“The HRT team leader who went inside the compound to check the gates for explosives?” McKenzie said as Novak winced. “He’s right here, Mr. President.”
McKenzie thrust the phone into Novak’s hand. “You’re up.”
Shit. Novak put the cell to his ear and cleared his throat. “Mr. President.”
He immediately recognized Joshua Hague’s voice.
“Thank you for your heroic actions today, son. Your bravery turned around what could have been a grave tragedy.”
“I was only doing my job, sir. Same as all the other Federal Agents and law enforcement officers out there today. I am no ‘hero’. I’m part of a team of professionals.”
Great. He was correcting POTUS.
Thankfully, the man laughed. “Modest too.”
Novak felt his stomach pitch. He wasn’t modest, he simply didn’t deserve to be singled out.
“Thank you, sir,” Novak added lamely before quickly handing the cell back to McKenzie like it was a live grenade.
McKenzie took it, his eyes critically assessing. Novak suspected he was about to get a tongue lashing.
Finally, the guy hung up. “Any news?” He nodded in the direction of the doors that led through to the surgical suites.
Novak shook his head. He shouldn’t even be here. He should be with his men and debriefing the op. Filling in forms and packing up equipment in case they were needed somewhere else fast.
McKenzie sat on a seat across from him. “I guess my plan to get you guys on the same wavelength worked a little too well, huh?”
Novak clenched his fists, not knowing what to do with his hands. “Looks like. But don’t blame SSA Blood for any of this. It’s all my fault.”
McKenzie rolled his eyes. “Trust me, if it’s right, then you’re each as responsible as the other.”
Novak remained silent. He wasn’t going to risk Charlotte’s career.
“The other negotiators wanted to be here, but I gave them a direct order to start packing up and getting the paperwork finished. I’m sure they’ll be rolling up before long.”
Novak didn’t want to deal with any of them. Not the negotiators, not his team, not McKenzie.
“I know what you’re going through. I went through the exact same thing with Tess. I almost lost the woman I loved.” The chair creaked. “Have you told her yet?”
Novak pressed his lips together. Shook his head.
“If you think it’s real, then don’t put it off too long.”
Novak nodded again.
McKenzie laughed and then stood. Novak braced himself to disobey a direct order to get back to the ranch for the debrief. Instead, McKenzie tossed him a set of keys. “We have guards assigned to TJ and Kayla. The latter is being interrogated by Agent Makimi right now.”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think Kayla was involved in anything criminal. And TJ was struggling with Tom to stop him from pulling the trigger on Charlotte a second time.” Novak’s stomach turned over. “She’d be dead if it wasn’t for that young man. That’s why he was shot.”
“I need you back at base, Novak. There’s a lot to do. But I’ll give you enough time to see Charlotte and make sure she’s gonna come through this okay.” McKenzie nodded. “You know you can’t avoid the paperwork forever, right?”
One side of Novak’s mouth twitched. “Unfortunately, I do know that.”
McKenzie squeezed Novak’s shoulder before he headed out the door, and Novak sat staring at a mark on the floor. Finally, the surgeon came out to talk to him, thankfully wearing a smug smile that told him the surgery had gone well.
He blew out a massive breath of relief. “Can I see her?”
She smiled knowingly. “You can see her for a few moments, but she’ll probably be asleep for the next few hours.”
He followed the doctor through to the recovery ward, and there was Charlotte looking small and pale in the bed. Her hand was bandaged and restrained in a sling across her chest. That was gonna hurt when she woke up. The wound had been ugly, flesh torn, muscles mangled. But only one bone had been shattered by the bullet and, according to the surgeon, she’d pinned it and tried to put it back together the way it should be. Now they had to wait to see how well it healed.
He held Charlotte’s good hand and kissed her forehead. Considering she was a negotiator, she managed to get into a hell of a lot of trouble in a short amount of time. It made a change for him to be the one left worrying.
He leaned down and kissed her quickly again, on the lips this time, but she was completely out of it. No response. Her skin felt warm and soft.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he told her. He hated leaving her, but the nurses promised to call him as soon as she woke up. Then he’d be back. Then he’d tell her how he felt.
* * *
The first time Charlotte woke up after surgery, she’d tried not to be disappointed that it was Eban sitting in a chair beside her bed rather than Novak.
She went to move her right hand and found it confined by bandages and a tight sling. Shoot. That hurt.
“Careful.” Eban came out of his chair and smiled down at her. “You’re going to be okay, but the surgeon had to do a number on two of your fingers.”
“What happened at the compound? Was anyone hurt?”
He told her what had gone down. “That boyfriend of yours was pretty badass.” He explained how they’d discovered the explosives on a timer, and then Novak had discovered the boobytraps on the compound gates and tried to diffuse them while the people evacuated over the wall.
The fact that Eban had called Novak her boyfriend made her smile. It was an apology of sorts. A sign of approval for the man she’d fallen for, not that she needed it.
Where was he though? Probably caught up with McKenzie.
He’d told her he wasn’t going to let her go. Her cheeks burned a little as she remembered how she’d told him she loved him. Damn. But she did.
