A rumble built to a crushing bang. He looked up in time to see the door burst open. A blinding light flooded the room, cutting through the billowing smoke.
Meredith tried to raise her head, but Jeremy kept her tucked and locked under him, pushing her tighter to the floor. Through the blasts and yelling, he tried to focus. The shots rang out in one long string...then silence.
He lifted himself up on his elbows, coughing through the ash falling around them like a blanket. Keeping Meredith pinned to the floor, he crawled over and peered down to the floor below. He counted four bodies on the ground and two more on the stairs. Chunks of wall and discarded weapons littered the ground.
Two lights sat in the opening, highlighting two more men as they slipped inside. “Jeremy?”
That voice he knew. Garrett had come to the rescue.
The emergency lighting kicked on and water rained down from ceiling sprinklers and chemical fire retardant streamed from the hoses attached to the floor joints. Over Garrett’s yelling, the puffs of smoke turned white as the flames hissed against the liquid assault.
Jeremy was never so grateful for Garrett’s over-
planning on security measures as he was right then.
After what felt like hours but probably only amounted to minutes in the thundering shower, Jeremy figured it was safe for them to move and for Garrett and his team to maneuver downstairs. Scrambling to his knees, Jeremy leaned over the rail and gazed into eyes identical to his own. Relief crashed into him from every angle. “We’re up here.”
Jeremy barely whispered the words, but his brother must have heard. His head tilted and he ran to the base of the stairs. “Are you okay?”
“Seems so.”
“Where’s Sara?”
“Here!” she screamed from the back of the loft. She got to the edge of the steps before Garrett grabbed her in a strangling bear hug and forced a cough out of her. Since he outweighed her by more than eighty pounds, his arms swallowed her until she nearly disappeared inside him.
Garrett surveyed the damage, looking from the overturned furniture and around to the lump on the floor. “Meredith, is that you?”
Jeremy stood up, surprised his legs held him, and helped Meredith to her feet. The grip on her gun didn’t ease, but he understood. It would take a long time to calm the energy pounding through her. The adrenaline would eventually wane, but the memory of the bloodbath would take longer.
Meredith slid her non-weapon-toting hand against Jeremy’s chest and grabbed his shirt in a hold that almost shredded it before turning to Garrett. “I finally met your brother. You know, the one you forgot to mention.”
Never letting Sara go, Garrett stared at his tenant, then at Jeremy’s hold on her. “I can see that.”
Pax popped up next to Garrett, rising out of the haze. He sent Meredith a huge smile. “Thanks for calling me.”
Jeremy wrapped an arm around her shoulders and stared down into her huge eyes. “You called him?”
She blinked until the shock decreased. “Right before we got here and I gave your phone back. Didn’t you?”
“Yeah, right after that but—”
Pax stood to the side and motioned for everyone to head down the stairs in front of him. “I got Meredith’s SOS first.”
“We all called Pax. I got him right after the building alarm sounded on my cell.” Garrett tightened his hold, then eased Sara away from him. “But we can talk about this later. Right now we need to get out of here before this place comes down.”
No one said anything as they jogged down the steps and ran out into the night. The fresh air smacked into Jeremy, pushing out the smoke-filled crud in his lungs. His coughing fit started a second later. He wasn’t alone. Meredith and Sara drew in large breaths, then doubled over as their bodies shook.
Jeremy glanced at his brother through watery, smoke-filled eyes. “Where have you been?”
“I’ll explain later. We need to get out of here before the authorities arrive.”
Sara stood up, looking far taller than her not-quite five-foot-three frame. With a flushed face and her hands balled into fists on her hips, she stood right in front of Garrett with soot streaking her face and her singed T-shirt.
“Did you say you were worried about the authorities?” She jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “That’s your big concern?”
The group fell silent. Except for the last crackle of the fire and creaky groans as the building shifted on its burning supports, nothing moved and no one breathed.
Garrett wiped a hand through his hair. “I just want—”
“You should be afraid of me,” Sara nearly shouted.
Shock buzzed through Jeremy. He saw it mirrored in Garrett’s eyes. The wedding-dress saleswoman who always had an encouraging word and sweet smile for everyone looked ready to explode. And Garrett was the intended target.
His eyebrows came together in a frown. “What’s the matter with you?”
“You dumped me.”
The final pieces fell into place for Jeremy. He shook his head. “Garrett, man. What were you thinking?”
Garrett scowled at all of them but saved his darkest look for Sara. “This isn’t the time to talk about this.”
Not that she even noticed. “Next time you leave a woman with some big speech about it being the right thing, don’t drag her back into your life and almost get her killed.”
“I tried to warn you.”
“Save it.” Then calm, never-cause-a-scene Sara pulled back her hand and slapped Garrett across the face.
Chapter Nine
Andrew filled the doorway one second after knocking on Ellis’s office door. “You wanted to see me, sir.”
Ellis picked up the stack of files on the far left corner of his desk and dumped them in his briefcase. Those he could take. Others had to stay locked in his office for security reasons. “Darren Mitchell appears clean.”
“He has an alibi?”
