how she would. How anyone would.
But Alyssa was safe. Alive and safe and able to go home, and maybe she hated him a little bit now. He could deal with that. He could deal with any range of emotions she had toward him, but that didn’t mean he had to sulk and give up and stay away.
Not when he’d fallen in love with her, and damn it if she wasn’t tough enough to take it.
* * *
ALYSSA HAD SHOWERED as much of the day off her as she could. She’d been fussed over by Gabby, had a newborn baby shoved into her arms and been plied with tea.
She hated tea, but she hadn’t found her voice. Not since Vaughn had ushered her away from the house she’d been tied up in and driven her to his house.
Natalie and Gabby had done all the talking since then. It was nice, all in all, since Alyssa didn’t know what to say or what to feel. Her entire body felt cold and numb.
A knock sounded at the door, and Vaughn disappeared to answer it. When he returned, Jaime was with him.
Alyssa had approximately eight thousand questions she wanted to ask him, but in the end she just looked down at the baby sleeping in her awkwardly positioned arms. The little girl was so tiny, her face all scrunched up in sleep.
Alyssa’s chest felt too tight, her eyes too scratchy. Everything ached and hurt and didn’t make any damn sense.
She swallowed at the lump in her throat, still watching the baby in her arms. “How is everything?” she managed to ask, her voice squeaky.
“Everyone has been transported to the hospital. In Bennet’s and Oscar’s cases that’s more of a precaution than a necessity. I arranged to have your bike brought here, and it’s out in the driveway.” He placed her keys on the table next to the couch.
“Wait. You didn’t give her a chance to talk to Bennet before you brought her home?” Natalie demanded, turning toward Vaughn.
“Bennet was a little busy. Would you sit down? You shouldn’t be up around pacing.”
“I’m not pacing, I was getting Alyssa more tea, and I will not sit down. Is your memory faulty?”
“Alyssa hasn’t drunk the tea she’s got and my memory is fine,” Vaughn replied, pressing Natalie into the chair.
Natalie whipped her accusatory gaze to Jaime. “You, too?”
“He needed to be transported to the hospital. The entire place was crawling with law enforcement. That’s not exactly the time to talk.”
“Even though you both know talking after these kinds of ordeals is important?” Natalie returned.
But Alyssa had been glad. She didn’t want to talk to Bennet just yet. Not when all she felt was this horrible numbness interrupted only intermittently by the need to cry. She wouldn’t cry in front of him in the aftermath. She needed to be strong the next time she spoke to Bennet.
Strong enough to pretend she didn’t care that they didn’t have a future together.
“Bennet will be by once he’s released,�
�� Jaime said. “They’ll be able to talk in a calm, comforting environment instead of in the middle of a crime scene.”
“Unless that’s not what you want?” Gabby said, sliding onto the couch next to Alyssa. It was the first time in this conversation anyone had talked to Alyssa directly.
Which Alyssa wanted to shy away from. She wanted to live in this numb bubble for right now. She didn’t want to think about Bennet or the impossibility of their future. She didn’t want to think about Oscar or what he’d been willing to do. She didn’t want to think of CJ killing her mother or any of it.
She just wanted to stare at a sweet little sleeping baby who would always know her parents loved her.
“We can tell him not to come, sweetie. Until you’re ready.” Gabby squeezed her arm, and Alyssa barely felt it. She wasn’t sure she’d ever feel ready. What had she ever been ready for in her life? She’d only ever had things happen to her and learned to deal, or learned to fight, or learned to be the victim. Time and time again.
Something poked through all the numbness. Anger. She was so damn tired of being a victim. So tired of things happening to her and her having to learn how to fight, how to survive.
When was it going to be her turn to live? To make choices without worrying if she was going to inconvenience someone or get them connected to something they shouldn’t be connected to. When did she get to have a life? With ups and downs and successes and failures and...
“Can you take her?” Alyssa asked abruptly, nodding toward the baby she was still afraid to jostle.
Gabby obliged and Alyssa stood as soon as she was free of the baby. “I have to go,” she announced to no one in particular.
“You’re not going anywhere, Alyssa.”
Alyssa ignored Gabby. “What’s happening with Gary Stevens?” she demanded of Jaime.
“He’s been arrested. He has a team of lawyers working to get him released, but there’s a lot of damning evidence to him being an accessory. Including Oscar’s throwing him under the bus.”
“And Dominguez?”
Jaime shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “Died en route to the hospital.”
“Good. And my brother?”
“Oscar is being checked out, and once he’s fit for confinement, he’ll be transported to jail. We’re also applying for warrants on your brother CJ in the murder of your mother.”
“Oh.” Alyssa cleared her throat. “Good. Good, I’m glad.” They should all pay for what they’d done. Every last one of them. “I need to go then.”
Jaime glanced at Gabby as if asking permission. Alyssa scowled. “I don’t want to wait for him to get here. I have some things to say to him. I’m not waiting. I’m done with waiting.”
Jaime inclined his head. “I can’t argue with that. Can you?” he asked pointedly at Gabby.
Alyssa looked back at her friend, her sister—more her family than any of the horrible men related to her—and Gabby sighed heavily.
“Just drive her to the hospital.”
“I can handle myself,” Alyssa retorted.
“We all can, but it doesn’t hurt to let the people who care about us take care of us either. Got it?”
