Family Secrets: Books 5-8

by Virginia Kantra

  I found you.

  Time to say goodbye, counselor.

  A blade of panic stabbed deep, but determination kept her strong. Not here, in my sons house. I dont want him tofind me.

  Then you should have stopped when you were warned.

  Killing me wont change the truth, she vowed, stalling. The wheels are already in motion. Youre going to fall whether I fall or not.

  A guttural laugh ripped from his throat. You expect me to believe that?

  Believe what you want to, but the case against you doesnt stop with me. Others already know.

  Alarm flickered in his normally flat eyes. Hed had her office bugged, but not the conference room. Theyll be silenced, too, he hedged. Every trail ends somewhere.

  Its too late for that, she countered. I found your little presents in my office. All of them, your note and your listening device. She paused to breathe, plunged forward. Its not just me anymore, she said again, watching his eyes flash, seeing him debate her words. You can kill me, but Eric will still be standing. Youre the one whos going to fall.

  We know about the payments youve been receiving from Brunos man. We can prove the cyber trails leading to Erics computer were planted. We can prove they came from an aeronautics company in Oregon. Her heart hammered hard and desperate, but she forced one of her confident, courtroom smiles to break on her lips. And we can prove your associate in Quantico falsified his analysis of Erics computer. She paused, let her words sink in. Hes missing, you know. Is that what happens to traitors who do sloppy work?

  Venturi was shaking his head, rage swamping his body. Youre lying.

  If Im lying, Ive got a pretty accurate imagination, wouldnt you say?

  Im a dead man, he muttered, then lifted his eyes to Leighs. But Im not going down alone.

  She saw the gleam move into his eyes, the snarl curl his lips, the gun lift to her chest. Then she saw a flash of movement from behind him.

  Youre making a mistake, she stalled, working hard to keep her voice, her eyes steady. Eric moved silently behind Venturi, slipping in from the kitchen with a baseball bat in his hand. Fear and hope crashed through her as Eric positioned himself and lifted his weapon. If you talk, we can cut a deal

  Venturi went pale. There are no deals for dead men, he said blankly, then moved his finger to the trigger.

  It all happened so horribly fast. So hideously slow. Seconds, minutes, Leigh didnt know.

  No!

  The harsh protest ripped through the foyer as Leigh dropped to the ground. The blast of a gun echoed insidiously. She waited for the hot burn of a bullet ripping through flesh, but felt only the solid weight of another slumping down on top of her.

  Shock pierced deep, but not a bullet. She struggled against the body pinning her to the hard wood of her foyer. Able to turn her head, she saw the face of the man atop her. Seth Mitchell. And he was bleeding.

  You son of a bitch, Eric roared from somewhere beyond her. Sickly, Leigh eased from beneath Seth to see Eric swing the bat toward Venturi. The agent caught a blow to his side, but didnt stop, just plowed into Eric and sent the two of them crashing to the floor, the gun trapped beneath them. They rolled, knocking into the coffee table and fighting for possession of the weapon. Eric planted a firm blow to Venturis jaw and pinned the rogue agent beneath him, but Venturi merely laughed, jamming the barrel of the gun into Erics stomach. Not he panted goingalone.

  No! Leigh crawled from beneath Seths body and grabbed the bat, which had fallen from Erics hands. But then Eric and Venturi were rolling again, and she couldnt see which direction the gun pointed. She dragged herself to her feet and stood over them, waiting for the right angle.

  Blood. There was so much of it. Not just on her hands but smeared on the mens faces. They kept going at each other, grunting and swearing, pounding each other like punching bags. Venturi was shorter than Eric, but bulkier. And he had the advantage of being a trained federal agent. Eric was just a man protecting his family. But he had determination on his side, and Leigh cringed as he took blow after blow, giving as good as he got.

  The agent rolled, pinned Eric beneath him. Ingramwontwin.

  Leigh didnt hesitate. She lifted her sons prized bat high and smashed it against the base of Venturis skull.

  The muffled sound of a gunshot sent the room spinning. A hot scream ripped from her throat as she dropped to her knees and shoved at Venturis unmoving form, finding Eric sprawled beneath him, blood staining his shirt.

  She leaned over him, wiped the blood from his face. Eric!

  Call police, he muttered. HelpDad.

  Leigh swung toward Seth, who still lay unmoving. Grief clawed at her throat.

  Love you, Eric whispered, but when she turned back toward him, she found his eyes closed, his body slack.

  Jake found her in the hospital cafeteria. Leigh! I came as soon as I heard.

  She turned from the coffeepot on the stainless-steel counter and moved into the circle of his arms. Thank you.

  He held her tightly, hating like hell that the nightmare his life had become had tainted her, as well. And Eric. God, he thought. Someone was going to pay, pay hard.

