Bolton set both coffee cups down on the table and sat. Nadia flexed her fingers and linked them around the cup.
“Still cold?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I’ll be okay.”
An announcement was made over the hospital intercom system. The cafeteria was a barren wasteland. Probably everyone had already tried the coffee and then never came back.
She’d broken down, seeing her brother fighting for his life. Surgery had gone well, and they’d repaired the damage to Shadrach’s chest where the bullet had punched a hole clear through him. Now it was a waiting game, watching to see how he healed.
Nadia lifted her gaze. “What did Ben say to you in Shad’s room?”
Bolton didn’t figure she was just making light conversation. She wanted to talk, so he said, “I might have to leave.”
“Because Dante wants to know where that woman called Thea is?”
Bolton nodded. Nadia would stay with her brother, until he recovered, and then head back to Sanctuary. Bolton had just gotten her back, and now he needed to go and make sure that Thea and Javier were okay. Protecting them from Dante was the jurisdiction of the US Marshals Service, but it was also on him. He’d put them in the position of needing to be in witness protection in the first place.
“And she’s not dead.”
“That was faked. The picture they showed you was from the file, evidence. A woman had died and the DNA was switched out so it was believed to be Thea. Grant stashed her in a safe place and told no one so that Dante would think she was dead.”
“And now Dante knows she isn’t in Idaho. That’s why he wanted Grant, isn’t it? Because he’s the one person who’s going to know where she was placed in witness protection.” Nadia’s smiled evaporated. “So…you’re married? Or you were married, at one point?”
This was what she wanted to talk about. Bolton figured she deserved an explanation, but was now really the right time? She’d been through something horrendous, and he still didn’t even know the extent of it—though she didn’t appear to have been physically harmed.
“I need to know, Bolton. And I figure being drugged, interrogated, and nearly being the true story behind a made-for-TV-movie about my tragic life earns me the right to at least ask. There’s a woman out there who meant something to you at one point, and I want to know who she is.”
“There’s more to it than that, Nadia.” Bolton took a sip of his coffee and set the cup on the table. “It isn’t just about Thea. This is about me, and who I was. Or maybe who I tried to be. It’s about having a son, one I’ve never even seen—not even a picture.”
“What happened?”
“Initially we went into witness protection together. But Dante kept coming. He found us, time and time again, and Thea couldn’t handle it. She was pregnant, and I think it messed with her head having a baby inside her and being in so much danger. I don’t know. I’d like to say it was my getting hurt that clinched it for her, but I think that was simply the door she saw as her way out. I woke up in the hospital from Dante’s latest attack, and she was gone.
“Six months later Grant sent word that she’d had a boy. Javier. Like knowing his name wasn’t worse torture than living with the knowledge I would never even see him.” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know if it was the situation or if she’d never really been in love with me. Either way it was too much for her. I’ve thought about it a lot over the years. Maybe Thea was more in love with the person I was pretending to be, than with who I was. I wonder if she was ever really happy, or if she was just playing a part the exact same way I was.”
Nadia bit her lip. “What do you mean?”
“I was twenty-five. Business was good, but family ties were encroaching. They wanted a piece of what I was doing, and I was supposed to hand over nearly half the rights to a company I’d constructed myself, just because we were related. I was about to cave when the FBI showed up.”
“FBI?”
Bolton nodded. “I got a better offer. I sold the business to a friend of mine to free up my time and just worked design on commission. The FBI was investigating a ring of dirty DEA agents, hoping to bring them down discreetly. It looked like the DEA’s reach was more widespread than they’d originally thought, so I was tasked with infiltrating their operation. And it worked.”
“You worked for the FBI?”
“They actually swore me in at one point, paperwork and everything. Never went to Quantico, never sat at one of those fancy FBI desks. I think I only stepped in a field office once in my life. But yeah, I was…I don’t know, not an agent. More like an asset, or an independent contractor.” He didn’t smile. “I was young, and I made assumptions when I should have asked questions. But it was cool, for a while. Before the sheen of being one of the good guys wore off.”
“What happened?”
“It took a few years. Time during which I’d convinced the friend who’d bought the business to partner up with Thea’s father to expand. Had a pregnancy scare, got married. I thought we were happy, and I thought I was doing something good. The FBI agents who’d hired me started making…suggestions. Hide this, break in there, little insinuations like ‘if this guy disappears, it wouldn’t be so bad.’ I started to have an inkling they were padding my assignment with side jobs that helped them, so I called Ben. After we renewed our acquaintance he ripped me up one side and down the other for taking on a job like that without calling him. He found a link between the FBI guys who were my handlers and the DEA—specifically Dante and Tristan.”
“They were dirty?”
“It wasn’t overt. It never is. But there were signs, and Ben had enough proof to go above their heads. The justice department launched an investigation into members of the DEA and FBI. It took two years, living that life pretending to work for a couple of crooked FBI agents, supposedly “investigating” Dante and his partner. A double, double agent. The most we could figure was that they had an arrangement with Dante and Tristan, and they had me looking into everything to make sure they didn’t get screwed over. I was their insurance policy that Dante was holding up his end of the bargain.”
