Hostage Rescue (Mills & Boon Love Inspired Suspense)

by Lisa Harris

  “Sawyer made some bad decisions. I couldn’t trust him anymore. But I wouldn’t turn on you.”

  “I think that’s exactly what you did.” Anderson tossed the bag into the back seat of his car without taking his eyes off them. “Where did you think you were you planning to run to?”

  “I wasn’t. I was only going to—”

  “You know, I really don’t care what your plan was.” Anderson let out a sharp huff of air, clearly done with King’s explanations. He pointed the gun at the man’s head. “The problem now is that you’ve got witnesses that have to be gotten rid of. You really didn’t think, did you? You’ve created a huge mess that I’m going to have to find a way to clean up. Starting with you.”

  The rain was starting to pick up. Caden caught movement to his right. Gwen’s brother was reaching for his gun. A second later he fired off a shot that clipped Anderson’s leg.

  Reacting automatically, Caden knocked Anderson’s gun out of reach as the man stumbled to the ground. Caden grabbed the weapon off the ground and pointed it at Anderson, while Gwen grabbed for King’s gun.

  “Now it’s your turn not to move,” Caden shouted at the man. “Move and one of us will shoot you. Drop to your knees now.”

  Anderson groaned in pain, but obeyed.

  The sound of vehicles roared behind them. Caden turned and recognized his brother’s squad car. He felt a rush of relief as Griffin and two other officers jumped out of his vehicle.

  “It’s about time you showed up,” Caden said, still holding the gun on the two men, while Gwen ran to her brother.

  “Looks to me like you already have everything under control. I just might have to recommend you to my boss. He’s been looking at adding another deputy to the team.”

  “Thanks, but I’m perfectly happy spending my days on the ranch without dealing with situations like this.” Caden shot his brother a grin, but couldn’t shake just how different this could have ended. “Next time, though, try not to cut it quite so close.”

  FIFTEEN

  Gwen ran to her brother, barely feeling the pain in her ankle thanks to the adrenaline shooting through her. She was still shaking from what had just happened, but she was going to have to take time to process the situation later. No matter how angry she was at her brother for what he’d done, she didn’t want anything to happen to him. At least he was alive.

  At least they were all alive.

  Aaron was trying to get up as she approached him. “I think I’m okay.”

  “You’re not okay.” She kneeled down beside him. “You’ve been shot.”

  “I’m sorry. All of this was my fault.”

  “I don’t care right now whose fault it is.” She pulled off the vest she’d been wearing, folded it once, then pressed it against the wound in an attempt to try to stop the bleeding.

  “I never meant for this to happen,” Aaron said.

  “I know you didn’t plan on this, but things like this don’t just…happen. You made a decision to cross the line and almost got yourself killed. Almost got me and Caden killed.”

  “I know.” Aaron closed his eyes for a moment. “I don’t have any excuses.”

  “I’m not asking for any.” She glanced back. Caden was heading toward them.

  “Is he okay?”

  “His pulse is a bit fast, but the bleeding seems to have almost stopped.”

  “Keep up the pressure and hang in there, Aaron. There’s an ambulance on the way right now.”

  Aaron nodded.

  Caden squeezed her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “I will be.”

  “Stay with him, then. I’ll be right back. This is almost over.”

  Gwen watched Caden walk away, then turned back to her brother. Aaron was in pain. She could tell by the tension radiating down his jaw, but Caden was right. This would all be over soon, but there were still questions she wanted answers to.

  “How did this happen?” she asked.

  “It’s a long story.”

  She checked his pulse again. “I have a few minutes.”

  Aaron let out a deep sigh. “I was hired by a bondsman to locate Anderson who’d been involved in drug trafficking. I managed to track him down north of here.” He hesitated. “During the arrest, I found a duffel bag in one of the rooms. There was three hundred thousand dollars in cash inside it. And I’m not sure why, but at that moment, I thought I could get away with it. I figured the police wouldn’t know anything was missing, and Anderson would think the police had it.”

  Which unfortunately wasn’t what happened. A man was dead. Aaron had been shot…

  Aaron grabbed her hand. “You have to believe me when I say that I never meant to get you involved, Gwen. I didn’t think anyone else would ever know. But then King and Sawyer went after the money, and Anderson managed to escape… At the very least I’m going to lose my license. I’ll probably end up in prison, as well. I’m just… I’m so, so sorry.”

  She stuffed back her frustration.

  She was sorry, too. Sorry for the entire situation he’d roped her into. Sorry she’d had to spend the past two days fighting to stay alive. But she also knew that her brother needed grace right now more than anything else.

  Two ambulances pulled up behind the squad cars.

  “Forget about all of that right now. We’re going to get through this,” she said. “The paramedics are here.”

  The next few minutes were a blur. Someone told her to move out of the way so they could help her brother. She nodded, then stumbled backward as a sharp pain shot through her leg. But it didn’t matter. She was safe. She just had to keep reminding herself of that, because she didn’t feel safe. She glanced down at her hands, which were covered with her brother’s blood, and the fear and panic struck all over again.

