Chapter Thirty-Three
Mac wore a groove in the waiting room floor.
A young man paced in another room across the corridor. Tears streamed down his face. Mac wondered who he was here to see.
Agent Makimi had taken over the task force and confirmed that Paula Rice had been assigned to each of the field offices where similar hate crimes had been committed.
Agents had gone to her apartment with a bomb squad but there had been no explosives. Her workstation, home, vehicle were being examined in minute detail. Carter had left a message saying they’d found the original copy of David Hines’s manifesto in her desk drawer. Alex Parker had told him his people had identified the IP addresses of over a hundred users of the One-Drop-2-Many chat group. Law enforcement were checking every address and shaking down anyone they could get their hands on.
The news cycle kept repeating the footage of the truck being parked outside FBI HQ and showed him and Frazer pulling Cole out of the van and taking him down. Mac was pretty sure Cole was innocent, but they’d need to question him extensively and tear his place and computer apart to make sure they didn’t miss anything.
If Mac concentrated on the case he didn’t have to remember the sound of Tess flat-lining in the ambulance or the shouts of the doctors saying they were losing her again as they rushed her through those wide, double doors. He didn’t have to remember seeing one of his best friends lying pale and bleeding on the stretcher as he was wheeled into the adjacent OR.
Frazer entered the waiting room holding hands with a woman with strawberry blonde hair. Mac didn’t recognize her.
She nodded to him and then disengaged her hand and went to sit in an empty chair.
Tess had no one besides Cole to contact. He stared around the empty room and it hit him just how alone she was, how alone she had always been because of her damn family.
The lump in his throat grew when Frazer pulled him into a rough embrace. Frazer wasn’t the huggy, feeling type. Mac hadn’t realized he’d been crying.
“Did you see her go after an armed woman in a room full of trained federal agents? Wearing handcuffs?”
Frazer nodded.
“She’s never gonna forgive me.”
Frazer gave his arm a squeeze before letting go. “Do you love her?”
Mac closed his eyes. “Yeah. I do.”
“Then grovel and beg until she does. Hell, if she lives, tell her you’ll change and be a better man even though it isn’t true.”
Mac held tight to his ragged emotions. “You want to introduce me to your lady friend?”
“That’s Izzy. But let’s not do proper introductions,” said Frazer. “Not today. Not here.”
Mac nodded.
“Any news?” Frazer asked.
“Not yet.”
The doors opened and a man in green scrubs started looking around. He opened the door to the waiting room and as anxious as Mac was to hear how Tess was, another part of him wanted to run. If she was dead Mac knew he’d never recover.
Was this why his father had drunk himself to death? Grief? Mac had never appreciated it before, but maybe his father had died the same day his mother had, it had just taken longer. For the first time ever, Mac felt a sliver of sympathy for his old man.
“How are they doing, Doc?”
“I’m looking for Mr. Walsh’s family—”
“His parents are on their way. About two hours out. I’m his ASAC. Is he gonna make it?” Mac asked.
“The bullet nicked Mr. Walsh’s spleen and we had to remove it. There was a lot of bleeding but I think we got it under control. It was touch and go.”
Mac was aware of Izzy coming to stand beside him.
“And Tess?” Frazer asked because every time Mac tried to open his mouth his tongue refused to work.
The surgeon drew in a ragged breath and gave his head a little shake. Mac’s knees started to go and he felt an arm grip his waist. Frazer’s girlfriend seemed to be holding him up.
“She’s alive but…” The surgeon searched around as if expecting someone else. “Are you family?”
Mac stood straighter. “Yes. I’m her fiancé.”
It didn’t feel like a lie.
The surgeon nodded. “The bullet hit her pelvis and fragmented. The real damage was to her ovaries.” His lips turned down. “I’m afraid we had to perform an emergency unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.”
“It’s where they remove a single ovary with its fallopian tube,” Izzy explained in English.
“You’re a doctor?” the surgeon asked her.
She nodded and they spoke gibberish for another minute.
Then she squeezed Mac’s arm again. “She’s been through a lot and will have a long recuperation. She can probably still have kids if she wants but her fertility may be affected.”
Mac kept swallowing and swallowing, but he’d lost the ability to speak.
“But she’s alive? Any other damage?” Frazer asked.
The surgeon nodded. “Her pelvis was broken and we had to put a plate and screws in to fix it. Both patients are very lucky to be alive. They’re in the ICU. I’ll send a nurse down as soon as you can see them.”
Mac drew in a deep breath as the surgeon left. The guy walked across the corridor and started talking to the young man there. The OR must be hellish busy on a Friday night.
