by Lori Foster
“Can’t prove it by me.”
Even one-eyed, Tobin managed a sour frown. “I took a pain pill a few minutes ago.” With one wrapped hand, he held his ribs. “God willing, it’ll kick in soon.”
It blew Jackson away that Alani kept quiet through that display of pain. Expecting to see her near tears, he glanced at her, but instead, she frowned intently, and she had her hands locked together in her lap.
Upset but not falling apart.
Proud of her, he turned back to Tobin. “The meds don’t put you to sleep?”
“No. No rest. No sleep. I don’t dare. Not until I know…”
“That your ass is safe?” Jackson leaned against the bed. “I get it.”
“Actually, I’m not the villain you want me to be.” He looked beyond Jackson to Alani. “I know you can’t forgive me. I can’t forgive myself. But when you dumped me…” He labored for air, wheezing, struggling to suppress a cough. “It killed my ego, as you said.”
Jackson’s eyebrows shot up at the admission. “Not your heart, huh?”
“No one has rejected me in a long time.” He lifted a hand but lowered it back carefully to the bed. “The perks of power and prestige.”
Alani stood but didn’t go near Tobin. Instead she sidled up next to Jackson. “What did you do, Marc?”
“After I left your place that first time, people approached me. They said he was dangerous to you. They said they were bounty hunters and he was wanted, that there would be a reward. They said…” Self-loathing filled his broken confession. “They said a lot of shit, and after the way he took me out, I wanted to believe it.”
Did that saccharine admission work on Alani? Jackson curled his lip. “You want me to think you acted out of her best interest?”
“Not then, no. But now…I know you want to keep Alani safe. I realize now that’s what you were doing. I didn’t know…never suspected that people would be so…” He fell quiet. “Is that what you went through? When you were taken?”
Jackson worked his jaw. He prayed not. To keep Alani from answering, rehashing the past and giving Tobin too much info, he said, “Let’s talk about you, Tobin, okay?”
Tiredly, the man nodded. “Yeah, let’s. Here’s the deal—guarantee my safety first, and then I’ll tell you what I can so that you can keep Alani out of their reach.”
A red haze clouded Jackson’s vision. “Yeah, you’re an altruistic motherfucker, aren’t you?”
“You can’t make me feel worse than I already do, and it changes nothing. I want to live.”
“What makes you think I can ensure that?”
“Because even though they wore masks, I saw their eyes.” Tobin met his gaze unflinchingly. “And you have the same look.”
“Fuck you.”
Alani’s hand moved up and down his arm. She leaned into him—and that was all he needed to regain his cool composure.
“I don’t mean…mean cruel.” Tobin swallowed, wincing in more pain. “I mean capable. You walk in the same stratum. You understand them.”
True enough. Jackson narrowed his eyes as he considered things. “Tell me what happened without the bullshit. Straight-up facts, that’s all I want. All of it. Start at the beginning.”
Tobin nodded. “When I killed the electricity…it was to set you up.” He paused for two heartbeats. “I wanted to hurt you and I wanted to hurt her. I just never suspected…”
Alani shifted. “That you were dealing with monsters?” Shaking, she took a step forward. “They could be the very people who kidnapped me. The people who would have sold me.”
Jackson watched Tobin and saw no reaction to that disclosure. So he’d already known they were human traffickers?
“They could have killed Jackson.”
“Or you,” Tobin said. “But I didn’t realize. I thought they’d take him, rough him up. I thought they had some personal beef with him. He’d be out of the picture, and I’d be the one there with you.”
“And then what?” Alani demanded. “There was never anything substantial between us.”
“Hell, I don’t know. I figured you’d be upset, need a shoulder…” He swallowed. “I admit it’s the dumbest move I ever pulled.”
Trying to be subtle, Jackson tugged Alani closer again. He didn’t want to make a big deal of her upset, especially with her trying to hide it.
He stated the obvious. “You know she was taken by human traffickers.”
