Eden

“Isaac!” I screamed, the sound muffled by the ringing in my ears. I fumbled for the door handle and practically fell from the car. I dazedly noticed that his Audi had been pushed halfway into the parking spot next to it by the force of the blast. As I raced to his side and dropped down to my knees, I tried not to consider the damage it had done to him if it had been strong enough to move a car like that. “Please be okay,” I chanted over and over again as I ran my hands over his body.

He didn’t move, not even the tiniest bit, at the feel of my hands. Not even when I slid them over his face and into his hair. Feeling something wet, I stifled the scream that bubbled up in my throat when I pulled my left hand away and found blood on it. With trembling fingers, I yanked my phone from my pocket and dialed 9-1-1. I’d only just finished stammering out the details to the emergency dispatcher when Isaac moaned my name.

“I’m here,” I whispered into his ear after bending low. “Don’t move. Help is on the way.”

“What happened?” he muttered, his words slightly slurred.

“I’m not sure,” I answered as I pushed at his shoulders to keep him on the ground. I refused to let him move until the paramedics got there and confirmed it was safe for him to do so. I’d share my suspicions with him after we were away from there and he was at the hospital. But they’d better hurry up and get there before Isaac’s head cleared and he put two and two together on his own.

His gorgeous gray eyes opened, and I cried in relief as he scanned my face, his worry for me clear in his gaze. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I confirmed, deliberately not mentioning how my shoulder ached from slamming against the door of his car after the explosion. I was damn lucky he’d gotten me settled into the Audi before he’d gone for my bag because it had protected me from most of the force of the blast. Seeing my strong husband lying there, I refused to even consider what might have happened if he wasn’t the kind of man who saw to his woman’s comfort first. It wasn’t because I was worried about what could have happened to me, I never wanted to see Isaac hurt in my place—even though it was exactly what he would want. But I was pregnant with our precious baby and what happened to me, happened to him or her too. When I felt his hand move to reach up and cover my belly, I knew he was thinking along the same lines as I was. “We’re both good.”

My answer was drowned out by the sound of sirens, and we were quickly surrounded by a bevy of emergency personnel. After they’d checked him over—which only happened following a cursory examination of me which Isaac insisted upon—and started to strap Isaac onto a board to load him into the ambulance, my heart raced in fear. I couldn’t be separated from him, not without knowing he was going to be okay.

“She comes with me!” he barked out, sounding like he fully expected everyone to jump at his orders.

“Sir,” one of the paramedics started to say, only to be cut off before we knew if he was going to argue or not.

“My wife is pregnant with our child, and her car just exploded. If you think I’m going to let her out of my sight, you’re insane. Either you let her in here with me or I’m getting the fuck out of here, and we’ll find our own ride to the hospital.”

“Isaac,” I interrupted softly. I desperately wanted to be in that ambulance too, but not if it came at the cost of Isaac’s wellbeing.

“She’s coming with us,” the paramedic blurted out, making the whole argument moot. “I was just trying to explain that it’s safer for her up in front. Riding in the back is probably the most dangerous place to be in the ambulance.”

“Shit, sorry,” Isaac grumbled.

The ride to the hospital was insanely fast as we raced down the streets with the sirens blaring. The emergency room staff were ready and waiting for us when we arrived, and Isaac was seen by a doctor right away. The sight of a couple police officers hovering outside his exam room made me feel a little safer, but it also worried me because explaining the situation without admitting to the laws I’d broken while searching for information was going to be difficult.

They stayed out of the way for hours, until after the medical staff had completed their neurological exam of Isaac, where they assessed his motor and sensory skills, hearing and speech, vision, coordination and balance. They followed it up with a CT scan to look for bleeding or swelling in his brain and an x-ray of his back to confirm he hadn’t suffered any fractures during the fall. But once they were done and confirmed that the worst of his injuries was a concussion, the officers were joined by two detectives and I knew they weren’t going to wait any longer.

After a quick conversation amongst the four, the detectives walked towards us. “Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, we’re with the Baltimore police department. We’d like to speak with you about the explosion.”

“I’m sure you would, but it’s not going to happen.” I’d been so focused on the detectives that I hadn’t noticed the man and woman who’d approached our little group from the side. Not until those words were bitten off in a tone I was quite familiar with while growing up since Alex Shaw’s parents had lived next to mine. He was closer to my sister’s age than mine, but I’d always felt like I could talk to him because he never judged me—not even after he found out the trouble I’d gotten myself into after Isaac had managed to secure me a deal with the FBI—and was smart as a whip himself.

“Who are you?” the detective barked out as Alex and Evie stepped in front of Isaac and I, blocking us from their view.

Evie slid her hand behind her back, reaching for mine and giving it a comforting squeeze. I’d never been more grateful to see my friends before than I was right then. Not only because they would be able to offer a buffer between us and the police, but also because I knew Isaac and I were in way over our heads and they would be our best bet for staying safe.

“Alex Shaw, CIA.” He flipped open his wallet and showed them some form of identification as he answered.

“The CIA doesn’t have any jurisdiction here,” the other detective argued.

“Maybe not, usually,” Alex conceded. “But the Harveys are under our protection, and I’m not going to risk their safety so they can answer your questions while they’re vulnerable here.”

As soon as the word “vulnerable” left Alex’s mouth, Isaac was pushing himself off the exam table to face off with the detectives himself. “I would be very careful about how you proceed, or else you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of a lawsuit.”

“Lawyers, always threatening to sue,” the first detective scoffed.

“If anything happens to my wife because you delayed us from leaving with Agent Shaw—“the threat of bodily harm or death I was sure Isaac was about to issue was cut off by the ringing of the detective’s cell phone and Evie’s soft voice.

“You’ll want to answer that,” she informed him. “It’s your boss. Or maybe even your boss’s boss.” Then she tugged me forward until I stood next to her. “Are you guys ready to go? Because the detectives won’t be a problem since they’re about to be told you’re leaving with us.”

Damn, I wanted to be like Evie when I grew up.

While the detective answered his phone, I voiced the question I’d had since they’d swooped in to save us.

“How did you get here so fast?”

“I tried calling a couple times after I got your voicemail message. When you didn’t pick up, I was worried we might be too late. So we got Emmy and Ash situated with friends and hopped on a chopper to get here as quickly as possible,” Alex explained.

Between my car exploding and the urgency with which Alex and Evie rushed here to intervene, it was obvious that my theory had been on the right track. If only the timing had been another hour or so in our favor, they would have had a chance to warn us. “I’m not sure where my phone is. The last time I remember having it was when I called for help after the explosion. I don’t know what I did with it after that.”

“You don’t have yours with you either, right Isaac?” Evie asked. “Because if so, we need to disable it immediately so it can’t be used to track our location.”

Isaac patted his pockets, presumably searching for his phone before he recalled that he’d changed into scrubs before his scans.

“I have it,” I admitted, pulling it from my purse and handing it over to Evie.

“Wait a second,” Isaac muttered, rubbing his temple. “I’m not firing on all synapses right at the moment, so maybe it’s taking me longer to figure out what you all seem to have already realized. Who do you think is going to try to track our location?”

“The rogue CIA assassin who’s set his sights on Eden,” Evie answered.

“Fuck,” Isaac groaned. “We need to get her to a safe place. Now!”

“And you, too,” I added. “I refuse to let our baby grow up without their daddy.”