Against the Odds (13 page)

He thought of the fat donation he had made to the new hospital
wing they were building. “Oh, they’ll let me see her.” Leaving his sister with
Sage, he went in search of Sabrina, prepared to call the head of the hospital if
he had to.

He lucked out and saw a familiar face, a little black-haired
nurse named Heather who had treated Joe McCauley after a run-in with a skill
saw.

Alex flashed her a smile that showed his dimples, explained he
needed to see one of his clients, a patient named Sabrina Eckhart, and Heather
personally led him over to the curtained enclosure.

He braced himself as she drew the curtain aside. Sabrina was
lying on a narrow hospital bed, her neck immobilized by a brace, her face
scratched and her lip split. Her eyes were closed and seeing her lying there as
pale as the sheet, for a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

As he approached the bed, her eyelids flickered, then her eyes
slowly opened.

Alex forced himself to smile. “Hey, Red.”

“You came...”

“Of course, I came.”

“I thought you might still be mad at me.”

“I am mad at you. You tossed me out without my morning coffee.
But that wouldn’t keep me away. How’re you feeling?”

Her mouth edged up. She had a bruise on her cheek and one on
her jaw, myriad cuts and abrasions. “Exactly like I look. Rotten.”

He reached over and caught her hand, gave it a gentle squeeze.
“You look beautiful.”

She glanced away, unconsciously reached up to touch her neck
brace. “Alex...something happened out there.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“I mean something like before...with the helicopter.”

His hold tightened on her hand. “What are you talking
about?”

“The car...I couldn’t control it. There was something wrong
with the steering wheel.” She looked up at him with those big blue eyes. “I
think you were right, Alex. I think someone wants the mine.”

He made himself argue, though the hair was rising at the back
of his neck. “They arrested the guy who sabotaged the chopper. It had nothing to
do with either one of us.”

“I think it did.”

He looked at her and willed her to be wrong, but his instincts
had warned him the first time, and now it was happening again. Two near-fatal
accidents in less than a month. He had never believed in coincidence and he
didn’t believe in it now.

“You feeling well enough to tell me the details of what
happened?”

She moistened her lips, which were swollen and cracked. “I want
to, Alex, while it’s fresh in my mind.”

For the next few minutes she went over the accident, explaining
how all of a sudden the car wouldn’t respond, how the front wheel pulled her
into the right lane almost beneath the wheels of an onrushing 18-wheeler, how
she had stepped on the brake in order to stop the momentum, knowing the car
behind would hit her but that it was her only chance.

He thought of what could have happened, imagined her small body
crushed and mangled inside the little Toyota, and his mouth went dry.

“I’ll find out what went wrong with the car. I don’t want you
to worry, okay? Right now, the most important thing is for you to get well. Once
you’re out of here, we’ll go through everything step-by-step. We’ll figure all
of this out, make sure nothing else goes wrong. There won’t be any more
accidents, Sabrina—I promise you that.”

Because the minute she walked out of the hospital until they
knew what the hell was going on, Sabrina wouldn’t be leaving his side. She might
not like it, but that was the way it was going to be.

“You just get well,” he said, reaching out to gently touch her
cheek. “I’ll be here when the doctors say it’s okay for you to leave.”

She seemed to relax, gave him a weary smile. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” She was thanking him now. He was pretty sure she
wouldn’t be thanking him when she found out what he planned to do.

She didn’t want things to get complicated between them. Well,
they were damn well complicated now.

Fourteen

T
he curtain swished closed and Sabrina
relaxed against the pillow. Alex had come. Everything was going to be okay.

She heard voices outside. The curtain opened again and Jake
walked in, all six-foot-five, two-hundred-thirty-plus pounds of mule,
accompanied by Sage and a beautiful willowy blonde. For an instant, she thought
it was one of the gorgeous models Alex was known to date and her chest clamped
down.

“Rina, this is Alex’s sister, Rebecca,” Sage said.

His sister. Thank God.

“Hello, Sabrina. I know this isn’t the best time for us to
meet, but I wanted you to know how worried my brother is about you, and how glad
we both are you’re going to be okay.”

“Thank you.”

Jake reached down and gently touched her shoulder. “Hey,
sweetcheeks, how’re you doing?”

She managed a smile but it made her swollen lip hurt. “I knew I
shouldn’t have sold my Mercedes.”

Jake smiled back but she could tell he was worried.

Sage reached over and squeezed her hand. “They want us to leave
and Alex’s outside waiting for Becca. We’re going to say goodbye for now.”

“Would you do me a favor?”

“Of course. Anything.”

“I’m supposed to have a meeting with Arturo Hernandez, the
mining engineer from Presidio. Can you call him, tell him I’ll need to
reschedule? His card’s in my purse...if you can find it.”

“I’ll track him down one way or another and let him know what’s
happened. You don’t need to worry.”

“Thanks.”

“They’ll be moving you into a private room in a little while.
I’ll come back tonight during visiting hours.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m getting out tomorrow.”

