“I’m not going to allow them to hurt anyone here. The police are coming when Gracie wakes up next. In the meantime, someone from my security company will be here round the clock, and no one who isn’t medical staff or employed by DSS will be allowed access to her room. Someone will be stationed here at all times.”
“I understand your priorities, sir,” the nurse said, sincerity ringing in her voice. “But just as you have to take into consideration what is best for her in order for you to do your job effectively, so too must I prioritize her well-being, both emotional and physical, as long as she is a patient on my floor. And she was quite adamant that she wanted no further visitors today. So if someone is posted here—and they are more than welcome as the staff here would feel much better if there was tight security—then they must take position outside her room.”
“Ouch,” Eliza said, her lips twitching with humor. “I guess you’ve been schooled now.”
Zack shot her a glare. He was in no mood for her sharp wit. He needed about twenty-four hours of sleep, a hot shower, a pot of coffee and to get his hands on the bastards who’d hurt Gracie before he would be remotely mollified.
“It wasn’t my intention to be rude,” the nurse began.
“Oh no, you weren’t rude,” Eliza said, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “Not at all. It’s nice to see the men of DSS taken down a notch or two. It keeps their egos in check.”
The nurse smiled. “That bad, huh. Let me guess. And you’re the only female in the ranks.”
“Got it in one,” Eliza said with a grin.
“I’m Jacquie,” the nurse offered, extending her hand to Eliza.
“Hi, Jacquie,” Eliza returned. “I’m Eliza and this surly guy is Zack. We both work for Devereaux Security.”
Zack’s head was about to explode. He started to ask Eliza if she was high on something. How could she be out here, ribbing, teasing, joking when Gracie lay on the other side of the door, curled into a ball, having cried those silent silver streaks until the nurse had administered the medication, at which point her eyelids had fluttered slowly until her lashes finally came to rest against her cheeks.
Jacquie gave him a thorough assessment, staring intently enough to cause heat to flood his cheeks. He hated being the object of scrutiny.
“I tell you what, Zack,” she said, using the name Eliza had provided. “I just came on an hour ago, so I’ll be here for the next eleven hours. You and Eliza run home, change, grab something to eat. I’ll call down to security and have them post a guard outside her door and I’ll also stay on this end of the floor so I can eyeball her door until y’all get back.”
Okay, so Eliza was a bloody genius who now had the nursing staff eating out of her hand. He silently groaned when Eliza turned her smug smile in his direction. He flipped her the bird when Jacquie’s attention was drawn to Eliza—and her cheeky victory smile. He shook his head. Sassy little heifer.
“Well, you heard the lady. And we are intruding on her turf,” Eliza said pointedly. “But we don’t get all riled up like you men do and start pissing on everything to mark your territory.”
Jacquie laughed. Zack just rolled his eyes. God save him from incorrigible females.
Zack wasted no time when he arrived at his apartment. Eliza had insisted on coming with him, so he’d have backup, since his security had been breached. But he still hurried, not wanting to expose Eliza—or himself—to further risk. If Gracie weren’t in the picture, then hell yeah. He’d bait a trap and he and Beau would run round-the-clock surveillance until the fuckers bit. But she was in the picture. And she needed him, not that she’d admit or accept that, no matter what denials burst off her tongue.
His only thought was to get back to Gracie. He could be relentless. He was relentless. He hadn’t gotten this far by wimping out. One had to be ruthless in order for the cards to fall one’s way. If anyone had ever thought him savage and single-minded, focusing on one goal and one goal only, then they’d know he’d locked on to his target and nothing would deter him from crossing the goal line this time.
Third and long. There’s the snap. Fake to the wide end. Looking . . . looking. He’s tucked the ball! Cut to the inside. Another fake! Oh wait! He just hurdled the defensive end! Folks, does this young man have moves or what? He breaks the tackle! Running . . . running. . . . Ladies and gentlemen! He could go. All. The. Way! Touchdown! With twenty-eight seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Zack Covington has just scored what is potentially the game-winning touchdown!
Remnants of that night. First-round playoffs. They’d been a Cinderella story from the onset of the season. No one ever expected them to make the playoffs. They were rebuilding. Replacing key positions vacated by trades, retirement and injuries.
Even the coach had admitted that they’d surpassed his wildest imaginings. With a majority rookie team plus a few irreplaceable seasoned veterans, they’d stormed onto the football field in week one of the regular season and they hadn’t looked back once. Sixteen and O. The start of the perfect season. Bye in the first round. The W in the second playoff. One more week until the big game.
It had been a huge night. Maybe the biggest night of his life. His old life. He wasn’t that starry-eyed, optimistic kid he’d once been. And the brief respite from so much ice and cold surrounding his heart had been glorious. It had lasted for maybe two minutes. Two wonderful minutes where the numbness couldn’t find him.
