Flustered, his hands waving as he dumped his briefcase back on the table, Stephen gritted his teeth as he talked. “I can put him on your guest list.”
The more out of control the lawyer got, the more at ease Bruce felt. This was a balance of power he could appreciate. “My associate isn’t in a position to come in and out of here. He’s needed in California.”
“For what?”
“Do you really want to know?”
Stephen shook his head. “What’s his name?”
“You don’t need to know that either. I’ll give you all the information you require to get the job done.”
“And then?”
Jeremy Hill will die.
Bruce smiled. “I’ll let you know.”
* * *
S
TANDING IN THE
motel bathroom, Sara slipped the oversize T-shirt over her head and let it fall to her knees. Joel had dropped off the change of clothes and a few toiletries a few hours ago. Despite the fact that it was nearly two in the morning, she still couldn’t sleep. Her nerves jumped from all the excitement and fear swirling inside her.
Running into Garrett’s open arms the second after his face appeared above the stairs had been pure instinct. She’d seen the firm jaw and those intense blue eyes and her heart had melted. The terror of the moments before, lying in the back behind a bed with her arms over her ears as she prayed for a miracle, hammered at her anger toward him. When what she thought was the end had come, she’d wanted him with a desperation that stunned her.
Now, hours later, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to see him. Not that he’d honored her concerns. No. When she’d asked him to get his own room he’d dumped his bag on her bed and told her he’d be back after the men talked strategy.
Now he was back, and the time to deal with him, with them, and all that had passed between them, had come.
Her hand curled around the doorknob and she stopped. On the other side of the bathroom door stood the one man who both lit a fire of need in her belly and filled her with a brain-chilling fury.
He’d walked out on her.
The door rattled on its hinges as the pounding started. “Sara? What’s taking so long in there?”
Working up her nerve while clamping a lid on her fury had taken longer than she’d expected. Night had fully fallen and the abandoned area around the motel added to the desolated feel. They rode only a short time outside of downtown San Diego, but this place felt hours away. No street lights. No other cars. Just the Hill brothers, Garrett’s team and a woman named Meredith.
Just thinking about the other woman put a flame to Sara’s already sparking anger. “Why don’t you go to your new girlfriend’s room?”
Something thudded against the door, likely his hand. “That’s you. You’re the only woman I have in my life and I’m having a difficult enough time dealing with you.”
He acted like she was to blame. The idiot. “You won’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“I will break this door down if you don’t—”
She threw it open and his weight against the wood pulled him into the bathroom. “What, Garrett? Tell me.”
His mouth snapped shut.
Seeing the spooked expression cross his face, the wide-eyed confusion she’d never seen before, built a new wall of strength inside her. “Well?”
“I need to talk with you.”
She pushed passed him into the bedroom. She stopped when her knees hit the bed because she realized she didn’t have anywhere else to go. No way was she wandering around outside alone. She’d had enough excitement for one evening. For a lifetime, actually.
She was the assistant manager at a bridal store. Brides could be strange and difficult but none of them tried to shoot her.
“You said everything a few weeks ago, or should I recap for you?”
He frowned down at her as his hands hit his hips. “What’s gotten into you?”
She understood the root of his confusion. Their relationship had bumped along with her accepting and him running here and there with little to no notice. She’d spent a lot of nights and weekends alone. She’d gone weeks without seeing him and barely hearing from him.
She rarely complained. She accepted, thinking it would all be fine once they got married.
Seeing him get down on one knee and propose had been the best day of her life. The night under the stars, the roaring waves as they’d hit the beach and the sand that seeped between her toes. In an airy white dress, she’d felt free and so loved.
Then he’d started talking about getting the wedding over so he could protect her better. The words, his attitude, sucked all the romance out of what should have been the sighing early days of their engagement.
“You turned me into this,” she whispered in a voice filled with all the anguish stirring inside her.
“The fire and gunfire in the safe house was my fault. I take responsibility for that.”
