“Stay hidden until they’re distracted.”
Half of the windshield cracked from the force of a bullet, making them jump in their seats.
“Stay down,” he reminded her. “I love you.”
He didn’t take another second. There wasn’t one. From inside the car, he opened the back door, then dropped from the car and used it as a shield.
The car that had followed them was at the mouth of the alley, two men shooting from behind their own doors. They popped bullets off at different times, taking turns hiding while the other one let loose.
Markus aimed under a door, getting one of them in the foot. The man shrieked and faltered, but a moment later and he shot Markus’ window out.
Gasping for air, Markus reloaded. Blood ran down into his eye, and he shook his head to get it out. Another few shots and he got the other man in the arm.
Sirens sounded in the distance, but he didn’t even think about them. All that mattered was getting Viv out of there.
“Once I say now,” he yelled over the roar of gunfire, “go!”
He glanced at where she huddled on the floor long enough to see her head nod. Reaching around the car door, he aimed at the guy on the left.
A sharp pain hit Markus’ shoulder. His whole body shook.
Viv screamed.
He hunched behind the car door. He’d been hit. Blood poured from his shoulder and down his arm. It needed to be stopped, but there wasn’t time.
“Markus!” Viv pressed something to his shoulder to stop the flow.
“Get down,” he growled.
She ignored him. “They’re leaving.”
“What?” He pressed whatever fabric she’d given him to his shoulder and looked just in time to see the other car turn around and speed off.
“The police are coming.” Viv had gone pale. “They’ll call an ambulance.”
He realized then that she’d given him her shirt. She sat on her knees in the driver’s seat in a sports bra, touching his face while he leaned against the open door.
“You have a big cut there, too. We need something to put on that.”
His vision swam. There were two Vivs, and he couldn’t tell which one was real.
“Markus?” she whispered.
Or had it been a whisper? Maybe she’d shouted it and he was having trouble hearing. His eyelids were so heavy. He tried to reach up to touch her face, but he didn’t have the energy to do it.
“Markus, stay awake!” She cupped his face. “The medics will be here soon, okay? Focus on my face.”
He tried his hardest, but she’d gotten fuzzy around the lines. With each passing moment, losing consciousness seemed better and better. The pain had increased in his head, and all he wanted was to go to sleep.
Or maybe he was dying.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped.
“For what?” she sobbed. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“For…” He struggled to gather the strength to even speak. “Not being the man… you deserve.”
“Markus.” She put her face close to his. “You are the man of my dreams. Do you understand me?”
She pressed her lips to his. He closed his eyes, the touch becoming his personal heaven.
That was the last thing he thought.
Chapter 21
Viv
“Markus!” Viv screamed until her throat went hoarse. “Wake up!”
The sirens turned deafening. Two medics appeared, and one of them urged her to step out of the way.
“We need to examine him,” the man told her. “Ma’am, are you hurt?”
“N—no.”
She stood up, her knees jelly.
“Have a seat over here. We need to look him over.”
She slumped onto the ambulance’s bumper, eyes on where Markus lay unresponsive on the ground. The sirens kept blaring, and it was only then that she noticed the police cars pulling up.
One of the medics began doing chest compressions on Markus. Panic overtook Viv, and before she knew it, she was bolting back to him.
Someone grabbed her, holding her back.
“Ma’am,” a woman said in her ear. “They’re helping him. Come sit with us.”
Everything after that was a blur. The medics put Markus on a gurney, loaded him into the back of the ambulance, and took him to the hospital. The next thing Viv knew, she was there as well, sitting on an exam table while a nurse shone a light in her eyes.
“Where’s Markus?” she asked.
The nurse’s lips drew tight. “The man you came in with? They’re taking care of him, honey. Don’t you worry.”
“Taking care of him how? He’s… he’s alive, right?” She choked on tears.
The nurse patted Viv’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be all right. You don’t have any injuries.”
“That’s because he…” She couldn’t stop crying. “He saved me.”
She went to wipe her eyes on her sleeve, and then realized she didn’t have her shirt on. Instead, over her bra she wore a bulky jacket that one of the cops who took her to the hospital must have given her.
She thought. It was hard to remember everything that had happened following Markus being shot.
“The police want to talk to you.” The nurse hovered at the door. “I’m letting them in now, all right?”
Viv nodded. “Okay.”
No sooner had the nurse left the room than two police officers came in, one male and one female.
“Vivian,” the woman cop said. “I’m Officer Harrison and this is Officer Lopez. We want to ask you about what happened today.”
“Is Markus okay? Do you know anything about him?”
The police shared a look.
“The doctor told us he’s in surgery,” Officer Lopez said. “He had some shrapnel in his head, and he lost a lot of blood. They haven’t revealed anything else.”
Viv exhaled all the air in her lungs. When she inhaled, it felt like a new start. Okay. Surgery. He was alive.
But what were the chances that he’d still be alive come tomorrow?
Her hands started to shake, and she pressed them together to make them stop. She couldn’t think like that. If she did, she would go crazy.
