by Maya Banks
He yanked the mask from his face and took off at a run. He shoved by one of the medics trying to restrain Elle and leaned over the stretcher to pull her into his arms.
“Thank God,” she whispered in his ear. “Don’t let them take me, Cade. Someone will find out about me.”
“Honey, you need to go to a hospital. This is serious. We need to make sure you’re okay.”
Fear leapt into her eyes, and she shook her head adamantly. “Take me to see Dallas.”
“Miss, you really need to be taken to the emergency room,” one of the medics advised.
Again she shook her head. “I’m fine.”
Her voice cracked and was hoarse from the smoke.
Christ. Where was Merrick?
Still holding Elle, Cade turned to look over his shoulder and rapidly scanned the area for Merrick. His gaze lighted on his friend sitting on the ground several yards away, an oxygen mask covering his face while a medic took his vitals.
Shit but this was the last thing Merrick needed when he was so close to his championship fight.
“I’ll take her in,” Cade said when he looked back at the medics. He needed to get on with it fast so Merrick could be checked out too. Dakota was going to shit a brick over this.
The medics frowned and shook their heads in disbelief.
“I need her to sign no transport papers,” one of them said.
“I’ll sign,” Elle said in a firm voice.
The other medic sighed and turned to walk to the ambulance. He pulled out a clipboard and returned, thrusting a pen at Elle. He handed over the clipboard, showed her where to sign and then waited as she scribbled her name on the line.
As soon as she was done, she tried to get down, but Cade caught her against him and lifted her from the stretcher. He carried her to the SUV that now sported a dent in the side from the collision with the dumpster.
After settling her into the front seat, he buckled her in and then touched her face to get her attention.
“I’ll be right back, okay? I need to check on Merrick and see what’s up. Then I’ll get you to Dallas.”
She nodded and laid her head back against the rest.
Cade strode in Merrick’s direction only to see Merrick push himself to his feet, strip off the oxygen mask and hand it to the medic standing next to him. He started in Cade’s direction, meeting him there halfway.
“How’s Elle?” Merrick demanded.
“I’m taking her to see Dallas now. What about you?”
“I’m good. Going with you. We’ll take care of this later.”
Cade nodded and hurried back to the SUV. There would be a shit ton of stuff to do later. Reports to file. Statements to give. Insurance to see to.
Just then, his dad roared into the parking lot and braked hard, kicking up dirt and gravel as he stopped just in front of Merrick and Cade.
Charlie jumped out, his brows drawn together in concern.
“What the hell happened?” his dad demanded.
Cade shook his head. “No time to explain now, Dad. Do you mind sticking around to take care of stuff here? We need to get Elle to see Dallas. She was trapped in the office when it went up in flames.”
“Christ,” Charlie muttered. “Go on. Take her in and see to her needs. I’ll take care of things here.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Before Cade could hurry away, his dad pulled him into a huge hug.
“Glad you and Merrick are okay, son.”
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F O U R
CADE CARRIED HER INTO DALLAS’S clinic, and when the receptionist saw them, she immediately stood and motioned them through the door to one of the exam rooms.
Just a moment after Cade laid her down on the table, Dallas hurried in, a frown creasing his face. Then he got a look at Merrick.
“What the hell happened?” Dallas demanded.
“Fire,” Cade said grimly.
“Bullets too,” Elle blurted.
Merrick’s face grew stormy. “What the fuck?”
Cade shook his head in confusion. “Back up. You said bullets?”
Elle nodded as Dallas put his stethoscope to her chest and asked her to breathe deeply. He was eyeing Merrick with concern even as he examined her.
“Someone fired bullets into the office. I dove under the desk, and that’s when they torched the place. I saw the bottles hit the floor and explode with flames.”
“Son of a bitch,” Merrick swore. “She could have been killed!”
“Why would someone do this?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Could be any number of people,” Cade said. “Not like we don’t have enemies.”
Elle had gone pale, and she shook visibly. “You don’t think it has anything to do with me, do you? Do you think…he…found me? Or that he knows I’m not dead?”
Dallas shot Cade and Merrick a look, quirking up his eyebrow as if to ask them if there was any credence to Elle’s fear.
Cade pushed closer to Elle’s bedside and rubbed his hand up and down her back. Merrick stifled a deep cough and went to Elle’s other side. She reached for him blindly, tangling her hand with his.
“It probably has more to do with the asshole we caught trying to steal a car from Bo’s dealership last night,” Merrick said. “He was spouting threats. Most of the time, it’s just talk, but it’s worth looking into.”
“Is he not still in jail?” Elle asked.
Cade shrugged. “I don’t know. We don’t typically follow up. Could be out on bail. But even if he’s still locked up, he could have had others torch the office in retaliation. It probably has nothing to do with you one way or another, honey. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“So it was you and Merrick they were targeting then,” she said, an unhappy twist to her mouth. “They were trying to kill you.”
“We don’t know that, baby,” Merrick soothed. “It could have been a random act of violence.”
