She smiled and kept driving.
“Stop the car!”
The S curve was next. Gabi kept going.
“Stop the car!” This time Solomon grabbed the wheel.
Gabi hit the brake, hard.
As soon as the car rolled to a stop, Solomon hit the button of her seat belt. “Get out.”
“What? What’s—”
“Get out!” He reached over, opened the door, and pushed.
She couldn’t move fast enough before Solomon was out of his side and dragging her from the car. He grasped her hand and ran. She had no choice but to move her feet or risk taking them both down.
“What’s going on?” The words no sooner fell from her lips than noise, heat, and an unknown force pushed her off her feet.
Solomon tucked her into his side as the ground rushed to meet them. Her left arm took the brunt of her fall and pain shot through her.
She couldn’t hear, but the flames coming from behind told her why.
Gabi shielded her eyes when the second explosion went off.
Solomon forced his face in front of hers, his lips were moving but all she heard was ringing.
The Aston blazed in flames.
Solomon placed a hand on her chin. His mouth moved in what she thought was a question. Are you OK?
She nodded even as she began to shake. I can’t hear. She felt vibration in her throat but couldn’t hear her own words.
Solomon pointed to his own ears and shook his head. He lifted his hand that still held his cell phone and said something into it before dropping it to his side.
One of the back tires blew and Gabi’s entire body shook.
Her life could have ended today.
Solomon reached around her and held on.
She let him.
The closed driving course belonged to the police department, making them first on the scene. Gabi knew her hearing loss wasn’t permanent when she heard the high pitch of the fire department sirens.
Dazed, she watched a dozen officials running around the otherwise empty lot. The orange cones close to the Aston melted in a surreal slow death. Someone lifted her arm and encased it in a bandage. She looked down, noticed blood for the first time. Adrenaline must have taken over, because she hadn’t felt a thing after her first kiss with the ground.
Shock, she realized on a level outside her consciousness.
People around her were speaking, but she couldn’t hear any of the softer sounds.
It wasn’t until a paramedic attempted to get her to stand that the adrenaline left her system.
Pain shot in her arm, her knee, and her head was on fire.
The medics lifted her onto the gurney and laid her down.
Solomon shook off the men at his side and stayed close. Watching life, and feeling the pain begin a series of explosions inside her without all the sound that came with it, offered a twist in her conscious.
Movement to her left had her twisting her head.
Hunter . . . his crisp suit slightly ruffled . . . why she thought of the condition of his clothing wouldn’t occur to her for hours, but his clothes stuck out. The frantic man under them, however, wasn’t something she recognized.
He pushed through the police at the scene, pointed her way, and rushed to her side.
Sound was muffled, a mix of sirens and low-pitched bass that made it impossible to hear single words.
Hunter was talking to her, but she couldn’t take in a single word.
He gripped her hand and turned his attention to the paramedic.
Hunter nodded a few times, then looked at her.
That’s when she saw it.
Emotion . . . raw, unscripted.
Unshed tears sat behind his eyes, desperation filled his face.
He climbed into the ambulance with her, spoke to someone behind him. When the door closed and what she could hear was nothing but the screech of a noisy emergency vehicle, she closed her eyes.
Hunter squeezed her hand.
She squeezed back.
Apparently patience was something Hunter was going to learn in the course of a week. He arrived in time to sit beside Gabi on the way to the hospital, but he couldn’t talk to her. The second she was unloaded from the back of the ambulance, the emergency room staff whisked her away.
Someone dragged him away to ask questions . . . most of which he couldn’t answer. Allergies to medications, previous medical conditions?
He didn’t know his wife at all.
It wasn’t long before Neil and Gwen arrived. Shortly after, Samantha ran in. When Judy arrived, she was on the phone with Gabi’s family.
Neil explained what he knew but didn’t elaborate.
When one of the nurses called Hunter’s name, he jumped. So did everyone else in their party.
She ushered them into a small room, where the women took a seat and the men stood. “You’re wife is resting comfortably, Mr. Blackwell. The doctor medicated her and splinted her arm.”
“Splinted her arm?” Samantha asked.
“A fracture. Nothing that won’t heal in six weeks.”
Hunter wasn’t worried about her arm. “Can she hear anything yet?”
The nurse didn’t commit. “Like the medics told you . . . the blast will affect her hearing for a few hours. She responds to loud sounds, but words might take a day to come back. Most of the time this is temporary. The man she was with—”
“Solomon?” Neil asked.
“Yes, his hearing is already returning.”
Thank God. At least they could talk to him and learn something about what had happened. Not that Hunter needed that.
“When can I see her?” Hunter asked.
“I can take you back now. Two at a time. We’re really busy and can’t have the halls filled with people.”
Hunter stood and Judy took the space beside him. “If I don’t give Meg an update, she’ll go crazy.”
The nurse led the two of them through the busy halls of the ER and into a private room where Gabi lay.
