Chapter Twelve
JoJo
I hustled after Charlie. Shock had turned her a pasty color. I caught up and steered her to my SUV. “With me.” I opened the passenger door and she climbed inside. “What hospital?”
“OU Med.” She blinked once, and her glazed-over stare worried me.
“Charlie, you need to pull your shit together.” I barked out the command, like I did with rookies on the battlefield. I knew too much about shock.
She whipped her head my direction, her eyes alight with her normal fire. Pissed off at me, like usual. “How? Why were you here?”
“I’ve been shadowing you and Brie,” I added Brie as an afterthought. I’d failed to protect Brie because I’d been so focused on Charlie. The idea of her lying in a pool of blood made my own run cold. I suppressed the shudder. “You need on-the-ground protection. Patrol cars just do cleanup.”
“Cleanup...” She echoed my words. “The blood...oh God, Brie.” A sob escaped before she bit her cheek, stopping the tears. “She has to be okay.”
“Right shoulder wound, maybe hit a blood vessel, but shouldn’t be too bad. She’ll need surgery.”
“You’re a gunshot expert?” Her anger simmered, looking for an escape.
“I’ve seen too many wounds. It happens when you’re in the Marines.” I would never get some of those memories out of my head. Seeing my friends with dead eyes, gunshot to the heart. Delta and I had never found the bastards who’d shot them. My accusations had been as bad as the fists I’d thrown. Another soldier had executed my friends, but Uncle Sam didn’t like that idea, and I had no proof, so I’d been sent packing, barely escaping a bad conduct discharge. Not that I gave a damn.
“I forgot you were a soldier.”
I wish I could forget, but that wasn’t happening, ever. Turing into OU Med Center, I parked by the ER entrance. “She’ll be fine.”
Charlie hesitated, biting her lower lip. “Yeah?”
“Trust me. Now, move your ass.” Right now she needed the anger to spur her on, make the last of her shock melt away. She looked like hell. Blood soaked the knees of her khakis, shallow cuts peppered her arms, and her color still hadn’t returned. She needed to be examined and to change into new clothes. I sent a quick text to Danvers so he could arrange for a change of clothes before he came to the hospital.
Charlie rushed to the admitting desk. “What’s Brie Devough’s status?”
The nurse pursed her lips, ready to deliver a set-down.
“I’m with OKCPD, she’s my partner.” Red splotched her cheeks now.
“Ms. Devough is in surgery, she was stable when they took her in. That’s all I know.”
“Now, add Charlie to your patient list.” I stepped forward. “She was in the same attack.”
The nurse assessed Charlie’s injuries. “Come with me, I’ll get you right back—”
“No, I don’t—” Charlie protested.
“Stop. You have cuts all over you, go get checked out. We’ll have hours before we know anything about Brie.”
She deflated and nodded to the nurse before following her through a door that only opened when the nurse swiped a card over a sensor. Good. It wouldn’t be easy if Franco’s guys came here to finish the job. I surveyed the room and selected a chair in a corner with a good sightline to the door and hallway off the ER. I didn’t want any more surprises.
Two weeks of shadowing Charlie had been hell, making me want her more every goddam day. I’d cursed her and myself for our stubbornness. She wanted nothing to do with a biker and I refused to beg. And when the bullets flew, my world froze. I understood what I’d almost lost. I’d lost it before when Laney died.
Laney had been thirteen when she died. A freaking online predator convinced her to run away, pretending to be a girl her age. The pervert had kept my precious sister alive three days, doing terrible things to her before he killed her. I’d been on the tarmac heading home on emergency leave when I’d got the call from my father—the last time I spoke to him. He said two words before I hung up. I still heard those words in my nightmares. “She’s dead.” I cancelled my leave and went back to work—the best thing in my family had been broken and killed. She was gone—to heaven if God existed—and I had no need to go home to see the family who’d let her be taken. That had been the beginning of the end of my military career. The anger that still poisoned me had eaten me up and made me a fucking puppet for too long.
I shut the door on my dark memories. I didn’t need my past screwing with my head. My emotions were doing a good job of that already. My feelings ran deep for a woman I’d kissed once, one who wanted nothing to do with me. Charlie was light and goodness with a streak of badass that drove me crazy. I wanted her in my bed, sure, but more than that I wanted to get under her armor and discover what lay beneath. A dangerous yearning, yet I couldn’t lock it away, so I’d make it happen.
Steps echoed on the tile waiting room floor, and Danvers met my steely stare.
“Docs are checking Charlie out now, and Brie is in surgery.”
“How bad was it?” He collapsed into the chair next to mine.
“They’d have died if I wasn’t there.” I’d blocked that notion from my mind, not ready to go there. “One car for cover, but the opposition had MP5s and all the right angles. I spooked them when I shot back—they hadn’t anticipated any other backup.”
Danvers nodded. “You do any damage?”
“I cracked both windows and shot out a tire on the driver’s side, but I had to stay with the women, so I couldn’t pursue them.” They’d gotten away because I didn’t have backup. I’d let the prospect go back to Ardmore after the first week—a mistake.
“License, make?”
“Black Chevy Tahoe, less than five years old. No rear license plate,” I told him. “It will be stolen and you’ll find it burned out. They were professionals. Franco’s men.”
“Dammit. I needed this to be hype. We aren’t equipped for this level of threat.” His phone rang as if on cue. He swiped the screen. “Danvers.”
I heard a fast string of words.
