Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops) (21 page)

“Falling for and eloping with are two different things,” Kami said softly. “We just want to know more about the woman capable of wrapping you so tightly around her finger.”

Fortunately, they wouldn’t know the worst of her, because her testimony wouldn’t be necessary in court. She was no longer the threat keeping Jessup in prison, so she was no longer his target. Agent Sims and Liam were his top contenders, but taking them out still wouldn’t cancel out the video.

“Good news,” Tyler announced as he and Agent Sims stepped into the waiting room. Ian was right behind them with Bucky Barnes, mostly called Bucky, his new service dog.

“Grey?” Liam asked, dropping into the nearest open chair. His leg immediately began bouncing rapidly.

“Ruby?” Simon asked, sitting up straighter in the chair he’d claimed.

All three men shook their heads. Ian spoke up first. “We have Jessup on tape, outside your house, talking about the hitter’s screw up. We now know the shooter to be Thomas Iono.”

“From the most-wanted list?”

“Yes.”

“Also, Micah activated the voice recorder in his car when he was with Jessup. He got more than enough on tape. Seems he wasn’t flipped entirely.”

“Bastard shouldn’t have turned on Grey at all.” The mention of Micah’s name was enough to piss Liam off. He gritted his teeth and restrained himself from punching something.

“He might not have if Jessup hadn’t found the one chink in his armor,” Agent Sims said.

“Why’d he reach out to me?”

Agent Sims spoke up. “He was hoping she’d get scared and decide being here wasn’t important enough.”

“And when she did, she’d run back to him for protection. Though with her no longer officially in the program he wouldn’t be bound by the same restrictions.”

Sims confirmed with a nod and waved at everyone in the room. “He didn’t plan on all of you closing rank around her.”

“We take care of our own,” Breck said.

“Even some of us who aren’t,” Lori added.

“You’re Trevor’s and that makes you ours,” Kami put in.

“That,” Sims said with a nod, “is what Micah didn’t know how to defeat. So, he played the only card left. He helped Jessup escape.”

“What have you been doing for the last five years?” Liam asked Sims.

“I’ve been taking down one connection after another, weakening Jessup’s business. As long as Grey was hidden it was fairly simple.”

“Simple?”

“He wasn’t on the outside and I was able to limit the information he had access to.” Sims shrugged. “There was only one connection I hadn’t identified, but with Jessup’s escape, he showed himself.”

Grey had been raped and nearly killed. She’d been taken from her sister and then had faced a betrayal. Her trust issues were only going to be bigger when she had time to think about it all.

“Mr. Burgess.” Nurse Reinhart stepped in and looked around the group.

“How are they?” Liam was on his feet and across the room.

“When can we see them?” Simon was at his side in an instant. The private detective had grown attached to Ruby as quickly as Liam had to Grey.

“Dr. Keiths is with Ruby now. Grey will be in recovery in a few minutes. They’re both strong women and things are going smoothly so far.”

Liam breathed a sigh of relief that had tears threatening. He was almost too tired to care, but not quite. “When can I see Grey?” Liam asked.

“I can take you to her now, but you have to promise to let her rest.”

Liam followed Nurse Reinhart to the recovery room. Energy and nerves rose higher and higher with each step.

And every step closer became heavier and heavier. Grey had wanted an annulment. She’d tried walking enough times and had never said she wanted to stay. She’d been tortured and then she’d had to face her rapist a second time. A gun had evened her odds, but torment was torment.

She hadn’t thought herself strong and though he loved her and believed in her, he couldn’t block the worry she’d give in to pressure and become addicted again. This time she’d have prescription strength meds to start her off.

No. She had fought her way out from beneath the oblivion of drugs. She’d remember the costs and avoid it again. He would be with her to make sure of it.

Decided, he stepped into the recovery room. His eyes were drawn instantly to the back of the room where she lay in a bed.

His heart pounded harder than it had when he’d seen Iono take aim at her or when he’d been away from her and news was delivered about Jessup’s escape.

Her only promise had been that she wouldn’t leave until things were cleared up. With the danger eliminated and the surgery done, she only had to recover enough to leave. Other than desire, he had no assurance she would stay.

She turned her head toward him and smiled drunkenly. “Liam,” she slurred.

“Grey.” He sat on the edge of her bed, careful not to jostle her. “How do you feel?”

“Ready to face a wolf.”

“Well, maybe you should wait awhile. At least until you can shoot a man two inches above his heart on purpose.” The shot she’d made wouldn’t be difficult for someone with real training, but for a woman facing down the man who’d tried to kill her… It had been impressive.

“I wanted to kill him.”

“I know the feeling.” Liam wanted to go back in time to kill Jessup, Micah and the ass that had outed her to Jessup. “I think we’ll have to settle for the way it ended.”

“Nope.” She rubbed her tongue along her teeth as if she was trying to get something off it, probably that drugged cotton-mouth feeling that was so irritating. “It’s not ended.”

“What’s not ended?”

“Liam.” Her eyes drifted closed and she slipped back to sleep.

Grey had been pretty amenable given the circumstances they’d been facing the last few days. With drugs coursing through her system, she was incapable of argument. Now would be the time to get her to agree to stay forever, assuming she was awake, but that wouldn’t be playing fair. Liam liked watching her fight a fair fight too much to rob her of one.

To make sure he was there when she woke up, he stretched out beside her. He’d thought he would fall asleep the moment he knew she was safe and he stopped moving. He was wrong, because all he could do was watch her.

He watched her eyes move rapidly behind her closed lids. He watched the rise and fall of her chest. He watched her nostrils flare with each breath.

