“Andrew?” Jeremy called out to the younger man and wasn’t surprised when the order made the guy jump. “You can set up over there and let us know if anyone breaches a fifty-yard safety zone around the building.”
“Yes, sir.” He slipped his laptop onto the desk and started typing.
“Are we the only ones in the hotel?” Sara asked.
“Yes, I even sent the manager out to be safe.”
Joel slipped into a green conference chair. “What makes you so sure anyone will come?”
He looked at Garrett as he asked, as if challenging him to make an accusation. Garrett ignored him and concentrated on his phone instead.
“I can answer that.” Ellis rounded the head of the table with a mug of coffee in his hand. He put his suit jacket on the back of the chair in one of the more obvious shows of territory marking. “Because Bruce wants Jeremy dead. He’s launched several attacks so far. He’s betting this one will work.”
“I don’t get it.” Joel shook his head. “He has to know the spotlight will be on him if this happens. And he has to get through all of us first. Why take the risk?”
“Does he really have anything to lose?” Davis asked.
“Remember that Jeremy didn’t even think he was the target until an hour or so ago. There are a lot of enemies out there. It could take months to get to the right one. If Bruce were smart, by then he’d be gone.” Garrett pointed at his phone. “Jeremy, are you getting this on your end?”
He took out his phone and punched a few buttons to bring up a video. “Looks like we have a problem.”
“What?” Panic rumbled through Meredith’s voice. She was at his side before he could draw his next breath.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Pax and Davis will stay with you. Joel, you come with us.”
Shock sprinted across Joel’s face, but he tamped it back down. “Of course.”
Meredith stepped in front of Jeremy when he tried to leave. “You can’t go running off somewhere. You promised me.”
Her fingernails dug into his arms as she pleaded with him to stay. The pain he saw on her face ate at him. He wanted to explain, to reassure her, but all those opportunities were gone. Now he was stuck with moving her to the side so he could get going and hoping she’d understand later.
He leaned down and kissed her. In front of everyone and without a lick of privacy, he took her mouth and treated her to a knee-buckling kiss. When he raised his head again, her lips were swollen and her eyes unfocused.
He bolted. He was out the door when he heard her calling after him. To keep walking, he had to block the sound. He’d hear it again, probably as she yelled at him again, but he had to do this first.
Garrett scowled at his brother as he walked down the hall toward the exit. “What took you so long?”
“Meredith.”
Some of Garrett’s frown eased. “Women.”
The Hill brothers laughed, but Joel stayed quiet as he followed Garrett and Jeremy into the sunshine and out to the garages behind the hotel. The three of them stepped into a large empty room.
Jeremy walked the length of the space and tested the cabinets at the far end. Everything was right where it should be. When he paid his informant Jeremy would add extra this time.
Joel stopped in the dead center of the room. “What are we doing here? This doesn’t make any sense.”
Jeremy got his brother’s attention and nodded.
“We have some information we need to discuss.” Garrett made the announcement in an angry voice. “Anything you want to say first?”
“You still don’t trust me.” Joel turned away from Garrett to stare at a blank space on the wall. “This is unbelievable.”
Garrett came up behind him. This time he lowered his voice. “You’re with us because I do. It’s not going to seem that way, but I do.”
Joel spun around. “I don’t—”
“Go to the window. Do not believe what you see.”
Joel shook his head. “You’re not making any sense.”
Jeremy knew the kid was right on the edge. He was going to blow the plan by doing the job he was paid to do—question and verify. This was why Jeremy begged his brother to cut Joel in. They’d needed Ellis’s help to gather the men. Garrett insisted the trust line end there, and now they had an even bigger mess.
To keep from sending them all down the road into real disaster, Jeremy morphed into bad cop. He stalked over and grabbed Joel by the neck, shaking him while he yelled. “You heard your boss.”
“Do not touch me.” Joel kicked and fought. He even got in a shot or two, which had Jeremy swearing and dodging. But he didn’t let go.
