Hearts Under Siege (25 page)

“Where’s Jessica?” he asked his father before following the cop to the dining room.

“She’s resting. The commotion woke her, but she didn’t see anything until it was over, and they let her go back to her bedroom.”

Brady nodded and limped into the dining room. Funny how a shoulder injury could affect how you walked. His entire body ached now, radiating from the bullet wound. He didn’t wait for permission to sit.

“There’s a lot I’m not going to be able to answer,” he warned the detective. A sigh of relief escaped him as the table took the weight of his injured arm. “I don’t know everything that’s been going on.”

“Yeah, I got that.” The detective looked down at his notes. “I’ve been given three different names. One DC Metro cop, two feds. They’ll take over the case, I’m sure. So don’t expect this to be the last set of questions.”

Brady’s eyes burned. “Hit me.”

The detective actually went easy on him, surprising since he’d skipped out on the scene. He made Brady tell him about the events leading to today’s incident, and asked more questions about Shae than anything else.

Brady described what had happened, how they knew she was abducted and how to find her, but added, “I don’t know anything else. I believe she’s my niece, but I don’t even know her last name. I’m not sure my brother knows about her. The rest of us didn’t.”

Ten minutes later, the detective let Brady go and went to the kitchen to talk to Shae and convince her to let him call her mother. Brady stayed behind to call the hospital to check on Christopher. He wasn’t sure if his parents had gotten the implication of him saying Aldus tried to kill Chris—twice. But he was going to have to tell them now and didn’t want to have to say, “I don’t know” about his condition.

After being transferred three times, he got the nurses’ station nearest where they’d moved his brother. The woman asked him half a dozen questions to confirm his identity and her freedom to give him information.

“Mr. Fitzpatrick is stable and awake and…um…resting comfortably.”

Yeah, right.
“He’s making threats, huh?” Brady would be, in Chris’s situation. He took the woman’s silence for confirmation. “Can I talk to him?”

“I’ll transfer you to his room.”

There were a few
clicks
, then a ring, then a barked, “Hello.”

“It’s me,” Brady said.

“What the hell is going on? No one will tell me anything, no one answers their frigging phone, and the cops just stare at the wall. Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, everyone’s fine. But tell me how you are. Mom will want to know that first thing.”

That calmed Chris. “I’m okay. Good pain meds, lots of adrenaline. Doc said I’m out of the woods, but I’ll be here for a few more days, at least. Did you tell them yet?”

“No. But I’m about to.” Brady gave him the rundown of events since the shooting at the drop site. He kept his voice level when he talked about Shae, as if they’d known about her all along.

But Chris exploded into curses. “How the fuck did she get to Connecticut? She shouldn’t have even known I was dead! Where’s her mother?”

Brady chuckled wryly. “You’re not the only one with questions, bro.”

Chris went silent for a moment. “Yeah. I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?”

“Does Jessica know about Shae?”

“Hell, yeah. She always has. It’s been…complicated.”

Brady couldn’t believe he’d told Jessica and not the rest of them. “You’d better start explaining,” he ground out.

Chris sighed. “All right. Basic rundown. I dated Shae’s mother briefly in college. She was graduating and had already entered the Peace Corps. I had been recruited by SIEGE. We both thought it was over, until she discovered she was pregnant. She’d just told me when something happened where she was serving. She went into witness protection and I didn’t hear anything else for six years.”

“Jesus, Chris.” Brady noticed Chris didn’t mention Shae’s mother’s name. It was possible Brady knew her, since they’d all been at school together.

“I cultivated contacts at WITSEC and was able to keep tabs from afar, until the threat was neutralized. She decided not to come out of the program, but since I was an operator, she let me make contact.” His voice grew raspy, and he cleared his throat. “I missed out on a lot. I only get to see her once or twice a year. Her mother is still afraid and refuses to let me tell anyone. I thought it would be easier if Mom and Dad didn’t even know she existed.”

Brady couldn’t believe how much his brother had kept hidden. What a strain it must have been. “Well, it’s out now. I don’t think those conditions are going to hold. Mom’s filling Shae with food and love as we speak.”

“I don’t care. I just—she’s okay?” His anger must have been spent, and now the fear was belatedly seeping through.

