Chapter 37
Jake
When I come to, I’m in the emergency room, surrounded by noise and the thin sheet dividers hanging from the ceiling. I’m hooked up to machines, an IV in my arm. The lights are blinding, the air freezing, and my chest fucking aches.
Daisy.
Where is she?
“Nurse,” I shout. “Nurse!”
A chain drags on metal, clinking, and a woman with a medical mask appears. “Mr. Ryder. How are you feeling?”
Like death warmed over, but now’s not the time to gripe. “A woman. She came here with me. Is she here? Dark hair? Short. Spunky. May have given you a hard time.”
The nurse smiles wide, wide enough to show off a full set of shiny adult braces. “I’ll find her. She’s just getting herself cleaned up.”
“Cleaned?” My pulse spikes. “Is she hurt?”
“No, nothing like that. The police want her clothes for evidence. Now how are you feeling?”
“I’m good.” I look back at the monitor and the pulsing line telling the whole world I’m alive. “Can I go? Where’s Daisy?”
“No, I need you to lie back.” She places a firm hand on my shoulder and I have to say, she’s stronger than I would’ve thought. “The doctor hasn’t seen you yet. We’ve got you stabilized but you’re going to be staying here tonight.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Oh, yes it is,” Daisy’s voice cuts through—and then she appears, wearing hospital scrubs. “You are going to stay through the night.”
“I don’t need—”
“Jacob Ryder.”
That’s a smackdown tone. “Did you meet my mom without me knowing?”
Somewhere behind the rolling bed a nurse laughs, but Daisy doesn’t crack a smile.
“You are staying here for a full work up. I thought I lost you.” She wags a finger. “You are one stupid man.”
“Hey.”
“No. None of that.” She wraps both of her hands around one of mine, warming the freezing digits. “This is where you listen to me.”
“Oh. Because you did such a good job of listening to me.”
“I’ll admit I…” Her face crumples, tears spilling, and I feel like a tub of shit.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I soothe. “Just sit here with me. We’re okay. We made it through.”
Although once I’m not tied up to a hospital bed, I’m going to smack her ass for being so damn stubborn.
“You may need surgery.”
“What? No–”
“Yes. You may. And if they say you do, you’re doing it.”
There’s fury in those glassy brown eyes, and I’m smart enough to nod along.
“Understood. I like those scrubs. It’s a nice look.”
“They’re on loan,” she says. “My clothes were…”
I think back on the scene, on what could have happened if I didn’t come to, if I didn’t have good aim lying down, and my eyes burn with choked up emotion.
When I saw Thompson standing over her with that gun, something inside me just..
.snapped. All that tactical training kicked in, but it wasn’t about the job.
It was about her. I’ve faced worse, but nothing’s ever hit me like the thought of losing her.
My chest aches just thinking about it, and Daisy’s eyes go to the monitor behind the screen.
“Let’s not talk. It’s over. I’m fine. I’m good,” she says quickly. “After he shot Phillip, I ran. But then I realized something had to be wrong, that you had to be hurt…” Her voice cracks as her hand covers her nose and mouth.
“And you came back.”
She nods while big fat tears roll down her cheeks. She collapses against my chest, face tucked into the crook of my neck, and we stay like that until a nurse comes in to say they’re moving me to a room.
Once we’re in a room, the doc comes and tells me he’s got more tests to run and they won’t know much until morning. Right after he exits, Brie and Noah show up with bags of Five Guys goodness that a nurse is quick to tell me I shouldn’t have.
I really hate hospitals, and I need to get out of here, but I sense Daisy’s on edge, so I keep the peace and watch as the three of them scarf down cheeseburgers while I pick at green Jello.
“Turns out Thompson is a contractor,” Brie says. “The FBI has his DNA on file, tied to three different contract killings.”
“How’d that pass us by?” I ask.
“We didn’t test his DNA. Guy has a number of aliases.
CIA-level good. He just happened to use his real name working for Sterling, probably because Weaver and him go back.
” Brie sounds impressed, which I guess makes sense as she’s former CIA.
“One of his aliases—Brian McGaffrey—is on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.”
Turns out that Brie and Noah met up with two FBI agents in Jersey, just outside of the private airport where Phillip planned to change planes. When they got the call about what went down at the hangar, they finished updating the FBI agents and flew straight back.
