by Lori Ryan
Agent Burke cursed. “I only told three people of your whereabouts. I left a voicemail for the Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven field office to see if she could send a field agent out to Torrington to take Jennie’s statement. I sent an email to my supervisor. The third person was AUSA Waters. I copied her on the email. If she gets her emails on her phone like I do, she would have seen it shortly after you contacted me,” Agent Burke said.
Chad didn’t wait to hear any more and neither did Mike. They moved in tandem toward the door as Chad took his phone out of his pocket. “We need to get to Jennie.”
As Mike drove, Chad tried to reach Jennie on her phone, but she didn’t pick up. He hung up and sent a text telling her not let anyone in. As soon as that went through, he tried calling again.
He couldn’t lose her now.
Not now when they’d only really just found each other.
Chapter 37
Jennie paced Chad’s condo, walking from one room to the next. She’d settle for a bit in one room, pick up a book and try to read or pull out a carton of milk and a glass to pour a drink, before abandoning it and moving to another room. She couldn’t seem to settle herself at all.
She knew the smart choice had been for her to stay behind, but waiting for Chad to come back to her wasn’t easy. It was probably the hardest thing she’d had to do in the nightmare that had become her existence since she’d met the Masters brothers.
She knew Chad would call or text as soon as they had either Burke or Bandon or both men in custody so she stared at her cell phone relentlessly.
Realistically, she knew it wouldn’t ring for at least a couple of hours, if that soon. She watched it just the same, willing it to ring. She just needed to hear his voice and know he was safe, know he was coming home to her.
Jennie startled when the landline rang in Chad’s condo a half hour after he left. She knew the landline was actually only there for the doorman to call up to the condo. Though it wasn’t used for anything else, she still worried that someone was calling that number to tell her something had happened.
That things had gone wrong and Chad wouldn’t be coming home to her.
Fear clenched in her stomach as she crossed to the cordless phone that sat in its cradle on the kitchen counter.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Ms. Evans? It’s Bernard from downstairs.” She let out a breath as she recognized the doorman. “There’s a Caroline Waters here to see you. Says she’s with the United States Attorney’s office. She has credentials and she said Mr. Thompson sent her to sit with you. She said you would understand why. Do you want me to send her up, Ms. Evans?”
“Oh.” Chad hadn’t told her he would be sending anyone, but it made sense that the attorney for the case would want to speak with her. “Are you sure she has identification?”
“Yes, ma’am, but I can tell her to wait until Mr. Thompson returns, if you’d like.”
“No, no. That’s all right. Send her up please.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The phone went dead and Jennie put it down on the counter and went to open the door to the condo. The ping of the elevator door came a minute later and a sharply dressed woman a few years older than Jennie came down the hall.
“Hi,” Jennie greeted her as she came to a stop outside the door.
“Hello Ms. Evans. I’m Caroline Waters.” The woman glanced around the hallway as she spoke and Jennie thought she looked nervous. Maybe something had happened with the meeting and Chad had sent this woman because Jennie was in danger.
“Come inside. We can talk in here. Is everything going okay at the meeting?” Jennie asked as she opened the door to Ms. Waters.
“Oh, yes. Just fine, I’m sure,” Ms. Waters said. “I’m only here to take your statement. I’ll get the details from you and then my office will write everything up in an affidavit for you to sign later.”
Jennie nodded, leading Ms. Waters to the couch in the living room. When they were settled on the couch, the attorney took a notepad out of her bag and began to scribble notes as they talked.
“So, Ms. Evans, I understand you went to the Masters’ resort to investigate the resort for a potential purchaser, is that right?”
Jennie nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
“Tell me what you witnessed at the Masters’ resort during your trip to Florida,” Ms. Waters said, looking at Jennie expectantly.
Even so, something in the woman’s eyes was cold and dead. Jennie didn’t know if she was being foolish or if she should listen to whatever it was that was telling her this woman wasn’t here for the right reasons.
Jennie shook off her hesitation. The lawyers at Sutton Capital had gone over her statement with her and told her what to expect. This conversation didn’t seem all that far off the mark. Jennie described what she’d overheard in the hallway outside the Masters brothers’ office, staying with a factual description rather than any narrative or opinions, as the Sutton lawyers had told her to do.
“I see. And was anyone else with you at this time?”
The tone of Ms. Water’s voice was calm, but Jennie could tell it was forced. There was now something very ‘off’ about the attorney’s whole demeanor. It looked like the lawyer was feeling more anxious than Jennie felt, which didn’t seem right at all.
Why would the lawyer on the case be so nervous? There was nothing Jennie could pinpoint to tell her for sure that something was wrong, but she felt it just the same.
Jennie heard her cell phone ring and rose to pick it up, but Ms. Waters’ hand shot out, gripping Jennie’s arm.
Jennie whipped around to look at the woman and Ms. Waters released her hand as if she realized how much she’d overreacted. But, the damage was done. Jennie was sure something was wrong.
“I’d really like to finish this quickly, Jennie. If you could talk me through this I’ll be out of your hair in no time,” Ms. Waters said. “I need to be sure no one else was with you when you heard these statements. I mean, was there anyone else with you that I need to be speaking with?”
