Soft Target (27 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Maggie stopped the music. “Hi, Carl.”

“You’ve been crying again,” he said. As he stomped closer, his concern morphed into fury. “Did he hit you?”

She put a hand on his arm, surprised to feel him shaking. His joints bulged under the cotton dress shirt. Carl had always been too thin. “These are from the accidents. They get worse for days.”

“He should have taken better care of you. I’m glad he’s leaving.”

He was holding a bouquet of daisies.

She dropped her hand as her lungs froze and her heart pounded. “What do you mean?”

Carl pulled her to a chair, his hand gentle on hers. “He’s leaving with his girlfriend. I wish you’d waited on me. It would have been so much better. You should have picked me.”

He pushed the flowers at her, and her chair hit the floor as she scrambled away.

He pursued her, confusion in his eyes and concern etched on his features. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take care of you. I kept telling you.”

Oh my God.
“Carl, why?”

“All the guys send the women they love presents. Nate sends Faith stuff without his name on it, but she knows who it’s from. It’s a game. You love games.”

She stayed quiet, stunned, as he continued his earnest plea.

“I’ve always known, since that day when David left you, that you needed a hero, just like you’d been to me.

“I’m not going to take advantage. I’ve saved a lot, so you won’t have to pay for anything. As soon as I get into college, I can get a better job. We’ll get married, and you can move in with me, or we can live in Faye’s house as soon as
he’s
gone.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was about to, but
he
got in the way.”

“Carl—”

“No. He did. He’s not the better guy. You’re not happy. He doesn’t keep you safe.”

This is all my fault.

“I love Graham, Carl.” She perched on the nearest chair, straight-backed and tense-shouldered.

Carl took the seat opposite her. “But he doesn’t love you,” he whispered, as if he regretted having to tell her.

She interrupted him when he would have pressed his point. “I did those things to help you because you’re my friend, but that’s all you’ll ever be. Regardless of what he feels for me, I will always love Graham.

“And you need to stop trying to scare me. Flowers are one thing, but I could have been hurt when those rocks flew through the windows, and we could have been killed when you tampered with the car.”

Carl jerked his hand free. “You think I hurt you? I would never do that. I had to cut your gas line. He wouldn’t let me talk to you any other way.”

“You
shot
at me!”

The door opened, and Maggie was relieved for the intervention.

“Hi. We’re not open yet, but can I help with—” The bitter taste on Maggie’s tongue stopped her offer. Cedar and musk. She knew that perfume. She’d been jealous of that perfume.
I saw an ex-girlfriend.
“You.”

Without a word, Elaine raised a pistol.

Carl threw himself at Elaine, and his daisies scattered across the floor. “What are you doing?”

A gunshot roared through the room, and Maggie was pitched backward, collapsing as her leg gave way. When her ears stopped ringing, she heard her own screams.

Carl and Elaine were wrestling for the gun. Maggie pushed to her hands and one knee and tried to pull herself toward the hallway door. Her vision tunneled as bile rose in her throat, and she collapsed to the hardwood. She put her arms over her head as another shot rang out and thudded into the wall above her. Plaster rained into her hair. Where was Max?

Elaine snarled and aimed, and again Carl interfered. This time she knocked him to the floor. While he lay motionless, the crazy redhead stayed next to him and fired across the room. Already overwhelmed with pain, Maggie wasn’t sure where it struck her.

Then, as her vision darkened, she watched Elaine kneel beside Carl’s still body, put the gun in his hand, point it toward his head and pull the trigger.

* * *

“Max? Max!”

Gray sat in the passenger seat of the cruiser, bracing himself against the dashboard as Glen sped through town while barking for his unresponsive patrolman.

I left her alone. I made her a target and left her alone.

“Yeah, chief,” Max mumbled. The groggy answer turned Gray’s joints to rubber. “Dammit, someone hit me—”

“Get in the bar!” Glen, Jeff and Gray roared in unison.

For too long, all they heard were Max’s pounding footsteps.

The gunshot echoed through the quiet car, and Gray’s world shrank to the sounds coming through the radio.
No, no, no.
He pressed his foot to the floor in a vain attempt to speed their progress.