Her eyes were closed, her arm hung in a sling. The monitors hooked to her buzzed with bleeps and dings. None of it made any sense. All that mattered was that the woman on the gurney was breathing
She opened her slightly glossy eyes and tried to smile.
“Oh, Gabi,” Judy moved to the gurney first, placed her hand next to Gabi’s. “Can you hear me?”
Gabi focused for a minute, then muttered, “Can’t hear you.” She lifted a white board someone in the ER had given her and pointed to it.
Judy lifted it, scribbled the question How do you feel? and then turned it toward Gabi.
“Like garbage,” he heard Gabi say.
Gabi laid her hand over Judy’s before she could write another question. “Tell Val I’m fine.” The words were almost a whisper this time . . . evidence that Gabi couldn’t hear her own voice.
Judy looked at Hunter. “Does she look fine to you?”
No. She looked tired, injured, drugged. “There isn’t anything Val can do, even once they get here. Put the man at ease. Tell him what the nurse told us. Broken arm, temporary hearing loss.”
“What if it isn’t temporary?”
Hunter’s nose flared. “There still isn’t anything Val can do. Give the man something to hope for.”
Judy nodded and wrote a note. Calling your brother. Love you.
Gabi tried to smile before closing her eyes.
Judy left the room and Hunter moved to the chair beside the gurney and sat while Gabi slept.
He slowed down . . . to the beats of her heart on the monitor . . . Hunter paused his life.
Every once in a while a loud noise would present itself outside the door of her room, and he felt her jolt. Proof she was hearing something even as she slept.
The phone in his pocket buzzed, rocking him out of his thoughts. He answered when he saw Remington’s number. “I don’t have time for you right now.”
Silence.
Hunter waited, and then bit his lip.
“Get my message?” The Hispanic voice filled the call.
You’re a dead man sat on his lips. Practicing the patience life was teaching him. Hunter said, “Yes.”
“No cops, Mr. Blackwell.”
“Questions will be asked.”
“Questions you can divert. Ten million . . . cash.”
“Not possible.”
“Shall I blow up a day care, Mr. Blackwell?”
Hunter now knew what it felt like to have his balls in a vise. “When?”
“I’ll be in touch.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Pause . . . Pause everything.
Easier said than done.
Random car explosions had a way of attracting police attention. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Gabi wasn’t able to communicate with the authorities. The amount of friends that exploded on the scene was ridiculous. And to sweeten the pot, the media had parked themselves outside the hospital doors in search of a story.
Hunter looked around the lobby of acquaintances and found one set of stoic eyes. He waved Neil over and suggested they find a quiet, private place to talk.
“The police are asking questions,” Neil told him once they were alone.
“The caller said no police.” Hunter ran a hand on the back side of his neck.
“Tell me exactly what he said.”
Hunter rephrased the first conversation on the phone, and then told Neil about the second. “Both times, the phone calls came in from phone numbers I recognized. First was Gabi’s cell, then a colleague.”
“So our guy has hacking skills.”
“How can he do that?”
“Same way someone sends e-mails about Viagra to you using Grandma’s e-mail address. All you need is a contact list.”
Hadn’t Remington said that his phone had been jacked in Columbia? “Fuck.”
“He had a thick Hispanic accent.”
Neil scowled. “Like, say, a Colombian drug lord?”
Hunter came to the same conclusion. “Have you heard from your people in Florida?”
“I have the name Diaz. No description. From what I’m told, he has all his dirty work done for him. His drug operation is well-oiled, and if anyone on his route is caught, they end up dead. Looks like he has ties to the prison system in Colombia, as well as Florida and Texas. He’s been quiet since Picano’s last shipment ended up in the bottom of the ocean.”
Hunter shook his head. “I deal with corporate sharks, Neil. This is out of my league.”
“Lucky for you, I’m not out of mine. I’ll have my cyber team work on the cell phone calls. You need to convince Gabi to accept a house arrest until we solve this. We can protect her there.”
“The car was in our garage this morning.”
“Didn’t you tell me it was in the shop last week?”
He’d forgotten that.
Neil moved on. “I’ll check on that. Most likely our guy used that opportunity.”
“How did he know there was an opportunity to take?”
“He’s watching you. Watching Gabi.”
Hunter found himself looking around.
“What about Hayden?”
“It’s easier to protect him in your home.”
“I don’t have custody yet. If I mention any of this to the mother, she’ll run to the wrong people, painting a target on both of them.”
“Is there someone you can trust to make them disappear?”
Holy hell.
He was so screwed.
They released her from the hospital the next day. Gabi’s hearing returned and the only indication that she’d escaped near death was a broken arm and a scraped shin. Val had called her first thing in the morning to express his concern and offer her safe haven on his island. Thankfully, Neil and Gwen had convinced her brother and the rest of the family to stay away. She spoke to her brother in Italian, doing her best to keep any possible ears eavesdropping from understanding her words.
“I want you home, Gabi.”
“And invite this on your doorstep? I don’t think so. I made this bed.”
She heard her brother grunt. “If you weren’t married to this man, none of this would have happened.”
