Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 9.30 P.M.
Adam shoved through the crowd, muttering ‘Excuse me’ when he earned a dirty look, but he really didn’t care. He went through the electric doors and headed straight to the ER, flashing his shield when a staff member tried to stop him from entering the area.
Meredith is alive. She is okay. She is not harmed. Mallory was the target all along, but she is okay. She is not harmed either. And I’m going to kill Kate. Except she is hurt.
The words had been cycling through his mind from the moment he heard the call go out over the radio. Shots fired. Possible hostage situation. Casualties. He and Deacon had dropped everything, leaving the Voss crime scene in the capable hands of Trip and Scarlett.
Of course, Adam knew he’d just proven Isenberg right. He couldn’t lead this case, not with the way he felt about Meredith. But he’d fight that battle later. Now, he needed to see her. To touch her so that he could know she was all right.
At least Deacon had his head on straight. Adam had left his cousin in the parking lot, managing their newest crime scene. He’d barely listened to anything he’d been told.
I need to see her. He looked in the small windows in the door of each ER bay until he found Meredith, her dark red hair in striking contrast to the white of her pillow, and his knees actually buckled. He straightened them immediately, locking them in place. He couldn’t fall apart. Not yet. Not until he got her back to safety and he was alone.
Then he’d fucking fall apart.
He stood by her closed door, looking in the window, getting a grip on himself. Meredith lay in the bed, her eyes closed. She wore a pair of faded blue hospital scrubs. Mallory sat at her side, also dressed in scrubs, clutching her hand. Both of them were alarmingly pale and Meredith had a raw scrape on her cheek that was starting to bruise.
A growl rose in his throat. Sonofabitch had hurt her. Again.
But she’s alive. He kept telling himself that. She’s alive.
The two Feds who’d been on guard duty hadn’t fared as well. One was in serious condition, the other critical. Both had been shot with a silenced gun and handcuffed. Their radios, phones, and service weapons had been stolen.
The shooter was in the wind, having made his escape in a stolen car. This time, though, he’d left things behind – his SUV, which Kate had disabled, his rifle, which Kate had thankfully stolen, and most importantly, his DNA. There was blood all over the asphalt, most of it his. Some of it was Kate’s. None of it was Mallory’s or Meredith’s.
Adam leaned against the door, resting his forehead on the wood, trying to gather his composure. Three times. Three times now I’ve almost lost her.
‘Adam?’
He rolled his head sideways to see Dani coming out of the ER bay next door. He frowned. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’m Kate’s secondary emergency contact,’ she said. ‘I’ve already called Decker.’
‘How’s he doing?’ Adam asked, now feeling totally numb.
Dani rubbed his back, her touch so soothing that his eyes stung for no good reason. ‘Like you’d expect. He’s frantic, but she’s talked to him on the phone, so he knows she’s physically okay. Mostly. Her arm’s a mess. The guy had a knife. It took eighteen stitches to close the wound, but there doesn’t appear to be any permanent damage.’
Adam blinked hard, his forehead still resting on the door. It was like his head weighed four hundred pounds. He couldn’t seem to hold it up. ‘Physically?’
‘Emotionally, she’s a wreck,’ Dani said quietly. ‘This happened on her watch and . . . well, I’ve never seen her like this.’
‘What exactly did happen?’ Adam asked.
‘You need to ask her. I’m just here to give back rubs,’ she said, then kissed his cheek. ‘Convince yourself that Mer’s okay, then talk to Kate. And be gentle with her.’
A wave of guilt crashed over him. ‘I’m sorry, Dani,’ he whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Her smile was sweet. ‘For what?’
‘For being such an asshole this past year that you’d think you had to tell me that.’
She rubbed her cheek against his upper arm, like a cat nuzzling its human. ‘I accept your apology. You were in pain. I only hope that one day you’ll tell me why.’
‘I will. But I can’t right now.’
‘I know, honey. Go on in and see Mer. You’ll both feel better.’
‘Okay.’ He pushed himself off the door. ‘Wait. Where’s Clarke?’
