Cold Pursuit (Cold Justice) (Volume 2) (35 page)

Michael frowned as he took the tablet. They only had a few seconds before David returned to fetch them.

She didn’t want to push him. She wished she had Jed’s fun-loving way and could just ease him into using it.

Don’t think about Jed.

But when Michael typed, “Ware is Jed?” she realized they were both thinking about the man.

She cleared her throat. Her son had just made a giant leap in communication, but she figured it was best to be low key about the whole thing.
Don’t freak him out
. “He had to work. He has to catch the bad guys.”

Michael held her gaze with blue eyes so like her own. Then he typed, “I miss him.”

The door handle turned and David entered the room, sweeping them both with an assessing gaze. Vivi smoothed Michael’s hair again and straightened his tie. Then she bent and whispered in his ear. “So do I, baby. So do I.”

***

Jed stood in a line of other suits waiting to be presented to the president in the atrium of County Hospital.

SSA McKenzie was on his right. “I’m going to whip your ass when we’re back in Quantico for that stunt you pulled.”

“It kept them alive,” Jed retorted, although maybe it had been a mistake. Frazer was right about getting too involved, it definitely affected his decision-making abilities, but it was too late to undo things now. He wasn’t sure he would anyway. Vivi and Michael were alive, and that time at the lake was something he’d treasure.

McKenzie grunted. “Still gonna kick your ass.”

“Better than paperwork.”

“Oh, there will be paperwork. Count on it. Mountains of paperwork.” The man grew quiet as the president approached.

Jed shook President Hague’s hand.

“I hear you were the agent on the ground when the attack happened?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. President.” Jed would add it to the list of reasons not to go shopping in the future.

“You saved lives that day, son.” The man was tall and slightly stooped. A respected economist, but less respected as a military commander. He’d just lost his virginity when it came to ordering deadly air strikes on foreign soil. “I know Ms. Vincent and her son are particularly grateful for your presence that day.”

Jed’s eyes widened slightly. Especially when he spotted Vivi in the crowd, skin pale against the red of her suit. Even with her dark hair she appeared very much the poised, confident woman he’d first met just a few short days ago. She caught his eye then looked away. David Pentecost seemed pissed that Jed was talking to the president. Jed searched for Michael, but the Secret Service detail was too thick.

“I’d give my life to protect either of them, sir,” he said loudly enough for them to hear.

The leader of his country smiled. “Join us.” And then he moved on to McKenzie. Jed eased through the crowd toward Vivi. She tried to edge away, but she had nowhere to go.

He ignored Pentecost and took her hand and gave her fingers a squeeze. She looked up at him then. Wariness out-competing hope.

He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I was a jerk. I’m sorry.”

Her lips trembled, but then someone pushed between them before he could lean down and kiss her.

Michael.

He picked the kid up and gave him a squeeze. The little boy hugged him back so hard a ball of emotion threatened to choke him. He put the kid down. “Stay with your mom a moment, I need to talk to your dad.”

Jed worked his way to the outside of the group and beckoned Pentecost toward him. He leaned close to the man’s ear, and whispered quietly, “If you ever lay a hand on either of them again, I will make you scream like a girl. Do we understand each other?”

David’s gaze flicked to Vivi with a flush of guilt.

Jed wanted to smack the guy, but he doubted Vivi would appreciate him brawling with her ex during a presidential visit. She was a private person.

Later.

His cell buzzed in his pocket, and he used the call to walk away from the group. The president and his entourage had kept moving. David Pentecost was right next to the president, now dragging Michael close beside him, determined to make an impression while he had the chance. Vivi followed after them, glancing back at him in question. Jed followed more slowly.

He glanced at the phone screen. Frazer. “What do you know?”

At the elevator, the president and Vivi headed to the third floor, so Jed took the stairs with a few of the Secret Service agents.

“We have an ID on the female terrorist. Pilah Rasheed. I’m sending you a photograph.”

“Great. Know where she is?”

“No. But we tracked a cell phone that we believe she is using within a quarter-mile radius of the hospital.”

Crap. Not good, although if there were any more law enforcement personnel around here you could rob a bank anywhere else in the US and stroll away without a worry.