He leaned in with his face right next to Joel’s ear and said the magic words. “When the time comes, tell them one dead. One almost dead. We trust you to do this.”
Joel stopped thrashing around.
The banging started a second later.
Jeremy shoved Joel to the far wall as the walls exploded with gunfire. Splintered wood flew through the air. Light streamed through the pattern of holes in the walls.
Shouts and screams echoed in the distance as Joel dropped to the ground. Jeremy fell into Garrett. The packets passed from one hand to the other.
With a snap, Jeremy broke the package. Going down in a hail of fake bullets, he wiped the “blood” over himself and let the rest of the packet drop to the floor. By the time they landed on their stomachs on the ground, red liquid pooled around them.
After a minute, the intense banging stopped, leaving the building to creak and moan as the remaining structure fought to stay standing.
The door opened and a woman screamed in a sound so full of anguish and pain that Pax covered his ears. They all stood in stunned horror as Joel rushed over to the Hill brothers, sliding across the floor to reach them first.
“Keep them back and look for the shooters.” Wood crunched under his knees as Joel moved around the bodies.
“Let me help.” Pax rushed in ready to offer medical assistance.
Joel sat back. “One dead. One about there.”
“I’ll do CPR.”
Joel caught Pax’s hands before he could touch the bodies. “Call an ambulance.”
Chapter Twenty
Meredith stumbled around in a helpless daze. She’d walked the hospital floor about a hundred times since the ambulance had brought Garrett and Jeremy in. With every step she tried to wipe away the memory of the bloodbath.
Streaks of red across the floor. More bullet holes than she’d ever seen at a practice range. Bruce’s men had opened fire as Garrett and Jeremy talked. All the technology had failed. All the promises of being safe and coming back rang hollow.
She’d tried to fall over Jeremy and push some life into his still body but Ellis had closed in. His men, absent when the world exploded, poured in after. With talk of crime-scene evidence, the men pushed them all out then loaded Garrett and Jeremy into the ambulance in a rush.
She didn’t even get to see Jeremy’s face. She had no idea which brother Joel had pronounced dead.
Her eyes burned from all the tears. She looked around the private waiting room on the floor Ellis had cleared of other patients. Amazing what the right government badge could do. If only he had stepped up earlier.
Pax and Davis talked in hushed tones in the corner. Andrew paced and managed to look concerned even though he didn’t know anyone in the room except Ellis. Sara sat in a chair with her arms wrapped around herself and rocked.
The only person missing from the group was Joel. Secret Service had carted him away as he protested and proclaimed his innocence.
Meredith choked back the bile in her throat. She’d believed him. Stuck up for him. Her stupidity had led the brothers to slaughter.
Another time when she’d read a man wrong. This time it might cost her everything. The idea of Jeremy dying had her sobbing. She coughed to hide the sound. She had to be strong. She could fall apart later.
A doctor stepped into the room. His blue scrubs wer
e stained with red and a grim line ran across his mouth.
Ellis met the doctor before he could search the room for family members. “How are they?”
The doctor shook his head. Every slip from right to left cut away a piece of her. Her coffee cup dropped from her hand. The hot liquid splashed against her legs but she didn’t feel it.
“We lost one. He was dead when he arrived. There was nothing we could do.”
Meredith heard a cry. A long scream that sounded like no. She looked around and realized everyone was looking at her.
Pax rushed to her side. “I got you.”
“He can’t be dead.” A shocking numbness settled over her body.
“Let’s sit down.” He put her in a seat then sat next to her.
His arm was around her and the cool air blasted from the air-conditioning vents, but nothing touched her. She closed her eyes and saw Jeremy captured in a deathly stillness. She opened them and the nightmare continued.
“We’ve stabilized the other brother, but he’s in critical condition,” the doctor said without any emotion. “The next few hours will tell. If he makes it until tomorrow morning, the chances are good he’ll survive.”