‘Two doors down. They want to check him out before they release him. He might have a concussion, and at his age they’re going to proceed cautiously.’ Her cheeks grew abruptly flushed. ‘Diesel’s in with him, so he’s not alone.’
‘But Diesel hates hospitals.’
Dani winced. ‘I know. Poor guy. But he’s managing.’
Because he’s needed. Adam understood that all too well. ‘Mallory’s sitting in there with Meredith, so I assume she’s unhurt.’
‘Again, physically unhurt. At the end of it all, Mallory saved Meredith by slashing the shooter’s face, but she’s not really there right now. Close as we can figure it, she was kind of catatonic with Meredith standing between her and the shooter. He threw Meredith off her – that’s where the contusion on Meredith’s face came from – and that apparently shocked Mallory into action.’ Dani sighed. ‘But she’s crawled back into herself again. Hasn’t said another word.’
‘Dammit.’ He blinked hard to clear his head. Mallory is the target. He was furious with himself for missing it, for not even considering it after the restaurant shooting. But Andy had pointed his gun at Meredith and the second shot was aimed at Meredith. And Voss had been involved, somehow. And he’d been stalking Meredith.
Still, I should have at least considered it. Goddammit.
Dani patted his shoulder. ‘Why are you still standing here?’
He opened his mouth, but no words came out because Dani was right. He’d sped to the hospital like a bat out of hell, his only objective to see her, to touch her. But now that he was here? He stood outside her door, unable to push it open.
He closed his eyes, shuddering out a breath. ‘I almost lost her. Again. And . . . I don’t know what to say to her.’
‘You don’t have to say anything. Just hold her. Let her know you’re there.’
He shook his head miserably. ‘She’s there for everyone. How do I be there for her?’ He opened his eyes, met Dani’s as she smiled at him kindly. ‘I don’t know if I can.’
‘You don’t know if you can, or you don’t know if you can without breaking down?’
‘The second one,’ he admitted. ‘She’s been through enough tonight without watching me cry like a . . .’ He cut himself off before he said ‘like a girl.’
‘Like a person who cares about another person?’ she asked. ‘Adam, your father was wrong. It’s okay to have feelings. And it’s okay to cry. If you go in there and break down, hell, if you cry like Niagara-freaking-Falls, that’s okay. The world continues to spin. Now get your ass in there. Don’t make me tell you again,’ she added in a mock-scolding tone.
He nodded, squaring his shoulders. He could do this. He could be Meredith’s strength tonight. Except for the Niagara-freaking-Falls part. He didn’t cry. He just . . . didn’t.
Drawing a breath, he pushed the door open and stepped into the tiny little room. Tongue-tied for several hard beats of his heart, he settled for a soft, ‘Hey.’
Meredith opened her eyes with a start. ‘Adam.’ Her eyes welled, her voice breaking. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’
He wasn’t aware of moving, but he must have because he was sitting on the bed, dragging her into his arms, burying his face in her hair. Whispering words he couldn’t hear over the pounding in his ears. ‘Not your fault, baby. Not your fault. Why are you sorry?’
She was shaking her head. Her whole body was shaking, so he held her tighter. ‘I shouldn’t have come here. I knew it was just a headache. We never should have come.’
‘Sweetheart.’ He rocked her where they sat. ‘You’re hurt and you’re scared, so I’m going to give you a pass on that very ridiculous thing you just said. Of course you should have come. This is a hospital, and you were hurt. Unless you’re a soothsayer, you could not have predicted any of this. So stop blaming you and start listening to me.’ He pulled back, tugging her chin up so that she looked at him, her eyes wild with regret and residual fear. ‘You’re all right. Mallory’s all right and Kate and your grandfather both got a little banged up, but they’ll be all right too.’
‘The Feds?’ Meredith challenged. ‘They might die.’
Adam wondered how the shooter had gotten the jump on two Feds, but kept the question to himself for now. ‘But they’re not dead yet.’ He swiped under her eyes with his thumbs, taking care with her scraped cheek. He kissed her mouth tenderly. ‘You did not invite a sociopath to grab Mallory any more than you invited Andy Gold to try to kill the two of you yesterday. Okay?’