And then he’d seen a few of his teammates looking toward the boxes in the stands. One of them balled his fingers into a fist, pounded it against his chest before kissing it and flinging it skyward, straight in the direction of where the player’s wife and baby son sat somewhere in the sea of fans.
It had taken a space of a moment for Zack’s feet to touch back down on earth. There was no one for him to share this with. Gracie was gone.
This time his dream wouldn’t elude him. This time, for once, he wanted something for himself.
He wanted her not to look at him as though he were some monster. He wanted the fear in her eyes to be replaced with laughter and happiness. He wanted to love her.
And he wanted her to love him.
He finished shoving the clothing he needed into an overnight bag and then collected the few toiletries he required from the bathroom. He’d need to go shopping for Gracie after her release from the hospital. Or perhaps Eliza would be willing to pick up a few things for her.
He hurried back to the kitchen area, where Eliza had posted herself so she had a clear view of the front door.
“You ready?” he asked.
Eliza nodded. “But Zack, Jacquie is right. You need to eat. You look terrible.”
He grunted. “Gee, thanks.”
She shrugged. “Just keeping it real.”
“I’ll grab something at the hospital when the cafeteria opens. Gracie will probably want something then too, provided she can eat.”
“Her throat looked pretty bruised. I’d stick with soup or broth for now. That’s likely what they’ll send up on her meal trays anyway.”
“On your toes, Lizzie,” he murmured as they exited his apartment.
“Always,” she said lightly.
Their feet made the lightest of sounds on the concrete sidewalk. At the gate, Zack gave a gentle push, irritated that it squeaked loudly. Fuckers had obviously broken it when they’d broke in to dump Gracie.
They were nearly to Zack’s SUV when a dark, shadowy form appeared just a few feet in front of them.
“Down!” Eliza barked, shoving at Zack.
He dropped and rolled. Before he could get back to his feet, he was hit by what felt like a truck full of concrete. He let out a guttural sound and immediately went limp.
Surprised by the move, his attacker stumbled, unable to bear Zack’s weight. Zack took full advantage, ramming his shoulder into the guy’s midriff and taking him down hard on the asphalt surface.
Zack was just pissed-off enough, and he’d had to keep his fury leashed the entire goddamn
day, that he let the lion out of his cage with a roar.
His sound of rage echoed across the parking lot. His attacker hit the ground, Zack down on top of him. He felt the harsh exhalation of the other man’s breath against his neck. Zack swung, punching viciously.
He reeled back when one of his attacker’s fists connected with his jaw. Goddamn it.
Zack rolled, remaining in motion, not wanting to present too easy a target.
He was tackled, his motion abruptly ceasing. And then, before any more blows could be landed from either side, Eliza’s command cracked the night.
“Hands up where I can see them, asshole! Give me a reason to shoot. Go ahead. You’ll make my entire week,” she snarled.
Zack was freed and the man slowly stepped away. Zack shoved to his feet and was on the guy in a split second. He grabbed one arm and twisted it hard behind his back, whirling the guy into motion. His forward momentum made the rotation easier and Zack pinned the guy’s arm high behind his back to render him immobile.
“Get me a goddamn light, Lizzie.”
A second later, a flashlight turned on and the beam tracked up the attacker’s body and then to his face.
“What the fuck?” Zack demanded. “Sterling? What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
FOURTEEN
BLOOD trickled down Sterling’s nose and his eyes blazed with fury, reflecting eerily by the flashlight Eliza was currently blinding him with.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Zack roared. “How about you take a trip downtown on assault charges. After I beat the shit out of you.”
Sterling’s lips curled with contempt. “You fucking pussy. You couldn’t take me in a fight. You’re too much of a goddamn pansy to ever get your hands dirty. No, you have others beat up on women for you.”
Zack punched him squarely in the jaw, sending the other man reeling backward. Sterling regained his balance and lunged for Zack, propelling both men to the asphalt parking lot.
A shot sounded, jerking Zack up. Sterling reacted no differently, hitting the ground with speed that told Zack the man was trained. His instincts were too good. Too practiced. The suave, wealthy and polished exterior he crafted covered up the raw, street-smart man underneath.
“What the fuck, Lizzie?” Zack roared. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Eliza huffed out in exasperation. “Look, we don’t have time for this shit. We’re out in the open. Not good. You’re calling attention to us. Not good. Need I go on?”
“And you didn’t just shoot a giant fucking firework into the sky?” Zack asked incredulously.
“Someone had to do something,” she pointed out. “Now, what do you say we have this conversation somewhere other than the middle of a public parking lot.”
