Banished (A Retribution Novel) (13 page)

Apprehension hung as thick as the heavy clouds
overhead, stretching Violet’s nerves so tight she was sure she’d crack like
lightning. Janie’s attempts at distraction had failed miserably, and Violet was
certain she’d brought her new friend’s mood down to the gutter as well.

They both glanced over another display of silver
jewelry, each picking up and putting down rings and earrings, Janie no longer
exclaiming over the next new thing she wanted to show her.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Violet glanced at
Janie, finding a worried expression on her face.

“They’re smart guys. They know what they’re
doing.”

“That doesn’t mean something couldn’t happen to
them. Nicole told me about her and Xander, how he was shot in her apartment
building.”

Janie frowned. “She shouldn’t have told you that.
Not before today.”

She sent Janie a pleading look. “If I’m going to
love him, I need to know, don’t you think? I need to know what his life is all
about.”

“I suppose.” Janie glanced down the row of vendors
in the direction the men had gone, and then fixed her with a stare. “You should
also know it’s not an easy life. I worry every time they plan something.
They’re all live hard, play hard kind of guys. You’ll have to get used to that.
Take the good with the bad. Pray they come home safe.”

Violet gave a sarcastic laugh. “I think it’s too
late to warn me. Too late for me to back out.”

“You love him, then?”

Violet sighed. “I’ve never felt like this with
anyone. I think he stole my heart the first moment I saw him.” He’d been and
still was her hero.

“Nicole and I call each other when our worries get
out of control. It helps.” She slipped a small notebook from her purse and
wrote down two telephone numbers. “There. Now you have both of ours. Call
whenever you need to.”

Unexpected warmth filled her heart. “Thank you.”

Gunshots shattered their moment. She locked gazes
with Janie.

“No,” Violet whispered, shaking her head. “I can’t
stay here and not know what’s going on.”

“
Shit
.” Janie clenched her jaw and grabbed
Violet’s forearm. She hesitated for a moment and then released her. “Neither
can I.”

Violet kept her gaze pealed as they headed toward
the waterfront. The panicked crowd pushed at them, moving in the opposite
direction, making their progress difficult. She took Janie’s hand to keep people
from separating them, but someone shoved between them, taking Janie back a
couple of paces.

Violet paused for a second and then continued on,
knowing Janie would eventually catch up to her. They didn’t have much farther to
go.

She halted at the last vendor’s tent, using it to
stay hidden, and quickly scanned the area. Two men were at a standoff, shouting
as they pointed guns at each other, with a third writhing on the ground.

Angel and Guy? Apprehension gathered inside her.
Ryan was desperate to capture Guy, to make him confess what he’d done, but Guy
would have to escape Angel’s bullet first.

Her heart stopped as she spotted Christian and
Ryan taking cover behind one of the bridge’s massive cement columns.

She spotted Sam crouched next to a garbage can
with his gun out.
Thank God
they were all okay.

A strong hand gripped Violet’s upper arm, digging
fingers into her soft flesh as something hard slammed against her ribs. She
expected to find Janie in a panic for losing her. Instead, she found cold
hatred burning in her brother’s eyes.

Blood rushed from her head.

“Walk with me, Violet, and no one gets hurt.”

She threw a desperate glance over her shoulder
toward Ryan as bile filled her stomach. He had no idea she was in trouble, no
idea she was even in the vicinity.

“How did you find me?” She dug in her feet, not
allowing him to pull her any farther, and he jerked her inside the empty vendor
booth.

“Your surrogate mother told me.”

Suspicion bled into her heart as she considered his
words. “No. Ellen wouldn’t do that to me.”

He laughed, low and cynical. “She wouldn’t, would
she? Not to her precious Violet. But she might be dumb enough to leave her
computer unattended to help one of the employees who may or may not have been
having a heart attack.”

He narrowed his gaze. “You had to know I’d stop at
nothing to find you. I couldn’t have you telling people I’d killed Dad, or I’d
hired Haskell.”

“I knew you killed Dad. You bastard.” She spit the
words at him. “He loved you, gave you everything, and you killed him.”

“No,
he loved you
. He gave you
my
company.” He jerked her arm, pain radiating through her elbow and into her
shoulder. “Let’s go.”

She filled her lungs and let her anger and fear
fill the air with a piercing scream.

He slapped her hard, effectively shutting her up
as the sound of more shots exploded. A metallic taste filled her mouth. Her
vision blurred along with the noises around her.