“I have to get back to HQ,” Frazer told him. “The director gave me an order so I figure I better see it through even though it’s not my task force.” Frazer loved being involved, though. He was just like Mac in that regard. “We figured out Rice knew each of the victims through her work as an agent. She’d given testimony in Judge Thomas’s court, spoke to Sonja Shiraz and Rabbi Zingel on the phone when they made complaints. Not sure if she knew Trettorri personally or just chose him because of his prominence. He’s upstairs in a private room, recovering. We’ll interview him when he’s feeling better.”
Mac nodded.
The director had given him an order, too. But if he had to choose between his job and Tess he was going to choose Tess. For once in her life she deserved to be someone’s priority and not an afterthought. What happened when she woke up was up for debate though. Earning forgiveness wasn’t going to be easy and she might never absolve him of his sins. But he’d rather risk everything trying to make her love him, than turn his back on her again.
* * *
Tess opened her eyelids a tiny slit and scanned the dim shadows. She knew she was in the hospital, but she couldn’t remember why.
Her lips were ragged and cracked, mouth dry, throat sore. Beeps sounded from nearby, dragging her further out of the darkness. Constant. Reassuringly steady. Her heartbeat.
She remembered feeling Mac’s pulse after they’d made love. The strong, steady rhythm. The heat of his flesh. The smell of his skin. Then she remembered everything that happened afterwards and the cadence stuttered.
She swallowed tightly. So that’s what a broken heart sounded like.
She tried to move and pain streaked through her body as more details rushed back. She’d been shot. What had happened to the rogue agent in the FBI building? Was Mac safe? Was Cole? Had the bad guys succeeded with their crazy plan?
A shadowy figure moved around the bed and she blinked, trying to clear her vision.
“Joseph? What are you doing here?” Her voice was gravelly.
He sat heavily on a chair beside her bed and took her hand in his. He’d been crying, she realized.
Her heart gave a little flutter. “Is it Cole?”
Was he okay? Was he alive?
Joseph squeezed her hand, but accidentally snagged the IV line and it hurt.
She sucked in a sharp breath. He looked up and something changed in his eyes. He deliberately moved the IV, the needle stabbing into her arm.
“Ouch! Joseph, what are you doing?”
He released her hand and dragged his fingers through his hair. “Sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”
He stood and moved out of sight, staring at her heart rate monitor as if fascinated.
“It’s my birthday tomorrow,” he said.
She crinkled her brow in confusion. Why was he telling her this? She’d been shot. She wasn’t up for a party. “I know. I’m sorry Cole won’t be there to help you celebrate. I’m sure he’ll make it up to you afterwards.”
The Feds would have to release him, wouldn’t they? But he had driven a bomb to headquarters even if he hadn’t realized it. What would happen if they didn’t believe he was innocent?
“Birthdays have always been a bit weird. I was actually born on February twenty-ninth so most years I never know whether to celebrate on the twenty-eighth or the first. I ever tell you about my parents?”
“No.” She wished she could have a drink of water. She peered around for the call button. She didn’t even know why Joseph was here.
“I never knew my daddy.” He reached up to press a button on the machine and the beeping got quieter.
“I’m sorry.” She tried to shift position. Pain shot through her again, as if she’d been struck by lightning. Sweat broke out on her brow. She was okay as long as she didn’t move, but not moving was proving tough.
“Does it hurt?” He came back to the bed and sat beside her.
She nodded. Where was Mac? She wanted to know what had happened. She couldn’t remember much after she’d been shot. Why was Joseph here? Why had the nurses let him in? “Did you speak to Cole?”
He shook his head. “I was on the phone with Zane when the FBI showed up at the house. I heard them arrest Zane and Dave. What happened?” he asked.
She rolled her head on the pillow as the discomfort intensified. “Some crazy bitch shot me.”
He nodded quietly, as if people got shot every day. She supposed they did, but it didn’t make it less traumatic or painful.
She glanced at him as he inserted a SIM card into a phone followed by the battery. “I don’t think you’re allowed to use cell phones in here, Joseph.”
He nodded as if considering her words, then dialed a number and put the phone on a shelf beside her bed. “Did I ever tell you about where I grew up, Tess? Or maybe I should call you Theresa Jane?”
Her eyes bugged. Her heart stalled.
“I think you know the area. In fact, I think you met my grandpa in Idaho this week?” He smacked his lips appreciatively. “I sure do miss his cooking.”
Tess’s lips felt wooden. “Henry Jessop was your grandpa?” She knew it was true even as fear crawled up her spine and along every frayed nerve. She was completely powerless lying here in this bed. Something else snapped into place. “It was you in my house last night. You used Cole’s spare key.”
