Fatal Pursuit (The Aegis Series) (30 page)

Jake didn’t let go of McKnight’s arm or the gun in his hand. They both went over. Hamilton shouted. Marley screamed. Footsteps echoed close as Jake and McKnight rolled across the dusty floor of the barn and wrestled for control of the gun. From the corner of his eye, Jake saw Hamilton’s gun pointed right at him and McKnight, but he knew Hamilton couldn’t get off a shot. McKnight was weaving all around, grappling like a street fighter. Jake’s fingers wrapped around McKnight’s on the handle of the gun. He struggled to twist the weapon away. McKnight shoved him over and slammed him into a tractor tire. Pain raced up Jake’s spine. The gun caught between their hands went off. The gunshot rang out through the barn. Followed by a second.

Jake wasn’t sure who’d been hit, but there was blood. Everywhere there was blood. He yanked his arm back. McKnight let go of the weapon, slumped against the barn floor. Pushing himself up and back, Jake scrambled to his butt, the gun in one hand, the other pressing against his chest, his arm, his stomach, searching for a wound, looking for the source of all that blood.

“Jake!” Marley rushed to his side. She dropped to her knees. Her
hands gripped his shoulders. Her eyes were wide ovals in her face as her
gaze raced over his bloody shirt. “Are you hit? Oh God. Where?” She pushed her hands against his chest, his belly, his arms. “Where is it?”

“It’s not me.” He let go of the gun and gripped her hands when he realized she was doing the same thing he’d just done. “Marley, it’s not me.”

She froze. At her back, Hamilton stood over McKnight’s lifeless body and muttered, “Fucking bastard. I told you it wasn’t going to end well.”

Her father moved up, saw McKnight, and stilled. “Dammit.”

Marley’s eyes slid closed. A plethora of emotions rushed over her bruised and dirt-streaked face. Then her shoulders slumped and she fell back on her heels.

Jake scrambled forward, caught her in his arms, and pulled her close. Her hands gripped his biceps as if he were her last lifeline. Her shoulders shook against him and her face pressed against his throat.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, pulling her closer, needing her heat and warmth to shove aside all the fear and anxiety still vibrating inside him. “I’ve got you.”

She held on for only a moment, not nearly long enough to satisfy him, then sniffled and pushed out of his arms. “I’m fine. I’m okay, Jake. You don’t have to . . .”

Her gaze drifted up. She spotted her brother, then quickly pushed to her feet. “Ronan.”

“You’re good, Marley.” Hamilton hugged her tight. “It’s over.”

They embraced for several seconds, and then she moved for her father.

Mason’s arms closed around his daughter. Against her, he whispered, “I’m sorry, pumpkin. I was wrong about him. So, so wrong. I thought I was helping. I thought he could make you happy. Forgive me. I’m so sorry.”

Voices echoed from the front of the barn. Jake didn’t have to look to know that his team was finally there—Eve, Zane, Landon, Mick, and Raleigh. Because he was too focused on Marley being consoled by her father.

Too focused on the fact he should be the one holding her close.

“The cut’s not deep,” the EMT said as he placed butterfly bandages across the wound on Marley’s upper arm. “You’re not going to need stitches. Shouldn’t even scar.”

“Thanks.” Seated on the back of the open ambulance, her feet hanging down to dangle in the shredded train of her dress, Marley pulled the blanket back up over her shoulder and shivered in the cool night air. “That’s one positive in all this, I guess.”

The EMT, a young kid who looked to be no more than twenty-two, flicked a grin her way and grabbed a couple bandages and gauze pads. “I’m gonna check on the other guy. Be right back.”

He headed into the main house where Jake was still talking to the police. Picturing Jake covered in all that blood sent fear coursing through Marley’s body all over again. She drew a deep breath to beat it back, then glanced over her father’s front drive and the emergency vehicles dotting the turnaround.