He waited until she nodded, then gave her another soft kiss. ‘Okay,’ he said. He glanced at Mallory, who stared at him with the disconcerting intensity of one of the Children of the Corn. ‘We have learned one extremely valuable fact tonight. You weren’t the target at Buon Cibo yesterday, Meredith. Mallory was.’
Meredith nodded, sniffling. ‘I know. I begged him to take me instead, but he told me he didn’t want me.’
Adam’s blood ran cold. He could see her offering herself in trade all too clearly. ‘Start at the beginning. Tell me what happened.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 9.40 P.M.
Meredith finished relaying everything that she knew, deleting anything she’d said that remotely resembled an offer to sacrifice herself. Adam had gone so very still when she’d told him that she’d begged the gunman to take her instead. He’d backed away then, his expression carefully blank, so very controlled. Like if he let himself go, he’d shatter.
So she didn’t tell him about any of the other things she’d said.
‘I kept shooting,’ she finished. ‘I know I hit him at least twice in the chest, but my shots may have gone wide there at the end. My hands were shaking,’ she admitted. ‘He just kept coming. He wouldn’t stop.’ Her voice had trembled, so she paused and dug deep for her composure. ‘I either missed completely, or he was that determined. Maybe both.’
‘And then?’ he asked brusquely, but he took her hand and held it between his.
That helped. So much. She drew a breath. ‘And then I was out of bullets so I just . . . waited.’ He shuddered, but didn’t break eye contact. ‘He pushed me aside and that’s when Mallory cut him with her knife. He was . . . demented. Screaming at us.’
‘But still wearing his mask?’ he asked.
‘Yes. I never saw his face. Just his eyes, but it was dark and I couldn’t tell you what color they were. Well,’ she frowned, thinking. ‘I did see his jaw, because Mallory got him with the knife. Part of the mask was ripped back and he was bleeding. He didn’t have any noticeable markings, though. No beard or scars or anything.’
‘Did you see his skin?’
‘Yes. It was pale. He was definitely Caucasian. Anyway, he reared up, yelling, and that’s when Kate shot him in the arm. I . . .’ She closed her eyes, the emotions rushing back. ‘I’d thought Kate was dead. She was crumpled on the ground and I’d heard a shot and then a crunching noise. I thought he’d thrown her against the SUV. I don’t know what happened.’
‘I’ll talk to her when we’re done,’ he said evenly. ‘But she’s going to be okay. Dani said she needed a lot of stitches, but there didn’t seem to be any permanent damage.’
‘Oh God,’ Meredith breathed. ‘That’s so good to hear. Is Decker coming?’
‘Dani’s called him. I’m sure he is.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘Then Kate shot the attacker?’
‘Yeah. His arm was kind of hanging there and he made a run for it. Then I heard the sirens and, I mean, it was like . . . I lost it then.’ She looked at Mallory. ‘And then Mallory was holding me and I knew she was okay, and then Kate came and we just . . . We were done.’
He drew a breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring. His jaw was clamped so tight that it was a wonder she didn’t hear his teeth cracking. He blinked slowly, several times. Gathering his control, his composure, much like she had.
Finally, he turned to Mallory. ‘Do you have anything to add, honey?’ he asked, his tone so gentle that Meredith had to shove back a sudden sob that took her by surprise.
Meredith didn’t expect Mallory to say a word. She hadn’t during the entire ordeal. But Mallory nodded.
‘They saved me,’ she whispered. ‘Mer and Kate. Mer wouldn’t let him have me. She did beg him to take her instead. And I was so scared that I couldn’t tell her to stop. I just lay there, like a useless slug.’ Self-contempt dripped from her barely audible words.
‘Mallory—’ Meredith started, but Mallory whipped her hand up.
‘My turn,’ she gritted out. ‘It is my turn to talk.’
Meredith pressed back into the pillow, startled. ‘Okay.’
‘She ran after me and offered to trade herself. And when Kate came and held her gun to the man’s head, Meredith grabbed me out of the SUV and carried me for . . . I don’t know how far. I kept telling myself to move. Move. Help. But it was like I was frozen.’
‘But you did move,’ Meredith said softly. ‘You did help.’