“We’re done here,” Zack said flatly.
He didn’t know what Sterling’s issue was, but his insinuation that Zack had been purposely responsible for Gracie’s beating? What the fuck? Zack couldn’t even see straight, his vision was so clouded with red rage.
“No, the hell we’re done,” Sterling said. “Where is Anna-Grace? What did you do to her?”
Zack looked at Sterling like he’d grown a second head. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“She’s disappeared, but that shouldn’t be news to you. Coincidentally, she disappears the day after you show up in my studio, harass her and scare the living hell out of her. It doesn’t take much effort to connect the dots here. But you fucked up this time, Covington. Maybe she had no one who cared about her then. But she does now. She’s important to me. And I will protect her even if it means taking you down for good.”
The roar in Zack’s ears was nearly deafening. He was tired of Gracie’s—and now Sterling’s—hints of some past horrific event. He was tired of being found guilty for something he knew goddamn well he hadn’t done.
He’d harassed Gracie? Since when did wanting to know if the woman you loved more than anything in the world was okay constitute harassment?
And now this polished, prissy motherfucker was going to threaten him? Take him down? What the hell?
“I’ve about had enough of this dancing around the issue shit,” Zack growled. “Someone is going to tell me what the fuck it is I supposedly did to Gracie twelve years ago. Because looking at things from my side? I got dumped. Not only did I get dumped but I didn’t even get the courtesy of a ‘have a nice life’ or ‘goodbye.’ Not even a ‘fuck off, I never want to see you again.’ I got nothing. So for twelve years—twelve fucking years—I’ve thought the worst. And believe me when I say I have a rather vivid imagination. Then I finally locate her, only she’s not hurt. She doesn’t need anything. She’s happy. Started a new life. But the icing on the cake? She acts like I’m some kind of goddamn monster. Like I’m going to hurt her when she knows it’s the last fucking thing I’d ever do. I would have given her the entire world, but she pissed that into the wind when she disappeared, leaving me to think the absolute worst.”
Sterling stirred and looked very much like he wanted to start round three. Zack bristled, every muscle in his body tensing in readiness. Sterling wanted a fight, and Zack was spoiling to give him one.
“Damn it, you two!” Eliza exclaimed. “Swear to God, the next one to throw a punch is going to get shot. I wouldn’t even be prosecuted. They’d consider me to have saved the world from Dumb and Dumber here.”
“You are not helping, Eliza,” Zack said through his clenched jaw.
“Listen up, because we don’t have a lot of time,” she said in a brisk voice. She pointed her finger—the one not curled around the trigger of her pistol—at Sterling, irritation evident in her eyes and words. “You’re coming with us.”
“No—!”
The automatic denial was said simultaneously by both men. Zack shot the other man a glare and then turned his glare on his current pain in his ass.
“You’re right. We don’t have a lot of time, which is why I’m not wasting it on his sorry ass,” Zack said, gesturing toward Sterling.
“The only place I’ll follow you to is hell,” Sterling bit out. “Just to make sure you stay there.”
“Shut up! Jesus. And they say women never shut up,” Eliza grumbled. “Now get in. Both of you!”
She gestured with the gun, indicating that Zack and Sterling should both get into Zack’s SUV.
“You drive, Zack. Don’t give a fuck where. But long enough that I can have a little chat with our friend here and so I can keep a gun on him in case he decides to do something really stupid like pissing me off even more.”
“You’re serious?” Zack asked in clear astonishment.
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
Sterling didn’t look any more pleased than Zack but it was clear he had a healthy respect for the gun Eliza held.
Eliza yanked open the door to the backseat and pointed her gun at Sterling, then whipped it sideways, motioning for him to get in.
Sterling emitted a string of curses and Zack could swear he heard the other man mumble something about crazy-ass women with guns. If this weren’t such a what-the-fuck moment, Zack would laugh at the other man’s bemusement. It was always fun to watch people’s realization that Eliza wasn’t a harmless ball of fluff. She was always underestimated, a fact she’d told Zack had benefited her on more than one occasion.
Shaking his head and having his own sour thoughts about women—a particular woman—with guns, Zack climbed into the driver’s seat and cranked the engine.
“Where we going, Lizzie?” Zack asked in resignation.
He absolutely believed she’d shoot one or both of them. She wouldn’t kill them, but she’d certainly do some minor damage. She was a crack shot and could hit a target the size of a dime smack in the middle. So if she decided to permanently rearrange a guy’s balls, he knew she was absolutely capable.
“Don’t care,” she muttered, obviously still aggravated. “I need a few minutes and then you can drop him back off a block from here and let him walk
back to his vehicle. By then the cops will likely be here.”