He watched the woman who’d turned his world upside down and formulated his next proposal. It would have to be a damn good one to convince her to give him a chance.

Grey stood on the back porch of Liam’s home and shook her head at the transformation Lori and her team from Tulle and Tulips Designer Weddings had engineered.

Tabatha, the one they referred to as the Queen of Venues, had designed a glass type walkway that extended over the zero edge swimming pool. Guests would sit on the lawn, and it would look for all the universe like the bride and groom were standing on water.

It was a fitting visual, because that was how they felt about each other.

Misty, florist extraordinaire, had wrapped the most fragile-looking rosebuds around the strands of twinkle lights that her friend’s fiancé, Burton, had strung after building the glass platform.

Lori had designed an amazing gown that had been polished off with the perfect amount of bling, or so stated Darci. Hair and makeup were in the hands of Isabella, a sweet woman who had to buy her clothes from a renaissance festival catalog.

Gisella and Tess were in the kitchen sparring for space while they created masterpieces in the cake and food departments. Kayla wandered around all of them snapping pictures of everything and everyone.

They were noisy and chaotic, raunchy and brazen, and Grey found herself relaxing among them.

“This is going to be a beautiful wedding.”

Grey turned to see Liam’s mother standing a few feet away. Only a few inches shy of Liam’s height, with a slender build and soft curves, Mrs. Burgess had been on hand since Liam had brought Grey and Ruby home from the hospital two weeks earlier. She’d apparently been at the house since the day after the surgery to make sure things were set up for when they were released.

“Only the best, right?”

Mrs. Burgess shrugged. “It was nice of Liam to open the place up for H and Ava.”

“Yeah. It was nice, and it was his idea.”

Unlike the mothers-in-law horror stories were built on, Mrs. Burgess had stayed in the background, giving Grey space to heal. They’d sat in silence to watch movie after movie. They’d talked amiably while she taught Grey to knit. Grey had walked her through several chocolate dishes. Gorgonzola dolce with dark chocolate, a chocolate soufflé with caramel sauce and lemon drizzles with sunken dark chocolate chunks had been the favorites.

Not once had Mrs. Burgess asked about her past or her future plans. She’d made no mention of grandchildren and though Grey suspected some disappointment that she and Liam hadn’t had a traditional wedding, she never said so.

“Do you think a fancy wedding is necessary for a strong marriage?” Grey asked, turning back to look at the view.

“No.” Mrs. Burgess moved closer. Her smile was so much like Liam’s and her eyes were the same warm brown. “If you ask me, I think too often too much effort is put into the wedding and in the process people lose sight of what’s important.”

“What’s that?”

“That.” Mrs. Burgess pointed a little ways away.

Grey followed her gaze and saw Liam crossing the lawn toward them. “I don’t understand.”

“The way Liam looks at you. The way you look at him. You two can be in a room full of people but when you see each other everyone and everything around you fades away.”

“He’s pretty great.”

“He’s said the same thing about you. That is what matters to a marriage. That and honesty.”

Mrs. Burgess took Grey’s hand in hers and laced their fingers. She didn’t hold Grey’s hand longer than it took to squeeze once. As smoothly as she’d touched, she released. As Liam grew closer, his mother walked away with a parting, “Tell him what he’s doing to you.”

It was the first time Mrs. Burgess had offered a touch beyond a handshake at their initial meeting. Its simplicity overtook Grey, because in the simplicity rested something she’d thought impossible.

Tears pooled on Grey’s bottom lids and she sniffed. Liam’s brow pinched together as he joined her. “You okay? You’re not hurting, are you? Mom didn’t say anything to upset you?”

Unable to speak, she shook her head. In his silent way, Liam pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. He’d been careful with her since she’d been released from the hospital.

He held her at night and chased away her nightmares, though they were fading. He kissed her every morning before going to work and every night before going to sleep. He’d run baths for her, cooked for her. He’d even read to her while she’d been in the hospital.

He’d been the definition of sweet. Just like his mother. If their plan was to undermine her willpower and talk her into staying, they were miscalculating. She wasn’t a delicate bloom that would wilt or fall off the stem at the slightest breeze. It was important they came to understand that. Especially Liam.

Grey pulled back and looked up at him. “Do you know what today is?”

He dipped his head and whispered seductively along her ear. “It’s the day before the wedding that’s the day before all these people leave us alone.”

“You say that like you might want to be alone with me.”

“I always want to be alone with you.”

“Yet, it’s been three weeks since we’ve been alone.”

“We’re alone every night.”

“Liam.” She shook her head.

“What? If something is bothering you, tell me.”

“You want to know? Do you really want to know?” Exhausted with being sheltered and protected, she welcomed the invitation to speak her mind.

“Yes.”

“Fine. I went from being guarded by a man who in the end was willing to sell me out for money to being guarded by you. I confronted Jessup and then went into the hospital for surgery. I woke up with you there, and don’t get me wrong that was great.”

“Doesn’t sound like you think so.”

“During my hospital stay, my room door opened a minimum of forty-eight times a day. Most days it was closer to seventy-four.”

“You counted?”

“There’s little else to do in a hospital bed for seven days.”

“You said once you liked the idea of close friends.”

“I did. And the friends actually didn’t annoy me.”

He backed up a step and crossed his arms over his chest. His head moved up and down in a slow nod. “I’ve been annoying you.”

“You’ve been sheltering me like I’m too fragile to do anything for myself.” She propped her hands on her hips and glared up at him. She was getting on a roll and wanted to air it all. “Do you know what I wanted to do the day I got out of the hospital?”

“Sleep.”

“That’s what I came home and did, but it’s not what I wanted to do.”