“What happened?” Pax glanced at Davis then back to Garrett. “I don’t get this.”
With a second shove, Garrett pushed Joel’s back against the wall again. “Everyone stay out of this. This is between me and him.”
“It’s too late for that. We’re in it. All of us.” Davis went from lounging against a beam to stepping right between Garrett and Joel. With his hand on top of Garrett’s, Davis tried to pull the two men apart. “And last I checked we were on the same side.”
Despite Davis’s size and obvious strength, Garrett didn’t move. He braced his legs and pushed even harder against Joel’s chest. “Are we?”
Joel’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with you?”
It was the same question playing in Meredith’s mind. Probably in all of their minds. She’d seen Garrett distracted as he rushed out the door on assignments and relaxed when he nursed a beer on the porch after his return. This out of control, ready to pounce and shred a man apart with his bare hands Garrett scared her.
She glanced at Sara, expecting the other woman to be curled in a ball or crying in a corner. The judgment probably wasn’t fair, but Sara didn’t strike Meredith as much of a fighter. She hid and froze when she needed to run and fight. The reaction was likely what a sane person who’d never seen violence would do in similar situations, but Meredith couldn’t fight off the nagging disappointment.
Lounging on her couch at night, she’d imagined the woman Garrett might find attractive. Built a model in her mind, and Sara wasn’t it. She was pretty, really pretty, and had that tiny fragile frame men seemed to love. But she lacked fire. There was no heat to her.
Except right now. Sara inched closer to Garrett. Without blinking, her gaze switched from Garrett to Joel. In a matter of seconds, her cheeks puffed and her assessing gaze mimicked Garrett’s.
He curled his hands around Joel’s collar. “Why didn’t you shoot?”
Joel sputtered. “What?”
“Garrett. Let the man have some air. He’s not going anywhere and this isn’t helping.” Jeremy yanked Garrett’s hands off Joel’s shirt and put his palm out. “Joel, hand over your gun.”
“No way.” Joel looked to Pax. “Help me here.”
“I don’t need to hear from him. No guns. No misunderstandings.” Jeremy let go of Meredith’s hand then. He slid Joel’s gun out of its holster. “I’ll hold this until we’re done.”
He passed her the gun. The simple act delivered a huge message. The world tilted and exploded around them, but he trusted her. She hugged that knowledge close to her heart as she held on to the gun with both hands.
Davis swore as he stepped off the porch and into the yard. “This is so messed up.”
“Garrett,” Jeremy said. “Get to it.”
“You looked at the guy heading along the right fence. You watched and tracked and then you let him go.”
“I didn’t—”
Garrett held up his hand. His lip curled back as he bared his teeth. “Do not deny it. I watched you.”
“Garrett, please calm down.” Sara tugged on his arm then.
As soon as she touched him, some of the air seeped out of him. His chest deflated as he glanced down at Sara with a look so intimate and wrecked that Meredith felt guilty seeing it.
She turned away, but not before the pleading in his eyes tore at her. When she looked up again, Jeremy was in front of her. Sturdy, dependable Jeremy. He joked. He shot. He protected. And right now he wore an unreadable expression.
If the scene between Garrett and Sara affected Jeremy, he didn’t let it show. For some reason, that ripped at her just as hard as the show of love.
“You could have been killed.” Garrett brushed his hand down Sara’s cheek.
The window opened and Meredith had a peek at Garrett’s softness. Then it slammed shut again with equal force and the shield went up. He morphed back into super soldier, to the same type of rough-around-the-edges guy as the brother who’d knocked her to the sidewalk when her house exploded.
She looked from Jeremy to Garrett. She’d thought they were different but they really weren’t. For the first time she wondered just how deep their similarities ran.
“You and Meredith, all of you. All of you could have been killed before I could stop it.” A harsh kick moved into Garrett’s voice as he stared at Sara. “So, I want an explanation.”
“You had him,” Joel shouted before anyone turned back to him.
Garrett put his hands on Sara’s shoulders and shifted her to his side. When he faced Joel again, all signs of the boyfriend were gone. “Since when do we make another member of the team clean up our mess? Something else was going on out there. Something in your head. I want to know what it was.”
Pax threw his hands up in the air. “Joel, just tell him what he wants to know and end this.”
“What do you know about it?” Joel shot back.
“I know our cover is blown here and we need to leave. You two also have to clear this up or it’s going to infect everything else.” With that, Pax joined his brother on the lawn. The two of them paced, tension bouncing between them as they avoided the scene on the porch.
Jeremy put a hand on Joel’s shoulder. “Pax is right. I’m sure there’s a simple explanation. Get to it, then we can make plans for where we go from here.”
Garrett nodded. “You could have shot and run. Taken them both out and not left any opening for a counterattack.”
“That would have tipped off this one and I wanted to stop him before he reached the motel.” Joel pointed at the dead man only a few feet from where they all stood.
The explanation made sense to Meredith, but she didn’t know the men or their field training. She saw how they acted under pressure, which was better than most men. Garrett saw something else. He kept driving, trying to make a point.
“What are you thinking here?” she asked.
