Gale, Avery - Katarina's Return [The ShadowDance Club 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (11 page)

“We need to work on our ’scape plan, we can do this...probably. We’re smart woman, those Barney wannabes got nuttin’ on us! Hell, I’ll bet Alex plus two didn’t even give ’em any bullets. Hell, Zach used to be the sweet one and now he’s acting just like Alex, that really sucks, I tell ya’. And that Colt is a whole new level of grim. He doesn’t like me, you know? Have you ever actually seen him smile? Maybe it’s some sort of genetic defect. He might be bigger than me but I’m mouthy and fast, and that’s almost as good as all that fancy-assed training he’s had, right?” Kat’s words were followed by another chorus of giggles before they finally seem to recover a bit. “Yeah, sister, we can outsmart ’em…don’t ya think? I mean really, just because they fought against terrorists, that doesn’t mean they’re smarter than us!” Somewhere in the very back of Jenna’s mind, she knew they were so busted, but it just didn’t seem as important as it had an hour ago.

* * * *

Listening to the woman discuss their plans to spy on The Club’s Beach Party, the guys in the security monitoring command center, known as the Crow’s Nest, were having a great time eavesdropping and watching as the women hatched a plan that would have been doomed to go down in flames even without their alcohol-fogged thinking. There were always at least two people working the bank of monitors in the Crow’s Nest and usually three during events. The Club’s security center was Mitch Grayson’s domain, he was considered the lead for most events, and this evening was no different. He’d been calling Alex, Zach, and Colt with regular updates, well, when he could do so without letting his amusement at the women’s antics show in his voice.

Grayson had been instructed to place monitoring equipment in the sitting room for this evening, it seemed Alex and Zach knew their sister and Ms. McKay very well. They’d said they were sure the two wildcats as they’d referred to them, would not be easily contained. And as entertaining as this had been, their increasing inebriation was starting to cause some concern, it was probably getting close to time to call in the cavalry.

* * * *

Ordinarily the suite only had perimeter-monitoring devices out of respect for her privacy, but Kat knew full well Alex and Zach would have stepped that up for tonight. They were not only worried about the two of them getting out of their gilded cage; she knew they were even more worried about who might get in. On any other day, that might have been valuable information, but right now, Kat was feeling like it just didn’t really matter all that much that there might be “bad guys” out there. Why were there bad guys after her? Damned if she could remember, she’d probably just dreamed that part. Looking over at her best friend, Kat noticed the room seemed to move pretty fast when she turned her head too quickly, what was that about anyway?

“Ya know, I’ll bet we could go down to the big kitchen and get some munchies, I’ll bet they’d let us do that, doncha think? And that would get us closer to the gardens, damn and double damn, but I want to see what Pervs-R-Us has going on out there.”

* * * *

Kat and Jenna got to their feet and each had to grab onto the mantle to keep from toppling into the fire. Grayson sighed and hit the button on the console that would connect him to all three men he’d been reporting to throughout the evening. Yep, definitely time to bring in reinforcements.

Chapter 17

Hitting the button on the side of his headset, Colt just said, “Talk to me.” He’d been standing right next to Alex and Zach and seen their com-units blink at the same time as his and he knew full well the only person who would be interrupting all three of them was Grayson.

“Boss, they’re on the move, well sort of…”

“What the fuck do you mean by ‘sort of’?” Colt barked in to his unit.

“Well, they’re pretty toasted, when they got up off the floor they both had trouble maintaining position, sir.” Mitch found himself reacting predictably to Colt’s tone, which always put the entire security team right back in to their military mind-set, causing their communication to become formal and cryptic as a result. Alex and Zach had commented that they had both noticed the same response in themselves and they all three assumed that as long as they were still “freelancing” for Uncle Sam, the habit wasn’t likely to fade very quickly.

“Well, fuck!” they all three responded at the same time, bringing a smile to Mitch’s face that he was grateful they couldn’t see. “We’ll be right up. Make sure they don’t leave the suite.” Colt disconnected before Grayson could even respond. Watching the video feed, Mitch watched as they turned as one, they all took off for the suite. He could see they were bracing themselves for the confrontation they had to know was coming. They’d made it just a few steps when they heard a rifle shot and the shattering of glass followed by the heart-stopping scream.

* * * *

“Holy shit, what was that?” Jenna turned when she heard shattering glass and stumbled to regain her footing just in time to watch Kat’s eyes go wide as she sank to the floor. Jenna watched in horror as blood spread across Kat’s chest. She heard a scream and realized it come from her because Kat was sprawled on the floor and her eyelids were slowly drifting closed. Jenna finally got her feet and moved to Kat. She was crouching low and covered Kat’s body with her own just as the door to the suite crashed open and men dressed in black came in from the hall as well as through the now-shattered glass doors leading to the deck. She batted away hands that tried to move her out of the way, but soon felt strong arms wrap around her waist from behind and lift her away from Kat’s side. “No, she needs me. Put me down, you oaf! Somebody call my brothers! Oh my God, Kat! Don’t you dare die on me! I just got you back…Don’t you dare leave me again!” Jenna was nearing total meltdown when she was turned and came face-to-face with the grim expression of Colt Matthews.

“Goddamn it, Jenna, settle down. Stopping fighting me and stay back, so we can help her. Stay put, we need to secure the area and get to Katarina. Let us work, please!” Colt’s words might not have had any impact, but his heartfelt “Please!” had stunned her into silence.

