Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
I couldn’t remember if Donovan had his gun. What if he was out there, unprotected? But, then again, I was talking about a Green Beret. Surely he could defend himself against an average-sized woman, right?
I knew he told me not to call Ash until I was safely in the car, moving away from the house, but I needed to talk to someone. I needed to know I wasn’t insane for heading in the wrong direction. I needed to know I hadn’t just left the man I loved to die.
The phone was shaking. Or my hands were shaking. Something was shaking. I couldn’t read the names. More gunfire. What the hell had I gotten myself into? What happened to my simple, well-ordered life?
“Donovan,” Ash’s authoritative voice barked into my ear.
“No. Kate.”
“Kate? Where are you? Where’s Donovan?”
“It’s Amanda Graham. She’s got dogs and explosives and I heard gunfire…”
“Kate, listen to me. Where are you exactly?”
“In the woods behind the house.”
“Okay. Here’s what I want you to do. Can you see the house from where you are?”
“No.”
“What can you see?”
I looked around me, feeling hysterical laughter began to build in my chest. Trees. That’s all I saw. But then I could hear Donovan’s voice in the back of my head, telling me everything was going to be okay.
“There are trees with red markings on them.”
“Good,” Ash said. “I want you to follow those. They’ll lead to a small shed. Inside you’ll find an all-terrain vehicle. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Run, Kate.”
So I did. I stopped worrying about the damn roots and the stupid vines. I still tripped. More than once. But I got to the shed faster than I would have otherwise.
“The keys are in a drawer on the workbench.”
I found them. The ATV started up without hesitation.
“What about Donovan?”
“The best thing you can do for him is get yourself out of there,” Ash said. “Drive as quickly as you can along the fence line. Do you see it, Kate?”
“Yes.”
“Good. That’ll lead you to the front gate. Then go left and just keep going until you find the police station.”
I closed my eyes, sent a quick prayer up to heaven or wherever prayers went in moments like this, and sped away so quickly that I thought I might have given myself whiplash.
The thoughts you have in moments of stress.
Chapter 29
Donovan
“Why are you protecting that bitch?” Amanda demanded. “You and I both know she’s responsible for what happened to Joshua.”
I stood behind a tree, listening closely to her footsteps, trying to figure out her exact location. I couldn’t run any more. My chest burned, my heart pounding. And the wounds in my arm were pumping so much blood, I was safer standing still. I was leaving too big a trail.
“John Kyle killed Joshua,” I wheezed.
She came closer. I could hear her footsteps before I heard her voice. So close. Why didn’t I have my gun?
I needed my fucking gun!
“But John wouldn’t have been so angry if it weren’t for her. If he hadn’t insulted her and Joshua hadn’t spit on him.”
“How is that Kate’s fault?” I called to her, jumping to another tree, trying to keep space between us.
Not enough. I could hear her tracking my voice; I could hear her come closer.
“How isn’t it? If she wasn’t giving it to every boy in town…”
“Shows how little you knew Kate back then. Not as well as Joshua. He knew she hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“He didn’t know anything like that. He just knew she was his sister and it was his job to protect her.”
“He was a good guy, but he wouldn’t have stood up for her if he’d thought it was true.”
“What do you know about it?”
She was growing agitated. Not listening to me as closely as she should be. Maybe I had a chance.
“I knew Joshua since we were both seven, Amanda. I think I knew him pretty well.”
“Just because you knew him longer—”
“I know that he loved his sister, but I’ve seen him back out of a fight because he knew Kate was in the wrong.”
“She’s the reason—”
“He knew it was me, didn’t he?”
The reality of it sunk in the moment I said it aloud. I’d kept the truth from myself all these years, but I suddenly realized how clear it really was.
Joshua had known all along. He knew Kate and I were in love. He knew that it wasn’t just some passing crush. And he knew we’d get around to telling him someday.
He defended her that night—not because she was his sister and they had a relationship like no other siblings—but because he was defending us both.
In a way, it was my fault he was attacked that night. Joshua saw the writing on the wall, knew John Kyle was out to get anybody, and he was willing to take the heat on himself. Because he knew.
Because he was my friend.
He practically told me. Days before that night, he told me.
“It was just a prank,” I said. “One last hurrah before graduation.”
“Yeah, but to pin it on John Kyle and the others? Not smart,” Joshua said. “I heard that John was arrested last month for stealing a car. Not the kind of guy you should be getting tangled up with.”
“John’s harmless. Just a wimp trying to pretend he’s a tough guy. I can deal with him.”
“Yeah, well, I hope so. Otherwise you might have just put into motion something we’ll all regret.”
Joshua glanced toward the door, aware Kate was standing just on the other side. Then he moved closer to me.
“You’ve got more important things to worry about now,” he said softly. “A future. Don’t let one last hurrah ruin that, my friend. This, this future, is too important.”
He knew. It was so clear now.
