Yep, he’d heard a whole lot of that, too. “You know I’m getting sick of hearing that. In fact, I was perfectly right. She made a choice that wasn’t hers to make.”
“You blame her for what happened to Hutch. Yeah, I don’t exactly understand that either.” Erin’s jaw tightened. “I know you and Big Tag and a couple of the guys have been working on something secret, but I need to know if this op you were on had anything to do with Hope McDonald. I’ve stayed away from this because I needed to concentrate on TJ, but I need to know now. I need to understand what happened to Hutch. He’s my friend.”
Shit. He should have expected this. Erin wasn’t a fool. She was smart and had been in the business longer than him. The moment was here and he wasn’t sure what to do. She would think they were looking for revenge. “We got a line on where she might be hiding out. We came very close to finding her. It was Mia’s choice that allowed her to get away. That’s what we fought about.”
“You went to Colombia to track down Hope McDonald?”
It was the first time she’d asked him a direct question and he wondered how hard it had been for her to stay silent. Months had gone by, months where they’d all been arrogant, thinking they were so clever. Months where she’d allowed them to be. “Yes.”
“Damn it.” She flushed, her skin going pink. “How fucking dare you, Case. Did you not learn a damn thing from Theo? He died. He’s dead. Gone. You can’t bring him back and now Hutch is probably dead, too. Do you honestly think this is what Theo would have wanted? Why do you think I’ve left it alone? I want to kill her, too, but I have to think about what Theo would want. He damn straight wouldn’t want Hutch dead.”
Shit. He held his hands up. “Hutch isn’t dead. I’m sure he isn’t dead.”
“Just because you don’t find a body doesn’t mean he’s not dead.” Erin took a deep breath. “You can’t do this. I want revenge, too, but I’m not willing to lose another teammate over it. How could Ian have signed off on you going over there without a senior team member?”
If he didn’t stop her, Erin would walk out into the backyard and throw down with Ian over something that hadn’t been his fault. “He didn’t know. I went without telling him what I was really doing.”
“You bastard,” Erin whispered. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? What did you think this would buy you? Any of us? You can’t bring Theo back to life.”
“What if I could?”
The room went completely silent and Erin didn’t move, every muscle stuck as though the moment had frozen.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Tell her.” Ian stood in the doorway. “It’s time.”
Erin looked over at him, her mouth a thin line. “Tell me what?” Tears formed in her eyes. “It’s time for what?”
How did he do this? He wanted to be gentle with her. “You see, we’ve been investigating for a while now. We started down in the Caymans.”
Tears ran down her eyes, but she stared at him, her fists clenched. “Just fucking tell me, Case. Tell me or I’m going to beat the holy shit out of you.”
“Theo’s alive, Erin.” He got to the point. Erin paled and he worried she might pass out. “I saw him a few days ago.”
A fine trembling seemed to have taken over her, but she took a long breath. “She saved him. Faith begged her to that night. Oh my god, she got to him in time. She pulled the bullet out and fixed his heart.”
Despite the fact that she was obviously trying to stay calm, her words came out shaky. Had he just made another mistake? Ian looked grim, but made no move to save him.
“We believe Dr. McDonald stabilized Theo there on the island and then took him to Havana where she performed the surgery that saved his life.”
“Fuck.” She put her hand over her mouth. “She saved him. I’m still going to kill her, but she saved him. He’s alive. Theo’s alive.”
She said it over and over, as though she needed to say it to believe it.
“He is alive, but she’s been using her drugs on him,” Ian pointed out. “The same ones she used on Ten. Do you understand what that means, Erin?”
Her head nodded, her hands still shaking. “The memory drugs? She’s playing with his memory. That’s why he hasn’t gotten away. My Theo would get away.”
“He didn’t know me when I caught up to him,” Case admitted. She was handling this better than he’d thought. Or was she? He was shitty at reading women. Mia proved that. If Mia was here, she would deal with the emotional stuff. She would know what to do.
Ian stepped in, grabbing a cup and pouring the lemonade. “I’ll let you see all the reports. Li is the one who’s taken point.”
“Of course he has. I fucking love that Irishman.” Erin turned serious eyes Case’s way. “You said he didn’t recognize you. Did you talk to him? How did he look? Was he healthy?”