Renner (In the Company of Snipers Book 19)

by Irish Winters

  Renner leaned over his clasped fingers. “I’ll tell you a secret. She pushed me, too.”

  “She did?”

  He nodded. “Yes, she’s gutsy, I’ll give you that. And there was no way I was taking one step off that building. I hate flying, too.”

  “Oh, what am I going to do?” Kelsey wailed. “I’ve lied to Alex. That alone will crush him.”

  “You haven’t lied. You’ve protected him the same way he protects you. Stop worrying, Mrs. Stewart. And may I say you handled the press today like a polished pro?”

  She had the grace to blush. “They’re not so bad.”

  Renner had a different opinion, but, good enough. If Kelsey liked the press, so be it. “Now let’s get you home before the boss realizes you’re gone and calls in the Marines to come find you. For today, just tell him about McCormack’s generous offer. Alex knows about that, doesn’t he?”

  “There is that,” she agreed. “But no, I just found out about it today, and I didn’t call Alex to let him know, in case he or Lexie were sleeping. But now I have to be back at work first thing in the morning to get everything clean and ready. Jed’s planning a bigger presentation at Raymond’s Kids tomorrow afternoon. The governor will be there, more national news outlets, and…” She rolled her eyes. “I have floors to wash. I don’t know how Alex deals with all this stress.”

  “He doesn’t. That’s why he’s got migraines and the flu. His body’s trying to tell him something. Let’s hope he listens this time.”

  Kelsey’s head bobbed. “You’re right. Oh, Renner, thank you. Like you said, I don’t know if I would’ve jumped tonight. But that witch might have caught me in the act if I hadn’t. I’m glad you showed up.”

  He shrugged. “Showing up’s just part of the job, ma’am. But Kelsey…” He needed her to look at him.

  She did, her brown eyes still full of worry for all the things she couldn’t keep from happening. “Yes?”

  “Your secret’s safe with me, understood? You tell Alex in your own way what you’ve been up to. If you decide to never come clean, trust me. I’ve got your six. I won’t tell.”

  Her lower lip quivered. There was that tender, frightened look in her eye again.

  He frowned. “Don’t do that, Wonder Woman. Please, don’t cry. Be brave just a little longer. This’ll be over soon.”

  “I’m not brave,” she whispered tearfully. “All I wanted to do was help Alex and you.”

  “And you have,” he insisted. “Now let’s go home. Do you want to keep your bag of evidence with you or do you want me to hang onto it?”

  Her fingers hadn’t stopped clutching the bag since she told him what she’d done. “Would you?”

  “It’d be my pleasure,” he replied as she handed it over. “Now where’d you park?”

  “I didn’t. My car’s still over in Hillcrest Heights. After I finally found a phone, I didn’t want to walk all the way back, so I called a cab to drop me off at Reagan where I could fly home.”

  He didn’t so much as smile, wink, or frown at that very illogical line of reasoning. She’d been back and forth between the District and home twice today? Here was a woman intelligent enough to tangle with Montego without getting caught, yet she hadn’t realized it would’ve been easier if the cabbie dropped her at her car back in Hillcrest Heights instead of driving her across the river to Reagan National Airport where she had no vehicle.

  By then Kelsey was chewing her cheek. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Renner lifted his brows, not thinking anything, not admitting nothing. No ma’am. No way. Just waiting to find out if he and Kelsey were the same kind of dumb. After all, the same woman had pushed both of them off very tall buildings. He was smart enough not to point that out, either. Big sister taught him well.

  “You’re just like Alex. He knows when to keep his mouth shut, too.” She almost sounded wistful. “That was pretty dumb, me going to the airport instead of back to my car, huh? But I was upset, and I was worried about Tara and, oh, hell…”

  Renner understood perfectly. Post-traumatic stress victims, like Kelsey, tended to live with bouts of anxiety that short-circuited their logic cards. He would know.

  “My car’s near here,” he interrupted before she teared up again. “Let’s walk. And while we’re walking, I’ll have Ember do her thing and delete any trace of that cab ride.”

