by J. M. Madden
She tilted her head at him, brows furrowed. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
Duncan’s mind was clear enough to be wary of the tone. “I don’t want you to leave, but you look like you’ve been run ragged. Go home and get some sleep, then if you want to come back, you can tomorrow.”
Alex seemed about to say something, then clamped her lips shut. “Yes, maybe I will do that. Goodnight, Duncan.”
Then, without a kiss or anything, she walked out.
Duncan stared after her, unsettled. That had been… difficult. Had she been angry with him? Or had it just been frustration? He wasn’t sure.
Leaning his head back against the pillow, he stared at the ceiling. Though he loved having her in his life, surely she hadn’t expected all this mess.
Maybe he should just let her go.
Again.
His heart ached at the thought and he wondered what he’d ever done to anyone to be so unlucky. Was that even the word he was looking for? Everything he ever did was a struggle, and honestly, he was tired of it. For once, he’d just like something in life to roll in his favor.
Duncan cursed at himself, unused to being so down. The road ahead of him seemed long and tedious, with no guarantees for the future, and he didn’t want to drag Alex down that road with him. If he let her go, she would have the chance to find someone more appropriate for her.
Fuck, he didn’t want to do that though.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aiden tracked LeBoutin to the opposite end of the parking lot from the black truck. The blood spots were fairly easy to follow, so when they came to an abrupt end, he knew he’d found where the assassin’s getaway vehicle had been. He glanced around, wondering if there were any security cameras close. Didn’t really look like it.
Once he reached the end of the trail, he wasn’t sure what to do. There was no way to know what the man had been driving, unless security had picked something up by chance. He’d probably driven by the front entrance just to scope things out. Maybe it was worth getting into the hospital system to see what he could find.
Walking back to his own truck, he wondered what was going on with Duncan. The guy had a good heart and Aiden felt bad that he’d had a part in hurting him. He’d known he’d needed to protect Palmer at all costs, though, and he’d gotten a little reckless with his movements.
At some point he needed to go talk to them, but he wasn’t sure when. Denver PD had increased patrols of the hospital grounds, so maybe he would wait until Duncan went home. What a mess.
If he’d only gotten LeBoutin, maybe he could track back to his boss. Aiden had a suspicion who it was, but he hadn’t been able to confirm it. They were running out of time. His partners were dodging their own shadows and still searching for answers.
Pulling away from the hospital, he headed toward Harmony House, one of LeBoutin’s frequented locations. There had been no hospital admissions anywhere around the city for a gun shot wound, so he might be looking for medical care in other places. Harmony had a pretty well stocked first aid room.
Assuming his homeless man persona, he waved at the woman at the desk and entered. It was a wasted trip, though. The first aid room was almost completely bare. Nobody was getting anything useful out of here.
That sent him back to the streets. He haunted the regular bum hangouts, and ranged a little further than he normally did. If LeBoutin was smart, he would bed down for a few days somewhere, depending upon his injury.
Aiden hoped Duncan’s sniper had gotten him good. Legalities tied his hands, though. He wanted to ask the man where he’d shot LeBoutin. Hopefully, he was gut shot and already rotting to death. If he died in a cardboard box somewhere, it would make Aiden’s life so much easier.
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t know that until another assassin came after him, cycled into service when LeBoutin no longer checked in.
Freaking smoke and mirrors, man.
* * *
Alex strode through the entrance of the hospital late the next morning, and she had to look at the spot where Duncan had fallen. The crack resounded through her mind. She forced her eyes away and carried on, trying not to think about what she would have done if she’d lost him too.
As she walked down the hallway to the elevator, she wasn’t sure what her reception would be. Last night she’d been pissed. If I want to come back. What the hell did he think she’d been staying there for? If she didn’t want to be there she wouldn’t be.
It was like he couldn’t believe she’d want to be there.
She loved him, damn it. Where else would she be?
Granted, their relationship was in a strange place. But she’d thought they’d kind of moved on to being something deeper than just acquaintances. It hurt her heart that he’d told her to leave.
Get a grip, Hartfield. Take a breath and go in smiling.
The elevator opened on the fifth floor, and she immediately saw LNF people in the waiting room. Not seeing any of the girls she crossed to Flynn, sitting against the far wall with Harper. The big sniper still spooked her, so she looked at Flynn. Both men wore those wraparound sunglasses that obscured their eyes, but Flynn still seemed the more approachable of the two of them.
“So, what’s the word today?” she asked. “Anything happen?”
Flynn shook his dark head. “Not much, although he was hollering early this morning when they stood him up.”
Alex winced. Maybe it was good she’d come in late. She didn’t know if she could have kept her composure in the face of blatant pain like that. No, she should have been here to give him what comfort she could. “Yeah, they’re pretty adamant about getting patients on their feet after a joint replacement like that.”
Harper shook his head. “I didn’t like hearing it. We had to step out.”
She was surprised he’d spoken to her. “He’ll be better off for it.”
Harper’s head swayed back and forth as if he wasn’t so sure.
“Is there anyone back there now?”
“Yeah, Palmer’s back there, getting marching orders,” Flynn told her, crossing his long legs in front of him. “Duncan said to have you come back as soon as you get here.”