“And I’m supposed to explain how I arrived on foot at an apartment complex I don’t live in, to my vehicle that is parked there?” Sterling snapped.
“That’s your problem, not mine,” she said sweetly. “I’m sure you’ll have no interest in talking to the cops, seeing as you assaulted one of the tenants. A night in lockup might do you good, although you’d be sprung in under an hour, I’m sure.”
“Thirty minutes,” he snarled. “And so help me, you little wench. This isn’t finished, nor will I forget it.”
“Yawn,” she said, dragging out the word as if she had indeed yawned.
“So speak, Lizzie,” Zack said impatiently. “We don’t have all night.”
There was a pause. Silence filled the interior of the SUV and then Eliza finally spoke.
“Zack is getting pretty damn tired of the jabs about some mysterious event that transpired twelve years ago. Hell, I’m tired of it and I’m sure he’s hit his head against the brick wall more often than I have.”
That was the fucking truth. And then he realized what Eliza was doing. He’d been so focused on getting into and out of his complex that Sterling’s reference to what had happened twelve years ago had bounced off him and hadn’t been followed up on. Damn it.
His fingers curled around the steering wheel, the skin over his knuckles stretching thin. He was careful to make no sound. His respirations even shallowed as he strained to hear whatever it was Sterling had to say.
“You’re kidding, right?” Sterling asked in disbelief.
“Does it look like I’m joking?” Eliza ground out. “Start talking, Sterling. Either that or I’m going to start shooting, and in these close quarters, I can’t guarantee I won’t hit anything vital, although I’d really prefer not to have to clean up your blood from all over the inside of the vehicle. Blood makes me sick.”
“Unbelievable,” Sterling murmured. “I wonder, has he got all of you believing this innocent-victim act? Are you supposed to feel sorry for the asshole? Has he been telling you that Anna-Grace walked out on him without explanation, without a word, and he never saw her again?”
“I want to hear your story,” Eliza persisted. “We know Zack’s story. Now we want yours. Or what you say really happened. Cough it up.”
Zack went completely silent. Hopefully Sterling would get over his issues with Zack long enough to give them the information he so badly wanted—needed. But at the same time, he braced himself, holding his breath, because it had to be bad.
Instinctively, he knew it wasn’t something minor. It had to have been huge to send Gracie running. Away from him. And twelve years of silence? Of thinking he had betrayed her? Zack had always made it clear that Gracie could come to him for anything. He’d thought she always did. But it seemed when she needed him the absolutely most, she’d turned away from him and left without a word.
“Christ,” Sterling muttered.
“Just say it, for fuck’s sake,” Eliza pressed.
Zack knew that tone. Knew she was fast running out of patience, and if Sterling didn’t start talking soon, she would likely lose her temper and start doing bodily injury to the man.
“He had her raped,” Sterling said in disgust.
Zack slammed on the brakes so hard the SUV fishtailed, swerved left and right before he wrestled the steering wheel enough to screech to a halt on the shoulder of the highway. He whirled around in his seat, the seat belt flying as he disengaged it.
Rage smoldered through his veins and he fixed Sterling with the full force of his wrath.
“What the fuck are you talking about? You better not leave a goddamn word out and you better have a solid goddamn reason for even suggesting such a thing. I loved her. I fucking adored her. She was my entire life! I worshipped the ground she walked on. I would have killed the bastard who laid hands on her. Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me she wasn’t raped.”
Sterling’s brows drew together and he looked at Zack in confusion. His gaze flickered as he continued to study the seething man. The air in the SUV crackled with electric tension. Zack had never wanted to take someone apart with his hands more than right now.
Was Sterling telling the truth? Had Gracie been raped? And what the fuck was he saying he’d had her raped? He was near to exploding and Eliza must have sensed it because she hurriedly intervened, putting her hand up to squeeze Zack’s hand that gripped the back of his seat.
“Don’t you leave a fucking word out,” Zack said around his clenched jaw. “So help me God, if you fuck me around on this I will make your life a living hell.”
Sterling continued to stare at him and Zack could see the wheels turning in the other man’s head. And Zack was beginning to grow antsy under the other man’s scrutiny. Almost as if Sterling was passing judgment over Zack. Fuck that. He didn’t need this goddamn pansy-ass bastard’s approval or his belief. He didn’t give a fuck what Sterling thought. The only person Zack needed to get through to was Gracie.
“Jesus Christ,” Sterling breathed, finally responding after his intense analyzation. “You didn’t do it, did you?”
“Didn’t do what?” Zack yelled. “No one will tell me what the fuck happened! I’m tired of everyone speaking in riddles. Just tell me what supposedly happened twelve years ago.”
Sterling rubbed a hand over his face, sagging back against the seat.