Hidden Away

CHAPTER 29

SARAH leaned her head back against the rest and closed her eyes. She was tired to her bones and worry for Garrett beat at her brain. Rio had pissed Garrett off by injecting him with a painkiller when he wasn’t looking, but Sarah was glad he did it. The roads were terrible and lying in the back and being jarred by every bump and pothole would have been excruciating.

At least now he had fallen into a drug-induced sleep. She looked over her shoulder every few minutes, checking his expression for any sign of discomfort. There was no tension in his face and he looked at peace.

Beside her, Rio sat, his gaze constantly darting right and left and like her, over his shoulder to check on Garrett at intervals. Terrence drove, and another team member whom she’d heard referred to as Decker rode shotgun. Literally.

Alton and Browning followed in the other SUV.

“Where are we going?” she asked in a low voice.

Rio’s gaze settled on her, and she regretted drawing his attention. She wanted to die over the fact that she’d darn near undressed in front of him. He’d certainly gotten an eyeful of her cleavage.

“Corozal.”

“Belize?”

He nodded. “We’re not too far from the border. Couple hours even on shitty roads. I want Garrett to see a doctor there.”

“His family will be there.”

It wasn’t really a question since she’d heard Rio conversing with one of Garrett’s brothers earlier. But it was a way to seek information because she was as nervous as hell at the idea of meeting his family.

“Oh, definitely,” Rio said. “They’ll probably be there before we will. They were en route to Mexico and rerouted to Corozal after I let them know we’d gotten Garrett out.”

He continued to study her until embarrassment crowded in once more and she looked away.

“Sarah.”

Her gaze flickered back to him.

“That was a damn brave thing you did back there. I don’t think Garrett knows whether to turn you over his knee or kiss your feet. There should be no shame or embarrassment. You earned my respect today and my gratitude for taking such care of a man whose friendship I value and a man I’m extremely proud to work with.”

Her throat grew tight and her eyes itched fiercely. She wanted to wipe them but the gesture would betray how shaky her emotions were.

“I feel like an idiot now,” she muttered. “Garrett is probably furious. He made me promise several times not to draw attention to myself. He was so bent on protecting me. But I couldn’t do it,” she said painfully. “They’d already beaten him twice. I thought ... when I heard you, I knew I couldn’t allow them to hurt him again. If it meant sacrificing my ... body ... it was something I was willing to do.”

“Most people would never make that kind of sacrifice.”

“I showed you my breasts, for God’s sake,” she said in disgust.

He grinned, white teeth flashing. He was extraordinarily handsome and when he smiled, he transformed from dark warrior to someone with oodles of charm.

“And as a gentleman, I’ll not comment on how spectacular they were.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes, but she smiled, feeling a little lighter and less mortified than she had before.

“Thank you,” she said. “For coming. Garrett said you would, but there were times I wondered. It felt like we were there for a week.”

His expression grew serious. “We look after our own. No way we’d not come for him.”

“Loyalty like that is priceless.”

He nodded and then reached to the floorboard for one of the packs. “Are you still hungry? You didn’t eat much before. And are you sure you’re all right?”

She rubbed her forehead and then massaged the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “I’m okay. Just fried. I think if I ate anything else I’d be sick. My head is killing me.”

He frowned. “You should have told me. I can give you an injection.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t want to be out of it. The idea kind of freaks me out right now. Just some ibuprofen would be wonderful. I think it’s just going to take a while for me to come down.”

He dug into his pack and shook out several pills into his hand. Then he uncapped a bottle of water and extended it to her. After she took it, he handed over the pills and she threw them back and swallowed them with a gulp of water.

“Will you check in with Marcus? He’ll be frantic that I haven’t checked in. I assume you would have already told him that we’re safe. I’d like to ... talk to him if possible,” she said.

Rio’s face became expressionless. “Your brother knows you’re safe. Garrett will handle reporting in. We work for Garrett but this is his mission. He took the assignment from Marcus.”

She nodded. “It’s enough that he knows. Garrett will handle it.”