The crash and bang of a door kicked in, timed with another shot. Max’s muttered curse was lost in the banging of equipment, the slap and snap of a scuffle, the grunts and pants of panic and flight.

Get off me, you moron.

The drawl was unmistakable, and fear chilled Gray’s blood.

“Shots fired,” Max panted. “Suspect in custody.” His pride faded. “God. Ambulance. I need an ambulance.”

Jeff’s hand on his shoulder kept Gray anchored to the seat. Sirens screamed as the entire Fiddler PD and half its EMT squad scrambled for a rescue. They hit the top of Broadway, and Glen found a surprise gear. The car stuttered, lurched forward and barreled down the street. Pedestrians scattered while shoppers ran from stores. Everyone stared.

The car was rolling to a stop when Gray flung the door open. Taking the steps in two long strides, he barreled through the bar’s ruined front door.

Carl was in the center of the bar, on the floor, his vacant stare fixated on the hammered tin ceiling tiles. His brains were scattered around him.

Tables and chairs littered the room, shoved and toppled. Holes marred the newly patched and painted walls. Bloody handprints were smeared on the floor, and the trail led him to...

Hurling the chair across the room, Gray dropped to his knees next to the pool of blood and ruined daisies with his wife at the center.

“Honey?” He rolled her into his arms. Stains bloomed across her clothes. He put his hand over the largest one, trying to dam the flow while he focused on her chest and willed it to move.

“Baby, please,” he whispered. “
Please.
”

Sirens filled the air and more people crashed into the room. Someone tried to take her from him but he clung to her as his past and present melted together. He had to—

“Harper,” Jeff said, his voice low and calm, “let them do their job.”

He surrendered, but stood vigil as the EMTs pricked and prodded, watching her face for any sign of movement. He couldn’t get a deep enough breath.

“What the
hell
do you think you’re doing?” Shelby snarled across the room.

Gray whipped his head up. He’d slept with this woman. She’d met his parents. He’d given her the earrings she was wearing.

Shaking, his hands in tight fists, he charged across the room. “Why?”

“You were going to wake up, stuck here, and all our work would have been for
nothing
,” she sneered, her eyes wild in her mottled face. “All because you wouldn’t leave her.”

“She’s stable,” an EMT clipped. “Let’s move.”

Gray swung back to Maggie’s side.

“Gray!” Shelby screamed as Max and Chet wrestled her away from the door.

Outside, the remaining Fiddler PD stood in a line, protecting Maggie from the crowd of onlookers as the crew swept her into the ambulance. Gray climbed in behind her and sat, ignoring the gasps and wide-eyed stares and focusing on the beat of her heart.

Then its weak sound was drowned out by the wail of the siren. The driver put his foot through the accelerator. Supplies and equipment clattered to the floor as Gray anchored the gurney in place.

“Keep hold of this,” the EMT said as she handed over Maggie’s ring. “And talk to her. It’ll help.”

Gray rolled the ring between his fingers as the memories of their life together flooded over him. Kneeling next to her, he dropped his head to the gurney and rasped, “Don’t leave me, Badger. Not now.”

At the hospital, he ran next to her the way she’d done for him after they’d crashed. Their nurse, now with a grim expression and tears in her eyes, pried him away as the surgery doors closed. Jeff sprinted down the hall. Beyond them, Nate, Kevin and Michael stormed the emergency room. Their wives wouldn’t be far behind.

His was already here.

Gray didn’t resist as Jeff pulled him into the nearest empty room and pushed him toward the bathroom, speaking in the tone men reserved for their mothers and small children. “Wash up and change jackets.”

Gray blinked. Maggie was bleeding. Nothing else mattered.

“You’re covered in blood. They can’t see you like that.”

He took one look in the mirror and heaved into the sink. After he’d rinsed his mouth and scrubbed his skin and hands, he snapped Jeff’s clean raid jacket over his ruined clothes.

As Gray entered the waiting room, Nate launched from his chair with an incoherent roar.

Faith stepped between them and wrapped her arms around her husband, fighting him until he dissolved against her. Gray wished she’d let Nate hit him. Tiffany was in tears cuddled next to Michael. Charlene and Kevin were supporting each other. Abby, pale and red-eyed, was curled around her dog.

He wished they’d all hit him.

