The doctor motioned for someone. “I can sedate—”
“Don’t touch me.”
She screamed the phrase over and over until the world went black.
* * *
E
LLIS WALKED OUT
of the hospital room and ran right into Andrew.
No surprise there.
The younger man stopped pacing and stared at his boss. “How is he?”
Ellis wiped a hand through his hair, wondering how much more they could all take of this. Sara looked ready to crack and they’d put Meredith out to keep control over her.
But Ellis knew his role. “The real question is, who is he? Which brother is it?”
On cue, Andrew frowned in concern. “You really can’t tell?”
“No.”
“Huh.” Andrew made a clicking sound with his tongue.
Ellis fought the urge to punch the little punk in the face. “What is it?”
“Would an objective look help? I mean, I don’t have a vested interest. It could be you want to see Jeremy and are blinded by that.”
And the trap was sprung.
“I’m willing to try anything.” Ellis walked him inside.
Equipment beeped and lights flashed. A body, Garrett or Jeremy, Ellis didn’t even know which, lay in the bed wrapped in stillness.
Andrew paled at the sight of the bandages and machinery. “How is he going to survive this?”
“The doctor thinks there’s a good chance because both brothers were, are, heck I don’t know which term is right, in such good shape. They put him in a medical coma and are helping him breathe.”
“That’s good news.”
Ellis’s phone beeped and he pretended to read a message. “I’ll be right back.”
* * *
Jeremy couldn’t see anything but he heard the footsteps. From the conversation around him, he knew Andrew stood by the machine that supposedly pumped air and kept the patient alive. Something ripped and the air stopped flowing.
Wheels creaked as they rolled across the floor, taking the nearby cart with them, and the needle in his arm popped out. A buzz filled the room as Andrew lowered the top portion of the bed to put Jeremy flat.
It was going to be pure joy to rip this guy’s life apart. He was trading his integrity for cash, and Jeremy didn’t care what happened to him.
Hot breath spilled across Jeremy’s cheek and he fought back the need to move.
“Which brother are you, I wonder. Of course it doesn’t matter. Bruce Casden wants you both dead.” Buttons clicked and the last whir of the equipment in the room fell silent as Andrew talked. “My only regret is that I only get to kill one of you. Casden’s people beat me to the other one.”
The bed dipped but Jeremy forced every muscle to remain still, every breath to seep in slowly.
“Everyone was looking in the wrong place for me. I infiltrated Ellis’s office to get one brother and eventually the other. Casden has a message for you….” Andrew leaned in even closer. “He wishes he was here to see you die.”
Now.
Jeremy’s eyes popped open. Just in time, too. Andrew held a pillow in the air, just above Jeremy’s face.
“Anything else Bruce wanted me to know?” Jeremy asked.
Andrew fell back, his mouth comically wide as a scream rattled out of him. “You’re dead!”
“Tell Bruce I’m fine.” Jeremy swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbed the pillow from Andrew. “Shouldn’t be a problem since you’ll be sharing a cell.”
“Unless I kill him first.” Ellis delivered his comment from the doorway with Garrett standing right behind him.
Andrew’s eyes darted. He looked like the cornered rat he was. “Both of you? But...I... One of you is dead.”
“Wrong.” Jeremy took pleasure in saying the word.
Andrew shook his head. “You’ve got this all mixed up. It isn’t what you think.”
“Neither was the shooting.” Garrett smiled. “Funny how, if you ask a few Secret Service guys if they want to dress up and shoot, they jump on the chance to join in the game.”
Jeremy filled Andrew in on the other big part of the plan. “They grabbed your guys, or should I say Bruce’s guys, first.”
Andrew shook his head. “This is a mistake.”
When he reached for his pocket, Jeremy wrestled the other man’s hands behind his back. Might have tugged a bit harder than needed, too. “You did that clumsy routine and planted the tracker. You turned off my life-
saving machines. I took that as a sign you wanted me dead.”
“What I don’t get is, why?” Ellis moved in front of his former assistant. “You had a career. A family with money. But you get involved with a creep like Bruce Casden.”
Garrett snorted. “Money. It’s always about money.”
The terror in Andrew’s face morphed into disgust. He spat at Ellis. “You’ve always been so stupid.”
