by Ana Barrons
She shook her head no.
Gabe repeated her answers into the phone even as he heard footsteps pounding up the steps, and saw the glow of flashlights. “The medics will take over, okay?” he said to Kate, and noticed bruises forming on her cheeks. That motherfucker. “They’ll fix you up.”
She raised her gaze for the first time. “Happy?” she whispered.
Yeah, he’d been an asshole all right. “I want to kill the bastard,” he said, past the lump forming in his throat. “What does that tell you?”
“You’re... a cop.” Then she went limp.
The medics rushed into the bedroom. “I think she passed out,” Gabe told them. “Or she’s in shock. Lacerations on her neck and right arm. Glass in her feet.”
His cell phone chirped again and he read the LED. “Fuck,” he muttered and flipped it open. “I’m sorry, I know we’re late. A call came in from Kate’s house, and—”
“Kate’s?” Lindsay said. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. She was attacked. The medics are here now.”
“You brought your son to a crime scene?”
Double fuck. “I didn’t know it was going to be a goddamn crime scene,” he said. “I was close, and I locked the car doors and told him to stay put.”
“You irresponsible ass,” she said.
Gabe’s blood boiled. “Look, you know where she lives. Get in the goddamn car and pick him up, okay? I want to stay and help them catch this fucker.”
Lindsay hung up without answering. “Shit.” He stepped closer to the bed, where the medics were working on Kate.
The lights came on, which meant the intruder had merely fucked with the circuit breakers rather than cut the wires. Gabe looked over at the corner where he’d found Kate curled up and was sickened again by the blood on the walls and carpet. His gut went cold, and it was tough to swallow. Who the hell would do this to her? And why?
“Rape kit,” someone said.
Jesus, no, he thought. No.
A stretcher appeared and he stepped aside to let them through. One of the medics spotted Kate lying naked on the bed and murmured, “Holy shit,” and Gabe had to force himself not to punch the guy in the face.
“Happy?” she’d asked him.
He had a hell of a lot of repenting to do.
Chapter Fourteen
When Kate woke up she found herself lying on a bed in a strange room that had a pale green-and-white striped curtain all around it. Where...? There were machines with bright lights, and her body ached all over. A hospital.
She moaned as disjointed memories crashed over her. The man in her bedroom. The knife. Terror. He had hurt her, tried to kill her. Tried to... Tears filled her eyes.
“Kate?” The voice was deep and male. Familiar.
Drew?
No, Drew was dead. She moaned again at the pain that realization brought her. Drew was dead. Steve was dead. Maybe she was dead.
“Kate?” the same voice said. “Don’t cry, honey.”
She turned her head very slowly in the direction of the voice and was startled to see Gabe’s face. No, she must be imagining it. She closed her eyes and opened them again. It was still Gabe. He was standing over her looking rumpled and grizzly. He laid the back of his hand on her cheek and stroked. Her vision went watery again, and she sniffled. Gabe? In her hospital room looking like he was worried about her?
“Don’t try to talk,” he said. “You’re going to be all right. Your right arm is pretty badly cut up and bandaged, and your feet...” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “You gave us all a scare there for a while, but I guess I deserved to be scared out of my wits.” He tried to grin, but didn’t quite pull it off.
No. This was all wrong. She must be dreaming.
“Oh, she’s awake,” a nurse said, entering the room with a tired smile and a white foam cup. “How are you feeling, Mrs. Franklin?”
“Okay,” Kate said, her voice raspy, as though it hadn’t been used for a long time. What was Gabe saying? That seeing her hurt made him realize he cared about her? No, it couldn’t be that, not after the other night. If anything, knowing what had happened with Steven probably made him hate her more.
“Any pain in the arm?”
Kate looked down at her arm and was surprised to find it lying on top of the blankets, crooked at the elbow, heavily bandaged and in a sling. She tried to move it and winced.
“There are twenty-nine stitches in that arm,” the nurse said, like it was something to be proud of. “You must have put your arm right through the window.”
