Inside Danger (Outside The Ropes Book 2) (41 page)

“I was scared too,” I began tentatively. “That you were going to die. I thought you gave up, you took your hand off your leg. You stopped trying.” I tried to breath down the anger building in me, but it was a fire consuming the pain.

His chest bounced with light breathy laughter. “You’re mad at me for that?”

His laughter picked up, extinguishing my anger, forcing me to smile through the tears with him.

“Yes, I am. I would never have forgiven you if you died.” But I couldn’t keep the smile up as much as I tried. The words were too close to being real and a new wave of tears welled up.

“Shh.” His hand was back in my hair, stroking my face. “I didn’t give up. Don’t you know by now, baby, I will always fight to be with you. But I had to touch you one last time, say I love you one last time, just in case.” He kissed away a tear on my cheek. “It was important.”

I dropped my head back to his chest, taking a moment to let his words settle, to let my heart calm. “It’s not as important at staying alive, staying with me. Don’t do it again.” I slid my arms back around him, snuggling close. “I already knew you loved me, you were there. You saved me. Thank you.”

“You saved me too.” It was barely a whisper as we both closed our eyes, sharing the comfort of being together, laying in each other’s arms.

When Nurse Elaine came back into the room, neither of us were ready to separate.

“She’s staying here. Her doctors can see her here.” Gage kept his arm on me, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

Some small part of me knew it sounded unreasonable, but I didn’t care. It was unreasonable to separate us after everything we went through to be together.

“I’m really sorry Ms. Sommers, but you have to get back to your room now, the police are waiting to speak with you. I’ll bring you back to see him after.” Elaine’s words struck a new fear.

If the police were here to talk to me, they were probably going to talk to Gage too. And I had to face the truth, we both killed people the other night.

I pulled back, meeting Gage’s alert blue eyes.

“It’s going to be okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He squeezed my hand. “Just tell them about Damien.”

And I read between the lines, keep Rusnak’s name out of my story.

I BARELY GAVE A STORY. I TOLD them the names of the people in that house and that Gage saved me, but little else. I couldn’t, not to a room full of strangers, probably not to anyone, except maybe to Gage. The cops didn’t press for more. They already had it decided, I was the victim, Jade told them so.

The police officer told me, Jade had survived. Her real name was Serena Woods and the FBI filled in the police on Rock’s crew. She had been undercover, trying to infiltrate the human trafficking ring. Trying to find out who “Shadow” was. They had been hoping to discover his identity at the exchange.

And that’s what got me. That’s what stopped me from seeing her as good. She may have had good intentions and kept me from overdosing, but she had still used me as bait.

Once everything happened, she had to pull her gun, blowing her cover. Jay shot her in the chest, but the surgeons were able to repair her lungs. She still hadn’t woken up from her most recent surgery though.

The officer promised to come back later, when I was ready to talk. It sounded like a threat.

I didn’t get to go back to Gage though, not like Elaine promised. Instead, they moved me to another wing of the hospital, to get emotional treatment. I tried to explain that if they wanted to help me, they needed to let me be with him, but they didn’t listen. They only gave me things to calm me down, drugs I didn’t want.

I saw it spinning out of control and heard the storm in the things the nurses and doctors said to me.

“You can’t see him.”

“He is being questioned by the police.”

But the worse, was seeing the way they talked in hush tones outside of my room, the looks they gave each other when I said I just wanted to talk to him on the phone. The response of, “You need some space, time to process everything away from the people involved.”

And there was nothing I could do. Not when they had me sedated, in and out of sleep.

It wasn’t till the next day that visitors started. But I had nothing to say to them or their fake smiles. Leona, Aliya, and Zoe came by without Dexter. He was with Gage.

“How is he?” I asked first thing.

I could tell by their traded looks something wasn’t right and my blood dropped.

Leona grabbed my hand, but I pulled away.

“The doctors told us not to talk to you about him for now,” Aliya explained, head lowered.

“That’s—” I was at a loss of words. “That’s crazy. Why? What’s going on?” I pulled myself up on the bed, careless of the stitches in my side.

