by Lara Lacombe
He screamed and dropped the gun, falling to his knees. Grant sprang forward, batting the weapon away with his hand so Jesse couldn’t grab it again. Then he tackled the man, pulling hard on his injured arm to keep him incapacitated.
Satisfied Jesse was no longer a threat, Grant glanced up at Avery. Relief drenched him when he saw she was whole and unharmed, making him feel a little light-headed. “I thought I told you to stay inside the container.”
She arched one eyebrow. “You’re welcome,” she said dryly.
“You could have been killed,” he pointed out.
“So it’s okay for you to risk your life, but I can’t do the same?” she fired back.
“Well...yes,” he said, at a loss.
Avery rolled her eyes but she smiled at him. Grant rose to his feet and yanked Jesse up, as well.
“Let him go.”
He froze at the sound of Paul’s voice. Damn! He’d assumed the other man had taken off as soon as the fighting started, but apparently Paul had merely hid until the scuffle was over. Now it seemed he had found his courage again, along with Jesse’s gun.
“Shoot him!” Jesse yelled. Paul pointed the gun at Grant, but his hand trembled a bit.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Grant said. “Let’s just all calm down and talk, okay?”
“Shoot him!” Jesse screamed again.
“Paul,” Grant said, raising his voice to be heard over Jesse’s shouting. “This isn’t you. You’re not the kind of man to shoot someone in cold blood.” At least he hoped not. Paul hadn’t hesitated to deliberately infect people with the virus, but shooting someone seemed more personal. Hopefully, Paul would be too squeamish to pull the trigger.
“I want to help you,” Grant continued. “I think you’re a good guy who got caught up in a bad situation. Let me and Avery help you out of it.”
Paul’s features twisted with despair, and after an endless moment, he lowered the gun. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice barely audible.
“You bastard,” Jesse said, his voice full of venom. “You’re useless, just like your son. Turning traitor won’t bring him back, you know.”
Paul’s head snapped up. “He’s gone?”
“Of course,” Jesse replied. “And now you’ll never find him.”
Paul blinked and his face went blank. Then he calmly closed the distance between them, and before Grant realized what the other man was doing, he shot Jesse in the chest.
Jesse crumpled, his deadweight pulling Grant down as he sank to the deck. Grant rolled the man onto his back, but it was too late. He was gone in a matter of seconds, his mouth open in a silent scream of protest.
Grant whirled back, expecting to find Paul pointing the gun at him or Avery. But the other man merely stood in place, staring down at Jesse’s body in a detached sort of manner, the way one might look at an uprooted tree after a storm.
“Paul,” Avery said cautiously. “Give me the gun, please.”
Her words broke the spell he was under, and Paul looked down at the gun in his hand, surprise flickering across his face. He studied it for a moment, then raised his arm and pointed the weapon at his own head.
“Paul,” Grant said, reaching out to pull Avery back. “That’s not necessary. Please don’t.”
Tears streamed down the other man’s face. “Don’t you understand? My son is gone. It’s all been for nothing.”
“I’m sorry,” Avery said softly. “I truly am. But don’t do this. Don’t let Jesse win.”
Rage flashed across Paul’s face, and Grant’s breath caught in his chest. For a split second, he thought Avery had said the wrong thing, pushing the man over the edge instead of bringing him down. Then he sank to his knees, dropping the gun as he began to sob in earnest.
Grant picked up the weapon and tucked it into the waistband of his pants. He exhaled heavily and his body started to shake as the adrenaline left his system. He glanced over at Avery and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He opened his mouth to speak but found that he physically couldn’t form words. Too drained to care, he simply held out his arms.
She stepped into his embrace, pressing her body against his. She was reassuringly warm and solid and alive, and he rejoiced in the feel of her.
He wasn’t sure how long they stood there, wrapped in each other’s arms. He was dimly aware of the arrival of some crew members, who had been alerted to their trespassing by the gunshot. People began to arrive, some to ask questions, some to deal with the situation, some just to gawk. But through it all, Grant and Avery clung to each other, drawing strength from their newly reforged bond.
“Thank you for being here with me,” she whispered during a break in the questioning.
Grant looked over at her and smiled. “As long as I’m with you, there’s no place I’d rather be.”
Epilogue
Six weeks later
Olivia Sandoval let out a long whistle and leaned back from the computer screen. “Damn, girl. You really do need a vacation!”
Avery grinned at her friend’s reaction. “Told you I wasn’t kidding.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Even though her friend was hundreds of miles away in DC, her concern came through loud and clear.