“I know. Alex is going to pick you up.”

“He is?” He’d said he would be there when she was released. She
didn’t expect him to drive her home. She started to say so, but Sage and the
small group were already leaving.

“I’ll see you tonight,” Sage said, and then they were gone.

Rina closed her eyes, exhaustion sweeping over her. She wished
she were home; she was just so tired. She would be back in her own place
tomorrow if they didn’t find anything wrong.

Alex planned to drive her there. He believed her. He was
worried she might be in danger. Together they would figure things out.

It was possible she was wrong, and the whole thing was just
another of life’s little misfortunes, but she didn’t think so. Alex would find
out for sure.

As she drifted to sleep, she wondered what Uncle Walter would
say if he knew his good intentions had turned her life upside down.

* * *

Alex dropped Becca off at her white Suburban in the
parking lot at Atlas Security, then went inside.

“How’s Rina?” Annie asked, clearly worried, by now probably
knowing more about what had happened than he did. The woman knew everything that
went on in the office. Hell, she knew just about everything that went on in the
entire city of Houston.

“She’s gonna be okay. They’re keeping her overnight for
observation.”

“That’s the second time this month,” Annie said. “Little gal’s
sure having a string of bad luck.”

“Maybe.” Leaving Annie to ponder the remark, he headed for
Trace’s glass-enclosed office. Ben Slocum stopped him along the way.

“I heard about Rina. She okay?” Ben had met her at Sage and
Jake’s wedding. Looked like half of Houston was worried about her.

“Yeah, considering. She’ll be out of the hospital
tomorrow.”

“Glad to hear it,” Ben said. “Tell her we’re all thinking about
her.”

“Will do.” Alex started walking, waved at Sol, sitting at the
computer in the office next to Trace’s, and went inside to see his boss.

“I just heard,” Trace said. The lanky Texan came out of his
chair. “Rina gonna be all right?”

“Looks like. She’s got whiplash and she’s beat all to hell, but
they’re releasing her tomorrow, if nothing worse crops up.”

“That’s good news.”

“It may not have been an accident, Trace. Sabrina doesn’t think
so.” He filled his friend in on the wreck as briefly as possible, telling him
about the way the steering had malfunctioned and how she’d ended up in a
rear-end collision crushed between two cars.

“Sounds like she’s lucky to be alive,” Trace said when Alex
finished.

“Damned lucky. I need to have the car gone over, find out what
happened. See if it could have been made to malfunction on purpose.”

“Son of a bitch, you’re thinking this may be connected to the
helicopter crash.”

“Sabrina thinks so and I’m more than half-convinced myself.
That property she inherited may be worth a ton of money. If it is, someone might
figure it’s worth killing for.”

“Any idea who that someone might be?”

“Couple of ideas. Not ready to say just yet. I need to know
what happened to her car, but the hell of it is, if I have some mechanic go over
it, any evidence, any fingerprints or DNA will be destroyed. You’ve got that
friend in the department, that homicide detective...Sayers?”

“Mark Sayers, yeah.”

“I was hoping you could convince him to have his forensic guys
take a look. If the steering was tampered with, it’s attempted murder. That
makes the case fall under his jurisdiction.”

“I’ll talk to him, see what he can find out.”

Jake walked into the office. “What the hell’s going on?” Trace
and Alex both looked up at him. “This is the second time Rina’s been in the
hospital in a little over three weeks.”

Alex’s jaw hardened. “You can believe it isn’t going to happen
again.”

Jake looked relieved. “Why don’t you tell me what, for
chrissake, is happening to my wife’s best friend.”

Alex and Trace exchanged glances and Alex launched into the
details of the wreck once more.

* * *

“You stupid bastard. That’s twice you’ve screwed things
up since we started this.”

“Look, I hired a specialist to take care of the chopper. It
went down just the way he planned. Not his fault if the guy she was with was
some kind of superpilot. The chopper went down like a stone and blew sky-high.
All of this should be over.”

“But it isn’t.”

“No, but they arrested some yokel for it. That’ll keep them
from digging any deeper. Guy hasn’t got a pot to piss in so he can’t afford some
fancy lawyer to get his ass out of jail.”

“What about the car wreck? That wasn’t a great idea to begin
with. There was no way to control where she’d be when the steering went
south.”

“You said it had to look like an accident. A car wreck would
have been perfect.”

“Yes, if it had worked.” A slow, disgusted breath blew over the
phone. “Her mother says she’s going to pick up where the old man left off and
find a way to mine the ore. She’s all excited about it.”

“The hell you say. She think she’s a man, or what?”

“She was always a little too big for her britches, even when
she was a kid.”

“Yeah,” Henry said. “Thought she was better than the rest of us
just because she got good grades. Got Walter to help her get through college,
went off to study in some la-de-da place in France.”

“And conned Walter into leaving her the mine.”

“Conniving little bitch.”

“Don’t worry, she isn’t going to get it.”

