Omega (Alpha #3) (39 page)

I had no idea what most of that even meant. Weapons-free, SNAFU, double-tapped, EZ…military mumbo-jumbo. What it meant, at the bottom of it all, was that Harris was a hero. I knew that, though. And I knew I felt better knowing Thresh was loyal to the death, and would be standing outside.
 

“You know how to get hold of Roth?” I asked.

Thresh grunted a wordless assent. “Already did. He and Kyrie are
en route
. Alexei and Sasha are with them. With Vitaly wounded, we should be fine for a while. But I’m not taking any chances.”
 

“I want that man dead,” I snarled.

“All of us do. He’s caused enough trouble. All of us are loyal to Harris, so hurting him was a big mistake. They woke the beast. Once we get you, Harris, and Kyrie and Roth somewhere safe, the shit’s gonna get real fucking ugly for Vitaly.”

“I’ll help you. Shit, I’ll pull the trigger myself.”
 

Thresh eyed me with respect. “I believe you.” He glanced down at Harris, and then headed toward the door. “I got calls to make. I’ll be right outside. No one gets in without talking to me first, and showing me their orders. You rest. Your only job for right now is to be there for him. Got it?”
 

I could only nod.
 

When Thresh was gone, I took Harris’s hand in both of mine, leaned back in my chair, and watched him sleep. Watched the heart monitor, the oxygen machine huffing and pumping, his chest rising and falling, mouth slack, stubble darkening his jaw.
 

Eventually, a nurse showed up and moved us to a recovery room. I resumed my station at his side, his hand in mine, fighting sleep and tears.

Eventually, exhaustion won out.

19

WORTH IT

I jerked awake, hearing Thresh’s deep voice just inside the door. He had his cell phone on speaker and looked at me as he spoke. “Sasha. Talk to me.”
 

“I hear chatter on police radio. A man was found with many gunshot wounds, not yet dead. No identification, not able to communicate. He is at the university hospital.”

“Take care of it.”

“How?”

“I don’t fucking care. However you want. Just take care of it.
Da,
comrade?”

“You are stupid gorilla,” Sasha growled. “I am from Georgia, not Russia. ”

“You sound Russian,” Thresh pointed out.

“I speak Georgian, Russian, Armenian, Arabic, and English. I serve in the Russian Army for ten years, so I speak Russian most frequently.”

“You speak five languages?” Thresh sounded grudgingly respectful. “I’ll have to pick up another language so we’re even.”

“Americans are lazy. You expect everyone to learn your language, but most of you do not even speak it properly. Is embarrassing.”
 

“Can’t argue with you there. Get going. Give our friend Hell’s welcome.”
 

“I will get kill bonus?” This was so low I barely heard it.

“You get this done, Roth will give you a bonus so fucking huge your kids’ kids will have more money than they’ll know what to do with.”

“I would do it for free. But I still want the bonus.”
 

“No shit. You’ll get it. And Sasha? I need photographic proof of completion. There’s no room for error with this one.”

“I do not fail.”
 

“I know, buddy. That’s why I’m sending you.” He tapped the screen to end the call, shot me another glance, and then went back outside to stand guard.

I glanced at Harris, and saw that he was awake, sort of. Looking at me. He squeezed my hand, once, weakly, and then fell back asleep. I wondered if he’d heard any of that.
 

* * *

When I woke next, Harris was sitting up, awake, and spooning the last of a pudding cup into his mouth. Roth was sitting in the chair on the other side of the bed, Kyrie standing behind him, her hand on his shoulder.

“Layla! You’re awake!” Kyrie rushed around the bed and I barely had time to stand up before she slammed into me, arms going around my neck. “I was so worried, hooker. I never thought I’d see you again.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, slutty-buns.” I peeled her off of me, and then kissed her cheek. “I was worried you wouldn’t see me again, too. For a minute. And then Nick found me and everything was fine.”

“Nick? Who’s Nick?” Kyrie asked.

Thresh, standing just inside the door again, laughed. “That’s what I said!”
 

I rolled my eyes, and gestured at Harris. “He’s Nick. To me, at least.”
 

Kyrie eyed me with suspicion. “Nick? Since when do you call Harris Nick?”

