Cold Snap, page 37
“He’s not dead, is he?” He started laughing maniacally. “Just my luck. I waited so many years for my revenge, but Kane’s still not dead, and his bitch of a daughter lied to me.”
Black-clad FBI agents streamed inside and despite her clinging to Grady’s hand, she was forced to let go. Her mouth went dry as she was cuffed for the second time that day.
Worse, they were rushing Grady away from her, and she had no idea if he’d be okay or not.
Her mother groaned.
She tried to go to her but was held back. “My mother has stage-4 cancer. Please be gentle with her.”
Tears filled Brynn’s eyes at the insurmountable mess her life had become. It wasn’t self-pity. It was the fact every single person she loved was in danger of dying and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. If Grady died, she’d never forgive herself. Never.
But rather than helping, she got to stand uselessly, wearing handcuffs while a blizzard blew through her parents’ ruined home. And wasn’t that the perfect metaphor for what her life had become?
“Miss Webster?” A short, serious-looking blonde woman in a black parka walked up to her. “Agent Kelly Ropero. We need to ask you some questions.”
Grady’s teammates carried him to the back seat of a truck and laid him down flat. They’d attached a field IV with some sort of painkiller because he didn’t hurt anymore. That, or he was dying.
Nash sat beside him, keeping a check on his pulse.
“Where’s Brynn?”
“Being questioned, Grade, you know that. She’ll be fine.”
Grady cursed as he stared at the dark trees rushing past a pale gray backdrop. The blizzard was intensifying. The forecasters had gotten it right for a change.
“None of this is her fault. She’s finding this shit out for the first time herself.”
“How do you know?” Donnelly asked from the driver’s seat.
“I just know.” He’d never been surer of anything in his entire life, and he didn’t make decisions lightly. When he started to float, he heard the panicked words of his teammates, but he didn’t have the strength to speak. He’d lost too much blood. Fuck knows what that bullet had hit on the inside.
He started to float higher, and all he could think about was that he was going to miss his chance. Not that he’d miss his job or his teammates, though he would. But he was going to die and miss his one chance at love.
Man, if that didn’t piss him off.
63
Brynn was handcuffed in the back of an SUV, following a couple of ambulances and a snowplow headed toward the nearest ER. Grady had been taken ahead of them in her father’s truck. She shivered despite her coat and the heater being on full blast.
Shock had turned to grief. Grief to anger. Anger to red-hot fury which morphed slowly back to grief. It was a vicious circle.
She couldn’t quite believe any of what had happened was real.
But the burn on her wrist was raw against the unforgiving metal of the cuffs, and Grady’s blood stained her clothes.
“Any news on Grady? Is he okay?”
The blonde agent turned in the passenger seat to face her. Another man drove. “I’m afraid I can’t disclose any information about Operator Steel except to close relatives.”
That felt like a shot to the chest.
“Seriously? You can tell his sister who hates his guts about how he’s doing, but not me?” Her voice broke. “Whatever you do, don’t give her power of attorney. Give it to one of his friends or something.”
Fear at the possible implications rushed through her.
She glanced at the big man sitting beside her. He was dressed in black and armed for all-out warfare, much like Grady had been.
“I’m serious. Crystal Grogan would turn off anything that kept him alive if it meant she could get her hands on his property. Please,” she implored them all. “Talk to the hospital staff, and tell them Grady’s sister is not to be trusted with decisions about his health care.”
“But you are?”
Brynn didn’t miss the skeptical note in the man’s voice.
“Yes, actually. I am to be trusted. I’m an honest person, and I want Grady to be okay.” And to love me.
She kept those words locked down. No matter what he’d said to her, she couldn’t imagine him wanting to know her when this was all over and the truth became public.
“We’ll watch out for Grady,” the man beside her promised.
“Okay. Good. My parents? Can you tell me anything about them?”
The female agent hesitated. “Medics say your mother is very sick.”
Brynn felt the lump fill her throat. “Can I be with her when we get to the hospital?”
“I need to ask you some questions first.”
Brynn’s fingers gripped one another. “And if she dies while you’re asking me these questions, the answers to which will be, no, I didn’t know my supposed father was a notorious fugitive on the run from the FBI and the Russians—what then?”
“Maybe the questions revolve more around your ex-husband.”
“My ex?” Brynn expelled a rush of air. “If Aiden keeps me from being with my mom on her deathbed, I’m going to track him down and kill the bastard.”
“That’s the point.” The agent held her gaze. “We can’t track him down. We suspect he’s already dead.”
Brynn opened her mouth but no words came out. She could hear her heartbeat suddenly rushing in her ears. “I don’t understand. Aiden went off with another woman.”
“There are no records of him.”
“Where did you look?”
“Everywhere.”
Pain began to throb behind her eyes as she remembered what her father had said after he’d restrained her in her bedroom. That he’d been especially sorry about Aiden.
At the time, she’d thought he’d meant about the fact the bastard had hurt her but now…
“I want to talk to my father.”
The agent shook her head.
