Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
It’d been twenty-eight hours since the love of his life had taken a bullet.
Twenty-one hours since she’d woken up from surgery.
And now an hour and a half since she’d forced him to go shower and change his clothes before he was allowed to come back.
He hadn’t wanted to leave her side—prepared not to move a damn muscle. But she hadn’t given him a choice. She even pulled her pouty lips and puppy dog eyes out on him. Morphine helped her pain, but it didn’t dent her personality one bit.
He did feel better about showering and cleaning the filth of what happened off him, though.
“How are you feeling?” he asked once he was back at her side.
“Like I’ve been shot.”
Of course. This woman. His everything would smile and joke.
“What do you have there?” Her eyes moved to his hand.
He held an iPad between them. “I downloaded some of your favorite movies for you to watch while you’re here.”
“Oh?” Her smile carried to her eyes, a sexiness to her tone when she’d dropped that little word, too.
He set the iPad on the rolling cart by the bed and reached for her hand. “Not Ghost, though. I’m thinking I won’t be watching that movie anytime soon.”
“But it’s so good.” Her speech was barely affected by all the pain meds he was sure the nurses were pumping into her. For the most part, you’d never think the woman had been shot if she weren’t in a bed connected to IVs. “How about, You had me at hello?”
“Jerry Maguire?” He gently pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, noticing her ears bare. She almost always had her earrings on, the ones he’d given her. The nurses must’ve taken them off for surgery. “Yeah.” He smiled and pulled his hand back. “Downloaded.”
“Ever After?” She perked a brow.
“What’s that?” He cocked his head to the side.
“It’s a version of Cinderella. How could you not remember that’s a favorite of mine?”
He reached for the tablet and swiped at the screen to unlock it. He pulled up the movies, and some of the color in her cheeks returned when she spotted Ever After.
“You.”
“Of course I didn’t forget. I know everything about you.” He released the iPad and scooted closer to the bed, his heart still hurting at the sight of her in it.
It should’ve been him in that bed, but she had the heart of a saint, and she’d given her vest to a kid at the chance Nina’s daughter could get hurt.
“Actually, I take that back, I didn’t know about the vibrator.” His lips twitched into a teasing grin. “We still haven’t talked about that.”
She sucked her bottom lip inward. “About that.”
“You were joking?” He leaned closer, his mouth hovering near hers.
“No, I was very serious.” Her lips tipped into a smile. “But I didn’t have you to satisfy me, so, what’d you expect?”
“Good point.” He kissed her softly, not wanting to jostle her in the slightest and cause her pain. “My parents and your dad should be here soon.”
Since Knox had jacked his dad’s plane, Secret Service had to secure another private jet, so it was taking them longer to get there.
“Is it safe for your parents to travel with Glenn out there?”
She was lying in a hospital bed after having undergone surgery to repair a bullet wound, and yet, she was still worrying about others.
“Glenn only targeted my mom to protect his own secrets. He has no reason to risk going after her now that the truth is out there.”
“But it’s not. The truth isn’t out there yet. Will your mom have to tell the press? And what does that mean for you? For Bravo?”
A question mark still hung over the fate of the teams, and he didn’t want to think about that right now. “Don’t stress about that, okay?”
“Easier said than done.” Her eyes thinned. “If you’re hurting, it hurts me, too.”
“I—”
“Hey, sorry to interrupt.”
Knox turned to see Luke standing in the doorway.
“I have news. Can I steal you for a moment?” Guilt still shadowed Luke’s eyes. He’d apologized a dozen times since the infil of the compound. Even Roman had said a million sorrys as if he was somehow responsible for what happened to Adriana.
But how could Knox be mad at anyone on his team? Ultimately, it’d been Adriana’s decision, and he had to accept she was willing to do whatever necessary for her country. Same as him. It hurt like hell to think about her risking her life, but he loved her too much to stand in her way.
“I’d like to hear,” Adriana said, trying to sit up a bit.
“You sure you’re up for it?” Luke came closer to the bed. “So sorry again for what happened,” he said. “Knox was right, and I—”
“No. I was where I should’ve been.” Her brows stitched together. “You men love to take the blame for everything and hold the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
Luke peered at Knox, and a smile skirted his lips as he pointed a finger Adriana’s way. “Damn, if she’s this tough while on morphine, I can’t imagine what she’s like without the meds.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, knowing full well she’d be swatting his arm if she hadn’t been shot yesterday.
