Chapter 19
NINETEEN
“And that’s when he filled me in on his good buddy, Senator Lorne Robbins,” Wren said.
Elias sat on her right hand side at a table in Watchdog’s main conference room as she recounted her meeting with Weisser earlier that day. Kyle sat to her left, at the head of the table. Across from her sat Lachlan next to Gabe, who looked like he was reading Wren’s lips as she spoke. Gabe had offered his chair to Gina before the meeting started, but she shook her head and leaned against the wall instead.
“Old habits die hard,” she’d told him with a grin.
“Her knees don’t bend during meetings unless she’s pacing,” Lachlan clarified. “Isn’t that right, Sunshine?” He winked at Gina, who rolled her golden eyes with a laugh.
Waylon sat by Gabe, then Ben next to Waylon. Bear sat at the other end of the table, taking up all of it. Shane sat on Elias’ right side with another Watchdog bodyguard who Kyle introduced to Wren as Charlene King, better known as Charlie. Elias had met her before—she had served with their friend Badger as a SWCC in the Navy. Charlie was a stunning woman, tall and all lean muscle. Elias caught Ben eyeing her more than once.
Elias squeezed Wren’s hand under the table. He was so damn proud of his woman because holy shit was Wren smart and brave. She handled that son of a bitch Weisser like a pro, got him slobbering all over himself to spill everything, and all because he wanted to get his dick wet with a celebrity—which of course would never happen. Wren told them Barbie had laughed about the phone call when Wren called her from a rental car on the way to Denver International Airport, where Gina somehow sneaked her back out after Wren had gone through security.
Bet the only thing that man can cook is books Barbie had told Wren.
But along with Elias’ pride in her came alarm. “Are you sure your disguise worked, babe?”
She touched the black-haired wig still on her head. “Did you or did you not walk right past me at Riversong yesterday?”
Elias jerked back. “Wait. You were at Riversong?”
“I rest my case.” She gave him a smug grin. “Gina taught me well.”
“Like I told you, you’re a natural, Wren,” Gina said.
“In addition to the disguise,” Kyle said, “You’ll both be guests of Watchdog’s finest safehouse until this blows over.”
“Appreciated,” Elias said, dipping his chin.
“So, we have confirmation of the link between Weisser and the senator that Kit suspected,” Gina said.
“Yup,” Wren confirmed. “And now we know the deal. Senator Robbins is getting a percentage from the loans too, through a shell company. And he’s about to make sure those loans get worse. We’re talking nightmare-level worse.”
“How so?” Lach asked.
“He’s pushing for two pieces of legislation in Colorado. The first supposedly protects patients’ HIPAA rights but actually makes it harder to reveal these predatory loans. The second is where the real nightmare comes in.”
“What nightmare?” Kyle asked.
Wren cleared her throat and took a big drink of water with lemon slices from a glass tumbler. She’d been talking for nearly an hour and her voice was showing it.
“Okay, imagine this. You’ve been diagnosed with cancer. You go to Milestone, which has just opened a shiny new oncology wing.”
“Named after Barbie Gillis?” Waylon joked.
Wren snickered. “Yeah, right. In Weisser’s wet dreams.” She crinkled her nose in disgust and squeezed Elias’ hand tighter.
I’m going to give her an extra-long massage tonight followed by a string of orgasms until that foul image is obliterated from her head .
Wren continued. “No surprise, your insurance won’t cover everything. You don’t want to die, but you also don’t have ten thousand dollars in spare change lost somewhere in your sofa. So you take out a loan from the hospital to cover the difference. The hospital loan is zero-percent interest and you have a long time to pay it back. Sounds great, right?”
Gina started pacing. “Too great. What’s the catch?”
“The catch is when Milestone gives your account to LastSave Lenders. You keep paying on time but then months later, you begin receiving late notices, even though you’re making payments. Turns out your payments are only being applied to your surgery, not your medical appointments, or maybe your hospital stay. It doesn’t matter—you’re past-due.
“And that zero-interest offer goes away,” Gina said.
“Yup, that zero-interest offer goes away,” Wren confirmed. “And they don’t tell you right away. They let those bills pile up for a few months without sending a notice. Then, you get hit with late penalties and an interest rate that is just under the legal maximum limit.”
Gina looked sick. Her expression matched the feeling in Elias’ stomach. “They purposefully neglect bundling everything and they don’t tell you, or give you any warning.”
Wren nodded. “Exactly. And the patient is also getting bills from the oncologist, and the anesthesiologist, and the PT person, and probably the dog next door. They do any number of things to make the payments more confusing. And if that doesn’t work, they’ve already gotten you to sign a ‘Surprise Billing Protection Form’—which is anything but—at the beginning of your treatment. It allows them to get around the No Surprises Act.”