“You can put a wire on me. I don’t care about you hearing anything that might incriminate me. I have nothing to hide. I want to know what my father had to do with Aiden, if anything. He’ll talk to me. He won’t talk to you. Afterward I want to sit with my mom.” She swallowed tightly. “And I’d like an update of Operator Steel’s condition. I might not be family but I…I need to know he’s okay.” She wanted so much more than that but was in no position to ask.
The agent stared at her with distrust in her eyes. Then she nodded. “Deal.”
Brynn forced the worry out of her mind as she walked into the hospital room and stared at the figure lying quietly in the bed. He’d gone through surgery but his heart beat steadily if the monitor was to be believed.
Was he asleep?
A slight smile curved his lips as she approached.
“I thought I’d lost you. Are you okay?” her father asked.
“Am I okay?” she asked, incredulous. “Okay? I discover you’re on the FBI’s Most Wanted list accused of multiple murders. I was threatened by an ex-KGB operative who wanted us all dead. And the man I’ve fallen for was shot while rescuing me. Let’s add the fact you lied to me my entire life and compounded that by tying me up and dumping me in my bedroom like a kidnap victim—”
“For your own good.”
“Yeah, right. I don’t think you get to determine that anymore. In fact, you don’t get to have a say in my life ever again.” Exhaustion wanted to tear her down, but she had to push through this. “On top of that, Mom’s not doing well.”
The smile dropped and a frown creased his brow. “Is she here?”
She took his hand, forcefully reminded of their new reality by the metal bracelets that secured him to the hospital bed. At least they’d removed her cuffs. For now.
“Yes. She’s hanging in there, but they won’t let me stay with her. Because of you.” She swallowed noisily. “I don’t think she has long.”
His grip tightened. “I want to be with her.”
“That’s not up to me.” She looked around for a chair, uncomfortably aware of the listening device in her pocket. “The FBI thinks I was in on your schemes.”
“I’m sorry for that.” His blue eyes were surprisingly clear for someone who’d recently undergone surgery. “I’m not sorry for most of it, but I am sorry for that. We decided early on that the less you knew the better. Telling you would make you an accessory, and neither of us wanted that—plus, we were trying to forget that part of our lives ever happened. How’s your young man holding up?”
The sound out of her mouth was a cross between a laugh and a sob. “He’s not mine.” Although, he’d said he might love her? Christ, what a mess. “I don’t know. He was shot when the Russian came in to finish us all off in the kitchen. You were unconscious.”
“Sergei Lushko.” His words were bitter with suppressed rage. “First time I ever met him in person he drugged and raped me at an orgy that Lisa magically got us invited to. I was completely wasted. Consent wasn’t a big issue back then, especially in that sort of arena and, if I’m honest,” he gave a bitter twist of lips, “I was too proud to admit I’d been violated. And exactly who was I going to tell?” He laughed. “I was such a goddamned fool.”
Her father looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” His expression hardened. “I did the same to him at the next party minus the drugs—I wanted him to know exactly what was happening. And then I did much, much worse.”
Revulsion filled her. God. It really was all true. Brynn still couldn’t believe it. Maybe it was lack of sleep, but she felt as if she was floating between two worlds, one of which was Hell.
“I wish I’d found a way to kill him back then, too.” He huffed out a quiet laugh. He spoke of murder with the same ease he’d talked about building a chicken coop. “Apparently, they chose me because I was arrogant. I guess I showed them exactly how arrogant I was in the end.”
For Eli Kane, she realized, it had been a deadly game. Brynn stared at this person and tried to reconcile him with the man who’d raised her.
Couldn’t.
“You wouldn’t believe the people who attended those parties, Brynn. Not that you want to imagine your old man having sex, I know.”
“Technically, you are not my parent, but you’re right. I don’t want to picture you at a sex party.”
He squeezed her fingers hard enough to hurt. “I am the only damn father you’ve ever known, and I was good at it, wasn’t I, Brynn? I was a good dad.”
She exhaled loudly. “Yeah. Yeah, you were. I loved you.”
His eyes were fierce. “I love you. Always. That was never a lie.”
How could she trust him?
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” She wanted to ask if he’d have killed her too if she’d gotten in his way. But, right now, she couldn’t deal with the answer. Instead, she asked another question that was burning through her brain like caustic acid. “You mentioned something about Aiden when you tied me up in my bedroom…”
His face twisted into a grimace, and she knew her ex-husband was dead.
“What happened?”
He sighed. Then he raised his voice. “If anyone’s listening, I’ll tell you everything you want to know as long as I can be in the same room as my wife. I’ll sing like a goddamned canary, but only as long as I can be with my Gwendolyn. She doesn’t have long, and if she passes…” He shook his head. “Then it’ll go with me to my grave. Every damn thing. Bring me to her or her to me, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I just,” his voice stumbled, “I need to hold her hand.”
Brynn looked up when the blonde agent walked inside. “If we bring her in here you have to start talking immediately. I’m not risking you reneging on your promise if she dies and you haven’t finished your confession. We want to know everything, otherwise it’s no deal.”
