Lainey followed him to the elevator and was about to push the down button when the doors opened. Reese Alexander smiled when he saw them. “I was coming up to tell you dinner is ready, Lainey.” He glanced at William. “You’re welcome to stay, Mr. Mason.”
“Thank you,” William answered as they stepped into the elevator. “I need to get back home. Maybe another time.”
Reese nodded. “If you come again to see Lainey, maybe we can give you a tour of our facility.”
“I’d like that. I’ve read so much about it, and of course it’s the talk of the town. Are you planning an opening so the locals can tour before the first trainees arrive?”
Reese shrugged. “We’ll see.”
The doors opened, and they stepped out into the lobby of the building. William smiled, shook Reese’s hand, and turned to Lainey. His worried gaze raked her face. “Let me know if you need anything.”
She smiled. “I will.”
Lainey watched him leave before she turned to Reese. “Okay, I’m starving. Let’s go eat.”
Before they could take a step, the front door opened again, and Colt walked inside. He hung his hat on one of the hooks that lined the wall by the front door and grinned when he spotted the two of them.
“Where’ve you been?” Reese asked. “I saw you come in some time ago.”
Colt ambled over and stopped next to them. “I’ve been in the meditation garden talking to Ash. He’ll be in soon.”
The front door opened again and Ash walked inside. His gaze drifted over Reese and Colt and came to rest on Lainey. Her stomach clenched at the way the muscles in his broad shoulders and upper arms bulged underneath the camouflage tee shirt he wore. Her heart gave a small skip as he strolled across the lobby to where they stood. “I ran into William as he was leaving. I asked him to stay for supper, but he had to leave.”
She forced a smile to her face and nodded. “I know. We had already asked him.”
“So, is it time to eat?” he asked.
Reese frowned and patted his pockets. “Yeah, but I left something I meant to give Colt in my office. Ash, why don’t you take Lainey on into the dining room? Casey and Max have already gone in, and we’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Before either of them could speak, Reese hurried to the stairs with Colt right behind. Neither Ash or Lainey said anything as the two disappeared down the hallway of the second floor, and then he cleared his throat.
“Lainey, I’d like to talk to you after supper if that’s all right.”
She stared at him and debated whether or not she wanted to get involved in another discussion with Ash. She didn’t think she could stand another argument. “Look, Ash, if it’s just going to be more of the same, I don’t want to hear it.”
He shook his head. “No, I promise you it won’t be. I’ve been doing some thinking.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Oh, about what?”
“About Max and how I want to be part of his life. But you’re his mother, and I want us to work out some way that we can share our son. I love him, Lainey. From the first moment I saw him, there was something that told me he was special to me. Please just hear me out. It won’t take long.”
There was something different in Ash’s manner tonight. What if it was all a ploy to worm his way further into Max’s life? But she would never know unless she gave him the chance to tell her what he’d realized.
She closed her eyes and sighed in resignation. “Very well. Where do you want to go for this talk?”
The front door opened again, and several Firebrand employees walked inside. Ash leaned closer to her. “All the guys will be relaxing in the TV room after supper. I guess we could go to the conference room, but that’s kind of impersonal. How about the meditation garden? It’s well lit at night, and it’s so peaceful there. There’s going to be a slight chill in the air, but it shouldn’t be too cold.”
She nodded. “I’m sure I’ll need a sweater. I probably have time to run back upstairs and get one before we go into the dining room. Then we can talk right after we eat.”
“Okay. Go get your sweater, and I’ll wait here for you.”
Lainey nodded, hurried to the stairway, and headed to her room. Since arriving at the center, she’d found it much faster to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, and the exercise on the steps was good for her.
By the time she reached the second floor, she was panting and stopped for a moment outside her room to catch her breath. Then she pushed the door open and left it ajar as she entered and walked to the closet. As soon as she pulled the closet door open, she spotted the brown sweater, pulled it from the hanger, and was about to turn away when she had a thought. Perhaps her loafers would be a better choice than the open-toed shoes she was wearing if she and Ash were going to be outside later.
She squatted in front of the closet and reached inside for the shoes that sat on the floor next to the wall. Just as her right hand closed on one of the shoes, she heard a sound much like a rattle that Max had played with as a baby and a hissing sound like escaping air. Before she could move, a searing pain shot through her arm, and she fell backwards to the floor.
Blood and a yellowish substance poured from two puncture wounds on her right hand between the thumb joint and her wrist. The sounds she’d heard whirred again, and her eyes widened in terror at the sight of a coiled rattlesnake staring at her, his rattle shaking in warning and his tongue darting in and out of his mouth.
She screamed, and with a speed she didn’t know she possessed, she scooted across the floor to distance herself from closet. The snake uncoiled and slithered into the room after her. She screamed again and tried to push to her feet, but her vision blurred and a wave of dizziness swept over her.
Unable to move, she screamed once more and collapsed on the floor as the snake moved closer.
Chapter 11
Ash watched Lainey run up the stairs to the second floor and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He stared at the text message he’d received earlier from Eve, and his stomach churned as the vision of Joe and Lisa’s bodies flashed in his mind. Eve, or whatever her name, was a vicious killer, and they were on her hit list.
On impulse he started to type a scathing message to Eve, then thought better of it. From the first moment he met Eve, she had been like a black widow spider, focused on her prey and luring them closer. So far she hadn’t been successful, and he intended to keep it that way. In Colorado he’d let his guard down, and he wouldn’t do that again. Her message was nothing more than a mind game designed to distract him so that she could pull him into her web again.
He stuck the cell phone back in his pocket and glanced up the staircase to see if Lainey was on her way down, but she was nowhere in sight. And then he heard a scream that chilled him to the bone. With a reflex action that had become a part of him, he jerked his gun from its holster and bounded up the stairs, taking two at a time.
