by Elise Noble
“Uh…”
Before I could form a sentence, the blonde took over. “Witnesses who need medical attention. Do you want to be held responsible if they suffer complications?”
I clutched at my stomach. “Nevin kicked me. I keep getting this shooting pain.”
In reality, I was okay apart from a handful of bruises. When Nevin began his interrogation, I’d played innocent and said I didn’t have a clue that Leander was an FBI agent, and Nevin seemed unsure whether to force a confession out of me or keep me nice and tidy for clients. Rafael had arrived faster than I ever dreamed he would, although it was still too late for Leander.
Mercy joined in with the charade. “It hurts when I breathe.”
“See?” the blonde said. “You’ve got seven incapacitated guards, six more girls, and one dead body to deal with, so I suggest you go and do that.” When he didn’t move, she made a flicking motion with her wrist. “Off you trot.”
“And who are you?”
“Somebody you’ll regret annoying. If you want more details, you’ll have to talk to your boss.”
She sounded so sure, so confident, and so British. The officer backed away slowly, clearly unhappy but unsure what to do about it. The blonde just ignored him. Asshole: dismissed.
“Hi, I’m Emmy. You’re Corazon, right?”
“Yes.”
Emmy lowered her voice. “Okay, here’s the deal. The cops have got a bunch of questions about the mess we just made, and we don’t particularly want to answer them. We can make all the questions go away, but it’s gonna take a few phone calls. So in the meantime, don’t speak to anyone.”
Leander was almost at the door now, and I didn’t want to get left behind. “Okay, I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“I won’t talk either,” Mercy said.
“This isn’t a bloody field trip,” Emmy told her. “You need to stay here.”
The last of the confidence Mercy wore as a mask faded away, and her lip quivered. Leaving her on her own would be cruel.
“She’s coming. I need some moral support, okay?”
Emmy rolled her eyes. “Fine. Who is she, anyway?”
“Mercedes. Mercy.”
“She’s from Colombia too?”
“Yes.”
Outside, we watched as the EMTs loaded Leander into a waiting ambulance. He still hadn’t talked or even moved, and I felt more scared then than at any other point since I left Colombia.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” I asked Emmy.
Her hesitation told me everything I needed to know. “We’ll ensure he gets the best medical care available.”
“Don’t cry,” Mercy said, wiping away my tears with a sleeve. “He must be a fighter if he’s survived this far.”
He was. But would it be enough?
The man who’d talked to Nevin opened the back door of a black SUV and ushered Mercy and me inside. Up close, I realised how huge he was—the same height as my brother, but bulkier. Usually, I felt big and awkward beside men, not dainty and pretty like so many other girls, but I felt almost small beside him.
“This is Black,” Emmy said. “My husband.”
Well, married life sure must be interesting for them.
Black spent most of the trip on the phone in the passenger seat, talking softly, while I gripped Mercy’s hand. Not just because of the Leander situation, but also because Emmy drove like a lunatic. Amazingly, we beat the ambulance to the hospital, and a doctor came out to meet Black right after we abandoned the car at the entrance.
“Joseph Chen. I head up the emergency room here. Colin Beech called to warn me you were coming.”
“Dr. Beech works at our local hospital in Virginia,” Emmy whispered.
“Good,” Black said. “Then you’ll understand that the patient who’s about to arrive gets the best care you can offer, no matter what the cost. We’d also like his room kept clear of anyone but our people, and this lady…” He pointed at me. “Wants to stay with him.”
“Absolutely.” Dr. Chen bobbed his head. “We can do that. Let me show you inside.”
Leander arrived two minutes later, and the EMTs transferred him from stretcher to bed with practised efficiency. The doctors’ voices stayed quiet, calm, but there was no mistaking the underlying urgency in their tones.
I buried my face in Mercy’s shoulder when they unwrapped Leander. His body was purple. Freaking purple. Words like broken ribs, fractured cheekbone, elevated heart rate, and internal bleeding drifted across, but it wasn’t until someone mentioned a scan that he moved, coughing and choking as two nurses tried to hold him still.