Ellis just smiled. “I’m not the one going to jail.”
“Listening to you drone on every day made me want to kill you, too.” The shaky nervousness in Andrew’s voice vanished. Now he spoke with a steady venom that cracked like a whip. “You don’t get it. None of you. Bruce Casden has power. Real power. He’ll beat this like he has every other charge.”
Jeremy pretended to mull the comment over. “He might. You won’t. Trying to kill a federal agent?”
Garrett frowned and shook his head with a hefty dose of dramatics. “That’s major time.”
“I won’t spend one day in jail.”
“Right. You’ll spend thirty years. And a pretty boy like you.” Ellis picked up a towel and wiped the spit off his shirt. “I hope it was worth it.”
Jeremy’s patience expired. “Get him out of here.”
* * *
T
WENTY MINUTES LATER
Jeremy was back in his clothes and the team filed into his room. He turned to Ellis. “Thanks for lending us your guys.”
“They enjoyed having a chance to shoot at Garrett here, even if it was with fake bullets.”
Jeremy’s gaze went to Joel. “You okay?”
Joel nodded. “Yeah.”
The harsh lines had faded from his face. Ghosts still moved through him as he separated himself from the group physically, but Jeremy hoped Garrett could lure him back to the team. The frowns on the faces of Davis and Pax looked less promising. When Jeremy turned to them, they stepped out into the hall.
The move made Jeremy stop for a second. He had no idea what the cut meant, but he wanted to make sure Joel got it. “We brought you in because we knew you weren’t the mole.”
“But we used the fact other people did to give Andrew an added sense of security.” Garrett kept his arm locked around Sara’s waist as he talked.
The closeness made Jeremy smile. Somehow his idiot brother had fixed his relationship mess. But the touching and warm smiles made him miss the one person he wanted in the room. “Where’s Meredith?”
Ellis backed up a step. “Down the hall.”
Jeremy’s heart pounded hard enough to muffle the conversation. He had to concentrate to get the words out. “She’s in a room here?”
Ellis looked to Garrett before continuing. “We had to knock her out.”
Jeremy’s brain went blank. “What?”
“Seems the lady really cares for you.” Ellis smoothed the lapel of his jacket as he shifted out of Jeremy’s grabbing range.
Sara didn’t suffer from the same fear. She stepped up until she stood right in front of her future brother-in-law. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell her the truth.”
The vehemence in Sara’s voice stunned Jeremy as much as the conversation. “Garrett told you?”
“He didn’t want me to worry.”
“You’re alive.” Meredith’s shaky voice stopped all conversation. They all turned and looked at her standing in the doorway in the hospital scrubs.
Jeremy saw the wild eyes and hands balled into fists and his heart sank. He’d done this to her. He’d put her in the middle of an unbelievable situation and ripped her apart.
He reached out to her but she smacked his hands away. Her glare traveled the room as she stood there. “You all knew?”
“Only Ellis and Sara.” Garrett’s soft voice did nothing to calm her down.
She launched her body at Jeremy. Fists pummeled his chest as she called him names and battered his arms and shoulders. He held her and shifted his head to keep from being punched in the face, but otherwise didn’t defend himself.
He ached for her. Anything she needed to do to wipe out the pain, he’d accept.
“Meredith, that’s enough.” Sara laid a gentle hand on Meredith’s back and the pounding stopped. “It’s okay.”
Sara shot Jeremy a murderous scowl as she soothed her new friend. Helplessness like Jeremy had never known pulled him in every direction. The joy at solving the case crashed under the weight of seeing a strong woman brought to her knees.
Meredith pulled up straight and pushed her shoulders back. She looked at Sara and no one else. “You were right. Falling for them will kill you.”
And she walked out of the room.
“What just happened?” Jeremy whispered in stunned silence.
Joel and Ellis made excuses to leave the room. Garrett frowned. Sara lost it.
She pointed out the open doorway. “Go apologize.”
“I couldn’t tell her and keep her safe.” Jeremy repeated the mantra playing in his head.
He’d done it for her own good. He’d wanted her as far removed from the lies and deception as possible. Yet somehow he’d dropped her right in it.
“You could, but you chose not to.” Sara added Garrett to her glare zone.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Don’t look at me. I told you the truth.”