The issue was whether or not Payne Novak could ever love her back.
She’d talk him into it. She’d literally plan out a campaign until she could convince him that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t take too much convincing. She yawned. That was tomorrow’s job. She tried not to worry about her damaged fingers. Only time would tell if she’d lose the use of them, and likely her job too.
“Everyone got out alive?” she asked, already drifting off again and unable to worry about anything right now except getting better.
“The only person unaccounted for is Malcolm Resnick, last seen near the Harrison’s private quarters.”
The nurses came in and shooed Eban out. He told her he had to get back to the ranch, and that he’d return tomorrow.
The nurses wanted to pump her full of morphine for the pain before they let her sleep, but she wouldn’t let them. They gave her super strength Tylenol instead.
Four hours later, she felt as if her hand was on fire, and pain lanced through her wrist and all the way up her arm.
Charlotte had no idea what time it was, but it was still dark outside. Hard to believe that this time last night, she’d been having wild monkey sex with Novak.
She didn’t have a phone or any clothes. And where the hell was her weapon? She hoped Novak had taken care of it for her.
Had TJ survived?
Immediately, she threw the covers off herself and swung her legs out of bed. The tiles were cold as she made her way to the door of the private room she was in. She poked her head out, aware that her rear end was flapping in the wind.
She used her good hand to hold the back of her gown together as she shuffled down the corridor. She recognized the floor she was on. The same one Bob Jones was on, but the guard wasn’t at his post. Maybe with the siege over, the press had lost their appetite for the story.
She went down to the nurses’ station, but there was no one around. She reached for the phone to call Novak, but footsteps approached, and she withdrew her hand guiltily.
&
nbsp; “I was looking for my phone,” she explained. But the nurse shooed her back to bed.
Charlotte was in too much pain to sleep and too stubborn to take opioids.
Maybe Bob Jones was awake too? Had anyone thought to tell him that they’d arrested TJ and that TJ had accused Malcolm Resnick of Brenna’s murder?
She decided to stick her head into his room, in case he was awake and wanted to talk.
She checked for the nurse, but she’d gone again. So she walked to Bob Jones’s door and paused outside. Should she knock? But what if he was asleep? Instead, she carefully eased it open an inch.
The sight of a naked man stretched out on the floor had her rushing forward.
“Wouldn’t do that if I was you.”
Charlotte froze and turned slowly around. Bob Jones was out of bed and wearing the deputy’s uniform. He was also pointing the deputy’s gun at her face.
And then she realized she’d made a rookie error. They all had. They’d treated Bob Jones as a witness when he should have been treated as a suspect.
“There never was a cougar sighting. You and Resnick were in it together,” she said dully.
His eyes glinted nastily in the dim light. “We have an arrangement. Now, we’re going for a little walk.”
“I’m hardly dressed for a walk.” Her teeth started to chatter.
His smile made her skin crawl. “I disagree.” He jerked the end of the gun but was too far away for her to lunge for it. “Make a noise, and I may as well shoot you anyway.”
Dammit. She’d had enough of people waving guns and shooting at her in the last twelve hours. “You’ll kill me the same way you killed Brenna. It was you who killed her, correct?”
He shook his head. “Not me. Malcolm. I’d have kept her alive for a while.”
Charlotte shivered at the implication in his tone. Was that what he thought he was going to do with her? “You blamed TJ. Started this whole thing.” She frowned at him, trying to work her way closer to him and his gun.
He knew what she was trying to do though. “Get any closer, and I’ll put another bullet in you.”
“The thing I don’t understand is why you were there in the first place.” It clicked into place with a blinding flash. “TJ said his uncle was stealing gold from him and his father.”
“Give the girl a gold star.”
“Tie me up and leave me here.”
“I don’t think so.” He smirked. “Come on. Time to go, girlie.”
She looked down at the paper-thin gown and her bare feet. “If I go outside like this I’ll freeze to death.”
His expression was uncaring. “I guess your choice is freezing to death or a bullet. Move it.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Novak was stretched across the front seat of the Chevy, fully clothed with his boots on the dash. He’d driven back to the hospital despite the blizzard. Despite McKenzie giving him an exasperated glare. Despite the mountain of paperwork he’d left behind.
The team had understood.
According to the nurse he’d spoken to, Charlotte was sleeping, so he’d thought he’d catch forty winks and then sneak in when the nursing shift changed.
Trouble was he was too cold to sleep.
He was about to turn on the engine when a car pulled up and sat idling at a side door. A second later, he watched a deputy open a fire exit. The deputy then pushed a woman in a hospital gown out into the snow. At first, he thought his eyes were deceiving him, but then he realized it was Charlotte, and the deputy had his gun trained on her.
What the fuck?
He called McKenzie, who answered too quickly for the man to have been asleep.
“We have a situation.” He couldn’t believe how calm he sounded when he wanted to rage and scream at the assailant to let her go. “I’m in the hospital parking lot and I see a car with a driver, plus a deputy, who looks a lot like our injured wildlife officer, holding a gun on a woman in a hospital gown wearing a sling.”