The girls traded glances. “The cops are investigating his involvement,” Leona explained.

“He saved me. He didn’t do anything wrong.” I grabbed for Leona’s hand on the bed. “Please, go get my doctor. Tell them to come in here. I’m ready to talk. I’ll talk to the police. Anything. He didn’t do anything wrong,” I was panicking. I should have said more sooner.

I had already told them he saved me. That was one of the only things I had said. But maybe they needed more details. I had to try. I had to do whatever I could to help him.

But even after I told the story, from Nan to Silas to Damien at the end, they still arrested him. He was sent to prison, charged with murder, with no bail.

And I was released from the hospital.

I stayed with Dexter and Leona, trapping myself in their apartment. I was stuck, unable to take a step forward without knowing what was going to happen to Gage. As bad as it sounded, I didn’t want to move past anything without him with me.

I lived for the brief phone calls from him. That and the news were the only reasons I got up.

“The Star says they were part of one of the largest human trafficking operations on the east coast,” I summarized the article I read earlier. “They are giving all the credit to the FBI’s human trafficking task force. Their operation removed large quantities of drugs and the shoot out resulted in seven deaths of notorious gang members that plagued the streets.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, stop reading those things? You know the story. Don’t drive yourself crazy.”

I could picture him running his hand through his hair simply by his frustrated tone. I ached to see him.

I obsessed over articles and news reports about Gage, and there were many. My name was absent from all of them, just referenced as a young woman rescued. Gage’s involvement was unclear, under investigation. Some claimed he helped, but others suspected he was part of it, or a member of a rival gang. Either way, his name had been dragged through the mud with all of this.

“Anything new from your lawyer?” They had scheduled a grand jury indictment for the following week.

“He thinks they don’t have enough evidence to charge me with murder, at least not first degree. And the FBI agent is awake now. Her report should help.” His sigh blew into the phone.

“I’ll go back up there. I—”

“No.” He cut me off. “Stop, you’ve done what you can. If it goes to trial, you’ll have to talk, but not now. Are you okay? Dexter told me you haven’t gone back to the therapist.”

I lay back on the bed, only a slight stinging from the movement now. “They’re the ones that wouldn’t let me see you in the hospital. I’m done with them. Stop changing the subject. I’m fine. I just can’t wait to see you on Sunday.” I closed my eyes, picturing his strong features and light eyes.

“About that.”

I sat up with the warning.

“Don’t come here. You need to do what we talked about. Move out of state, get away. I’ll come to you when I get out.”

“No, I already told you, I’m not leaving you here.”

“Good to see you still have your attitude,” I could hear the smile in his sarcastic tone.

“My attitude and I are staying.” I wasn’t going to back down and I wasn’t going to let him push me away.

“Regan, listen to me,” his voice was softer.

“Your indictment is so soon, why are you pushing this now?”

The weighted pause was driving me crazy.

“Anatoli was arrested. He was brought in yesterday, I don’t want you coming here.”

I was struck with the news, speechless. But my emotions pulled, a tug of war between relief and fear. “What does that mean? Why?” I was already going to Dexter’s laptop to look up this news.

“I can’t talk about it here, but…” There were voices behind his, requesting the phone. “Back the fuck up. I’ll be off in a minute.” He dropped his voice when he spoke to me. “I’ll fill you in when I can. Just don’t come here, not yet.”

He ripped away the only thing I was looking forward too. I was being crushed, but I forced myself to think past my emotions. “Is there more? Does this affect you? Me?”

There was no news that I could find on an Internet search.

“Maybe not, but I don’t want you taking any chances. Tell Dexter. I’ve got to go. I love you.”

I took a deep breath, not wanting to say goodbye. “You be careful. I love you.”

Typing Anatoli Rusnak into case search, 56 charges popped up. All surrounding drug possession, distribution, trafficking across state lines, and smuggling over the border.

“I shouldn’t have let him go. I shouldn’t have told him where.” Dexter tossed his phone on the couch next to me, frustrated by the article he just read.