“So, Robbins is working on legislation that will make all this a reality?”
Wren shook her head sadly. “Oh, no, Gina. This is already reality. And Robbins is about to make it so much worse. Colorado passed legislation that says a hospital can’t put a lien on your house. However, LastSave Lenders can and does. Robbins wants a bill that streamlines the process. LastSave Lenders forgives the sad little ten grand you owe them, but they have your home. Robbins calls it The Secure Healthcare Lending Initiative.”
Gina looked horrified. “Let me guess. Alongside the HIPAA legislation he’s pushing, it will be impossible to get the evidence to prove that the lending company is targeting patients who own their homes, or show that they are engaging in predatory lending practices. The legislation will prevent patients from entering the evidence with the excuse that they are ‘protecting their privacy’ for their own good.”
Wren tapped the tip of her nose. “You got it.”
Gina grimaced and closed her eyes. “Disgusting.”
“Utterly. But.” Wren’s expression changed from disgust to triumph. She bent down to pick up one of the Louboutins she’d kicked off the minute she’d sat down. “Thanks to you, I’ve got it all recorded here.” She tapped the side of the shoe. “Thanks for letting me borrow these, but my God, I’m never walking in them again.”
Gina laughed. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to wear them, and I have not missed the pinched toes.”
Lachlan scoffed. “I didn’t even know you still had those.”
“Oh, I kept quite a few toys from my previous life.”
“Can I see?” Elias asked. Wren handed him the shoe. He turned the wicked-looking thing in his hands. How does any woman wear these? “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
Gina came around the table and took the shoe from Elias. “It’s under the leather bow on the back.” She fiddled with the bow until it lifted, revealing a tiny port for a cable. “The recorder is at the top of the heel at its widest. The mic is located at the toe, here.” She ran her finger down the side of the shoe to the pointy toe.
“I crossed my leg to lift the shoe and pointed the toe at Weisser the Weasel as soon as we started talking,” Wren said. “I hope it worked.”
“Oh, it did, trust me,” Gina said. “The mic’s good, probably even picked up all the noise from the airport.”
She set the shoe on the table. “Now for the next step. Mile High Marker killed the story and I have a feeling that other publications in Colorado would, too. Maybe even further afield. Milestone is part of a network of hospitals spreading across the country and they all use the same loan company.”
“So how do we get the word out there?” Wren asked. The frustration in her voice made Elias stroke his thumb across the back of her hand.
Gina’s eyes shone as she looked at Lachlan, who nodded. “We have a friend. She’s a journalist with her own platform who specializes in stories like these. Kyla Lewis Dean.”
Wren’s eyes and smile both got a whole lot bigger. “She’s a legend. Wait, she hired Watchdog, didn’t she? When everything went down with her a year or two ago?”
Humor danced in Gina’s eyes. “Yes. But first, I was investigating her .”
Wren covered her mouth. “Was that before Kyla went…” she trailed off.
Gina nodded.
“Can someone clue me in?” Elias asked.
Wren tilted her head. “You don’t listen to podcasts, do you?”
“What’s a podcast?”
She rolled her eyes. “Smartass. Kyla used to be a reporter in Los Angeles. Now she has a huge following on her podcast, Up She Rises . She exposes all sorts of corruption.”
“If she can help us, that’s great. I might even listen to her podcast.”
Gina patted his shoulder. “If you start with episode eight, Rumors , you’ll know her story. Well, at least the parts she can tell without endangering or incriminating anyone. Including me.”
She tapped the shoe. “Let me listen to this first, then I’ll contact Kyla. She’ll want in on the story for sure.” Gina looked at Lachlan again. “Lach insists I’m retired now?—”
“Because you are, lass.”
“—but that doesn’t mean I can’t pass a little info about the loan sharks along to the Los Angeles Watchdog office. We have quite the hacker there. Once she looks into LastSave Lenders and gathers proof—and rest assured, she will—she’ll have no problem redistributing funds much quicker than the law will, if they do so at all.”
“You mean give the money back to Matthew and Arthur,” Elias said.
Gina nodded. “And Evan, and anyone else they’ve robbed. The money will also be untraceable, if needed.” She gave the room a wicked smile, her gaze dancing from Gabe on down to Bear. “You gentlemen are not the only ones who know how to help people who’ve fallen through the cracks.”
After they finished discussing the third part of the plan—which truly made Elias feel uneasy—the meeting adjourned.