As he reached the second floor landing, he heard the second scream, and he ran toward the open door to Lainey’s room. He skidded to a stop just inside the door, and his heart lurched at the sight of Lainey on the floor with a huge rattlesnake coiled to strike. Without hesitating he fired his gun, and the snake’s head exploded. Its severed body jerked at the impact, the bullet propelling it forward where it came to rest next to Lainey, its body writhing as if still alive.
Ash rushed to her and dropped to his knees. “Lainey, are you all right?”
She lifted her hand a few inches, and he stared in horror at the blood and yellow venom dripping from the puncture wounds at the base of her thumb. He caught her in his arms as she blinked. “H-he bit me. . . getting shoes from closet. Didn’t know. . .” Her voice trailed off, and her eyelids drooped as she gasped for breath. “Can’t see,” she panted.
Behind him, he heard someone enter the room and turned to see Reese with Colt right behind him standing in the doorway. “What happened?”
“Lainey’s been bitten by a snake. We have to get her to the hospital right away.”
“I’ll bring the Jeep around to the front door. Get her downstairs,” Reese yelled as he turned and ran from the room.
Colt ran into the room, dropped to his knees on the other side of Ash, and pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call 911 to let the hospital know we’re on our way.”
Lainey stirred in his arms. “Ash. . .” She gasped and slumped in his arms.
“I’m here, Lainey.” She didn’t move and he tightened his arms around her. “Speak to me!” His voice cracked on the last word.
He gave her a gentle shake, but it was no use. She had passed out. Footsteps pounded on the hallway floor, and he glanced around to see Max and Casey burst into the room.
“Mom!” Max’s frightened cry rang out. The fear in his son’s voice hit Ash like a punch in the stomach, and his heart thudded as Max dropped down beside his mother. “Mom, Mom, what’s the matter?” he cried out.
Ash reached out and gripped his son’s shoulder. “She’s been bitten by a rattlesnake, Max. We’re going to get her to the hospital.”
Max’s eyes grew wide, and he threw himself across his mother’s body. “Mom!” he wailed.
Lainey frowned, and her eyes opened. Her face grimaced in pain, and she stared up into Max’s face as if she couldn’t see him. Her lips moved, and Ash thought he heard her whisper his name but he couldn’t be sure.
Max raised a tear-stained face and stared in Ash’s eyes. “Don’t let anything happen to my mom. Please.”
Max lowered his head back to his mother’s chest, his last word ending in a sob that ripped Ash’s heart apart. He had very few memories of his own mother, but Lainey was all Max had had for years. How would he be able to face the future if something happened to her?
Ash looked down at Max’s prone figure lying across his mother’s body and felt as if his heart had ripped open. He still supported Lainey with one arm and placed the other across his son’s shoulders. This was his family. The one he was supposed to have. And he couldn’t lose them before he’d made things right with them.
“I’ll take care of her, Max, but you have to do something for me, too. You have to stay here with Casey and Colt and do whatever they say. I’ll call as soon as your mom has seen a doctor. Okay?”
Max wiped at the tears on his face and nodded. “Okay.”
Ash sensed movement next to him, and Casey dropped down beside him and set a pan of water on the floor. “Let me give her some first aid before you leave.” She glanced at Max. “Can you take that ring off your mother’s finger and remove the bracelet she’s wearing? We don’t want anything to constrict the swelling.”
Max nodded and slipped the jewelry from his mother as Casey gently washed the wound and patted it dry with a clean towel. She covered it with a clean strip of gauze before yanking her belt off and looping it around Lainey’s neck for a sling to support her arm.
Then she sat back on her heels and looked up at Ash. “That’s all I can do for her here. Remember to keep her arm below her heart level, but don’t let it fall down. Reese should have the car out front by now.”
Colt ended his conversation with the 911 operator and nodded to Ash. “They’ve called the hospital and alerted them that you’re on the way so they can have anti-venom serum ready. Anything else we can do for you?”
Ash glanced from Casey to Colt. “Thanks. Just take care of Max for me. I’ll let you know how things are when we get to the hospital.”
Ash started to rise to his feet, but before he could, Max leaned over and kissed his mother. “I love you,” he whispered.
Lainey stirred but didn’t open her eyes.
Ash scooped her up from the floor and rushed from the room with Colt right behind him. Outside the building Reese waited beside the open back door of the SUV. “I’ll close the door for them,” Colt yelled at Reese. “Go on and and get in.”
Reese ran around to the front of the vehicle and jumped in the driver’s seat. Ash slid inside with Lainey in his arms, and Colt had barely closed the door before Reese gunned the accelerator and roared off. Alerted to the emergency, the guards had the gate open, and they sped through without stopping.
Lainey moved in his arms, and Ash pulled her closer. “Hot,” she whispered.
He touched her forehead, and it felt like a fire burned beneath her skin. He reached for her left hand and searched for a pulse. Weak and erratic. He silently willed Reese to drive faster.
At the rate of speed they were traveling, it would only take a few minutes to reach the turn that led off the Firebrand property and onto the highway that ran into St. Claire. They ought to make better time when they hit the four lane going toward town. “Reese, can you pick up some speed when we get on the highway?”
“I’ve got that covered. I called Sam Black before we left the center. He’s in Asheville at a meeting, but he’s contacting his department to have a deputy waiting for us at the highway to escort us into town. He said he’d see you at the hospital as soon as he could get there.”
Ash’s heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach. So Sam would be at the hospital, too. Ash tightened his arms around Lainey and pulled her closer.
A small gasp escaped her lips, and she opened her eyes. She stared at him for a moment, her dull gaze searching his face as if trying to figure out who he was. Her forehead wrinkled into a frown, and she licked her lips. “Ash.”