‘Not enough.’ Mallory turned so that she spoke to the wall. ‘What she’s not telling you is that she told him that he’d have to kill her first. I thought he was going to.’
Adam’s eyes darted to Meredith’s face and there was no disguising his anguish. He swallowed hard. Then he drew a breath and the anguish tempered, morphed. Became something like pride. The pressure on her hand increased until it was almost painful.
‘Any of us would have done the same, Mallory,’ he said, still so gentle.
Oh God. This is the man I knew a year ago. This is the man I’ve waited for. Meredith’s eyes welled and she blinked quickly to clear them.
Mallory’s lips trembled. ‘Why?’
His smile was so damn sweet it nearly broke her heart. ‘Because you’re ours now,’ he said. ‘And we take care of what’s ours.’
And that, Meredith thought, was that. Her heart he’d nearly broken . . . it belonged to him, cracks and all. To take care of and to keep. She’d never really had any choice.
Bowing her head, Mallory wrapped her arms around herself, her sobs quiet, yet forceful. ‘I thought he was going to kill you.’
Meredith smoothed Mallory’s hair. ‘But he didn’t. Because you saved me.’
‘That was remarkably brave,’ Adam added. ‘And we’re all grateful.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I’m grateful,’ he added gruffly.
Locking eyes with his, Meredith brought their joined hands to her cheek and held them there. His eyes were no longer remote and expressionless, no longer filled with anguish or even pride. They burned with something far more. He rubbed a thumb over her lips and for a moment it was like they were alone in a lovely bubble.
Then Mallory looked up, her eyes red and swollen. ‘I knew him.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 9.50 P.M.
I knew him. Adam exchanged a shocked look with Meredith at Mallory’s whispered words. She hadn’t known either.
‘You knew the man who tried to abduct you tonight?’ he asked carefully.
Mallory nodded, looking so damn weary. Looking years older than eighteen. She hung her head, more out of exhaustion than shame, Adam thought.
‘I told you once that I asked a stranger to use her phone,’ she whispered. ‘While he kept me.’ For six years her captor had held her, abusing her on the Internet for millions of pedophiles to see. ‘I called the police and told them what he was doing to me. The police came. And one of them recognized me from online. Told him, that he wouldn’t tell if he could . . . you know.’
‘Rape you too,’ Meredith said quietly.
Adam hated this story. Hated that it was true, that it had happened. That it had happened to Mallory. Hated that they’d found no trace of her call to the police. Hated that they’d found no evidence that any cop had ever investigated her call for help. He hated that she’d been raped by anyone, much less by a cop who should have protected her.
Oh my God. His stomach lurched as his brain put the pieces together. She’d known her attacker tonight. It was the same guy. This is a cop doing this. A cop killing to protect his secrets. His gaze collided with Meredith’s and saw that she’d come to the same conclusion.
He left Meredith’s side to crouch next to Mallory so that he could hear every nuance of her answers. ‘This was the guy tonight? The cop?’
‘No. His friend.’
He kept his voice calm, grateful Mallory trusted him enough to tell him this. He couldn’t even imagine how hard it was for her to say. ‘The cop brought a friend?’
‘Yes. Several.’
He swallowed hard. ‘Mallory, I don’t know all the details from what happened before, because I wasn’t on your case. So can you tell me now about his friends that came with him. Were they cops?’
‘I don’t know. Some of them? Maybe?’
‘Was the guy who grabbed you tonight?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said again, desperately. ‘But I knew his voice.’ She was shaking. ‘He hurt me.’ Mallory gripped her hands together so hard her knuckles were white.
‘Okay,’ he soothed. ‘Can you describe any of them?’
‘They wore masks. But the cop had a birthmark. Or maybe a scar. It was on his chest. By his heart. His friend . . . I don’t know. I only knew his voice.’
‘Thank you,’ he said softly. ‘I hate to ask you all these questions.’
‘I understand,’ Mallory whispered hoarsely.
‘Can you describe the birthmark?’
‘It was red. Looked like a burn? It might have been a burn.’
‘Dark red? Pink?’
‘Medium red.’
‘Okay. And the shape?’