“I do now.” Sad, apologetic, he looked toward her. “I was kept in a small structure. Like a shed maybe. When I got free, I saw there was an old stone building nearby, too. I could hear…” He stopped, struggling for breath.
“Shit.” Jackson put Alani back as he stepped forward. “You bastard. You left women behind, didn’t you?”
Tobin nodded. “I couldn’t help anyone. I could barely get myself out of there. But I heard…suffering.” Again he glanced at Alani. “Several women.”
Jackson already had his phone in his hand. “Tell me where, and make it fast.”
“You’ll keep them from killing me?”
“If I don’t kill you myself.”
Somehow his swollen, broken lips worked in the way of a smile. “That’s what she’s here for.” But he wasted no more time. “I was off the highway, about a mile into the woods.” He told what he could, then waited, his gaze locked on Alani, while Jackson relayed the message to Trace.
It wasn’t easy to keep his cool, especially with Tobin eyeballing her like that. Jackson stepped in front of him to block his view. Holding the phone away, he asked, “When did this happen? How long since you’ve been away?”
Tobin gazed up at the clock, then flinched. “About twelve hours.”
“So much time,” Alani worried aloud. “They could be gone by now.”
“Probably are,” Jackson said, but he filled in Trace before disconnecting the call. He turned to Alani with an air that she didn’t misinterpret: the less Tobin knew, the better.
She nodded in understanding.
Did she also understand that he would do everything he could to find the women, and so would her brother and Dare?
Subsiding, she back-stepped until her calves found the seat. She dropped into it again.
Jackson paced between her and Tobin. “How’d you get away? No way in hell did you walk the forty miles to this hospital. And there’s another hospital that’s closer anyway. How’d you end up here?”
“Two hospitals are closer, but they were too risky. I figured they’d look for me there first. After a trucker picked me up, I stayed with him for as long as I could stand to, until I…until I thought I’d die if I didn’t lay down. Then he dropped me off in the emergency entrance, and here I am.”
Not bad. At least Tobin had tried to think ahead and act a little smarter. “You’d have been better off skipping hospitals all together, but then, I guess you don’t have a doctor who knows how to keep quiet?”
“Never necessary before.”
“Think about it for the future, because they’ve already found you here. I took care of a few goons on my way in.”
Panic lifted Tobin up despite his pain. “Where? How many? Why didn’t you tell me—”
“Shh. It’s all right.” Suddenly Alani was there again, offering Tobin another drink of water. As he sipped, she said, “They can’t hurt you right now. Jackson won’t let them.”
Jackson lifted a brow—but damn it, she was right.
“They weren’t dead when I left them, so who knows how much time we have. If you’ve got information worth your life, you better start sharing it.”
Alani set the water aside. “The trucker didn’t call the police?”
“No.” Groaning, Tobin settled back again. What little color had rushed into his face leeched out once more, thanks to aches and pains. “I gave him my watch to keep his mouth shut.”
Jackson scoffed. “You’re telling me they didn’t take your watch?”
“Believe me, I offered it to them. Even begged them to
take it. They laughed and hit me some more.” One hand curled but not tightly; from the looks of his fat fingers, his tormentors had popped a few knuckles. “They said I might as well understand that all they wanted were answers.”
“What were the questions?” Alani asked.
Jackson curled his lip. “Apparently nothing that he could help them with, or he’d be dead right now.”
“Exactly. I’m ashamed to admit it—”
Folding his arms, Jackson said, “Yeah, yeah, you’re suffering shame. We get it.”
“—but I told them what I knew.”
“Which was squat.” And thank God, because if Tobin had led the cretins back to Alani, Jackson would be finishing him off himself right now.
“I told them your name, where Alani worked, the hours she kept.”
“Oh, Marc.” On the verge of panic, Alani covered her mouth. “My employees, my office—”
“They’ll be fine,” Jackson assured her. “Already took care of it.”
Without questioning that, proving her trust, Alani wilted. “Thank God.”
