Chapter 17
As soon as they went through the gates, Mercy straightened up and looked around. “We made it out?” She hated she said it with such surprise. Of course they made it; Michael had seen to it. She shuddered. She had no idea if anybody was after her yet, but it felt like they’d made it clear.
“Absolutely. They don’t have any reason to suspect you of anything.”
“Maybe not but it won’t take them long to add two and two together.”
He shrugged. “Better that you are nowhere near this when it blows up.”
She couldn’t agree more. Except one thing bothered her. “I need my car.”
He nodded. “But first you need to be a long way from here.”
“Easy for you to say. I have my real job to return to. I need to head home, do some laundry and get my life back on track, but I need my car for that.”
“That’s fine, but, as you still have time off coming to you, I would like you to spend a few days with a friend of mine—to make sure, when this goes down, they can’t go after you.”
“What?” She turned toward him, startled. “I don’t want to go anywhere but home.”
He pulled into a coffee shop in town and said, “That might be what you want to do, but what you need to do is to stay safe.” Michael parked the truck at the side of the coffee shop. “You must understand how it may not be safe at your place.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to hear that.”
He opened her door and led her inside the coffee shop.
They walked to a table, and Michael said, “When this is over, you can return to your place.”
The waitress approached and asked, “Can I get you anything? A menu and coffee?”
Michael nodded and smiled. “Yes, please.”
Mercy dropped into her chair and glared at him. “Fine. Get me coffee. It won’t make a damn bit of difference.”
“Eating breakfast won’t make a whole lot of difference either,” he said, his voice hard.
The door opened to the restaurant, and a man and woman walked in. Mercy couldn’t help looking up when the door jingled. Michael glanced at the incoming pair and nodded. The woman was strikingly beautiful. They approached their table and sat down beside them, surprising Mercy. Instinctively she moved over to make room.
The beautiful blonde looked at Mercy and said, “Good morning. I’m Ice.”
Mercy smiled. “That’s a very unusual name.”
Ice nodded. “But then Mercy is not very common either.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You know who I am?” She glanced at the man Ice had walked in with, who had similar features in that he was a tall blond, with that same can-do attitude. Obviously these two were a couple.
“Do you guys work with Michael?”
“No, but we’re hoping Michael will work for us,” the man said with a smile.
She glanced at Michael. “I didn’t know you were changing jobs.”
“Not changing my job. When this estate business is over, they want me to go into the business with them.”
She turned toward the other man who held out his hand.
“I’m Levi.”
She shook his hand. “Michael’s very good at his job.”
Ice chuckled. “That he is. That’s why we want him to work for us.”
Mercy turned to Michael. “Why won’t you?”
He gave her a flat stare.
She forged on regardless. “It would be good for you. You won’t feel so rootless.”
He leaned forward, his eyebrows shooting up. “How the hell do you know that’s how I was feeling?”
“You had no problem dropping everything to look after Sammy, did you?” she asked in a reasonable tone. “Whatever it was you were doing, you weren’t enjoying it as much as this kind of work.”
He sat back and gave her a narrow look.
She grinned. “And you thought I didn’t notice things.”
After that, the conversation turned to more general issues and never once on the mess at the estate. She presumed it was too public a place for that discussion.
After breakfast, she stood and excused herself to go to the washroom. She figured Michael would ensure she left with Ice and Levi. She didn’t think very much of that idea.
As she walked back out, she found Ice waiting for her. She glanced up, seeing the look on her face, which confirmed her own suspicions. “Michael wants me to stay with you.”
Ice nodded. “You have a problem with that?”
“I have a problem in that I don’t want to go anywhere but home so, yes.”
“Things on the estate will blow up very quickly,” Ice said. “As long as you’re safe and sound, Michael can focus on what he’s doing. That will make a huge difference in his ability to function at his peak levels.”
“Bullshit.”
Ice stared at her in surprise.
“Michael is dedicated and focused. He’ll do the job.”
“Of course he will.” Ice gave Mercy a smile of approval. “But he cares about you deeply. The last thing we need is for him to be worried about someone coming after you in your apartment. If you stay with us for the next few days, he will know you’re safe.”
“Is it really that simple? How is it they would know where I live?”
“How did you get paid?”
Mercy frowned. “The usual route.”
“Exactly. Once they have your numbers, they can easily track where you live.”
Mercy realized she’d been foolish. She should’ve asked them to pay her in cash. It had never occurred to her. And Ice was correct. They would know where she lived. “Right. So, in that case, I guess I’m spending a few days with you.”
Ice gave her a beaming smile. “It’s not a hardship, I can assure you.”
Mercy chuckled. “No, but I’m not comfortable leaving Michael to go alone into the den of thieves either.”
“He won’t be. A big operation is being mounted right now. Michael is one tip of it.”
“Good.” She felt much better hearing that. She returned to the table and told Michael, “I still need my car.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it right now. I’ll take care of it. I have to get back to work by 7:30. So get moving.”
She glared at him, then gave in gracefully, pulling her car keys from her purse, tossing them on the table in front of him. “You take care of yourself,” she whispered.