“I’m talking about when I didn’t agree to stand in the living room and let some stranger marry us on a random Tuesday night. The next day you told me we needed to rethink our relationship.”
“We’re back to that? Look, I wasn’t thinking straight. I was upset.”
“That made two of us.”
“True, but—”
“Then you left town.” Tension twirled and twisted in her brain until the spring popped loose. “And now I meet Meredith.”
“Right, I can explain about that.” He reached for her.
Sara shrugged away from him. The thought of his hands on her right now made her murderous. “Who is she?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“I think you’re a jerk.”
He held his hands in front of him as if he knew the chance of being slapped again was pretty good. “Maybe, but not for the reason you’re assuming.”
“I’m waiting.”
“She rented an apartment from me.”
The words lay there. Sara turned them over in her mind and still couldn’t make sense of them.
“What are you talking about?” The air hiccuped in her lungs and refused to come out. “Wait a second. You have another place?”
“A house in Coronado.”
The force of his betrayal nearly doubled her over. “Were you planning to tell me before we got married?”
“Of course.”
The snide tone had her back teeth slamming together. “Don’t say it like that. You don’t get to be angry. Not when you lived with another woman behind my back.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Sara wrapped her arms around her stomach and pressed as tight as she could. She knew if she let go her insides would spill onto the floor. Her body rocked as the words poured out of her in a deflated rush. “I was so stupid. I actually thought this was a cold-feet issue. That you’d take some time and get over it.”
He touched her elbow and moved in front of her. “I asked you to elope.”
“You wanted to rush everything until it meant nothing. And all the time you had this other woman.”
“Never. I wouldn’t cheat. You know that.” He held her upper arms, bringing her in close. “Meredith rented the upstairs apartment, and thanks to me she lost everything when the house blew up.”
“Don’t ask me to feel sorry for her.”
“She’s as innocent as you are, Sara. Don’t hate her.”
He had the wrong target. Interesting how a smart man could so easily miss the obvious. “Right now I hate you.”
But she didn’t. That was the terrible secret that made her doubt her brainpower. Despite all the hurt and pain, all the fear and lies, she loved him with every breath.
“I don’t think you do.” He laid a hand against her heart.
It beat even harder through her skin. She wanted to lean in, to borrow his heat and his strength. Instead she dug deep into her reserves and found the will to fight back.
“Find another room.” She pushed his hand away.
“No.”
His quick response stunned her. It took a few seconds to form the right sentence in response. “Don’t add another sin to your list.”
“I won’t touch you until you ask me, and you will ask, but I won’t leave you unprotected either.” His hands dropped to his sides.
During their two years together she thought she’d seen every step on his range of emotions. For a flash, just a second, she witnessed something new. His skin stretched and his eyes dulled. Then his features went blank. No warmth, no anger, nothing.
“How do you do that?” she asked.
“What?”
“Compartmentalize. Turn your feelings off and shut down until you’re nothing more than a machine.” He pushed her away without even knowing it. Every shove broke off something inside her until she didn’t know if she could put the pieces back together again.
“It’s my job.”
That was the company line. She knew what he did and accepted the danger. She just hated what the emotional detachment did to him. “You’re more than your work.”
He ran his fingertips down her cheek. “Only when I’m with you.”
Then he walked out the door.
Chapter Eleven
Jeremy stood at the end of the building and watched Garrett pace around outside Sara’s room. He’d stop and hold his hand up to the doorknob, then let it drop again. After the sixth time he swiped his hand through his hair, Jeremy took pity on him.
“It’s getting close to three. You should get some sleep.” His footsteps echoed against the wood as he walked.
Garrett didn’t turn around or act surprised. With his training he sensed when someone got too close or conducted surveillance on him. “You’re not going to ask?”
Jeremy groaned as he dropped down on the step and spun a water bottle between his palms. “About what you’re doing with Meredith and what happened with Sara? Yeah, I want to know but I figure you’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
“I screwed up.” Garrett dropped down beside him.
