Eli rises but the Carlos knocks on him on the head.
“Roberto, this is between me and you—”
“NO!” He bellows at me, his onion breath on my face. “Don’t tell me they weren’t involved. You were all involved. No one lies to me. No one deceives me and lives in my house, and…” He’s too angry for words, and he’s had a long time to stew on it. I try to look at Eli but meet a gun instead.
“I took care of your boss,” Maldonado says, a hint of glee in his voice. “Now it’s your turn. Time to pay the price for what you did to me. We’re all going to have a little fun together.”
Harris is dead? Not that I thought he’d come to our aid. But now I know there is no chance of help out there. Maldonado walks up to stand in front of me again. I look up, searching for anything I can say to get my friends out of this… It was me, not them. But there’s no arguing with the hatred in his eyes.
Maldonado opens his mouth but his face suddenly contorts in pain and he starts to bend over.
Something throws me back into the sofa, knocking the wind out of my lungs. Heat sprays all over me. I think I hear an explosion but now my head feels like a bell, ringing, vibrating, nothing holding still.
I’m stunned, along with everyone else in the room, unable to move or hear. We’re all so surprised that time stops.
He’s gone.
Maldonado is gone.
There’s a giant warm, wet mess all over me and the floor. On Eli. It’s everywhere, like a wrecking ball hit Maldonado from behind. But, actually, from the look of the spray pattern spreading out from his last position, he blew up from the inside out. In disgust, I wipe at myself and shake the bits of flesh off me.
I might hear yelling. The blast knocked everyone back and there’s loose guns on the floor.
My eyes go blurry and focus on a hand. His hand. It’s just lying there on the floor without an arm. A gun is sticking out from under the sofa.
I need to move. I need to do something. Eli meets my gaze. His senses are coming back too. A beat passes before everything breaks loose. Shots fire, fists fly.
I grab for the Glock I’d dumped out and squeeze one off at Jack. He shoots too, his bullet buzzing over my head as he flies backward into the wall. His gun hand bounces, knocking his gun free.
“Nick!”
Nick grabs it off the floor starts picking them off, and the bangs ring like ricocheting marbles. I roll over to get a visual on Eli.
Carlos has him from behind. Eli knocks him in the face with a backwards elbow, then twists around to finish him. I turn to help Sage—she’s on her back on the table, a massive man choking her, so I shoot him in the head. Another shot rings out after mine, and a body slams into the floor.
Stillness follows. I do a body count, making sure we’ve got them all before even breathing.
Dust specs float in a beam of sunshine let in by a crooked curtain. There’s body parts and blood splattered on the walls, us, and the bodies on the floor. Nick slumps against a wall. Sage is kneeling by TJ. My hearing isn’t all the way back. I look around for Eli and see him move his jaw, feeling it for damage. I can’t feel anything yet—I could be wounded and not know it. My body is buzzing with adrenaline.
“TJ?” Someone asks. Sage looks up and nods at me just as I hear TJ moan.
Eli stumbles as he comes to me. “What the hell just happened? Did you put that trigger in your arm and implant a bomb in Maldonado?”
My arm is smeared in blood, but it’s no longer lit up or blinking. I look up to find everyone watching me, and after a second realize with relief that they don’t look suspicious.
“I don’t remember anything about it, but that must have been a proximity detonator in my arm,” I say, which sends a very cold shiver through me. “But how did the bomb get inside Maldonado?”
“Harris. It had to have been Harris. And we were bait,” Eli says, his voice low and bitter. “Our lives never mattered.”
“And I spent all that time fighting all of you while Harris played games with us.”
“Hopefully Maldonado was telling the truth and Harris is dead,” Sage says before checking another bullet. “Let’s move.”
TJ stops by the lantern lying sideways on the floor, then grabs a lighter from the fireplace. Eli’s right behind him, dousing liquid everywhere.
We bust out the door and run to the van as the house goes up in flames behind us. There’s several other empty vehicles around the house. Sage helps Nick get in. TJ looks dazed so Eli jumps in the driver’s seat.
Once I’m in the van, I try to assess if I’m hit but it’s no use. I just hope I’d feel the pain if I were.
While backing up, Eli knocks into several of the vehicles. We’re rolling down the street when I see Nick’s pinched face. I try to get closer but Sage is all over him.
“How bad is it?” she asks.
“Not bad.” He gives a small shake of his head like it’s a scratch as she peels his bloody shirt back.
She sucks her breath in, making a snake-like sound.
“Not planning to die, not that bad,” Nick says with his typical lopsided smile, his gaze on Sage.
A lot of blood flows from the wound in his chest. I’m not so sure I believe him.
Chapter Forty
We wait. Eli and TJ take turns pacing while Sage and I sit together on a hard vinyl couch. I had expected screams to come from the other room when the backdoor doctor pulled the bullet out, but it’s quiet. I tell myself they put him under, but it makes me worry more anyway.
We’re all wet. We took showers here and slipped into old hospital scrubs. My hair drips on my shoulders but I’m too numb to shiver. It was a risk coming here. This is one of JP’s doctors and secret hospital. Even if Harris is dead, we were going to cut all ties. We had no choice in coming here, to tell the truth. Nick needed an ER and a doctor that could perform surgery.
Sage rises and walks a slow step at a time to the other door and slowly goes inside. I feel as if I should follow her but I have a hard time moving at all. Eli takes her place and wraps me up in his arms. I push my face into his chest and listen to his steady heartbeat.