“S-she’s in surgery.” His knees wobbled. “She was shot.” His vision blurred as he looked at Nate. “I’m so sorry.” His voice broke on the last word as he drowned from the inside.

Jeff pushed him into a chair and stuck a paper cup full of coffee in his hand.

Gray choked down a mouthful as everyone’s gazes flitted between them. Jeff looked every inch an agent despite his hair. His badge was visible while Gray’s was hidden under the jacket so no one could see her blood in the grooves.

For once, Nate wasn’t oblivious to his surroundings. “I asked him—”

“Let me do it,” Gray croaked.

His tale began with a halting description of how and why he was here. Then it grew solemn when he confessed to lying to her, lying to them and considering them all suspects. It gained speed and strength as he told them about the trust and chasing Maggie to Vegas. He told them about Shelby, about Carl, about everything he could remember. He didn’t tell them about finding Maggie.

Silent, he stared at a spot in the carpet while he ran his thumb across his wedding ring. The women came across the room and surrounded him, each offering him comfort.

He forsook the kindness and stood as the guys approached. They ought to get the chance to knock him flat. Instead, they each wrapped him in a hug that wasn’t the least bit manly. Nate took the chair next to him, and they sat shoulder to shoulder, looking up at every footstep and every shadow. Gray strained to hear the nurses’ whispered conversations.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Nate said.

Gray shook his head. It was. He’d missed everything important, he’d left her alone, he’d—

“Don’t be stubborn,” Nate insisted. “You don’t belong in Chicago. You belong with us. I’ve known it since college, but you were so damn determined.” He took a deep breath. “Then you got shot, and I saw the perfect excuse to get you out here. I didn’t think we’d be related, but it doesn’t suck.” He rolled his eyes. “Well,
this
sucks, but this is your home. Stay.”

Gray stared at him. “My ex-girlfriend shot your sister.”

Nate’s smile wobbled at the edges. “She’ll get over it. You’re my brother-in-law. I’ve got your back.”

Reverend Ferguson arrived, intent on sitting with them. Instead, Gray sent him to see Faye and hoped he could head off the gossip. Maggie would never forgive him if something happened to Faye.

It was another hour before a hollow-eyed Rex Simon came into the waiting room. The crowd fell silent as Gray stood on shaking legs. Nate stood with him and put a hand on his shoulder. Jeff stood on his other side.

“She came through it, but she’s lost a lot of blood and there’s some internal damage. I could waste my time discussing repairs, but no one ever hears anything after the first part.” His smile was limited to a brief twitch of his lips. “It’ll be touchy for a bit, but she should recover fully.”

While everyone celebrated, Gray pulled the surgeon aside to discuss the specifics of Maggie’s injuries and the repairs. Once he was satisfied, he voiced the thought he’d had every five minutes since he’d left her this morning.

“I want to see her.” He looked at the tense faces in the room. “We do.”

“I thought you would,” Rex said. “Follow me.”

Stepping into the hall, Gray heard only his footsteps and realized he was alone. The three men who’d protected Maggie her whole life waited behind him in the doorway.

Nate nodded and smiled. “We’ll wait. Go on.”

Gray trotted to catch up with Rex, and then clenched his fists as they once again moved too slowly. It took forever to reach the recovery ward.

At the end of the room, a nurse looked up with an encouraging smile before she went back to reading a chart. Maggie was her sole patient—an island of white sheets and fluorescent light in the darkened, cavernous space.

Her hair was dark gold against the pillow, and she was so pale it was difficult to tell where the bandages ended and she began. Her scratches and bruises stood out in sharp relief. Gray sat and took her hand in his, careful not to loosen any cords or tubes. Monitors tracked her heartbeat and mechanical breaths echoed.

“Now who sounds like Vader, honey?”

He dragged his fingertips through her hair and waited for her laughter. It didn’t come. He kissed her forehead, and pulled his iPod from his pocket. “I still have nightmares about all the beeping and buzzing. I don’t want you to have those, but you have to listen to
my
music.” He put the earbuds in her ears and hit shuffle. Then he sat on the edge of her bed and watched her breathe.

The door swished open, and Jeff strode to his side. He dropped a duffel bag to the floor. “Shower, dude. You smell. I’ll watch her.”