Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
“T he team on site called ahead to the hospital to let us know that the rapid results showed the powder substance contained in the envelope wasn’t a bio-hazard or dangerous chemical.” The doctor listened to Gage’s heart again. “So, I’m happy to report that you are in good health and not in any danger of that changing right now.”
“Great.” Gage reached over and tugged his shirt back on. They’d done a complete respiratory workup on him, drained him of ten vials of blood and made him piss in a cup. All while they refused to give him an update on Sloane because he wasn’t technically her next of kin. It shouldn’t factor into things, but Gage would be lying if he said he wasn’t thinking about marching Sloane down to the Clarence County Courthouse to get hitched the next morning. “I’ll get out of your hair then, Doc. Can you tell me where Sloane is? I want to sit with her until she gets the all clear to leave.”
“Ms. Donovan is actually getting a few extra tests run before we clear her to leave. You can stay in the waiting room and I can have a nurse come get you if she asks for support once her tests are complete.”
“ Doctor Donovan.” Fuck, he was so sick of people ignoring her accomplishments.
“I’m sorry?”
“You called her ‘Ms. Donovan’ a second ago. My girlfriend worked extremely hard to earn her Doctorate of Psychology, and should be addressed by her earned title. Doctor Donovan.”
The doctor smiled. “Of course. Forgive me. If you take a left out of this room, and walk to the end of the hallway, the double doors will lead you out to the waiting room.”
“Right,” Gage rumbled. “Thanks again.”
He walked down the hallway slower than he should have, hoping to hear her voice as he passed by the rooms. But by the time he hit the double doors, he was no closer to finding out where Sloane was than when he stepped out of his exam room.
“God, it’s about time!” Mae rushed towards him with her arms outstretched. “Are you okay? Where’s Sloane? No one would tell us anything!”
“I’m fine. The powder turned out to be nothing toxic.”
“Hawk was good for one thing and already let me know that. Why did Sloane have such a bad reaction then? Was it just because she inhaled so much of it?”
“I think it was more a stress reaction than anything else, truth be told.”
“What aren’t you saying?” He knew the worry on Mae’s face was a reflection of his own feelings.
“You got anything you want to update us on?” Stone called from where he was sitting.
“Nice of you guys to get up. Could have been dying back there for all you knew.”
“Nah,” Hawk chuckled. “You were bitching to the doctors too much about staying with Sloane when we first got here. Knew you were going to be fine.”
“Oh, thank god you guys are okay too!” Gage turned as Mae rushed to embrace Lily and Sage.
“You guys are good, for sure?” Nash asked.
“Yeah. Sage actually has an ear infection we didn’t know about, but other than that, we’re all fine.”
“Track, you good?” Gunner asked.
“Yup. Just waiting to find out if Sloane is okay. They wouldn’t let me back with her, and said I could wait out here unless she asked for me. You know her, she’s probably back there feeling guilty we’re in this position so she won’t.”
“I talked to Colt when he got here,” Stone said. “He said he’d relieve the deputy with Sloane and wouldn’t leave her side until you were able to be back there with her.”
Colton Ford, Dolly’s oldest son, was a deputy with the Clarence County Sheriff’s Department, and if there was anyone outside of the team or the sheriff himself that he felt comfortable with handing over Sloane’s safety to, it was Colt.
“Thanks, Doc.”
“I can go talk to a nurse if you want,” Lily offered. “See if I can get you back to her.”
“No, I appreciate that, but you all should go home. If Sage has an ear infection, she might be extra fussy tonight. Best to have her home and in a familiar setting.”
“What do we know about the package?” Gunner asked.
“They’re going to run forensics on everything, obviously, but we know the name on the package wasn’t who actually sent it.” Nash offered.
“What do you mean?” Gunner asked.
“I saw it before the emergency crew showed up. Davis Martinez apparently sent the mask and powder to Sloane.”
“That name sounds so familiar…” Lily whispered as she looked up at her husband.
“Davis was Sloane’s boyfriend in college. The one who was murdered in front of her.”
“Oh, god.”
“Agent Liu is making her way here,” Hawk reported as he tucked his cell phone back into his pocket. “I sent her all the updated information I was able to get from the deputies before I made my way over here.”
“Thanks, man. Fuck, I feel so helpless. He knows where she is. This is it. It’s the warning we’ve been waiting for. He’s going to come for her. How the hell am I supposed to keep her safe?”
“Tracker, I hate to say it.” Nash rubbed the back of his neck. “This feels like a response drill.”
Hawk and Stone took a step closer to the group, closing the circle around Gage.
“You think…”
“Someone sent that and then watched to see how we would respond? Yeah, I think it’s a possibility. I think we need to have that conversation with Sloane.” Nash at least had the decency to look remorseful about bringing it up again.
Gage rubbed his hand across his jaw. Christ. He needed to get to her. Something was itching under his skin and he was starting to feel frayed.
“We’re not using her as bait. That idea was fucking stupid the first time you brought it up to me, Wings. I’m not listening to it again.”