‘Square, but slanted. Like a diamond, almost.’ Her voice had thinned and her body swayed and he worried that she’d collapse where she sat. She had a spine of steel, but at the same time was so very fragile. Brittle. He feared he’d snap her if he pushed too hard.
‘All right.’ He’d stop for now, resume later if he needed to. ‘Thank you.’
Meredith drew a deep breath. Let it out in a weary gust of air. ‘What now?’
‘We regroup, have another look at the evidence. Come up with a new plan. Because this changes everything.’ Especially if they were looking for a goddamn cop.
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 10.20 P.M.
Adam met Deacon as his cousin came through the ER’s double doors. ‘You needed to see me?’ Deacon asked.
Adam motioned to an empty exam room. ‘In here.’ He met Deacon’s worried eyes when he closed the door behind them.
‘Hey, you okay?’ Deacon asked.
‘Yeah. Just . . . I think we might be looking for a cop.’
Deacon’s unique eyes, each half brown, half blue, popped wide open. ‘Well. Not what I was expecting. Why?’
Adam told him what Mallory had revealed about her attacker today and Deacon slowly sat in a chair.
‘Holy God,’ he murmured, running his hand through his spiky white hair. ‘Do Meredith and Kate know?’
‘Meredith does. She was with me when Mallory told us. I haven’t seen Kate yet. I thought we could talk to her together. Dani says she’s blaming herself.’
‘Because that’s Kate,’ Deacon said with a sigh. ‘Any of us would do the same.’
‘True enough. What’s going on outside? Any sightings of the shooter?’ The first responders had put out a BOLO on the shooter who’d escaped on foot from the hospital parking lot. Adam was so relieved that he hadn’t confronted Kate in his terror-driven anger. She’d really done an amazing job under the circumstances. ‘What about the car he stole?’
The car’s owner had run into a convenience store ‘for just a second,’ leaving the car parked with the motor running. ‘He ditched it already. We haven’t had any reports of more thefts, so he’s either on foot or he hotwired or jacked another car. As for the scene outside, CSU is doing their thing. There’s a lot of blood, which you already saw. Quincy got there a few minutes after you came inside. He’s like a field marshal out there. ‘Do this, do that, get out of our way.’ I like him and he’s good at his job. He can be brusque, though. Anyway, he’s sent the rifle Kate found in the SUV to the lab. The serial number’s been filed away, but he thinks they can raise it.’
‘Excellent. What about the SUV?’
‘He’s having it transported to the garage so he can go over it with a fine-toothed comb.’ Deacon raked a hand through his hair again, clearly agitated. It had been his habit from the time they’d been small boys. ‘A fucking cop?’ He sucked in a breath. ‘As in maybe the cop that raped her years ago? The one we thought was just posing as a cop?’
‘She said he was the cop’s friend. It makes sense that they’d want her gone if they think she can identify one or both of them. She was targeted the very first day she left Mariposa House. Up until then she was safe in the mansion.’
‘With either Parrish Colby or Kendra Cullen there most of the time.’
Adam nodded. ‘A Fed and a cop as bodyguards would be a deterrent. Plus all of us volunteering. And Diesel installed a kickass security system. Nobody’s getting in there.’
‘So he waited until she was out of Mariposa House.’
Adam nodded again. ‘So I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure how they found out that Mallory was going to be out that day and how they knew she’d be at that restaurant. Trip’s talked to all of the girls at the house and they all swear they didn’t even know where Meredith was taking Mallory, much less tell anyone outside. Wendi gave Trip access to the house’s landline call logs. Nothing out of the ordinary there. A few of the girls have cell phones. We can look at those.’
‘I hate to do that,’ Deacon admitted. ‘Each of the girls at Mariposa has had her privacy stolen by her abuser. I hate to violate their privacy too, but we will if we have to. Did Meredith tell anyone where she was taking Mallory?’
‘Her friends. Wendi knew. I overheard her talking about it to Kendra when I was doing a repair at Mariposa last week. Someone could have overheard her making the reservation or have access to her calendar. She may remember something today that she was too rattled to tell us yesterday.’
Deacon’s laugh was mirthless. ‘And she’s not rattled today?’