“What happened in that alleyway?”
Officer Harrison took a seat in the metal chair in the corner. Her partner stayed in front of the door.
Like he was keeping people out. Or keeping Viv in.
“We were attacked,” Viv said. “Chased.”
Panic crept through her. Did Markus have a record? If they ran his driver’s license, what would they find?
“By who?”
Both Officer Lopez’s eyebrows and arms folded together. He hadn’t even heard the full story yet, and he already looked like he didn’t buy it.
Viv sucked in a breath. She had planned on going to the police as soon as possible, anyway. She would tell them everything, except leave Markus and his diamond heist out of it.
“By some men who work for my boss.” She licked her lips. “I got suspicious. A few weeks ago, my boss Mr. Romano and I went to a conference together. On the way, we stopped at this empty building and he went inside for a minute.
“I didn’t think anything of it, but then at this other work event the other day in Charleston, I heard him talking with a man who called him Dagger. And he was carrying a gun. I mentioned it to my boyfriend, Markus, because I thought that was such a funny nickname, and he said that Dagger is this big-time crime guy. So then I…”
She lowered her head. It wasn’t hard to feign shame when she already hated that all of this had happened in the first place.
“I went into Mr. Romano’s office this morning, before anyone else was there. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I thought, if he really is this evil guy, well then, people need to know.”
She peeked at the cops through her eyelashes. “I got onto his computer that he’d left on, and I found this email about a trade at the office building we’d stopped at that day. I s
ent it to myself with plans to bring it to the police. But I guess he was watching me, because when I got into Markus’ car, these guys started following and shooting at us. We ended up in that alley. The guys took off when they heard sirens.”
Okay. So maybe she’d moved some details around. It was all for the best, though. Mr. Romano was a bad man. He’d probably had multiple people ordered dead before he ever came after her, Markus, and Ryder.
Ryder!
She couldn’t ask if they knew anything about him. He’d played no role in her story.
The two officers watched her in silence. Viv could hardly gather her breath. She’d never told such a gigantic lie.
“Romano who?” Lopez asked.
“Where do you work?” Harrison asked.
“Um, Antonio Romano. I work at HW Pharma. Or I did. This is my last week.”
“Where is this email?” Officer Harrison leaned forward in her chair. “You said you sent it to yourself?”
“Yes, ma’am. It should be on my email.”
“We’d like to see that.”
“I don’t have my phone. Or my purse. I dropped them when I was running into the car.”
“Hm,” Officer Lopez said. “Be right back.” He turned on his heel and disappeared through the door.
“Do you know who Dagger Rossi is?” Officer Harrison asked.
She bit her lip. “I found out after Markus told me.”
It felt good to say something that was the truth, slight and unimportant as it might be.
“Shrapnel…” Viv trembled. “From a bullet.”
“Yes.” Officer Harrison nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“But people can get better from that, right?”
“Yes, but…” She spread her hands. “I’m not a doctor.”
The door opened, and Officer Lopez returned with a laptop that he must have borrowed from a nurse’s station. Or maybe he had it sitting in his squad car.
“I’m connecting to the Wi-Fi now,” he said, “so you can show us that email.”
Viv nodded. At this point, even talking exhausted her.
Officer Lopez handed her the laptop, and she logged into her email and opened what Ryder had forwarded her. Since it had come directly from Mr. Romano’s personal account, there was no sign of Ryder’s hand.
The cops looked over the email, then shared another one of their quiet looks.
“Miss Thomas,” Officer Harrison said. “We’d like you to come down to the station and make a formal statement. After that, you should be good to go.”
“Of course,” Officer Lopez inserted, “assuming everything continues to check out.”
“Of—of course.” Viv slid off the exam table. “Before we go, can I call my sister? I don’t want her worrying about me.”
“Sure thing.” Officer Harrison opened the door. “There are some phones in the ground-floor lobby.”
She left the exam room with the two of them, stopping briefly at a desk to get some information about coming back in if she had any concerning symptoms. The receptionist she asked didn’t know anything about Markus but promised to help once Viv returned.
Her stomach knotting in worry, she continued down to the main lobby and placed a call to Veronica.
“Hello?”
“Veronica! It’s me.” Viv squeezed her eyes shut. She hadn’t expected the sound of her sister’s voice to make her want to cry. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. We’re fine. What about you? What’s going on?”
Viv glanced over her shoulder. The police were a few yards away, having their own conversation in low voices. She didn’t trust that she wouldn’t be heard.
“A lot,” she said. “Mr. Romano is some crime lord. Hopefully, he’ll be in jail soon, but just in case… go somewhere safe, okay?”
“I got your message. We’re at Cruz’s parents.”
Viv sighed in relief. Cruz’s parents lived over two hours away.
“Where are you?” Veronica asked. “I’m coming to see you.”
“I’m at the hospital. Well, actually, I’m on my way to the police station, but then after that I’ll be back here.”,
Unless the police saw through her story and arrested her for lying.