“Next time I’ll knock you out cold,” he hissed
against her ear.

She stumbled when he yanked her again and then devastating
panic set in. If she went with him,
he’d kill her
.

She jerked, trying to get away, but he caught her
hard with the butt of his palm. Blinding pain split across her temple and into
her eye. He slid his arm around her as she tried to hold her weight.

“Let her go.”

A cold voice came from somewhere outside her
vision. She turned and gasped. Ryan stood feet from them, a black handgun
pointed directly at her brother.

Cold steel bumped against her temple, intensifying
her pain. “Don’t think I won’t kill her,” Kenneth said.

“If you don’t release her right now, I’ll put a
bullet between your eyes. You have two seconds.”

“She’s not worth it.”

“You’re not worth it,” Ryan returned. The look in
his eye shifted to something darker, more dangerous.

“No!” Violet held up a hand, recognizing what was
about to take place.

It made no difference.

Something clicked near her ear, and the world
exploded. Wetness covered her face, and she fell to the ground when Kenneth released
her.

Panic ripped through her as she tried to assess
what had happened. She felt no pain. Didn’t think she’d been shot.

She wiped at her eyes, and found her brother lying
in a heap next to her.

“No,” she cried as she glanced up at Ryan. She
didn’t want this.

Christian rushed up behind Ryan. “
What the fuck
?”

“Shit,” Sam said as he followed closely behind and
quickly scanned the perimeter. “Ah shit. Give Christian your gun and get the
fuck out of here.
Now
! I’ll take care of Violet.”

Ryan stared at her, his face a mask of distress. Christian
pulled the gun from his hand and shoved him from the booth.

“Wipe it. Go put it near Contreras. Get his prints
on it if you can.”

Christian was gone in a flash, and Sam knelt next
to her, his cell phone in his hand.

He gripped her hand as he spoke into his phone. “It’s
Sam Holden. Shots were fired at the Sunday Market. I’m on site, near the
waterfront. I have three suspects down, another on the run, and a wounded
civilian.”

Violet turned from Sam, his voice fading into a
blur as she gazed into her brother’s lifeless face.

Ryan had killed her brother
.

She wanted to be sorry, but all she could feel was
relief. If she was sorry for anyone, it was Ryan. He had enough to deal with
without her brother’s blood on his hands.

Ryan’s hands shook as he pulled himself into his
Jeep and started the engine. He couldn’t extinguish the look of Violet’s horror
from his mind.

He’d killed her brother…and she now loathed him
for it. He’d seen it on her face, in her stormy eyes. He slammed his hand against
the steering wheel, hating himself more than she ever could.

A moment later, Christian jumped into the
passenger seat, and Ryan put his vehicle in drive. Sirens screamed through the
misty air as he pulled into traffic and sped away from the chaos.

“
Jesus fucking Christ
,” Christian said when
they were several blocks away. “What the hell happened? Who the hell did you
shoot? Another one of Hardy’s men?”

“Violet’s brother.” Ice filled his soul and froze
any emotion he might have felt. He focused on the road, but he could feel Christian’s
gaze boring into him. “Didn’t you see him? He looked just like her. He had a
gun on her and…”

Furious rage had overtaken him, stealing any
common sense he might have accessed.

“
How the fuck did he find her there
?”
Christian asked.

“I don’t know.” He turned a corner and stopped in
front of Christian’s bar. He glanced at his friend. “Where’s Guy?”

His expression turned dark, and he exhaled a heavy
breath that decimated the remaining pieces of Ryan’s soul. “He’s dead. Angel killed
him. I’m sorry, man.”

A deep ache threatened to choke him. “Are you
sure?”

He gave a brief nod of his head. “I’m sure.”

Ryan dropped his head. He’d been to vile places in
his life and in his mind, and he wondered how he’d ever pull himself out of this
one.

In one fatal afternoon, he’d forever lost the man
who could have saved him, and he was pretty damn sure the woman who owned his
heart would never be able to look at him again without disgust in her
expression.

*        *        *

“I’m fine,” Violet said, pushing away the nurse’s
hand. The scent of disinfectant and the sounds of injured people nauseated her.
She’d had enough poking and prodding. All she wanted was Ryan.

The slender woman with spiked brown hair exhaled
her frustration. “You need to let me finish examining you.”