Okay, things were even worse than she thought, if he’d actually said please. Jenna stayed in the chair where Colt had put her. She knew if she really wanted to help her friend, she needed to stay out of way and let the professionals do everything they could to save her. Even though she still felt a bit foggy, she was a whole lot more sober than she’d been five minutes ago. Holding herself perfectly still, she started praying to a God she hadn’t talked to in way too long. She made all the usual promises, including vows to try to follow instructions given by the security team, well, at least until after Kat was safe.

* * * *

The left side of Kat’s chest and her shoulder felt like it was on fire. Damn, something must have bit her. Damn, but she hated it when shit bit her. And what was all that noise? Geez, if she could just get her eyes open, she could figure out what the hell was going on. Where had all these people come from? Even though she couldn’t see them, she could hear them. And were those sirens she was hearing? This had to be the weirdest dream she’d ever had, and she’d had some doozies. Swearing she’d never drink Jenna’s margaritas again if she got out of this crazy dream, Kat felt Alex and Zach touch her and knew it was okay to just let herself slide in to sleep. They’d take care of it, whatever it was…Yeah, she’d just take a little nap, and it would all be gone soon.

* * * *

“Shit, she is losing a lot of blood! Where the fuck are those paramedics with that equipment?” Zach had been their team’s medic, so he’d grabbed his med-kit on the way past his room, but it didn’t have everything he needed. Christ, he knew it was a through-and-through injury, and based on the entrance and exit wounds, he was fairly certain it hadn’t done any major damage, but they wouldn’t know for sure without getting her to a hospital quickly. He couldn’t ever remember being this scared. There just wasn’t that much he could do besides keeping pressure packs on Kat’s chest and back until he had more to work with. Jesus Christ, someone had shot her! If she’d been steady on her feet, he had no doubt the bastard’s shot would have gone straight through her heart, she’d have been gone before she’d ever hit the floor. Even though the alcohol had likely saved her by making her unsteady, it was also making her bleed a lot more than she would have any other time. “Those paramedics need to get up here right fucking now!”

* * * *

Alex was shouting orders to their security team, getting them headed up the mountain to see if the shooter had left anything behind, because he was certain the bastard was long gone by now. Thank God Kat and Jenna had been sitting on the floor, if they’d been on the sofa, the guy would have had a clear shot much earlier, the way it was, he’d had to take a shot as Katarina had gotten to her feet, and the fact that she’d faltered had been her saving grace. He’d been more than a little annoyed all evening as the reports of their increasing intoxication made their way to the three of them, but he sure wasn’t going to be complaining about it now. He could see Zach working to stop the bleeding and had seen the signal he’d flashed earlier, letting him know the injury wasn’t life threatening, but she was still losing a lot of blood. He’d just heard Colt say the paramedics were making their way up the front staircase, so he’d started clearing a path for them immediately. Colt had gotten Jenna out of the way, and she was sitting like a statue, they’d need to assess her for shock right away also. To use one of their team’s favorite expressions, this had gone completely FUBAR—fucked up beyond all recognition—in a heartbeat. Jesus, they’d sworn they’d protect her, they’d promised her she’d be safe if she just stayed in her suite, the only thing keeping him from feeling like a total failure was his determination to make the son of a bitch responsible pay, and pay in a big way. Calvin Robertson had just signed his own death warrant as far as Alex was concerned; a sentiment he was quite sure his brother would second.

Chapter 18

The Climax hospital might be small, but it was as technologically advanced and well equipped as most big-city trauma centers, thanks to the generous donations of the Lamont family. Those donations had been made to help their community, and they had never been more grateful they’d made them than at this very moment.

Doc Woods met them in the ER. He might be old, but he’d seen it all, and he had Kat poked, prodded, scanned, and stitched up in no time. She’d been moved into a private room and was sleeping peacefully despite all the activity around her, no doubt compliments of the powerful pain meds she’d been given.

Nurse Ratchet, as the men had nicknamed her, had eventually threatened to throw them all out if they didn’t move their “loud-mouth selves” to the waiting room. Wicked woman was really starting to piss Alex off, and the worst part was she didn’t seem to be intimidated by him at all. What the fuck? He must be seriously losing his touch, first Jenna and now this nurse. Finally, Dylan Marshall, the local sheriff, had interceded and led her off down the hall. He was currently charming her with that bogus Texas good ole boy routine he’d perfected when he’d done so much undercover work during his time with the DEA. His name was an endless source of embarrassment for Dylan and had provided all of his friends with hours of teasing material when they’d been kids. And their teasing had reached a fever pitch when Dylan had decided to follow his dad into law enforcement. To this day, just the mention of the television show
Gunsmoke
wound him up like an eight-day clock.

After several years with the DEA, he left the agency just as his dad decided he’d had enough and wouldn’t be running for sheriff again. Technically, the investigation into the shooting would be under his jurisdiction, but Alex knew Dylan would be happy to work with them, they had resources his local budget wouldn’t ever support, and they weren’t limited by probable cause, warrants, etc. The thought that they’d be able to pull together information that wasn’t available through legitimate sources was the first thing in hours that had brought Alex anywhere near a smile.

* * * *

Zach stood by Kat’s bed, holding her small hand in his and thanked God,
again,
for another chance with her. She looked like a sleeping flower sprite, long blonde curls framing her sweet face on the pillow. She was still way too pale, but with the transfusions and IVs, she was regaining some color in her cheeks. She stirred but settled again when he brushed the backs of his fingers down the side of her face, she responded to both him and Alex even in her sleep, a sure sign that she belonged to them, they just had to make sure she knew it on a conscious level also. He knew Alex was haunted by their failure to protect her, but he wasn’t going to waste even one moment of his time with her focusing on regret. Alex would come to the same conclusion, it would just take him a little time. Alex had always taken his role as the oldest—even though he was only two minutes older than Zach—way too seriously in Zach’s opinion.