If that was a thing. Was that a thing?
She’d never had anything remotely close to a brush with the police, and her understanding of Florida law was vague at the most.
“Why are you going to the police station?”
“To give a statement. After that, I’m back here. Markus is… hurt bad.”
Veronica made a sympathetic noise. “I’m leaving now. I’ll see you soon.”
The ride to the police station turned out to be the most nerve-wracking part. Viv had to ride in the back of a squad car, which made her feel like a criminal.
At the station, she went over her story again, this time with a couple detectives in the room. She was asked a lot of questions about her time at HW and her relationship with Mr. Romano. Near the end of it, she thought they might arrest her for breaking into Mr. Romano’s office, but apparently since she still had an access card and was technically still on the HW payroll, the cops weren’t concerned.
Besides, they had bigger fish to fry.
Thank God.
“I’ll take you back to the hospital.” Officer Harrison nodded at the door as everyone else dispersed. “Unless there’s somewhere you want to stop first.”
“No.” She jumped to standing. “I need to get back there. Thank you.”
“You don’t want to stop at your home? Maybe get some clothes?”
So that she could ditch the too-warm jacket, one of the cops had given her an oversized T-shirt from the lost and found.
“Do I need to return this shirt?”
“Nope.”
“Then, no.” Viv took the first step to the door. “I really need to get back and find Markus.”
A tiny smile flickered across Officer Harrison’s face. “He’s a lucky guy, to have a girlfriend who loves him this much.”
On the ride back to the hospital, Viv sat on the edge of her seat. After gushing her thanks to Officer Harrison, she jumped from the car and ran through the main entrance.
“I came here with Markus Sinn,” she said in a rush to the young man behind the front desk. “I need to see him. The nurse on the, I don’t know, maybe the third floor told me she could help me.”
As she rambled, Viv realized exactly how little information she had.
The man nodded, though. “I’ll look him up, and I’ll let you know when you can see him.”
“Thank you.” She nearly melted against the counter in relief.
“Viv!”
She turned at the sound of Veronica’s voice. A second later, and her sister’s arms were around her. They hugged tight, Viv feeling on the edge of breaking for maybe the hundredth time.
Veronica drew back to study her. “Your face.”
Viv touched her cheek and winced as her fingers grazed a sensitive spot beneath her eye.
“I haven’t looked in the mirror.”
“It’s not bad.” Her smile was forced. “It’s only a bruise.”
“Are Cruz and the kids still at his parents’? They’re staying there, right?”
“Yes. They are. I basically had to sneak out, though. I called Cruz after I was on the road and told him I was coming back here. Let’s sit down.”
Veronica led Viv to the rows of chairs in the waiting area.
“He must be freaking out.” Viv sighed and plopped onto a chair.
“He wants answers, that’s for sure.”
Viv cast a look around them. There were only a few other people in the waiting area, and none of them seemed the slightest bit interested in what the two sisters were discussing.
Taking a deep breath, she launched into the story, beginning with returning home the morning before and finding Markus in her parking lot. By the time she had finished, it felt like a big weight had been lifted. She no longer had to carry what h
ad happened on her own.
“But everything will be okay.” Veronica squeezed Viv’s knee. “They’ll go to that building and find whatever Mr. Romano has there.”
“If he still has something there.” She winced, hating to be pessimistic.
“If not, they have a real ID to connect to Dagger. He’s wanted for other things.”
“True.”
“You look hungry,” Veronica said, eyeing Viv closely.
Viv laughed—which took her by surprise. She wouldn’t have thought she could laugh with Markus in the hospital.
“I am hungry,” she admitted. “I haven’t eaten much at all.”
“And now you’re eating for two.” She grinned broadly.
Viv smiled as well, but her happiness came to an abrupt halt when she remembered she had no clue what kind of father her child would grow up with. A handicapped one? A dead one? She’d still received such little information.
“I’ll get us something from the cafeteria.” Veronica stood. “You stay here in case there’s some news.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Before she could leave, though, a determined woman in scrubs came out of a pair of double doors and beelined toward them. Viv rose but kept her hand on her chair’s back, not trusting her legs.
“Vivian Thomas?” The woman looked between the two of them.
“Yes. That’s me.”
“I’m Doctor Hanson. I operated on Markus.”
“Oh.”
Yep. There went her knees. Knocking already.
“Pleased to meet you.” Veronica put her arm around Viv’s shoulders. “I’m Viv’s sister. How is Markus?”
“The operation to remove the bullet shrapnel was successful. However, Markus received a great deal of stress from both the injury and the operation. As a result, he’s in a coma.”
“A coma?” Viv repeated dumbly. “For how long?”
Doctor Hanson hesitated.
“It’s uncertain. He could wake up tonight. He could wake up next week.”
The room spun. “Or not at all,” Viv said.
“Right now our focus is on providing him all of the support he needs. What happens next is uncertain, yes.” Again, she paused. “I’m sorry.”
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