“I’m so fucking sorry.” Tobin swallowed and turned his face away. “They wanted to know where Jackson took you, but I had no idea. I tried telling them anything I could think of, but it wasn’t enough.”
“And so they continued to coerce you.” Alani drew a slow breath and put back her shoulders. “You’re not accustomed to those types of people. I understand. Few would hold up in the face of deliberate pain.” Blindly she reached for Jackson’s hand.
Surprised, he went one better, tugging her into his body, wrapping his arms around her from behind.
Surrounding her as much as he could.
He needed her to know that he would never, not under any circumstances, betray her. He’d happily die first.
As if she understood, she leaned back against him and folded her hands over his. “If you want to make some amends, Marc, you can answer Jackson’s questions now.”
“Of course.” His one eye grew watery. “I’m grateful that you were with Jackson, and that you weren’t hurt by what I did.”
“Be grateful that Jackson wasn’t hurt, either, or my attitude would be entirely different.”
Huh. Nice sentiment. After Jackson gave her a small squeeze of appreciation, he reclaimed control of the topic. “The other night, who was the second shooter?”
Tobin looked at him in confusion.
Disgusted, Jackson shook his head. “Don’t get cagey now. In for a penny and all that shit. You might as well tell me.”
He stared at Jackson. “I don’t understand.”
“One person shot at us,” Alani explained. “But someone else was there, too. A second shooter.”
“I only know about one shooter. The same one who grabbed me when I ran off. The same one who had told me you were out to hurt Alani.”
Deadpan, Jackson said, “Seems you’re not much more help to us than you were to them.”
“But…I swear. I don’t know—”
The shrill ringing of the hospital phone made Alani jump and wrought a short screech from Tobin.
They all looked at the phone, there on the bedside table.
Horror filled Tobin’s gaze as he said, “You told someone I was here? Who did you tell?” Voice higher, panicked, “What the hell have you done?”
“Not a damn thing.” Jackson strode to the phone and picked it up. He put it to his ear and, not saying a thing, waited.
A digitally enhanced voice greeted him. “You son of a bitch, you took out two of my best men.”
Tuning out Alani and Tobin, Jackson concentrated on the caller. “Three actually.” Surprised silence greeted him. “Guess you just can’t get good help these days, huh? But then, you should already know that crime doesn’t pay.”
“And you’re a smartass, too.” A demonic laugh came over the line. “I should have realized.”
Jackson lifted out his cell and thumbed in a code. There wasn’t much Trace could do about a caller on the line, but he needed to know everything, every step of the way.
“Nothing to say to that, I take it?”
“You were waiting for confirmation?” Jackson faked a yawn. “I didn’t realize.”
“Well, realize this, you smug bastard—I’m coming for you.”
“Yeah?” He got the code back from Trace. No one suspicious or obvious in the area, inside or out. But the caller knew of the men he’d disabled and left in a closet. Did that mean they had someone undercover in the hospital? “When should I expect you?”
“Soon enough.”
He cut to the chase. “How’d you know to call here?”
Another evil laugh. “I’d lie and say I found the dupe, but truth is, I had a lackey call every area hospital until he was finally connected to a room with Marc Tobin.”
Believable, but he wouldn’t swallow that just yet. “And the goons I massacred?”
“I dispatched a few to each area hospital—just in case.”
“No shit? You’re that thorough?” And obviously part of a large operation.
“Always. Very. You might want to remember that.”
Like he would forget? “So how did you know I walked through them?” Fishing for answers, Jackson asked, “One of them get loose?”
Another beat of silence. “You mean…you didn’t kill them?”
It struck Jackson then: “Wait, I get it. You know they’re done for, because I answered the phone, right? If they’d been successful—”
“You’d be on your way to me right now instead of hanging out in that fool’s room.”
Not dead himself? Interesting. “You know, since we’re having this nice little chat, why don’t you tell me what it is you want?”
“Initially…just you.”