“There’s no going back,” TJ says under his breath. “There’s no going back.”
“TJ.” Eli’s voice is heavy with emotion. “Sit down.”
“What are we going to do? If Harris can set that up…”
“Meg, do you have any idea how that happened?” Eli searches my eyes.
I pull in a breath and slowly exhale. “Harris must have implanted it when he did the memory wipe, knowing Maldonado would come after me, especially if he told him where to find us. I just wonder how he was able to place a bomb inside Maldonado… through surgery? Or did he ingest it?”
Eli tilts his head, thinking about that. Harris was on the cutting edge of medical technology. With the resources of the organization, he had access to military technology too. It’s possible he had developed a small bomb that could be ingested. Eli and I are discussing possibility when TJ jumps up, turns around like he’s going to pace, but then sits back down.
“So he planned it that way? This has been in the works for a very long time, right under our noses.”
“He played with our lives,” I say quietly, but they both hear me. “Apparently he wanted to take Maldonado down so badly that he didn’t mind sacrificing us. We were retiring, after all. But now he’s dead and we’re not.”
Sage comes out, her arms wrapped around her middle. She looks stiff, her posture, her eyes. We’re all afraid to speak.
“He should pull through.”
My breath rushes out. Beside me, Eli deflates in relief and holds an open hand out to her. She collapses onto our couch with us. TJ kneels next to us, arms around us all. I rub her back, wondering how it feels to have Nick in there fighting for his life.
“We’re all going to be okay,” I say, looking into her blue, watery eyes. She tries for a smile, and for a second her charm and beauty sparkle again.
“But it�
��s just us. No more support from JP Industries.”
“There’s others that Harris has betrayed,” I point out. “We might not be alone.”
“But we can’t trust them,” Eli says. He leans back and we all sit up. “It’s too risky, especially after this. What if he set up something similar with people within the organization or other wanted criminals?”
“So it is just us,” I say, sighing.
“Do we have a plan?”
TJ does not like to wing it. I appreciate that. We do need a plan.
“We’ll do what we’ve always done,” I say, then watch the surprise on their faces. “We’ll do it on our own terms, picking our jobs, and doing what we’re comfortable with. But I say no more undercover Ops like Maldonado.”
Eli’s eyes practically glow as he watches me.
“Go it alone?” TJ asks, giving Sage a look.
I stand up. “We start from scratch. Like Eli said, it’s too dangerous to use anything linked to JP or any of our friends. Even that safe house wasn’t safe. We need to start at ground zero, but we’re in charge this time.”
“I’m in,” Eli says, turning to Sage and TJ.
“We’re family,” Sage says. “We have to stick together and take care of Nick.” Her voice quivers at first but grows stronger. “We know we can trust each other. We’ve been through hell and high water of all kinds and come through stronger. Why quit now?”
TJ grins.
We’re absorbing the moment when the door opens and the doc steps out. He motions in toward the room, apparently indicating his work is done.
***
“Well, you got your sunset,” Eli says as we gaze out at the fiery red ball dipping into the ocean. We’re settled on the sand with a blanket wrapped around the both of us. Eli’s warmth seeps into me, saving me from the biting wind. Even with this gorgeous view, it’s still winter.
It’s been a week since the explosion. We laid low for a few days and then came to the coast, once Nick was able. He’s in the new camper, on bed rest. The wound had looked messy, but the bullet had miraculously missed his heart and lungs. Sage has hardly left his side.
TJ comes into view down by the water, walking back our way on the beach. We’re going to decide on our next move tonight. After all this cold weather, I’m dreaming about Costa Rica.
“And my family,” I add a long minute after Eli’s comment. I love how we can talk and follow the conversation when half of it is unspoken. I’m recovering that coherence with the rest of the group too. The horrible memories are still in my head, but I’m covering them with all the happy times I’ve shared with these people. In fact, I’m making new happy memories with them.
“What a way to go,” he says, a wicked smile playing on his lips. Instantly, I know he’s talking about Maldonado. “God, I hated that asshole. He got what he deserved. Do you know how many times I fantasized about putting a bullet in him? I knew you were in danger and stuck with him, and it ate me alive.”
I can’t disagree with him. Sage has been watching online messages and codes, and saw that Harris is in fact dead too.
“At least that chapter is closed and done.”
Under the blanket, Eli entwines his fingers with mine, then pulls our hands up so he can kiss the back of my hand. “Do you know how much I love you?”
Warmth tickles through me, like hot water in the shower flowing down my body.
“Enough to agree to my crazy plans, and go through all of that, and lie to me when I asked you to… Eli Hawthorn, I’m not so sure I’m good for you!”
“I’ll be the judge of that, Mrs. Hawthorn.” He turns my face and looks into my eyes for a minute before leaning over to kiss me. His lips feel full and warm on mine. He feels like home.
The End
Kristen James
Pacific Northwest Author
Kristen James has written twelve novels and eight novellas including contemporary romance, romantic suspense, family drama, and new adult. Her goal is to offer something new and different with each story. Kristen loves to write romance with a twist: taking something that doesn’t sound like a romance and turning it into one. She enjoys adventures, traveling, camping, cycling, mountain biking, spending time with her family, and of course reading and writing!
http://www.writerkristenjames.com/
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Also by Kristen James
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Full Book List on Amazon
Stranger in my Bed (full series) Page 20