“How could any of us have known that John Kyle would lose control that night?” I asked, trying to keep her distracted, trying to find the advantage. “I don’t think even John knew it was coming. And I think he’d be the first to take it back if he could.”
“She took away the only thing that mattered to me,” Amanda said, her voice moving closer and closer. “We were going away to school together. We were going to have a life together.”
“We were all supposed to have a different life, Amanda, but sometimes, things don’t work out the way you think they will.”
“No,” she said, more to herself than to me. “No, no, no.”
I could hear the exhaustion in her voice, the crazy starting to leak out. I remembered something else Joshua once told me. Amanda saw a psychiatrist when we were in high school. She was on medication, but he didn’t know what it was for. He said she acted strangely every time he asked, so he stopped asking.
I slipped around the trunk of the tree and peeked behind me. She wasn’t there. Then I moved again, going a quarter turn each time. I spotted her almost immediately, walking slowly toward my tree, just at the wrong angle.
I waited, held my breath lest she hear me and turn around. Then I sprang on her when the moment was right.
The gun discharged, but she was going down. I landed hard, the wind once again torn from my lungs. She struggled, screaming so loudly there was a ringing in my ears when she stopped.
Secure the gun.
I reached under her body, but I couldn’t find it. Maybe she’d tossed it aside. Maybe it fell when she fell. Maybe…I searched the debris near her hand. She wasn’t moving. I thought that maybe I’d knocked her out. But the blood. There was blood. Everywhere.
I found the gun. It was caught between our bodies, her arm twisted from the break in her humerus. The pain must have knocked her out.
So why was I feeling lightheaded all of a sudden?
Then the p
ain came.
Oh…that’s it…
Chapter 30
Kate
The next few days were a blur of activity. The local police sent the entire police force, which consisted of five people, toward the property when Ash called to let them know I was on the way. A grandmotherly-looking woman in a uniform took me back to the station while the rest went in search of Donovan. I don’t even remember giving a statement, but they tell me I did.
I remembered hearing the ambulance. I remembered the lights. It was so surreal, so much like the night the lights reflected off the dunes where Joshua’s body lay. They took me to the hospital, telling me about Amanda. Amanda would be okay. She’d broken her arm and likely dislocated her shoulder. She might need surgery. But she’d be okay. I didn’t understand why I should care that Amanda would be okay.
Ash was there at some point. Ash and Joss and Rose. Kirkland and David were holding down the fort, but Ash thought it would be a good idea to bring Rose and Joss along. I don’t know why.
My daddy arrived later. Maybe days later. Maybe that day. I don’t know. Time became fluid in those days just after.
I remembered seeing Donovan. I remembered thinking he looked like Donovan, but he was too pale. Too weak. And the white bandages wrapped round his chest…that wasn’t right.
Nothing about it was right.
I remembered crying a lot. Too much.
“…puncture lung. Close to the aorta. A few minutes more…”
It was just too much.
“You promised me,” I said, holding his cold hand. “You promised you’d come find me. You’ve never broken a promise, never made a promise you knew you couldn’t keep. Don’t start now, Donovan. Don’t start breaking promises now. Not to me.”
But I was so afraid that it was too late.
It was.
Too late.
Chapter 31
At the Compound
“Amanda Graham,” Detective Emily Warren said slowly. “She was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic at the age of thirteen. Her parents believed that the disease could be controlled with medication. And it was, for a time. But the death of her boyfriend, Joshua Thompson, when she was eighteen sent her on a downward spiral. She managed to hide this spiral for some time, even attended college for a while. But then she disappeared. Her parents had no clue where she’d gone. Then, one day last June, she suddenly reappeared. She appeared to have her condition under control, so her father gave her a job at his tech company in Silicon Valley.”
“Exactly what you’d expect a loving father to do,” Kirkland said.
Emily glanced at him, but didn’t comment.
“She ran into Kate Thompson, her boyfriend’s twin sister, at the cemetery a few weeks later. They began a friendship that extended to Amanda potentially moving some of the tech company’s financial accounts to Miss Thompson’s bank. But at the same time, Amanda was targeting Kate for revenge. She obtained a copy of the police reports on the murder of Joshua Thompson and came to the conclusion that Kate Thompson was the cause of the fight that ended Joshua’s life.”
“Which is completely insane,” Kirkland interjected.
Emily glared at him.
“Amanda tested at the genius level on every intelligence test she was ever administered. It didn’t take much for her to figure out how to build a couple of IEDs. She was also something of a computer genius, working as a hacker during some of her missing time—we found emails on her computer addressed to a Philistine, a known hacker active during that time, on her computer—so it also wasn’t a stretch for her to hack your system, David.”
He inclined his head without making comment. He still blamed himself for the breach because, after all, it was his system.
“The police have raided her home in San Francisco, as well as an apartment she kept here in Santa Monica. They found enough evidence to put her away for a very long time. So, as soon as she is released from the hospital in Austin, she’ll be put on a plane to California. The district attorney believes the family will urge her to take a plea deal.”