Relief coursed through his blood. So Alani was only a bystander to it all? Preferable.
But before he could relax, the caller said, “Now, since you’ve put me to so much trouble, I figure I’ll take the girl, as well.”
Jackson tamped down the gut-wrenching rage to keep his tone indifferent. “Yeah?” Refusing to look at Alani, he asked, “What girl is that?”
A rusty laugh. Another and another, building in pleasure and anticipation. “Maybe,” the voice whispered with abrupt malice, “I’ll just take them both.”
The call disconnected.
Jackson wanted to be calm. He wanted to be precise and methodical. In the past, no problem. His cold detachment from a fight was one of the first things to earn praise from Dare and Trace.
But that was before Alani.
Now, it seemed he shared a live connection with her that impacted every nuance of his being. Sometimes even his heartbeat fell into sync with hers, making him aware of every change in her demeanor, her excitement, her worry.
And right now, her distress.
She moved so close to him that he could feel her warmth and breathe in the sweet scent of her. Her presence made his life better—and more difficult.
He took a second to compose himself, to clear his head and open his mind to possibilities other than her being grabbed by a trafficker capable of beating a putz like Marc Tobin to the brink of death.
He’d get her out of here, he’d keep her safe.
No one would take her from him.
First things first.
Shooting for nonchalance, he turned back to the room. “Where were we?”
“Well,” Alani said patiently, her gaze watchful, “I’m close to hyperventilating, and Marc passed out.”
Bemused, Jackson scowled down at the other man—and saw it was true. “Oh, for the love of…” He stalked over to Tobin and clapped his hands over his head.
Loudly.
Tobin came to with a lurching cry.
“We’ll move you today.”
Gaze darting everywhere in unrelenting fear, Tobin asked, “To where?”
“Better if you don’t know that yet.” He went to the window to look out, then to the door to check out the hallway. He
came back to the bedside to hit the nurse’s buzzer. “Stay awake, and keep a nurse in here with you if you can. Tell her something is hurting. Shouldn’t be a stretch, right?”
“For how long?”
“An hour or less. It’s being arranged.” Jackson pointed a finger at him. “In the meantime, don’t talk to anyone. Don’t contact anyone. Don’t get a wild hair and check in with your office or notify family that you’re fine. None of it. You got me?”
“Yes.” He tried to shift up in the bed and grimaced.
“Stay put. People are on it. You won’t see me again for a while, but you’ll be fine.”
Drawing a slow, deep, careful breath, Tobin asked desperately, “You’re sure of that?”
“Positive.”
As if given a vast reprieve, he closed his unbandaged eye and sank into the bedding. “Thank you.”
“I’m not doing it for you.”
“Jackson.” Reproachful, Alani shook her head at him before addressing Tobin. “He’s surly, but he wouldn’t lie. If he says you’ll be okay, then you will be.”
Tobin gave one nod. “I know.”
It was bad enough that Tobin had been a party to the bullshit, and still Jackson had to ensure his safety. He’d keep him alive. He didn’t need Alani bolstering the guy, too.
Jackson took her hand. “Come on. You and I need to have a little talk, sooner rather than later.”
Alani held his one hand with both of hers. “About what?”
As he exited the room, they passed the nurse. She did a double-take, smiled and watched as he kept walking.
Alani scowled back at her, but he reclaimed her attention by saying, “I’ve been putting it off, but it’s past time now, so I have to tell you about Arizona.”
“Arizona?”
The hall was clear except for the bustle of rubber-shoed nurses and doctors reading charts. He had a lot to do to wrap up the day, and he wanted to get to it. “The girl I told you I saved on that bridge?”
“Oh.” Full of understanding and sympathy, she trotted beside him.
How long would that last? he wondered.
“You think that has something to do with Marc and the people who had him?”
“Probably.” At the elevator, he held the door for an elderly couple. The woman, in her eighties, pushed a wheelchair with an equally aged gentleman seated inside. She struggled with the chair, so Jackson said, “Let me.”
