“Yes.”
He dropped down next to her on the mattress and stretched his injured leg out in front of him. “I don’t buy it. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m done living in the past.”
The words sliced through her. They cut into her flesh and went right down to her vital organs. “So, when this is over, I’m out and you’re moving on?”
His eyes widened. “Did I say that?”
“I don’t know what you’re saying.”
He took her hand in both of his. “I forgive you.”
The warm touch of his skin contrasted with the words that filled her brain with a wild fury. “For what?”
“The firing. For picking your job over me. For not fighting for me with the higher-ups. All of it. It’s over and we need to put it behind us.” He kissed the back of her hand.
She wanted to strangle him. “You’re letting me off the hook?”
“I’m trying to be a grown-up. Forgive and forget.”
She was sure that in his mind this all made sense. He acted as if he had made some huge sacrifice by giving up his hatred for her.
“But you don’t forget,” she said, knowing she was right about this and being sure it was the one thing that would destroy them.
“You’re not listening.”
She slipped her hand out of his and stood up. “What about my apology?”
This time he was the one who had to look up. “What?”
“You resented the fact I got a promotion.”
“That’s not true. You were there longer, had more experience. You deserved it.” He rubbed his injured knee.
She tried not to care. Forced her legs not to bend, not to let her body slip back to the floor and massage it for him. “Then why did you try to sabotage me?”
“What are you talking about?”
The shock was evident in his voice, but she didn’t back down. Having him forgive her would have been good enough right after they broke up. She would have taken on all the responsibility and tried to work it out.
But she deserved more. She was worth more. And she secretly knew he would never let it go if he didn’t understand the whole truth.
“You sit there and talk about everything I did wrong. Want to know your list?” She’d held it in for so long that the words flowed now without any help from her brain. “You came to me when you were still raw and bitter about your marriage. She’d made you leave the navy. She made you take a job at the lab. She left you after you changed your entire life, and you were ticked off.”
He struggled to stand up. His bad leg kept sliding under him as he struggled to get traction. He finally gave up and slumped back on the mattress. “That didn’t have anything to do with what happened with us.”
“Of course it did. You were mad at her and closed yourself off from me. The sex was great, but you held back from giving me anything else. When I specifically asked you not to go beyond the job anymore, not to put me in the position where I had to discipline you, you agreed. And then you did it anyway.”
His eyes widened. “Avery, I never—”
“You talk about me picking the job over you. You are the one who picked your side work, the exact work you were not permitted to do and promised you would stop, over me. You put me in that untenable position, in a situation I couldn’t win. When I did what I had to do and fired you, you went insane. Called me names, walked away.”
“I was blindsided.”
“No, Caleb. You weren’t. You were angry that once again a woman was dictating what happened with your career.”
This time he wrestled his way to his feet. He put his hands on her upper arms and leaned against her. “You’ve got this backward.”
“Once you were out, I knew I had to help. You see, I was dumb enough to fall for you. Really fall. For me it wasn’t about sex. It was about building something with you. So, I pulled every string to help you get the job I knew you should have. One with Rod.”
“I didn’t know.” Caleb shook his head as his cheeks sunk.
“Because you wouldn’t listen. When I tried to talk to you, you turned away.”
He rubbed a hand through his hair. “I thought—”
“I’d picked the job over you. Yeah, I know.” She heard the accusations in her sleep. “I kept hoping you’d settle down and come back, but it never happened. I even swallowed my pride and begged you to come back. Do you know what that did to me?”
“I can…no…”
“In the end, I had to come for you one more time.”
He lifted his arms and then let them drop to his sides again. “I don’t know what to say.”
“I don’t want you to say anything.” That wasn’t true. She wanted him to wipe the stunned look off his face and apologize. She was desperate for him to get it. For him to wake up and see her standing there waiting for him.
But he just stood there, mouth half open and confusion etched on every line of his face.
“Want to know the sad thing, Caleb?” When he didn’t say anything, she took the plunge. “I loved you then.”
“Avery.”
“And I love you now.”
His hand shook as he reached for her again. “We need to talk about this.”
She knew he wouldn’t say it back, but that didn’t make the slight any easier. The loss ripped her wide open. She waited for her heart to fall out and flop around on the floor. “We can’t.”
“Why?”
“This time you didn’t see me drug your drink.” She glanced at the clock. “You should be asleep any minute.”
And by the time he woke up, she’d be on her assignment.
His eyes drooped, as if saying the words sucked all the energy right out of him. “You’re running?”
“I learned it from you.”
Chapter Seventeen
Russell stood in the back parking lot at the lab and looked at his bodyguard, Howard. The man towered over six feet. His shoulders almost touched both sides of the doorway. He had guns and knives hidden in his clothes and on his body.
Howard was new and dedicated.
He was insurance.