Even as he said it, they all knew how unlikely it was. Their office wasn’t in a residential section, and it wasn’t in a part of town where drive-by shootings were a common occurrence.
It was personal.
“You should both get looked at,” Dallas said to Cade and Merrick. “I need to do some blood work on Elle and put her on oxygen for a while. She needs to stay here so I can monitor her condition.”
“I’m okay,” Elle said softly. “See to them. I wasn’t in there for too long.”
Dallas put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You were exposed to the fire and smoke longer than they were. I need to make sure you don’t have any injuries that were overlooked in the excitement of the moment.”
She reluctantly nodded her agreement.
Dallas called in his nurse practitioner and sent Cade and Merrick to the next room to be checked out.
Cade was reluctant to leave Elle but knew she was in good hands with Dallas. He went into the next room and waited impatiently as the nurse practitioner did a thorough examination of both him and Merrick.
When she left the two men alone in the room, Merrick turned to Cade.
“She could have been killed. We can’t leave her alone like that again even if it’s just for a few minutes. Hell, we sent your dad to go stay with her. What if he’d been there when all this went down? We could have lost them both.”
“I know,” Cade said in a low voice. “What do you think? Retaliation? It’s not like our information isn’t all over the place at Bo’s or any other place we do security for. Our advertisement of security monitoring and the warnings are posted around the perimeter.”
“I think it’s our best bet right now,” Merrick said. “Doesn’t make sense why we’d be targeted as some random business to torch. And I don’t buy that whoever tried to kill Elle has figured out where she is and is trying to finish the job. Maybe that’s naïve of me, but my gut tells me that whatever son of a bitch worked her over thought the job was done, and he’s not even looking for whether her body ever turns up
or not. If he dumped her in the river, he’s probably betting on her never turning up.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Cade said. “I don’t think this has anything to do with Elle. But the fact that she was caught in the crossfire because of some asshole wanting revenge on us pisses me off.”
“I’ll make some phone calls. Find out if our boy is still in jail and if the cops have any leads on what happened today.”
Cade nodded. “I need to call Dad. He’ll be worried about us and Elle, and I need to find out what’s going on with the fire.”
Dallas stuck his head in the door and both men stood.
“How is Elle?” Merrick demanded.
Dallas came in and shut the door behind him. “I think she’ll be fine. I’m waiting on the results of her blood gasses. I didn’t find any serious injuries. Just a few cuts from the glass, and she had scrapes on her hands and knees from being on the floor. I just want to keep her here for a few hours before I let you take her home. I have her on oxygen, and I gave her something to help her relax.”
“Thanks, man, we appreciate this,” Cade said.
Dallas hesitated as if he was going to say something but thought better of it.
Then he sighed. “You know you can’t keep on in denial of Elle’s situation. And I’m saying this as your friend. I know she’s afraid, and I know she’s put her past out of her mind, but it’s situations like today that make it all the more important that she at least has an identity. Hell, even if you had to create one for her. If something serious happens to her, you can’t keep her out of the hospital because it means someone finds out that she has no idea who she is or where she came from. Have you tried running her prints yet? You guys know enough people in the police department that you could get it done on the sly.”
Merrick’s expression darkened, but Cade cut him off before he could get worked up.
“The only way running her prints would work is if she’s already in the system. It’s a long shot, and frankly, we’ve held back because if she’s had trouble with the law in the past, we don’t want it to affect her future. With us. We know we can’t turn a blind eye to her past forever.”
Cade broke off and ran a hand through his hair. He was tired. Worried. The issue of Elle was ever present in his mind and had worn him down over the past months.
“Maybe a part of me is afraid—like Elle is—to find out what’s in her past. I don’t want to lose her.”
Merrick nodded. “She’s remembering more. I don’t want to rush her and force the issue before she’s ready to handle it. What if we go dig it all up and find out who she is and she cracks under the pressure? I know it’s not right, but I don’t care about what’s right. I care about what’s best for Elle, and I care about not hurting her.”
“I understand,” Dallas said. “My main concern is that you get into a situation where Elle can’t get the care she needs because of your fears of discovery. I have a few contacts who could get her an identity. Driver’s license. Social Security card. Birth certificate. Think about it. She’d likely feel a little more secure if she didn’t fear discovery on a daily basis.”
Dallas tucked the clipboard he was holding against his side. “Get back to me if you want me to get in touch with a guy I know. He owes me a favor.”
“Thanks,” Merrick said.
“Now tell me how you’re feeling,” Dallas said to Merrick.
Even as he spoke, he prodded Merrick into sitting on the exam table, and he listened to Merrick’s lungs and checked the rest of his vitals.
“I’m fine,” Merrick said, but his voice broke as he coughed.
Dallas frowned. “Son of a bitch. You’ve got to be careful, man. A whole hell of a lot is riding on you remaining healthy. This is your one shot. You may never get another. I’m telling you this as your friend and as your doctor.”
“What was I supposed to do? Leave her in there to die?” Merrick demanded.
