“Oh? Your brother still have his head up his ass?” Harper asked from her hotel room.
Rory wasn’t even sure where Harper was right now. She and the guys had been bouncing all over the place, taking down bad guys the last several days, cleaning up Cutter’s mess.
“Yeah, Jesse’s head is so far up there, he can’t see.” Rory sipped her second cup of coffee that morning while she watched Chris and Bear outside running the obstacle course. They weren’t training, just having fun. And it made her heart so happy to see. “You’ll be back for the Halloween party, right? I know Chris is going to meet up with Roman soon, but you’ll meet Jesse at the party. He’s coming to visit.” Maybe A.J. can wrangle Ella to come up, too. A little Halloween blind date.
“I wouldn’t miss it. Elaina is pretty excited, so no matter what, we’ll all be there.”
“And, um, how is Roman?” Rory took a chance to poke around when she probably ought to mind her business.
“Roman is Roman,” Harper said as if that were supposed to explain everything.
And you’re you. Rory shifted the blinds to try and see what Chris was now staring at and why Bear barked. “One second.” Rory lowered the phone and went to the living room to look out the window to see if someone was on the driveway.
There was a small red Kia parked, and a man standing in front of the Jeep, eyes set Chris’s way. Well, maybe not a man. More like a teenager. Or a young twentysomething-year-old.
“Can I call you back?”
“Of course. I have to run, anyway. Bad guys to catch.”
“Stay safe!” Rory ended the call and flung her phone onto the couch, then went for the side door and exited. She shielded her eyes from the near-noon light hitting her face as she walked to see who was there. “Can I help you?” she called out since Chris remained glued in place out in the backyard. And that wasn’t like Chris.
At the sight of Rory, Bear began to run her way.
The guy turned toward Rory. “Hi,” he said. His light blond hair was close-cut, and he was tall but lean. Not much muscle on him. Nice blue eyes and handsome features. Hell, he reminded her of a young Chris.
Oh.
Ohhhh shit.
“Is that Chris Hunter?” He tipped his head toward where Chris stood with hands drawn to his hips like he was seeing a ghost.
Chris knew, didn’t he? He knew he was his brother.
Was that why his mom had called before they’d been taken, and why she’d continued to call? Since both of their phones were now at the bottom of the ocean, the first order of business upon returning Stateside, along with buying a new bed, was to purchase new phones. As soon as Chris had powered his up, he was inundated with notifications of missed calls and voicemails.
“Yeah, that’s him. And you are?” Rory reached out to pet Bear as she asked for confirmation. Bear surprised her by waiting for permission to approach the stranger, and she’d given it.
She stole a glimpse at Chris, who was now heading their way.
“I’m Elijah.” The guy stepped around Bear. “Are you his wife?” He offered his hand.
“No.” One of these days.
“Can we help you?” Chris strode closer, removed his ball cap, and set it against his chest.
Elijah pulled his hand free from Rory’s and twisted nervously to face Chris. A good ten feet of space separated the two men. Brothers, she was sure of it. And her stomach knotted at whatever both of them must have been feeling.
“You’re not an easy man to find.” Elijah gripped the nape of his neck and squeezed. “I just learned about you.” His throat moved as he swallowed anxiously. “I found some photos of you, and when I pressed Mom for the truth, I got angry and left home a few weeks ago. Decided to come find you.”
And yup, that was why Chris’s mom had been calling. She knew her sons would meet at some point.
Chris remained motionless. Shocked?
“Did you know about me all this time? Or were you as clueless as I was?” Elijah asked, his voice cracking.
Chris slowly lowered his hat to his side, looked to Rory for a moment before he focused back on his brother. And she knew this part was going to be hard for Elijah to hear and for Chris to say.
“You knew.” Elijah stumbled back in his sneakers a few steps. “You just didn’t care.” He dragged a palm down his face.
“Wait, I, um.” Chris stretched his free hand out, but the words must still have been hard to come by.
