Running (25 page)

Because
they
were still the players in this
game of hell. Possible targets. But he couldn’t leave Cody or Paige
behind.

“
Cody!”

She heard him. Turned
toward him. He saw her face, saw the moment she recognized him and
Blondie. “Go! Find shelter! They’re taking everyone to the
children’s hospital one block over! Go! Get there!”

“
Paige?” He yelled back the
question.

“
Knock on the head! But
she’ll live! Go! We’ll find you!”

They went.

Chapter
Fifty-Seven

***

He watched her sleep, like
a big dope from one of those sappy type movies; he sat by the new
hospital bed and just watched her sleep.

Every mark on her body
was
his
fault.
He'd never forget that. He brushed the hair off her forehead,
studying the abrasion that paralleled her left eyebrow. Concrete
burn. From being knocked down by a damned bomb
he
never saw coming.

Seth would never forget,
nor would he ever repeat such a stupid mistake again. “I'm sorry,
baby. I was completely stupid. This never should have happened to
you.”

Blue eyes opened. “You're
here. And you're Seth.”

“
Who did you think I'd
be?”

“
Three possible choices,
you know?” She tried to sit up. “Is everyone ok?”

“
That
agent from the St. Louis field office who was guarding your body is
a bit banged up, Riaz got the jump on him, but he's awake and
asking if you're single. I told him Mick was your husband. Figured
that would scare him away. Mick probably scares
Mick
when he looks in a
mirror.”

“
My brother is gorgeous, if
I do say so myself.” Her words were soft and light, but he still
heard her. He lifted her out of the bed and into his lap. He just
needed to hold the damned woman for a minute. Just a minute. That
was all. Nothing wrong with that as long as he was careful with
her.

And he would be, from there
on out. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“
Scared myself.” Her
cheek—the unscuffed one—rested against his shoulder. “Everyone else
is ok? Paige, Cody?”

He fibbed a bit. “Barely a
scratch. Your partner and Cody had a few cuts from flying glass.
And a few burns here and there, everyone is fine. And we got the
bad guys. Riaz is dead.”

“
Good. I'm always glad when
we get the bad guys.” Her voice trailed off. “Seth?”

“
Hmm, baby?”

“
Hold me for a while, will
you? You're way more comfortable than the bed.”

In that moment he knew he'd
give
everything
he
had to hold her forever.

And that was why he was
leaving tonight.

Blondie deserved far better
than the likes of him.

Chapter
Fifty-Eight

***

“
How’s she doing?” His
brother asked the question from the doorway to this new, secure
room. Ed Dennis wasn’t taking any chances after what had happened
to Riaz. After what Riaz had done. Blondie was guarded every
second.

“
She’s lying in a hospital
bed, Seb. How do you think she’s doing?” Guilt made his words
harsher than he intended.

“
Has she woken up yet?” His
other brother asked.

Seth looked at her again.
She was sleeping deeply, her chest rising and falling with even
rhythm. “Not really. Enough to ask what happened, about Cody and
her friend.”

“
They’re doing fine, by the
way. Paige has a bit of a headache, and scrapes. Cody has a few
burns on her arm and cuts from glass. She was lucky; that police
officer shielded her pretty well when he was thrown into
her.”

“
How are they doing?” Two
officers had been closest to the car when whatever had been aimed
at the car had gone off.

Forensics was still
determining specifics, but general consensus was that someone had
been watching the hospital, saw Riaz being led out, and in the
confusion of the evacuation placed an incendiary device on the
trunk of the car. Or fired some sort of grenade or rocket from one
of the other cars.

The officers were the most
critically injured.

“
They’ve both pulled
through. Officer Abbasi had a few touch and go moments, but he’s in
a medically induced coma. Guy’s going to make it, thank God. Has a
wife and four kids, poor bastard.” Sebastian placed a balloon and a
small vase of flowers on the bedside table.

“
Any more idea who did
it?”

“
The buzz is it is Vinnie
Brusco’s work. Out of Texas,” Sin said. “You know anything about
that?”

“
Riaz got Brusco’s daughter
pregnant. And he and Brusco had a disagreement over who was going
to run the blackmailing scheme. Riaz thought Brusco wanted the
names to use as a way of gaining entry in the OIG.”

“
Vincent Brusco has people
in every agency. According to the organized crime division. Hard to
believe he’d kill Riaz over that,” Sebastian said. “Or get in to
plant a bomb in Al’s room.”

“
That was Riaz.”

“
It was a pretty simple
device. Just enough to make a bang and smoke. Get everyone
outside.”

“
Designed to cause panic
while Riaz was walking away. Only to run right into Paige and Cody.
Brusco’s men must have been watching the hospital for signs of
Riaz. Or followed him there. Bombed the squad car after.” A mob
boss had been smarter than the FBI. Seth wouldn’t forget that. He
pulled the memory card he’d found in Blondie’s blanket and tossed
it toward Sin. His brother caught it. “Here’s what you need to
bring down Brusco. Present from Riaz before he ran.”

“
You looked at it yet?”
Sebastian asked.

“
No. Only thing I’ve been
looking at is right here.” He played with a lock of blonde hair. It
was still dirty from the explosion. The medical staff hadn’t washed
it yet.

“
She’ll be ok, Seth. You
got her out in plenty of time. She’s bruised, but she’ll
heal.”