  For the first time, Kelsey drew in a cleansing breath and blew it out through her mouth in a big sigh. “Wren? Is that what your mom called you? Wren, like the bird?”

  He smiled at the sound of that endearment on her lips. “Yeah. I was a preemie. Wasn’t supposed to live. Only weighed a pound and two ounces when I was born. Doctor told Mom I wasn’t going to live, to make burial arrangements. She told him to go to hell. Said I looked like a tiny bird. All mouth. That a kid with a mouth as big as mine was definitely going to live.”

  Kelsey didn’t get the joke. “And look at you now. She must be so proud.”

  He nodded, embarrassed, but yeah, just as proud of the feisty, Irish woman who’d only ever had his back as his mother was of him. “I lucked out,” he admitted. “Now let’s get you home. If you want, I’ll go inside with you in case Alex has questions.”

  Kelsey shook her head, the stress gone from her face and the glow back in her eyes. “Thanks, but I’m not afraid of Alex. He’s my best friend. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Tara blinked up at him, biting her lip and determined not to let this hulking brute make her cry. He’d introduced himself as Renner’s friend, Senior Agent Mark Houston. He did have kind and gentle brown eyes. But she didn’t know him, and she didn’t care how important he thought he was. Senior agent, huh? Like that was supposed to mean something to her? It didn’t.

  She was done trusting men she didn’t know. That and he kept asking her probing questions about Jorge. He wanted names and details, who Jorge worked with, and if she knew where he’d been staying in the District. He wanted numbers and addresses, descriptions of known associates, all that stuff. As if Jorge would’ve told a mere woman anything.

  Tara knew she was in bad shape, but this guy made it sound like she wouldn’t be allowed to leave the hospital unless she cooperated, and that wasn’t fair. She hadn’t done anything wrong, other than marry a bastard and then get caught and nearly killed by him. But Mark What’s-His-Name was big and imposing. The sheer size of this guy intimidated her, and Tara didn’t know why. He hadn’t hurt her, and he hadn’t actually threatened her, and…

  Oh, hell. Renner. She wanted Renner. He’d know what to do.

  “Can I get you anything?” the gentle giant asked from the chair across the room where he’d taken up residence.

  “Kelsey,” she murmured. “Is… is Kelsey okay?”

  “As far as I know. Why wouldn’t she be?”

  “Just…” Just what? Wondering? Blowing Kelsey’s cover? Just giving her secret away to the first guy who comes knocking? “Just, umm, need to tell her I won’t be in today.”

  “You work for her?”

  Why couldn’t he just leave her alone?

  Kelsey leaned back into the passenger seat and closed her eyes. Renner turned on his favorite guitar instrumentals and let her sleep the entire ride west. By the time he pulled up to the Stewart’s security gate, she was awake, if she’d slept at all. Her evidence bag with all her stolen DNA lay on the back seat, but Renner was dog-tired.

  “We’re back. Nice digs,” he offered as she opened her door and put one foot to the ground.

  Kelsey grunted. “Nice? You’ve been here before. It’s a mansion, Renner. A big stone mansion.”

  He had nothing to say about that. Most folks worked all their lives to live in a grand mansion. Kelsey didn’t seem to be one of them. She made it sound more like a prison.

  “You still sure you don’t want to be inside the gate where it’s safe before you get
out of the car? It’s only fifty more feet.”

  She shook her head. “Like I told you last night, I’m plenty safe. Besides, I’m sure you’d jump out and save me if someone tried to grab me before I made it to my front door.”

  “’Course I would. Now go put some ice on that pretty face. It’ll help keep the swelling down.”

  Kelsey huffed. “But it’ll never hide the bruise. Thanks for the ride. For everything else, too.”

  “You bet,” he replied as she closed the car door and approached a smaller gate to the right of the drive. The gate opened at her approach, which meant there was some kind of security app behind the locking mechanism that identified her biometrics—or something.

  Once at her door, Kelsey didn’t look back at Renner or wave, just opened her home and entered with her head held high. He wished her luck with her devil dog husband. But if Alex ever caught Jorge, there’d be hell to pay.