“I need to catch my flight anyway.” Elijah turned to the side, tossed one last look at Chris, then took off. Actually, he ran like he was hightailing it from a robbery.
“Shit. I just fucked that up.” Chris came alongside Rory as his brother backed out of the driveway in a hurry, Bear barking at the dust kicking into the air from the gravel.
“You were shocked. It’s not your . . .” Rory closed her eyes and set a hand to her stomach at the memory of words that hadn’t made sense at the time. “We’ve gotta go!” She hurried into the house and grabbed the Jeep keys before Chris could ask questions. “I’ll drive.”
“What?” Chris stared at her in confusion, but Bear didn’t waste any time and hopped into the Jeep.
“Get in,” she hollered while strapping herself in with the seat belt. Once Chris joined them, she quickly reversed out of the driveway. “Elaina said, ‘Don’t let him go to the airport,’” she reminded him, hoping to catch up with Elijah, following in the direction he’d gone. “I think she meant your brother.” Chills coasted over her skin.
Chris didn’t question her. Or call her insane. He knew Elaina better than Rory. “There,” he said once they neared the highway. “I see the Kia on the ramp about to merge.”
Rory gently switched lanes even though they were in a hurry, not wanting to send Bear flying.
“He’s only ten cars—” Chris abruptly let go of his words.
It all happened as if in slow motion.
Rory’s heart beating loudly with each frame of action as it unfolded before her eyes.
The 18-wheeler switching lanes.
Elijah in his blind spot.
The little red Kia flying sideways at seventy miles an hour on the small bridge.
Rory pumped the brakes and pulled onto the shoulder of the road just before they reached the bridge. She and Chris watched in horror as the Kia slammed against the guardrail, bounced off, and hit another car.
The Kia flipped up and over, careening off the bridge.
“No!” Chris screamed, his hand outstretched as if he could freeze the scene and stop the action.
He reached into the glove compartment in one fast move and grabbed some metal tool, then opened the door and began sprinting alongside the stopped traffic.
Rory searched for her phone to call 911, but shit, she’d left it on the couch. “Come on, Bear!” She exited the passenger side, so they didn’t get hit, then they raced after Chris. “Call an ambulance!” she hollered to the stopped cars while pumping her arms, and Bear sped ahead of her to close the gap between him and Chris.
Without hesitation, Chris stepped up onto the guardrail, swung his arms in front of him, and dove off the bridge and into the river that had to be about twenty feet below.
Bear remained by the guardrail barking when Rory got to him. She glimpsed over the side to see the top of the red car disappearing from sight. No sign of Chris.
“Stay here,” she commanded Bear, then stood on the railing.
“What are you doing?” someone shouted behind her, but she ignored the man and dove in, making sure to dive off to the side of the vehicle instead of down on top of it.
The cold, late October water smacked her body like she’d been spanked all over, but she shook off the chill and the sting and opened her eyes, trying to see in the murky water.
But damn it, it was cloudy, and how the hell would Chris find Elijah?
She felt around, trying to find the car. To find Chris.
No, no, no.
Nothing.
&n
bsp; They’ll be okay, she tried to convince herself as she ran out of air, knowing she would need to come up for oxygen soon.
Adam McGregor’s words from Italy came back to mind as she pushed to the surface. You could be driving down the street and get sideswiped by a truck. You can’t protect your loved ones from everything.
She broke the top of the water and seized a breath, and the familiar, high-pitched howl overhead had her turning to see Bear barking frantically, his paws on the railing. He was trying to let her know something, so she looked off in the distance to see Chris swimming, pulling Elijah as he neared the embankment twenty feet away from her.
Oh, God. She swam their way as fast as she could get her legs and arms to move, pulling out her best Michael Phelps butterfly technique.
When she reached the small bit of ground by the river, Elijah was flat on his back as Chris gave him CPR. “Rory,” Chris yelled in surprise at the sight of her, and clearly, he had no idea she’d come in after him.
She moved to the other side of Elijah, preparing to help Chris when Elijah began to cough up water, and they rolled him to his side. His head was bleeding in a few spots, and Chris tore off his shirt and wrapped it around Elijah’s skull.
