Blindsided (16 page)

She believed.

“We have no way of reaching him.” She feigned a calm she didn’t really feel. If Rob was comfortable facing weapons and desperate moments, she wasn’t. Yes, she dealt with a different type of desperation sometimes, but…not this.

The man
really
had a gun pointed at her.

“We can maybe ask your boyfriend. If he doesn’t know, he’ll find out.” Donovan released the safety with an audible click. “Where’d you dig him up anyway? I thought I pretty much had you figured out.

I’ve been keeping tabs on you for a couple of months.”

“I know.” Kerin had never faced the barrel of a loaded pistol before.

It
wasn’t
one of her best experiences in life.

“McCutcheon—I ran his license plate—well, he doesn’t really matter.” The dismissal was terse.

Oh, how wrong he was. A flutter of panic filled her chest. If Jesse became concerned and entertained some chivalrous idea of checking on her, he might run into Donovan, who—according to Rob—hadn’t hesitated to kill someone before.

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The world of her priorities shifted all at once.

“You can hardly escort me out of the building at gunpoint,” she pointed out, trying to ignore the light sweat that had broken out all over her body.

“Sure I can. Do you have any idea how fast I can pull my weapon and fire? Take my word for it, it’s damned quick. I’m accurate, too.

Ask Rob when we see him. I have the gun and I’ll use it if I need to, and that’s enough. Now, McCutcheon is in the parking lot in the rental you got out of this morning. Tell him you’ll be another hour or so. I know where he’s parked and we’ll go out the other way.”

Jesse
had
dropped her off, mostly because she’d left her car the night before when he’d whisked her off for the meeting with Rob.

Short of disappearing again, neither of them could think of a way to conceal her arrival at the office and it was obvious now neither of them were too good at the whole espionage angle.

She didn’t want to be good at it. What she wanted was to be able to go back to her routine existence and forget about any of this…

No, that wasn’t true. Without all this, she would not have met Jesse McCutcheon.

Kerin took her cell phone out of the pocket of her lab coat and flipped it open.

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Jesse slowly pushed the button to shut off his phone, feeling his stomach tighten. Immediately he scrolled down and punched another key. Rob picked it up at once. “Yes?”

“Kerin just called me. Said she was running late, which could be possible, of course. She’s still playing catch up with her patients.”

Her brother sat silent for a minute. “But?”

“But she sounded funny. Strained, stilted, whatever you want to call it. Not normal.”

“You know her that well after such a short time?”

That one was easy. “Yes,” Jesse said simply.

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it,” Rob said with a hint of grim humor in his voice. “My guess is Donovan is inside then. If I hadn’t worried something like this would happen, I wouldn’t have hung out in the building for the better part of the afternoon. I didn’t see Donovan come in, but there is only one of me.”

“You’re inside?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t see him, or you, either,” Jesse admitted, aware a light sweat had touched his skin under his clothes even though it was cold in the car, “but I can only watch one of the four entrances at a time, too. I’m going up to her office.”

“No, I’ll go. I’ve been alternating waiting rooms all afternoon.

Right now I’m in the second floor stairwell. I just left the cardiology practice only a few doors down from hers. I can be in there in two minutes, maybe less.”

Rob was there?

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“I’m coming up, too.” Jesse knew he couldn’t watch the entrances on all sides of the building and he wasn’t about to sit idly by while a killer like Donovan abducted the woman he loved.

Yes, loved.

“Henderson is dead.”

The flat statement fell between them. In a raspy voice, Jesse said incredulously, “What?”

“I don’t have time obviously to tell you the story but it’s why I’ve been here most of the day. I got the call late last night. It was an accident…friend of mine found the information I’ve been looking for but things went wrong…Look, Jesse, I wondered if Donovan wouldn’t be desperate now to flush me out.”

Through Kerin.

Jesse simply hung up and got out of the car, slamming the door and hunching his shoulders against the insidious cold. He walked across the parking lot, trying his best to not break into a jog and to ignore the panic. For the first time in his life he wished he both owned and knew how to use a gun. The hallway was long silent, muddied by the traffic of the day. A few of the offices on the first floor still had their lights on as he proceeded to the elevators.

