Betrayed

Chapter 21

Long seconds passed before Shane murmured, “Okay.”

Elena let out the breath she’d been holding. At least that was something.

His eyes closed again, and he was asleep within minutes. She started for the chair across the room, then reconsidered. She needed to sleep, because she would be no good to him or anyone else if she was too tired to think straight. But she didn’t want to leave him. The bed was queen-size. Plenty of room for the two of them. She pulled back the covers and eased onto the far side of the mattress. At first she kept her arms at her sides, but when he didn’t wake, she stretched out the arm nearest him until they were lightly touching. She liked the contact, and she would have snuggled closer to him, but she wasn’t going to focus on her own needs. Her top priority had to be taking care of him and making sure he got well.

She woke in the night and knew that he was awake.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Better.”

His arm was still next to hers, and she felt him reach for her hand and link his fingers with hers. The gesture felt intimate, the most intimate thing they had done since they’d made love.

He squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice.

“About what?”

“About being so crappy to you.”

“You had your reasons,” she murmured.

“Don’t make excuses for me. I know you were worried about your brother. That turned out to be entirely justified.”

“But I should have told you what I was planning to do.”

“You didn’t because you knew I would stop you.”

“Yes.”

She heard him swallow. “You said I was talking about a woman. It was my wife. I went through a messy divorce about a year ago.”

She felt her heart start to pound. “Oh,” was all she managed to say, shocked that he’d told her about it. But maybe the darkness and the intimacy of lying next to her made him feel safer about talking.

“She cheated on me,” he went on. “Starting when I was deployed. And I think that made me mistrustful of women in general. I was looking for reasons not to trust you.”

“I gave you a lot.”

He tightened his hold on her hand. “Stop trying to cast yourself in the worst possible light.”

“I haven’t stopped feeling guilty about looking through Arnold’s desk and then taking that phone.”

“You made a mistake. But you don’t have to pay for it for the rest of your life.”

“Which means what?”

“Forgive yourself for putting family loyalty above your own welfare. The focus has got to be on figuring out who those men are—then stopping them.”

“How are we going to do it?”

“I’m working on it.” He sighed. “But I need to be in better shape.”

“You will be.” She turned slightly and laid her head on his shoulder. She hadn’t expected him to say the things he had. Now she was overwhelmed by the feeling of closeness.

“Got to go back to sleep,” he whispered. “You, too.”

She closed her eyes, feeling better than she had in days. Weeks. Maybe forever.

When she woke again, the side of the bed next to her was empty, and panic grabbed her by the throat.

She leaped out of bed, not sure where she was going.

“Shane?”

He didn’t answer, but she heard water running in the bathroom.

“Shane?” she said again as she hurried to the door.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

She waited for the door to open, then stared at him. He was wearing fresh sweatpants, but he was naked to the waist, and he looked almost like himself.

“You’re better,” she said.

“Yeah.”

Did he remember what he’d said to her last night—and what she’d said to him? And did it all mean the same thing in the light of day? She couldn’t ask. Instead she said, “You should stay off the stairs. I’ll bring you something to eat.”

“Probably a good idea.”

She hurried downstairs, opened a can of chicken noodle soup, and poured some into a mug. She heated it in the microwave, then got herself some tomato soup from another can.

She put the mugs on a tray along with glasses of water, a box of crackers, and a couple of napkins. It was an odd breakfast, but it would do.

When she came back into the bedroom, he had plumped up the pillows and was sitting up.

“You should take your antibiotics,” she said.

“I did.”

“Okay.”

She set the tray on the dresser and brought him the soup and the water, then sat across from him in the chair, sipping from her own mug.

“I know the other guys at Rockfort are worried about me,” he said after taking a sip of soup. “But I don’t want to get them involved.”

“Why not?”

“Safer.”

She nodded and took another swallow of her breakfast.

“Did your brother say anything about who the men were who wanted the information from S&D?”

“The only thing he said was that they would hurt him if he didn’t deliver.”

“How did they hook up with him?”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “I don’t know. He probably didn’t want me to know anything about it.”

“Yeah.”

“Was he always secretive?”

“Not when he was little.” She stopped and thought about it. “He didn’t have to work hard when he was little to get my parents’ approval. Then stuff started happening. I mean, like he got a D in Algebra II. Or he didn’t get on the football team. Things that he considered failures.”

Shane nodded.

“He wanted them to be proud of him, and he wasn’t living up to his own expectations. So he’d do things he knew were wrong, but he’d keep them from my parents.”