  The call had come in shortly after five. Leigh had been frantic, barely making sense, speaking of panic alarms and gunshots, of Eric and Seth and Agent Venturi.

  Venturi.

  His gut clenched.

  So much made sense now, a horrible twisted sense. Why Jake had not been informed of the case against Eric until the last moment, how the evidence had been manufactured. Lennoxs murder.

  Venturi had played them all.

  Jake pulled back and gently touched Leighs cheek, where a nasty bruise had begun to form. Fury pierced deep. Any news?

  Emotion glimmered in her eyes, but strength and determination shone from the brown depths, as well. Still in surgery.

  Hes a fighter. Theyd been through so damn much, and had just found each other. To have it end here, now, like this, so suddenly and needlessly, was crueler than cruel. Hell make it.

  Leighs smile seemed forced, strained. I know.

  Hows Connor?

  Her smile was tired. I finally convinced him to go home with my mother. He wanted to stay, but he was exhausted.

  Hes a good kid. Jake picked up the two cups of black coffee and gestured toward the cafeteria door. Ill carry these for you.

  Thanks, she said as he draped an arm around her. They ran out of coffee in the surgery lobby.

  They lapsed into silence as they walked down the quiet hall and waited for the elevator. Only when the doors slid closed behind them did Leigh look up and into his eyes. Whats going on, Jake? Do you know anything more?

  It was a damn simple question. Sadly, the answers were anything but. Thoughts of Lennox crowded close, angered him all over again. The man had been decent, kind, had loved his family and spoken often of his kids. Venturi wasnt the first agent assigned to the case. A few months ago my original contact, Lennox, took a bullet allegedly meant for me.

  Leigh sucked in a sharp breath. My God.

  Now it looks as though Lennox was the target, after all. It seems th
at someonewhoever the hell is messing with our liveswanted to take Lennox out and replace him with Venturi.

  But why?

  Thats the question, Jake muttered. He had plenty of chances to take me out, if that was the goal. Theyd taken his brother, after all. Why not him? Instead he framed my best friend and tried to have me removed from the investigation.

  Leighs gaze sharpened. He must have wanted something else from you, maybe something they thought youd learned.

  Maybe, Jake said. But he didnt think so. More likely they wanted what they suspected he was about to learn. The disks Gretchen had. The code Henry Bloomfieldhis fatherhad hidden from the world.

  The implications stunned him all over again. If Jake had gone to Brunhia with Venturi in tow

  He saw them the second they rounded the corner. Jake had his arm around her; she leaned into him. She looked exhausted, he noted with a tight twist to the gut. Her face was pale, her dark hair tangled, her eyes entirely too grim. And the bruise. Purple and black smeared her cheekbone.

  If the bastard whod hurt her wasnt already dead, he would have killed the man himself.

  Indy, Jake said, breaking away from Leigh and striding toward the rickety and torn plastic chair. Someone forget to tell me about a toga party?

  Eric stood. Im sure we can find a turban for you, too, he said, referring to the bandage swathed around his head.

  Jake grinned, setting down the foam cups and pulling his friend to him for a quick clap on the back. How you holding up?

  Ill live, Eric said, then winced. Hed live, but his father was in surgery. Had been for hours. And Venturi was dead, gut-shot by his own hand. Eric had been struggling for possession of the gun, but the second Leigh had slammed the bat against Venturi, the agents eyes had gone dark and hed turned the gun on himself, ended it all.

  Taking his secrets with him to the morgue.

  Im sorry about your dad, Jake said, pulling back. Any word?

  Not yet. Everything inside was cold and raw, bleeding. Hed been close, damn it. So damned close. Hed had the situation under control, had told Seth to stay in the car. Hed been about to take Venturi out when his father had roared in front of Leigh. To protect her, Eric knew. Seth had been unable to see Eric standing behind Venturi, had been willing to lay down his life to save Leighs. To save the mother of his grandson, the woman whod kept her own child a secret, but whod risked her life for that of her sons father. The woman whod reunited them all in the end.

  The end.

  The phrase ground through him.

  Leigh moved to stand beside him and put a hand to his forearm. You should sit.

  He did. Whats the hells going on? he asked Jake, taking Leighs hand and not letting go. His head throbbed a painful rhythm. Venturi made it sound personal.

  A shadow crossed Jakes face. What did he say?

  Eric looked to Leigh. The moments when hed seen the gun pointed at her heart were sharp and etched, but everything thereafter blurred. He could see his father falling, hear his own roar. Then thered been a desperate struggle, a gunshot, nothing at all. Hed come to in the emergency room, received treatment for a concussion. Leigh and Connor had been there, hovering close, talking of the future the three of them would share.

  The family they would be.

  Eric had pulled them both into his arms and held them tight.

  When I first arrived, Leigh was saying, he was waiting with a gun. He said You should have let Jones take the fall. The Coalition wont let anyone get in their way.