The wail of sirens in the distance was the best sound she’d heard in her life. More heroes like Chris were on their way.
“You okay?” Chris asked when helping Elijah sit up. “Your neck? Back? Legs?”
Elijah looked shocked. Stunned.
He was lucky.
Really, really lucky.
“How’d you . . .?” Elijah mumbled something else, clutching his ribs in agony, but Rory couldn’t make out his words.
Chris pulled Elijah to his side to support him while they waited for the first responders to reach them.
Once they’d all been lifted to the road, Bear rushed to their sides, barking up a storm. “It’s okay,” she told Bear as she watched Elijah get loaded into the ambulance.
“Hey, you okay?” Chris turned back to peer at Rory from where he stood outside the ambulance doors.
“Yeah, are you?” she cried.
Chris looked back to the stretcher, then to Rory again.
“Go with him,” she urged, reading his thoughts. “Bear and I will meet you at the hospital.”
“And who are you?” the medic asked Chris and offered his hand to help Chris into the back.
“I’m his brother.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“She’ll be here soon.” Chris checked the time on his waterproof watch, the new one Rory had purchased him since his Breitling was at the bottom of the ocean.
Making that phone call to his mom a few hours ago had been one of the hardest things Chris had ever done. Never mind the fact he hadn’t spoken to her in years, but having to inform her that the son she chose over him had been in a serious accident and was in the hospital had been a bit surreal. Thank God Rory had been at his side.
His mom was in New York City at the time, so she hopped on the next train to D.C.
Rory held his hand as they sat in the waiting room at the hospital. “Are we staying until she gets here?”
“I don’t want to leave Elijah alone even though he refuses to talk to me.” Chris’s stomach churned at the words. He’d messed up. He should never have let Elijah get into that car and drive away, and he’d just watched him go. Watched that little red car zip off, and if Rory hadn’t remembered Elaina’s warning, Elijah would most likely be dead. Drowned. “I don’t want to face her, either.”
“Maybe you need to?”
Face my demons. Yeah, maybe. He was going to therapy next Friday, and surely his therapist would encourage him to come to his own decision about when to seek his mom out and have some closure.
He tightened his hold on Rory’s hand and closed his eyes, doing his best to slow his rapidly beating pulse even though it’d been five hours since the accident. Five hours of sitting around at the hospital.
Ana had brought them clothes since they’d been wet, and Chris shirtless. Ana had emphasized the dry socks, which meant Harper had told Ana or A.J. about what Chris and Roman had shared back on Mona Island.
Ana also picked up Bear in the parking lot outside the hospital for them once they’d arrived around noon. A.J. and most of the team were still abroad dealing with the smugglers, and Chris was supposed to rendezvous with Roman to handle the Trott brothers, but maybe he’d let Roman handle the Trotts. Chris’s brother needed him even if he wasn’t ready to admit it yet. So, Chris wouldn’t walk away. He wouldn’t abandon Elijah the way their mother had abandoned Chris. He should have sought Elijah out a long time ago. But . . . he’d been scared. And angry.
“You call Elaina?” he asked her.
“Yeah, she, um, said everything happened the way it was supposed to.” Rory looked at him with wide eyes.
Chris peered at her. “I don’t know how to dissect that, and maybe I won’t.”
“I’m right there with you. When Emily learned about Elaina’s prophecy of sorts that saved the day, well . . . she was shell-shocked even though she knows how special Elaina is.” Rory smoothed her other thumb over the tops of their linked hands.
“Chris Hunter?”
Chris stood at the sight of the nurse standing in the doorway to the waiting room. He barely remembered the accident or jumping into the water.
The window punch tool had broken the glass, and he’d used the knife attachment to cut the seat belt. It’d been difficult to see under the water, but the car hadn’t been fully submerged by the time he’d made the jump. If he’d gone in even thirty seconds later, he probably wouldn’t have found Elijah. He was lucky to have only broken two ribs and suffered some bad lacerations. The doctors had said it was a miracle.
