“Sooner the better, Jenna. You know the score.”
Jenna’s head swam as she got up. Don had failed to really surprise her in all the years they’d worked together, but this…this was…hard to put words to, that’s what this was.
She made it to her office and sat in her chair, looking at the plans in front of her without seeing them.
“What’s up?” Josh asked from the corner.
“Looks like we’re heading to Colorado a lot earlier than we’d planned.”
She was met with silence. When she finally looked up, Josh wasn’t showing any expression.
“Just this once can you show me what you’re thinking?” Jenna asked, looking back down at her desk.
“Have you been fired?”
Jenna snorted. “Fired? No. The designers are being cleared out. Too dangerous in this city. Company is paying for us to get out of Dodge.”
More silence. This time Jenna waited it out.
“Do you want to go?” he asked.
Million-dollar question. “I hadn’t made a decision yet. Doesn’t look like I have an option now, though.”
“Company is paying, you said?”
Jenna met his eyes again, wondering where he was going with that. Oh so soft. She looked away before her tears could overflow.
“Let’s go somewhere else, then,” Josh said. “We don’t have to go to Colorado. We can go wherever you like until you decide.”
His understanding took all the wind out of her sails. She sagged and put her forearms on her desk. “I really should check out Jax’s house.”
“We can do that on the way…wherever.”
“Josh, God. I’m obviously going to go. I just want to be pissed about it for a while, okay?” She couldn’t explain the anger, but she needed to vent all that craziness from Don’s office, and taking it out on Josh seemed logical. For the moment.
“Got it. Should I promptly fuck off, then?” Josh asked, a grin tweaking his lips.
She laughed despite herself. “It’s irritating how well you know me. No, don’t bother. I’m hungry. Let’s go out. I need some fresh air.”
“You’re admitting you’re hungry? What did Don say to you?” He meant it as a joke, but didn’t miss her jump. She tried to play it off like she was grabbing for the phone, but she wasn’t feeling up to par, to say the least.
“Erika?” Jenna asked as the other end was picked up.
“Yup. What’s up?”
“I’m going out for lunch. You coming? I have some news.”
“With that dangler I have to, don’t I? No, Jax, I wasn’t talking about dingle berries, for godssake!” Her voice got nearer the phone. “I swear he is an adolescent.”
“What— Never mind. Meet me out front. I need air.”
“Is it that bad?”
“You won’t think so. Meet me out front.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
In the lobby Josh stopped to talk to the entryway guard. Jenna went to stand by the stack of magazines, as she always did, but was so lost in thought she was outside on the steps before she realized she’d made a detour. The sun glared, blinding her, the late summer blast of heat muddling her thoughts.
She put her hand out to catch the door, turning toward Josh’s voice, when she saw it. It was a small flash of light. A metallic glint in the hands of someone who was facing her.
It felt like a bucket of ice had been overturned onto her, freezing cold sliding down her skin, as she recognized the object. Then recognized the sure, capable hands about to fire it from about thirty yards away. Close enough for anyone who knew what they were doing.
In slow motion, she turned toward the open door, her hand squeezing the warm silver handle. Her delayed danger warning flared to life, choking her, pushing through her confused thoughts too late. Her feet weren’t moving fast enough, her body taking too long to respond to the command from her brain.
She was in the middle of the open doorway when she heard it. Blaring. Crowding the air. Deadening her ears. The world reduced into a blast of sound just as her feet were ripped off the ground. She was swung through the air, landing heavily on the hot, rough concrete, her face bouncing.
She didn’t feel pain, just a lot of pressure. She felt like she was being pushed down into the heat, but no one point of incredible pain. Dale looked surprised before he died. Was that what was happening?
She heard panting above her.
“Jenna.”
It was Josh. His voice was gruff. She tried to move toward the sound of him but her limbs wouldn’t respond.
She’d forgotten to breathe.
She forced air into her lungs, but it was hard. She couldn’t seem to get enough. “Josh?”