“An attack on the safe house. Another on the motel.” Garrett ticked off the instances on his fingers. “That’s two locations no one was supposed to know about. We’re the only people with access and knowledge—and Ellis.”
She turned to Jeremy. “Who’s Ellis?”
“Garrett’s superior at DIA.”
“I didn’t tell him we were coming to the motel,” Garrett said.
Meredith didn’t get the point. From the way Sara’s mouth dropped open, Meredith guessed she was lost, too. “But this Ellis guy knows about this place? Is it possible he’s—”
Garrett finally spared her a glance. “Ellis is not the mole, so I’m wondering who is.”
He was so sure. Meredith didn’t feel equally certain. Emotion seemed to be guiding his thoughts, which was something she never dreamed she’d say about Garrett. As far as she was concerned, he—all of them, really—kept missing one very big point. That Jeremy could be the target.
“You think I betrayed the team?” Joel asked.
“You’re the only one acting in a way I can’t explain.” Some of the heat had left Garrett’s voice. He rubbed the back of his neck. “You think I want to go there?”
“Okay.” Jeremy pulled Sara out of the middle of the chaos and added his body into the mix. “Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Pax sprinted back up the steps and handed his keys to Jeremy. “We need to move. I’m getting itchy standing out here, waiting for the next wave to hit.”
“The garage,” Davis called out from the lawn.
“Davis and I have a garage just south of downtown. We kept it when we moved from here just in case. Well, it looks like a garage, and the front is, but there’s a crash pad in the back.”
Jeremy clapped Pax on the shoulder. “Let’s load the vans and go.”
“We need photos of the attackers for possible facial recognition.” Garrett’s flat voice stopped them all from scurrying away. He pinned Davis in his glare. “Bring the bodies to the motel so the cleaners can take them in one dump.”
“Cleaners?” Sara’s voice wobbled on the word.
The vision of what those people did was pretty clear in Meredith’s mind. Her stomach heaved at the thought of bodies being loaded on stacks like cut firewood. “I’m guessing we don’t want to know.”
Jeremy put the keys in his back pocket. “Pax, you take Joel—”
Garrett’s cold voice cut through the rustle of clothing and halted footsteps. “He rides with me. I’ll call Ellis and ask him to do some background.”
Joel’s eyes bulged. “On me?”
Garrett didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Suddenly Meredith felt less safe. It was one thing to battle strangers, but she knew from experience sometimes the people closest were the most dangerous.
* * *
STEPHEN NODDED TO the guard, then watched the door close behind him.
Bruce recognized the signs. Bloodshot eyes with shaking hands. Rather than worry about his lawyer’s potential addictions, Bruce added this information to the list of ways to control Stephen.
This just proved his theory that people who claimed to be powerful often handed you the ammunition to destroy them. You just had to be patient. He was.
He was also smart enough not to be brought down by the drugs he peddled or women he purchased for a few nights of fun. Weakness had no place in his world. The weak died young, and he planned to stay on top for longer than any leader before him.
He sniffed. “Scotch, isn’t it?”
Stephen stopped in the middle of sitting down. “What did you say?”
“You shouldn’t drink your breakfast. One of these days your partners will find out, brand you a risk and cut you loose.” Bruce liked the scenario so much he decided to make it happen the second he no longer needed the obese fool. “However, will young Conrad finish his studies without Daddy’s money?”
Stephen ground his teeth together. “I am not going to keep running back and forth between my office and the prison every day.”
“You are if I say you are.” Bruce crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in his chair. “Now, what’s the message?”
“Negative.”
His lazy amusement vanished. Not the answer he expected or wanted. It took every ounce of restraint in his body not to flip over the table and curse Jeremy Hill. The man had shadowed him, wormed his way into the organization then cut him with his betrayal. Being played, realizing he’d let his enemy walk right into his house, ate away at Bruce’s gut.
Hill would die but not from a well-aimed gunshot. No, he’d go out screaming in pain and begging for mercy, which would not come. The woman with him would go first and Jeremy would be forced to watch her skin be flayed and hear every scream.
Bruce balled his fists on his lap under the table and fought not to let Stephen see his rabid anger. “Anything else?”
The fat piece of garbage smiled. “He’s not alone.”
Bruce schooled his features. This was a setback but not the end. What Stephen didn’t know, what no one, especially the Hill brothers knew, was that Bruce had an inside man. A guy tucked away and unrelated to Jeremy’s work, who was prepared to take out the Hill brothers. The man sat in the prime position to hurt Jeremy through his weakness. Garrett.
“Interesting message,” Bruce said as he rubbed his chin.
“Care to tell me what this all means?” Stephen waved his hand. “Forget it. Instead of plotting and doing whatever it is you’re doing, we should work on your defense.”
Wrong answer. “I need out of here today.”
“The prosecutor will argue against bail.” Stephen shook his head as he talked. “With your open access to money, and due to the nature of the crime and your ties to Mexico—”
“All legitimate business contacts.” In the drug trade, but he’d covered those tracks. He’d learned his lesson after showing Jeremy his tunnels, boasting about the easy access into the country by going under it, and then waking to Border Patrol officers at his front door.