Trevor promised to provide backup. He had three men going to the lab with Russell. They were meeting in an hour, just before four. All three had tactical training and a list of other honors that Trevor provided but Russell ignored. They would follow his orders and not flinch when Russell took care of Avery.
Trevor made all of the promises. He’d gone from sarcastic to helpful, and Russell didn’t trust the change. Maybe Trevor was being truthful and he finally realized the looming danger to his reputation.
Or maybe this was a setup.
Trevor had always underestimated him. The man thought he was so smart, so in control. If that were true, he wouldn’t be dancing around as Russell ordered.
As if Russell would enter a dangerous situation without having one of his own men there, waiting, ready to pounce if needed. Things could go wrong. Alliances could get confused.
Howard would take care of all those possibilities. He knew the target. He also knew he could be fighting attacks from every direction, including one from the Recovery agents. Russell wasn’t taking any chances this time. He was going in and finding out what Avery knew. Howard could handle Caleb or whatever man Luke sent his way.
Avery was all his.
CALEB TRIED TO SHAKE the lethargy from his muscles. He felt something hard under his head and the usual ache in his leg. He started to think the unrelenting pain was normal, as if it would never leave him. Still, he had to ease up on the painkillers.
Then his mind clicked and he sat up straight, banging his head off the shelf above him.
Zach chuckled. “’Bout time you woke up.”
“Where are we?” Caleb took in the computer equipment and blackened van windows.
“Surveillance van outside of the lab.”
“What?”
“She knocked you on your a—”
He crowded in on Zach and ignored the
scream of pain from his knee to his groin. “Where is Avery?”
“There.” Zach pointed at the monitor above his head.
“I’m stopping this right now.” Caleb tried to stand up and fell back down. In the cramped quarters it was even harder for him to maneuver. Shuffling his feet only highlighted the pain. Having to fight off the cloudy feeling in his brain didn’t help either.
“Whoa.” Zach reached out and helped Caleb back onto the small bench behind the computer chair. “You go in now and you’ll make a mess. Probably get her hurt, or worse. Just let this play out. It’s under control.”
“She’s being set up. Anything can happen.” Fury burned through him all over again. The idea of her being in danger filled him with darkness.
Ever since she’d come back into his life, the deep mistrust had evaporated. And when she explained about her view of their breakup, his heart ripped in two. She had tried to tell him, to win him back. When that didn’t work, she tried to make his life better. Still, he pushed her away and judged.
He had no excuse. He’d been in a bad marriage and tried to keep from heading down that road again. But Avery wasn’t his wife and she’d deserved better.
And she loved him.
The knowledge cleared out every nasty thought and made everything possible again. With those simple words, that incredible admission, she handed him back his life. But he could lose her before he ever got the chance to let her know he understood, to beg her to give him another chance and forgive his stupidity. The thought made his stomach flip. It was too awful to contemplate.
After everything they’d been through, they deserved another shot. Not because he’d forgiven her or any of the ridiculous things he’d been saying in his head. He wanted a chance because he loved her.
The realization wasn’t gentle or happy. It snuck up and banged him over the head. Now that he recognized the feeling, he wondered if it had always hovered in his heart. He’d shut her out for so long, but it was impossible to do so any longer. Dread and happiness mixed together until he didn’t know what to feel or do.
“This is why they wanted to leave you at home,” Zach said.
“What?”
“I snuck you in the van.”
“Avery thinks I’m at the warehouse?” That meant she didn’t even know he was here for her.
“Luke ordered that you remain there.”
“For God’s sake, why?”
“He thought you were too emotionally attached to this one to have perspective.” Different images of the lab flipped by on the screens in front of Zach. “You disagreed.”
“Seems to me a man should be able to watch over his woman.”
Caleb couldn’t see Zach’s face, but he could hear the smile in Zach’s voice. Caleb couldn’t muster any jokes. He was too busy drowning in worry and guilt.
Man, he wanted Avery to be his. Forever. He hoped and prayed he hadn’t blown it so far apart that he couldn’t put it back together again.
“I’m not sure that’s what she is,” he said.
“Then you’re not as smart as I thought you were.”
He had to snap out of it. To fight off the mix of pain drugs and confusion. She needed him. Even if he couldn’t rush in and help, he could make sure the intel she got was right. He could run behind the scenes so that when she walked out of the building healthy and whole, he could grab her and tell her all those words she deserved to hear.
He took the seat next to Zach. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“Russell is right here, just inside the front door. That’s one of Trevor’s men with him. The other two are waiting just outside the building.”
“Avery?”
The image on the monitor switched. “Right here. Holden is in the walk-in freezer. Luke is watching over her.”
Caleb almost touched the screen. Despite the grainy image, he saw her beautiful face. For the first time in a long time he felt hope, the kind of happiness that came when a man saw a future and the woman he wanted in it.
“Put the images up side by side. Use the third screen to flip through the other rooms just to be safe.”
Zach smiled. “Done.”
“She’s going to be okay.”