Nadia shook her head. “Wow.”
“They were pretty convincing in their pitch. And the angles they had me running seemed legit. I passed them information about a deal about to go down, suddenly four people turned up dead or a shipment was intercepted. I started to ask questions, but someone trashed one of the shops in the middle of the night and the damage to those bikes was in the millions. So I shut my mouth, called Ben again. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably have been killed.”
Or he’d have left the country and made a new life for himself. Bolton certainly wouldn’t have put himself in the witness protection town of Sanctuary to hide from Dante.
“I gathered evidence against them, but the FBI agents had double crossed Dante. He killed them one night, so I told Ben where I thought they might be buried. We made a deal with the justice department, and I testified against him with what I knew of Dante’s operation. By that time Thea had figured out I was up to something, so I told her. All of it.”
Bolton winced, remembering her reaction. The way her face had twisted in rage, and she’d spewed foul words at him. “She couldn’t believe I would risk our livelihood—her shopping money—by doing something as stupid as testifying. She wouldn’t even talk about witness protection. Refused to even contemplate it, like I was the criminal doing a foul thing and hurting people.” He shook his head. “She wanted to leave, but Dante had found out what I was up to, and his army began to wage their war. FBI agents, DEA agents, guns for hire, cartels they’d partnered with. You name them, we were on their hit list.”
“Sounds like a harsh life.”
“Thea and I couldn’t go anywhere without a guard, and they moved us frequently. Usually in the middle of the night. I wasn’t sleeping, she was moody. We fought all the time, great screaming matches where picture frames get thrown across the room and furniture gets smashed.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t pretty, but I think we were just scared kids who couldn’t control what was happening. We had no idea what the future would hold, or even if we were going to live to see tomorrow.”
“Did you get a divorce?”
“Dante attacked the convoy on the way to the federal courthouse for the first of a series of testimonies I was supposed to do on camera. Thea had stayed behind. When I woke up in the hospital Ben was there, and Grant. Thea left me with divorce papers. Grant said he’d relocated her because she didn’t want to stay with me. I testified, and they offered me a new life in Sanctuary.”
He sent her a small smile when all he felt was regret. From the beginning he’d taken the wrong path and messed up his life. He’d put his wife in danger, the business he’d wanted to save he’d sold. He’d ended up in Sanctuary, little more than an upscale prison surrounded by impenetrable mountains and people he’d tolerated—okay, a few he’d called friend. But never, not once, had Bolton been the person he’d thought he could be. Never had he lived the life he’d thought up in any kind of dream.
Not once.
“So what now?”
Her question was a simple one, and the answer was anything but. “Dante is going to go after Thea. He’s trying to destroy me, and when he’s taken out everyone I’ve ever cared about, then he’s going to come after me.”
“You’re leaving?”
When Ben had told him, Bolton hadn’t known whether to laugh or get mad. “You’re not going to believe me when I tell you.”
She dipped her head to the side. “Tell me what?”
“There’s another Sanctuary. In Hawaii.” Her jaw dropped. It was so cute Bolton almost laughed. “If Thea didn’t hate me so much I might’ve actually gotten a vacation out of this.”
“Yeah, so terrible. I’m sure going to Hawaii will be awful.”
He smiled. “You’re only saying that because you’ve been stuck in Idaho for years.”
She actually smiled back. “Hey, I like our mountains. But I’ve got a bone to pick with Grant if there’s a Sanctuary in Hawaii, and no one ever told me.”
He chuckled.
She frowned at him then. “You told me that you hated Sanctuary.”
Bolton nodded, wondering what more she wanted him to share. “I did.”
“I want to go back there. It’s where my home is.”
“I’m glad for you. Knowing what place to call home is a powerful thing.” He leaned across the table, closer to her, and laid his hand over hers. “I want that for you, more than I want anything else I want you to be happy. I’m sorry I dragged you through this. I should never have done that, not when I knew what it might do to you. But I was selfish, I wanted someone with me. One day maybe you could find it in your heart to forgive me for what I did.”
Bolton wouldn’t try and forgive himself. If he could do it all over, he would do the same thing. Grab her hand and run. Get lost in the world together, just the two of them. It had been frustrating and hard, but they’d spent more time together in the past few weeks than they had in years.
He wouldn’t trade those quiet moments for anything, even if he’d been on edge and she’d been scared. She’d even been scared of him. But some part of Bolton understood that was reality. He was the kind of man who caused the people he cared about to fear him, to misunderstand what he was attempting to do and walk away because—for some reason—they would never fully know him.
It was simply who he was: a man who, even at his age, didn’t really know who he was.
“Bolton—”
“You don’t have to say anything, Nadia.”
He didn’t want her to try to explain what had gone wrong or all the ways he’d ruined whatever tiny thing had been between them. Bolton wasn’t blind enough to not know a spark when one ignited in his face. But that had happened with Thea, and it had been way more volatile. With Nadia it felt…fragile, gentle, and in need of care.
Something he didn’t have the ability to give.
“As soon as I know Thea is safe, I’ll be gone.”
“You’re still going after that stash?”
Ben cleared his throat. “The two of us need to talk about that.”