“You’re okay, baby. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.” He sounded pained. He was panting. He was moving. With each movement, the pressure over her shifted.
Wait.
Her brain, sluggish, fighting shock, flared. “Oh God, Josh!”
She struggled, tried to get up.
“Careful, baby. Just…give me…a second…to make sure…it’s clear.”
She saw red. On the concrete. For the third time in her life, she saw that undeniable, thick, syrupy shade of red. Images crowded through her mind—pink ballet slippers, staring blue eyes, staring brown eyes, rivulets of red. Tears clouded her vision.
“Josh! Josh, are you okay? Please say that is my blood. Please, God, oh please say that is my blood! Please.”
“It’s okay, baby. Everything’s going to be…okay.”
“No.” Jenna summoned all her strength, ignored the screams, ignored Josh’s hoarse breathing, and slid out from under him, scraping all exposed flesh. Josh grunted as she did so, but she didn’t let that stop her. He needed to be laid flat, probably, and anyway, she wasn’t any good to him on the ground.
Once Jenna was out, she turned to Josh, who was lying facedown with one arm under him and one spread out. The left side of his broad back was slick and shiny. His suit was black, hiding the crimson, but the sidewalk didn’t lie.
“Move, Miss Anderson,” she heard among the screams.
Seeing him like that, the blood inching toward her Jimmy Choos—an image of her mother seared through her but was quickly replaced by what she was actually seeing. Josh. Her love. Her blessing. Dying at her feet.
Oh Lord, no. I’m not strong enough to lose him. It felt like her heart was being wrung. She could hear her heartstrings tearing as she looked at his deathly white face.
“Miss Anderson, get out of the way!”
She had to stay strong. She had to protect him. She had to find someone who knew how to take care of him until the paramedics arrived.
She spun on a security guard, his face a blur. “Get Jax. Jackson Banks. Find him. Bring him here. Now!”
The man blinked and stood there stupidly. More people were running up to crowd around Josh.
“Move,” she yelled in her most commanding voice. She shoved him, helping him along. She turned to some scared onlookers just exiting the building. She pointed at the woman among them. “You. Go tell the receptionist to call 9-1-1! You!” The man next to her. “Find a nurse, doctor, or anyone that knows how to help him. You!” To a wall of security guards gathering around, looking to her for direction. “Give him room, but don’t let anyone near. Make sure he is protected from any other…anyone else. Guard him! Where the hell is Jackson Banks?”
She bent to Josh then, feeling his body, feeling around the bloody spot, making sure it was the only one. She choked back a sob—it looked like he was dying. All the blood. Blood everywhere. On her, on her hands, on the sidewalk—spreading across the sidewalk.
Another flash of her mother. No.
She stood up. She didn’t want to move him. She’d always heard not to move injured people, but he was losing so much blood.
I can’t do this. I can’t lose him. I can’t come back from this. Not this.
“Where the fu—”
“Jenna!”
“Let him through,” Jenna screamed as Jax sprinted across the lobby. It was probably only five minutes from beginning of the crisis to the moment she saw Jax. It had been one of the longest five-minute stretches of her life.
“Jesus Christ,” Jax breathed as he neared. “Jenna, back everyone up. I need a med-kit.”
“No problem,” she said, all the strength in her body steeling her coat of armor and then her voice. She turned on shaking legs. “Med-kit. First aid. Get one.” She spread her glare to encompass five different people, all staring mutely one second, and propelled away the next.
“How bad, Jax?” she whispered. “Please, how bad?”
“The biggest concern will be blood loss. I need that med-kit.”
“On it, Jax. I got five people on it.” Jenna looked up in irritation at the people crowding around, staring, gawking.
“If you aren’t involved, get the hell outta here,” Jenna roared. Security acted like that was an order and started moving people on their way.
Through the glass she saw someone from that five rushing through the lobby. Then someone else. Jenna instructed people to grab the first-aid kit, checked to make sure there were no doctors or nurses, and delivered the precious items to Jax.
Jax wasted no time. He took inventory of the kit, pulled out various items, and bent over Josh.