“Cole’s not real good with security. You might have noticed.” Joseph gave a smile that didn’t reach his dark blue eyes. “I was looking for a thumb drive of mine—did you take it?”
Her mouth opened in shock.
Then he shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anymore. The grand plans all went to shit. I tried to tell them it wouldn’t work, that we should concentrate on sabotaging them via cyber warfare, but they wanted blood. I think my mother just wanted revenge for the Feds killing her beloved David.” His eyes locked onto hers. “Did you know the name ‘Joseph’ means ‘son of David’?”
And the final piece clicked into place.
His lips tipped. Her father’s lips. “Have you figured it out yet, darling Tess?”
“You’re my half-brother…” Oh, God. “You came on to me!”
“My mother always said the MacAfee’s were inbred, but I think it was the Hines who were the perverts.”
Tess’s mother had been a MacAfee before she’d gotten married.
“But I’d have totally done you if I’d had the chance.” Joseph smiled sadly.
Tess refused to believe there was a gene for incest. She thought about Cole and herself. They were both decent people. “Joseph, you don’t have to be like them…”
An ugly laugh escaped his lips. “Too late for that.” Another tear escaped and this one dripped off his chin.
“You can go to the cops. Explain how you were brainwashed.”
He hung his head. “I’ve committed too many crimes to ever walk free.”
“Give them the names of the others involved. They might swap the information for immunity.” Where the hell was the call button for the nurse? Where was everyone?
She watched him remove the heart-beat monitor from her finger and slip it onto his own.
“That might have worked for conspiracy but not for pulling the trigger.” His bottom lip wobbled. “What’s that saying? You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family? Sorry, Tess. Not sure you’re going to be able to hide from fate this time around.”
Her heart was pounding so fast it didn’t even speed up when he slipped the pillow from behind her head.
“That crazy bitch who shot you today? That was my mother.” Joseph pressed the spongy pillow gently over her face.
Tess tried to struggle, but the pain in her pelvis was so bad it almost made her pass out. The inability to draw in breath had panic running rampant along every neuron. Lack of oxygen made her lungs scream. Surely someone would rescue her? But none of the alarms had gone off, so why would they?
The pillow pressed tighter around her face, the cool cotton at odds with the dense suffocating material. As she gasped and struggled to inhale, the stitches in her abdomen tore and started to bleed. Black spots danced in her vision and the abyss screamed at her to just give up and fall. No more pain. No more suffering. No more hate.
* * *
Frazer and Izzy left with the promise they’d return later. Mac headed to the cafeteria to buy some coffee to try and keep his eyes open for the next few hours. He hadn’t slept last night. Apart from that night in the motel with Tess he’d barely slept this week.
He closed his eyes. Twelve hours ago he’d been making love to Tess. Now she lay in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound.
She’d never forgive him for what he’d done to her brother. Never. But he needed to tell her that he loved her, even if she could never bring herself to love him back. He had to give her that truth, that honesty. He had to tell her he didn’t care about her past or her family or the secrets she’d kept from him this week. He got it. He understood. She loved her brother, and she was probably right about him being innocent in all this. And he hadn’t believed her. Trust was her big issue. Demonstrating he was a good FBI agent was his. So maybe instead of trying so hard to be a good FBI agent, Mac would just concentrate on being a better man.
He wasn’t that trailer trash kid anymore. He didn’t have anything left to prove.
And if she didn’t want him?
He shook his head at himself. Why the hell would she want him after this fiasco? This wasn’t just a slight misunderstanding. This was life and death.
His phone rang. Makimi. He wanted to ignore the call, but she was on this task force because he’d requested her. He owed her.
“McKenzie.”
“We just got the DNA back from Trettorri’s fingernails.”
“Okay.” Mac nodded. He should visit Trettorri, see if the guy was awake and remembered anything else from the shooting.
“We also got the results back from your ex’s murder scene.”
“Were they a match to Paula Rice?”
“Her DNA hasn’t been run yet so it’s too early to tell. The weapon she pulled at SIOC today was a match for the make of the one used in the rabbi’s murder and Trettorri’s shooting, but…”
He wanted her to just spit it out, but she’d been working non-stop for days, too. He couldn’t let his impatience affect how he treated the people he worked with.
“Here’s the thing, the DNA from the two crimes wasn’t a complete match.”
“What do you mean?” His brain wasn’t working.
“The DNA found at your ex-wife’s murder was not the same as the DNA from the Trettorri shooting, but there was a link through maternal DNA. Another interesting thing popped up in the results. David Hines was likely the father of whoever killed your ex.”
