“No!” Jeff roared, and flew out of the chair, starting toward them before realizing he was still attached to it.
He turned and grabbed the chair and, with all the ferocity boiling inside him, kicked the leg off, freeing his arm.
Toni lay on the porch, blood pumping from her side and pouring out onto the porch. Her kidney. He’d twisted the knife. Bad. This was bad. God, help her. Jeff stepped on the dead man and slumped beside her. “Toni. Oh, Lord. Toni.”
“Get her. Let’s go.” Zander hauled Jeff to his feet. “Come on, bud. The doc is on the chopper.”
Jeff gritted his teeth. Watching her walk to the door, unable to do anything to help her, had been excruciating. “She needs a hospital.”
“So do you.”
Toni was gathered up and the man started running.
Jeff didn’t have time to shake his head. Zander had a hold of him, and they were moving. Faster than Jeff’s legs should be able to go with his injuries, but that was in keeping with his friend’s level of command. And his own fear for Toni’s life.
“Toni—” He didn’t have words to say anything else.
“That guy carrying her? That’s her brother. You don’t have to worry, bud. We’ve got this.”
That wasn’t going to stop Jeff from worrying. Her injuries were bad. Seriously bad. She might not make it. And after she’d told him, in that irresistible voice of hers, that she loved him. Lord, that voice. He wanted to wrap himself up in it.
She had to live.
He needed to tell her that he loved her, too.
Toni’s brother laid her on the floor of the helicopter. Jeff and Zander climbed in after. Jeff’s legs didn’t exactly work, so Zander and one of his guys hauled him inside and onto a seat.
“Who’s the one-armed dude?”
Zander’s response was a clipped, “Badger.”
Jeff didn’t know who had spoken, shouting over the noise of the rotors spinning. He didn’t much care who this “Badger” guy was. His focus remained on Toni, and the doctor now putting serious pressure on her wound. She was lying on her front, and they had already cut off her bulletproof vest. Jeff winced. The door shut, but that didn’t diminish the noise from outside by much. He yelled, “I think her leg is broken, too. And her hand was burned. The bandaged one.”
The chopper lifted off.
The doctor looked at him. “And the amnesia?”
Jeff said, “She remembers everything.”
“She needs to be at the hospital now.”
Jeff looked at the speaker. A man he’d never met, who hadn’t been on Zander’s team back when he’d worked that operation with them. His coloring matched Toni’s—but more than that—they had the same eyes. “You’re Judah?”
“Yeah.” It was an accusatory response, his tone defensive and thick with a British accent. “And you’re the guy who said he’d keep her safe. But didn’t.”
“Jeff.” He barely heard the word she spoke.
“Toni.” He scrambled to her side and got close. Her eyes were open. He decided to ignore the fact he was slightly leaning on someone’s foot. “Hey.” He touched her cheek, his stump of a shoulder on the floor. “Hey.”
A tear rolled from her eye.
The doctor injected something into her arm. “She’ll be out in a minute.”
He wanted to tell her he loved her as well.
“You did it.” He spoke close to her face but knew everyone could hear. “I’m proud of you.”
Her eyes started to flutter.
“Stick with me.” He’d never said anything he believed in or wanted more than that. Jeff needed her to pull through this. She could lose a kidney and still recover, right? She was in seriously bad shape, but she could still make it into surgery, and they’d repair all the damage.
They’d have to jump the hurdle of her uncle, but after they had come this far, Jeff wasn’t sure there was anything God couldn’t do.
Thank You.
God had given them strength. He’d protected them.
The chopper set down and the doctor said, “Everyone out of the way.”
Zander hauled Jeff up and onto a seat, keeping him there while medical staff slid Toni onto a stretcher and raced across the roof to a door with access to the rest of the hospital.
“Don’t think I’m gonna shake your hand after this.” Toni’s brother shook his head in disdain and climbed out.
“He’ll come around.”
Jeff should care but didn’t have the energy right now.
Zander’s watch screen illuminated, and though Jeff looked at it and saw text, he couldn’t read the words. “Time to go.”
Jeff turned the ball cap around in an attempt to at least somewhat hide his face.
Zander pulled a sweatshirt from under a seat.
Jeff grabbed it from him and tugged it on, following him across the hospital roof. “I don’t need a doctor.”
“That’s debatable.”
“I’ll be seen, but I don’t need to stay.”
“Security can be controlled.” Zander didn’t seem worried. “You want to be here when Toni gets out of surgery, right?”
That was the only thing that induced him to step into the elevator. Jeff was surrounded by three guys, plus Zander, when they emerged onto the sixth floor. It was like having his own world-class detail. “Did any of those guys survive?”
Zander shook his head. “We’re here until you’re good, and then we’re taking care of this.”
“Thanks.”
One of the guys snorted. Zander shot him a look, and no one said anything. They just continued to a room at the end of a maze of hallways. It had two empty beds and a tiny TV on the wall.
“When she’s stable, she’ll be brought in here.” Zander looked at his watch again. “Two minutes.”
“Until what?”
The three guys with Zander headed out. Two moved away down the hall and one stood outside the door, arms folded across his chest.
“New guys?”
Zander shrugged. “Employee retention can be difficult. But they’re good. All of them.”
Jeff nodded. “I’m going to see a doctor in here?”
“One will be in soon. But before that, you have some visitors.”
“Tate?”