“So, good news or bad?” Knox redirected his focus to Luke, whose face was giving nothing away as he stood on the other side of the bed.
“We got word from Quinn. With the militia taken down, and Nina pulling through surgery without a problem—it must’ve scared Leslie.
She confessed. I don’t know if her story is bullshit or not until we can verify some of the details, but she said Nina came to her three months ago with a bunch of Polaroids. ”
“What’d the pictures show?” she asked.
“They were taken within a week of the death of Nina’s parents. Apparently, Nina recognized Leslie and your mom in the photos and accused Leslie of killing her parents to hide something.”
“But Leslie wasn’t part of my mom’s team,” Knox said, still not quite following.
“No, but she was having an affair with Glenn. They’ve been involved on and off for forty-two years. Since Nina’s mom was following Glenn, she also caught their affair on camera.”
“Is that what Leslie wanted to hide?” An affair was better than espionage, he supposed. “Was Nina right about anything?”
“Nina’s mom had tried to blackmail Glenn back then with the photos. She knew the Americans were on to her as a traitor, so she spied on Glenn to find something to use against him.”
“So, did Glenn kill Nina’s parents?” Adriana asked, her voice soft.
“Leslie claims she has no idea if Glenn’s to blame for that, and she said she didn’t ask questions back then.
The whole ‘ignorance is bliss’ thing. A day after Nina’s mom attempted to blackmail Glenn, though, she and her husband died.
” Luke folded his arms. “Nina went to Leslie with the pictures, threatening to expose the affair and share her theory about her parents’ death, so Leslie went to Glenn for help. ”
“And when my mom suggested she should go public about everything—disclose that she was CIA and a member of a covert group—Glenn realized both Nina and my mom could jeopardize his secrets.” Son of a bitch. And all that time they’d been having him over to family dinners. He wanted to puke.
“So, Nina goes to Leslie, Leslie goes to Glenn, and Glenn pulls their former team together. When he realized Kathleen might reveal the skeletons in their closets, he scrambled to enact a plan,” Adriana said.
“Manipulating Nina into thinking my mom staged her parents’ deaths.”
“Will people find out the truth about the covert group?” Adriana asked.
“Leslie knows Glenn was CIA, so it appears she made the assumption that everyone else in those photos was as well. She never mentioned to the Feds that Glenn or your mom were part of an off-the-books group, though. So, as far as I can tell, the only information that may leak to the press is that your mom was CIA,” Luke explained.
“I don’t know if we can trust Leslie or not, but damned if I’m glad she’s not going to be vice president of our country, regardless.
She announced her withdrawal fifteen minutes ago outside the FBI office with Director Mendez alongside her. ”
Mendez had called Knox to personally apologize that morning, and Knox had a feeling it’d been at President Rydell’s insistence. Maybe in a few years, Quinn would take over his job.
“The press must be going crazy over this.” Knox stood and tucked his hands into the back of his jeans pockets.
Luke jerked a thumb over his shoulder and smiled at Knox and Adriana. “Sounds like your folks are here judging by all the commotion.” He peeked out into the hall. “You ready to see them?”
“Yeah,” Adriana said with a smile.
A few moments later, Secret Service escorted Knox’s parents and Adriana’s father into the room. Her dad pulled Knox in for a tight hug before quickly letting go to get to Adriana.
Knox’s dad motioned for him to join him in the hall.
“You didn’t . . . did you?” he overheard Adriana ask her father, probably worried her near-death incident pushed him over the edge to drink.
“Still have my chip,” he responded, but his voice broke in the process. Relief. Worry. Fear. Hell, all of the above, probably moved through him at the sight of his daughter in that bed.
“You holding up okay, Son?” His dad was dressed more casually than he’d seen him lately. Jeans and a navy button-down. Even the sleeves were rolled to the elbows.
Knox glanced at Rodriguez a few paces back before redirecting his focus on his father. “Yeah, she’s okay, so I’m okay.”
He braced a hand over Knox’s shoulder. “That was a brave thing doing what you did. A little foolish since you could’ve ended up in jail for it, too, but brave, nevertheless. Not that I’d expect anything different from you.”
Knox shifted his attention to the room, and to his mother standing alongside Adriana in one of her typical pantsuits. “You don’t think Mom knew what Glenn did back then, do you?” A sinking feeling hit his stomach when he looked back at his dad.