“Ms. Weaver’s been taken into custody. They’re questioning her in regard to what happened at the hangar. We expect they’ll have a search warrant to search her home and computers by morning. She’s requested a lawyer.”
“And Sterling’s half-brother? Bennett?”
“He’s not walking,” Noah answers. “He owned the private plane that Phillip was taking, and the FBI confirmed that he issued the directive to fuel the plane and prepare it to leave the country. It’ll take time, but now investigators know where to look, they’ll find the connections.
I’d bet one of the first connections will be payment to Thompson. ”
“Who was the other guy?” If he hadn’t moved, I wouldn’t have had to put a second round in him, but he moved, and I couldn’t take the chance. Not with Daisy.
“Police are ID’ing him. As you’d expect, no identification on him. They might know by now,” Noah says.
I fight a yawn, and a nurse stops by to tell us that I need to rest and only one visitor is allowed to stay. It’s pretty clear who my one visitor is, so Noah and Brie prepare to clear out.
“You can go with them,” I say, but Daisy dismisses that notion with a wave. Stubborn.
“We’ll check in in the morning,” Brie says.
“Hudson up to speed?”
“He flew in when we were flying back down. Went to meet with the feds. Ensure the right teams are involved in the fall out. We’ll regroup in the morning,” Noah says, guiding Brie out of the room.
“You get your beauty sleep; you hear me Ryder? Your ugly mug needs it.” I raise my middle finger, and he chuckles.
Yeah, he’s a good guy. He and Brie–both good teammates.
Daisy’s phone vibrates and she picks it up from the windowsill where it’s been plugged in to charge.
“It’s Rhodes. I’ll take this outside.”
“Nonsense. Sit yourself down.”
She rolls her eyes but does as I say.
I listen to her on the phone with her boss—the real one. It’s clear the two of them are more than just boss and employee. There’s a real friendship there, which explains why he hired KOAN to watch out for her when she went all vigilante.
“Well, give her my thanks,” Daisy says, holding the phone an inch from her mouth. She’s telling Rhodes to thank Sydney, his girlfriend, but she’s also another KOAN team member who has spent the last few weeks canvassing the country for others who lost their life savings to Sterling’s gambit.
She ends the call with Rhodes, and I shift on the bed so she can sit beside me. Sure, I’ve got a headache and my chest is sore, but I’m not wounded. It’s ridiculous they’re keeping me here in a backless hospital gown.
She easily hops up and fills the space I made, taking my hand in her lap. I like this. The easiness we have with each other, hell, I love the stubborn little thing. And if I want to keep her in my life, which I do, it’s time to man up.
“What’re your plans? Where are you going after this?”
She inhales. “Honestly, I haven't thought that far. I mean, at this point, I imagine my plants are dead. Although, maybe not. I make a point of buying plants that try real hard.”
This girl.
“Your apartment’s in Chicago, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve been meaning to check out Chicago in the summer.”
“You have?” Her wandering fingers move from my scruff, down my throat, to my clavicle.
“What do you say—and I’m just gonna throw this out here. If it doesn’t work for you, let’s chat about it and find something that does. What do you say I go back with you, then maybe you go back with me.”
“Where’s your place?”
“Ah, I got a summer rental in the mountains in NC. Nothing permanent. But KOAN’s based there for the time being.”
“But if you’re put on another assignment, you could be sent…”
“Anywhere,” I say, honestly. Saying it out loud, it’s better than it was in the forces, but it’s not great. And given the kinds of work I can take on will be limited, something Hudson’s gonna take note of after this episode, I can’t be picky. “We’ll take it day by day, like you said, right?”
“The beauty of what I do is I really can work from everywhere. Right now, you’re kind of one of my favorite people, so…”
Her lips squeeze together like she’s biting back a smile, and I’m blown away by the explosion going on in my chest, this time a good one. Like a lit fuse setting off a crackly, good kind of people-pleasing firecracker.
“You’re one of my favorite people, too.”
I sit there smiling at her like a loon. The moment feels big, like we’ve agreed on something and we’re in the same place. And yeah, I’ve fallen hard for this one. And I don’t even mind. Not one iota.