Wrath sprinted up and used Carson’s hands to give him a boost to the top. Then Wrath spun belly down on the top of the fence. He leaned down and offered a hand. Carson leaped up in the air, caught the hand, and used it to propel himself to the top. The gritty stone dug into his palms and wedged beneath his nails. He didn’t care. He muscled his way over. By that time, Wrath was already down the other side.
*
Kayla watched her uncle duck down a hallway that was hidden behind the line of tellers in the front of the bank. What was the wily old man up to now?
She tried to look as though she belonged. Picking up a deposit ticket at the kiosk in the center of the lobby, Kayla scribbled something on it while trying to see exactly which office her uncle had gone into. Bridge and Jinx were standing in the hallway, pretty much blocking everything. She needed to get rid of them.
Spotting a bank security guard by the front door, Kayla had an idea. She marched over to the security guard and put on her best anxious expression. She tugged the hard-faced man’s arm.
“Sir?” Kayla kept her voice breathy and made sure her bosoms were going up and down with each breath. “Those two men in that back hallway have guns! I’m sure of it. They said something about robbing the bank!”
That was all it took. The security guard snapped his fingers, and immediately the other three guards stationed at various positions inside the massive bank came to his aid. The four of them confronted Bridge and Jinx in the hallway. There was a scuffle, lots of yelling, and the other patrons in the bank suddenly became very interested in what was going on.
The security guards pounced on Bridge and Jinx and dragged them out the front doors of the bank. This lovely distraction had the dual purpose of getting rid of Bridge and Jinx and also providing a perfect scene to keep all attention off of Kayla.
She slipped away from the kiosk and headed directly to the office where her uncle was deep in conversation with someone else. Pressing her back to the wall just outside the office, Kayla peeked around the corner as far as she dared. She could see her uncle and another man that looked very banker-like. They were arguing.
“I’m telling you, Pierson,” the other man snarled. “You cannot expect to bully your way through these legal allegations. This institution is not your personal piggy bank! Don’t think we don’t have audit procedures that have tracked your every movement in this financial institution! The FTC is already investigating your banking practices.”
Stedman Hyde-Pierson was not a man to suffer threats. Kayla put her hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp as her uncle grabbed the smaller man by his jacket lapels and slammed him against the wall.
“You’d better be damn sure you know who it is you’re messing with,” Stedman said in a low tone filled with malice. “Men like you might get into their luxury cars and find that they blow sky-high.”
Kayla swallowed thickly. Her skin prickled with fear and the awareness of something horrible about to come. She pushed away from the wall and hurried her way back through the bank to where she had left her cousin and aunt cowering with poor Felix in that conference room. They had to get out of here and figure out what was going on before something really bad happened.
*
Carson didn’t let Wrath’s lead faze him. He knew his fellow marine wouldn’t leave him behind. They had left the car about a block and a half away, around a corner. The Cambridge street was busy with traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian. Carson dodged and ducked around dogs, children, and other joggers as he headed toward the car. He could see Wrath about twenty yards in front of him. He was closing in on the car fast.
Then, all at once, a shot rang out. Carson knew it was gunfire. He would have recognized it anywhere. The people around him did not. Almost everyone stopped and turned to look around as though they thought a car was backfiring or something else interest-worthy was taking place.
Carson forced himself to speed up. He saw Wrath stumble and go down on one knee. Blood bloomed red against the lower left side of his back. He’d been hit! Carson began zigzagging. He could not imagine someone trying to get a shot with all of these passersby in the way, yet the sniper had been skilled enough to get Wrath even with all of the commotion.
Another shot rang out. Someone screamed. Across the street, Carson saw a group of people gathered around a dog. The fucker had murdered a dog? What the hell? Carson caught up to Wrath and stooped to pull his friend’s arm around his shoulder. They left a trail of Wrath’s blood on the ground.