“Can you try to sleep?” Rio asked gently. “You can stretch out and put my pack against the door to lay your head on.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m so exhausted and yet I feel like I’ll never sleep again.”

“Let me give you something,” he said. “It’ll relax you and allow you to rest. It’ll alleviate some of the anxiety you’re feeling.”

She hesitated and he pressed. “You need the rest, Sarah. You’re dead on your feet and when Garrett wakes up and sees you like this, he’s going to wig out, and then we’ll have no hope of getting him the care he needs. He’ll be too worried about you.”

“That was dirty,” she said with a scowl.

“Thank you, ma’am. I do my best.”

“Oh all right,” she conceded.

“Pull your sleeve up,” he directed as he dug back into the pack.

She complied and he uncapped a prefilled syringe. She looked doubtfully at it as he swabbed an area of her skin with alcohol. Then before she could question, he plunged the needle into her arm. She gasped and then rubbed when he withdrew.

“Sorry,” he said.

“That seemed like an awful lot of medicine for something that’s just supposed to bring me down and relax me a bit.”

“Oh it’ll knock you on your ass for several hours,” he said cheerfully.

Already the world was going hazy around her and her eyelids grew heavy. “When I wake up, I’m going to kick your ass,” she slurred.

Rio leaned her toward the window and tucked his pack underneath her head. He gave her a gentle smile. “Good night, Sarah.”

SAM paced the tarmac with restless energy while Donovan and Ethan leaned against the door of the Kelly jet. Sam checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes and swore under his breath.

“Where are they?” he demanded. “What the hell’s taking them so long? I hope they didn’t run into trouble.”

“We’d know if they did,” Donovan said. “Rio can handle it. They’ll be here.”

Ethan remained silent, his expression tense. “Garrett called home. He knew the women would be upset. If he was thinking of Mom and Rachel and Sophie, he’s fine.”

The distant sound of a helicopter quieted the conversation. The hum grew louder until the chopper burst over the dense area of trees. A few minutes later, the chopper touched down several feet away from where the jet was parked and Rio hopped out of the cockpit.

Sam started over, his brothers on his heels. Sam waited for the engine noise to die before addressing his team leader.

“What the hell happened? Where’s Garrett?”

“He needs medical,” Rio said. “There’s a clinic about thirty miles out. It’s safe.”

“That’s stupid,” Ethan cut in. “We can get him on the jet and take him home to a hospital there.”

Rio shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

“You want to explain why?” Donovan asked.

A dilapidated old van creaked onto the tarmac and drove noisily over to where the chopper had landed. Rio motioned to Terrence, who ducked into the helicopter and came out a moment later, a woman curled into his arms. He carried her toward the van while Sam and his brothers watched in confusion.

“Is that Sarah?” Donovan asked. “Was she hurt too?”

Rio shook his head. “Look it’s a long story and one I’d love to tell you, but right now we need to get Garrett out of here.”

Sam glanced at his brothers and then nodded. They hurried over to the helicopter to see Garrett lying on a makeshift stretcher.

“I can damn well walk,” Garrett growled at Browning who had the misfortune of sitting next to Garrett’s head.

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t look like it to me,” Sam drawled. Even though he purposely needled his brother, the relief at seeing him lying there bitching as usual nearly staggered him. He had to grip the doorway to steady himself.

“Goddamn it, Garrett, you scared the shit out of us,” Donovan cursed.

Garrett picked his head up and saw his three brothers crowded into the doorway of the chopper. “Well, son of a bitch.”

Ethan grinned back at him. “You look like a pussy.”

Garrett rose up to flip Ethan the bird but groaned as the motion rippled pain across his midsection. Yet something else his brothers would give him hell over. He grinned as he stared at the roof of the chopper. Some things never changed, and he hoped to hell they never did.

“One of you assholes help me sit up. I can walk out of here, damn it. I don’t need a goddamn stretcher.”