Well, at least that was something. If she boiled all her emotions down, she guessed she was just chapped that he’d told her to go home. Basically, he’d discounted all the hours of waiting and fretting she’d done for him.
Maybe she could chalk up his contrariness to the pain he was in.
Alex knocked on the room door and let herself inside.
John looked up from the tablet in his hands he’d obviously been typing notes into, and gave her a grimace. Or was it a smile? Her gaze shifted to Duncan. He sat a little more vertical today, but there was a glower on his face. His expression lightened a little when he saw her, but he gave her his cheek, not his mouth, when she leaned down to kiss him. Alex was a little shocked, but she covered it. She hated this distance that had developed between them and wasn’t sure how exactly to fix it.
She reached out to touch his wrist. “How are you doing?”
He forced a pain-filled smile. “I’m doing great,” he lied. “They got me up today.”
Alex cringed, wanting to fuss over him. She hated the thought that he was in so much pain. “That’s good, though. It really is.”
Duncan sighed and nodded. “I know it is, I’m just not a good patient right now.”
No doubt. It looked like he was going through work withdrawal already too. “I can leave you guys to your meeting…”
“Nah,” John told her. “I think we’re about done.”
“Yeah, we’re done.”
“Did Shannon go back to work today, John?” Alex leaned against the wall, a little leery to let John leave just yet.
“Yes, she did. She said she needed to, especially since Dunc wasn’t going to be there. Honestly, she ought to be the one running the company right now. She probably knows more than Chad or I do.”
“It can be a joint effort,” Dunca
n told him. “Let her know what you need and she’ll help you do it.”
“Tell her I’ll call her later,” Alex told him as he pulled open the door. With a jaunty salute, he rolled out.
Alex looked at Duncan, worried at the reserve she could see in his eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked him, tired of dancing around whatever was going on in his head.
“I appreciate you coming back in, but you didn’t need to. I’m fine here.”
She cocked her head, wondering if they had all somehow missed seeing the concussion that had scrambled his brain. “I know I don’t have to be here, but I want to be. I know we agreed to take it slow, but I don’t understand this distance.”
Duncan looked out the window, as if thinking about something. “I know we agreed to see where this went, but that was before all this happened.” He waved a hand at his prone form. “It’s not fair to you to hold you here.”
She gave him a curious look. “How are you holding me here?”
Aggravation creased his face. “I don’t want you staying with me because you feel guilty or some shit.”
“I don’t feel guilty,” she told him firmly. “I’m glad I was there when it happened.”
He glowered, crossing his arms over his chest as if he felt defensive. “I don’t know that I like you being here right now.”
Alex reeled back in pain and shock. “Why would you say something like that to me?” She could feel her eyes filling with tears and she cursed. This wasn’t the way she had expected today to go.
Something vulnerable shifted in Duncan’s eyes and it took him a long time to answer. “Why would you want to stay?”
She looked at him incredulously, wondering if she’d heard him correctly. She took a minute to get her words in order. “Because I love you, you big dope. Why else would I be here, willing to put up with this ridiculous off and on game? You’ve sucked me into your life and I have no desire whatsoever to leave. Do you seriously want me to walk out that door?”
“No I don’t want you to walk out the damn door,” he growled, “but I don’t want you to be dragged down by this, or me. I’m looking at weeks of recovery, maybe more.”
“I’m not going to go anywhere,” she promised, daring to step toward the bed. “See, you act as if you have a choice in this, but you really don’t. I love you,” she said firmly.
He winced, eyes narrowing, and looked away. Alex thought he was trying to come up with another argument, but his Adam’s apple bounced, and she realized he was actually trying to control his emotions. Daring to reach out, she rested her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her, jaw clenched, and took her hand in his own. “I guess it’s good we’re in the hospital, because I think I need to get my heart checked. I don’t think it’s working right.”
Alex’s eyes filled with tears. “Let me check. It just so happens I’m a doctor.”
She leaned forward enough to press her lips to his, and she couldn’t contain her tears any longer. Duncan cupped her jaw, kissing the tears away. “Don’t cry babe. I don’t want you to cry. I never did. I just didn’t want to tie you down.”
Laughing, she pulled back enough to look him in the eye. “I want to be tied down, damn it.”
So conscious of his injuries, she leaned forward as much as she could to hug him. With a not-so-gentle tug, he pulled her down beside him. He gasped in pain and stilled for a moment, then pulled her upper body against his, wrapping his arms completely around her. They lay against each other for several long minutes, before a voice broke the silence.
“Mind if I interrupt?”
They looked up at Aiden Willingham standing in the doorway.
* * *
John watched the man in the blue scrubs walk by, and something jangled at his nerves. That was the guy!
Slamming his hands against the wheels, he made a motion to Harper. Immediately the big man went on alert, and they headed down the hallway. By the time he reached Duncan’s room, the other man had already entered. Not caring who he pissed off, he rolled in behind him.
When the guy looked up and gave him a wink, John realized he’d been reeled in like a fish. He’d wanted to be seen and followed, that was the only reason they were all together now in this room. Duncan was holding Alex against him on the bed, and it was obvious something heavy had just gone down. Alex wiped her face and forced a smile, but Duncan stared at the stranger with a considering look in his eyes.