Harris was suspiciously silent, studiously scraping every last drop of chocolate pudding out of the cup. I poked his leg. “You want to tell them…
babe
?”
 

He shook his head. “Nope. It’s all you.”

Kyrie and Roth exchanged perplexed glances.
 

“Tell us what?” Roth asked. “What’s going on, Harris?”

Harris shrugged. “Nothing.”

I glared at him. “Nothing? Fucking
really
?”

He glared back. “I don’t owe anybody any explanations as to who I fall in love with.”

Kyrie shrieked so loud we all flinched. “I knew it! I FUCKING KNEW IT!” She collided with me again, squeezing me so hard my breath left me and I saw stars. “Tell me everything! How long has this been going on?”
 

“Calm your ass down, bitch.” I untangled myself from her arms. “Strangle me, and I won’t be able to tell you dick.”

“Sorry. Sorry. I’m just excited. I knew you and Harris had a little somethin’-somethin’ going on. This is awesome!”

I took Harris’s hand and twined our fingers together, and wonder of wonders, he let me. Right there, in front of both Kyrie and Roth and Thresh. “It was kind of a surprise for both of us.”

“I had to all but club you over the head to get you to admit you even liked me,” Harris said.

I shrugged. “I may be easy, but I’m not an easy person to like.”
 

He growled at me. “You’re not easy.”

“Not any more. At least, not for anyone but you.”

Roth wiped his face with both hands. “I feel like I’ve fallen through the rabbit hole into Wonderland.”

At that moment, we heard the door open and Thresh speaking in low tones to someone on the other side. “I hear what you’re saying, Doc. We’ll let him rest. But this is important.”
 

“He shouldn’t even have
one
visitor,” a female voice said, sounding frustrated, “let alone
four
. And just because you’re a fucking giant doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do in my ward.”
 

“Actually, it kind of does. You don’t have enough security guards in this entire building to handle me. Which means when I say it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. Our meeting will be over in a few minutes and we’ll all leave him to rest. All right?”

“Shit.” This was mumbled, exasperated and defeated. “Fine. But you all need face masks and you have to sanitize your hands. His immune system is weak right now. The last thing he needs is to catch something from one of you.”

“Chuck Norris doesn’t get a cold, the cold gets Chuck Norris.”
 

“What?” She sounded utterly puzzled.

“Nothing. It’s a joke. Never mind. We’ll wash our fucking hands, okay?”
 

“Face masks too. Or I’ll shoot your giant ass with an elephant tranquilizer and drag you out of here myself.”
 

“I’ve been shot with an elephant tranquilizer, actually. It just got me high. Kind of fun actually. You wanna try that, you’ll need two or three.” I heard the grin in his voice. “And babe, you want to drag me out of here, you won’t need a tranquilizer. It’ll be more fun if I’m conscious anyway.”
 

“Jesus. You’re a piece of work, you know that?”

“Been told that, yes.”
 

“I’m going to lunch. When I come back in thirty minutes, I want this room clear. Or we really will see how many security guards it takes to subdue your freakishly oversized carcass.”
 

“Honey—”

“You say one damn word about bondage, and I’ll stab you with my shears.”
 

Thresh just chuckled. “We’ll be gone in fifteen minutes. You have my word.”
 

“You’d better be.” And then she and Thresh left the room.

The door opened once more, admitting Thresh with Sasha behind him. Thresh had a handful of paper masks, which he handed to everyone, and then made us all use the hand sanitizing foam from the dispenser just inside the door. Thresh took up position in front of the door, and Sasha moved into the interior of the room, standing at the front of the bed near Harris.

“This meeting is regarding a certain Greek friend we all have in common,” Thresh said. “After Harris’s latest…encounter…there was some doubt as to his situation or whereabouts. I tasked Sasha here with finding him.”

Harris adjusted the cannula in his nose, sucking in deep breaths slowly. “And?”
 

Sasha pulled an iPad Mini out of the cargo pocket of his pants. “I found him, and took some selfies. Here. You see.” He opened the iPad, tapped on the Photos icon, and handed the device to Harris. I leaned close so I could see the pic as well. Sure enough, it was a selfie of Sasha and Vitaly.
 

