Hazardous Holiday (Men of Valor)

by Liz Johnson

  “She was a heart patient.”

  “Was?” The croaked syllable was all she could manage.

  Zach seemed to understand what she couldn’t even say she needed. Scooping her into his arms, he held her tight enough that she could feel the break in his voice when he finally went on. “She was killed in a car accident a few days later. Her dad was forced off the road and hit a tree.”

  Tears leaked down her cheeks, and she wanted to wipe them away, but her arms were pinned between Zach’s chest and her own. She didn’t even know this little girl’s name, but her heart ached for the girl’s parents, for her friends.

  “Was she close—to getting a heart?”

  “At the top of the list.”

  “Why-y?” Her voice cracked, and she hiccupped a sob before continuing. “Why would someone do that?”

  He shook his head, his stubbled cheek catching against the top of her hair. “I don’t know. It could be anything. Personal vendetta against the hospital. A madman. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Cody’s on that list, too.”

  “He killed her.”

  He seemed to know the question she couldn’t ask, so he rushed to answer it. “I’m not going to let that happen to you and Cody. We’re going to make it through this. Together.”

  She sighed into the word, letting it weave its comfort and hope around her heart. She wasn’t in this alone. God had sent her just the man she needed for this terrifying season.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “We’ll start with the police. They need to know what we’re facing. And we may not be the only ones. Then we’re going to talk with the transplant coordinator.”

  “Denise Engle? Why her?”

  Zach ran his hands up and down her arms, building warmth and waking up her muscles. “Maybe she’s noticed that her transplant list is dwindling. Maybe she’s noticed something else. At the very least, she can alert other families that they’re in danger.”

  *

  If the look on her pale face was any indication, Denise Engle was surprised to see the McCloud family march into her office unannounced and unscheduled later that day. But Kristi didn’t have the energy for niceties. Not after the police had admitted that all they could do was send a patrol car past the house a few times a day. Not after the crime lab came back with zero leads from the bomb. With no leads on who had killed Greta Gammer, the little girl from El Centro, there was little the police could do but wait for another attack.

  Someone was going to help them. Not finding the man after her son wasn’t an option.

  Kristi closed the door behind them with a decisive click and plopped down in one of the two chairs in front of the desk. Zach sat with a lighter touch, although his arms were full of a sprawled-out six-year-old.

  Denise quickly schooled her features. “To what do I owe this surprise?”

  Kristi stared hard at the other woman. “What do you know about Greta Gammer?”

  Denise’s brown eyes flashed with a mix of shock and horror, and all the color drained from her face.

  “How do you know about Greta?”

  Kristi glanced at Zach, suddenly not sure she could say the words out loud. But when he gave her an encouraging nod, she took a steadying breath and turned back to Denise.

  “We think whoever targeted Greta has moved on to Cody.”

  Her jaw hung slack for what felt like a full minute, her eyes blinking rapidly the whole time. “What do you mean, targeted? Wasn’t it a car accident?”

  “It was a car crash—but not an accident. Eyewitness reports say the car was deliberately driven off the road. And days before that, she was nearly kidnapped.”

  Denise’s swallow reverberated through the tiny office, and her gaze swung to the wall where a cluster of four pictures commemorated a party. Denise with a silver-haired woman and a younger man in front of a cruise ship. Denise laughing with a mustachioed man. The same man hugging a little girl.

  Then Denise hung her head. “I don’t know what’s happening. Except that the police have been in touch.”

  Zach spoke for the first time, low enough not to disturb Cody but forceful enough to demand an answer. “With you? With others on the transplant list?”

  “They called me a couple weeks ago. They wanted the other names on the transplant list. But I couldn’t give it to them.”

  “You didn’t give the police the list?” She tried to keep the astonishment out of her voice, but she couldn’t figure out what this woman had been thinking. She knew there might have been an issue, and she hadn’t helped the cops? “Why not?”

  “HIPAA regulations. If I were to reveal the names on the list, I’d be violating all sorts of federal privacy laws. I’d lose my job, and I could face years in prison. I think they’ve put in a request for a court order, but these things take some time. HIPAA isn’t a joke.”

  Maybe not, but this conversation was starting to feel like one. Kristi inhaled deeply, then let out a slow breath between tight lips.

  And because Zach seemed to know just when to step in, he said, “To your knowledge, has anyone else on the list been attacked?”

  “No. No one but Greta. And then…”

  Kristi pressed flat hands on the polished edge of the wood desk. “What?”

  “When I heard he was shot—” she nodded toward Zach “—I wondered if… It just seemed like too much of a coincidence.”

  Coincidence. Sure. Denise could keep telling herself that if it made her feel better. But Kristi couldn’t help but think if she’d worked more with the police, maybe they’d have been able to keep a bomb from showing up in her kitchen.

  She felt like she’d fall apart until Zach slipped his hand into hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.

  “Why didn’t you say something to us?” he asked.

  She hadn’t thought it was possible, but Denise turned even whiter. “I—I wasn’t sure exactly what happened. And I couldn’t tell the cops without revealing that Cody is on the list.”