Ethan chuckled but reached his hand out for Garrett to grasp. Donovan shouldered in and reached for Garrett’s other. His muscles protested, but he was gratified to be able to get out of the helicopter without collapsing.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, he looked around, taking in the surroundings “Where is Sarah?”

“Relax. Terrence took her to the van. I gave her an injection to make her sleep. She was wound tighter than a spring,” Rio said.

Garrett relaxed and then took a good look at the van in question. “Well, hell, Rio. Is this what you call a first-class ride?”

Rio chuckled. “It’s all about blending in. Can’t have a limo showing up at some out-of-the-way clinic.”

“We have the jet here,” Sam said with a frown. “You should damn well let us take you home. You can’t continue this job in your condition.”

Garrett ignored him and started toward the van. Ethan followed and grasped Garrett’s arm to steady him. He was grateful for his brother’s help, not that he’d admit it. The last thing he wanted was to face plant on the runway. He wouldn’t live down that humiliation ever.

“Goddamn it, Garrett,” Sam said in resignation. “I swear if you didn’t already look like you’ve been rode hard and hung up wet, I’d kick your ass.”

Garrett turned and shot a cocky grin over his shoulder. “You can try, big brother. You can try.”

Donovan shook his head and followed the procession over to the van.

Garrett stuck his head inside to see Sarah curled onto the floor of the van. There were only two seats in front and the entire back was empty. She was out cold and her features were drawn into a tight grimace, but at least she was resting. The past few days had been hard on her, and she’d already been through enough.

He hesitated before entering the van and turned to face his brothers. “I’ll make this quick. We need to get out of sight. I’m not going home with you.” He held up his hand to stop the protest that Sam was already preparing to launch. “You three get your asses home. Make sure the women aren’t worried. Tell them whatever you need in order to make them feel better. I don’t want the family involved with this. Think about the danger we’d be bringing to our front door. Lattimer is a wild card. The whole point of this job was to flush him out. I’m not going to do that in any way that puts our family at risk, and you damn well know I’m right.”

“My suggestion was to leave Rio with Sarah. Let his team take over the job. You need to get your ass home and be in a real hospital,” Sam said.

“And I’m telling you right now, I’m not leaving Sarah.”

He stared his brothers down. He saw Donovan shake his head and blow out his breath in resignation. Donovan knew. He already had a damn good idea that Garrett was in way over his head with the woman.

“There is still a threat to Sarah, one I haven’t identified. And do you think for one minute that if we all go home, Resnick won’t be all over us in a minute? Hell, he’s probably on his way here right now. He’s a complication I don’t need.”

“Are you forgetting that you’re lying to her?” Sam asked in a low voice. “Whatever your feelings for her, she’s not going to forgive being used as bait to lure her brother out of hiding. Get out now, Garrett. Let Rio do the job.”

“Tell me something, Sam. Would you have left Sophie to Steele or Rio? Would you have backed off and let them protect her while you went home with your tail tucked between your legs?”

Understanding flashed in Sam’s eyes.

Garrett turned to Ethan. “Would you have let us go in after Rachel while you stayed at home sitting on your hands because you were too emotionally involved?”

“Fuck no,” Ethan bit out.

“Goddamn it,” Sam bit out. “I hate when you have to make a goddamn point that I can’t respond to.”

Garrett grinned. “Go home, Sam. You have a wife and a new baby. Ethan has a wife to take care of. Sarah is mine to take care of. Rio and his team will stick with me. I trust them to do their job, but the only one I’m trusting with Sarah is me.”

Sam rubbed a hand over his hair and made a sound of disgust. “Okay, Garrett. Have it your way. Not that you ever do anything else. I hope to hell you know what you’re doing.”

“She’s been hurt before, Sam,” Garrett said quietly. “She trusts me. She’s not going to trust another man.”

“Yeah, and what are you going to do when the shit hits the fan?” Donovan asked. “She trusts you and you’re going to betray that trust.”

Pain that had nothing to do with his injuries washed through his chest. “I’m going to have to figure out a way to do my job—do what’s right—and hope that she’ll understand—and can forgive me—for doing what needed to be done.”