Kyle led Elias and Wren—happily out of her disguise and back in her favorite cowgirl boots—on a picturesque walk through Watchdog’s property, an entire forest-covered stray foothill east of Lyons. The sun had set but the path through the trees was lined with lampposts.
“Here we are,” Kyle said when they reached a clearing that turned out to be a backyard. “Watchdog Protection’s finest safehouse. I took you the back way because it’s shorter than using the road.”
“It’s cute,” Wren told Kyle.
“You sound surprised.”
“I guess I was picturing some sort of bunker situation.”
Kyle chuckled. “Negative. Watchdog bought the few houses scattered on the foothill, including my wife’s small ranch further up the road. Arden will be down in the morning to meet you, Wren, and make sure you’re comfortable. She loves visitors.”
“Oh, good! Ellie was telling me about her.”
“They’re good friends.” His grin lit up his ice-blue eyes. “I think you’re gonna fit right in.”
“Bear actually fixed this place up,” Elias said. “And it’s where he?—”
“Met Ellie,” she finished. “She told me all about it.”
“I’ll leave you two to get settled in,” Kyle said. “You’ve got the key, brother?”
“Right here.” Elias took the house key out of his shirt pocket. He’d been by the house earlier, bringing Penny and Chuck and a couple suitcases. His truck was parked out front.
“Thanks, Kyle.” Wren hugged the tall man, catching him by surprise, Elias thought, judging by the look in his eye.
“Good night.” Kyle gave them a chin lift and headed for the front yard and the road up to his home and Arden.
Elias turned and pulled Wren into his arms.
“I’ve wanted to do this all day, baby.” He swayed her gently while the crickets sang around them and the first stars glittered in the darkening blue sky above. He nuzzled in her hair as she lay her cheek against his shoulder, right where it fit perfectly.
“I know you’re worried about the next part.” Her breath was soft and warm against his neck. “But I’ll be all right. Today was way more risky, honestly.”
Elias disagreed. Strongly.
But that was not tonight’s problem. Tonight was all about pleasuring his woman.
Right after something even more important .
Wren lifted her head. “Your heart suddenly sped up. Please don’t be worried and give yourself a heart attack.”
“Well, if I did, I know what hospital I wouldn’t go to.”
Wren barked out a laugh and immediately covered her mouth. “Oh God. I’m slap-happy enough to laugh at that. So inappropriate.”
“It’s just gallows humor. You’d be shocked and appalled by what we say back at the station after a rough shift. But it eases the tension.”
Wren dropped her hand and frowned up at him. “I’m sorry you’re so tense about what’s going on.”
He shook his head. “It’s about not that, baby.”
“Then what?”
“It’s about this.”
Elias dropped to one knee.
Wren’s hands flew back up to cover her mouth. “I thought you already did this like ten days ago after that amazing “marry me” ribeye I cooked for you.”
He pulled her hands down away from her face and held them. “Baby, that was not the proposal you deserved. I’m not sure this one is, either. You deserve to be proposed to on a tropical beach, or someplace fancy and romantic like Paris. And by someone way better than me, because you are, in all ways, far above my paygrade.”
“I don’t want someone way better than you. I don’t like guys who are way better than you. Because they actually aren’t way better than you.” She closed her eyes and threw her head back. “I’m spoiling this with my babbling, aren’t I?”
Elias successfully fought back a laugh.
“Open your eyes and look at me, Wren Stapleton.”
Using her full name got her attention. She looked back down at him.
“I realize we’ve only known each other for a month. But I knew from the moment you made me laugh that you were the one. And if you do me the great honor of marrying me, I swear that I will always break your rules by cooking you dinner and doing the dishes.”
She giggled.
“And I will fill my closet with clothes for you to steal.”
She snickered.
“And I will make sure your life is full of laughter. Because I really want all those laugh points.”
She bent in half with laughter. And when she finally looked up, her eyes were full of happy tears.
“I love you so much, Wren, for so many reasons. So please.” Elias reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out the ring he asked Ben to design and create, and held it up. “Please say you’ll marry me.”
Wren wiped her eyes. “I knew you were the one the minute you made me forget that I’d just escaped from a burning building. The entire world disappeared except for you. So, my answer’s the same, my Lion. Yes, I will happily marry you.”
He slipped the ring onto her finger. A perfect fit.
Wren wiped away another tear. “But right now, I have to tell you something very important.”
Elias’ heart hitched. “What is it, baby?”
“We’re…” She sniffled. “We’re…tied on the laugh points right now because I lost track, and I am not giving up that rule.”
Elias laughed as he swept her up off her feet. He laughed as he spun around with her. And he laughed all the way across the yard as he carried Wren to the safehouse.