“Is he trying to speak?” one of them asked.
I couldn’t help it; I pushed my way through. “It’s okay. They’re trying to help you.”
His eyes were swollen shut, but his lips moved. “No… No scan.”
“Is he claustrophobic?” a doctor asked.
“I don’t think so. Leander, the scan will help.”
I longed to offer some comfort, but I couldn’t squeeze his hand or give him a hug or even kiss him without causing more pain. I traced my thumb along his palm, and he hooked one finger around it.
“No scan. I… I…” He began coughing again.
“Is there any water? Can someone get him water?”
A beaker with a straw appeared, and I helped Leander to take a sip. Swallowing made him wince in pain, but he kept drinking despite that. Finally, he spoke again.
“I swallowed the evidence. A flash drive. No scan.”
Black stepped forward. “Did I hear that right? You swallowed a flash drive with evidence on it?”
Leander nodded then groaned. “Files from the laptop.”
Emmy gave a low whistle from behind me. “Holy shit.”
So a scan would damage the flash drive? My first instinct was to insist Leander have the scan if he needed it, but what if the files could tell us where Izzy was?
“Mercy, was there ever a girl called Isabella at Nevin’s place?”
“How did you know? She left last month.”
“Do you know where she went?”
Mercy shook her head. “Girls disappeared all the time, but Nevin never told us what happened to them. One evening Isabella was there, and the next morning, she’d gone.”
Black understood my dilemma. “A magnetic field will damage the flash drive, so we can’t use an MRI scan. But a CAT scan will be fine, as will ultrasound and regular X-rays. Can you make do with those?”
Dr. Chen nodded. “That should be enough. We’re concerned about his spleen. It feels enlarged.”
“What about the flash drive?” I asked. “How do we get that out?”
“It should pass through in a few days.”
Oh. Yuck. Leander groaned again.
“You need to move back now,” Dr. Chen said. “Let us look after him.”
I did as he said and retreated to the corner with Mercy. A nurse brought us chairs, and I chewed so much skin off my bottom lip that it started bleeding as the doctors performed a barrage of tests, conferred amongst themselves, then wheeled Leander into the operating theatre for emergency surgery to fix his ruptured spleen.
“You really like him, don’t you?” Emmy asked as we waited.
“Is that crazy? My feelings are all over the place right now.”
“Sometimes you just know.”
“He hated it in there. Having to stand there and do nothing while the clients and the other guards…” I screwed my eyes shut because I didn’t want to discuss the details. “He said he was quitting his job when it was over.”
“From what I’ve heard, his boss is a dick.”
“He said that too. This is all such a mess, isn’t it? Did my brother tell you the whole story?”
“Pretty much. We’ll find Isabella, don’t worry.”
“How did you meet Rafe?”
“That’s an even longer story, but it’s not mine to tell. We’ll talk about that later. Do you want anything to eat or drink? I�
��ll get someone to bring you both fresh clothes.”
I still had my freaking pyjamas on, and Mercy was in sportswear. Funny how low my appearance came on my list of priorities when I realised there were more important things to worry about. But I was getting cold, and I shivered involuntarily.
“Thank you.”
Relying on the kindness of strangers was also a foreign concept. In Colombia, my tiny family had spent years fending for ourselves through one crisis after another. In America, everyone from Hallie to Mercy to Emmy to Leander had helped us, and it was oddly comforting to have people on our side.
Two hours passed, and I was dozing through exhaustion alongside Mercy when a brunette who looked a year or so younger than me appeared with a bulging suitcase and hugged Emmy. I snuck a quick glance at her, then pretended to be asleep because the last thing I wanted to do was speak to another visitor today. Not while Leander was still in surgery.
But I felt her eyes on me, assessing.
“Wow. I see the resemblance.”
“Shh. She doesn’t know yet.”
