Megan grunted as she landed on the sidewalk, thankfully on her good side. Her hip was going to be bruised tomorrow. Another to add to the list of the injuries she’d gained over the past few weeks. She’d been doing pretty well so far. Healing.
She lifted her arm. Red and wet. Her head swam. She tried to sit up, but all she could do was lean awkwardly against the dirty car wheel. Two gunshot wounds? And both on the same side.
“Adrian.” Her voice was barely audible.
Shots continued. Adrian was to her right, hunkered down. He lifted up. Fired three shots. Back down, behind cover. He looked at her then, his eyes full of thunder. Not happy. She understood that.
She should help.
Megan pulled her gun from the holster, thankful it was her left arm that had been injured. She started to shift around so she could fire. Pain ripped through her arm. She hissed out a breath, swallowing back bile.
“Stay down!” His voice was absolute command.
But he needed help.
She tried to shift again but only ended up with her back to Adrian and facing the street. People were hunkered down. Good. Her head swam, her vision blurring. She couldn’t see a thing, let alone focus enough to figure out where the threat was and aim with any kind of precision. She blew out a breath and tried to steady herself. She was the wrong way around. If she leaned against the car now, she’d be leaning on her injured arm. That wouldn’t do any good.
You’ve been shot again.
She pushed aside that unhelpful thought and got her legs bent under her so she could at least try to stand.
“I said, stay down!”
She gritted her teeth. Sirens could be heard in the distance. There was something to be said for being downtown, where police response was fast. She prayed no innocents had been hurt. They didn’t need more deaths because of this guy’s selfishness.
A car engine revved and then tires squealed as it sped away. A few more shots slammed against the building behind her. Megan ducked her head, even behind the cover of the car.
The sound dissipated, and she blew out a breath.
“Who’s hurt?” Adrian’s voice boomed over the near-silence of the aftermath. Like everyone was afraid to breathe.
A woman screamed a man’s name, over and over.
Megan shut her eyes against the flood of wet. Her arm burned. She was alive and Adrian was okay.
Police showed up. EMTs. Megan waited while they treated those who’d been injured more badly than her.
Adrian didn’t like it. “I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
She sucked in a clean breath of air. Enough to say, “I’ll get blood all over the car seat. Again.”
“I don’t care.”
She kind of didn’t know why she was arguing. She did need to get to the hospital, and the ambulances were being loaded up. “Give me a jacket or something, to wrap it with.”
When he pulled one from the trunk, she shifted her elbow away from her body. Swayed. Everything went dark for a second, and then Adrian’s arm was around her waist.
“Okay?”
Megan nodded, unable to do anything else. “Wind it around my arm.”
He frowned the entire time. And went way too slow.
“I’m fine.” Liar.
He didn’t even react, just finished up and pulled the door open. Helped her to the seat like she was an invalid. He even lifted her legs in.
She watched him talk to one of the officers and hand over his business card, and then he got in the driver’s seat. She shut her eyes on the way to the hospital, not wanting to talk. Adrenaline just made her mad, and her heart was still racing. Her brain rushed to process the conversation with Almonde, everything at the think tank, and what had just happened in the parking lot. All past the pain in her arm.
The doctor jabbed her with a needle, and then it got better. She felt the pull of stitches. The slide of thread through her skin. Her brain snagged on that detail. As though it was important in the grand scheme. Or simpler to ponder over than everything else in her life. An interesting detail she wouldn’t have otherwise paid attention to.
Adrian stood by the bed the whole time, hands on his hips. Jacket splayed wide. Fury on his face. She honestly hadn’t known a man to do that before, but evidently extreme circumstances brought out reactions like that. Everyone knew putting hands on your hips was serious.
His gaze shifted to her face. “You’re staring at me.”
“You’re stareworthy.”
Adrian blinked. Beside her the doctor huffed out a quick laugh. Like he wasn’t sure if he should think that was funny.
She glanced at the doctor. “Not that you’re not. It’s just…” She didn’t even know what she was saying.
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about me.” Then aimed his bushy gray eyebrows at her wound again and twisted his mouth as he concentrated on the stitches.