“Chris,” Rory whispered when he’d yet to answer the nurse, and she was on her feet next to him.
“Oh, yeah, right. That’s me.” He stepped forward. “Something wrong?”
“No, your brother wants to see you.”
“He does?” he asked in surprise, and the nurse smiled and nodded.
“Whenever you’re ready, you can go see him. Room one-eleven.”
Once the nurse left, Chris turned to Rory inside the empty waiting room.
Rory motioned to the speaker in the corner of the room, and her eyes grew glossy at the lyrics now playing when a new song came onto the radio. “Jason Mraz, I won’t give up,” she told him since it was obvious he didn’t recognize it, but he knew why she was pointing it out to him.
Chris wouldn’t give up. He’d fight like hell to keep his brother in his life. And, of course, he’d never give up on Rory, on what they had together.
He brought his mouth to hers in a soft kiss, then she directed him to go, but he shook his head. “Not without you.” He clasped their palms, and they went down the hall in search of room 111.
Elijah had an IV in his arm and was sitting upright in the bed, eyes cast out the window that ironically had a view of that damn river his car had gone into earlier.
“Your mom should be here soon,” Chris said.
“She’s your mom, too.” Elijah swiveled his head, which was patched up in some places. “Thank you for saving me. I knew you were a SEAL, but I guess your diving skills came in handy today.”
“How’d you know I was a SEAL?” He took one tentative step closer, maintaining hold of his lifeline—Rory.
“Mom told me. Your dad sends her pictures every year—those are the ones I found. One was of you in your dress blues. And one of you after you finished BUD/S.” He closed his eyes. “She kept them in a shoebox in her closet.”
For a moment, he’d thought his mom had cared. But no, his photos were with her shoes. Probably her overpriced heels.
“Dad was remodeling their closet and asked me to move everything out, and I dropped the box. The photos fell all over the floor. She said she left you when you were sixteen when she found out she was pregnant with me.”
Elijah’s dad was a real estate mog
ul from what Chris had read online. Plumber’s wife to millionaire in the blink of an eye.
Chris had also looked Elijah up on Facebook one drunken night two years ago, which was how he’d recognized him earlier, and why he’d stood stupidly in shock with Elijah on his driveway.
“I’m sorry she left you because of me. I see why you must hate me and don’t want to know me.” Elijah’s eyes parted to reveal tears.
He really is a young me. A pre-Navy me. That also meant they both took after their mom, and he wasn’t so sure how he felt about that.
“I don’t blame you or hate you,” Chris said in a low, but steady tone.
Rory let go of his hand as if urging him to go closer to the bed, and he followed her instructions.
“It wasn’t your fault. It was hers,” Chris let him know.
“She lost her mind when I told her I was going to find you. Meet you. She was already mad I wanted to join the military, and then seeing you in your uniform only made me more eager, which upset her,” he quickly rattled off, but he looked lucid. Probably not too many pain meds being pumped into his bloodstream.
“I guess that’s why she was calling me,” Chris said, hating the touch of disappointment in his tone. She didn’t care to talk to me. “I’m sorry I didn’t reach out. I was hurt. Angry. And I joined the Navy and never looked back. But I should have reached out, at least when you turned eighteen. You deserved to know the truth.”
“I deserved to know I had a brother, but that’s on her, not you. I’m sorry I got upset earlier.”
Chris tucked his hands into his back pockets, not sure what to do or say. “What branch do you want to join?” he asked instead.
Elijah smiled. “After that badassery I saw from you today, I gotta be a SEAL.”
“A Teamguy, huh?” Chris tried not to get choked up staring at a younger version of himself lying in that bed. So many things he would have said to a twenty-year-old him. So many lessons he now knew he could pass on to him. “Training is tough, Elijah. Like really fuc . . .” He dropped the swear word, forgetting he was twenty for a moment and not ten.
Chasing Fortune (Stealth Ops Book 8) Page 39