“How do we stop her?” Henry asked.

“I’ll give it some thought and let you know what I come up
with. Whatever it takes, little Rina will soon be out of the picture—for
good.”

Henry grinned as dollar signs flashed in his head. He lifted
his whiskey glass in salute and shot the contents down his throat.

* * *

Rebecca heard pounding in the kitchen downstairs where
the remodel was being done, followed by an unintelligible, softly muttered
curse, then her daughter’s childish giggles.

“You think that’s funny?” Joe said. “You think me hitting my
thumb is funny?”

“Yes.” Ginny giggled again.

“How about I take this hammer and pound on
your
thumb?” Joe teased, eliciting a peal of laughter. Clearly,
Ginny wasn’t afraid of Joe.

Smiling, Rebecca descended the last few stairs and rounded the
corner into the torn-up kitchen. The new window was in, Joe was putting up
drywall, getting ready to tape and texture the area he’d expanded.

“What’s going on, you two?”

Ginny grinned, exposing the hole where one of her bottom teeth
was missing. “Joe pounded his thumb instead of the nail.”

“Your kid’s got a warped sense of humor,” Joe said,
dramatically sucking his thumb.

Ginny laughed. “Can I hammer something, Joe? Please?”

Joe’s gaze swung to Rebecca. “Okay, Mom?” He was dressed in
jeans and a short-sleeved navy blue T-shirt that stretched across his heavily
muscled shoulders and barrel chest. Thick biceps bulged beneath the sleeve of
the shirt. There was a streak of pale skin across his forehead where the bill
cap he usually wore kept the sun from tanning a portion of his face.

He wasn’t handsome in the way her ex-husband, Jeremy, had been,
but in a rugged sort of way, he was amazingly attractive.

“Please, Mom,” Ginny pleaded.

“I guess it’s all right.”

Joe took a board and hammered a couple of nails into it about
halfway. “Take this over there in the corner and pound the nails in the rest of
the way.” He handed her a tack hammer, far smaller than the heavy hammer he was
using. “It’ll be good practice for when you grow up and need to fix
something.”

Ginny grinned, grabbed the board and took the hammer, hurried
over and plopped down in the corner. Wild pounding filled the air and Rebecca’s
smile slid away. Her daughter was already a tomboy. Rebecca did her best to keep
her in dresses when Ginny wanted to wear faded jeans and T-shirts, bought her
dolls instead of the Lego building set she had wanted for her birthday. Ginny
didn’t need the influence of a rough man like Joe.

He was hammering again and now so was Ginny, the racket so loud
Rebecca could barely think. Joe didn’t seem to notice. Rebecca let the racket
continue a moment more, then headed for the corner.

“That’s enough, honey. Joe’s busy.” She knelt in front of her
daughter. “Why don’t you go upstairs and play with Pearl?” Pearl was the baby
doll Rebecca had bought her last Christmas. She nursed and drank and wet her
diaper just like a real baby. Ginny had played with her for about an hour.

She gave the nail another fierce whack. “I’d rather stay here
and hammer with Joe.”

Rebecca cast a sharp glance at the brawny man engrossed in
nailing up a sheet of wallboard. “Could I speak to you a minute?”

Joe shrugged his thick shoulders, set his hammer on the
counter. “Sure.”

Rebecca walked out of the kitchen and Joe followed.

“Look, Joe, I don’t mean to be an overprotective mother, but
Ginny’s a little girl, and I don’t think it’s good for her to be pushed into
behaving like a boy.”

“It’s just a phase she’s going through. She’s interested in boy
stuff right now. I’m sure that’ll change. Who knows, maybe she’s just interested
because she doesn’t have a dad around anymore.”

The words stiffened Rebecca’s spine. “She doesn’t need a
dad...she has a mother. We do just fine on our own.”

Joe made no reply, just looked at her with a trace of pity.

“Fine,” Rebecca relented. “I’ll let her play down here awhile.
But I still think it’s better if she sticks with little girl toys.”

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t stay too long.”

“Thank you.” Rebecca left the kitchen and went back upstairs to
finish the thank-you notes she had been writing. Her shoulders slumped as she
sat down at the small writing desk in the corner of her bedroom. What was it
about Joe that always made her seem waspish and a bit of a snob?

She wasn’t attracted to him. Well, maybe a little. Well, more
than a little, but only because Joe looked at her as if she were a pretty,
desirable woman. And though she knew she was attractive, it had been a long time
since she had allowed herself to respond to any of those kinds of looks from the
opposite sex.

She didn’t like big, rough men, she told herself. She preferred
a man with polish, a man like— Rebecca broke the thought. She didn’t want a man
like her ex-husband, Jeremy, who was handsome and sophisticated on the surface
but underneath the polish, dictatorial, vicious, even physically abusive.

Joe might be different than the men she was used to in
Connecticut, but she didn’t think he would ever hurt her or Ginny.

That was all that mattered. Besides, as soon as the kitchen was
finished, Joe would be gone.