She moved her head again to look at Adrian. She never would’ve thought she’d find herself attracted to another man. Not after what happened to Will. It was nice to know that part of her hadn’t gone completely dormant when he’d been killed. But it didn’t mean she was going to do anything about it.
If Adrian wanted a relationship with her, he would have to make the first move. Maybe she was old-school, but that was the way things were supposed to go. Or, so she’d always thought. It was how her dad had won over her mom. By making the effort to convince her she should take a chance on him.
If Adrian did that, she would kindly let him down gently. This was a one-woman show.
She didn’t mean that in a mean, or self-absorbed way. It was just that life was a whole lot simpler if it stayed just her. The apostle Paul even said it was better to stay single—so you weren’t distracted with having to please a spouse and take care of kids. Sure, they were nice distractions, and there wouldn’t be this nagging loneliness all the time. But she only had to worry about herself.
See? Easier.
And it meant she could focus better on finding Zimmerman.
Adrian shifted and pulled his cell from the inside pocket of his jacket. “Gotta take this.”
She nodded and watched him leave the room. He really was nice-looking. And a nice guy. Who was even like that anymore? So many men were sweet on the surface and toxic underneath. Women too, if she were honest. She’d spent enough time with Adrian the past few weeks to know his outward manner went all the way to the core.
He was genuine.
“Okay.” The doctor secured the bandage down. “All done. I’ll send the nurse in with instructions.”
She nodded, her mind still mulling over Adrian being in her life. And then she was alone. The way things were supposed to be.
So why would she rather Adrian was back in here?
What was taking him so long anyway?
Okay, that was the meds. They’d given her something good for the pain. Maybe it was making her loopy.
She didn’t need a man in her life. Not when she knew the reality of how much it burned when the person you cared about was taken from you. Even if he was a nice guy like Adrian.
Adrian paced the hall and clutched his phone, on the line with Hank. “Yes, both of them were South American. The same men who tried to abduct the boy’s mother at the hospital.”
It was too obvious of a connection to dismiss. Zimmerman had a connection to El Cuervo, and these men might have been the same nationality. Were they El Cuervo’s men? Traffic cams would hopefully get their images. Or they’d trace their identities from the vehicle details. The man the police had taken into custody at the hospital could talk.
One way or another they would figure out who they were.
“They really waited for you?”
Adrian said, “Yes,” and had to bite back the urge to call him Hank. Megan was rubbing off on him. “Sir. They were in their car across the street when we exited Almonde’s building. Pulled out of their parking space and opened fire.”
He hadn’t seen it. Witnesses at the scene had told the police what happened. Eventually those cops would show up here for their statements as well. Adrian was just thankful he and Megan were alive to give them.
Hank blew out a breath. “Glad you guys are okay.”
“You and me both, sir.”
“She’s really all right?”
“It’s a bad graze, but it’s a graze.” Kind of like her hip.
Adrian figured she’d downplay it, pretend she was still at full strength.
“Take care of her.”
“Will do.” He had every intention of making sure Megan stayed “okay” for the remainder of this manhunt for Zimmerman. And while they found the blackmailer. It was his part in this operation. “The link between Zimmerman, these South Americans, and El Cuervo is known. But what about the think tank? I don’t believe it was a randomly chosen target.”
“You think it’s about what the think tank was working on?”
Adrian squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Genetic weapons aren’t as far off as people think. Not with the strides science is making in that field. We can do incredible things with DNA splicing, and experimentation. Weaponizing it is never far off, no matter what the method.”
Whatever breakthroughs science made, there were always people who wanted to use that to destroy their enemy.
Hank said, “You think Almonde is in on that? He funded the think tank. He had to know what they were doing.”
“If you’re asking whether I think he’s patriotic or a threat, I have to say I don’t know. He seems like a businessman. A visionary and an entrepreneur, just like the brochure says. But he was more interested in impressing Megan than showcasing the think tank’s work. Maybe he just threw money at it to see what came of it. If they made a breakthrough, he could claim ownership and get the credit.”
Hank made a “huh” sound. “So it was about one of the victims?”