“The alarm,” Kate rasped. “Smashing glass sets it off.”
The nurse produced a cold pack wrapped in a bandage. “Hold this to your face with your good hand,” she said, and Kate dutifully pressed the pack to her cheek. “That’s right. Hold it there as long as you can. The more we do it the more the swelling will go down, and the less colorful your bruises will be.”
“Can we give her some water?” Gabe asked.
The nurse picked up the foam cup and held it out to Gabe. “You can rub a small cube of ice over her lips, but she can’t drink quite yet. We don’t want her vomiting.”
Gabe took the cup. The nurse fiddled with the tubes running into Kate’s arm through a needle, reset a couple of machines and left the room with instructions to both of them to call her if there was a problem.
Kate raised her eyes to his. Would he actually do what the nurse had suggested? He reached into the cup awkwardly, then took out a small ice cube and gave her a questioning look.
“Would that feel good?” he asked.
“Why?” she whispered.
He swallowed and dropped the cube back in the cup. “Why what?”
“Why are you being nice?”
He looked away, silent. She waited. When he met her gaze again he started to speak, stopped and looked away again. Then he made a show of checking his watch.
She closed her eyes and turned away. Best not to look at him, or talk to him, or get suckered into thinking he cared about her at all. Because the only thing about her he didn’t find repulsive was her body. And that just wasn’t good enough.
Then it occurred to her. “My statement.”
“When you’re ready. I want to catch the bastard who did this to you, so as soon as you’re up to it.”
“Send someone else.”
“For what?”
“My statement.”
He was silent for a moment. “It’s my case, Kate. I was first at the scene. I saw what he did to you. I saw the shape you were in. And I’ll never forget it.”
She shook her head slowly. “No.”
“Look, I’m not going to come on to you,” he said. “I’m sorry about the party. And...the other day. I lost control, and I had no right.”
She almost smiled at that. Would have, if her heart didn’t hurt so badly. “No more, Gabe,” she said. “I’m done.”
He swallowed hard. “Jeremy sends his love. He asked if he could come and see you, and I told him maybe I’d bring him in when you’re feeling better.”
So now he was invoking Jeremy’s name? What did he want from her? “Jeremy, yes,” she said. “You, no.”
Damn if he didn’t go around to the other side of the bed so she’d have to look at him. “Please,” she said.
He squatted so she had to look into those damn gray eyes with their thick black lashes. They were puffy and red. Like he hadn’t slept. Having him this close set her heart beating faster, made her mouth go drier than it already was.
“I’m keeping this case,” he said. “That’s not negotiable. And it would make it a hell of a lot easier if you’d cooperate. Maybe I’d have a chance of finding this creep and making him pay for what he did to you.” He glanced at her bandaged arm. “Twenty-nine stitches, plus cuts and bruises on your other arm and legs and feet, a bruised cheek, bruised hip and a slash across your neck that could have gone deeper if he’d meant to kill you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “He
wasn’t working alone.”
“How do you know?”
“He said the bitch said to m-mess me up if he had to.” A hot tear escaped down her cheek. It wasn’t enough that her husband was dead and had robbed her blind. Or that she might have been responsible for Steve’s death. Or that Gabe still had the power to hurt her. Now she’d been attacked and beaten in her own home, and the man—
“What else did he say?”
Her stomach began to pitch, but she forced back bile. “Next time... he’ll kill me.”
He wiped away her tears with his thumb and she drew back. “No,” she whispered. “No touching.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “Um... I’ll pull up a chair and get my recorder out and we’ll start from the beginning. Okay? Are you comfortable like that?”
No, she wasn’t comfortable. Maybe she’d never be comfortable again. She ached and she was exhausted and she just couldn’t deal with his games anymore.
“Just be a bastard,” she whispered. “So I know what to expect.”
“How about if I decide to be a nice guy?”
Her eyes drifted closed. “So much better...at being a bastard.”