He and the Secret Service agents piled out at the third floor and Jed saw the entourage walking into a ward. The president paused and started talking to patients, moving slowly through the room. The Secret Service knew trouble was possible. They were twitchy and nervous. Hell, so was he.

A doctor was introduced to President Hague. Vivi shot Jed a glance and he winked at her, trying to put her at ease. A faint blush touched her cheeks. His thoughts turned to what he wanted to say to her when he got her alone. They shouldn’t move too fast. He didn’t want to scare her but frankly, once Michael was asleep, he was going to show her exactly what she meant to him. He’d like to—

His cell went off again, jerking him back to the here and now. He scrubbed his hand through his hair. This is what she did to him.

Frazer said, “I want you up on the roof scanning for snipers.”

An ominous chill entered his body. Sniping wasn’t the kill method of choice by most terrorist organizations, but for presidential assassinations… “OK.”

He didn’t want to leave without telling Vivi though. He headed over to tell her to wait for him after the big wigs left.

The president and doctor stopped in front of a private room. The Secret Service entered the room first, checked it, then the president entered. Jed overheard the doctor saying that this was a man who’d been in a coma since the attack, and that his niece had been with him ever since.

Jed couldn’t exactly shove his way past the Secret Service, but he edged along the wall and got to the doorway. The room was small. Everyone hovered in the entrance as the president went inside. Michael slipped out of his father’s grip and followed the president into the room and started tugging urgently on the man’s jacket. Jed held back a grin as David looked like he was about to blow his stack, but couldn’t without looking like an asshole.

And then his heart stopped beating as three things happened at once. Vivi went further into the room to get Michael. The niece, a tired blonde with a sad-looking mouth, leaned down out of sight. And Michael started making a high-pitched, keening noise that stabbed his eardrum like a needle.

Jed pushed his way into the room to help Michael just as the niece came up holding something that looked suspiciously like a weapon.
Oh, fuck
. He launched himself in front of Vivi and Michael as the woman started firing. A fierce rush of pain took his breath, and then another. He wrapped his arms around the three people in front of him and took them to the floor, crumpled into a heap in the corner. Loud gunfire shook the room and glass shattered.

Goddamn.
How had she fooled security?

The shooting stopped. “Are you all right?” His voice sounded pathetic, but he needed to catch his breath.

“I’m fine, son,” said the president.

“Vivi? Michael?” he asked. It wasn’t the Commander in Chief he was worried about.

Michael scrambled out of the jumble of arms and legs and stood there shaking. His father came into the room and touched his shoulder. Jed swallowed tightly as he watched the man give his son a tentative hug.

Vivi lay stunned and winded. Jed was lying on top of both her and the president.

Secret Service men waded in. One of them trod on Vivi and Jed shoved him aside. “Watch the lady, asshole.”

President Hague waved them away. “I’m fine. Ms. Vincent? Are you OK?”

A wall of bodies stood at their back.

Vivi blinked, then her eyes rolled back and she passed out. What the hell? He pushed her hair off her face. “I love you, Vivi. Don’t you dare die on me.”

Hell of a time to have that realization.

Then Jed saw a stain of darker crimson on her red suit.
Oh fuck, oh, fuck
. He’d failed. He pulled up her shirt, uncaring of all the other male eyes, but there was no bullet hole. Jed blinked in confusion and then someone was dragging him backwards.

“Let me go.” He tried to shout, to break away, but his voice was weak. What the hell? Then he looked down at his own shirt and saw a huge patch of blood. He was the one who’d been shot. His blood on her suit. Not hers. Good.

Then the pain started drilling into his back.
Holy motherfucker.

A doctor was in his face and he was on a gurney, racing through the corridors, lights glaring, people shouting. Mayhem.

He should call Frazer. He tried to reach into his pocket for his phone but his hands wouldn’t cooperate. The edges of his vision started to fade. Crap, he was not about to die. He’d just found another woman to love and he wasn’t putting her through the hell he’d endured when he’d lost Mia.

“Tell her I love her,” he said to the man who loomed over him. He found a last vestige of strength and gripped the man’s sleeve. “Tell her.”

