Chapter 8
Bailey woke up hot, uncomfortable and cranky as hell.
She lay in the bed for a long moment, realizing where she was and where she could no longer be. She didn’t have a bed of her own that was usable anymore. What had happened to her life?
She threw back the covers and just lay there for a few minutes. She was fully dressed. It seemed Dakota had carried her to bed; the last thing she remembered was the drive home.
What she really wanted was a shower. But again she didn’t know if that was possible with her stitches. The other thing she needed, and in a bad way, were her painkillers.
She propped herself up on her elbow and took both her pills again. She glanced at her phone and realized it was almost 5:00 p.m. She shook her head. “Where has the day gone?”
She forced herself vertical and headed to the bathroom. There she took the washcloth and towel, and did as thorough a wash job as possible. After brushing her hair with the small brush from her purse, she felt marginally better. Knowing they would all be downstairs for dinner, she slowly made her way to the door and down the hall.
When she walked into the dining room, silence fell. She stood quiet for a long moment, then said, “Did I do something wrong?”
Ice stood up. “No, you certainly didn’t.”
Just then Dakota and Levi walked in from the garage, both talking. Levi saw her first.
She gave him a small smile. “Hello.”
Dakota caught sight of her and smiled. He walked over and held out an arm for her. She grasped it gratefully. She didn’t think she needed the physical support, but she realized the emotional one was a crutch she would have a hard time letting go of.
“Did you get some sleep?”
She nodded and laughed. “And you must have carried me to bed, though I don’t even remember that happening, so I presume I slept well.”
With his help, she made her way to the same chair she’d sat in earlier.
As soon as she sat down, Ice placed a cup of coffee in front of her, taking a long moment to study her features, seeing the shakiness of her hands. Ice motioned at the coffee. “Drink up. And if you can stand it with sugar, that would be good for you.”
“I don’t normally like coffee at all,” she confessed. “Maybe I will try it once with sugar.” The sugar bowl arrived beside her, and she put a bit in. “And why do I need the sugar?”
“You still look pretty shaky.”
Dakota reached over and laced his fingers with hers. “And you have another shock coming.”
She froze and turned to look at him. “What else can there be?”
“I received a phone call from a stranger, telling me that they wanted you, and I was to name the time and place.”
She stared straight ahead, feeling all her strength drain right down to her toes. She slumped in her chair and then straightened with a cry of pain. “Really? Seriously?”
He nodded. “Apparently they know you’re with me.”
She covered her mouth, holding back the cry threatening to come out. “That’s terrible.”
He shrugged. “Actually I’m not upset about it at all.”
She gave a tiny headshake in confusion. “That makes no sense. Now you are a target too.” She glanced around. “That means Mayor Alden has targeted this place.” She tried to push her chair back. “I have to leave.”
Dakota squeezed her hand, urging her to sit back down again. She slowly lowered herself and stared at him wordlessly.
“You’re not leaving. You’re staying here. If somebody wants to attack us, this is probably the best place you could possibly be. We’ve withstood attacks before.”
Ice and Levi nodded. “Not that were looking for a fight, but, if it comes our way, you can bet we’re ready for it.”
Bailey stared at them in shock. “But don’t you understand? They shot that man. They’re looking to kill me.”
Ice smiled and said, “We know that. We know exactly what you’re up against. We’ve been in this situation many times before.” She leaned over and gently covered Bailey’s hand with hers, adding, “Every one of us here is prepared to fight.”
Bailey opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She slowly closed her mouth, then said, “Are you serious?”
Levi nodded. “Ice and all the males in my compound are ex-military.”
“And some of us have a lot of martial arts training,” Sienna said. “I’ve got three brothers in the military, so this is nothing new for me. Besides several of us have been kidnapped, shot at and God-only-knows-whatever-else,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s a chance for a bit of payback.”
Bailey let her gaze stray from one serious face to the next. Although humor was in the air, an underlining sense of determination that they were here for her was present as well. And, if that fight came to them, not a one of them would back down. In fact, she got the idea several of them were more than ready for that little bit of excitement in their world.
“I can’t even imagine how impossible my life would be right now if I hadn’t run into Dakota,” she admitted. “Thank you so very much for believing me, for not putting me out in the cold.”