Mac gripped the nape of his neck as he processed the science. “So Paula Rice lied about her son being dead. She was protecting him.”
“Probably. Sorry I don’t have more.”
“Thanks, Miki. I appreciate it. You’re the best. The kid’s probably gone to ground.”
“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to tell you. I’d want to know,” she said softly. So much for her sharp corners. Makimi had a heart of gold.
“Any luck rounding up these so-called revolutionaries?” he asked her.
She snorted. “FBI is picking people up but being careful to avoid any hostage situations. So far everyone is denying everything. There are a couple of people we’re going to sit on and watch. People in interesting places.”
“DOJ better put these assholes away.”
They said goodbye and he hung up. He turned and saw Tess’s surgeon waiting in line for coffee.
The man nodded to him. “I just spoke with Tess’s brother and told him he could sit with her for a while.”
Mac frowned in confusion. “Her brother?”
“Yeah, he was in the other waiting room. Don’t you guys know each other?” The surgeon seemed confused.
Mac’s heart stopped. “That wasn’t Tess’s brother.” Oh, shit. “Which way to the ICU?” he asked, hand on his weapon.
The surgeon seemed to realize it was an emergency. “Follow me.”
Then Mac’s cell phone started ringing with the MC Hammer tune, and he felt like he’d been buried alive in a Montana blizzard.
* * *
Mac’s training kicked in just as they reached the ICU. Even though every fiber of his being screamed for him to rush in there and save Tess, he knew he had to think. He forced his breathing to calm and grabbed the surgeon’s arm before the man crashed headlong into Tess’s room.
Paula Rice’s bastard was expecting him. Mac didn’t intend to be a sacrificial feeb.
“Is there another way into the room?”
The doc nodded and backtracked into the room next-door. Walsh was asleep in the bed and Mac hoped to hell no one else got shot today.
Mac pressed his ear to an adjoining door, suddenly reminded of Tess trying to listen to the threesome in that motel in Salt Lake City.
The thought of losing her scrambled what little was left of his brain.
It was quiet except for the beeps of Walsh’s monitors. With hand signals, Mac indicated the surgeon clear the area. If anyone else got injured he’d never forgive himself, but he didn’t have time to wait for backup. Tess was in danger.
He opened the door and rushed inside the dimly lit room. A young man sat in the chair beside the bed. Mac frowned. He didn’t see a weapon. The guy just sat there, smiling.
Tess lay in the hospital bed unmoving. Then Mac realized what was wrong with the room. The quiet. Unlike Walsh’s room next door, there were no telltale beeps or other intrusive sounds.
Tess lay inert on the bed. No rise and fall of the bedsheets.
He grabbed the kid and had him on the floor, knee in the center of his back as he slapped on the cuffs.
“Doc!” Mac yelled. “Get in here! It’s safe.”
He hoped to hell it was safe. There was a scramble of footsteps and the slide of feet.
Mac couldn’t even bring himself to look at Tess.
This frat boy, hell, he was virtually still a kid, had probably murdered Mac’s ex last night. And he’d done more than just kill Heather, he’d gotten off on it. The guy was sick and proved it by laughing his ass off.
If he’d killed Tess, too, Mac would put a bullet in this piece of shit. Career or no career.
Mac glanced up at the doctor and nurse trying to revive the woman he loved. All he wanted was to be with her but, once again, because of his job, he couldn’t go to her. He was stuck guarding the trash.
The utter stillness of Tess’s form and the electronic inertia of those fucking machines were driving stakes through his heart in perfect time to his own heartbeat.
Then suddenly there was a solitary, lonely beep, then another, and another.
“We have her back,” the surgeon yelled. “Get me some adhesive to seal her incision.” The doc grinned across at him. “She tore some stitches. She’s gonna be fine.”
Mac jerked the scumbag who’d tried to kill Tess to his feet and turned him to face the woman who lay in the bed, still fighting, still resisting the evil that infected so many of her relatives. She was a shining light of goodness. This guy was slime.
“Mac?” She opened her eyes and croaked.
Mac kept a firm hold of the young psychopath who’d finally stopped laughing and instead swore furiously.
Mac caught Tess’s gaze. “Yes, sweetheart?”
Her voice was thin and crackly, but the sheer strength of her will shone through. “I love you, Mac.”
Relief punched him in the gut.
“I love you, too. Be a good girl now and get some sleep until I get back. No more excitement, ’kay? I need to get this guy booked so we can get on with the rest of our lives.”
A life that was categorically going to involve Tess.