Bolton shot him a look, stood beside the table like he hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere. Couldn’t the man tell he’d been having a private conversation with Nadia?
“Now that I know you have brothers, it makes way more sense that you talk to me like I’m your kid brother.” Bolton shook his head. “Though it still ticks me off.” He stood and faced Ben. “I’m going to do what I need to do, and then I’m gone.”
“After we talk about that stash, I might let you.” Ben’s gaze flicked to Nadia and then back. “Even if you are being an idiot.”
“You think I’m giving you my only insurance?” Okay, so he probably would if he didn’t need it. But Ben didn’t have to assume.
“If your plan is as good as you think, you won’t need it. Not if Dante is dead or back in prison for good.”
“We’ll see.”
Bolton touched Nadia’s shoulder and walked out. There were way too many variables to promise Ben would get what he wanted. Way too much to go wrong or get mixed around. Bolton had to finish this, and then after that he would be sure of what the future held. A future where he figured out, for the first time in his life, what he wanted to do.
Who he wanted to be.
**
“Everything okay?” Ben wasn’t sure he was equipped to help, but he still asked.
Nadia left her coffee untouched and got up. “You really helped him that much?” She shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “Scratch that, of course you did.”
Ben felt his own lips curl. “Of course.”
“Can I ask you something?” When he nodded, she said, “What will happen to those girls? I mean, they’re out, right? She does that, takes them from that life and sets them free?”
Ben nodded. “They have a long road ahead. Sometimes it’s hard for them to believe it’s over, or that they can truly be free. But she’s good at what she does. She’ll give them what they need. Schooling, counseling. Fun. Help. Things some of them have never experienced in their entire lives. It’s a long road, but she’ll get them there.”
“Wow. That’s an incredibly noble thing.”
“Nobility is something people dream up to make themselves feel better. The truth is that none of us can claim to be noble, not if we’re honest about who we are.”
Nadia leaned closer and peered up into his eyes so that Ben couldn’t look away. “That’s because you’ve never been the recipient of someone else’s noble action.”
“Maybe that’s true.”
Nadia leaned up and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Tell her I said thank you.”
Ben watched her walk away, and at the same time he tried to recall if anyone had ever been noble on his behalf. Perhaps Nadia was right. He expended himself over and over, but had he ever accepted the same from someone else?
He pulled out his phone and sat at the table. Grant didn’t even let it finish the first ring before he picked up. “Yep?”
“Busy?”
“Managed to track down an old associate of Bolton’s, Thea’s father. He had no idea about any stash or where Bolton might have hidden it. Then he pulled a gun on me.” Grant paused. “These are some interesting guys you assigned to be my team. They had him on the ground, disabled, within three seconds.”
Ben smiled to himself. Grant’s “team” were a crew of personal security guys. Men he’d hired to protect his brother under the guise of assisting him in his investigation. Not that Ben didn’t trust his brother to keep himself safe. It was more that Ben took zero chances when it came to family.
“So everything is good?” It had better be; Ben was paying enough money. “No sign of Dante?”
“You worry as much as Mom. Whether Dante wants to come and grab me so that I can get Thea for him or not, he was in Denver. He can’t be two places at once, and that’s a lot of jet fuel to keep darting back and forth across the country.”
“He has friends.”
“Well so do I. Like this team of mine,” Grant’s voice turned sardonic. Ben heard Grant say, “One sec, fellas.” Then a car door shut. “Told me their last job was protecting a diplomat on a tour of Colombia. Fancy that. Made me wonder if they weren’t assigned to do the same with the ‘retired’ former director of the US Marshals.”
“That would be dishonest, doing that and not telling you.”
“You’ve been telling lies your whole life,” Grant said. “You’re good at it.”
“Your girls might be grown, but they still need you.” Ben didn’t add that the rest of them needed him, too. “Just keep an eye out for Dante, okay? He’s going after Thea, and you’re the fastest route to her whereabouts.”
“But not the only one.”
“As far as everyone’s concerned you are.”
Grant huffed. “This is a nasty chess game you’re playing with people’s lives.”
And that was why Ben would never claim to be noble. He saved people, but so often what they needed saving from was themselves. And how did he achieve that? He could put a dent in the evil in the world, but that tide just kept on rolling in. One day it was going to deposit him, battered on some distant beach, to recover while it laid a path of destruction Ben could only watch and do absolutely nothing about.
“Just watch your back, okay?”
**
Grant hung up. He got back in the front passenger seat. “Let’s roll.”
The driver pulled out of the space and set off down the street faster than Grant would have pushed it. They didn’t need to draw a cop’s attention, but Grant wasn’t in the mood for slow.
“Everything okay?”
The blandly spoken question made Grant shrug. “He said to be careful.”
“We always are.”
They pulled up to a red light, and Grant turned to the back seat. Something cold touched his neck. A crackling sound preceded the sensation of lightning that whipped through his body. Grant fought against it, but there was no use. The stun gun sapped him of all strength, and he slumped into the seat on the edge of unconsciousness.
“Call Dante. Tell him we’re certain Grant Mason knows where Thea is.”