“I think so. Physically. She won’t let us call her mother, but a detective is trying to convince her.”

“I want to talk to my daughter.”

“Sure. But you know I’ve got to tell Mom and Dad you’re alive, if they haven’t already figured it out. They’ll be down there on the next plane.”

“Yeah. I’m ready.” He sighed. “Thanks, Brady, for everything. I’m sorry I put you through all this.”

“You did what you had to do. And God knows I have my own apologies to make.” He rubbed his hand over his face again. He was so fucking exhausted.

“No, you don’t,” Chris surprised him. “I get it. I think everyone does.”

It was Brady’s turn to sigh. “Doesn’t matter. I stayed away too long. Caused too much pain. Wasted too much time.”

“Yeah? With Molly?” Chris sounded excited.

“Yeah.” Brady pushed himself to his feet with a groan. “Let me get Shae. I’ll see you in a day or two.”

“Thanks, bro.”

When Brady entered the kitchen, he stopped for a moment to watch his mother and niece. They were hunched over mugs of hot chocolate, a plate with sandwich crumbs set off to the side. They talked in low murmurs he couldn’t hear even from the doorway. But Shae giggled, apparently already recovering from her ordeal. Maybe living a secret life had made her resilient. But being a Fitzpatrick made her strong.

“Did it work?” the girl asked his mother.

“In a manner of speaking. The roof was so slick, they landed on their butts, slid down to the edge, caught the gutters with their feet, and flipped off into the snowbank. They were grounded for a month.”

“Hey, now.” Brady walked around the center island to the breakfast nook where they sat. “No fair telling her all our misspent youth stories right off the bat. Let her get to know her manly uncle first.”

Shae grinned up at him. “Can I call you Uncle Brady?”

Her words pierced his heart with a sweetness he’d never felt. “Of course.” He cleared his throat when it came out husky. He quickly handed her his phone. “Your father.” And didn’t
that
sound weird.

She stared at him. Then her face lit up. “Dad? He’s— He’s not—”

Crap
. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t told her. And now he’d told his mother, too. What was wrong with him?

“He’s fine. He wants to make sure you are.”

Shae jumped up and dashed out of the room, the phone already to her ear. “Dad? Is that really you?”

Brady sat across from his frozen mother and eyed her warily, not sure what reaction he’d get when she finished processing what he’d said.

She slowly turned to face him. “Did you just say Shae’s father is on the phone?”

He nodded.

Hope and sorrow flickered over her expression, as though she wasn’t sure which to feel. Hope that her son was alive, or sorrow that Shae wasn’t her granddaughter after all. “Who is her father, Brady?”

“It’s Christopher,” he said gently.

She burst into tears.

“Mom, it’s okay.” He quickly slid around to her side of the table and pulled her into his arms. “He’s okay.” Her sobbing didn’t lessen. “Where’s Dad?”

Just then, he came into the room.

“Who’s the girl talking to?” he asked before noticing that his wife was uncharacteristically hysterical. “What’s going on?”

“Chris is alive.” Brady said it flat out, so there were no uncertainties. “Aldus and Ellison tried to kill him when he got too close, so he pretended they’d succeeded. Unfortunately, he came out of hiding too soon, and he was shot. He’s in the hospital in DC, but he’ll be okay.”

Rick wobbled over to the table and sat, his eyes watery. “I can’t believe it. What a crazy…” His hand shook as he reached across the table to take his wife’s. “Donna. He’s alive. And we have a granddaughter. And we’re going to have—” He glanced at Brady and stopped, just smiling.

Speaking of which…

“Where’s Molly?” Brady released his mother and stood, working his way around her because she didn’t seem to want to let go of his father’s hand.

“She’s still in with the detective.”

“Still?” Brady echoed. Dammit. He wanted her now. Everything was settling into place for everyone else, and he wanted
his
share.

But maybe it was better this way. He should tell Jessica about Christopher first. Then everything would be taken care of, at least for now. He wanted to know more about how everyone had wound up in SIEGE, and who knew what when. Then he’d be able to concentrate on convincing Molly that they needed to be together.

He walked down the shadowy hallway to the room Jessica was using and tapped on the door.