“We don’t do that. Loyalty, integrity and honesty. We value those above all else.”
Levi grabbed Ice’s hand. “Don’t forget love. I might not discuss this much, but, if anything is worth fighting for—to the end of time, to have and to keep—it’s love.”
There was silence around the table for a long moment, and then someone at the far end said, “Amen to that.”
She turned to look at Alfred and smiled. “You sure you can handle looking after one more person?” At his nod she added, “As soon as I can, I’m more than happy to help you. I’ve certainly spent enough years in the kitchen to claim experience.”
He glanced at her in surprise. “I thought you were a buyer?”
She nodded. “I am now. I used to be a chef for one of the big golf course restaurants. I hurt my leg in a car accident, and I just couldn’t handle the pace anymore. I didn’t want to be standing in the kitchen twelve to sixteen hours a day. So I moved to restaurant supplies and now work at Waltons, Inc.”
Alfred nodded. “As soon as you want to help, you just let me know. I will make room for you.” He smiled and walked away. At the door, he paused and called back, “But you are not to set foot in my kitchen until the stitches are out. Do you hear me?”
She nodded with a smile on her face.
Then he added, “Dinner is served in twenty minutes.”
She settled back and realized, to her astonishment, tears ran down her cheeks. Embarrassed, she picked up a napkin and hurriedly wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
In a low voice, Dakota said, “Don’t be. We all know how you feel.”
She turned to look at him and realized that he meant it. He really understood. He and his team had been through so much that they understood what another person came up against or had seen in the world. They understand where she was coming from right now. It made her feel as if he did know—a very comforting sensation.
*
Dakota kept an eye on her, wishing he had his phone to continue his research. Only Merk had taken Dakota’s phone to trace where the call had come from. But with no number and no name showing, chances were the call had been placed on a throwaway phone. What Dakota needed was to come up with a plan, but that would take the entire unit, not just him.
“Has anyone told Detective Mannford about Dakota’s mystery call?” Bailey asked in a low tone.
Ice nodded. “I’ve contacted him already to let him know, but it doesn’t change anything.”
Bailey shook her head. “He shot at me. He destroyed my apartment. Now he makes a threatening phone call. That sounds like he’s escalating.”
Levi smiled at her. “It is what it is. So far, he’s increasing pressure. Whether they actually saw you at the apartment today, I don’t know, but I would presume not. Otherwise I would’ve expected them to attack both of you while you were there.”
“Plus we had Merk out front. We weren’t there for that long before the detective showed up. Maybe they didn’t want to go against him,” Dakota said. Inside he was pissed. “I wish they had shown up. I’d like a chance to fight back.”
Rhodes said, “It’s not like anybody does fifty paces at the edge of town anymore to settle a dispute. Now somebody goes out in the middle of the night and shoots somebody dead rather than argue. And the cops have to put the pieces together to figure out who did it.”
“But, in this case, everybody knows who did it,” Bailey said. “Why can’t the detective pick him up and charge him?”
“As much as you’re a witness, it’ll be your word against his.”
There was silence. She looked at them bewildered. “Is my word not good enough?”
Dakota reached over and squeezed her hand again. “It’s not that. It’s not good, but they will make it sound like you’re incredibly depressed after losing your husband. You’ve lost all meaning in your life, and you’re doing this to either gain attention or because you’re off your depression medication of some kind. Whereas, on the other side, they’ll have a prominent politician with a well-known public face and persona, and people will naturally believe him over you.”
She stared at him in horror. “Are you serious? Why would anybody believe a politician?”
Levi chuckled. “Unfortunately that’s the facts of life.”
“I’m not depressed. Just want to point that out. Neither am I doing this to gain any attention. Honestly I’d much rather none of this had happened. I could be living in my nice quiet little place, thank you. It beats dealing with this crap,” she muttered.
The others nodded in sympathy. “Boring and bland looks good after bullets,” Sienna said. “The thing is, we’ve all been through something similar, so you’re in the right place.”
Bailey grinned at her. “I know it’s wrong to think this way, but I have to admit that I’m kind of glad you guys understand. I’m just terribly sorry for putting you in this position.”