Cold shivers ran up Jennie’s spine and she felt the urgent need to get away from the woman who was staring intently at her. Every cell in Jennie’s body seemed to be screaming at her, telling her to get away.
Her hand dropped to her stomach, as if she could somehow cover the baby to protect it from whatever was about to happen.
Jennie’s phone beeped, indicating an incoming text message and almost immediately began to ring again. She stood up, not knowing what she should do, but knowing she needed to put some distance between her and this woman.
“I’m going to get that—”
In that moment, several things seemed to happen at once. Chad and Mike burst through the door at the same time Jennie saw Caroline Waters shoot to her feet, pulling a gun out of her purse.
Jennie’s blood ran cold. Somehow in that moment, she wasn’t frightened for herself; she was terrified for Chad. If she lost him, she knew she wouldn’t live through it.
She wasn’t strong enough to go through that again. Not this time.
She was vaguely aware of Mike talking to Caroline. Caroline’s arm shook as she tried to hold the gun on all three of them. Chad was talking to Jennie, reaching for her, telling her to come to him.
She stood several feet from Caroline and across the room from Chad. Jennie knew Chad wanted her near him so he could protect her. He had turned from the Chad she knew into a highly trained warrior, ready to fight for her, ready to die for her.
But, Jennie couldn’t let that happen.
The world seemed to slow down in that moment. The tension was almost palpable and Jennie knew this would end badly. She could feel it in the cold dread crawling up her spine. She looked from Chad to Caroline and back again.
Chad was still talking but Jennie couldn’t hear what he was saying. She knew Caroline would start shooting her way out of the room if the desperate, cornered look on her face was any indication.
“No,�
�� Jennie whispered. She wasn’t speaking to Caroline or Chad or even herself, for that matter.
She was speaking to the universe in general. To whatever it was that thought it was okay to take two men from her. To take first her husband and now the father of her unborn child. Jennie’s fists clenched and she felt the bite of her nails breaking the skin of her palms.
“No.”
She wouldn’t let this happen. She lost Kyle, but there was no way Jennie would lose Chad, too. She lunged at Caroline, aware in the back of her mind that Chad was screaming at her and charging for her. Jennie heard a gunshot but didn’t feel anything as she tackled Caroline to the ground.
The gunshot was louder than she expected it to be. Her ears were ringing and she thought to herself that the whole world seemed to be moving in slow motion. Everything sounded fuzzy. Everything looked fuzzy, she thought with a strange dazed feeling.
Jennie felt Chad’s arms around her, lifting her as she saw Mike subdue Caroline. He secured the gun Caroline had dropped when she fell to the ground.
Jennie turned to Chad and ran her hands over him, frantically trying to figure out where he’d been shot. As she ran her hands over his chest, his arms, desperate to know where he’d been hit, he lifted her up.
He ran through the door with her, holding her in his arms. Jennie saw other agents in the hallway and heard someone call out that an ambulance was waiting downstairs.
Why is Chad carrying me if he needs an ambulance? This is so silly.
She looked into his face as he entered the elevator and pushed the button. He cradled her in his arms and was talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him over the ringing in her ears. Jennie must have been closer than she realized to Caroline’s gun when it went off.
She followed Chad’s line of sight to her arm and stared in shock at the blood pouring down her arm and dripping onto her hand. Chad’s hand was wrapped around her forearm, applying pressure to try to slow the bleeding, but the blood was seeping through his fingers. It was only after seeing it that her body seemed to register the sensations, the pain.
The blood was hotter than she’d thought it would be as it dripped over her hand and onto the elevator floor. And her arm felt numb, except for the back of it.
The back of her arm felt like someone had dug into it with a stick made out of salt. It burned like nothing she’d ever felt before. The pain was so intense, her breath seemed to stop and she stared up at Chad, finally understanding.
He hadn’t been shot.
She had.
Chapter 38
Chad tried to calm himself as he waited for the elevator to make the interminably long ride to the lobby of his building. He knew the truth about gunshot wounds. It was a myth from the movies and television that you could get shot with a through and through in the arm and not have any real damage.
In reality, the arm was full of arteries and nerves. Jennie could bleed out or lose enough blood to harm the baby in a matter of minutes if the bullet hit the right spot. She could permanently lose some of the use of her arm or the feeling in her hand. If the bone was shattered, fragments of that bone could hit other arteries and nerves, multiplying the damage.
Flashes of Chad’s fallen team members, their eyes vacant and unseeing, tore at him as he tried to stay focused on Jennie.
When he’d seen her dive for Caroline, throwing herself between Chad and the gun, he nearly lost it. The fact he had survived two tours of duty in war zones and years of dangerous privately funded missions, would mean nothing if he couldn’t share his life with Jennie.
He knew then that he needed Jennie in his life more than he’d ever needed anyone.
He saw the moment she realized she’d been shot. He watched as the pain kicked in and he thought to himself as he stepped off the elevator with her in his arms, that he’d give anything to have taken that bullet for her. He’d trade her pain and take it on as his own in a heartbeat if he could.