The word propelled her to her feet. Pax made a grab for her but she squirmed out of his hands. She pushed through the crowd and reached for the doctor’s arm. “Why aren’t you using their names?”
“What?”
“Who is dead? Which one?” The answer would devastate one woman in the room and save the other.
The doctor cleared his voice and glanced at Ellis before continuing. “That’s the problem. They’re identical. We don’t know.”
The comment didn’t make any sense. She knew. Sara certainly knew.
Meredith reached for Sara, dragging her out of her seat to stand with her in front of the doctor. “She can tell them apart. Tell them.”
“Stop.” Sara dug in her heels and skidded across the floor. “I can’t.”
The words hit Meredith like a slap. She turned on Sara. “You know the face of the man you love.”
Sara kept shaking her head. Her vacant eyes wouldn’t meet Meredith’s. “Don’t ask me to go in there.”
Meredith shook her. “How can you sit out here and not need to know?”
Ellis was on her a second later. Firm hands wrapped around her upper arms and pulled her off Sara. “Meredith, enough. Everyone is upset.”
Meredith shook her head. She was willing to do anything to shake life back into her dying body. “Is this you upset? You’re barely breathing.”
The doctor motioned for someone. “I can sedate—”
“Don’t touch me.”
She screamed the phrase over and over until the world went black.
* * *
ELLIS WALKED OUT of the hospital room and ran right into Andrew.
No surprise there.
The younger man stopped pacing and stared at his boss. “How is he?”
Ellis wiped a hand through his hair, wondering how much more they could all take of this. Sara looked ready to crack and they’d put Meredith out to keep control over her.
But Ellis knew his role. “The real question is, who is he? Which brother is it?”
On cue, Andrew frowned in concern. “You really can’t tell?”
“No.”
“Huh.” Andrew made a clicking sound with his tongue.
Ellis fought the urge to punch the little punk in the face. “What is it?”
“Would an objective look help? I mean, I don’t have a vested interest. It could be you want to see Jeremy and are blinded by that.”
And the trap was sprung.
“I’m willing to try anything.” Ellis walked him inside.
Equipment beeped and lights flashed. A body, Garrett or Jeremy, Ellis didn’t even know which, lay in the bed wrapped in stillness.
Andrew paled at the sight of the bandages and machinery. “How is he going to survive this?”
“The doctor thinks there’s a good chance because both brothers were, are, heck I don’t know which term is right, in such good shape. They put him in a medical coma and are helping him breathe.”
“That’s good news.”
Ellis’s phone beeped and he pretended to read a message. “I’ll be right back.”
* * *
Jeremy couldn’t see anything but he heard the footsteps. From the conversation around him, he knew Andrew stood by the machine that supposedly pumped air and kept the patient alive. Something ripped and the air stopped flowing.
Wheels creaked as they rolled across the floor, taking the nearby cart with them, and the needle in his arm popped out. A buzz filled the room as Andrew lowered the top portion of the bed to put Jeremy flat.
It was going to be pure joy to rip this guy’s life apart. He was trading his integrity for cash, and Jeremy didn’t care what happened to him.
Hot breath spilled across Jeremy’s cheek and he fought back the need to move.
“Which brother are you, I wonder. Of course it doesn’t matter. Bruce Casden wants you both dead.” Buttons clicked and the last whir of the equipment in the room fell silent as Andrew talked. “My only regret is that I only get to kill one of you. Casden’s people beat me to the other one.”
The bed dipped but Jeremy forced every muscle to remain still, every breath to seep in slowly.
“Everyone was looking in the wrong place for me. I infiltrated Ellis’s office to get one brother and eventually the other. Casden has a message for you….” Andrew leaned in even closer. “He wishes he was here to see you die.”
Now.
Jeremy’s eyes popped open. Just in time, too. Andrew held a pillow in the air, just above Jeremy’s face.
“Anything else Bruce wanted me to know?” Jeremy asked.
Andrew fell back, his mouth comically wide as a scream rattled out of him. “You’re dead!”