  The drive back to Tara seemed long and tiresome. Renner stopped for a bottled water and a footlong at an all-night sub-sandwich shop before he hit the hospital. By the time he spotted Seth and Beckam in the hall outside Tara’s door, it was early morning and he was pissed all over again at McCormack. The man was a moron to have fallen for Montego’s lies. Jesus. Even Tara could see through her. Why couldn’t Jed?

  “Hey,” Seth said. “You look like shit warmed over.”

  Renner lifted both shoulders when Seth’s eyes scrolled over his arm to the sandwich shop bag. “Sorry, I should’ve brought something for you guys.”

  “No need,” Beckam replied, nodding to the nurses’ station three doors down. “They’ve been taking good care of us.”

  “Mark still here?”

  Seth nodded. “He’s inside with your girl.”

  “She’s not my girl, understood?” Renner needed that out in the open.

  “Ah huh. If you say so.”

  He would’ve argued, but what was the point? Seth jumped up to get the door, and there she was. In bed. Sound asleep. The lights were turned down low. Her monitor beeped, quietly tracking her stats. Mark Houston lay sprawled out, sound asleep in the recliner in the corner, the footrest up and his head back.

  Renner set his meal for the day on the table beside the recliner. “Hey,” he whispered as he bumped Mark’s shoulder. “You’re sleeping on the job.”

  “Yeah, well…” Mark stretched and yawned. “I’ve got serious back-up in the hall, so I’m not worried. You here to stay?”

  “Yes, for a couple hours.”

  “Good, I’m outta here.” Mark stood with another yawn, his arms over his head aas he arched his back.

  “Your wife been in yet?”

  “Yes, but Tara was still out then. Libby will be back first thing in the morning.”

  “She say anything?”

  He shook his head. “Only that she wants you.”

  “I get that a lot,” Renner deadpanned, his gaze on the too quiet woman lying on the bed. Tara seemed pale. He’d expected more color in her cheeks, not that ghostly pallor. “She on pain meds?”

  “Won’t take them. Libby ordered something to help her sleep, though.”

  “Good. She’s had one helluva day.”

  “You too,” Mark pointed out. “Want me to call a doctor for that bruise on your cheek?”

  “Nah, I’m good,” Renner said because, well, he was good now that he was back with Tara. He hadn’t known he had a bruise until then. “McCormack’s holding an official ribbon cutting ceremony at Raymond’s Kids later this afternoon. Governor’s supposed to be there. National news outlets, too.”

  “Great. Did he invite the damned president, too?”

  “Why not?” Renner muttered as he dropped into the recliner and flipped the footrest up. “Seems like he’s invited everyone else. We need to be prepared. I’ve got a gut feeling. Montego’s been quiet too long. She’s going to make her move soon. Might be today.”

  Mark stopped with his palm on the door. “And…?”

  “Like I said, it’s just a feeling. But think about this. In the last twenty-four hours, I’ve watched McCormack come undone when he thought vandals were messing with his wife’s grave, then again when Kelsey told him she missed Lois.” Renner blew out a long sigh as the hard day caught up with him. He leaned his head back into the padded recliner pillow. “Honestly, for a second with Kelsey, I thought he was going to fall apart. You should’ve seen him. It was like the world stopped or something. As if…”

  Renner stopped talking then, but yes. Jed had looked into Kelsey’s eyes as if he’d wanted to tell her something. And he had told her something, something confidential that not even Montego could’ve heard. Renner just hadn’t remembered to ask Kelsey about it until now. He scratched the headache blooming between his eyes, pissed at his forgetfulness but intent on keeping his promise to her if it killed him.

  “Where is Kelsey now?” Mark asked.

  Which struck Renner as oddly amusing. Both he and Mark seemed more worried about Kelsey and Tara than the elderly man they’d been assigned to protect.

  “Home,” Renner said before he had a chance to think twice.

  “And you know that how?”

  Oh, shit. “I know that because where else would she be this time of night?” Renner growled back at his Senior Agent. “What do you think I am, a mind-reader?”