Vitaly was in a hospital bed, wired for sound, it looked like: IVs, oxygen, food tube, a bunch of other stuff. Vitaly was unconscious, and Sasha was grinning as if they were long-lost friends reunited.

“Swipe left,” Sasha instructed.

Harris swiped left. Sasha had a syringe inserted into part of the IV tube, the photo taken with his thumb on the plunger, another shit-eating grin on his face. The next showed him with the plunger depressed. The next photo showed the monitor, with the heart rate flat-lined.
 

“I make a distraction in another room first, so when he dies, they don’t notice so quickly,” Sasha said. “I put another dose into his tube, just to be sure. I also unplugged the life support. He would not have made it anyway, I do not think, but now…our friend is dancing with the demons.”
 

Roth took the iPad from Harris, swiping through the pics several times, clearly struggling with some deep emotion. “He’s really gone?” He glanced at Sasha.

“I am sure of this,” Sasha answered. “I put a mirror to his nose. Felt his heart. Long minutes I waited. He is dead. I am one hundred percent positive.”

Roth sighed, leaning back in the chair. “It’s over. It’s really over.” He wiped his face again with both hands. “He took me in, when I was a clueless twenty year-old kid with more money and ambition than common sense or business skill. He taught me everything I know about being a smart businessman. More than I ever learned from my own father. He didn’t even hold it against me when I left, even though I killed one of his men. He got it. He let me go. It wasn’t until his crazy bitch of a daughter found me that any of this even happened. I never had a grudge against him. Not until he threatened all of you. I should be glad he’s dead. And I am, mostly. But part of me…”

I kept my own opinion to myself. I felt nothing but relief that Vitaly was truly dead and I wouldn’t waste a single second mourning him.
 

“Name your price, Sasha. Sky’s the limit.” Roth handed the iPad back and stood up.
 

Sasha didn’t answer immediately. “One million,” he said, finally.
 

“Two million,” Roth said. “You’ll have it by noon.”

Sasha opened his mouth as if to argue, but then thought better of it. “Thank you, sir.”
 

“All right. You and Thresh can go. Post a guard on the ward, just to be sure.”
 

“I will cover it myself,” Sasha said.

Thresh made a negative sound in his throat. “I got it. Me and the doc have a thing. A repertoire.”

Harris snorted. “You mean
rapport
, lunkhead.”
 

“Yeah. That. A thing. She’s feisty, and she’s not afraid to get in my face. I like it.”
 

Thresh and Sasha left, and it was just Harris, Kyrie, Roth, and me.

Harris rubbed his jaw and fiddled with the cannula again. “So. You two lovebirds can have your wedding now. No one else will get in the way.”

“Harris, you don’t think we’d have it without you, do you?” Kyrie asked. “You’re like family.”

“She’s right, Harris,” Roth said. “I’ve known you for eight years. We can wait until you’re better.”

“I’ll be on oxygen for a while. Won’t be bouncing back from this one too fast, I’m afraid.” He gave Roth a hard look. “Take a video for me.”

“Harris, come on—” Kyrie started.

“Miss St. Claire.” Harris’s voice was cold. “I’m not asking. Get married. You’ve waited long enough. Take some pictures and send ’em along. That’ll be enough. We’ll have a toast to your happiness when I can get out of here.”

“He’s right,” I said. “You two shouldn’t have to wait. You deserve your happiness together.”

Harris shot me serious side-eye. “You think I’m letting you sit around at my bedside when your best friend is getting married? Think again, sweetheart. You’re going with them.”
 

“The fuck I am!” I said, almost shouting. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Kyrie, Roth…can you give us a second?” Harris didn’t take his eyes off me.
 

“Sure.” Roth stood up and followed Kyrie out of the room.

Alone, Harris pulled me closer to him, wrapped a hand around the base of my spine so I was flush against the bed. “Layla. I want you to listen to me, okay?”

“Fuck that, you idiot. I’m not going anywhere.”
 

He just smiled at me. “Babe. You
are
. You’re going with them. You’re her maid of honor. Her best friend. You can come right back, but this is how I want it. I hate weddings anyway. I look stupid in suits and can’t stand sitting down for that long.”
 

“Bullshit. You’re a pilot. You’re used to sitting for hours.”
 

“Layla. This isn’t up for debate. You’re going.”