“When?” he barked out. A quick silence. “Both of them?... Send four units to the hospital. Protect my detectives at all costs.” He punched the end button with too much force. “Goddammit.” He hung his head then swung it over to look at me. “Both of the Logans are dead in jail. The prosecutor is in another hospital across town.” He ground his teeth together and the pulse point at his jaw ticked with rapid-fire precision. “All this happened within the space of one hour.”
“Cleaning house. I told you it’d come.” I blew out a breath.
“Glad you were there. You stopped them from wiping out my team.” He ran a hand over his bald head. “You got any plans to stop this?”
“Make it more efficient to take out Mickey—it’s the only shot. None of us can take on Franco—either Mickey goes away, everyone else dies, or the Marshals make the witnesses disappear. The last two options aren’t acceptable to me.”
“So you’re going to, what, kill Mickey?” He snorted. “You aren’t a killer.”
“Nope, I’m not. If anyone but Franco pulls that trigger, it’s war anyway, so I have to keep her alive long enough to make the big boss sweat.” I grinned. “I’m good at being a pain in the ass.”
Tom, Brie’s boyfriend, rushed into the room. “I was in a standoff across town. How’s Brie?”
I stood and clasped his shoulder. Danvers stood on the other side with a hand to his shoulder.
“Brie will be fine. The gunshot wound went straight through her right shoulder, hit a bleeder, but not the main one. Docs are sewing her up now.”
He glanced from Danvers to me. “You telling me straight?” Tom had seen combat with Danvers, but not with me.
Danvers nodded. “Joe never lies.”
That wasn’t true. I lied to the low-life I hunted all the damn time, but I’d never lie about something important.
“What happened?” He sat on my other side and Danvers moved to sit beside him.
I told my story again and wished I had more to share. The truth was I had very little to show for my so-called protection.
“Man, you ever need anything, say the word. You saved both of their lives today.” Tom clapped me on the back. “So what’s the fucking plan?”
“Protect them at all costs.” I met his gaze and saw the same determination I felt.
“Consider me on leave until this is resolved.” Tom stared over at his captain. “You got a problem with that?”
Danvers held up his hands. “Nope. I’d take her away from here and wouldn’t tell anyone where.”
“At least while she’s wounded.” I had a different plan.
Two sets of angry faces swung my way. “Way I figure it, they’ll keep coming until we show our strength or the trial happens. Then the girls will have to go into witness relocation.”
Tom’s shoulders slumped. “I’m five steps behind. I never thought they’d go after cops. Obviously you did.”
I had no doubt the strike would come. Criminals know one way to do things—by force. You only changed their mind with greater force. “This is going to sound crazy.”
“Good, I’m ready for some crazy,” Charlie spoke up.
I hadn’t heard her come out. I stared up into cold blue eyes ready to kick some ass. Her cuts were clean, her arm in a sling, and blood still stained her pants. She looked like she’d survived hell and was ready to give some back.
“Sit here, darling.” I patted my knee.
She rolled her eyes and sat next to Danvers. “Tell us your plan.”
“It involves you as bait.” I laid out the worst of it first.
Danvers looked away.
“If we go into hiding then they’ll wait us out. We have to stand in the open and defeat their efforts to kill you. Then it makes sense for them to kill Mickey instead.”
“That’s not—”
“That’s the only way you don’t end up with a new name, away from everyone you know and love.” My words were ruthless but she needed to understand.
Silence met my statement.
“My parents, my brothers...” Her quiet words hung in the air.
“It’s you or him, and Franco needs to choose him.”
Tom shook his head. “Brie will fight me, but until she’s healed I’ll lock her up.”
Charlie nodded. “She can’t be part of this.”
“And you can?” Danvers frowned. “Joe lives by his own code, and I can’t say he’s wrong about the outcome. But can you live with that?”
Charlie blew out a breath. “I’m not hiding, it’ll only make it worse. If Mickey and I are still standing when it’s time for court, I’ll testify, but I’m not letting the feds protect me. If I remember right, the last witnesses were killed in Marshal custody.”
“That’s the truth.” I glared at Danvers. “And you’re not testifying.” No way would I let her put that kind of bull’s-eye on her back.
“You aren’t the boss of me.” She shot me a look sharp enough to slice out my heart. “I’ll do what’s right.” Anger lit up her cheeks, a beautiful rosy hue. She was sexier mad. “And why were you there to begin with?”
“I’ve been your shadow for two weeks, waiting for the attack.”
“You...” she sputtered. “You did what?” She turned her icy glare on Danvers. “And you let him?”
“He doesn’t answer to me, but his intervention did save your life.”
Damn right it did. “And I’m sticking by your side until this is over. Delta—he served with us too—will watch my six if we need him.”
Danvers nodded. “Good plan. That man is deadly.”
“Do I have a say in this?” Charlie asked.
“You can say what you want, but I’ll sleep on your goddam doorstep if I need to.” This wasn’t up for negotiation.
“And you two...what do you think?” Charlie stared from Danvers to Tom.
“I plan to take Brie away at least until her shoulder heals.” Tom shot me a sympathetic look. “You need the backup, Charlie, don’t be stupid.”
Danvers didn’t speak for a long time. “Either the feds or him, pick your poison.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I hated when Danvers picked the moral ground. He didn’t want me near Charlie because he knew what I wanted. I wanted everything, and I didn’t have close to an even trade. I was a shell of a man, not sure I had anything good inside me to give her.
“Not much of a choice.” Charlie stared at me. “Why do you want to help me?”
“I just will. Bank on it.” I refused to go there. All my answers would piss her off. She’d made her feelings, or lack of them, clear. But I’d change her mind.