“Miss Anderson!”
Jenna turned and met Jimmy, rushing into the crowd, almost dragging a disgruntled man in a suit behind him. “He’s a doctor. He’s here at a conference.”
“I’m a surgeon,” the man stated, shaking his arm loose from Jimmy.
“Great, Jimmy, thanks. Sir, please…” Jenna pleaded while batting her lashes. She reached out to him, noticed her hand was bloodied, paused, and then continued reaching. A surgeon might have insensitivity to blood, but he would notice a high-dollar suit being ruined.
The man blinked a couple times and looked at her hand. He caught her wrist, then let go quickly. Definitely insensitive to blood, but he wasn’t wearing gloves, and blood could be dangerous.
Whatever worked.
The man worked his eyes over Jenna, probably realized it wasn’t her blood, and quickly stooped to where Jax was working on Josh.
“Wait…” the man said hastily to Jax, taking off his suit jacket and rolling up his sleeves.
Belatedly Jenna wondered if he was at a conference because he was all books and money. Theory wasn’t great when a man was bleeding to death.
She pushed it from her mind. Jax would govern Josh’s aid. She doubted this was the first gunshot wound Jax had seen.
She turned as the sirens permeated her frazzled brain. She sighed in relief as police showed up, an ambulance right behind them. She cleared a path and directed the paramedics to Josh’s side.
“Jenna, what happened here?”
Jenna whirled to find Don striding toward her. His face was white and his eyes glued to the moist patches of blood down her front.
“It’s Josh’s. Oh God, it’s Josh’s,” Jenna said, unable to keep the hysteria from her voice and the tears from her eyes.
Don put an arm around her and led her to an ambulance. “Let’s set up shop so you can ride with him, okay? You’re not hurt?”
“Don, Josh has been shot! Yes I’m hurt. He can’t die. He can’t—”
“Whoa, whoa. Easy does it.” As they neared the ambulance, Don sat Jenna down on the curb. “Erika will be here in a minute and she’ll let you get hysterical. Are you physically hurt?”
“No.”
“How bad is Josh? Is he awake? Pulse?”
“Alive. He’s alive. Jax and a surgeon are working on him. Keeping him alive. Blood loss, though. Lots of blood. Loss. He saved my life. Again.”
She was bear-hugged from behind and nearly tackled before she heard, “Oh God, no, Jenna, are you hurt?”
Erika on scene.
“Josh took a bullet,” Don said calmly, resting against the ambulance. “Jenna, I called your father. He would want to know what is going on.”
“Get out now, Don, because I am going to burn this company to the ground,” Jenna said in a moment of clarity.
“Don’t burn ’em down, kid—bleed ’em dry. They’ll maintain their shell and you’ll keep your accreditation that way. Best way to get to ’em. Bleed ’em dry.”
The throng of people around Josh started moving. A stretcher surrounded by jogging paramedics emerged from the middle. Jax was beside them, blood staining his suit. Jenna stood up shakily, willing herself to be strong. She wasn’t far from having a complete breakdown. Not far at all.
As they neared, Don directed her to the ambulance opening, where she watched an unconscious, deathly pale Josh. Jenna closed her eyes and held her breath so she didn’t start sobbing.
“Sorry, family only.”
Jenna shrugged off the two sets of hands holding her up and took a large step to get into the face of the ambulance man. His eyes widened.
“Listen here. I don’t give two shits about your ‘family-only’ practice of ambulance rides. There is no legal stipulation preventing me from riding with my loved one. He is in this predicament because he saved my life, so if you are under the impression I’ll follow along in a cab while he clings to life in an ambulance, you are seriously mistaken. Now, move aside. I’m going with.”
Without hesitation, the younger man moved a fraction to let her by. She was helped into the cavern of tubes and equipment by a no-nonsense woman in a jumpsuit. As soon as she was in, the doors closed and they were on their way.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Josh felt as if he were deep-sea diving, surfacing slowly so he wouldn’t get the bends. When he opened his eyes, it was into murky sunlight in a sterile room.