The piped-in Christmas music was incongruous to the moment.

The doors opened and Jesse stepped out, warily looking around. A young nurse, in scrubs and a winter coat, was waiting. She smiled at him and entered the now empty elevator.

As he began to walk down the second floor corridor, he heard a loud, horrible crack.

A gunshot. It seemed to him time was suspended, like the echo of whatever terrible thing had just happened rolled on.

His heart stopped.

The doors to the elevator were still open and he heard the young woman gasp behind him as he sprinted forward.

Jesse wrenched the door to Internal Medicine Associates open with such force it hit him as it rebounded, making him stumble into
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the waiting room. He called out frantically, “Kerin!”

Nothing.

Surely Rob, who had been so close, was already there, already in the office…his brain seemed fogged, and he wasn’t sure which way to go. A woman whimpered in a sound of pure distress and that seemed to make his decision-making progress go on autopilot.

Jesse chose the door to the left, following the sound, silently spinning small incoherent prayers in his head. A middle-aged woman, presumably the receptionist, sat huddled in a small area that held copiers and fax machines, her face terrified and pale. Jesse said harshly, “Dr. Burke’s office. Where is it?”

Apparently unable to articulate, she pointed a trembling finger toward the right. Dredging up a coherent thought, Jesse fumbled into his pocket and grabbed his cell, tossing it toward her. “Call 911.”

Even as he turned back, someone stumbled out into the hallway.

Kerin. All he saw was blood. Brilliant scarlet on her white coat, her hands, a streak of crimson down one ashen cheek. She saw him, seemed to focus. On a sob, she whispered, “Oh, Jesse.”

* * * *

She was used to hospitals, felt at home in them; the smell, the sights, the sounds, all familiar, but she wasn’t used to
this
.

Kerin sat in a gray upholstered chair, a Styrofoam cup of coffee cradled in her hands. The waiting area was plain, with a few generic pictures on the wall. It was also quiet…very quiet, with nothing but a single wall clock above the double doorway into intensive care marking the passage of time.

Being on the other side of the equation was particularly unpleasant.

The whole evening had been unpleasant, in fact.

Except for Jesse, who even now sat next to her, his long legs extended, his face drawn in concern. “Just one more time,” he urged
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her.

She glanced at him, then at the police officer, and then at the man in the dark suit who had introduced himself as Agent Mazzetti.

Wearily, she nodded, agreeing to repeat her story. “I was in my office.

A man came in. He asked for my brother’s phone number. I told him I didn’t have it. Then he admitted he had been spying on me for a couple of months. He also took out a gun. Per his request I called Jesse—Mr. McCutcheon—to tell him I was running late. Maybe a minute or two later, I could hear Rob arguing with the receptionist.

Unfortunately, so did Donovan.”

It seemed natural to fall silent, waiting for the tide of nausea to pass. Both the police officer and the FBI agent waited with courteous patience. Kerin felt like crying. It was odd, for she’d cried more in front of Jesse than any human being on this earth, including her mother. A hot droplet rolled down her cheek and landed on her wrist.

She swallowed hard. “They shot each other. Just like that. Rob appeared in the doorway and Donovan was waiting for him and they both just fired. No one even said anything.”

Jesse looked at the man who had introduced himself as Ken Mazzetti. “There seems to be a lot of personal baggage involved with Donovan and Rob Burke and a man called Henderson.”

The dark-haired agent glanced at the young Indianapolis police officer. “If there is anything else, I’ll let your captain know.”

“Yes, sir.” The IPD officer got the hint easily enough and nodded, flipping shut his notebook and walking away.

“You know about Henderson?” Mazzetti said it evenly, but there was an edge to his voice.

“We know there was a cover up of some kind involved and Rob claimed he was getting the shit end of the deal,” Jesse said bluntly.

“Since Donovan arrived in Kerin’s office and threatened to abduct her at gunpoint, I’d say maybe he was right.”

