ELEVEN
Ryan sat on the edge of the bed, bristling with energy and watching the clock. He hated waiting almost as much as he hated hospitals. Footsteps in the hallway had him turning around.
“Good morning.” Special Agent Mays stepped into the room and glanced at her watch. “Or should I say afternoon?” She smiled tiredly. Her clothes looked tired, too, as though she’d spent the night at her office. “How’s the gunshot wound?”
“Fine.”
“And the concussion?”
“Fine.”
“Really? You look worse than yesterday.” She stepped closer and examined the purple bump on his head that had prompted the ER doc to make him stay overnight. The bullet he’d taken during the car chase was little more than a flesh wound, fortunately.
After interviewing him for hours in his cramped hospital room, the FBI agents had cleared out, and Emma had appeared at the door. She’d fretted over his injuries and then slipped into bed with him, where she’d stayed up late watching CNN and resisting his attempts to get to second base. Finally, they’d drifted off to sleep, only to be prodded awake by nurses. Emma was at the FBI office now for another round of interviews, and she’d promised to be back by lunchtime, but maybe she was having second thoughts.
“So,” Mays said, looking him over, “I thought you might be gone by now.”
“I did, too.” Ryan glanced at the door again. “Just waiting for discharge papers.”
“Well, I’ll keep it brief. I wanted to update you on what happened since our last interview. We arrested Ricky Avedo.”
Ryan arched his eyebrows.
“One of the gunmen we apprehended yesterday—the one in the black Escalade? He flipped. He has a really long rap sheet, so we used that as leverage. He basically gave up Avedo, said he was hired along with five others to pull off the hit on Emma.”
Hearing the words hit and Emma in the same sentence made Ryan’s stomach clench.
“And that’s not all. We picked up Conner at LAX. He was getting on a plane to Rio after purchasing a one-way ticket last night.”
“Rio?”
“Think he got word that everything was falling apart, then panicked and decided to make a break for it. We’re not sure what exactly his plan was, but it probably involved some plastic surgery and going into hiding. When we confronted him with all the evidence we have about his ties to the Avedo family, he crumpled and gave a full confession, much to the dismay of his lawyer.”
“What happens now?”
“He’ll get some leniency in exchange for his cooperation against the Avedo family. Ricky Avedo’s the head of a vast criminal enterprise we’ve been after for years. He’s the big fish here.” She smiled slightly. “And now we have him cold.”
“What about Emma?” Ryan glanced at the door again.
“What about her?”
“Have you offered her any kind of witness protection?”
A nurse bustled in with a stack of papers. Ryan stood up.
“Here we go.” She handed him the paperwork. “Signed, sealed, and delivered. You feeling okay, hon?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We’ll see you in two weeks for a follow-up.”
No, she wouldn’t, but Ryan kept his mouth shut.
“Anything else we can do for you, sailor?” she asked.
“I’m all set, thanks.”
“Don’t be stopping any more bullets, now.”
“I won’t.” When she was gone, he folded the paperwork and tucked it into the back pocket of his jeans, then turned to Mays. “You were saying? About witness protection?”
“She doesn’t need it. She’s not a witness.”
“How’s that?”
“We have Conner. And he’s backed up his confession with a paper trail. We have plenty to take down Avedo without involving Emma, at this point.”
“You’re sure? I’m concerned about her safety.”
She smiled.
“What?”
“Nothing, just—” She shrugged. “That’s a little ironic coming from someone in your line of work. Didn’t your team just get called out?”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“Around. I take it you managed to get cleared for duty?”
“Yep.”
Emma stepped through the doorway, and Ryan felt a jolt of relief. She had a phony smile on her face, and she exchanged greetings with Mays before settling her gaze on Ryan.
“Ready to go?” she asked, a little too cheerfully.
Mays politely ducked out, leaving them alone in the little room, with CNN droning in the background. Ryan tugged Emma against him and kissed her forehead. Damn, she smelled good.
“You showered,” he said.
“I swung by my hotel in San Diego and checked out.” Her gaze went to the bandage on his upper arm. “How are the stitches?”
“Fine.”
“How’s the bump?”
“Can’t even feel it.”
He took her hand, and they walked down a hallway crowded with nurses and orderlies. She didn’t say anything as they rode the elevator downstairs and exited the hospital into the blazing afternoon sun.
Emma tipped her head back and looked up. Then she looked at Ryan.
“So you mind giving me a ride home?” he asked.
Another phony smile. “That’s why I’m here.”
He pulled her closer. “You mind telling me what’s wrong first?”
“Nothing.”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her in place as people walked around them on the sidewalk. Her eyes were brown and beautiful and loaded with worry. “Talk to me.”
She huffed out a sigh. “Nothing’s wrong. If you want to ignore a gunshot wound and a concussion and go rushing back to work before you’re ready, it’s none of my business.”