He wrapped an arm around her and led her outside into the morning sun. The two stood, arms wrapped around each other. She tilted her head back so she could see his face, and with a brave smile and a sinking heart, she said, “So this is goodbye?”
He shook his head. “Hell no. I’ll find you at Ice and Levi’s place in a few days.”
She studied his face, searching for the truth, realizing he meant what he said. Something settled deep inside her. She smiled and nodded. “Good.”
As she turned to walk away, she caught a glint of something behind him. She reacted instinctively, throwing herself at him, knocking him off his feet. He fell to the sidewalk. The hard spitting sound split the air. She was tossed to the ground, then sideswiped by a vehicle. That was the last thing she knew before the lights turned off.
*
Michael reached out a hand to keep Mercy down. He still wasn’t sure what happened. But he’d heard the shot and was damned if she’d get another chance to save him again. “Mercy, stay down.”
She didn’t answer. She’d collapsed to the ground, her eyes closed.
And then he saw the blood welling up on her shoulder. He swore a steady blue streak as he realized she’d been hit.
He ripped the T-shirt off her shoulder, exposing the small bullet wound. Gently, he rolled her toward him so he could see if there was an exit wound as well. But there wasn’t. Chances were, the bullet had lodged in her scapula. Now she would be at the emergency room, not home with Ice and Levi.
With Levi giving him cover, Michael picked her up and dashed to his vehicle. With Ice’s assistance, they put pads on the wound and wrapped it as best they could to slow the bleeding. They propped her up with a seat belt around her. Jumping in behind the wheel, he pulled out of the parking lot at top speed with Mercy, leaving Ice and Levi to do what they could here at the crime scene.
None of them had seen any sign of the shooter. Levi had gone hunting but hadn’t found him. The gunman may have disappeared, for now, but he couldn’t hide forever. Michael would find him soon enough. In the meantime he took Mercy to the hospital, the nearest one only a few blocks away, so he didn’t call for an ambulance. He’d get there much faster on his own.
He pulled into the Emergency parking lot of the hospital. Several EMTs milled around. Michael called them over, asking for help. When they saw Mercy’s bloodstained shoulder, one man ran back for a gurney. Within minutes she was pushed toward the emergency room entrance. Michael followed closely behind.
She was taken straight through into a cubicle he wasn’t allowed to enter. He stood outside the ER inner door, frustrated and angry, until a nurse told him, “We need your help with the paperwork.”
“Of course.” He followed her back to the intake desk. She lifted a package of baby wipes and motioned at his hands. He took several and wiped Mercy’s blood from his hands.
“Let’s begin with her name and address.”
Trying to refocus, he gave the nurse the pertinent information.
“What happened?”
“She was shot in a restaurant parking lot, where we had breakfast.”
And on it went. It took another ten minutes to fill out all the information. When it came to Mercy’s insurance plan, he winced. “I’m not sure. I presume she has coverage through her employer. She’s on leave right now.”
The woman nodded. “She should wake up pretty soon, and I’ll ask her then.”
He shook his head. “The bullet is still inside. They might have to do surgery.”
“Let them do what they have to.”
He understood that, but, as he stood there, shifting, waiting, then pacing, he kept looking back in the direction of the emergency room hallway where Mercy had been taken.
Ice could’ve taken out the bullet and fixed that wound. Then there was her father, a doctor who owned a hospital—but in California, not Texas.
His mind raced with random thoughts.
Finally the nurse finished the paperwork, and Michael was told to take a seat. He walked to the waiting area and paced instead.
When the doctor came out, he motioned for Michael. “She’s gone to surgery to retrieve the bullet from her shoulder blade. She should pull through just fine.”
Michael nodded. “All bullet wounds must be reported. I do have a detective’s name. Maybe you can report to him?” He grabbed his wallet and pulled out the detective’s card and handed it to the doctor. “It’s all related to the same case this detective is working on.”
The doctor nodded and walked away, the card in his hand.
Michael pulled out his phone and sent the detective a text, updating him. Then he did the same with Levi.
He walked over to the waiting room for the surgical patients. He hoped they wouldn’t take long, but, with any surgery, she would be staying overnight. As he sat down to wait, his phone rang. It was his boss, Bruce.
“Where are you?”
Michael winced, realizing he hadn’t called in his absence to the estate. He quickly updated him, saying he was waiting for Mercy to come out of surgery. There was an odd silence in the background, and he could hear a vehicle engine starting up.
“Stay there, Michael. If you come in at noon, that would be good. Work on the front beds today.”
Michael nodded. “That I can do.”
He put the phone on the table beside him and stared at it. This was the first time the boss had ever called him. But then it was also the first time Michael hadn’t shown up for work. As it went, this morning had been a bit of a bitch. If only Mercy hadn’t knocked him out of the way. Yet, if she hadn’t, he’d have taken the bullet in his chest, likely killing him.
He kept checking his phone, hoping Levi had news. No way in hell was Michael leaving until she came out of surgery. It was the least he could do. The other part of his brain warred with this common sense. She’s not even awake. She won’t wake for hours yet. Go to work. Give her a call when you’re done.
He shook his head. “Hell no.”