“I knew we would be able to account for his whereabouts since we’re having him watched every second.” Ellis removed his computer hard drive and put it in the safe under his desk. “No, the problem is that his records are clean. No telephone calls or unusual bank activity. The tail that’s been on him says nothing unusual has happened. No guests and no activity.”
When silence bounced back at him, Ellis glanced up. Andrew stood in the same spot, not moving and seemingly not breathing. “Something wrong?”
“We have someone watching Darren in addition to the electronic surveillance?”
“The man is accused of using his government position to collect money from foreign military leaders. Yes, we’re watching him. If I had my way, he’d be in prison on espionage charges.” Ellis shut his briefcase and leaned his palms against it. “Fortunately for him, there are those in the higher levels of government who would rather the public not know about intelligence officers on the take. Scandals like that don’t exactly make people feel safer on their summer vacations.”
Ellis took a second to observe his assistant. As usual, the younger man’s voice vibrated with a thin layer of fear. Ellis didn’t have a problem with that. Newer employees, especially those still in their probationary period, should twist and worry. It was a rite of passage of sorts.
But this was something else. Something that made the younger man’s lip twitch and had him shifting his balance from foot to foot.
That settled one issue. Ellis would have company on this trip. If Andrew had something as mundane as woman troubles, time away would resolve them one way or another. If he had other troubles, Ellis would wrestle the facts out of him before the plane touched down on the West Coast. He didn’t get the job with the big title by going to college with the right people. He’d worked his way up the ranks and could collect information as well as any of his operatives.
Ellis kicked the safe shut with his foot and picked up his briefcase. “Ready?”
Andrew’s gaze went to the clock on the credenza. “For what? What are you doi
ng at this time of night?”
“Leaving, and so are you.”
“Excuse me?”
Andrew had gone almost two minutes without saying the phrase. Ellis figured that was a record. “We’re heading to San Diego to intervene on the Hill situation.”
Andrew’s face fell. “I didn’t realize we do that. Not a man of your position.”
Ellis understood the confusion. His office oversaw operations. He didn’t race across the country to check in with operatives. They functioned independently and he ruled from a distance.
But this situation was different. Something was very wrong and Ellis was not about to let some field office or an underling in a mall-store cheap suit call the shots. “We do when our best operative vanishes and someone burns his house to the ground.”
Andrew started nodding and couldn’t seem to stop. “I can take care of your calls and—”
“You’re coming with me.”
“But, sir—”
“This discussion is over.” Yeah, the young man had something on his mind. Ellis vowed to wrangle the particulars out of his assistant by the top of the next hour. “You asked for field experience.”
The area around Andrew’s mouth turned green. “Once I’m trained. Not now.”
“This will be the on-the-job kind of training.”
“There’s no way we can catch a flight this late.”
“We’re not flying commercial. This is agency business.”
“But I—”
Enough. Ellis had listened to one more complaint than usual. “No arguments. Get packed or you go with whatever is on you and that’s it.”
* * *
BACK AT THE motel, Meredith stood on the small front patio and leaned back against the door to room fifteen. “What was that about with Sara?”
No one had said a thing after the verbal explosion at the safe house. Meredith didn’t know the details, but hiding a girlfriend and keeping her from the pretty house in Coronado struck her as a bad choice. But she’d only heard one side and Garrett seemed reluctant to say anything at all.
After the smack-heard-around-San Diego, no one said a word. They’d filed into SUVs as Garrett walked around with his mouth dropped open. Not that Meredith had a great deal of sympathy. All the secrets and lies stacked up. Add in a firefight and actual fire and a woman could get testy. As far as Meredith was concerned, Sara had her complete support.
Jeremy sat on the porch railing across from Meredith and stretched his feet until his legs straddled hers. “Sounds like my brother lost his mind and left her.”
“The slap was a surprise.” The memory of Sara getting up on tiptoes to let Garrett have it would stay with Meredith for a long time. She knew how it felt to lose every last ounce of control. Having an audience only added to the embarrassment.
She liked Garrett, but he’d treated Sara pretty poorly. Took her for granted and hid things from her. Important things. Still, Sara’s reaction struck Meredith as out of character. Sara didn’t seem the whipped-into-a-frenzy type. Quiet, like the kind of woman men rushed to protect and coddle, yes. The prizefighter underbelly came out of nowhere.
“I’ve never seen her kill a fly,” Jeremy said, shaking his head and hmpfing as he did.
“Unlike me.” Meredith looked down at her hands, turned them over and watched them shake.
She’d waited for the guilt of taking a human life to rush through her but the pain never came. She knew the reality of choosing her life over theirs. She imagined the horror if she’d fired too late and Jeremy had been the one facedown, bleeding into the floor.
Looking at all the angles and her long list of sins, all she felt was numb. A vast road of nothingness.
Jeremy shifted until their feet touched. “I don’t have any complaints about you, but I do admit to judging you as the sweet type until I saw you go into commando mode.”
“That had a boys-don’t-make-passes-at-girls-who-wear-glasses ring to it.”
“Maybe I should stop talking.”