Adam thought about that moment between them, right before Mallory had dropped her bombshell. They’d been cocooned together, gazes locked, her holding their joined hands to her cheek. She’d been . . . at peace.
‘I think she’ll be able to think more clearly about it now that she knows that she isn’t the target,’ he murmured.
Deacon gave him a look that was smugly satisfied. ‘Took you fucking long enough.’
Adam raised his brows. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You two have been dancing around each other for a year. More than a year. God. I’ve been wanting to smack you upside the head and say just get the fuck on with it! Faith kept saying it was none of my business, which is ridiculous.’
Adam stared at him. I guess I wasn’t so discreet after all. ‘Um . . . I’m sorry?’
Deacon snorted, then sobered. ‘Let’s ask her again. Maybe she’ll remember a detail that didn’t seem important before.’
His phone started blasting ‘Dead Man’s Party’. It was Carrie Washington, the ME. He hit ACCEPT. ‘I’m with Deacon. Can I put you on speaker?’ When she agreed, he put his phone down on the table. ‘What can you tell us about Voss?’
‘Cause of death, heroin overdose. What was left in the syringe was a potent concentration. He was a long-time user. He may have simply built a tolerance to his old dose and took too much trying to reach the same high. Time of death is three a.m. Sunday, plus or minus four hours. That was harder to pinpoint, with the heat turned up and the fireplace going.’
Adam did the math. ‘He died after the cops arrived to guard the outside.’
‘So it would seem,’ she said. ‘I may have more by morning. The full set of tox results will be ready by then, plus this is just my preliminary exam.’
‘Thanks, Carrie.’ Disconnecting, Adam rubbed his temples. ‘I need to talk to Quincy, to find out what he got from Voss’s house.’
‘I already talked to him – while he was driving here from Voss’s. He’d found nothing so far. In fact, so much nothing, that it might be something. At first glance, all Voss’s computers are wiped clean. Factory resets.’
‘Shit,’ Adam murmured. He wondered what time Diesel Kennedy had broken into the man’s system, because it hadn’t been wiped then. ‘I know there was data on Voss’s hard drives at nine p.m. last night.’
Deacon raised his brows. ‘Because your confidential informant told you so?’
‘Yes. The computers were wiped clean later. We could be talking murder.’
Deacon nodded. ‘Yes, we could. Except that somebody would have had to murder Voss and wipe all of his data, all while CPD sits outside both the front and back gate. How’d that happen?’
‘I don’t know,’ Adam said grimly. ‘But we’re sure as hell going to find out.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 10.40 P.M.
The knock on the door had Meredith looking up as she sat next to Kate’s bed in the ER. ‘Kate?’ she asked. ‘Should I see who it is?’
Staring at the opposite wall, Kate shrugged. ‘I don’t care.’
Meredith sighed. Kate was blaming herself big time. Wouldn’t look at any of them. Normally Meredith would have been compassionate and patient, but she was tired and irritable and her own head still hurt. ‘Stop it,’ she snapped in a quiet voice. ‘No one is to blame here, except the asshole who tried to grab Mallory.’ The light knock on the door was a welcome relief from Kate’s silence.
Meredith peeked out, then opened the door wider for Deacon and Adam. ‘Come on in. Did you get my message?’ she asked Adam.
He smiled at her and she had to remind herself that things were bleak because her heart soared. ‘That Wendi and Colby came for Mallory?’ he asked. ‘Yes, Colby found us. They’re waiting with Mallory in one of the consultation rooms until we sort out getting her protection placement.’
That took Meredith a second but then she blinked. ‘Oh. I guess they can’t take her back to Mariposa House.’ Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. ‘That was stupid of me. I just assumed they’d take her home, but that would put the other girls at risk.’
Adam tipped her chin up. ‘It was not stupid of you. That old house is about as safe as they come. It’s solid rock. But we have to figure out how the shooter knew where you two were going to be yesterday before we can be sure it’s safe there for Mallory.’
That should have occurred to her too. ‘Because he had to know where we’d be. I don’t remember telling anyone except for my friends. I’ve been racking my brain.’