  She stepped aside while a whirl of activity continued around her, and tried to process everything. Paramedics worked on the gunshot wounds. Caden spoke to his brother and another officer. After a few minutes, one of the paramedics came with wet wipes and helped clean the blood off her hands, then started to check her ankle.

  Caden walked over. “I asked him to check on your ankle.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “We’ll do X-rays at the hospital,” the man said as he finished up. “But it looks like it’s just badly sprained.”

  “My nerves, on the other hand…” She waited for the paramedic to walk away. “Tell me this is finally over. Please.”

  “Anderson and King are in custody. Plus, they think they’ve found the house where we were held. They’ll start searching for Sawyer’s body there.”

  “It still all seems too surreal.”

  “I know.” He pulled her into his arms and let her lean against him. “You’re so cold.”

  He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m just still trying to wrap my mind around what happened. And I’m worried about my brother. He told me briefly about what happened, but the truth is that no matter how glad I am that he’s okay, I’m still angry at him.”

  “That’s understandable. He’s going to have to face the consequences.”

  “I know.” She managed a smile. “On the bright side, you saved my life. Again.”

  “Your brother did help with that.”

  She caught his gaze and felt her heart stir at his nearness. How had this happened? They’d somehow gone from sworn enemies to her suddenly wanting to kiss him very, very badly.

  Caden tried to read Gwen’s expression as her lips parted, and she seemed to study his face. Something inside him shifted, pulling him to a place he wasn’t sure he wanted to go. And yet he didn’t know how much longer he could ignore what he was feeling toward her.

  “He wasn’t going to let us live,” she said finally, breaking the silence be
tween them. “Neither of them could have. I can’t stop thinking of what almost happened.”

  “I know, but we don’t have to worry about them anymore. We’re safe, this is over, and like Griffin said, those men are going away for a long, long time.”

  She nodded, but he knew what she was thinking. For her and Aaron, this wasn’t over. Not yet. The authorities were going to arrest Aaron for his part in all of this. But despite what her brother had done and the downward spiral of everything in the wake of his bad decisions, at least they were alive.

  Still, the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him. He’d thought he would be perfectly content to never see the woman again, and yet they’d just spent the past forty-eight hours together proving everything he’d thought about her completely wrong.

  “Caden, there’s something I need to tell you. I…”

  She paused as she looked up at him, but instead of finishing her sentence, she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips, taking him completely off guard. His mind spun and his heart raced as he automatically kissed her back. She felt warm against him, inviting, as he savored the discovery of the unexpected kiss. He hadn’t been able to admit it to himself, but this—this was what he’d wanted.

  “I’m sorry.” She pulled away from him suddenly and dropped her hands to her sides. “This situation has messed with my emotions.”

  “It’s okay.” He stumbled with his words. “This has been emotional. For both of us.”

  “But I should never have kissed you. I’ve just been so scared, and now I’m worried about my brother… Honestly, I have no idea what came over me. You’ve been this rock for me the past few days, but I never should have turned it into something romantic.”

  His mind tried to work through his own feelings. Falling for Gwen had never been on his agenda. He’d just done what he’d known to be right.

  “It’s okay. We can talk about this later, but for now we need to get you to the hospital and get your foot X-rayed.”

  She nodded, but he couldn’t ignore what had just passed between them with that kiss. Or that the past few days had twisted his heart, making him feel for the first time in a very long time that he just might want to take a chance on love again. It seemed ridiculous on the surface, and yet he also knew that Gwen wasn’t the woman he’d thought she was. Instead, there was something about her he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to shake.

  She looked up at him, her eyes still wide. “So we’re okay?”

  He brushed the back of his hand against his lips, still feeling the intensity of her touch. “We are.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt.” Griffin came up beside him. “But we’re about ready to leave.”

  “We’re ready.” Caden stepped back, even more uncomfortable, and wondered how much his brother had seen. More than likely he’d witnessed the kiss, and if he had, Caden would never hear the end of it. “Gwen, this is one of my brothers, Griffin. I think the two of you might have met back in college.”

  “I think we did,” Griffin said. “It’s nice to see you again, though these aren’t exactly the conditions anyone hopes for.”

  The softness Gwen had in her eyes when she’d looked at him earlier was gone. “It’s been a rough few days.”

  “I’m just glad that the two of you are okay.”

  “Me, too. Is there an immediate plan?” she asked.

  “As soon as the doctor releases him, he’ll be escorted to the courthouse for his arraignment. There’s no way to know if he’ll be allowed to post bail. If he cooperates, it will help. Beyond that, I really can’t tell you much more at this point.”

  “I understand. Thank you.” She glanced briefly at Caden. “What about Anderson and King?”

  “From what I heard, they were pretty intent on taking each other down. What I do know is that they’ll be going away for a long, long time.”

  Gwen took another step back. “Do you think they’ll let me ride with my brother in the ambulance?”