We were all on edge since we arrived in New Jersey. Leona was sleeping off her frustrations.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, sweeping his eyes to me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean he shouldn’t have helped you. I meant I should have made the police go instead. If I would have went to someone other than the detective he sent me to, there would be no question of his motives.”

I nodded, arms wrapping around myself. There were a lot of what ifs to this, but I couldn’t help but feel that since we were both alive, this scenario wasn’t so bad. Sure, I was lost without him, but at least there was still a chance for us.

“Why didn’t you?” I asked, more to keep him talking. I’d heard some of this story, but not enough.

“I may not always listen to him.” He smiled slightly. “But his plans are usually good. He’s always taken care of things. Of me.” He shook his head and shrugged, despondent.

We were both missing him.

“After you called me, and I heard Silas and that guy take you, I was freaking out. I went back to the apartment, but you were gone already. And they had turned off your phone so I couldn’t track you. Gage called back just as I was about to call the police. I’m sorry I hesitated.” He shifted his eyes away from me. “It’s only, I didn’t know if that would make it worse.” He deflated with a sigh. “He had been out of signal, setting up for his delivery at a warehouse. I told him everything they said, about them thinking he was in Florida, but I didn’t know who the other guy was. I didn’t have a fucking clue what to do. Gage gave me a police detectives name and number, told me to go to him and tell him everything. Said we could trust him.”

He shook his head, leaning forward. “He helped, he found out where Rocks’ hideout was, but he never reported any of it. I got the feeling he was doing it more to keep Rusnak’s shipment safe. Whenever he talked to Gage, that’s all he cared about. Wasn’t till the drugs were secured in Florida that he even told us the address. Probably knew it all along.”

Dexter stood up, pacing. “Then I thought Gage was going to that place with Nick or Boris or even Rusnak. I wouldn’t have let him go alone.”

“It’s better you weren’t there.” I could only say that since Gage lived.

He paused his pacing and looked at me. “Maybe. We’ll see if they have enough evidence to take him to trial.”

They didn’t.

They dismissed his charges after Jade—I mean Serena—filled her report. They gave a one-sentence press statement, clearing his name. It was deemed self-defense. But that was it.

I didn’t question it too deeply, not when all I cared about was seeing Gage.

As soon as we got the call, we drove back to Maryland to pick him up.

The day was hot for May, and the sun was high in the sky when we pulled up to the prison and waited for him to be released. The moment I saw him, walking down the sidewalk in his faded jeans and soft t-shirt, I thought I would burst. It had only been a couple of weeks, and he looked the same, but at the same time, he looked better than ever. I wanted to run into his arms but his slight limp stopped me. He was still recovering.

He had the oddest smile as we walked up to him, it almost put me on edge, but I was too relieved that he was getting out, for good, to let it bother me.

“You weren’t supposed to come here. You never could listen, could you?” He softly questioned, pulling me into his arms at the same time.

His fresh scent overwhelmed me, both allowing me to finally breath and stealing my last breath at the same time. He made me light headed.

I wrapped my arms around him. “I make my own decisions, and I want to be wherever you are.”

“Good because that’s where I want you.” He pulled back and kissed my lips gently, his hands rubbing over my black maxi dress.

Dexter cleared his throat and Gage broke the kiss, but didn’t take his arm off me as he greeted his brother with some sort of handshake.

“Do you want to drive?” Dexter held up the keys to Gage.

“No, you can.” He opened the back door for me and slid in after, placing his arm back around me.

“So,” Dexter started the SUV, grabbing Leona’s hand in the passenger seat. “Where to? Can we go home now?”

Leona shot him a look, but stayed quiet.

“Yea, you two can go home. Things should be fine.”

“Rusnak’s not an issue then?” Dexter questioned.

Gage looked around the SUV, I could see him carefully considering his words. “He’ll be away for a while. Won’t cause any trouble for us.”

My nerves started to prick and I captured his eyes with mine, silently questioning him.

“It’ll be okay. I promise.” He mumbled to me and pushed back a piece of my hair.