“
Lucky. We were damned
lucky this entire week. So much could have happened to her. And it
would have been all my fault.” He leaned over the bed and kissed
her. Soft; so soft he could barely feel her skin against
his.

He straightened, grabbed
his bag of belongings he’d brought with him. He couldn’t look at
the censure he knew would be on Sebastian’s face.

He turned to Sin. “I need a
ride. It’s time to go.”

Chapter
Fifty-Nine

***

Al knew before she opened
her eyes the next morning that Seth would be gone. He wasn't the
kind of man who stuck around. He'd made that fact extremely clear.
What did she expect? That he would change everything just for her?
Would she have even wanted him too?

They had known each other
about a week. Two of those days she'd been in the hospital. The
rest of the time they'd been consumed with finding a killer. Six
days was not long enough to fall in love. Not really.

The idea of that kind of
romance was false, nothing but fiction. Impossible. Even for those
who said it worked that quickly. True relationships took
time
to build.

And she and Seth hadn't had
that time. And never would.

She'd just get through the
next few days, get home, get herself unbroken, and get back to the
life she had before he'd showed up to screw everything
around.

It would be hard, but she'd
manage. Somehow.

She was a big girl. She'd
lived through worse.

Her mother walked in the
hospital room ten minutes after Al finished the jello and
applesauce portion of her breakfast. Hospital food was completely
disgusting and she couldn't make herself eat anything else
congealing on the tray. She wasn't
that
brave.

“
Momma.” The tears started
the instant her mother wrapped her in her arms.

“
Baby. Can you do your
mother a favor, Alessandra Claire?”

“
What?”

“
Don't scare me so. I can't
handle this much more. I'm not a young woman anymore. Between you
and your brothers and what's happened recently, I think I'm getting
an ulcer!”

“
I'll do my best not to let
this happen again.” Al accepted her mother's hug and clung
unashamedly. “Oh, Momma...”

“
I know, baby. I saw the
way he looked at you when he thought no one was
watching.”

Her mother—like her brother
Mal—had always been more perceptive than anyone else Al knew. Of
course her mother would look deep into Al's heart to see the root
of what ailed her. “It wasn't like that. I knew going in that there
wasn't anything possible to come out of it. Relationships don't
work for me that way.”

“
Relationships work how
they are supposed to work, according to the rules of the two people
involved. Time really has nothing to do with it, if that's what's
running through your head.”

“
I want what Jules and Mal
have.”

“
You
deserve
a relationship, a
love
like that. Don't settle for less. Can it be with
this man? Only you can answer that.”

“
I'm
pretty sure
this man
has already headed for the hills. He's not the sticking
kind.”

“
If he can't stick for a
woman like you—a good, kindhearted, loving, and loyal woman who
just happens to be a beautiful person—then maybe he's not the man
you should be looking at.”

She knew her mother was
right, but how long would this hurt remain?

Someone knocked on her door
and she wasn't the least bit surprised to see Jules and Paige. Her
family, her friends.
They
were what mattered. They would be there for her
when she needed them.

And that was what
counted.

She'd just force herself to
see her interlude with Seth Lorcan as an once-in-a-lifetime fling.
An affair to look back at someday when the pain wasn't so sharp.
When it had turned to bittersweet.

In other
words...

She had to make herself get
over it, over
him,
somehow. And fast. Before she broke.

Chapter Sixty

***

Life went on. Al knew it
would, but she hadn’t known it would seem quite so...bleak. She’d
been with the man for less than a week. And she still missed him.
It didn’t make sense. But it was the truth. Was he alright? Had he
been hurt worse than he’d said?

Sebastian had told her only
that Seth was sore but he was healing. And that he couldn’t get her
any more information. Because that was all he had.

Seth’s unit was being
restructured, if not eradicated, because of Riaz’s involvement with
Nina Brusco and her brother’s kickback and blackmail
schemes.

Three weeks had passed
since she’d seen or heard from him. Even Sebastian had told her his
brother’s contact history was spotty.

Al hadn’t seen him
since.

But maybe
he
liked it that way?
He’d said he didn’t like to be pinned down by anything, especially
responsibilities. Maybe he’d seen her as just something trying to
pin him down?

As the days continued on,
Al couldn’t help thinking that’s exactly what that entire interlude
had been. She’d been available and whatever he’d felt in those
moments, he had obviously had second thoughts since then. Otherwise
he’d have emailed or called. Contacted her somehow.

She just had to get over it
and get on with the rest of her life. Stick with her resolve, no
matter what.

If her friends and brothers
would let her. Mick shadowed her everywhere when she was home. And
he’d been there the first few days out of the hospital, fetching
and carrying for her. She’d even had to stop him from
carrying
her
around that first day.

It shocked the crap out of
her.

She loved her brother—she
would never deny that—but the two of them had never been as close
as she and Mal were. A matter of personality, more than anything.
Mick played things so close to his chest, Al had never known how to
take him. When he’d been shot back at Christmas trying to defend
Jules, Ruthie, and Paige, they’d almost lost him.

He’d changed a bit since
then. Softened. Became less of a stickler for rules and regulations
and more open to situations that were less black and white and
grayer.

But she’d never expected
him to turn as protective of
her
as he had.

He never left her alone,
except when she retreated to her bedroom. It was starting to drive
her crazy.