“At least Kate won’t have to go through the ordeal of a trial.” And that was the first honest and kind thing Kirkland had said in ages.
David stared at his screens. What was done was done. Now it was time to make sure it didn’t happen again. He would not be responsible for one of Gray Wolf’s operatives…he wouldn’t let it happen again.
Not on his watch.
Chapter 32
Donovan
Pain burst through me with every breath I took. But it didn’t matter.
She was sitting in what looked like a very uncomfortable chair at my side, her hand wrapped around mine, her sweet head asleep on the thin mattress of the hospital bed. I reached around, wincing as pain sliced through my chest, and touched the top of her head with my fingertips.
She sat up as if I’d touched her with a lit match.
“Donovan?”
“Hey, baby.”
“Oh, God!” Tears welled in her eyes. “You’re awake.”
“I think I am. Or is this heaven?”
She slapped my bare shoulder. It stung, but not nearly as bad as getting shot did.
“I thought…never mind what I thought. I’m just so happy you’re awake. They weren’t sure you would wake this soon.”
“Where am I?”
“Hospital in Austin. Ash and Joss and Rose are here. And my dad. I should go tell them you’re awake.”
“Not yet.” I grabbed her hand, tugging her close to me. “I just want to look at you for a minute longer.”
She touched my face, her fingers lingering on my chin. “I was so scared.”
“It’s okay. I promised you I would find you.”
She nodded, unshed tears making her chin quiver. “So much wasted time,” she whispered.
“Too much.”
She kissed me lightly, then a little harder.
It was the best medicine I could have asked for.
Chapter 33
Kate
It was a while before Donovan got out of the hospital, but when he did, Ash sent his private jet to pick us up. I insisted that he stay with me until he was healed. Donovan didn’t complain.
“You should just move in,” I said one night.
“Here?”
“Why not? You’ll be spending most of your time here, anyway.”
“I will?”
“Yeah. That place of yours is just ridiculously small. I don’t know how David gets around inside of his. And Kirkland, all those girls…crazy.”
Donovan laughed. “Okay.”
I turned into him and kissed him. “I adore you. I don’t see why we should be separated.”
“Adore? Is that the best you can do?”
“What’s better than adore?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I can think of a few words.”
“Like?”
“Appreciate. Esteem. Desire. Worship.”
“Worship?”
“That’s a good word. Don’t you think?”
I laughed. “Only if we were in the 1940s and I was subjugated by the weaker sex.”
“The weaker sex?” he asked, his eyebrows rising even as he grabbed my arms and shook me just slightly.
“Weaker in the mind. Not the body.”
“Well, you might have a point there.”
I laughed again. But then I grew serious as I looked into his eyes.
“Seriously, what word do you think we should use?”
He ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “I’ve always been partial to love, myself.”
I nodded. “I always knew you’d be the first one to say it.”
His eyes widened, but then he just laughed and said, “I always was your puppy dog.”
~~~
BRIAN
*** Brian is the first book in my
THE CALLAHANS SERIES
Prologue
Cassidy
I sat at the table, my cell phone in my hands. I wasn�
�t playing a game or texting like most of the people around me. No, I was watching the phone, waiting for it to ring. Brianna was rarely ever late. It wasn’t like her to do this.
An hour. I’d been waiting an hour.
“Would you like more water?” the waiter asked. I could hear the roll of his eyes in the tone of his voice.
“No, thank you.”
He walked away, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before he asked me to move on. These tables were for paying customers, not for middle-aged women who just sat there all afternoon, staring at the dark screen of a cell phone.
Where the hell was she?
When my phone did ring, I jumped. I’d been waiting for it, yet it was still a surprise.
“Brianna? Where the hell are you?”
“She’s a little busy at the moment.”
The deep, electronic voice scared me more than the sudden ringing of the phone had. I pulled the phone away from my ear and double-checked the screen. It was my daughter’s face, staring at me from the picture I’d taken last month—her red hair and green eyes so much like her father’s—and her name across the bottom of the screen. It was her number the call came from.
“Who is this?”
“All you need to know is that we have your daughter. We won’t hurt her as long as you do everything we say.”
“But…I don’t have anything.”
“You have the one thing we want. So listen close…”
Chapter 1
Brian
“How many children do you have?”
I laughed as I watched her walk around the room. Her name was Rachel Thomas, and she’d said she wanted to do some sort of article about me for a high-profile magazine. Prosperity, she’d said it was called. They were interested in both the business and private side of the man behind MCorp.
She had no idea what she was getting into.
MCorp started as a security firm that sold home alarm systems. It was supposed to be a small business, something Jack McGuire and I could run together legitimately to cover up the illegal activities that were our true moneymakers. But then it became this conglomerate that included everything from a small pizza franchise to a clothing manufacturing business to an interest in real estate all across the East Coast. I was the CEO, the top boss next to Jack. Jack was really the one they should be doing this story about, but again, Jack would never talk to a reporter. It was too risky.
COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) Page 31