“SSA Blood?”
“Yes.” Novak gritted his teeth. “Not sure who the individual driving is, but you need to send agents ASAP and cops for backup. I’m going after them. In fact, I’m not letting them leave this parking lot.”
Novak put the cell on speaker and tossed it in a cup holder. Then he turned the ignition key. He didn’t switch on the lights as he waited for the small truck to start driving along the road that would have them passing directly behind him.
Rage coursed through his veins. Every pore in his body oozed deadly intent. He pulled an HK416 carbine from under the passenger seat and waited. He was worried about hurting Charlotte, but he didn’t have much choice.
He watched them trundle sedately away from the hospital. Calmly planning to get away with murder.
They were about twenty feet away when he revved the engine and flew backwards at top speed, bumping over a small grass berm and straight into the driver’s side door.
The impact spun the small truck off the road. Novak slammed on the brakes and jumped out, putting bullets into the front and back tires so the truck was going nowhere.
The driver jumped out and started running away. Malcolm Resnick.
Cockroaches always survived the apocalypse, but Resnick wouldn’t get far. Novak could already hear agents spilling from the hospital in pursuit. One of them came in his direction, but Novak didn’t take his eyes off Federal Wildlife Officer Bob Jones who was in the back seat of the truck with a gun pressed to Charlotte’s temple. She shivered violently from the cold or from fear. All Novak knew was she was suffering, and that made him mad.
Her eyes were defiant and wide, pain creasing the corners.
A massive lump wedged in Novak’s throat. He still hadn’t told her how he felt. “Let her go, Jones.”
“Let me go, or I’ll kill the bitch.”
“It’s over.” Novak forced the emotion out of his voice. He did this every day. Every single day. He didn’t usually have someone he loved playing the part of hostage though.
“I’m going to slide out this door and walk around the truck. Then I’m going to get in your vehicle and drive away,” Jones countered. “I’ll leave her unharmed. I want your truck. Nothing else.”
Novak nodded, his face an impassive mask.
Bob Jones eased out of the back seat, keeping Charlotte pressed tight against him.
She wasn’t even wearing slippers.
Rage grew, but Novak pushed it to another part of his brain and sighted his weapon. Jones kept ducking, trying to conceal himself behind Charlotte. Making a shield of an injured woman.
“Do you want to know who saved you four nights ago, Bob?” Charlotte asked. Her voice vibrated with cold. “It was Novak here. He risked his own life to save yours.”
Jones spat in the snow. “Mighty kind of you.”
“I presume you decided to make TJ your scapegoat that day, but it backfired when someone in the compound actually shot you.”
Jones forced out a sour laugh. “They had better aim than I anticipated. I wasn’t planning on getting any closer, but someone got a bead on me. It was my own fault.”
“You sure it was Malcolm who killed Brenna?” Charlotte’s breath came in a sharp gasp.
“Yeah. We caught her spying on us.”
“Doing what?” asked Novak.
“Malcolm has a drug habit he needs to feed. I help him out with deliveries. Then he found a bunch of gold at Tom Harrison’s place and needed help getting it out. The plan was to split it fifty-fifty.”
Novak doubted it had been lost.
“Malcolm caught the girl and shoved her. She tripped and hit her head against a tree.” Jones dug the gun harder into Charlotte’s skull. “It was an accident. I went and put the bag of gold in the truck to keep it safe and came back to move the body deeper in the woods. TJ was already there.”
The gold must have still been in the back of the truck the day he and Charlotte had gone to the US Fish and Wildlife Service office.
“You must have
been worried someone was going to look in your vehicle and find it.” Charlotte was trying to distract Jones.
She knew as well as Novak did that Jones would try to shoot them. It was the only way he’d actually escape.
“Stay where you are and don’t do a damn thing,” Novak murmured to the agent who’d arrived to back him up.
He watched Bob’s finger on the trigger and did not waver in his concentration as Charlotte spoke. She was trying to get Jones to drop his guard. Novak’s gaze stayed on the man who wanted to rip the best part of Novak’s future away from him. He’d had a mother who’d tried to do that with abuse and torment. He’d had an ex-wife who’d tried to do that with broken promises and casual disregard. He wasn’t letting another human being get in the way of his happiness.
Bob went around the back of Novak’s Suburban, and Novak moved parallel on the opposite side. The man had to loosen his grip on Charlotte to open the Chevy’s passenger door. The moment he did so, Charlotte jerked to her left, and Novak took the shot through the glass.
Jones crumpled to the ground dead.
Novak slung the carbine over his back and ran around, brushing the shattered safety glass off Charlotte and catching her to him. He whisked her into his arms as the other agent confirmed Bob Jones was never going to be a problem again.
Novak sprinted back to the warmth of the hospital as Charlotte’s teeth chattered like machine-gun fire. He rushed in the main door and whirled to where a roaring fire was burning in the fireplace.
He placed her in front of the hearth, pulled off his jacket, and wrapped it around her quaking body.
Cold Wicked Lies Page 31