“Me, too,” Avery said. “And I could say the same about you.” Olivia had dealt with her own adventure in Colombia a few months ago, and Avery got goose bumps every time she thought about how close she had come to losing her friend.
“We must have been born under a lucky star,” Olivia said.
“Maybe so,” Avery said. “And I think we should celebrate by getting together. I want to meet this new guy of yours, and I want you to meet Grant.”
“Sounds good. What did you have in mind?”
“I’m thinking we need to go on a cruise,” Avery suggested with a smile.
Olivia smiled back. “I know a good company,” she said.
“Do you think Mallory would mind?”
Olivia shook her head. “Nah, I bet she’d be thrilled. It would be like a working vacation for her.”
“Excellent.” Excitement sparked in Avery’s belly, and she reached for her phone to pull up her calendar. “It’s kind of short notice, but can you guys go next month? I know Mallory is working the launch of a new ship.”
“I’ll talk to Logan, but that should be fine,” Olivia replied. “It’ll be so great to see each other again!”
Happiness flooded her system, making her feel lighter than air. “I can’t wait!”
“Me, neither. I’ll let you go so you can finish unpacking, but I’ll call in a few days so we can start ironing out the details.”
“Great! Love you, O.”
“Love you, too, A.”
Avery leaned forward and closed her laptop, then let out a happy sigh. Everything was really coming together, and she was glad to put the events in Antarctica behind her.
The aftermath of the shooting was still a bit of a blur. She and Grant had spoken to the US marshal on-base, General Anderson, and a whole host of law enforcement personnel via webcam. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken much effort to convince Paul Coleson to talk. The man had told them everything, from his first contact with the mysterious Organization to his efforts to isolate and purify the virus, and his deliberate infection of people on the base. It was almost too fantastical to believe, and while she questioned the existence of the all-powerful Organization, his actions were not in dispute.
She shuddered, the memory of his words making her blood run cold. Paul and Jesse had come so close to smuggling the virus off the base. And while she understood Paul had acted out of grief and fear, she still couldn’t forgive his actions.
Harold had been happy to see her, and thanks to her efforts, she was part of the team working to characterize this new virus. It was an exciting professional development, one that filled her with pride. They were learning so much about the pathogen, and hopefully their work would translate into better therapies for regular influenza outbreaks.
> But the best part of all? Grant had found a job at Emory University Hospital, which was practically across the street from Avery’s office at the CDC.
“Start looking for a house,” he’d said right before she’d boarded the transport plane in Antarctica. “I’m moving to Atlanta as soon as I get back.”
“Are you sure?” The idea thrilled her, but she didn’t want him to uproot his life without really considering all the consequences.
“My life is with you, Avery,” he’d said softly. “I don’t care where I live, as long as we’re together.”
And so she’d put her condo on the market and found a little bungalow just outside the city. It hadn’t taken Grant long to find a job—with his experience, he had his pick of hospitals. And even though they weren’t going to be working side by side like they had in Antarctica, she liked knowing he would be so close.
Grant had driven up from Miami a few days ago with a trailer full of his things, and they had worked steadily to get it all unpacked. It had been a bit of a challenge to combine her stuff with his, but she enjoyed seeing their lives come together.
A pair of strong, warm arms slid around her from behind, and she leaned back into the solid mass of Grant’s chest.
He buried his nose in her hair and kissed her temple. “Did I hear you say something about a cruise?”
She nodded. “I thought it would be a nice getaway, and a good opportunity for you to meet my friends.”
“Does that mean you’re keeping me?” he teased.
Avery turned in his arms until she was facing him. “That depends,” she said. “Are you going to keep that coffee table?”
He let out an exaggerated sigh. “There is nothing wrong with that table,” he began, but she held up her hand.
“Bottle-cap tabletops are no longer in style,” she said.
“I don’t think they ever were,” he quipped. “But the guys and I had fun making it in college. Can I at least keep it in the garage?”
“Fine,” she relented. In truth, she didn’t care about the coffee table. She’d live under the thing if that was the only way to be with Grant, and he knew it.
“Thanks, baby.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose and she smiled.
“Ready to finish unpacking?” There were only a few boxes left to tackle, and then they could sit back and relax.
“I thought we might take a break first,” Grant suggested.
“Weren’t we just on a break?” Avery asked. His hands stroked her back, drifting lower in a clear suggestion. “Oh, you mean that kind of break,” she said.
He grinned. “The best kind.”
She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him, threading her fingers through his hair in a caress that was part tenderness, part need. “Sounds like a good idea to me,” she said after a moment. “We’ve got a lot of breaks to catch up on.”
Grant cupped her cheek with his hand, love shining in his eyes. “And the rest of our lives to do it.”