“Aiden,” Duncan said carefully.
The younger man tipped his head forward in a slight bow of acknowledgement. “Duncan. Dr. Hartfield.”
The stranger took a step toward the bed, but so did Harper. Aiden glanced at the big man and gave him a tight smile. “That’s a great shot you made yesterday.”
Harper gave a single twist of his head in the negative. “Obviously not. He got away.”
Aiden made a little shrug. “It may have been better than you think.”
John looked at the man who had them all up in arms. He was about six feet tall, maybe a little more, but lean, like it had been a while since he’d taken care of himself. His dark hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. It was in the face that John could finally see the resemblance to his own. It set his heart to thudding. Deep set dark brown eyes, a long straight nose, strong chin. It had been a few days since the man had shaved, so stubble covered his jaw. Put them side by side and the similarity was strong. John’s complexion seemed a little darker, and his eyes deeper.
“Damn,” Duncan said, his voice soft.
Apparently John wasn’t the only one to see the similarity.
“No doubt about it, is there?” Alex asked softly.
Duncan shook his head. “Why all the subterfuge, Aiden? What’s been going on?”
Hooking a foot under the edge of the spare chair, the other man pulled it close and sank down into it. “This is going to be frustrating, and I apologize, but there are a lot of things I just can’t talk about. Not because I don’t want to,” he looked at John, “but because it would put you guys in danger.”
“It’s already put us in danger,” John growled, “as well as the lives of my fiancée and children.”
Aiden winced and gave him a sad look. “I know, and for that I apologize. I got entangled in some private sector, government sanctioned bad stuff…experimentation. A group of us knew it was bad and have tried to make a clean exit, but they have leverage over all of us. They don’t want us exposing them for what they’re doing. We need to track down the people pulling the strings, and to do that we need to follow the chain up. The man who shot at you is a French assassin by the name of LeBoutin. I trained with him at one point, and he’s a badass.”
“So, back up here,” Duncan said softly. “Why were you living on the streets last year? And why the hell did you end up in KC?”
Aiden sighed. “I needed a way to get close to Palmer without walking up and introducing myself. The men that ran the program knew I had a brother. They’d been able to find more information than I ever had on my own when I turned eighteen. They told me about you.” He looked at John directly, and held his gaze. “They told me about my drug addicted mother giving you up when you were just a kid. And how you’d been in the Marines and been injured. But then they began to hold your safety over my head for my cooperation. They liked to use… creative instruction to get what they wanted.”
Aiden shrugged and looked away, and John could see a swirling conglomeration of emotions in his face. It was obvious the ‘creative instruction’ meant physical correction…torture. The look in his eyes suggested devastating methods had been used.
“Anyway,” Aiden cleared his throat, “a group of us broke away from the camp and have been on the run for several months now. Well, they tracked our fourth man down and took him out. Left a very clear message that it was time for us to come in, and gave us a deadline. That deadline has passed. So they’ve sent people to retrieve us, or, if that’s not possible, to silence us.”
Again he paused, and Alex moved
like she wanted to go to him for comfort. John tightened his grip on the wheels of his chair, struggling with the same urge.
“LeBoutin knew I would be around to protect you,” Aiden continued, “because you’re my only living relative. So he used you and Shannon to draw me out.”
John blinked and realized he’d just been told his mother was dead. It didn’t really have much affect on him, other than a twinge of curiosity being satisfied. He’d known his mother was a piece of shit. It sounded like Aiden had figured that out as well.
“Kansas City was a fluke,” Aiden admitted. “I had just found my buddy gutted, and I needed a place to curl up and hide for a while. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how far I’d let my body go, then with the shock of his death to deal with, I was kind of out of it. When I woke up, I was belted to a bed in a hospital I didn’t remember walking into.” His gaze flicked to Alex. “Sorry I was so harsh, Doc. My history with doctors is not… nice. I woke up ready to kill.”
For the first time, John spotted the tells his brother was trying to hide. There was a sheen of moisture across his forehead and the fist out of their line of sight kept clenching at his side. He could see the muscles of his arm contracting as he did it. Aiden didn’t relish being here in this hospital any more now than he had then, but he was controlling himself to appear calm. Like they all did.
“So, what’s next,” John asked, trying not to soften toward the man. “Shannon and I just sit here like ducks waiting for the next bad guy to come after you, or us?”
Aiden winced. “I’m sorry, John. I’ve imagined talking to you many times, and getting to know you, but I never expected it to go this way. I believe LeBoutin is dead. I can’t feel him in the area any more. I’m leaving town for a while to try to draw their attention away, and I need to talk to the rest of my team. Things are coming to a head and we have to have countermeasures in place. We have one vital piece of information that these men need, and we’re not giving it up until we’re positive it will be used correctly.”
He glanced at Duncan. “I’m sorry you got dragged into all this. When I met you last year, I was at a pretty low point in my life. You gave me some hope that I could get back to where I was before all this shit went down for me. You were kind to me at a vital time and I thank you for that.”