The two of them beat leather to the car. Wrath was fumbling with the remote. The locks clicked. Seconds later, the back window shattered. There were more screams on the street. People were scrambling. They were running and diving to the ground and using their cell phones to call the police. Carson shoved Wrath into the car and slammed the door. Ducking low, he moved around the front of the vehicle to keep it between him and where he thought the shooter was.
By the time he got into the driver’s seat, he could hear the first sirens blaring as the police and ambulance services headed their direction. Wrath was bleeding like a stuck pig. Carson slammed on the gas pedal and took off. He looked over at his friend. Wrath was pale. This was not good.
Carson struggled out of his shirt. He threw it at Wrath. “Use that to slow the bleeding before you die right here in the fucking car.”
“Take me to Ava’s house,” Wrath wheezed. “We’re supposed to meet there.”
“You need a doctor,” Carson argued.
Wrath groaned as he pressed Carson’s wadded-up shirt against his wound. “They’ll call the cops. I really hate the Boston PD. I’ve had enough of them. Just go to Ava’s.”
Carson ground his teeth together. This was not his preferred course of action, but he could absolutely understand Wrath’s desire to keep Boston PD out of it. Analise had already told Carson about Wrath’s run-in with the department just last week. No doubt Wrath figured they’d just lock him up once again.
“Wrath?” Carson glanced over. His friend’s chin was listing down against his chest. “Wrath?”
But there was no answer. Wrath had passed out. No. This was not good at all.
*
Ava was still chastising Kayla when they walked through the back door of Ava’s South End brownstone. “What were you thinking?” Ava slammed her wallet and keys down on the kitchen countertop. “You could have gotten yourself in such trouble! Not to mention the rest of us. Do you have any idea how much trouble Felix has gone to in order to keep this information away from Stedman? He’s trying to buy us enough time to get things taken care of, and you’re out there broadcasting your intent!”
“But you’re not listening to what I heard!” Kayla protested for what felt like the millionth time. “Stedman is in trouble with the bank for doing illegal transfers and such. That’s what the other manager said!” Then Kayla frowned. “I guess I only assumed it was a manager or something. He seemed like he was on the same managerial level as Uncle Stedman.”
“Then it would have been the bank’s president,” Ava said distractedly. “I can’t believe that Parker Hanson would tangle with Stedman.”
Was Kayla finally getting through to her aunt? “The guy said he called the FTC or something like that. One of those lettered organizations.”
Tegan sucked in a quick breath. “Mother, that’s serious. If they called the FTC, then that means there will be a real investigation. Hanson wouldn’t have called unless he knew there was enough evidence to make it real.”
Ava and Tegan continued to argue about banking practices. Kayla yawned. She couldn’t help but wonder where Carson and Wrath were. They should have been back by now. The Girls’ Team had been gone far longer than they had anticipated.
“Hey!” Someone banged on the back door.
Ava sighed. “That will be the boys. Tegan, go let them in.”
Tegan opened the back door, and Carson spilled through with Wrath half draped over his shoulder. Tegan’s mouth opened in a wordless scream.
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After that, everything seemed to speed up to triple time. Ava started ordering Tegan to help Carson get Wrath onto the kitchen countertop. Kayla kicked the back door closed and locked it. Then she helped heave Wrath’s not so tiny frame up onto the countertop.
Ava pointed to Kayla. “Boil some water and get the clean towels out of that bottom drawer. We have to get the bleeding stopped.”
Kayla did not pause to wonder where her aunt might have acquired her first-aid skills. Now wasn’t the time. She threw a pot on the stove to boil and grabbed the towels. Then she stood beside Carson and watched as Ava cut the clothing away from Wrath’s upper body.
The wound looked angry. It seemed to begin on the left side of his back and end on his belly. Kayla put her hand in Carson’s and gave his fingers a squeeze. He looked stoic, but she knew what it was like to put on a mask and pretend that you thought everything was going to be okay.
Moving closer to Carson, she wordlessly offered her support and prayed that Wrath would be all right.