The resemblance to who? Rafael? What didn’t I know?
“Oops. Bradley’s freaking out because the builders installed the wrong handrails in one of the bathrooms, so I got Brett to bring me in the helicopter. How much of this stuff do you want here? I brought four changes of clothes each for the three of you. Most of the outfits for the other two girls are stretchy, so they should fit.”
“Leave it all. Did someone organise a hotel?”
“We’ve booked a block of six rooms nearby. Do we need more? I’ve already left clothes for everyone else there.”
“Me and Black. Nate. Rafael. Fia. Corazon. Mercy, maybe. That’s six. Cruz and Alaric are on their way back to Florida, and Ana’ll fly to Riverley with you.”
“Ana? Great.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“What about the other girls?”
“The police have taken responsibility for them.”
“And the Colombian people in Florida?”
“I haven’t discussed it with Black yet, but we’ll probably take them directly to Virginia.”
“Okay. I’d better head back and help. Bradley says he needs another assistant, by the way.”
“He is the assistant.” Emmy paused. “But everything’s been so busy lately, I guess I can see his point. We should look for someone else.”
“I’ll tell him. When are you coming back?”
“Not sure. A day or two? I’ll call you later.”
Clothing rustled as they hugged again, and I was careful to keep my eyes closed. Who were all those people? This adventure threatened to overwhelm me. Feigning sleep was definitely the best option. If only I could do that forever, life would be so much simpler.
At least until Leander came back, still unconscious as a pair of orderlies wheeled his bed into place. A heart monitor beeped steadily at his side, and I took comfort in the fact that he’d made it this far.
“The spleen repair went well,” Dr. Chen told us. “And we’ve popped his shoulder back into place. Your boyfriend’s also got a fractured cheekbone, three cracked ribs, and a broken finger. Amazing there wasn’t more damage when you look at the state of him.”
Joder. If Nevin hadn’t been dead, I’d have killed him myself and taken pleasure in it. And I didn’t bother to correct the doctor about his assumption regarding our relationship status. Leander might not have been my boyfriend, but I kind of hoped he wanted the job when he woke up.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“Now, we wait.”
CHAPTER 42 - CORA
“I CAN’T BELIEVE you’re still here.”
Those were Leander’s first words when he woke earlier this morning, and I’d just stared at him.
“Shouldn’t that be my line?”
“Or have I died and gone to heaven?” He lifted his head an inch and looked at all the tubes sprouting from his body. “Nope. I’d be better dressed in heaven.”
“Try something less cheesy.”
Leander tried to laugh, but his face quickly screwed up in pain. The doctors said he was on the road to recovery, but he’d only mumbled when he opened his eyes last night, then he slept for eight hours straight. Me? I’d dozed for two or three uncomfortable hours in the chair beside his bed, and now I leaned forward in my seat and took his hand.
“Just rest, okay. I’m not going anywhere. And I guess I should call you Lee now?”
That earned me a weak smile. “Definitely.”
Before Lee could close his eyes, Black stepped forward with a few questions, and Lee’s answers made me realise how selflessly he’d acted. He’d been willing to give up his own life for Izzy, a girl he’d never even met. That was the moment I realised I loved him, and the feeling hit me so hard I barely heard the rest of the conversation.
I loved Lee.
Now what the hell did I do? We hardly knew each other. Our only kiss had happened under duress. We lived on different continents, not to mention the small matter of him being sworn to uphold the law while my brother killed people for a living. But I loved him. Even if we had no future together, I loved him.
And I was confused as hell. Watching him rest for another hour did nothing to help.
“Cora?”
“Huh?”
My brother looked down at me, one eyebrow raised. “Are you okay?”
“Uh, totally fine. Did you say something?”
“I said, I have to go with Black. Emmy’s staying.” He glared at Lee. “Don’t say anything to him or anyone else from the FBI.”
When the door clicked closed behind Rafael and Black, Lee slumped back against the pillow and groaned.