“Wasn’t my idea, Track. Agent Liu said she wanted to?—”
“I don’t fucking care. We are not putting the woman I love in this prick’s path any more than she already is.”
“She’d want to help, in whatever way she could,” Lily insisted. “I can be with you if you want to talk about it with her.”
“It’s not happening tonight.” Gunner wrapped his arms around Lily, Gage instantly catching the way his palm landed on her belly. “You’ve been through something stressful today. You heard what the doctor said.”
“Gunner.” Alarm bells went off in Gage’s mind as he watched the silent exchange between Lily and his best friend.
“What did the doctor say? Are you okay?” Mae asked.
“I’m fine. They ran a test. I’m not pregnant.” Lily’s eyes filled with tears as Gunner wrapped his arms around her back.
“Wait, I thought not being pregnant was a good thing. Weren’t you guys worried about it being too soon?” Hawk asked.
“Yeah, we were.” Lily sniffled as she patted Sage’s back, who was fast asleep on her shoulder. “It was hard to not get a little excited though. To imagine Sage being a big sister.”
“Aw, Lily. It’ll happen when the time is right.” Mae squeezed her arm. Gage wanted to offer comfort to his friends, but something was starting to itch under his skin. He didn’t like how unsettled he felt. There was no way he was going to be able to be away from Sloane for much longer.
Hawk opened his arms before stepping closer to them.
“Yeah, there’s no way I’m letting you hug my wife right now. Or ever.” Gunner grumbled.
“Oh, this hug wasn’t for her, Reap.” Hawk wiggled his eyebrows up and down and Nash snorted with laughter.
“Thanks for that, Hawk.” Lily smiled up at the idiot. At least he could be counted on to break the tension with humor.
“Any time, Lily. You know you’re like the little sister I always wanted. I hate seeing you upset.”
“Excuse you? You have a little sister!” Mae pulled her arm back and launched one hell of a punch right into Hawk’s side.
“Ow! Now you know why you aren’t the little sister I always wanted. Hurting me like that.”
The two siblings continued their squabbling as Gage looked out into the hallway. He gave Gunner a quick nod and walked out of the waiting room. There wasn’t a truly quiet spot to stop and think, so the hallway would have to do.
If he had access to his laptop, he could review footage from the security cameras set up around Montgomery Defense. His stomach rolled when he thought about what would have happened if he hadn’t been in the office with Sloane and Lily when Courtney dropped off that envelope.
A warning bell popped up in his mind. Courtney had mentioned bumping into Dillon and getting the package from him so he could keep going on his mail route, but what if Dillon took the package from someone? Or what if he saw someone following him, waiting for the envelope to get delivered?
His eyes scanned the hallway, landing on Kimi who wore a tight smile as she walked towards him.
“Gage?” The FBI agent’s voice bounced off the walls, her high heels clicking harshly onto the linoleum. “How is she? Who’s with her right now?”
“Don’t know. The doctors are running some more tests seeing as how she passed out, but they won’t let me back there until she asks for me. And since I’m still out here and no one has come calling my name, I’m thinking she hasn’t asked yet. There’s a sheriff’s deputy with her right now, though.”
“I’ll flash my badge around here in a minute, see if I can’t get you back there. But in the meantime, we need to go over what the hell happened this afternoon.”
“He knows where she is.” There wasn’t any use dancing around it. Kimi nodded, her lips curling into a slight frown.
“You mentioned that on the phone, but never got around to telling me how you know that for a fact.”
“The envelope was from him. The mask inside would have been enough for me to believe it, but the name on the envelope… He used her boyfriend’s name. The one from college that he killed.”
“I saw that in the report Hawk forwarded to me.”
Gage nodded. “No one could make that connection to Sloane. We’ve kept everything sealed tight in our team. So if that information is out there, that’s on you guys. But there is no doubt in my mind. It’s definitely him.”
“Shit.”
Gage rested his back against the wall, tapping his head onto the solid structure over and over.
“Someone’s walking this way, Gage. Don’t give yourself a concussion before you get to check on her.” Agent Liu smiled as she typed away on her phone.
“Gage Walker?” the nurse asked.
“That’s me.”
“Ms. Donovan has been asking for you. If you’d like to follow me?”
He tamped down the rage at yet another person not getting her name correct.
“Fuck,” Gage groaned. “Can you give me just one second?” he asked the nurse, whose scowl told him what she was really thinking even as she nodded and moved to the far side of the hall. Gage turned back to Kimi. “I have to fucking know. Why didn’t you put her in WITSEC?”
His whispered question was met with a blank stare as the screen on Kimi’s phone lit up with what Gage assumed was an incoming message. “Excuse me?”
“She should have been offered WITSEC protection, and we both know it. You talking behind my team’s back when this all started to get her a new identity without offering it through the proper channels again makes me wonder what the fuck else you’re hiding. And I need to know that I can fucking trust you. Because he knows where she is, and the only reason I’m not tearing this place apart to get to her is because I trust the deputy she’s with to keep her safe.”
