He wasn’t aware of moving, but he must have because he was sitting on the bed, dragging her into his arms, burying his face in her hair. Whispering words he couldn’t hear over the pounding in his ears. ‘Not your fault, baby. Not your fault. Why are you sorry?’
She was shaking her head. Her whole body was shaking, so he held her tighter. ‘I shouldn’t have come here. I knew it was just a headache. We never should have come.’
‘Sweetheart.’ He rocked her where they sat. ‘You’re hurt and you’re scared, so I’m going to give you a pass on that very ridiculous thing you just said. Of course you should have come. This is a hospital, and you were hurt. Unless you’re a soothsayer, you could not have predicted any of this. So stop blaming you and start listening to me.’ He pulled back, tugging her chin up so that she looked at him, her eyes wild with regret and residual fear. ‘You’re all right. Mallory’s all right and Kate and your grandfather both got a little banged up, but they’ll be all right too.’
‘The Feds?’ Meredith challenged. ‘They might die.’
Adam wondered how the shooter had gotten the jump on two Feds, but kept the question to himself for now. ‘But they’re not dead yet.’ He swiped under her eyes with his thumbs, taking care with her scraped cheek. He kissed her mouth tenderly. ‘You did not invite a sociopath to grab Mallory any more than you invited Andy Gold to try to kill the two of you yesterday. Okay?’
He waited until she nodded, then gave her another soft kiss. ‘Okay,’ he said. He glanced at Mallory, who stared at him with the disconcerting intensity of one of the Children of the Corn. ‘We have learned one extremely valuable fact tonight. You weren’t the target at Buon Cibo yesterday, Meredith. Mallory was.’
Meredith nodded, sniffling. ‘I know. I begged him to take me instead, but he told me he didn’t want me.’
Adam’s blood ran cold. He could see her offering herself in trade all too clearly. ‘Start at the beginning. Tell me what happened.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 9.40 P.M.
Meredith finished relaying everything that she knew, deleting anything she’d said that remotely resembled an offer to sacrifice herself. Adam had gone so very still when she’d told him that she’d begged the gunman to take her instead. He’d backed away then, his expression carefully blank, so very controlled. Like if he let himself go, he’d shatter.
So she didn’t tell him about any of the other things she’d said.
‘I kept shooting,’ she finished. ‘I know I hit him at least twice in the chest, but my shots may have gone wide there at the end. My hands were shaking,’ she admitted. ‘He just kept coming. He wouldn’t stop.’ Her voice had trembled, so she paused and dug deep for her composure. ‘I either missed completely, or he was that determined. Maybe both.’
‘And then?’ he asked brusquely, but he took her hand and held it between his.
That helped. So much. She drew a breath. ‘And then I was out of bullets so I just . . . waited.’ He shuddered, but didn’t break eye contact. ‘He pushed me aside and that’s when Mallory cut him with her knife. He was . . . demented. Screaming at us.’
‘But still wearing his mask?’ he asked.
‘Yes. I never saw his face. Just his eyes, but it was dark and I couldn’t tell you what color they were. Well,’ she frowned, thinking. ‘I did see his jaw, because Mallory got him with the knife. Part of the mask was ripped back and he was bleeding. He didn’t have any noticeable markings, though. No beard or scars or anything.’
‘Did you see his skin?’
‘Yes. It was pale. He was definitely Caucasian. Anyway, he reared up, yelling, and that’s when Kate shot him in the arm. I . . .’ She closed her eyes, the emotions rushing back. ‘I’d thought Kate was dead. She was crumpled on the ground and I’d heard a shot and then a crunching noise. I thought he’d thrown her against the SUV. I don’t know what happened.’
‘I’ll talk to her when we’re done,’ he said evenly. ‘But she’s going to be okay. Dani said she needed a lot of stitches, but there didn’t seem to be any permanent damage.’
‘Oh God,’ Meredith breathed. ‘That’s so good to hear. Is Decker coming?’
‘Dani’s called him. I’m sure he is.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘Then Kate shot the attacker?’
‘Yeah. His arm was kind of hanging there and he made a run for it. Then I heard the sirens and, I mean, it was like . . . I lost it then.’ She looked at Mallory. ‘And then Mallory was holding me and I knew she was okay, and then Kate came and we just . . . We were done.’
He drew a breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring. His jaw was clamped so tight that it was a wonder she didn’t hear his teeth cracking. He blinked slowly, several times. Gathering his control, his composure, much like she had.
Finally, he turned to Mallory. ‘Do you have anything to add, honey?’ he asked, his tone so gentle that Meredith had to shove back a sudden sob that took her by surprise.
Meredith didn’t expect Mallory to say a word. She hadn’t during the entire ordeal. But Mallory nodded.
‘They saved me,’ she whispered. ‘Mer and Kate. Mer wouldn’t let him have me. She did beg him to take her instead. And I was so scared that I couldn’t tell her to stop. I just lay there, like a useless slug.’ Self-contempt dripped from her barely audible words.
‘Mallory—’ Meredith started, but Mallory whipped her hand up.
‘My turn,’ she gritted out. ‘It is my turn to talk.’
Meredith pressed back into the pillow, startled. ‘Okay.’
‘She ran after me and offered to trade herself. And when Kate came and held her gun to the man’s head, Meredith grabbed me out of the SUV and carried me for . . . I don’t know how far. I kept telling myself to move. Move. Help. But it was like I was frozen.’
‘But you did move,’ Meredith said softly. ‘You did help.’
‘Not enough.’ Mallory turned so that she spoke to the wall. ‘What she’s not telling you is that she told him that he’d have to kill her first. I thought he was going to.’
Adam’s eyes darted to Meredith’s face and there was no disguising his anguish. He swallowed hard. Then he drew a breath and the anguish tempered, morphed. Became something like pride. The pressure on her hand increased until it was almost painful.
‘Any of us would have done the same, Mallory,’ he said, still so gentle.
Oh God. This is the man I knew a year ago. This is the man I’ve waited for. Meredith’s eyes welled and she blinked quickly to clear them.
Mallory’s lips trembled. ‘Why?’
His smile was so damn sweet it nearly broke her heart. ‘Because you’re ours now,’ he said. ‘And we take care of what’s ours.’
And that, Meredith thought, was that. Her heart he’d nearly broken . . . it belonged to him, cracks and all. To take care of and to keep. She’d never really had any choice.
Bowing her head, Mallory wrapped her arms around herself, her sobs quiet, yet forceful. ‘I thought he was going to kill you.’
Meredith smoothed Mallory’s hair. ‘But he didn’t. Because you saved me.’
‘That was remarkably brave,’ Adam added. ‘And we’re all grateful.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I’m grateful,’ he added gruffly.
Locking eyes with his, Meredith brought their joined hands to her cheek and held them there. His eyes were no longer remote and expressionless, no longer filled with anguish or even pride. They burned with something far more. He rubbed a thumb over her lips and for a moment it was like they were alone in a lovely bubble.
Then Mallory looked up, her eyes red and swollen. ‘I knew him.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 9.50 P.M.
I knew him. Adam exchanged a shocked look with Meredith at Mallory’s whispered words. She hadn’t known either.
‘You knew the man who tried to abduct you tonight?’ he asked carefully.