He tugged her out of the traffic flow and onto a patch of grass. “I’m not ignoring anything.”
“No?”
“No.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. She tensed at first. But then she relaxed against him and let him taste her. She was sweet and soft and warm, and it only took a second for his entire body to lock in on one objective. He needed her. Needed, not wanted. It wasn’t a choice. No matter how much he got of her, he still needed more.
She pulled back and gazed up at him, her eyes swimming with tears. Damn it, this sucked.
“I have to leave tomorrow,” he said.
“I know.” Her voice hitched. “When?”
“I report at 0600.” He kissed her again. He wanted to memorize her taste and her mouth, and the feel of her soft, perfect body pressed against him. He wanted to memorize all of her to keep him going through the days ahead.
She pulled back. “Ryan—”
He cut her off with a kiss. “Come home with me.”
His chest felt tight as he held his breath and waited.
“I need you, Emma.” He kissed her again. “Come home with me.”
———
Jake’s patience paid off when Alexa stepped out of the elevator. She looked tired and more than a little bit wary as she approached her boxy gray Taurus. She stopped in front of him.
“You make a habit of lurking around hospital parking garages?”
“I came by to see Ryan and spotted your car.” He smiled. “Where you headed?”
“Home.”
“How about dinner?”
“It’s four o’clock.”
“How about a drink, then?”
Her eyebrows tipped up. “It’s four o’clock.”
“Come on, loosen up.” He pushed off the car and stepped closer. “Besides, I’m on leave.”
“I’m not.”
He eased closer, gazing down into those pretty blue eyes. “You should be. You look tired.”
“I haven’t slept in two days.”
“Good time for a break, then.”
She sighed heavily and looked around, as if someone might see her standing around wasting time on a workday. She glanced up.
“What did you have in mind?”
He smiled. “I know a place on the beach. Best fish tacos in town. Half-price pitchers on Thursdays.”
“Ernie’s. I know it.”
“That’s the one.”
“I have about ten hours of paperwork waiting for me back in LA.”
“Let it wait.”
“I haven’t showered since Tuesday.”
“Do I look like I care?”
She sighed. “You’re leaving soon. Wouldn’t you rather be at some bar with your buddies, picking up girls?”
“No.”
She stared at him, and he could see her weakening. When her gaze drifted to his chest, he knew he had her.
He took her hand, pushing his luck. “Come on, Alexa. Live a little.”
———
The dawn was soft and purple, and Emma rubbed her arms against the cold as she crossed the sidewalk to her rental car.
“So . . .” She tried, but her words got stuck in her throat.
Ryan’s arms came around her. He pulled her back against his chest and kissed the top of her head.
“So when do you get back?” She turned to face him, caught off guard by the intensity in his green eyes.
“I don’t know,” he said, watching her reaction.
She felt a flutter of panic. “You really don’t know, or you don’t want to say?”
“I don’t know.” He tucked a curl behind her ear.
Her stomach clenched tightly, but she ignored it. She’d been ignoring it for the past twelve hours.
“Hey.” He reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. She ducked her head against his chest.
“I knew this would happen.”
He pulled her against him, and she drank in the wonderful smell of him. Her heart was racing. She had so much she wanted to tell him, and now she regretted putting it off. They’d spent their last hours lost in the physical, desperately trying to prove something with their mouths and hands and bodies. Emma didn’t know what, just that it hadn’t worked, and she felt hollow now.
He pulled back and gently took her face between his hands.
“I’ll come see you.”
Her heart skittered.
“The second I get back, I’ll come.” He brushed her hair from her face. “If you tell me that’s what you want.”
She stared up at him, her pulse racing.
“Is it?”
She nodded. “What I said on the bridge, I meant it. I love you. I know maybe it’s rushed—”
“I love you, too.”
He kissed her, hard. With so much passion and urgency it filled her and emptied her at the same time. And when he pulled away, she felt like her heart was tearing in half.
“It’s going to be hard,” he said. “I’m going to miss you like hell. And you’re going to miss me.”
She laughed at the cockiness of it.
“But don’t you dare doubt me. Not for a minute. I don’t give up on things, and I know we can do this.”
She believed him. When he said it like that, with so much love in his eyes, she trusted him. And the steely grip of doubt and fear that had held her heart for so long loosened.
And the thing was . . . it still hurt. Loving him hurt. Letting him leave hurt. Missing him was going to hurt even more, and if he broke her trust, well, that would hurt deeply, for a very long time.
But she knew all the hurt was worth it, because when she looked into his eyes, she felt loved and cherished and alive.
He kissed her, long and deep, until she felt it to the bottom of her soul. He pulled away, and the determination in his eyes took her breath away.
“We can do this, Emma. You just have to trust me.”
She went up on tiptoes and kissed him. “I do.”