  “If you’d told me what was going on, I’d have told the cops we were on the list.” She hadn’t meant to spit the words out quite so harshly, and she bit her tongue to keep from going on.

  God, give me kinder words. Right now all I have is confusion and anger. And so much frustration.

  Denise shrank back, slouching in her office chair. Her eyes shifted rapidly back and forth as if she was looking for the right excuse. “It’s my job to protect those names.”

  “Maybe you should spend more time remembering that those names belong to real people with real families.” Kristi pushed herself to her feet and towered over Denise. “They’re not just names on your list.”

  As he joined her, Zach’s eyes narrowed. “Besides, based on the way kids have already been targeted, it’s clear that at least one other person got a hold of that list.”

  TEN

  Zach sat in the car for several minutes, letting Kristi’s rapid breathing slowly return to normal and the flush covering her face begin to fade. He gripped the steering wheel until his hands no longer shook and the throbbing in his head faded to a dull ache.

  He hadn’t felt this way in a long time—maybe ever. He had no idea what to do next. Just an urge that whatever he did needed to be done. Now.

  With a quick glance into the backseat, he confirmed that Cody was still sacked out. Then he let his gaze settle on Kristi, whose head rested against the back of the seat, her eyes open and focused on the sun visor, probably still chewing on the news about the list.

  He tossed around several conversation starters, but none of them seemed to fit. Anyway, the starter didn’t matter nearly as much as the final direction.

  And that was still a blank.

  The cops were tied up in red tape without a pair of scissors.

  Denise wasn’t going to share any more information than she already had.

  And there was still someone after Cody.

  No way was he going to let his family sit out there like bait for a rabid
wolf. But what could he do to protect them when he didn’t know which way to look to find the source of the danger?

  “I guess maybe I got a little hot in there. Sorry about that.”

  Kristi’s announcement caught him off guard and made him chuckle. “I don’t think anyone would blame you.”

  “Well, Denise probably isn’t going to mark our upcoming appointments with a heart on her calendar.”

  He snorted at the visual. “Probably not.”

  “So what are we going to do?”

  He closed his eyes and prayed for some direction, a clear thought. If only there was an obvious turn for them to take. But they’d followed every lead to a dead end. Every one, except one.

  His chest tightened at the very thought, but once it had formulated, he couldn’t let it go. “What about Greta’s parents?”

  She didn’t look nearly as interested as he was. “What about them?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe they saw or heard something. What if they did their own PI work? Maybe they have a lead that’s stuck with the El Centro cops that never made it to the SDPD.”

  Her brown eyes turned liquid as her lips pinched together. “They just lost their child. We can’t storm into their lives and ask them to relive that on the chance that they might have some information.”

  Reaching for her hand, he shot another glance into the backseat, and her gaze followed his. “What if the situation were reversed? What if Cody had been taken from you, and you had a chance to help out a frantic mother? Would you turn her away just because it hurt to think about him?”

  It took her barely a blink to respond. “I’ll get the address. You get us on the road.”

  This team thing was new, and it made his heart ache in the sweetest way.

  Of course, he’d spent years working with men who were closer than brothers, men he trusted absolutely. From his swim buddy at BUD/S to the guys on his team, he was never alone, never really on his own. As long as he was working, he was watching someone’s six—making sure no one crept up behind them—and he trusted that someone was watching his.

  But when he was home, he was alone. On leave, he wasn’t exactly isolated; he just flew solo.

  Chores. Cooking. Cleaning. It was all up to him. Until it wasn’t anymore—thanks to Kristi.

  Granted, no one ever left dirty dishes in his sink before. But they also never made him delicious meals. Or made room for him on the couch next to a sleepy little boy who grinned at him like he was a superhero. Or held his hand when he needed it most.

  Kristi’s fingers were narrow and soft, but she held on to him with a strength that ran to her very core. Sure, she was emotional. She was also unafraid to show him that side of her. And she was resilient and assured. She was kind and funny. Thoughtful and fiercely protective of Cody. And of him.

  And right now, for a moment he could hold her hand, offer her comfort and enjoy simply being with her.

  He hadn’t even known he was lonely until he realized how full this little family made his life. They filled an emptiness he’d never recognized before.

  In the back of his mind, he could hear his Bible study teacher leading a discussion on the book of Ecclesiastes and a reminder that “two are better than one. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion.”

  Zach had always known that to be true on the teams.

  But apparently there was an application to his home life, too.

  Just not with Kristi.

  He swallowed the bitter taste that always accompanied that reminder. He’d keep telling himself that truth as long as it took. No matter how much he liked having her and Cody around, he wasn’t the right kind of man for them, and he wasn’t ever going to be.

  Letting himself care too much was just asking for heartache.

  As they neared the outlet mall on the metro area’s farthest outskirts, a quiet voice from behind him snapped Zach to attention.

  “I’m hungry. Can we get chicken nuggets?”

  Zach looked at Kristi, and they both laughed. The day had flown by so fast that they hadn’t bothered to stop for a meal break.

  “Sure, little man. Let’s get some food.”