“What we must do,” Dakota said beside her, “is make sure they can’t get to you here.”
Her gaze searched the faces around her. “Are you really thinking they’ll attack this place?”
“It’s hard to say. They could put a sniper on the hills out here and wait for you to come out.”
Instantly she felt sick to her stomach. She pulled her hand away from Dakota’s and slouched back and then straightened immediately as her back screamed at her. She rubbed her temple. “I don’t think the way you think. I can’t even imagine living in a world where snipers might shoot people from the hills around here.”
“However, we do think that way, and so do the killers,” Ice said carefully. “Which is also why we have security cameras all over the hills around us for that very reason.”
Dakota watched as Bailey’s mouth dropped open. He forgot what it was like to live a civilian life, not dealing with all this subterfuge and warfare, especially hidden warfare. For Bailey, this was a foreign world, and he could understand her shock and confusion. “The thing to remember is that we do understand how all this works,” he said firmly. “We’ll do the best we can to keep you safe.”
“And what about keeping yourself safe?” She motioned at Sienna. “She has the same color hair as I do. What if she steps out of the compound and a sniper shoots her instead of me?” she cried out. “I can’t live with that.” She glanced over at Sienna to see Rhodes reaching across the table to grab Sienna’s hand.
Bailey nodded. “See? You matter to him. I don’t matter to anybody. If my life is snuffed out, it makes not one bit of difference to anybody in this world. My company will hire a new buyer within days. My apartment is already not inhabitable until they can fix it up. There is no reason for anybody else to sacrifice themselves to save me. I’m a mouse in a world full of wolves and foxes.” She stared at them all helplessly. “Please don’t let yourself get hurt to save me.”
There was silence all around the room. Dakota didn’t even know what to say. Her description of her own life was breathtakingly sad. That she could see herself in that light and think she had so little value because nobody loved her, because nobody was there for her … was a glimpse into her world that hurt.
“That may have been your life for this last year and a half,” he said in a flat voice, “but, before that, there were people who loved you.”
“And those people are gone. If I’m to die because of some asshole politician, and I can’t do anything about it myself, that’s one thing. But to have somebody else get hurt and possibly die because of me, that just is not acceptable.” She shook her head. “I mean it. I refuse to let you do anything that will put somebody here in harm’s way.”
Levi looked at her with interest. “How do you plan to stop us?”
She glared at him. “I’ll leave. I’ll walk out that door all alone, and whoever wants to take me out, let them.”
She said it so simply, so breathtakingly honestly he sat back and stared at her. “You can’t give up your life for something like this.”
She turned on him fiercely. “I will not stand by while somebody else I know suffers because of me. I loved my husband. I did anything and everything I could to keep him alive. If I could have sacrificed myself to give him just one more month, I would have done so without thinking.”
Dakota glared at her. “And did you ever think, from your husband’s point of view, how that would make him feel? How incredibly guilty he’d feel? He would hate himself that you would sacrifice your healthy body and your healthy future for one month for his crippled body to live.” He stared at her, surprised at the anger inside of him. “You may think you’re being selfless, but that’s actually being incredibly selfish. Because you would’ve sacrificed yourself, thinking you were doing the right thing, but all you would have done was save yourself the pain of losing him. And taking that pain and turning it on him would have been twice as bad.”
She stared at him, her hand covering her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes.
And instantly he felt like a heel. His anger drained away. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I had no right to say that.”
Just then Alfred walked in with platters of food and filled the table.
Dakota could feel her trembling in shock from his words, maybe just the entire scenario making her whole body shake. He also knew the way she was cringing in the chair away from him that he was the last person she wanted in her world. And that was too damn bad. He’d inflicted this hurt; he had to heal it. If he could.
He filled her plate and in a neutral tone of voice said, “Eat. You can’t even walk out of here until you’re strong enough.”
She fought back a sob, immediately slapping her hand over her mouth. He was sorry for what he had said—or at least sorry for having said it in such an irate tone and so publicly. But he meant it. If he’d been her husband, he would’ve been horrified for her to do something like that.
The table resumed general conversation to pull the attention away from her. He knew everybody was keeping an eye on her, and that had to be hard. He poured her a glass of water, then nudged her gently and said, “Eat.”