“Obviously.”
Garrett laughed, his mouth turning into something other than a frown for the first time since he’d stormed into the safe house. “They don’t teach you about dealing with women in DIA training.”
“You mean someone knows that secret? Man, they should share with all us other clueless men out here.”
Garrett shook his head. “I just wanted to get married fast so Sara would be protected if something happened to me. She’d get the benefits and cover if she needed it. But she didn’t understand.”
Jeremy winced. “Being her bodyguard wasn’t the only reason you wanted to get married, was it?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. So, you left.” He balanced his elbows on his knees and linked his fingers together in front of him. “Honestly, I’m surprised. That’s really not your style.”
“I got ticked off and needed some time away.” Garrett shook his head as he spread his legs out in front of him. “Then I figured out Darren Mitchell, this guy on another team, was playing around with operation funds and I had to set up a sting. Took me weeks to build the evidence. It’s why I haven’t been in touch with you either.”
“You get him?”
He nodded. “Which is probably why we’re under attack now.”
While Jeremy studied the angles, it sounded like Garrett had narrowed the suspect pool to one. “This Darren guy have these kind of connections?”
“I didn’t think so, but the timing fits. Without me the case gets shaky. He has all the incentive in the world to take me out.”
“We both have a lot of enemies.”
“Sure feels that way.” Garrett gave him eye contact for the first time. “Heard you got stabbed. You okay?”
All the stretching and pulling had opened the wound again and now it ached. Jeremy didn’t realize it, hadn’t even felt it until he got back to the motel. Pax had restitched it and threatened him with an infection if he messed up again.
Jeremy had ducked into a bathroom to keep Meredith from seeing the bloodstain. She liked to touch and nurse and he liked her soft caresses, but right now he needed some space between them.
The phone vibrated in Jeremy’s back pocket. He slipped it out at the same time Garrett reached for his. The screens clicked on at the same time. The image of the yard flicked on the screen. Someone had tripped the far motion sensors.
“You seeing this?” he asked Garrett.
“Not good.”
The press of a button later, Jeremy saw a sea of green dots converging on the motel. “They’re coming in bunches now.”
Garrett jumped to his feet and unscrewed the light bulb above his head. They’d disabled the others outside, so without this one the motel plunged into darkness. “We’ve got lots of company this round.”
“Looks like at least eight.” This team moved with a military-like precision, organized and smart. They didn’t race up the middle or telegraph their position. “You still thinking Darren is at the bottom of all this?”
“Let’s keep one of these men alive and we’ll be able to ask him who’s paying him for his dirty work.”
Jeremy knocked on the doors at the ends of the
L-shaped building. Joel, Pax and Davis hit their doorways, armed and wearing vests. If they’d been resting, it sure didn’t show. They stood wide-eyed and ready for battle.
“How many do we have out there?” Pax asked.
“Enough to worry about.” Garrett knocked on Sara’s door but didn’t get a response. “We need protection on the women and shooters ready to fire at any movement. If those men get up to the building, this scene could get really ugly.”
“And we have innocents,” Davis said.
“Exactly. Pax and Davis, take the left. Use the roof. Joel, go with Garrett and fan out in front.” Jeremy pointed as he issued the orders. “If you can keep them from getting to the motel, all the better.”
“Done.” Pax took off and motioned for Davis to follow.
“I’ll guard the ladies.” Jeremy’s voice never lifted past a whisper even though rough demands shouted in his brain.
“Let me talk to Sara first. She’s still spooked by the last round.” Garrett touched the doorknob.
Jeremy put a hand up to stop him. “I’ll handle it. You get in position.”
Indecision battled in every line of Garrett’s face. He stared at the door then out into the dark and back again.
Jeremy knew they couldn’t afford the extra time. “I’ll take care of her, man. Just go.”
Jeremy didn’t give his brother a choice. He knocked one more time then pushed his way in. He glanced at the bed expecting to see a lump, but only spied rumpled pillows.