* * *
“You were a bad boy, Tyrell,” the voice said.
Tyrell took a swig of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. In the other he clutched the silver cell phone. “Yeah, well, you knew that when you hired me, bitch.”
“I told you specifically not to hurt her unless you absolutely had to.”
“Define ‘absolutely had to.’”
“If I can’t trust you to follow orders I’ll find someone who can.”
“’Sides, she hurt herself, smashing her arm through that window. Wasn’t my fault.”
“You fuck up like this again you’re going back to jail, asshole.”
“I’ll get back in there and find ’em. Don’t you worry ’bout nothing.”
“You didn’t find them?” The voice was shrill and loud. Tyrell held the phone away from his ear.
“I’ll find ’em next time.”
“Goddamn it, you have to get them before the cops get a search warrant for her house, understand? They get a search warrant, they’ll take them and you’ll never get your money.”
“I said I’ll take care of it.”
“And how do you expect to get in there again, now that you’ve alerted the police? It was bad enough the FBI’s watching, and now you assault her and get the police involved? I should have known better than to hire an ignoramus to do a man’s job.”
“What the fuck you know about doing a man’s job?” Tyrell said. Bitch was pissing him off. “I said I’ll get ’em, I’ll get ’em. Back the fuck off.”
“You’ll have to do it differently next time. I’ll come up with a plan and be in touch. And Tyrell?”
“Yeah?”
“You ever call me a bitch again, I’ll cut your fucking heart out.”
Chapter Fifteen
Senator Arlen Fischer rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Let this be a hallucination. He pulled his hands away slowly and studied his computer monitor.
Fuck.
It was still there, in all its glory. How had this happened?
God, if you can just keep Nina from finding out I’ll never be unfaithful again.
“How could I be so fucking stupid?” he asked himself, and drowned out the obvious answer with a long swallow of scotch on the rocks. Why was this woman doing this? And why now? It had happened months ago. Was she the one setting him up?
The woman on the screen looked like a Playboy Bunny—big tits, blond hair, full lips. Christ, he remembered what it had felt like to be inside her, to run his hands and his mouth all over her body. How could he not, when a full color photo of her sitting on his cock was two feet from his face? He scrolled back down to her message and read it, shaking his head.
Take Mrs. Fischer on a trip far, far away, Senator. Leave tomorrow and don’t come back until after the recess. Otherwise, I’ll send your wife and constituents one photo for each vote of yours I don’t like.
Another swallow of scotch. So, whoever was behind this was trying to stop him from voting on some piece of legislation that was coming up over the next two weeks. He scratched his head. There were all kinds of votes coming up. Which one was she trying to quash?
“Who the hell are you?” he asked the monitor.
He poured himself another scotch, then stood and paced around his office. He’d heard about things like this happening, who hadn’t? Was he the only senator being blackmailed like this? What was next? They had the photos. They could take him for all he was worth.
“Fuck,” he said, then louder, “Fuck!”
Nina stuck her head inside the door. “What are you swearing about, Arlen? For God’s sake, the kids aren’t deaf, you know.”
“Sorry,” he said. When she tried to step inside he moved toward the door, blocking her. “I’m sorry. I’ll stop swearing.”
Her gaze dropped to the glass in his hand, then back to his face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said quickly. Behind them, the picture was still up on his monitor. When had he gotten to be so careless? “Go back to the kids. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“You’re acting really weird,” she said, frowning. “Did something happen today?”
“No, I’m just stressed out. Really, really stressed out.” He wiped the sweat off his upper lip. “I need to get away. Now. Tomorrow. Let’s go away, honey. Just the two of us. What do you say?”
She stuck her hands on her hips. “I say you’ve lost your mind. We can’t go anywhere until the recess, you know that.”
He set down his glass and grasped her upper arms. “You’re not listening,” he said, and her eyes widened. “I can’t take the stress. I can’t wait for the recess. I want to go away right now. Anywhere you want. We can leave in the morning.”