  Jake swore softly.

  And then, after hed been shot, his last words were Ingram wont win.

  Eric frowned. Wont win at what?

  Jake hung his head. Thats what Im going to find out. He looked up suddenly, eyes burning. Im leaving tomorrow, he said. For Europe. I have reason to think the answers are there.

  Hey. Eric lifted a hand to Leighs face and gently fingered the nasty bruise. Its after midnight. Let me call you a taxi to take you home.

  She lifted her head from his shoulder and yawned, glancing around the waiting area. This is where I want to be.

  Itll be a while yet before we can see Seth.

  She brought her hand to the back of his. You, Eric. Youre the one I dont want to leave alone.

  Jake had left several hours before, after the doctor had emerged from surgery, tired but optimistic. Seths prognosis was extremely good. The bullet had ripped through the right side of his chest, missing his lung by inches. Theyd repaired the damage and, along the way, discovered the bullet hed taken for Leigh had not been his first. Vaguely, Eric remembered his father rubbing his upper chest the day theyd met, as hed talked about Vietnam. Now he could only wonder what it had been like for his father to be alone in that wretched hellhole of a country, of a war, with nothing left to live for.

  He had everything to live for now. Both of them did.

  They all did.

  Christ, Eric swore softly. The pounding horror of it all drilled deep. The phone call from Leigh, the desperate race across town. If she hadnt called him Christ. She would have walked into Venturis trap alone, and he would have lost her again, this time forever. When I looked through the window and saw that bastard with a gun on you

  Dont, Leigh said. Its over now.

  Rebecca Salinger, the prosecutor, had called shortly before ten, confirming what Leigh had insisted was inevitable. The charges against Eric were being dropped. The evidence Leigh had gathered was compelling, Venturis suicide damning. There would be no grand jury hearing. There would be no indictment. No trial. No prison sentence. The only verdict rendered would be one of love.

  Leighs smile was slow, blinding. You were wrongly accused, she said. But now youre a free man. Thats all that matters.

  No, its not. He drank in the sight of her, all soft and sleepy, her dark hair tangled around her face and her clothes torn, the bruise on her cheek. I loved you, Leigh. Ive loved you for ten years.

  Moisture rushed to her eyes. And I betrayed you.

  Only after I betrayed you. He slid his hand into her hair and leaned in for a long, slow kiss. Then he pulled back. We hurt each other. Hed been so blown away by Connors existence, he hadnt been able to think clearly about what it had been like for Leigh, carrying the child of a man who had apologized for the night they made love. A man who had told her she was a good friend, but that he wasnt coming back. But as hed read his mothers letters to his father, read of the intense joy and overwhelming sorrow of going through such a special time alone, hed realized Leigh would have felt the same way.

  Im sorry, Leigh. Im sorry for hurting you. I only wanted what was best.

  She smiled. I know.

  The shock of learning shed concealed his child still throbbed, but he realized theyd been young and scared and had both made mistakes. And through it all, one truth remained. She was the only woman whod ever slipped under his skin and into his heart.

  Two days ago, he said, skimming his thumb along her lower lip, I told you I wanted my son. I wanted my future.

  Her smile turned wooden. And I told you I wouldnt stand in your way.

  Theres more, he told her. Something else I want.
/>
  Slowly, she lifted her gaze to his. What?

  He looked deep into her eyes, not the eyes of the girl hed left behind, but of the remarkable, poised, gutsy woman shed become. Not what, but who. You, Leigh. I want you.

  And he always had.

  She was the only woman who could make him laugh and make him think, make him sane and make him burn. She understood him as no one else ever had.

  Leigh just stared at him, looking as if he spoke a language she didnt understand. But her eyes, they understood. They were huge, no longer dark, but filled with the warmth hed craved for a decade. Eric

  Ive waited ten years, Leigh. Ten years. When I walked out of my apartment that morning, when I left you standing naked and cold and wrapped in my sheets, I had every intention of coming back. I knew I loved you, that I couldnt marry Becky.

  Eric, dont

  I planned to break it off with her, but then I got home and found her in the hospital, alone and broken, and shed hold my hand and cry and make me promise never to leave her the way her father had, and

  If you had, you wouldnt have been the man Id fallen in love with.

  The past will always be there, he said. And it might always hurt. He paused, stroked the hair back from her face. But it doesnt have to steal the future. Our future.

  The tears overflowed then, slipped down her cheeks. Youre the only man Ive ever loved.

  He couldnt help it. He grinned. Even when you thought I might be a genetic freak who stole billions of dollars from the World Bank?

  Her lips twitched. I never thought that.

  But he had. Or at least, hed wondered. Now, instead, out of the darkest hour of his life, hed reclaimed more than just his freedom. He had a son and a father, a future full of promise and Little League games, love and laughter and the woman he loved. The woman hed always, always loved.