Her father’s eyes were glassy with tears as he raised his head to stare at the agent. “Deal.” He smiled grimly. “How did you enjoy Australia, Agent Ropero?”
Ropero swore and left the room.
“You went to Australia?”
He shot her a wink. “No. But she thought I did.”
Brynn recoiled, then climbed stiffly to her feet, unable to joke about this mess. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
She handed the listening device to an agent outside the door and headed down the corridor to a glass window where she could see several black-clad operators milling around outside.
It must be Grady’s room. They’d refused to tell her much about his condition, only that he needed surgery.
Several honed gazes latched onto her as she walked toward them.
The large man she’d sat beside in the SUV blocked her way.
She looked up. “Is he okay?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded, eyes assessing.
“Can I see him?”
After a few seconds, he moved aside and let her pass. She stood at the window and pressed her hand against the cool glass.
Grady lay in bed, asleep. He looked incredibly pale. His chest was bare, showing off the bruises and small burns he’d accumulated over the past few days. The monitors showed a slow and steady heartbeat.
“How’s he doing?” she asked the assembled group at large.
The dark-haired woman—the one she’d served in the café that day—opened her mouth to say something but the tall cowboy spoke over her.
“He lost a lot of blood. It was touch and go for a while.” The guy stepped closer and leaned down to whisper close to her ear. “Look, lady. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but his fiancée is due here any moment. Might be best if she didn’t find out that his undercover role crossed a certain line. Know what I mean?”
Brynn’s eyes widened in shock.
Grady was engaged?
Her heart shattered inside her chest. Rattled around like broken glass. She’d figured he’d been undercover, but she’d foolishly assumed that the interactions between them had been real. Hadn’t he told her he was falling for her while bleeding from a bullet wound in her parents’ ruined kitchen?
Perhaps he’d simply been caught up in the moment or still acting undercover in case the authorities worried she wasn’t telling the truth.
She raised her chin and swallowed.
Of course, he’d lied to her. Like everyone else in her life. She’d been foolish to believe him. But how could she ever trust her own judgment when it seemed everyone she cared about set out to deceive her?
A fiancée?
“Oh.” Tears blurred her vision but she blinked them away. “Wow.”
Her mouth opened and closed because she didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t been physically injured but inside she felt utterly destroyed.
She stepped away. Cleared her throat. “Perhaps someone could get word to me about his condition later?”
She kept her chin high. They all knew what she and Grady had done together, and shame bloomed inside that she’d been foolish enough to fall for it.
“I’ll see to it,” the big man with cool but curious blue eyes said.
She suppressed the emotion that wanted to drive her into a fetal ball and walked away. She increased her pace when she saw her mother being wheeled in a bed into her father’s room.
She needed to concentrate on her mom now. Brynn might not be a doctor, but she could tell from the pallor of her mom’s skull-tight skin that Gwen Webster didn’t have long to live.
“Mom.” She found a seat beside her mother as her parents were reunited, probably for the last time. Brynn couldn’t think about Grady. He had his own life. A real life.
Her heart felt pulverized, but there was only so much she could deal with before she broke. She needed to forget about Grady Steel. Forget everything except untangling the mess her life had become.
Her father closed his fingers around her mom’s hand. And then Paul Webster/Eli Kane started talking.
64
February 1
Mon., 8:00 a.m. FBI HRT morning briefing
It had been almost a week since Grady had been shot. He leaned back in one of the hard plastic chairs with his arms crossed as the big boss debriefed the teams about last week’s op in Maine.
He knew what had happened. He’d been on the ground. Ropero had filled him in on some of the missing pieces of the puzzle. Gold Team had been lucky overall. No deaths. No serious injuries except for a bullet in his upper thigh, which had been removed and, aside from blood loss, thankfully, hadn’t done any serious internal damage.
No—that had come from having his heart ripped out of his chest.
He’d been released from the hospital and flown back here on Saturday.
Brynn hadn’t contacted him.
He was alive. He was recovering quickly. He had his dream job where jumping out of helicopters and blowing things up was all part of a day’s work. He was fortunate—and it was no longer enough.
At first, he’d given her a little space. He’d been unconscious for the first twenty-four hours. She had a lot going on. Her mother had died. Her father was in custody. Her childhood home was being taken apart brick by brick to see what secrets it contained. She’d just discovered her ex-husband had not dumped her but had, in fact, been murdered by her non-biological father after the guy had foolishly tried to blackmail Kane.
Add to that, she’d discovered that her beloved father had murdered five men and set fire to the animal clinic in an effort to get Grady arrested and out of the way when bashing him over the head hadn’t worked.
Maybe it was flattering to have been considered such a dire threat, but it went to prove, no matter Paul Webster’s gentle demeanor, he remained a vicious killer.
And her natural father had apparently been a rapist.
That had to do a number on a person.
So, he’d given her some space.
She’d told him she loved him, and he’d told her he felt the same way. He’d stepped back and let the FBI do their thing, trusting the system, safe in the glow that although everything was shit right now, it would be okay. She loved him.