“He’s with Savannah. She’s stable, and she got a lot of stitches, but she’ll recover from her injuries.”
So who was coming? Jeff didn’t even have time to frown, let alone ask what was going on when the door opened again and two people entered.
He stumbled back and landed in a chair, thankfully. “No. They can’t be here.” He shook his head. “You can’t do this.”
The woman gasped. Beside her, a man gathered her against him.
“Security can be controlled.” Zander headed for the door and closed it.
“Jeff. You… Your arm…”
“They told us you were dead.”
His mom rushed over and knelt in front of him. “You’re here.”
His vision blurred and Jeff touched her cheek. “Mom.”
She straightened and pulled him into a hug. Jeff buried his face into his mom’s red hair while tears flowed from his eyes.
He sucked in a choppy breath a minute or so later and she moved back, shaking her head. “They told us you were dead. And now you’re here.” She reached for his shoulder where the arm of Zander’s sweater hung limp.
Jeff unzipped it and tugged it off. “It’s fine.” He removed the bulletproof vest as well and discarded it onto the floor.
“You need to see a doctor, dude.”
He looked at his brother then. “I adopted a cat from your night nurse.”
Brett just stared, but his eyes did look a little misty. “And that makes it okay?”
“How long have you been here?” His mom stood. Jeff stood as well, not wanting to be too far from her now that she was in the room with him.
“Two years.” He pulled back the sleeve of his shirt.
She gasped. Brett echoed, “Two years.”
“Since this. Yes. But the heat was still on. I couldn’t show my face or let anyone know I was alive, so the military declared me dead, and I’ve been in hiding.”
“But it’s over now?”
Jeff tugged his mom in for a hug. “I don’t know. Maybe. Almost. Zander is figuring it out.”
Brett didn’t move from his spot by the door. “I’d like to say I know who that is, but I have no idea.”
Jeff looked down at his mom. “I wanted to see you every single day, you have to know that, but you would have been used as leverage. Hurt, or killed.”
Brett said, “What changed?”
His mom frowned at Jeff’s brother.
“Toni.” That was the only answer he had because it was true—she’d changed everything.
“The woman you came in with?”
He nodded in answer to his mom’s question.
Jeff glanced at his brother. “Are you just going to be mad that I’m alive?”
Was he supposed to say, “Sorry I’m not dead?” He’d always looked up to Brett. Older, smarter than him. Better at everything. His heart was so big. All that compassion, and he’d put in those years of work to be a vet. Meanwhile, Jeff had trained to kill and complete the mission. To escape and evade. He could protect Toni, but what else could he do? Odd jobs that kept him under the radar. Salvaging. Growing vegetables.
“It’s good to see you.” Brett broke away from the door and came over. “I’m sorry you lost your arm, but I’m glad you’re alive.”
He pulled Jeff in and they ended up in a group hug while their mom cried.
“Now all my children are home.”
Jeff sucked in a choppy breath.
Brett stepped back. “You know about Annabelle?”
“Toni,” Jeff said. “She’s the one in surgery. She found Annabelle.” It was a long and complicated story, and he didn’t understand a whole lot of what had happened. The debrief on all of this would be extensive. He hoped—and prayed—she would be around for it.
“Wait.” His mom held up a hand. Her lashes were wet. “That girl. The one who rushed into Hope Mansion that night for help.”
Jeff nodded. “I sent her to you. I knew you’d take care of her.”
She beamed a smile.
He wanted to be happy, but didn’t know if she was even alive. Everything he’d been through suddenly crashed in on him. He knew the minute he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him that shouldn’t have stood up.
“You look like you need a doctor.” Brett went to the door and spoke with Zander’s guy there. “You have your own protection detail?”
It was all Jeff could do to just shrug.
“Oh, honey.”
Tears spilled down his cheeks. He quickly swiped them away with the back of his hand as the doctor swept in. Zander’s team doc. “How is she?”
“I’m not going to sugar coat it.”
“Just tell me.”
“She flatlined in surgery a minute ago, but they got her back. She’ll have to live without one kidney. It was shredded.”
“She’s going to make it?”
“The next few hours are crucial. If she makes it through surgery, then she’ll make it.”
His mom clasped his hand in hers. “We’ll pray. That’s all we can do, right?”
Jeff nodded.
Brett said, “I need some air. This is…” He never finished. The door shut behind him.
“Give him time.”
Jeff said, “It’s okay. This is hard.”
The doctor knelt down, glancing aside at Jeff’s mom with a look of interest on his face. Don’t even think about it, buddy. While Jeff scowled at him, the doc checked him out. “Maybe you should write down everything that happened to you so I can get a list of your injuries.”
Jeff said, “Shot. Blown up twice. Hit over the head. Stun gunned. Attacked by berry bushes. Stun gunned again. Kinda stabbed. I’m sure I’m forgetting something.”
His mom opened her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “That is not funny, Jeffrey Filks.”
He grinned. “I really missed you, Mom.”
She burst into tears and collapsed against him for a hug, sitting on the arm of the chair.
Jeff held her with his arm. “I love you.”
Even the doctor looked misty-eyed.
“But you’re right. This isn’t funny. I need to pray for Toni because she’s fighting for her life, and I need her.” He stared hard at his mom, not wanting to fall apart but aware it might happen. “I really need her, Mom.”
She touched his cheek. “Let’s pray together.”