“Why?”
Garrett didn’t hesitate. “Because I love you.”
The comment had Sara smiling. “I know.”
Garrett raised an eyebrow in response but didn’t say anything.
The scene confused the crap out of Jeremy. Yeah, he knew Sara was the right woman for his brother. Jeremy had always known, but Garrett had always been so tight-lipped about his feelings for her. He acted as if she was just the one who’d landed on his doorstep when he was ready to settle down. Convenient, but not as important as she should be.
He’d put Sara to the side and focused on his job, then joined her when the work was done. But that wall had crumbled. The way Garrett looked at Sara now was so intimate that Jeremy started to squirm. Maybe some things weren’t his business.
“And we’ll have a wedding. A real one, with a dress and flowers and whatever else you want.” Garrett’s good mood slipped. “Just don’t make me plan it.”
Sara’s smile grew wide enough to light up the room.
Jeremy wanted to be happy for them but he was too busy wallowing. “What is going on here? We’re talking about Meredith.”
Garrett exhaled. “No, man. We’re talking about you.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve been there. I pushed Sara away because I was so scared about losing her. It’s illogical but normal for what we do.” Garrett clapped a hand against Jeremy’s back. “Don’t make my mistakes. Don’t waste time.”
The lecture made sense for Garrett but not for Jeremy. He’d always been the easygoing one. “But I’m not like you….”
Or was he?
Life raced along for him at a steady pace. He took risks and didn’t shun commitment. Then a woman had died in front of him, leaving blood on his hands, and something in his mind clicked. Keep a solid distance. Don’t get involved.
His mind flashed to Meredith. The pain digging in his chest had him rubbing space to try to ease the pain. But his mind kept spinning. To the woman rolling around in bed with him. To the devastated one in the hospital room.
He had to find her.
He tried to push Garrett but his big brother stopped him. “Where are you going?”
Jeremy dropped his guard and let them see the emotions fighting inside him. “To beg if I have to.”
Sara smiled. “It’s about time.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Meredith stood at the side of her hospital bed and pressed her hands against her stomach to keep from heaving. Her muscles ached and her hands shook. Reaction to the danger and the fallout had her body in a vise grip and it kept tightening.
She knew her response to being blocked by Jeremy, to all that had happened, flew well out of bounds. Seeing them all standing around laughing while she prayed for him to come out of a fake coma made her the dumbest woman alive. Even at her lowest point during her relationship with Clint, she’d never felt as pathetic as she did right then.
Despite all that, the truth was, Jeremy didn’t owe her anything. He’d never made any promises. Not cluing her in to his plan hurt her as much as being banged around in that SUV as it almost went off the cliff, but his work was his work and she didn’t belong in the middle of it.
But thinking he was hurt or, worse, dead, sucked the life right out of her. Her brain burned from the pain. She’d been willing to humiliate herself and sacrifice Sara in front of the doctor and everyone else if it meant helping Jeremy.
And it had all been a big joke. On her.
She grabbed the T-shirt she’d worn there and reached for the hem of the scrubs. She got the shirt halfway up her stomach when Jeremy’s deep voice stopped her.
“I’m happy to watch a striptease, but you should know I’m standing here.”
She spun around. “What are you doing in my room?”
“Apologizing.”
No, no, no.
She was on the verge of breaking down. Seeing him ate away at her.
She held up her hands as if to fight off the words. If he tried to give her the same lame excuse he’d offer to an insignificant coworker, she would melt into a puddle. He’d reduced her to that.
Falling for him was killing her.
“It’s fine. Go celebrate with your friends.” She turned her back on him and opened her mouth to draw in huge sweeping breaths.
The tactic didn’t work. The panting wouldn’t stop and all of a sudden his handsome face appeared in front of her.
Sadness tugged at the corners of his eyes. “I want to be with you.”
This was about the sex. Had to be.
Gathering all her energy, she forced her voice to stay steady. “Look, you showed a girl a good time but it’s time for me to go.”
“Stop.”
His hands moved to her shoulders and her body jolted. She had to stay stiff to keep from curling into him. Her strength waned and her head spun. She couldn’t take much more.
“It needs to be said.” She tried to shrug out of his hold but his grip stayed firm.