“Like what?”

“He and some of his friends made themselves into expert shoplifters. They’d go into a store together, and one of them would get the clerk’s attention while the other one stole some stuff. Then they’d sell what they took.”

“And you know this—how?”

“I heard them talking about it. They didn’t know I was on to them.”

“And you never said anything?”

She shook her head. “I should have, but I knew it would kill my parents.” She raised her head. “Did you have a perfect childhood?”

He laughed. “Of course not.”

“What was wrong with it?” she asked, surprised that she was pressing him. But she didn’t want the exchange of information to be one way.

He took a sip of soup before answering. “My dad came from a rough neighborhood in Pittsburgh. When he grew up, he worked at a steel plant. It was a hard life, and he wanted better for me. So he pushed me to do well in school, and if I slacked off, I was punished. At the same time, he wanted to make sure I was a tough guy—that I could take care of myself under any conditions.”

“What about your mom?”

“She went along with his thinking.”

“I guess that’s like my mom,” she murmured.

“I know you believe it has to do with your culture. But I think it’s just as much a generational thing.” His gaze turned inward. “Part of being a tough guy was not letting your emotions show. Maybe that’s why my marriage got screwed up. I could only reveal so much of myself to my wife, and maybe she wanted more of me. But I couldn’t give her any more.”

She clasped her mug in her hand. So he did remember what he’d said the night before. And now he was saying more about himself—things that he’d kept private.

He was speaking again. “I could let myself go with my buddies better than I could with my wife—because the emotions that men show each other are ‘tough’ emotions, if that makes any sense.”

“I think so. I guess like my brother and his buddies.”

He sat up a little straighter. “And that’s making me think that I’m not being fair to Max and Jack right now. I know they’re worried about me, and I’ve been trying to protect them. But maybe it would be better if I clued them in on what’s going on.”

“That makes sense,” she answered.

“Down in the kitchen, in the last lower cabinet on the right, there’s a cell phone. It’s plugged into an outlet inside the cabinet. Could you bring it to me?”

“Of course.”

Shane watched Elena get up.

“Should I leave your mug?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’ll finish the soup later.”

As she left the room, he felt his tension mount. He knew the guys were worried about him, and he knew he could only say so much. But he had to make the call.

Elena brought the phone and handed it to him.

“Do you want me to leave while you talk to them?” she asked.

He shook his head. He’d told her to go outside when he’d talked to Iverson, but not now. He was trying to change his relationship with her into something different, although he wasn’t sure if it would work—for a lot of reasons. Like the way he’d started off suspecting her. And then his feelings of anger and betrayal when she’d called her brother.

He had told himself he trusted her now. He wanted it to be true. And also the reverse, because when he thought of her not trusting him, he felt his gut clench.

He switched his attention to the phone, which was a secure line that nobody should be able to tap into. The instrument at the other end of the line—at Rockfort Security—was similar.

Max picked up on the first ring.

“Shane?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?”

“Mostly.”

He heard the relief in his partner’s voice—and also the worry.

“What happened? Where are you?” Max asked.

“Down south. I don’t want to be too specific,” he answered, knowing that Max could probably figure it out.

When his partner said nothing, Shane said, “I know the cops are looking for me, and I want you to be able to deny that you know where I am. My SUV’s at the St. Stephens safe house, but you might as well leave it there.”

“Yeah, we know. We were down there,” Max said.

“Did you find anything?”

“Shell casings and exploded land mines.”

“No clue about who was there besides us?”

“No.”

“Did they search the house?” Shane asked.

“Yeah. It’s pretty messed up, but we’ll take care of it.”

“The boat’s somewhere on the other side of the river.”

“Okay. We’ll try to get it back. If not, it’s insured.” Max cleared his throat. “And you’re not in danger at the moment?”

“Not at the moment.” He laughed. “I’m not a hostage or anything. I’m just trying to lie low for a few days.”

“Were you hurt?”

“Let’s not get into that,” Shane clipped out, knowing that his answer told his partners he’d been injured.

“What can we do?”

“Elena Reyes’ brother was being pressured to make her turn over some proprietary information from S&D to a third party. If you can find out who wanted it, I’d be grateful.”

“We’re on it.”

He hesitated for a moment, then said, “And if you could find out what was so valuable, that might also be helpful.”

“You think Lincoln Kinkead’s doing something illegal?” Max asked, picking up on the tone of Shane’s voice.