“Come in.” She sounded dull, drained. When he opened the door, he found her sitting on the side of the bed, her pose listless. His heart went out to her. She wasn’t equipped for this. Luckily, he had the cure, and then he could hand her back to her husband to manage.

“Jess, I have news.”

Her head came up, color flaring into her cheeks and anger into her eyes. “How dare you come in here to talk to me? You
left
. You walked out on your brother’s funeral! On
me
.”

“That’s what I’m here about.” There was no chair to sit on, and he wasn’t comfortable sitting on the unmade bed, so he leaned against the wall in front of her. “I want to tell you where we went. Why it was so urgent to leave.”

“I don’t want to hear it! You betrayed us! All of us! For years, Chris was so depressed that you stayed away. And now you couldn’t even watch his body get buried.”

“Hey.” Brady bit back self-defense. It wasn’t important now. “Jess, he’s alive. Okay? I didn’t betray anything. Molly and I went to find him.” He spared her details. It was up to Chris to tell her what had happened and why. “He’s hurt, but he’s okay. He’s going to be okay,” Brady repeated when she didn’t react. Was she even listening?

“You and that whore,” she growled, looking around her as if for a weapon. “She had to take you away when I needed you most.” Apparently giving up on finding what she was looking for, she launched herself off the bed at Brady, fists landing first, bouncing off his chest. He gasped when one landed on his wounded shoulder, and tried to catch her wrists.

“Jessica,
listen
. He’s—” He had to duck when she aimed at his head. She didn’t stop, so he wrapped his arms around her, pinning hers to her sides. “Stop. Jess. Chris is alive.” He said it directly into her ear, and she froze. He repeated it more softly, and she sagged against him.

“Really?” When she tilted her head back, he saw how ravaged her grief had made her.

“Really.”

“Oh, my God.” She backed away, her hand over her mouth. “How? Where is he? I need to get to him.”

“My parents are probably making those arrangements right now.” He explained that Chris was in the hospital, but not the details. Again, it was up to Chris how much he’d tell anyone.

“Thank you, Brady.” She leaned up to kiss him on the mouth, a quick, shocking press before she dashed out. He stood there, frowning, flashing back to the one other time they’d kissed. He remembered the roiling, burning, destructive longing, such a complete contrast to the utter cold he felt now.

He became aware of a presence in the hall and turned quickly. “Molly.”

“I know.” She came in and reached for his hand. “Come on. You must be exhausted.”

He was. He’d known he was, but now it sank on him like a blanket of snow, or fog, enveloping his whole body. He trudged up the stairs behind her, his legs so heavy he could barely clear each step. “I need a shower,” he murmured when they got to the hall and approached the bathroom.

“You’re not supposed to get your wound wet. And even if you could, you wouldn’t make it through that.” She did pull him into the room, though, and sat him on the toilet. “But we can clean you up some.”

Brady sat in a daze as she removed his shirt and bandage, sponged him down as clinically as any nurse, and re-covered his wound. The inevitable spark of interest when she stripped off his jeans snuffed out almost immediately, even before she helped him into a pair of boxers.

He must have dozed off standing up, because in a blink they were next to his bed. A pillow had never looked so inviting in his life. But when Molly would have lowered him to the bed, he resisted and pulled her into his arms, burying his nose in her riotous hair. She smelled like her. Like home.

“Stay with me,” he begged.

“
I
need a shower.” She pulled away and coaxed him onto the bed. “I’ll come back, okay?”

“You better,” he grumbled into the pillow, and then he was out. He woke a little when she did return, making sure she spooned against him, not even caring that draping his arm over her made his shoulder ache. “I love you,” he whispered, and fell asleep.

…

Molly slept far more soundly than she’d expected, but she woke early. The house was deadly silent. Before her shower, she’d talked to Brady’s parents and Jessica. They’d gotten an emergency fare for the next flight out of New York and were almost packed. She’d offered to drive them to the airport, but they refused. Since she actually was as exhausted as they accused her of being, she didn’t insist.

Jessica had been eager to leave. Her demeanor had changed drastically, the tragic widow gone in a seeming instant. The ravages of the last few days were still apparent in her red eyes and haggard complexion, not to mention how frighteningly skinny she’d become. But there was a glow of happiness as she urged Rick and Donna to hurry, and kept checking the flight status on her smartphone.