  “You can ask them, but I’m sure they’ll let you.”

  “She does need to see a doctor, as well. Her ankle’s pretty messed up.”

  “We’ll make sure someone sees her as soon as we get back to town.”

  “Thank you,” Gwen said.

  “I’ll catch up with you in a minute,” Caden said to Gwen, then waited for her to leave before turning back to his brother. “Go ahead. I know you’re dying to ask what’s going on.”

  Griffin grinned at him. “I do have some catching up to do. I mean, it isn’t often that you go camping on a solo weekend and come home with a beautiful woman.”

  “Very funny. She was just saying thank-you for saving her life.”

  “Really? It’s just that’s a pretty intimate way of saying thank-you.”

  “It’s been an emotional few days, but I don’t think anything will come of it. She’ll be heading back to Denver as soon as this is over. I’ll be back at the ranch…”

  “You didn’t exactly seem to be running in the other direction. In fact, from where I was standing it looked as if you were a willing participant.”

  “You’re not going to let this drop, are you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Enough. I knew her a long time ago. She was Cammie’s best friend.”

  “Wait a minute… Your ex-fiancée, Cammie?”

  Caden nodded.

  “Okay, I’m definitely missing something here.”

  “There’s nothing going on between us. Not really. Besides, even if there were, I wouldn’t be too quick to judge. Who would have imagined you’d marry a girl you met while playing bodyguard for the FBI?”

  “Touché, but still…once we get you home, you’re going to need to catch me up on all the details.”

  “Like I said, there’s nothing.”

  “You never know. Denver’s not that far away—”

  Caden started back toward the vehicles, with Griffin following him. “Don’t even go there.”

  “I’ll stop if you just promise me you won’t close off your heart because of fear.”

  He dismissed his brother’s advice. “I’m not afraid of falling in love again.”

  Griffin put his hand on his brother’s shoulder and moved in front of him. “Then maybe it’s finally time to give it a try.”

  SIXTEEN

  She couldn’t believe she’d kissed him.

  Gwen stepped out of the exam room after seeing the doctor with a dozen things running through her mind. Gratefulness that her ankle wasn’t broken. Worry about her brother’s surgery. Fear over what was going to happen to him… But there was another thing she couldn’t shake. What in the world had she been thinking when she kissed Caden O’Callaghan?

  The confusion she felt had followed her all the way to Timber Falls, and still wouldn’t leave her alone, because she had no idea what had overcome her. She was right to tell him how thankful she was to him for risking his life to save her, but that was where things should have ended. She’d acted completely out of emotion, not reality.

  Reality was that her brother had committed a felony and it would take everything she had to help him get through the foreseeable future. Reality was that no matter who Caden was today, she’d watched him break her best friend’s heart, something that was hard to forget.

  “Gwen…”

  She stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned around. Caden was coming toward her, concern written across his expression. She let her gaze linger on him for a few seconds too long. From his cowboy hat to those piercing gray-blue eyes of his that always seemed to see right into her heart, to the stubbled beard that had grown over the past few days. She swallowed hard. No. She’d been right to stop anything before it got started. The last thing she wanted to do was lead her heart into dangerous territory, and that was exactly where she was heading if she wasn’t carefu
l.

  “They told me I’d find you here,” Caden said. “What did the doctor say?”

  She pushed aside her tremulous thoughts and pointed to her walking boot. “I get to wear this for the next few weeks. The good news, though, is that the doctor said it isn’t broken, and that it will heal completely. I just need to stay away from things like running marathons and hiking canyons the next few weeks.”

  “That’s some pretty sound advice, I’d say.”

  He caught her gaze, and her stomach fluttered, while awkwardness settled between them.

  All because of one kiss.

  “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened earlier today.” She plowed forward with her excuses, needing to clear the air between them. “I was completely out of line and have no idea what came over me. I never, ever go around kissing men unsolicited, even when they save my life. Bottom line is that I guess all of this…is just uncharted territory for me, and I’m feeling a bit lost and vulnerable.”

  He slipped his thumbs into the back pockets of his jeans. “What if that kiss wasn’t completely unwanted?”

  Her eyes widened at his response.

  “I just meant… I just meant that kissing you wasn’t…well, it wasn’t exactly offensive,” he said. “But if you’d like, we can forget it ever happened.”

  Oh, yeah. She really needed to forget that kiss, because she had no intentions of putting her heart on the line again.

  “I think that’s best,” she said. “Because—”

  “You don’t have to explain.” Caden cleared his throat. “We can just leave it at that.”

  “I think we should.”

  “Bruce and Levi are here, along with Bruce’s wife, Alisha, and Levi’s fiancée, Kennedy. They’d like to meet us.”

  “Okay.” She blew out a breath, thankful for the change in subject. “Maybe we should pick up something for them at the gift shop.”

  “A peace offering?” Caden asked.

  Gwen forced a laugh. “Something like that.”

  Five minutes later, they were making introductions in the middle of room 312, where Levi was lying in bed, recovering after his surgery.