He kissed the top of her head. ‘Regardless of where we place Mallory, I want you to stay at the condo until this is settled. Okay? You may not be a target now, but I still want you safe. Your house isn’t secure.’
She wanted to ask if he would stay at the condo with her, but was completely conscious of Deacon standing right next to them. ‘I’m not going to fight you on it. Besides, my things are there.’
‘Things meaning guns?’ Deacon asked. He was studying Kate who lay on the bed, her arm in a sling, her eyes closed.
‘Among other things,’ Meredith allowed.
Deacon glanced at them, his arched brow a commentary on the way she and Adam were holding each other, then turned back to his former partner who hadn’t stirred. ‘How is she?’
‘Awake,’ Meredith said pointedly, so Kate could hear her. ‘Even though she’s pretending to be asleep. She’s ornery. Feeling guilty. Maybe you two can shake her out of it, because she’s not listening to me.’
Adam gestured for Deacon to take the lead. Deacon and Kate had been friends and colleagues for years. None of their group knew Kate as well as Deacon Novak.
Deacon approached the bed, frowning. ‘Eighteen stitches? That’s all? And you’re lying here like a lump?’
‘Fuck off, Deacon,’ Kate said, very quietly.
‘I’d much rather be home doing exactly that with Faith, but that’s not the hand we were dealt today.’ He took the chair nearest the bed. ‘Stop this. You brought an injured person into a hospital. You believed you had backup. And you know what? If you hadn’t, we’d all still think that Meredith was the target and Mallory would be walking around unprotected because she wouldn’t know the truth. Now we know. Now we know we might be looking for a fucking cop. Now we need your help.’
Kate blinked at that. ‘What?’
Adam glanced at Meredith. ‘You didn’t tell her?’
Meredith shrugged. ‘I tried. She told me she’d knit me a ball gag if I didn’t shut up.’
Adam swallowed a startled laugh. ‘O-kay.’
‘I did not,’ Kate snapped, then sighed. ‘All right. I might have. But the doctor gave me drugs.’
‘Not that many drugs,’ Meredith said. ‘Or not enough.’
Kate glared over her shoulder, then back at Adam and Deacon. ‘What’s this about a cop?’ she demanded, then her face went slack as comprehension dawned. ‘Oh God. The cop she was afraid of. The one who raped her.’ She struggled to sit up, then fell back against the pillows, eyes clenched, mouth tight with pain. ‘We should have looked for him.’
‘We did look,’ Deacon said firmly.
‘We should have looked harder,’ Kate said, teeth clenched.
‘We investigated, Kate,’ Deacon insisted patiently. ‘She couldn’t describe him except to say he had a birthmark. And there was no record of a police visit to the house where she was being held. We had no leads, Kate. Now we do.’
‘A cop,’ Kate whispered thinly. ‘All this was a cop?’
Deacon gripped her uninjured hand. ‘At a minimum, a friend of a cop. I know you’ve had a helluva night, but we need some information. We know you went looking for Mallory. We know that when the dust settled, we had three injured Feds – you and Agents Helder and Carroll out in the van. We know you got the shooter’s gun, his rifle, his knife and his SUV. We know about the eighteen stitches and’ – he peered at her head more closely – ‘a really bad bruise on your forehead. But there are a few pages missing in the middle.’
Kate sighed. ‘I heard Meredith yelling at the shooter, so I doubled back. Mallory was in the SUV, the gunman was standing there, his gun pointed at Meredith, and Meredith was trying to trade herself.’ She glanced at Meredith. ‘Goddamn idiot,’ she said without heat.
‘That’s been established,’ Meredith said dryly. ‘Tell us what we don’t know.’
‘I came up behind the guy, ID’d myself as FBI, had him drop to his knees and drop his gun. I kicked the gun away, Meredith got Mallory out of the van, they started walking. I’d called in for backup and kept hoping it would get there. I didn’t know what had happened to Helder and Carroll. What did?’
‘One’s serious, the other critical,’ Deacon told her. ‘But they’re both alive. So if you had him on his knees and he dropped his gun, how’d he get the upper hand?’