“Good to have you back.”
Russell and his guard headed for the lab. “They’re moving in.”
Caleb watched the third monitor, the one with the rotating screens. “Go back.”
“What?”
“Number three. There.” Caleb pointed at the monitor. “Who is that?”
A big guy with a gun. He’d broken off from the others. He put the body count in the building at one too many.
Zach shook his head. “Don’t know but not a worker. He’s moving like paid help.”
“Like a mercenary.”
Zach typed something into his watch. “Don’t panic. I’ll get word to Luke.”
Caleb had moved past panic. His nerve endings were screaming for him to do something and do it fast. “How many men did Trevor send?”
“Three.”
“Then Russell brought this one.” Caleb struggled to his feet. His knee wouldn’t cooperate. Wouldn’t bend.
Zach stood up at the same time. “I’ll go.”
“You man this.”
“Caleb, you can barely move.”
“I’m not letting my woman face this without me.”
Chapter Eighteen
Avery’s mind kept wandering back to the scene last night, and she kept forcing it to the task at hand. While Luke watched, she performed a fake experiment. It was all for show. The idea was to lure Russell in, get him to think she was on to something. Something that she’d be willing to come out in public to do.
“You’re doing great,” Luke whispered.
“What if they don’t come?”
“They’re here.”
The news froze her bones. For a second she couldn’t move or breathe. She’d survived one shoot-out in this lab. Now she had to face another.
“It’s going to be okay.”
“I know.” She didn’t. She absolutely didn’t.
Luke stepped back and knocked on the metal door to the refrigerator compartment. It opened a fraction. Holden didn’t pop out, but she knew he was there.
“Almost time?” she asked.
Luke looked over her shoulder. “In a minute, you’re going to turn around and head into the fridge. Holden and I will take it from here.”
“Russell isn’t stupid. He can tell the difference between a man and a woman,” she said.
“Russell will see a white coat and it won’t register for a second. That’s all we need.” Luke glanced at his watch. “Here he comes.”
She didn’t look. If it turned out Trevor had figured out a clever way to wipe them all out…no, she couldn’t let herself entertain that possibility. It was too awful. The only good thing about that scenario was that Caleb would be safe. He was at the warehouse. He didn’t have to face down gunfire.
As she turned, she heard the gunman enter the room. He was faster than she expected. She just reached the door when Russell walked in. She looked into Holden’s hiding place but didn’t go in. She turned around to face Russell instead.
Luke swore under his breath. “Avery.”
“Do not move.” Russell moved into the room with his guards behind him.
The three looked like a wall of evil to Avery. She saw all that hate and regretted every minute of the past few hours. She shouldn’t have confronted Caleb. She should have let it go and not pushed. She’d see the shock and sadness in his eyes until the day she died.
But at least she’d told him she loved him. She hoped on some level that mattered to him. That he’d find some comfort in it instead of being terrified of loving again.
Luke raised his weapon as he pulled her behind him. “Stay back.”
Russell shook his head. Made an annoying tsk-tsk sound as he did it. “It’s three against one. Lower the gun.”
“No.”
�
�Then we’ll shoot it out of your hands.”
Avery stepped forward even as Luke pulled her back. “Who are you?”
Russell pointed at her. “Ms. Walker, you have caused me a great deal of trouble.”
The fact this vile creature knew her name made the contents of her stomach bubble. “Because I uncovered your murders.”
“It’s time for us to go.” He wiggled his fingers at her.
Could he actually be so stupid as to think she’d go with him? “No.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you.” Luke’s harsh voice suggested he was willing to die for her.
In that moment she knew he would. She also knew she’d do anything, even if it meant leaving the room with Russell, to save Luke. To save any of them. But that shouldn’t be necessary. The men by his side were working against Russell, he just didn’t know it. That was the reason for the false confidence.
“Shoot him in the knee.” Russell gave the order then turned around, heading back out toward the lobby.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Holden stepped out and called for her. “Avery, come here.”
Russell spun around. “Any more of you in there?”
“I only need one gun to take you down,” Luke said.
“If you move, Ms. Walker, I will have my men put a hole in one of your protectors. Just how long will it be before I hit someone you care about?”
She took a deep breath. She knew the plan. This was okay. None of it was real except Russell’s belief that he had won. “Fine.”
Russell gave a nod of satisfaction. “Gentlemen. Guns on the floor.”
Luke shook his head. “No.”
Russell gave his men a hand signal but nothing happened. When he did it again, one of the guards actually lowered his weapon instead of aiming. A shot went through his back a second later. Blood spurted as his eyes went wide in shock.
Avery screamed before the poor man hit the ground.
Luke and Holden scrambled, trying to put something between them and the gunfire. When another man with Russell fell, sending a weapon spinning across the floor, the additional screams of horror caught in her throat. Her body went cold as the room exploded in action around her.
Gunning for Trouble Page 15