“Or maybe Donovan was just desperate to find Burke. When he did, he got shot for his efforts.” Agent Mazzetti sat across in the small
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cluster of chairs, the arrangement designed to give anxious families some measure of privacy, and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. His dark eyes were direct. “It’s my job to figure out which scenario is true.”

“I’m sure you can prove Rob Burke didn’t kill Henderson. He was here, not in Virginia. Besides, from what I understand, he now has evidence to substantiate his initial allegations are true. A friend of his was gathering information, and Henderson’s death was self-defense.”

Kerin slowly turned and looked at the man sitting next to her.

Jesse’s good-looking face was tight and set. She had no idea where he got all his information but was damned glad he was there. There was no way she was currently capable of fending off government agents.

“You already know Henderson is dead?” Mazzetti’s black brows snapped together.

“Rob told me.”

“That links him back to the crime. It hasn’t even been released to the press yet.”

Jesse shook his dark head. “It links him, Henderson, and Donovan together, which you already knew. It gives Donovan, too, a motive to get even rougher. Without Henderson’s clout to block an investigation into the possibility he executed an informant, he was a vulnerable man. What happened this evening makes perfect sense if you buy Rob Burke’s story.”

After a moment, Mazzetti sat back. A small wry smile played across his mouth. “What is it you do again, Mr. McCutcheon?”

“I construct buildings.”

“I think you missed your calling. You say Burke can substantiate his claims?”

Jesse nodded as if he really believed it was true. She prayed it was. At the moment, her brother by all accounts was at least resting comfortably, but he did have a bullet wound to the abdomen.

Donovan hadn’t been nearly as lucky.

Mazzetti nodded and got up. For the first time all evening he
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looked tired, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sure we’ll have more questions.”

Unfortunately, Kerin was sure he would, too. When he nodded and walked away, she slumped back in her chair. “Thanks.”

“For what?” Jesse removed the cup from her lax hand before the unappetizing beverage spilled on the floor. “As far as I can tell, I didn’t do anything but arrive in a very unhero-like way after it all happened. I didn’t know Rob was in the building, I didn’t know Donovan was there either, and—”

She leaned over, grabbed his shirtfront, and kissed him. It was spontaneous and even though it was very late, she was bone tired, and so worried over her brother she felt almost limp, she couldn’t help the kiss.

It was easier than explaining he was wonderful in about a million ways for even being there at all. If ever there was a time she wasn’t up to explaining her feelings, this was it.

Thankfully, it worked. Jesse murmured against her mouth. “I didn’t see that coming.”

He’d blindsided her more than once since their blizzard induced meeting on a cold Wisconsin road. She whispered back, “One surprise after another, that’s me.”

He laughed and leaned back, looking at her with those incredibly sexy dark eyes. “You have that right, sweetheart.”

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The high rise office building was right in downtown Chicago, part of an impressive landscape of gleaming glass, concrete, and busy streets. It was one of those rare, balmy spring days that sometimes come in early April, with the temperature in the sixties, almost no breeze, and a few trees beginning to show a hint of green.

It really had been a long winter Kerin mused as she stood in the busy lobby and scanned the board for the name of the company. There it was. Twelfth floor, J.M. Construction, Inc.

Rather an impressive address for a mere builder, she thought as she got in the sleek elevator. When she got out and looked for the correct suite, she found it right away. First set of glass doors on her left, the name of the company in gold lettering on an onyx plaque by the entrance.

The waiting area was plush carpeting, elegant leather chairs, and huge ferns, with discreet classical music in the background. Beyond it was a desk with a young dark-haired woman who glanced up and politely smiled as Kerin approached. The receptionist asked, “May I help you?”

“I don’t have an appointment but I was told Mr. McCutcheon would be in today. Is it possible to see him?” In retrospect, maybe the idea of a surprise visit wasn’t quite the brilliant romantic gesture Kerin had perceived it to be. It was just that his message he was back in the country had an impact she didn’t expect, so she’d made an impulsive decision to drive up.