“Tell Bruce I’m fine.” Jeremy swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbed the pillow from Andrew. “Shouldn’t be a problem since you’ll be sharing a cell.”
“Unless I kill him first.” Ellis delivered his comment from the doorway with Garrett standing right behind him.
Andrew’s eyes darted. He looked like the cornered rat he was. “Both of you? But...I... One of you is dead.”
“Wrong.” Jeremy took pleasure in saying the word.
Andrew shook his head. “You’ve got this all mixed up. It isn’t what you think.”
“Neither was the shooting.” Garrett smiled. “Funny how, if you ask a few Secret Service guys if they want to dress up and shoot, they jump on the chance to join in the game.”
Jeremy filled Andrew in on the other big part of the plan. “They grabbed your guys, or should I say Bruce’s guys, first.”
Andrew shook his head. “This is a mistake.”
When he reached for his pocket, Jeremy wrestled the other man’s hands behind his back. Might have tugged a bit harder than needed, too. “You did that clumsy routine and planted the tracker. You turned off my life-
saving machines. I took that as a sign you wanted me dead.”
“What I don’t get is, why?” Ellis moved in front of his former assistant. “You had a career. A family with money. But you get involved with a creep like Bruce Casden.”
Garrett snorted. “Money. It’s always about money.”
The terror in Andrew’s face morphed into disgust. He spat at Ellis. “You’ve always been so stupid.”
Ellis just smiled. “I’m not the one going to jail.”
“Listening to you drone on every day made me want to kill you, too.” The shaky nervousness in Andrew’s voice vanished. Now he spoke with a steady venom that cracked like a whip. “You don’t get it. None of you. Bruce Casden has power. Real power. He’ll beat this like he has every other charge.”
Jeremy pretended to mull the comment over. “He might. You won’t. Trying to kill a federal agent?”
Garrett frowned and shook his head with a hefty dose of dramat
ics. “That’s major time.”
“I won’t spend one day in jail.”
“Right. You’ll spend thirty years. And a pretty boy like you.” Ellis picked up a towel and wiped the spit off his shirt. “I hope it was worth it.”
Jeremy’s patience expired. “Get him out of here.”
* * *
TWENTY MINUTES LATER Jeremy was back in his clothes and the team filed into his room. He turned to Ellis. “Thanks for lending us your guys.”
“They enjoyed having a chance to shoot at Garrett here, even if it was with fake bullets.”
Jeremy’s gaze went to Joel. “You okay?”
Joel nodded. “Yeah.”
The harsh lines had faded from his face. Ghosts still moved through him as he separated himself from the group physically, but Jeremy hoped Garrett could lure him back to the team. The frowns on the faces of Davis and Pax looked less promising. When Jeremy turned to them, they stepped out into the hall.
The move made Jeremy stop for a second. He had no idea what the cut meant, but he wanted to make sure Joel got it. “We brought you in because we knew you weren’t the mole.”
“But we used the fact other people did to give Andrew an added sense of security.” Garrett kept his arm locked around Sara’s waist as he talked.
The closeness made Jeremy smile. Somehow his idiot brother had fixed his relationship mess. But the touching and warm smiles made him miss the one person he wanted in the room. “Where’s Meredith?”
Ellis backed up a step. “Down the hall.”
Jeremy’s heart pounded hard enough to muffle the conversation. He had to concentrate to get the words out. “She’s in a room here?”
Ellis looked to Garrett before continuing. “We had to knock her out.”
Jeremy’s brain went blank. “What?”
“Seems the lady really cares for you.” Ellis smoothed the lapel of his jacket as he shifted out of Jeremy’s grabbing range.
Sara didn’t suffer from the same fear. She stepped up until she stood right in front of her future brother-in-law. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell her the truth.”
The vehemence in Sara’s voice stunned Jeremy as much as the conversation. “Garrett told you?”
“He didn’t want me to worry.”
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