They could sit in comfortable silence, but she wanted to hear the soft rumble of his voice. It soothed out all the jagged edges inside her. “My point being, I can’t figure out if ‘sweet’ is meant as a compliment or if the commando part was what impressed you.”
The wide-eyed look of pure male panic subsided. “The mix of both. I like your tough side and your very womanly side.”
She liked both sides, too. “I can live with that.”
“That’s a relief.”
“A smart woman knows when sweetness is the wrong tactic. She fights when she doesn’t have a choice.” Acquiescence sounded noble and often took on the characteristics of peace, but there were times a person needed to fight.
Jeremy closed in on her without moving. Stale smoke clung to his clothes and his hair, bathing him in an acid cologne. He’d washed the soot off but a tiny patch still covered his right cheek near his hairline.
“Who taught you that lesson?” he asked.
The history shaped everything but no longer meant anything. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
“Why?”
He pushed off the railing and moved to stand in front of her, her legs trapped between his. “I’m wondering who I have to beat the crap out of on your behalf once we settle whatever is going on around here.”
A laugh burst to life inside her, but she pushed the infectious happiness down deep and concentrated on the conversation. “You barely know me.”
“Yet the idea of someone hurting you makes me crazed.” Jeremy trailed the backs of his fingers against her cheek. “I wonder why that is.”
“Must be the government agent thing.”
“You know it’s more than that, right?”
She rubbed the soot off his face with her thumb. “Adrenaline rush.”
He dipped his head and brushed his nose against hers. His mouth hovered at the corner of hers as his breath skipped across her cheek. “Try again.”
When his lips replaced his breath, her brain fizzled. “An ex-boyfriend.”
Jeremy pulled back, his gaze searching hers. “What?”
“The violence. I was young. He was a loser, probably still is.” Meredith rested her palms against Jeremy’s chest and leaned in just a little. “The day he pushed me down a flight of stairs was a wake-up call. I lay there, waiting until he left the house to ‘clear his head’ and then I got ready.”
At the mention of the abuse the skin around Jeremy’s mouth pulled tight. He didn’t show any other reaction except for a subtle stiffness in his shoulders. “For what exactly?”
“I greeted him with my bags packed and a loaded gun. I’d been taking lessons, shooting and self-protection.”
Jeremy’s hands moved to her upper arms. The hold stayed loose, as if letting her know that she could bolt at any time and he would respect her decision. “Sounds dangerous.”
“No, staying was dangerous. It was the only time he got physical, but the emotional battering wore me down to the point where I didn’t see it coming.”
Jeremy bit his bottom lip then let it go. “Please don’t defend him.”
“I wasn’t.” Was she?
“You know any violence is unconscionable, right? Name-calling or whatever he did to you, same thing. Not your fault and not okay. The guy doesn’t get a pass for only shoving you one time.”
“Sounds like you’ve had some experience with this.”
“No.” He rubbed circles over her skin with his thumbs. “We were raised by a single mom who lectured us about the way a man should treat a woman. When she died she asked only that we be decent men when we grew up.”
The simple words explained so much. Meredith’s heart ached for him, for the young man who lost his anchor. “How old were you?”
“Seventeen. Breast cancer.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Did you have to shoot this guy?”
She figured he’d shared enough and it was her turn. “Let’s say I fir
ed a warning shot.”
All the tension left Jeremy’s face as a smile crept across his lips. “Into what part of him?”
“Wondered if you’d figure that out.” She basked in the acceptance. Jeremy didn’t judge or shrink away from the details. If anything, the idea of her defending herself relaxed him. “His foot. I figured he wouldn’t run after me that way.”
“I would have aimed a little higher, but still effective.”
“It was tempting.” Part of her still couldn’t believe she’d worked up the courage to pull the trigger. It took her another year to find the nerve to tell her parents the truth about the relationship. They were close, but having them know, the idea of giving them a peek into what her daily life had become, made her stomach roll.
All the “he was such a nice boy” conversations stopped after that. Her father threatened revenge. Her mother baked five apple pies. The balance of the parent–
daughter relationship evened out again, but Meredith waited every holiday for the pitying looks and concerned whispers about how she was doing and what they could do to help.
Jeremy put his hand under her chin with the barest of pressure. “One more favor. Please tell me you’re not still carrying a torch for this dumbass.”
“It was six years ago. The feelings are long gone. He killed most of them when he insisted I fell down the steps and he tried to catch me.” The physical bruises had healed, but welts no one could see, the ones formed from the never-ending list of her failings, still came back and whapped her now and then.
“Did this man kill everything inside you?”
“I don’t know what that means.” But she did. The heat was right there in Jeremy’s eyes, banked but still burning.
Attraction hit her in rare instances, most of them cloaked in safety, like with the guy behind the coffee counter who barely knew her name and the teacher at her school who never showed any sign of interest. But those old dreams of a normal life with a husband she loved and trusted came rushing back now and then.
She went out. She tried. She just hated the games and the silliness, and at the first sign of bullying behavior she bolted. That left her with a long list of first dates but a much shorter record of second ones.
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