Chapter Sixteen
Carson was acutely aware of Kayla’s hand in his as he stood in Ava’s kitchen and watched his friend’s wound continue to bleed sluggishly as Ava tried to staunch the flow. The comfort of having Kayla there with him was incredible. Her shoulder pressed lightly against his as if she were trying to shoulder some of the burden. Nothing had been said regarding what had happened. Carson still wasn’t entirely sure if the shots had been coming from the Sokolov estate or not.
The back door opened once again, and this time it was Nash who walked inside. He took one look at Wrath and then glanced at Ava. “How is it?”
“Not good,” Ava murmured. “He’s lost a lot of blood. Is Analise able to help us with this?”
“I fired them.” Nash ran his hands through his hair in obvious agitation. “I didn’t want to put Analise in an uncomfortable spot since she has to deal with Bridge and Jinx when they check in. So, I didn’t tell her that this disavowal wasn’t real.”
Ava pressed her lips together. “We need blood. He’s lost a lot. He needs a transfusion and probably an antibiotic IV.” Tegan made a tiny squeaking noise in the back of her throat, and Ava looked up at her daughter. Her expression was mixed. “I know someone I can call.”
“Then do it,” Nash ordered in a low voice.
There was a very interesting dynamic between Carson’s boss and Kayla’s aunt. Under different circumstances, Carson would be trying to decipher exactly what their relationship was. It seemed more than it should have been, given the length of their acquaintance and the impetus behind it, but Carson was too worried about Wrath to think much beyond his friend’s health at the moment.
“Carson,” Ava said in a clipped tone. “You and Kayla go and fetch my friend Wallace. He owns the alternative pharmacy around the corner.” Ava was busy scribbling a note onto a piece of paper from her planning desk. “Take this to him. Tell him I need his help badly. But be careful. If you’re being followed, I don’t want Wallace getting dragged into this mafia nonsense.”
Carson nodded. He glanced at Nash for confirmation, but Nash was already handing him a set of keys. “Take mine. Yours looks too suspicious with the window blown out and the bloody seat.”
Carson hated to think about the amount of blood currently soaking the passenger seat of what had been Wrath’s vehicle. He took the keys from Nash without a word. Kayla snatched up the note from Ava’s hand, and the two of them quickly headed for the car.
KAYLA HAD NEVER felt so helpless or so completely at a loss for what to say. There were no words to cover this situation. Oh yeah. Sorry about your friend. He’s bleeding to death on my aunt’s kitchen counter and all. I’m sure it will all turn out fine. That just didn’t cut it. In fact, nothing cut it, because the situation sucked.
She got into Nash’s low-slung sports car. Carson already had the engine revving. Kayla glanced at her aunt’s note. “Go left out of the driveway and turn right at the end of the street. The pharmacy should be at the next corner on the left.”
“Got it,” Carson murmured.
There was no talking. Kayla still didn’t know what to say. She could not imagine how she would ask Carson what had happened without sounding crass. The truth was that she was so profoundly glad that it had been Wrath hurt and not Carson that she actually felt a little guilty.
“What?” Carson said when they were only perhaps two hundred yards from their destination. “I can practically hear your brain going a thousand miles a minute. You want to say something. Just say it.”
“I’m so glad it wasn’t you.” The words came out in a rush. In seconds, Kayla was sobbing quietly in the passenger seat.
She wiped her face on the cuff of her sleeve and tried to get control. It was all too much. There were people shooting guns at her. There were people following her around. She had seen and heard things in the last few days that she could have never imagined happening. It was like she had stepped out of real life and into some bad after-school special.
Then Caron reached across the interior of the car and put his hand over hers. “I think that’s pretty natural. I’ll admit that I’m flattered as hell that you’d care that much.”
“About you?” She turned her head sharply. “I don’t know what’s going on with us. I don’t even know if there’s really an ‘us’ to begin with. I just know that the idea of you being hurt—or worse—it just makes me angry and sad and all jumbled up inside.”
“Then I’m a lucky man,” Conner said softly. “When this is all over, Kayla, I would really like to date you.”