“What I need is my boyfriend and something to
knock this massive headache. If you could take care of those things, that would
be perfect.”

The sound of a man clearing his throat drew both
of their attention.

Sam stood at the edge of the curtained off room,
his badge hanging from a lanyard around his neck. “Portland PD, ma’am. I need
to take a statement if that’s possible.”

The nurse glanced at Violet, and she agreed to
talk to him.

“Fine. I’ll give you ten minutes.” She leveled a look
at Violet. “When I come back, I’ll have a painkiller that I’ll give you as soon
as I finish my exam. Maybe he can do something about locating your boyfriend.”

“Persistent,” Sam said once she’d left the area.

Violet sighed and let her muscles go lax. “Where’s
Ryan?”

“Lying low,” he said in a hushed voice. “I expect
he’s out of the city by now.”

Agony tore through her. “He left me?”

Sam met her gaze with a serious one of his own.
“He had to. Witnesses might be able to place him at the scene. As it is, Christian
will need to give a statement, along with you and me. We need to do what we can
to keep our identities separate and not draw suspicion. Do you understand?”

She nodded, burying her tears. She needed Ryan
desperately, but she didn’t want him in harm’s way.

“Is my brother…?”

He gave a curt nod. “We’ll need you to I.D. him
when you’re feeling up to it.”

She didn’t know if she could look at him again.

“I have your official statement, if you’d like to
read it,” he said softly.

She put a hand against her swollen lip where her
brother had cut it against her teeth. “Can you tell me what it says?” He’d
warned her not to say anything to anyone until they’d figured out a new plan.

“You’d suspected your brother of nefarious
activities, and he’d denied it, but tried to have you killed when you
confronted him. The information you’d copied onto your flash led you to
Portland, but he followed you here and caught up to you at the Market. He took
advantage of the shooting to try to kidnap you, and the rest is history. I’ll
make sure to be quite surprised at the office when I find out the truck we
busted yesterday is connected to the case.”

While plausible, the story they’d concocted still
stretched the limits of believability. “Will everyone buy it?”

He shrugged. “Why not? I have no connection,
nothing to gain by your brother’s death. The case will be solved, and the chief
always appreciates a closed case. Makes him look good. Especially after the
public display today. The citizens will be skittish unless we have the perp
behind bars.

“By the way, Xander found a list of all your
brother’s contacts buried at the end of a mundane document, including Haskell
and two more of Denver’s finest.”

“Does that mean…”

“I’ve already forwarded the information to their
chief of police and the local FBI. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something
on the news today.”

“Oh my God.” She put a hand to her chest, her
relief so immense she thought she might burst. She wanted Ryan, wanted to share
her happiness with him and thank him for everything he’d done for her.

He’d saved her once again.

But… “What about Guy and Hardy? Did you get them?”

A pained look crossed his face. “Not exactly.
Hardy escaped…and Guy’s dead.”

“
No
.” Anguish emptied into her heart for
Ryan’s loss. He’d staked so much of his future on Guy confessing. Now that
would never happen. “This will devastate him.”

“Yeah.” Sam exhaled, his features marked by
sorrow.

“I need to see him.” She needed to offer him
comfort like he’d given her. She threw back the thin hospital blanket. “Can you
take me?”

Sam held up a hand. “Whoa. Wait a minute. If I
spring you, it will look suspicious. Let me call Janie. I’m sure she’d be more
than happy to pick you up, and it shouldn’t take her too long to get here.”

Violet sank onto her bed, defeated. She needed to
leave.

She needed to find Ryan.

*        *        *

Ryan sat behind the wheel of his Jeep, staring up
at the hospital as a barrage of heavy rain pelted his windshield. He should
have been long gone from Portland, but he couldn’t leave Violet. She might hate
him for what he’d done, but he’d nearly lost her today. He had to know she was
okay. He wouldn’t be able to move on to the next minute of his life without
her.

He’d thought he’d lost everything when the
military police had arrested him, but that loss would be nothing compared to
the hole she’d leave.

He slammed the steering wheel. “
Goddammit
.”

He wouldn’t go down without a fight. If his choice
to shoot her brother had cost him everything, then he had nothing to lose by
fighting for her. He wouldn’t cower in the parking lot. Not when his woman was
injured, not when he needed to let her know exactly how much he loved her.

The rain attacked the moment he left his Jeep. He
could have cursed it. Instead, he turned his face toward the heavens, thanking
God he wasn’t dead yet. As long as he had a breath, he had a chance to win back
Violet.