*
“You’ve got a visitor.”
Paul sat up on the thin mattress and swung his legs over the side of the cot. “Who is it?” Please, not Mother... Her first, and so far only, visit had been a disaster. The last thing he wanted was to be confronted with her tearful admonitions again. She blamed him for Noah’s death, and rightly so. But what she didn’t understand was that her anger and disappointment paled in comparison to his own self-hatred.
The guard rolled his eyes. “Do I look like your social secretary? Come on, let’s go.”
Paul walked over to the door and presented his hands for cuffing. The guard escorted him from his cell and through a series of corridors until they reached one of the visitation rooms, a spartan space that he knew from experience contained only a metal table and two chairs.
They entered, and Paul got his first glimpse of his visitor. It was a man he’d never seen before, and the bottom dropped out of his stomach.
Today’s the day, then.
The guard fixed his cuffs to the loop on the table and took a step back. The man glanced at him. “I’d like some time alone with my client, please.”
The guard pursed his lips but nodded. “I’ll be just outside if you need anything.”
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, the stranger took the seat across from Paul. “Do you know who I am?”
“No. But I can guess.” Paul tilted his head to the side, expecting to feel scared, or worried, or maybe even relieved. But there was nothing. He felt empty, drained of all emotion.
The man nodded, apparently satisfied by this answer. “Your failure to complete your mission has been a bit of an inconvenience.”
“I did my job,” Paul replied quietly, his pride stung by the rebuke. “It’s not my fault you sent some psycho with poor impulse control to assist me.”
“That was...unfortunate,” the man said delicately.
“Are you here to punish me for killing him?” The question was blunt, but Paul didn’t want to waste time with this man. He’d rather sleep in his cell than continue with this cryptic conversation.
“No. We would have been quite happy to let the civil authorities handle the matter. I’m here because you ran your mouth.”
“For all the good it did me,” Paul said bitterly. He’d confessed everything after his arrest for Jesse’s murder—the Organization, his orders to search for potential new biological weapons, his instructions to test the virus he had found on the base population. He hadn’t held anything back, but they hadn’t believed him. The Organization had planted enough evidence to make him look like a deranged loner who had snapped after the death of his wife.
Noah’s body had been found a few days after he returned to the US. The police had characterized his case as a runaway after they found a series of angry emails on his laptop. The authorities believed Paul and Noah had gotten into a heated argument and Noah had left home and had been living rough on the streets. It didn’t matter that Paul denied ever sending the messages—no one believed the word of a murderer.
“Regardless, your actions have consequences.” The man reached into his pocket and slid a small red pill across the table.
Paul eyed it. “What if I refuse?”
The man shrugged. “You still have family.”
His stomach twisted as Lisa’s face flashed in his mind. “How do I know you’ll leave them alone if I cooperate?”
“You don’t.”
Paul was silent a moment, but did he really have a choice? If he defied them, Lisa would suffer. If he cooperated, they might forget about her. There was only one thing he could do.
He reached out, took the pill and popped it into his mouth.
The stranger nodded and rose.
“None of this would have happened if you’d left my son alone.”
The man paused on his way to the door. “I appreciate your perspective, and your desire for revenge. But you should know, all your efforts have been for naught. We have people everywhere. Eyes and ears all over the world. As I said, you caused us an inconvenience, but we will soon move past it. There are other targets—planes, trains, ships. Nothing is safe.”
Paul was beginning to feel a little light-headed and he leaned forward, bracing his hands on the table for support. “Why? Just tell me that. Why do you do it?”
The man lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “Why not?”
*
If you enjoyed this exciting romance
by Lara Lacombe,
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the DOCTORS IN DANGER miniseries,
ENTICED BY THE OPERATIVE,
available now from Harlequin Romantic Suspense!
Keep reading for an excerpt from UNDERCOVER IN CONARD COUNTY by Rachel Lee
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Undercover in Conard County
by Rachel Lee
Prologue
Six men sat around a poker table in the back room of an historic hotel somewhere in Wyoming. They were only vaguely aware of its history, but the bullet holes that pockmarked the expansive wood bar out front hinted at it. The place was supposedly haunted, too, but they didn’t care and didn’t believe.
They had business to discuss.
A new outfitter had shown up late last spring, and from what they could tell, he was unlicensed. The men at the table were unlicensed as well, lying to clients from out of state, telling the nonresidents that they could legally hunt under the outfitter’s license. Not true, but they didn’t care.
No, they led the hunts into public lands as far away from possible observation as they could get, wined and dined the hunters to make them feel like big deals, then got them their damn trophies, knowing these guys would leave the state immediately.