His hands were curled into beefy fists, and he looked like he wanted to put one of them through the wall.
“Chill, man,” Cade said in a soft voice. “She’s okay. We need to focus on you. You can’t go down now.”
“I don’t want you working out this evening,” Dallas said with a frown. “Take it easy tonight. Rest up, and if you’re feeling up to it, you can train in the morning. But I want your ass here at the clinic as soon as the session is over.”
Merrick nodded.
Dallas put his hand on Merrick’s shoulder. “I’m going back to check on Elle. I’ll be back to let you know when you can see her.”
The two men watched as Dallas left the room, and then Cade turned his gaze on Merrick.
“He has a point,” Cade said. “Elle needs an identity. It can’t help to wake up every morning worried what the day will bring. She can’t even go to the grocery store without fear because she doesn’t have a driver’s license or any sort of identification.”
“So, what, we get her a fake ID?” Merrick asked slowly.
“We could,” Cade said. “But I was thinking along the lines of something a little different.”
Merrick lifted one eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”
Cade blew out his breath in a controlled manner as he figured out just the right way to say what he was thinking. It was something he should have thought of a lot earlier, but he wouldn’t have wanted to pressure Elle too soon. Hell, maybe it was still too soon to be thinking along these lines.
“If we’re going to invent an identity for her, then why not go with one that affords her the most protection?”
“I’m with you,” Merrick said.
“We give her ours,” Cade said in a low tone. “We make her Elle Walker-Sullivan.”
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F I V E
MERRICK WAS SILENT FOR a long moment as he stared at his friend. “You mean, like marriage?”
Cade nodded. “Yes and no. I mean, there’s no way to have an official ceremony where she marries us both. Look, I may be jumping the gun here. I’m only speaking for myself. I have no idea if you’re ready for that kind of commitment or not—”
Merrick held up his hand to cut Cade off. “I’ve already committed to her, and I didn’t do it lightly. I’m in this for the long haul, and marriage is a logical step. But as you said, there’s no way to work that kind of thing out when more than two people are involved.”
“Well, if we’re going to create an identity for her, then we give her one of our names and then we go through the process of having a legally binding ceremony wherein she marries whoever’s name she didn’t originally take. She can keep her original name and hyphenate it so that she carries both our last names.”
“So she’d only marry one of us,” Merrick said grimly.
Merrick’s heart thumped like a jackhammer against his chest. Sure, he knew what kind of relationship he’d signed on for. He’d never have Elle fully to himself, and he was okay with that on most days. He’d be a liar if he said he never struggled with it.
But for her to marry Cade? He wasn’t sure he could live with that. Marriage meant something to him. Call him old-fashioned, but marriage was something to hold sacred, and he’d always imagined that he’d find the right woman, settle down and get married and grow old together.
He just never thought finding the person he wanted that kind of commitment from would mean sharing her with his best friend.
Cade slowly nodded. “Yeah. I don’t see a way around that.”
Merrick nodded, his lips pursed. “Okay, so who marries her?”
He watched Cade intently, searching for any signs that this was going to cause serious issues between them. Dread was tight in his chest as he waited for the answer. Could he be the bigger person here and act like it didn’t matter when it did? He caught himself before shaking his head because no. Hell no. He wasn’t going to pretend. This was too important.
Cade leaned against the exam table and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“As long as the agreement is ma
de that nothing changes between the three of us, I don’t really care who marries her on paper. That’s all it’ll be is a piece of paper binding her to one of us. It also gives her the legal protection of being able to be listed as a dependent and beneficiary. But she belongs to both of us, and we know that. You know it. I know it. And she knows it.”
Merrick nodded.
“We can’t even decide this kind of thing until we talk to her about it anyway,” Cade said. “I’m jumping the gun here.”
“But it’s a good solution,” Merrick said. “I like the idea. I like it a lot. I want Elle to feel like she belongs, and I want her to know that we’re serious about her. This would go a long way in proving that to her.”
“Yeah, it would,” Cade said in a quiet tone.
“I want to be the one who marries her,” Merrick said bluntly. “I won’t lie to you or pretend it doesn’t matter. If you’re okay with it, I’d rather give her your name and then marry her so the paperwork lists her as my wife.”
For a minute, Merrick thought Cade might argue. He didn’t even realize he’d been holding his breath until Cade silently nodded his agreement.
“If it’s that important to you, I can deal,” Cade said.
“We’ll talk to Elle when the right opportunity presents itself. If she agrees, then we can get with Dallas on getting her documents lined out.”
Cade nodded again.
“She’s yours too,” Merrick said softly.
Cade lifted his gaze to Merrick, determination etched in stone and reflected in his eyes.
“Hell yes, she’s mine,” Cade said. “I’m making a huge leap of faith here, Merrick. Don’t make me regret it.”
In any other situation, the implied threat in Cade’s voice would have pissed Merrick off, but he also knew how huge it was for Cade to bend on this. He didn’t blame his friend for making certain that they were understood on all points.