  The stop didn’t last more than twenty minutes. Just long enough to order, eat and wash up. While the food seemed to perk Cody up, Zach worried that he might not have the stamina to make the four-hour round trip. But there wasn’t anything else to be done. With Cody in danger, he wasn’t about to leave the boy with a sitter, nor was he going to send Kristi all the way to El Centro by herself. Not when their pursuer had proven time and again that he wasn’t afraid of collateral damage.

  Sticking together was their only option. If Cody could hold on through the trip.

  He caught Kristi’s gaze and nodded toward the little man, asking with his eyes. She mouthed her response. “He’ll be okay.”

  They passed the rest of the drive in near silence, Zach as lost in his own thoughts as Kristi seemed to be in hers. He tried to imagine what an interaction with the Gammers might be like. But all he could picture was a stone wall of silence and a slammed door in their faces.

  Kristi directed him into a small subdivision of cookie-cutter homes, each as pale and sun weary as the one before. The Gammer home was as unremarkable as every other one on the block. Single-story ivory stucco with faded brown trim. The lawn might have been green at one point, but now it was mostly dirt.

  Zach pulled up in front of the home and turned off the car. The lack of air-conditioning was immediately apparent—even in December—under the unrelenting sun. Kristi reached for her door, but an instinct made Zach grab her hand. “Wait. Just a second.” She turned back with raised eyebrows, and he shrugged. It was hard to know if his apprehension was due to the meeting they were about to have or if he’d sensed that someone had followed them. Maybe the low-level tingling on the back of his neck would just be a part of life as long as someone was after Cody.

  He needed a calmer spirit, and he knew only one way to get that. Dipping his head, he whispered, “Lord, keep us safe. Give us the right questions. Let the Gammers be open to answering them.”

  Kristi squeezed his hand, and when he looked up, there was a full smile on her lips. “Thank you.”

  He nodded and led the way, gathering Cody and his toy car, before making his way up the cement walkway.

  Kristi raised her fist and rapped on the wooden door three times. A dog barked inside, but no one opened the door.

  Kristi shot him a questioning look, and he lifted a shoulder. He guessed if he was in their shoes, he wouldn’t want unannounced visitors either. “Try again.”

  She did. The barking came from farther back in the house this time.

  Maybe they needed something a little more forceful. With the heel of his fist, Zach gave the door two solid thumps. It rattled the heavy wood and adjacent window.

  Kristi’s eyes opened wider, and she covered her mouth with her hand, like she was trying to subdue another smile. He winked at her, wishing he could tell her to never hide her smile. It was one of his favorite things about her, and at the moment they could use any joy to be found.

  Suddenly the blinds at the window flickered, and a woman appeared there. She probably wasn’t much older than Kristi, but grief had hollowed her cheeks and sunk her red-rimmed eyes. “Go away!” she yelled, her voice muted through the glass.

  Zach shook his head quickly. “We need your help!”

  “No!” The blinds flicked closed.

  Kristi’s nose wrinkled, and her lips pinched together. “Maybe we should have called first.”

  Maybe. But that would have given the Gammers a chance to shut them down long-distance. It would be harder to refuse them eye-to-eye.

  After readjusting Cody’s position in his arms, Zach gave the door three more thumps and pressed the doorbell, which gave a pitiful thunk.

  Suddenly the front door swung open, and a thin man with blazing brown eyes lit into them. “Whatever you’re selling, we’re not interested. Whatever
you want, we can’t help. Go away.” He moved to slam the door.

  With barely a moment to consider his options, Zach wedged his foot in the way.

  The man scowled. “I’m calling the cops.”

  Kristi rushed between them, holding up her hands. “Please. Wait. Please. Just hear us out.”

  Branden Gammer looked doubtful as he pushed his hand through his shaggy hair and eyed Zach.

  “My son needs a heart transplant,” Kristi explained.

  Branden’s nostrils flared.

  “We think someone is trying to kill him.”

  Gammer turned white and loosened his grip on the door.

  “We think that maybe the same someone targeted your daughter.” Kristi’s voice was soft, filled with an empathy that only a grieving parent could truly share.

  Branden’s gaze swooped on Cody’s resting form and the oxygen pack he carried. “Greta had one of those, too. The doctor said she was going to have to move to the hospital full-time, but that was before…”

  Mrs. Gammer—Toni—slipped under her husband’s arm, holding him tight as she eyed Kristi with suspicion. “What is it that you want from us? Our girl is gone.”

  “I am so sorry for your loss.” Kristi pressed her hand to Cody’s back. “We just hoped you might be able to help us. We’ve run out of ideas, and someone is still coming after Cody.”

  The Gammers stared at each other for a long, silent moment, and Zach held his breath as they considered. He couldn’t pray hard enough or fast enough that God would soften their hearts. It was clear that their grief was still raw, but he prayed that they would put themselves in Kristi’s shoes and find the grace to help.

  Finally Toni turned to them. “I don’t know what we could tell you that would help, but maybe you should come in.” She stepped back, and after a long beat of silence, her husband opened the door wide enough for them to enter.

  Zach followed Kristi into the living room. Two oversize leather couches dominated the square space. Fast-food wrappers and empty glasses covered the slate coffee table, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned off in weeks. It was about what he’d expect for a man and woman lost in grief.