That numbness receded further. Care and taking care. That was what she wanted out of her life. She crossed back to Gabby and gave her a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered, then did the same to Natalie. “Thank you for being my family,” she said firmly. Damn if she’d ever be afraid or hesitant to say that again.
“And I appreciate the taking care,” she continued. “But this is something personal and I want to drive myself. Okay?”
Gabby gave a nod. “Just keep us informed on where you are so we don’t worry, okay?”
“I will.” Because that’s what family did, and she was most definitely part of a real family now.
Chapter Eighteen
Bennet signed the paperwork to get him the hell out of the hospital. It shouldn’t take that long to stitch up a little bullet wound, Bennet thought.
Captain Dean had debriefed him on the status of Alyssa’s mother’s murder case, including a warrant for CJ Jimenez. Bennet couldn’t begin to guess what Alyssa would think of that when she’d been so certain her brothers hadn’t done it.
But no matter how she took it, he wanted to be the one standing by her as she did. Now, he just had to hope she’d let him.
The nurse ushered him out of the room he’d been in, and when Bennet stepped into the waiting room, he stopped short. “Mother.”
Mom stood from the chair she’d been sitting in. She’d changed out of her gala finery, and in fact looked pale and as mussed and bedraggled as he’d ever seen her in his entire life.
“Have you been released?” she asked as if she was asking him how the weather was.
“Yes.”
Mom swallowed, clutching her purse in front of her. “The police are crawling all over my home and guesthouse. I’d relish the opportunity to stay away and drive my son back to his house.” She swallowed, and Bennet realized no matter how calmly she spoke, she was as affected as her appearance might suggest.
Bennet sighed. “They arrested Dad?”
Mom nodded tersely. “Obviously his lawyers are working overtime to find some loophole.”
Bennet didn’t know what to say to that. Didn’t know what to do with this. What he wanted was to see Alyssa, to talk to her, to sort things out, but maybe this was as important to sort out.
“I had no idea,” Mom said, her voice more a whisper than that cool politician’s tone she’d been employing. “Apparently his assistant was the only one who did. I don’t know why he’d risk it, Bennet. Working with a cartel, no matter what the money, is political suicide.”
“Unless no one finds out and you can use it to aid your cause.”
Mom shook her head. “It’s unconscionable. Maybe you don’t believe me, maybe he could have convinced me otherwise, but I swear to you, if I had known... I would have had to have turned him in. My career is everything to me, Bennet. It always has been for better or worse, but I never could have condoned this kind of...” She shook her head, a tear slipping over her cheek.
It was impossible not to believe his mother at this point. She wasn’t an emotional woman. She hadn’t even cried at her own mother’s funeral. For her to be this distraught, she had to be caught completely unaware, and he supposed as separate as his parents had been conducting their lives, it was more than possible.
“I’m sorry you got caught up in it.”
Mom nodded jerkily. “You, as well. I hope Alyssa wasn’t hurt.”
“Not physically.”
“Good. I... Well, I suppose I wasn’t overly polite when I met her.”
“Are you going to apologize how you treated a woman in my life, Mother?” Bennet asked incredulously.
Mom sniffed. “Well, it perhaps took my life being ruined before my eyes to get me to that point, but yes. And, though I’m sure you’ll think it makes me cold and callous, your father’s ruined our name completely now. It doesn’t really matter what women you consort with at this point.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t be funny, but after this long-ass day, Bennet could only laugh. He laughed and did something he hadn’t done for years, maybe over a decade.
He hugged his mother.
“Oh, well, it turns out you might be busy,” Mom said after giving him a quick squeeze back. When he pulled away, his mother pointed to the doors of the waiting room.
Alyssa stood there, arms crossed over her chest, looking beautiful and pissed off. And for the first time since she’d shown him the gun strapped to her thigh just hours ago, he finally relaxed again.
She was here. They were both all right. If they could both survive a kidnapping plot orchestrated by members of each of their families, they cou
ld probably figure just about anything out.
“Go to my house. Stay there until the police clear out of yours. I have...business to take care of,” Bennet told his mother absently.
“Bennet, I’m going to tell you something I’m likely never to admit aloud again.”
“Yeah?”
“I quite like her.”
He managed to tear his gaze away from Alyssa and stared at his mother, who shrugged and began walking for the exit. She paused as she approached Alyssa, said something, and then she was gone.
Then it was just the two of them. And a handful of people in the waiting room, but he barely noticed. He walked toward her, and she didn’t move. Just stood there staring at him as though they were about to fight.
“They stitch you up?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And you’re okay?”
“Aside from a bruise the size of Jupiter on my back and some stitches on my arm.”
“Well, you got something to say to me?” She lifted her chin, all brave defiance, and he grinned.
“Yeah.” But he didn’t say any of it. He kissed her instead, tangling his fingers in her hair, drowning in the taste of her he’d never be able to live without no matter how he might fail her in the future.
* * *
ALYSSA HAD NOT come to the hospital to make out in the waiting room in front of a handful of people, but now that Bennet’s arms were around her, his mouth on hers, it was hard to remember what she had planned to do.
She wanted to stay here, in this moment, for good. They were safe. They were together. He was kissing her regardless of her last name or his.
“Bennet,” she murmured against his mouth. She’d come here with things to say. Things to demand, and he was dismantling it all because this was all that mattered. All she wanted. Him, him, him.
His hands moved to cup her cheeks, his mouth brushing across her mouth in between his words. “If you’re going to yell at me, can it wait?”
“For what?”