Stephen cleared his throat. “You will be considered a flight risk. That’s hard to get around.”
“I’m not going anywhere. My business is here.”
“Not having a family, no wife or children, is also a problem.”
Only a lawyer would grab on to something so meaningless. “Since when does my marital status matter to the judicial system?”
“It all goes to show that you would have no problem picking up your life and leaving.” Stephen took a small notebook and his shiny pen out of his inside jacket pocket and twisted the cap. “Other than business associates and employees, who else will be there in support of you today?”
“I’m a man devoted to work.”
“You’re proving my point.” Stephen tapped the pen against the lined pages in an insipid jumpy beat. “What about that woman you were with when we talked a few months ago. Selina or Serena, whatever her name was.”
“Serena and she’s gone.” The disloyal bitch.
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Certainly is poor timing. I’ll give you that. But then, much about Serena turned out to be a nuisance.”
She’d dropped Hill right in front of him and vouched for his credentials. Bruce had checked him out but the background had been faked. While he gained trust, she took photos, passed information.
No, her being gone was inevitable. The only mistake he made was in waiting so long to get rid of her. He was paying for that now.
Stephen scribbled a note. “Women are like that, but one would be useful here.”
“In this case it was more useful for her to be gone.”
“Are you sure there isn’t something we could do to bring her back on a temporary basis?”
“Positive. She outwore her welcome.”
Which was why she was dead. And she would soon have company as Hill watched another woman bleed out at his feet.
Chapter Thirteen
Sara nibbled on her lip as she walked the line between the kitchenette counter and the folding table in front of it. Dawn had broken an hour ago and she hadn’t slept in what felt like a year.
And she was stuck in a room with Meredith. The togetherness should have upset her. Meredith was part of Garrett’s subterfuge, one for which she still didn’t have a great explanation. If Sara were dealing with a guy other than Garrett, she probably would have written him off as a liar and a cheat and done something more violent than slapping him.
But he was Garrett. Secretive and imperfect and always dodging the hard questions, but her mind never jumped to the label of cheater. Maybe she was naive and stupid. Wouldn’t be the first time someone called her that. Her father never found her particularly worthy.
She’d been written out of the will and banished from the family compound in Kansas as punishment for not doing something more spectacular with her life, like investment banking. He’d made the public announcement at a family gathering as a way to break her spirit, and only when years of threats had failed to get his desired response. But he’d actually freed her. She didn’t have a problem with people making money, but she hated the theory that a person’s bank account determined his or her value in society.
She glanced at Meredith. She sat at the small kitchen table and drummed her fingers on the top. Much faster and she’d hammer her way straight through the flimsy wood to the floor. “You want to be in that room.”
Meredith looked up. “Don’t you?”
“I’m not sure watching Garrett work would be good for our relationship.” Sara slid into the chair across from the woman she’d been prepared to hate. No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t summon up the requisite level of distrust or disgust.
She’d watched Meredith around Garrett and waited for a sign, any sign, that they shared something more than a lease. No stray looks or subtle touches. No, Meredith saved all those for Jeremy. Any idiot could see the woman had picked the brother she wanted and it wasn’t Garrett.
“I’m happy to hear you still have one. With Garrett, I mean.”
Sara wished she had the confiden
ce in their ability to find their way through this. She could forgive a lot, but not alone. He had to change. Going back to playing the role of the mute, supportive fiancée didn’t appeal to her. She feared her finding a backbone might be a deal breaker for him.
The idea of living without him had her swallowing to keep from gasping. “Yeah, well. We’ll see.”
She inhaled to stop the screaming in her head. She wanted to pound her fists and then pound on him for not seeing that she was the best thing to ever happen to him. When she finally wrestled her heart and her mind back under control, she heard only the gentle shushing sound of Meredith rubbing her hands together and the steady drip of the faucet.
“Nothing ever happened between us,” she blurted out. “We really just were landlord and tenant.”
Sara was surprised it had taken the woman this long to broach the subject. She didn’t exactly seem like the bide-her-time type.
“So many lies,” Sara whispered under her breath. When Meredith’s eyes widened, Sara knew she had heard.
Meredith put her palms on the table and started to stand up. “We don’t know each other, but I’m not lying. I don’t know who—”
“Sit.” Sara waved her off then poured them both another cup of coffee. “I know.”
“You do?”
“I’m not an idiot. I can see you’re attracted to Jeremy.”
“That’s nothing. It’s just...” Meredith fell back into her seat with a clunk as the legs smacked against the floor.
“Yes?”
Meredith blew out a long breath. “Really? I have no idea what it is.”
When Sara threw back her head and laughed, Meredith joined her. Like that, the winding tension snapped.
“I’ve known the guy for five seconds and it feels like forever.”
“The Hill boys have that sort of effect on women. They’re like a disease.”
“If life were fair there would be a shot we could take to get over it or least build up immunity to them.”
“If only.”
Sara wrapped her fingers around the mug. Despite the summer heat, she’d been chilled since leaving the motel. In her head she knew it was some sort of reaction to the mayhem, but her body wouldn’t listen. Even now her bones rattled hard enough to set her teeth chattering.
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