The stranger nodded, then Jed’s vision tunneled gray and turned black.

***

Vivi woke to a throbbing skull and the sense that something was seriously wrong.

“Michael? Jed!” Where were they?

Her head spun as she climbed to her hands and knees. She’d lost the stupid heels David had bought her. She was going to start wearing sneakers wherever she went, regardless of the occasion.

“Ms. Vincent?” President Hague was on his knees beside her. “Easy. You hit your head.” He gave a chuckle but seemed genuinely concerned. “You better wait for a gurney before you try and stand…” But she was already on her feet, wobbling, leaning against the wall for support.

The president snorted. “Yet another woman who won’t listen to me. I can’t wait to introduce you to my wife.”

Two big, burly men came and hooked hands under President Hague’s armpits and raised him to his feet. Another watched her hawk-like from the corner. “I want to know how your young man is…” The president was still talking as he was whisked away.

Her brain was thick with a painful fog. Where was Jed? Where was Michael? She took a step toward the woman who’d shot at them. Her pretty pink top was riddled with bullets. It was a garish sight. Such an ordinary looking woman and now she was dead. Vivi’s stomach roiled. She glanced at the bed. The poor man in the coma had slept through the whole thing. What was he going to think when he woke up?

“Jed. Michael.” She needed to find them. Where were they? She swayed and someone caught her elbow.

“I’ve got you.”

It was the CIA guy she didn’t like. She tried to pull away.

“Come on, Vivi. We’re on the same team, I promise. Michael’s just outside the door. I’m going to take you to him and then we’re going to get you checked out.”

She looked down at her crimson suit and saw a large smear of blood. But aside from a pounding skull she wasn’t hurt. Panic hit. “Where’s Jed?”

Killion looked pale and shaken. “He’s on his way to the OR.” His voice was tight.

“Take me to him.”

“As soon as the doc clears you.”

She tried to pull away, but he held onto her and forced her to look at him.

“He loves you, and if I don’t get you checked out by the doctor before he comes out of surgery, he will kick my ass.”

She frowned. “He doesn’t love me.”

Killion’s expression was incredulous. “You didn’t hear him declare his undying love seconds after he took a bullet for you?”

She looked around, confused. There was maybe a vague memory of his voice saying
I love you
. “I-I don’t… maybe. I didn’t want him to
die
for me.” Her stomach churned and she put her hand over her mouth, Killion got her to the bathroom in record time. As he held her hair back she decided he wasn’t so terrible after all. Suddenly her son was beside her and she hugged him close to her side as soon as she could sit up. “I’m all right, Mikey. Don’t fret, baby. But it looks like today is my day to get scanned and poked. You need to be brave for me.”

David spoke awkwardly from the doorway. “I’ll sit with him.”

She turned to look at him incredulously.

One of the president’s Secret Service agents tapped him on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Nothing like an audience while you vomited.

David shook the guy off. “I can’t. I need to stay with my son.” He stood there eyeing her with a determined set to his jaw. “I owe him this.”

She looked at him dubiously but wasn’t in a position to argue. “Don’t leave the hospital,” she warned.

David nodded.

She tried not to think about Jed as the doctors whisked her off to get a CT scan, but he was all she could think of.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I
sraeli Colonel Elan Gourda walked down the tunnel to his plane and showed the air steward his boarding pass.

His wounds were healing; the gash on his head hidden by his thick black hair and a wool hat. His shoulder was bandaged and not swollen or hurting. He didn’t think it was infected.

He was going home for the holidays and had never been more relieved, but the death of the woman weighed heavily on him, even though he’d watched from a building across the street, prepared to kill her if the president’s protection detail didn’t do the job for him. They had and he’d been grateful.

The plan had been to put the president in real danger, but they hadn’t wanted the assassination attempt to actually succeed. A member of Kidon, the highly secretive counter-terrorist department within the Mossad, Elan’s job had been to manage the plot hatched between the head of the Mossad and a high level American politician. They’d set up would-be terrorists, led by the mercenary Sargon Al Sahad and given them opportunity. There had been sacrifices, obviously, more people had died than Elan had ever imagined, but these people would have attacked someone, somewhere. At least they were dead now.