The FBI Agent’s eyes crinkled at the corner and her tongue peeked out to lick her lips before she seemed to scratch the bottom one with her teeth. Interesting nervous tick.
“I wasn’t in the wrong for what I did. Around the same time we found Sloane, there was chatter in our organization about a leak within WITSEC. Some big gun runner in New York City, from what I can remember, was able to track down a witness and it didn’t end well. My team lead at the time had a contact outside the normal channels and we made good use of it. I explained all of this to Sloane at the time and she agreed that she did not want the chance to be in a system that may have been compromised.”
“And now? If I told you I want you to put plans in place to get the both of us out of here? Because that’s how it would work, Kimi. It’s not just Sloane going off on her own. I’m there every step of the fucking way. How would you plan it? WITSEC or some black market identities?”
Kimi nodded. “I’d get in touch with my contact. He’s still in play.”
“Okay.” Gage pushed off the wall, taking a step towards the nurse. “Reach out and start the process. If this goes one fucking step further before your team can take down this psycho, I’m getting Sloane out.”
“I understand. Go. I’ll debrief with the team and we’ll make sure you’re looped back in.”
“Thanks.” Gage ran his hand over his face. “Oh, and Kimi?”
“Yeah?”
“Not a word of this to Sloane, or my team, unless it’s as we’re leaving town.”
Kimi sighed, her head dropping back down to the phone in her hand. “You let her know I’m not going to let this end like last time.”
He nodded, knowing the sentiment was more likely to soothe Agent Liu than Sloane.
* * *
“I’m not comfortable with that. Honestly, I’m fine and I’d rather just go home than continue looking for something wrong that just isn’t.” Sloane sighed, reaching up to rub at her temple.
“I’ll have to document the refusal for testing in your chart.”
Tears welled in her eyes. God, she was so ready for the day to just be over.
“I think she’s made her position clear,” Colton Ford, Dolly’s son and her current protector, said from the corner of her room. The man was a brick wall. Emotionless. His eyes constantly scanned the room as his hand rested on his belt. Colt had been on high alert the entire time since walking in, and she understood why, but it didn’t make it any easier.
Sloane swallowed thickly. Colt had refused to leave her alone, and she understood why. Everyone was now a threat. Everyone could potentially be him. Coming to take her back. She’d tried to request female only staff, but the emergency room in Bell Ridge really didn’t give her many choices in that regard.
“Ms. Donovan, I really think you need?—”
“What the fuck is everyone’s problem here?” Gage’s growl from the doorway made her heart skip a beat. “Her name is Doctor Donovan. Doctor. She is a psychologist, and just because she doesn’t practice the same kind of medicine as you do does not mean that she deserves any less respect. She earned that title, and I won’t have her sitting there being disrespected because she’s too kind to say anything.”
Her whole body flushed. Was it because she was absolutely mortified that Gage made a scene about her title? Maybe a little. But god, that display had been hot as hell, and she wasn’t mad about that.
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Donovan. It’s not marked in your chart and we try to take the most neutral way to address someone.”
“I understand. It’s really no problem.”
“I’ll fix it in our system immediately, and work on your discharge papers.”
The doctor scowled at Gage as he left the room, but Gage probably didn’t even see it. His eyes were locked on hers as his chest rose and fell too rapidly.
Colton cleared his throat as he moved towards the center of the room. “I’ll just be out in the hall if you need anything.”
Sloane watched as Gage held out his hand, shaking Colt’s before he left the room. Whatever the two said to each other was too quiet to hear, but the look on Gage’s face made his concern clear.
The door clicked closed behind the deputy. She held out her hand and scooted her hips over, so that there would be room for him to fit on the bed with her.
“Christ, Red. Are you okay?” he asked as he slid in beside her, gently wrapping her up in his arms.
“Aside from feeling like a complete nincompoop for fainting when I opened a letter full of cornstarch? Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Nincompoop? I’m going to call the doctor back in here.” Gage reached up and felt her forehead. “I think my girlfriend’s been replaced with someone born ninety years ago.”
Sloane smiled, leaning her head against his chest. “I’m too tired to think of a witty comeback, but I do appreciate you trying to make me laugh. Oh.” She lifted her head to look him in the eyes. “How are Lily and Sage?”
“Good. I think they are probably on their way home by now. Lily had some upsetting news come up and I’m sure Gunner wants to get her home.”
“What? Is Sage okay?”
“Yeah. They did a test for Lily. She thought she might be pregnant, but it came back negative.”
“I’m sure that was disappointing, even though she’s been stressed about it. I should call her.”
“Tomorrow, Red. Let’s get you out of here tonight and back to the apartment in one piece.”
“Gage?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you see who sent me that package?”
“I did.”
“He knows where I am,” she whispered.
“Yeah, Red. He does.”
“He’s going to come after me now.”
Gage squeezed his hand tightly on her shoulder before kissing her temple. “I’d like to see him try, Red. Because it’s the last thing he’ll ever do, I can promise you that.”