“Your brother hates me.”
Yes, unfortunately it seemed that way. “Rafael doesn’t like many people.”
Emmy pushed off the far wall where she’d been standing for the past forty minutes. Rafe had given me his watch, and now I couldn’t stop looking at it.
“Don’t take it personally,” she said to Lee. “He’s not keen on me either.”
“But my actions hurt his sister.”
“Well, I imprisoned him in my friend’s basement and poured vodka into his bullet wound.”
My mouth dropped open. “You did what?”
“He tried to kill my stepfather. It was justified. Look, the point I’m trying to make is that a whole bunch of very different people have been slammed together to work on this job, and some of us have conflicting motivations. Yes, there was animosity between me and your brother to start with, but we’ve called a truce because we share common goals. Leander, you share those goals too. You proved it with your actions yesterday.”
“Freeing the girls and catching The Banker? Yes.”
“Too bad your boss doesn’t think the same way.”
“Ex-boss. I’ll write my resignation letter as soon as I can hold a pen.”
“You can probably tell him in person. He’s been terrorising the receptionist for the last half hour. The doctor told him you were still unconscious.”
“The doctor’s willing to lie like that?”
“He is when you’ve just donated fifty thousand dollars towards a new teenage eating disorder clinic. Dr. Chen’s sister suffers from anorexia, so it’s a cause close to his heart.”
“You think he can pretend for a few more days? Then I might feel well enough to sneak out the fire exit.”
“And go where?” I asked. “Don’t you live in Florida?”
“Near Miami.” Lee closed his eyes, looking frailer by the second. “On second thought, dying’s a good option right now.”
“You don’t seem to hold a very high opinion of Merrick Childs,” Emmy said.
“When I first got picked for his task force, I was so damn happy. I saw all the hurt The Banker facilitated, and I thought I could make a real difference in the world, but Childs is only in it for himself. He wants to be director of the FBI one day, and he needs a big-name case.”
&n
bsp; “He won’t get it.”
“Does he know about the flash drive?”
“What flash drive?”
Lee squeezed my hand, weakly, but it was a start.
“Thank goodness. You’re from Blackwood Security too?”
Emmy nodded. Lee and Black must have discussed that when I zoned out earlier.
“I’m not a wealthy man, but I have some savings. Could I hire you to look for Corazon’s friend? With whatever’s on that flash drive, you might be able to find her.”
“We’re already looking for her, and we don’t need your money.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you already looking for her? Don’t you people usually charge the big bucks?”
“We also do some pro bono work.” Emmy sighed. “Okay, our involvement is a fairly epic tale. We started off working one case and ended up in the middle of this mess instead. All will become clear later, but first, we have to get you out of here.”
“I was only kidding about the fire exit. My gut feels like it’s been hit by a semi.”
“Dr. Chen will be here soon to check you over, then we plan to transport you to Richmond. We’ve got a bed waiting for you in the hospital there.”
The way Emmy spoke, Lee didn’t get much say in the matter.
“Why Richmond?” I asked.
“Like I said, we’ll explain later. Just trust me, okay?”
Did I trust her? I trusted my brother, and he seemed to be on board with Blackwood’s plans, plus I didn’t want to be around when Lee’s boss arrived because I’d probably get arrested for assault.
“Can I come to Richmond too?”
Emmy smiled. “Our housekeeper’s already got a room waiting for you.”
CHAPTER 43 - BLACK
“WHAT DO WE have?” Black asked.
Mercy had offered to bunk in with Corazon, which gave them a spare hotel room to use as a temporary command post. Nate had set up a trio of laptops on the desk and rigged up a projector to turn one white wall into a giant link chart, although there was precious little on it so far.
“We don’t have a whole lot,” Nate said. “The contents of Nevin’s phone. No surprises that most of the contacts are unregistered and half of their devices are turned off. Security videos from both houses. I copied the contents of the hard drive Nevin’s surveillance system used before the FBI arrived and confiscated it.”