“Or I could be dead. Please, Val, don’t make this harder than it is. I will call you every day.”
“And text me every night.”
“Fine. Please try not to worry.”
They spoke for a few minutes before Val finally relented and hung up.
A new car drove Gabi home. There was a car that followed with more security than any one woman should ever need. She couldn’t imagine the secret service providing this kind of detail.
Andrew met her at the door with a hesitant smile. “So happy you’re home, Mrs. Blackwell.”
“Thank you, Andrew.” She looked around the living room, where nothing had changed. Hunter wasn’t there.
He’d left her side during her conversation with Val without a commitment of his return. Gwen had whispered in her ear, once her hearing had returned, that Hunter and Neil were working closely together. She’d also told Gabi that a mandatory house arrest was in order to keep her protected.
Seemed life had been slapping her in the face enough for Gabi to heed her friend’s words.
Refusing more than a couple of Motrin for the pain in her arm, Gabi moved slower than she’d have liked. As easy as it would have been to find her bed, literally, and lie in it, she opened up her computer and ran it through several security checks. She wasn’t big on social media and didn’t have to worry about eyes there. But there were a few online accounts that she dropped into and changed all her passwords.
She called and canceled her cell phone service, found another carrier, and ordered a phone to be delivered with a new number. She logged into the foreign accounts, determined nothing in them had changed, and backed out. Gabi systematically went through a list of the items she needed to replace from her missing purse. Crazy how when it blew up, everything slowed down. Credit cards . . . driver’s license.
When it was all done, Gabi pushed away from the desk and moved into the kitchen.
Andrew and Solomon stopped talking when she entered the room.
“This is going to get uncomfortable in one day if you don’t stop doing that,” she told them both.
“Sorry, Mrs. B.”
She crossed to the pantry and looked inside. “I need to go to the store,” she said.
“Uhm . . . Mr. B. suggested we stay here.”
She knew that. “Let me rephrase. I need groceries from the market. We can order them to be delivered, ask a stranger to show up, or someone can go for me.”
As it turned out, they ordered the food and Andrew went with a security guard to retrieve it.
One-handed baking wasn’t ideal, but it kept her from wondering where the hell Hunter had been gone to all day.
She had questions.
Questions only he could answer.
When she pulled the last of the cookies from the oven, the guard at the gate informed her that the police were requesting a conversation with her.
Solomon was on the phone before the team of officers were let into the house.
Connor led the police into the house and stood at the door. Both men wore uniforms with every possible toy needed tucked in their belts. One kept his side to Connor while the other scanned the room as he entered. She approached the two men and told them her name.
“Thank you for speaking with us, Mrs. Blackwell. I’m Officer Delgado. We spoke on the phone last week.”
“Yes, about the missing boy.”
“Right.”
“I hope you found him.”
The policed exchanged glances. “We did. Unfortunately he was deceased.”
Gabi felt her jaw drop. “Oh, no . . . what happened?”
“We’re treating it as a homicide. He was found inside his burned-out work van in the desert past Lancaster.”
“That’s awful.”
“His famil
y is devastated.”
“I can’t imagine. What can I do for you? I already told you what I know.”
Officer Delgado looked at Solomon, who had just entered the room, and Connor, who was at the door. His eyes traveled over Andrew before returning to Gabi. “Didn’t your car blow up yesterday?”
Her face went blank.
Solomon moved to her side. “The car was in the shop last week.”
Delgado took a tiny step back. “You’re Mrs. Blackwell’s bodyguard?”
Solomon offered a nod.
“And who are you?” the second officer asked Connor.
“Security,” Connor said.
“And the man at the gate?”
Gabi stepped in. “My husband is a very wealthy man. We can’t be too careful.”
“I find it interesting that you have a house full of security shortly after your own life was recently spared and another was taken. I also find that dots in a line eventually connect.”
“I don’t know what happened to that boy, Officer.”
“But you know something—”
Solomon stepped between the officer and Gabi. “This meeting is over, Officer. Connor will show you out.”
“We only want to talk to you, Mrs. Blackwell. No one is accusing you of anything.”
Was that what was happening? Suddenly the presence of the cops was anything but comfortable.
“Are you arresting anyone?” Solomon asked.
Delgado met Solomon’s gaze and turned to leave. “We’ll be in touch.”
Gabi waited until after the officers left before turning to Solomon. “What the hell was that all about?”
“I don’t know.”
She glared. “That man was right. My car blowing up . . . the missing boy who was last seen in this house . . . those odds are too good to ignore. They’re connected, aren’t they?”
“This is the first I’m hearing of the kid, Mrs. B.”
She remembered the young man’s smiling face as he wired one of the televisions, envisioned him flirting with the girls. “There were a lot of people in the house that day. They could be in danger.”
“We don’t know that.”
“We can’t rule it out. Holding back information might result in someone else getting hurt . . . or worse.” She twisted toward Andrew. “Where is Hunter?” It was the first time she’d asked.
Treasured by Thursday (Weekday Brides Series Book 7) Page 26