“What’s gotten into you, Arlen?”
She would have to be difficult. “Read my lips, Nina. I’m. Stressed. Out. Okay? I need to get away. The kids will be happy to get rid of us for a couple of weeks.”
Her head snapped back. “A couple of weeks? You’ll miss every vote. A lot of people are counting on you to vote against that Global Security bill, or whatever it’s called. How can you walk away from that? This isn’t like you, Arlen.”
The Global Intelligence and Security bill. Is that what this was all about? The implications chilled him. Had he been fucking a terrorist that night at the hotel?
No. She had to have been sent from the other side of the aisle. Not a terrorist. That couldn’t be it.
Oh, fuck.
What had he done?
Tears filled his eyes, and Nina’s mouth dropped open. “Arlen? My God.”
He moved his hands to her shoulders and squeezed. “Please,” he rasped. “I need to get away.”
She stroked his face. “Okay. Okay, I’ll... make it work. I’ll have to make some calls, and then... Where do you want to go?”
He smiled. What would he do without her? “How about an Alaskan cruise?”
Chapter Sixteen
Kate’s front door opened and Gabe was so surprised to see Alison that for a moment he didn’t speak. Her silence told him she was equally surprised, but she recovered first and greeted Jeremy.
“We came to see Aunt Kate,” Jeremy said, peering around Alison.
“Oh, uh...she’s upstairs,” Alison said, clearly unsure what she was supposed to do. Her gaze flickered between Gabe and Jeremy, then settled on Jeremy. “Well, come on in little cutie-pie, and I’ll go tell her you’re here.”
Jeremy zipped around Alison and into the house. “I know where her room is,” he called back.
Alison blocked the doorway before Gabe could step inside. “She’s in the room next to it, but knock first, Jeremy,” she called to him, then said to Gabe in a low voice, “She specifically told me she didn’t want to see you.”
He raised his brows. “Even
on police business?”
“You always bring your kid along on police business?”
“I’m officially off duty,” he said, tamping down his irritation over having to explain himself. Alison was nothing if not protective. “But Jeremy wanted to come and see Kate, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone.”
“Why can’t somebody else do the investigating?” Alison asked, her lips pinched. “Why you?”
“It’s my case.” He was losing the battle against irritation. “I’m the one who found her lying in blood and broken glass on her bedroom floor. I saw the line of blood on her neck. I saw the cuts on her feet and her legs and her arms, and the bruises on her face and her ribs. There’s not another detective on the force that wants this guy as bad as I do.”
Alison swallowed, chagrined. Her face had gone pale. “I didn’t realize...”
No, of course she hadn’t. He looked over her shoulder. “Who else is here? Are your parents here?”
“No,” Alison said, not meeting his gaze. He had shaken her. Good.
“Their daughter was nearly killed and they can’t be bothered?” Jesus, it galled him the way Kate’s parents overlooked her. No matter how hard she tried to please them she never seemed to measure up to her older sisters.
And it’d been a long time since he’d given a damn how they treated her.
“My parents are old and my father isn’t well. Not that it’s—”
She obviously stopped herself from telling him it was none of his damn business. He wanted to say, They’d come if it were you or Jennifer, but instead he said, “When did you get here?”
“I drove down from Philly this morning to pick her up from the hospital.”
“Let me in, Alison.” His tone made it clear he was not asking her permission. He softened it by adding, “I promise not to upset her.”
Alison sighed and stepped aside to let him pass, then closed the door behind him. Jeremy’s excited chatter drifted down from upstairs. Kate’s responses were subdued. “How is she? Does she have to stay in bed?”
Alison crossed her arms over her chest. She and Kate were the same height and both had their mother’s hazel eyes but that was where the similarities ended. When Gabe and Lindsay split up, Steve had tried to fix him up with Alison, who was closer to his age. Gabe remembered how pleased he’d been that Kate kept insisting they had nothing in common. As though she’d wanted to keep him for herself.