*        *        *

Violet thrust out her hand for the pill cup. She’d
suffered the nurse’s unnecessary examination while she waited for Janie to
arrive. The nurse gave the medicine to her with a smile that Violet
begrudgingly returned. She swallowed the painkiller and then closed her eyes,
hoping the nurse would leave.

She did.

Violet sat up and then winced from the sharp pain
that echoed through her head. She needed to move slower if she intended to walk
out on her own two feet.

She took cautious steps to the chair where she sat
to put on her shoes. Her jaw ached from where Kenneth had clocked her.

Sick bastard. Sick, sick bastard. She wondered if
she’d ever be able to forgive, or at least, forget what he’d done to her, to
her father. Even to Ryan. He’d killed to protect her like he’d said he would,
but she didn’t want blood on his hands, didn’t want him to have to live with
what he’d done.

In return for saving her, he’d lost everything.

She couldn’t wait any longer to see him. She’d
take a taxi to the coast if she needed to.

She got to her feet and took a moment to control
her balance. Then she turned to leave.

Ryan stood in her doorway.

Her breath caught in her throat. His hair was wet
from the rain outside, and a dark look, darker than she’d noticed before,
haunted his eyes, giving her pause.

They stared at each other a moment. Everything had
changed for them since the last time they’d been together. They were, once again,
different people, changed by life’s circumstances.

And yet, they weren’t. He’d said he loved her, and
she still believed him.

A sob of happiness broke from her lips, and she
hurried toward him, not stopping until she’d crashed into his chest.

She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him
as tight as she could. “Thank God, you’re okay.” She inhaled his scent, finding
the solace she needed.

He buried his face in her hair and held her for
what seemed like forever.

*        *        *

Ryan couldn’t let go of her. He was afraid he’d
lift his head to find it all a dream. He couldn’t speak, either. His throat
closed over the words he wanted to say, his apology, his profession of love,
his question of forgiveness.

Right now, he had her in his arms, and he would do
nothing to compromise that.

She placed a hand on the back of his head, sliding
her fingers into his hair, giving him chills. She leaned away from him,
catching his gaze.

“I love you, Ryan.”

Even now, after what he’d done to her. “How can
you, Violet? How can you forgive me, let alone love me?” His voice cracked on
the last syllable, and he cursed himself.

“
What
?” She studied his eyes, hers full of
compassion. “How could I not love you? You’re my hero, and you own my heart.”

He couldn’t accept it. He’d expected to walk in
and have her rant at him or shoot him with looks of disgust. He hadn’t expected
her love. “I killed your brother.”

She placed her fingers over his lips and glanced
behind him. “Shh…”

She leaned close to his ear, her breath warm on his
cheek. “You saved me and a lot of other people from a monster.”

“You didn’t want me to kill him.” She could say
what she wanted, but he knew the truth.

“That was for you.” She ran a finger along his
jaw. “I didn’t want you to have to deal with that.”

“I could never let anyone hurt you.” He needed her
to understand.

“I know,” she whispered. “You sacrificed your
needs to protect me. I know how much it cost you.”

Protecting the innocent always required a
sacrifice. His sacrifice. But he’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant her
life.

Still, bitter regret sliced at him. “I’ll never
get back what belongs to me now. I’ll never be able to offer you what you
deserve.”

“All I want is you, Ryan. Your heart. Your love.
That’s all I need.”

Love shimmered in her eyes and freed his heart.
Could it be that simple? Could he accept what was in front of him and be happy
like Flo had suggested?

He took her hand and placed it over his heart.
“Whatever I have, whatever I am, is yours forever if you’ll have me.”

A huge smile bloomed on her face, and then she
winced, touching her fat lip.

“Bastard,” Ryan whispered as he gently placed a
kiss on her injury.

“Will you take me home? That nurse will be back
any minute, and she intends to draw blood.”

“Only if you won’t run away again,” he whispered.

“I’m staying.”

“What about your family’s business?” She couldn’t
ignore her responsibilities, and he knew how much she’d always wanted to be a
part of it.

She shook her head and smiled at him. “We’ll
figure out something. Right now, I need you to take me home and hold me and
love me.”

“That’s exactly what I need, too.” He softly
kissed her again and then took her hand, leading them out of the room.

For the first time in years, peace filled his soul.