Despite the circumstances and even the fact that they were just parking on the curb outside the pharmacy, Kayla could not help but grin. “Date me? You want to go out with me? Take me out, you mean?”
“Yes.” His expression lightened for just a moment. “I think that’s what they still call it these days. I’ll admit I’m sadly out of practice.”
Kayla mulled that over for a moment. “I’m not sure I was ever in practice, but I would love to go out with you, Carson.”
He was smiling from ear to ear when they got out of Nash’s car and headed into the pharmacy. Kayla could not help but marvel at the way good things could unfold right in the middle of such awful circumstances.
CARSON KNEW HE should be focused on the mission, on the fact that his friend had been shot, and on the danger that seemed to be stalking them around every single corner. But the knowledge that Kayla Hyde actually wanted to go out on a date with him was pretty much like the ultimate silver lining.
He cleared his throat and forced himself to think about what they were doing. The pharmacy was right ahead, but Ava had been very specific about not allowing themselves to be followed.
Carson casually tugged Kayla into his arms. At this point, they could have been going into one of a dozen different shops on the street. He had parked in the center of the block, and there was everything from a pub to a hair salon within twenty feet of them.
“What are you doing?” Kayla whispered. Her eyes sparkled and he could not help but admire them. “Aren’t we supposed to be fetching the pharmacist?”
“We’re supposed to make certain that we weren’t followed,” Carson reminded her. He took her hands in his and gently nuzzled her neck. Then he whispered right into her ear. “I’m trying to see if we picked up a tail.”
“There was a car behind us for most of the last block,” Kayla recalled. “But they went straight when we turned right.”
Carson appreciated her situational awareness. That wasn’t a common trait amongst the civilian population, but it was one he could certainly respect. “I saw that. It was a black SUV. I think we’re good though. Let’s slip inside. We’ll have to check again before we leave.”
Kayla gave a little sigh as Carson took her hand and led her toward the alternative medicine shop’s door on the corner. A bell jangled merrily when they entered the store. It was well lit and smelled like a blend of eucalyptus and sage. It wasn’t unpleasant.
Carson craned his neck around searching for someone who might potentially be the Wallace person they’d been sent to fetch.
Then a man emerged from behind a beaded curtain. He put his hands flat on the glass countertop. “Can I help you?”
Carson raised his eyebrows at the hippie throwback standing behind the counter. The guy had long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. His beard had snippets of gray hair in the chin area, and he was wearing thin wire-rimmed spectacles. His jeans were worn and had holes in the knees, and his T-shirt was obviously a handmade tie-dye number. If this guy was going to work on Wrath, it was probably a good idea that Wrath was still unconscious.
“Are you Wallace?” Kayla stepped forward hesitantly. “Ava sent us.”
“Yes.” Wallace’s brown eyes grew concerned behind his spectacles. “Is Ava all right?”
“Ava is, yes.” Kayla handed Wallace the note that Ava had hastily scribbled. “She gave me this and told me to give it to you. We’re supposed to take you with us.”
Now Wallace’s eyebrows shot up past the rims of his glasses. “Go with you? I don’t leave my shop.”
Carson stepped forward. If it meant saving his friend, he would throw this hippie over his shoulder and drag him out of the store.
KAYLA COULD FEEL Carson going all caveman on her. Before he could actually bash poor Wallace over the head and drag him to the car by his scraggly ponytail, Kayla put herself between them.
“Our friend is badly hurt,” Kayla explained. “I’m sure the note tells you all you need to know.”
Wallace’s eyes moved behind those crazy round glasses as he read over Ava’s hastily scrawled handwriting. He said nothing else to Kayla or Carson. Instead, he turned around and started pulling items off the shelves behind the counter. He threw everything into a classic black bag. Finally, he went to a refrigerator at the far left-hand side of the store and retrieved what looked like a bag of blood.
That was when Kayla started to feel relieved. Beside her, she could feel Carson visibly relax as well. The man was going to help Wrath, and that was all that mattered.
Nash Security Solutions Page 25