“You’re awake.” Jax was sitting in a chair by the window, the drapes pulled to block out the sun. He had a magazine open on his lap, though he didn’t look all that interested in its contents.
“How long have I been out?”
“Oh, a day. Not all your doing. You went into surgery and they made sure you stayed out. After that, your body had to recoup. How do you feel?”
His buddy didn’t look the least bit concerned.
“Like I’m floating. What are they giving me?”
“Don’t know. Since your wound was deemed ‘not life threatening,’ I’ve forgotten all about you.”
Which was why he was glued to the chair, no doubt. Josh got a momentary stab of fear because Jenna wasn’t.
“She’s okay,” Jax said, reading his mind.
“Not hurt?”
“You played the hero and took the bullet meant for her. She’s freaked out but not hurt.”
“Where is she?” He didn’t mean it to sound so pitiful.
Jax didn’t seem to notice. “She’s doing her thing. You know, organizing the entire hospital staff around your needs, creating a twenty-four-seven schedule so you won’t be alone, not even for a second—shifts overlap by ten minutes—contacting your family, getting them flights, hotel rooms, and nannies. Oh, and she’s still getting her work done, making sure Erika and Mike do, too, and planning how to get you home to Colorado. I wouldn’t be surprised if you show up to a remodeled house. She’s on fire. Erika had to drug her to sleep again. Now she won’t drink anything but bottled water, and then only if she opens it herself.”
Josh just stared.
“That’s not all, of course. To keep herself from completely deteriorating at the shooting site, she took control of all the security personnel, anyone who happened to be wandering by, and bullied her way into the ambulance, where she charmed all your captors so that when you arrived, you had the best service I have ever seen in a hospital. She has charmed and assumed control of all the nurses, doctors, and anyone else that even looks in your direction. I’m telling you, she’s on fire. I don’t even want to get into the news aspect of all this. She’s crazy.”
“She’s gonna crash. Hard.”
“Yeah, real hard. I catch random things she says—
thought you’d want me making sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. She keeps saying, ‘I haven’t dealt with worse. Not this time. I’m not strong enough.’ Then she straightens her shoulders and bosses someone around. I’ve kept out of sight.”
“Hmmm. Is Erika around?”
“She won’t let Erika get close. Afraid she’ll break down, I reckon.”
“Where is Jenna now?”
“Organizing catering for when your family gets here. She’s opened her apartment as a base.”
If the meds Josh was on would let him, he would be completely shocked. He had to settle with slightly less fuzzy.
“Yeah, man,” Jax said with a smirk. “I said something about it and got hit upside the head. Literally. It hurt.”
That was when they heard the unmistakable voice drawing closer to the closed door. Jax fell silent and sank into the chair.
“I wasn’t asking, Dad. Get it done… Fine, two weeks. Come out swinging, though. I want blood.” She was listening as she came to the foot of his bed, glanced at him, glanced at Jax, and then froze. The phone came away from her face and she turned to him slowly.
“You’re awake,” she said softly, her hard face melting into such a raw vulnerability that his heart ached.
“Hey.”
Phone forgotten, she came beside the bed, eyed the tubes leading into his arms, and stood awkwardly, clearly wanting to be closer but afraid to upset any medical paraphernalia.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up. The doctor didn’t expect you to be awake for another hour.” Her eyes were pleading with him to understand.
He smiled and reached out, wincing as he realized that was the wrong arm to move.
“Oh God, here.” She hurried to the other side of the bed, giving Jax a look of death that had him up and out of way in less than a second.
“Shall I go do…that thing? For the guy?” Jax inched out the door.
“Yes. Go. Thanks.” Jenna waved him away distractedly. “No, wait. Tell Erika he is awake and to activate the phone tree.”
“Yup.” Jax was gone.
“Phone tree?” Josh asked, not looking anywhere but into those clear blue eyes. His oasis.
Unexpected Guardian (Skyline Trilogy Book 3) Page 27