He was met in the lobby by two EMTs with a gurney and he knew one of the agents must have called down to the ambulance. He placed her on the gurney and told them she was pregnant. He took her good hand in his as he raced alongside to the ambulance where a pressure bandage was applied over her wound.
“She’s pregnant. Thirteen weeks along,” he said.
Jennie was getting pale and Chad knew she was losing blood fast.
He followed the gurney into the ambulance, staying out of the way as he watched the EMT hang a clear bag above her and sink a needle into her good hand.
He knew it would most likely be saline. He’d seen it used in helicopter evacs in the military. Since they couldn’t carry around blood on an ambulance, they’d try to compensate for the blood loss with saline until they got her to the hospital.
He kept his eyes on her face during what seemed like the longest ride of his life. His only thoughts were of Jennie and the baby. If he lost them now, he didn’t know what he’d do.
Chapter 39
Chad was sitting, hunched over, head in his hands in the hospital waiting room an hour later when the room began to fill. Jennie and Kyle’s parents arrived first, followed closely by Chad’s mom.
Chad had never been so happy to see his mother in his life. He felt like he was ten years old again as she wrapped her arms around him and held him while he told her about Jennie and the baby.
Kelly, Jack, Andrew, and Jill arrived next with Mrs. Poole and Roark Walker in tow. She had packed a large thermos with hot chocolate and a plate of homemade cookies for Chad, but he couldn’t even think about eating until he knew what was going on with Jennie.
Kelly sat on one side of him, her fingers laced in his, clinging tightly to him while his mother sat on the other side of him murmuring to him over and over that Jennie and the baby would be all right.
Roark sat across from Chad. He was the head of the legal department at Sutton but he was also a longtime family friend. He leaned over and put a warm hand on Chad’s forearm and squeezed.
Roark had lost his wife years before. He didn’t say anything to Chad. Probably knew better than anyone that there was nothing he could say at this point to make things better. But he was there for Chad, just as all of them were.
Mrs. Poole put the plate of cookies in Roark’s hands and leaned in to hug Chad. She was soft and warm and he let himself lean into her for a minute.
When he pulled back, she patted his cheek and then went to sit with Jack and Kelly across from him. Jack gave Chad a nod and Chad knew Jack would do anything he could to help. All Chad would have to do is ask.
But there wasn’t a damned thing any of them could do but wait, and that was killing him.
He looked up to see Jennie’s obstetrician walked into the waiting room and scanned for him. He hadn’t met her but he’d seen her picture online when he had researched for the best doctor money could buy in New Haven.
“Dr. Kash?” he said as he stood and approached her.
“Are you Chad?” she asked and he liked her right away. She had a no-nonsense tone to her and even though she stood about five feet tall to his nearly six and a half feet, she didn’t shrink from him at all when he approached.
“Yeah, that’s me. Any news on Jennie and the baby?”
He could practically feel the whole room holding its collective breath behind him and he knew he wouldn’t be able to breathe right until he knew she and the baby were okay.
It suddenly struck him that if she lost the baby, he would have to tell her and that would crush her. He said another prayer for his child and the woman he loved as he waited for the doctor to give him an update.
“They’ve got her in surgery right now, but it looks like she was very lucky. She lost a lot of blood, but the EMTs got her here quickly and we took her straight into surgery. Right now, the baby looks good. I came out to tell you they’re monitoring the fetal heart rate and looking for any signs of stress while they work on Jennie. I’ll go back in there with her until they finish up.
“The bullet nicke
d her brachial artery but missed the bone, so she should regain the use of her arm after some physical therapy. I’ll have the surgeon come out and update you after they repair the artery. They’ll have to monitor the repair for a bit while she’s still on the table to be sure it holds and to be sure blood is flowing well through the artery after the stitches are in place,” the doctor explained.
Chad nodded, feeling somewhat numb, but at least now he had some idea of what was going on. He felt his mom’s hands on his arm again and let her lead him back to the chairs, where he sat and began to breathe again. A world without Jennie would have been too difficult to bear.
Jennie opened her eyes and tried to swallow, but her throat was dry and scratchy. Chad was right there, putting a straw to her lips and whispering to her to drink.
She took a sip of the cold liquid and licked her lips, before testing her voice. The room was unfamiliar, but it quickly registered that she was in a hospital room.
“What happened?”
“Well, Jennie,” Chad said, and she could see the small tick in his jaw that meant he was clenching it and grinding his teeth. “Let’s review what happened, shall we?”
She was startled to hear the tone in his voice but she could see the love in his eyes.
She opened her mouth to speak but Chad continued before she could argue.
“When faced with a desperate, panicked woman holding a deadly weapon, you apparently looked at the situation, and in all your infinite wisdom chose to tackle her. You, the pregnant woman with no training in disarming crazed gun-toting people, thought you could handle the situation better than a trained FBI agent and a former Army Ranger with years’ worth of bad-guy-tackling experience.”
“The baby! Oh, God, Chad, please. Is the baby—”
“The baby’s okay,” he said, his voice as soft as his eyes now. “Dr. Kash has been by to check several times. No problems.” He pushed Jennie’s hair back from her face as he spoke and she breathed easier, knowing Dr. Kash had checked the baby.