“Pretty big lengths to go to in order to kill someone. Especially when it’s easier to come up to them on the street and pull a trigger.”
“Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
Adrian figured it was more likely there would be a note made in his file that he needed a psych eval. “I just mean there are easier ways to kill someone than this elaborate plan.”
“Unless it’s all a smoke screen. Overcomplicating it so we’re running in circles, trying to figure out what is going on.”
Adrian nodded. The doctor passed him in the hall and lifted his chin. Adrian did the same. He was done with Megan already? Adrian needed to get back in there. He didn’t want to leave her alone. And not only because he wondered, in the back of his mind, if maybe she’d bolt at some point. He just couldn’t get a full grasp on her.
She was elusive.
He wasn’t getting where he wanted to be. Which meant he wasn’t fulfilling his duty to her. Hard to take care of someone who didn’t want to be taken care of, but he’d been making it work so far.
He moved closer to the door to her room and saw a nurse head inside with a yellow paper. She was getting discharged. The woman needed a nap, but he figured he’d have to wait for her to pass out like the last time.
Not wanting his thoughts to return to that hotel bathroom—and the fear after he’d heard her collapse—he asked Hank, “Any updates on the think tank destruction?”
“The second body they found in the rubble.” Hank was quiet for a moment, then he said, “Retired Army General Eric Thomas.”
“Do you figure he was the target?” They for sure didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle they needed to answer that question. But Hank had resources.
There was no way to find Zimmerman unless they knew what the blackmailer’s next target was, or where he was hiding. Adrian didn’t figure the think tank was the end of it.
“Can’t see how any other answer makes sense,” Hank said.
“Anything else?” Adrian asked.
“Like Zimmerman’s family? Can’t find them anywhere. I sent crime scene techs to the house. They say there are indications the family might have been taken. It isn’t obvious that they were kidnapped, but it’s a possibility. In fact, it was so not obvious it was actually missed at first. Like someone cleaned up afterwards.”
Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose. “They were abducted?” He’d heard “clean up” way too many times during this whole thing to pass over that as well. “The blackmailer took them, and then hid that fact. So is that the leverage he has over Zimmerman? He’s holding the man’s ex-wife and children hostage to force him to do his bidding?”
“It’s definitely a possibility. Which confirms Megan’s idea that Zimmerman tried to make contact with her for a reason. Maybe he was planning on telling her that he was under the blackmailer’s thumb.” Hank paused. “I passed the kidnapping over to a new group of agents. They’re working that case.”
“Okay, good. If we can find them then the blackmailer no longer has Zimmerman under his thumb.”
Could Zimmerman really be nothing but a pawn in this whole thing? And his family dragged down into it as well? More innocent people suffering because of the whims of one man.
A blackmailer.
“I’ll keep you posted.” Hank ended the call.
Adrian stowed his phone away and went to give Megan the news about Zimmerman’s family. Knowing the man had been coerced into destroying a building and killing three people didn’t make it better. That hadn’t been a noble act of sacrifice.
Adrian didn’t know what he’d have done in that situation but figured the man had been right about trying to contact Megan.
He knocked but didn’t wait long before he entered the room. Megan looked up from wiggling her foot back into her shoe.
“Good, you can help me with my laces.”
Adrian pulled up a chair and set her foot in his lap. For some reason, Megan had been dragged in the middle of this. Zimmerman could have left that flash drive for anyone at the FBI. And yet, he’d specifically mentioned Megan. Like bringing her to meet the family of a man who’d hurt her so badly was a good thing. Or even that it was okay.
“There’s some big thinking going on in there.” She tapped the top of his head.
Adrian set her foot down and lifted the other one, along with her shoe. He slipped it on. “I’m just working through everything in my head.” When her eyes weren’t glassy, and her words weren’t slurred, he would explain. “Feel like eating something?”
“Smoothie.”
“And then I think you need a nap.”
“Are you going to change my pants again?”
He chuckled again. “Thankfully, no. I don’t have to do that.”
Her brow crinkled, a note of humor in her eyes. “Okay.” Whatever that meant.
Adrian stood, holding his hand out for her. “Ready?”
She hopped off the bed and nearly collapsed.
He caught her.