  Mark shook his head, then wiped a hand over his eyes and yawned again. “Where’s Jed?”

  Renner shrugged. “How would I know? The dumbass ran off with Montego as soon as the media circus ended.”

  “You didn’t tail him?”

  “I can’t very well get into his penthouse if I’m tailing him all over town.”

  Mark huffed. “But he knows we’re there to help him. Alex told him.”

  “Then why doesn’t he keep us better informed? I’ve wasted most of my time tracking his sorry ass and waiting for him to show at McCormack Industries or at his penthouse. Hell, it’s easier to follow Montego than him.”

  “So why aren’t you?”

  Renner cast his eyes over Tara. “Because Jed isn’t the only one in trouble, Boss, but he sure as hell is the only one who seems intent on dodging us.”

  Something wiggled to life at the back of Renner’s mind at that very obvious fact, but before he could grab onto the gist of it, before he could make it real and tangible, the thought slipped away into the fog of too many hours without enough sleep or food. Shit. He hated losing a hint or whatever that feeling was. But yeah… A clue… It might’ve been a clue.

  He’d almost conjured the slippery thing back into his higher consciousness again when Mark said, “I’ll be working the event at Raymond’s Kids with you this afternoon. Get some sleep. Shave. Grab a shower. We’ll need to dress appropriately.”

  “You mean in a tux?” And flash. The elusive clue—or whatever it was—vanished for good.

  “If the governor’s going to be there, yes. You do have one, don’t you?”

  “I can rent one.”

  Mark rolled his eyes. “You don’t own your own?”

  Well, that was just plain rude. But Renner let it go. “Later,” he said to hasten Mark’s departure. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll be there in a tux. You want tails with that?”

  Mark shook his head on his way out. “Hell, no. Night, Renner.”

  After the door hissed shut behind him, Renner climbed to his feet and doffed his biker jacket. He took a quick hit off that flask, then pocketed it and went directly to Tara.

  With all that red hair tumbled over the pillow around her, she looked like a pale, fragile, and very battered angel. Exquisite brows arched over closed eyelids that were now bruised and puffy. Long, lush lashes lay like velvet on her colorless cheeks. Yet even with the butterfly bandages over her brow, this was the most peaceful she’d looked in their twenty-some hours together.

  He tipped his mouth to her poor forehead and murmured against her skin, “I’m back, babe. You’re sti
ll safe. No nightmares tonight, okay? Sleep easy.”

  She groaned as if at some deep level she’d heard him.

  Renner went back to his post, popped the cap off his water and settled down to his one meal of the day. Pastrami on rye never tasted so good. He’d barely crumbled the wrapper and stuffed the debris from his midnight snack into its paper bag when his angel stirred.

  He hunkered low in the chair, needing her to go back to sleep. They both needed rest.

  Tara lifted to her elbows. “Renner?” she whispered in his direction.

  “Yeah, it’s me.” Hurriedly, he dug for a mint from his pants pocket, then brushed the crumbs off his lap in case she needed anything.

  “Is Kelsey safe? Did he hurt her?”

  “I just drove her home. She’s fine.”

  “No, she’s not. She’s going after that Montego woman. You have to stop her. Hurry. Please. She can’t fly tonight. It’s too cold and the storm... Wait. You did what?”

  “I drove Kelsey home,” he said more deliberately. “Your ex punched her, but she’s not hurt, and trust me, she’s not going anywhere but to bed.”

  Tara pushed the blanket off and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

  “Hey, hold up. Let me—”

  “No,” she told him. “Stay there. I’m... coming.”

  Renner did as she asked, aching to help her if she’d let him get close, yet willing to let that decision be hers. Abuse victims could be touchy about, well, being touched. He didn’t want to force her to do anything until she was ready.

  But come to him she did, dragging her cords, wires, and IV tubing with her. He lifted his hands when Tara cocked one knee on his thigh, then climbed over the armrest and onto his lap. The bed was close enough he was able to stretch over her and grab her blanket. And there he was, a tired but happy man with this particular woman in his arms again, her bare bottom warm on his thigh and her breath in his neck.