‘I’d leaned in to cuff him and he reared back and head-butted my face. Honestly, my attention was split. I was watching Meredith and Mallory out of the corner of my eye because I was afraid he had an accomplice. But it was just him. He had a knife up his sleeve and’ – she pointed to her arm – ‘he got me with it. I kicked it out of his hand, but he was already going for my gun. We fought for it and I shot him in the chest, but he was wearing a vest. Still had to have hurt him. It was point-blank. He got me by the throat, shoved me into the SUV, backwards, then face first. I . . . I was a bit dizzy.’
‘You were curled up on the damn ground,’ Meredith challenged. ‘I thought . . .’ Tears rose in her throat. ‘God, Kate, I thought you were dead.’
Kate shrugged. ‘I might have been if I hadn’t been wearing the wig. He went for the gun again and grabbed at my hair to hold me down. The wig came off, which surprised him so much that he staggered a little. I shoved at him but I was . . . dizzy, so I sat down.’
‘Fell down,’ Meredith muttered, pushing the tears back.
Kate gave her a dirty look. ‘Anyway, I wasn’t sure if I could keep the gun away from him. I couldn’t get up to run away at that point, so I ejected the clip and threw it as hard as I could, then tossed the gun under the SUV. His was already under there from when I kicked it. He tried to get at both guns, cursed a lot, hit me a few more times, then went running after Meredith. She’d stashed Mallory by this point. She came out with a gun, shot the guy in the chest. He must have been on something because he didn’t stop. I mean, yeah, he had on a vest, but that was two direct hits to the chest and he didn’t even act like he felt it. She shot his leg and he retreated. I’d gotten to my knees at this point, but I couldn’t reach my gun or his. But, hey, it was a black SUV, just like at the restaurant. I figured he might have a rifle in there, since he used it to shoot at Adam and Troy earlier.’
‘That was good work, Kate,’ Deacon said. ‘Where did you find it?’
‘Under the driver’s seat. I heard four more shots, got close enough to hear Meredith tell him that he’d have to kill her first, that she wouldn’t let him have Mallory. Idiot.’
Meredith rolled her eyes, but her voice was soft and non-accusatory when she asked, ‘Why did you shoot his arm? Why not his head?’
‘You’re the best shot of any of us, Kate,’ Adam said quietly. ‘What happened?’
Kate grimaced. ‘I was aiming for his head. My vision was a little blurry.’
Meredith’s heart stuttered. Now she understood. This wasn’t all Kate being guilty. This was also fear. Kate’s head had been hit harder than she wanted to admit and she was scared. Oh honey, Meredith wanted to say, but she held the words back, holding Kate’s hand instead. Kate tightened her grip, affirmation of just how terrified she was.
Adam let out a quiet breath. ‘Is it still blurry?’
‘Not as much. They’re going to keep me here tonight.’ She forced a smile. ‘Along with Clarke. Ironic that we brought Mer in for a head injury but we’re the ones who have to sleep over. Maybe we can watch movies. Or listen to them. The light kind of hurts my eyes.’
Adam immediately dimmed the overhead light. ‘Better?’
‘Yeah. Thank you.’
‘Why didn’t you say something to me?’ Meredith asked.
‘I didn’t want to scare you any more than you already were.’
Meredith scoffed. ‘Doofus.’
Kate’s lips curved faintly. ‘Knitted ball gag threat still in effect.’ She sighed. ‘Then I shot the SUV’s tires. I didn’t want him to have an easy getaway. But he got away anyway.’
‘We’ve got half the city out looking for him,’ Deacon assured her. ‘Where’s Cap?’
‘One of the hospital volunteers is keeping him right now. I’ll have to find someone to keep him until Decker gets home.’ Kate swallowed hard. ‘He’s booked on the first flight out tomorrow.’
‘I’ll keep Cap,’ Meredith said. ‘Or, depending on which safe house Mallory’s going to, maybe she can keep him. He seems to bring her peace. Or the idea of him does, at least.’
‘I’d forgotten about that,’ Kate said softly. ‘Please, make sure she can pet him.’
Meredith lightly kissed Kate’s temple. ‘We’ll take care of it. I’m going to see Papa for a while, but I’ll be back before I have to go. You try to rest.’