Most of the wedding guests had left, and the majority of the ones who remained were either family, her father’s Omega employees, or the crew from Aegis, helping the police put the puzzle pieces of Gray’s plan back together. People like Ronan and Jake and her dad, who were used to this kind of chaos. People who dealt with the fallout of an op gone right—or wrong—fairly regularly. People like her.

A sinking emptiness filled her belly. No, not people like her. This time it was very different. Not just because she’d been so involved, but because Jake had tried to warn her about Gray numerous times and she’d ignored him. She’d been so upset over what was happening between her and Jake personally that she hadn’t wanted to listen to reason when it came to Gray and what he was after. Hadn’t wanted to see. And then she’d gone and agreed to marry the guy just to prove that she could. That didn’t make her a great operative. It didn’t even make her a good one. It made her stubborn and bullheaded, and in the field, that kind of behavior wouldn’t just get her killed, it could get someone else killed too. Someone she cared about.

Olivia wandered her way wearing a long, black wool coat and carrying a steaming mug in her hand. She stopped near Marley and handed her the mug. “Tea. Thought you could use it.”

“Thanks.” Marley lifted the mug to her lips and took a tentative sip, hoping the liquid would sweep away the heartache and stupidity she felt, knowing it never could.

“Are you okay?” Olivia asked. “They’re not taking you to the hospital, are they?”

Marley shook her head and swallowed around the growing lump in her throat. “No. I’m fine. Just needed a few bandages, that’s all.”

Relief swept over Olivia’s face. “That’s good. I was so worried. Everyone was. I still can’t believe that Gray . . .”

Yeah, neither could Marley. She took another large sip as Olivia fumbled for the right words. The level of rage inside Gray hadn’t just shocked her, it had horrified her, and even now when she thought of it, a shudder ran down her spine.

Olivia’s gaze dropped to Marley’s muddy, ripped, and bloody dress, and she sighed. “It’s really too bad about the dress, though. I mean, a Lexi Lacroix gown. It’s like a piece of art. You may as well have torched a Monet.”

For some insane reason, in the middle of this entire nightmare, that comment hit Marley as hilarious. She chuckled. Snorted. Lifted the back of her hand to her mouth to keep from exploding in laugher, then giggled until tears streamed down her face and the sound turned to uncontrolled hysteria.

“I guess it was a little funny,” Olivia said, “but geez, don’t choke. I’m no comedian here, and I’m rusty on my Heimlich.”

Marley swiped the tears from her face, swallowed several times so she didn’t do just that, and tried to settle her emotions. But she couldn’t. Because suddenly it was as if all the stress and fear and misery were suddenly coming out as crazy laughter. And her body just couldn’t stop. “My boss kills my fiancé in my father’s barn minutes before my wedding, and the only thing you’re worried about is a stupid dress.”

Olivia shot her a look, clearly not seeing the humor in the situation. “First of all, it’s not just a stupid dress. It’s a Lexi Lacroix gown, so get it straight. And secondly, as awful as all of that was, the dead fiancé isn’t the guy you’re in love with, now is he? And he sure as hell isn’t the one you should have been marrying. No, the one you
should
be marrying is right in that house. And he was frantic to get to you, even before he knew you were with McKnight. I’ve never seen Jake so scared or desperate when he charged into that room looking for you.”

Marley’s laughter died, and the humor quickly fled. She swallowed hard, glanced toward the double front doors of her father’s house, and watched as Jake stepped onto the porch with an officer. His once white shirt was covered in blood. Straws of hay were still stuck in his hair, and his black slacks looked gray from the dust in that barn. A small bandage covered a gash on his right cheek, and even though she knew he was safe and that it wasn’t him who’d been hurt, her heart squeezed just as tight as it had when that gun had gone off.

“Frantic and love are not the same thing,” she said softly.

“No, but frantic
in
love is definitely an affliction stubborn alpha males tend to experience,” Olivia tossed back, “especially when the person they love is in danger.”

Marley drew in a deep breath as Jake shook the officer’s hand, knowing Olivia was referring to her own struggles with Landon and everything they’d gone through to be together. But Jake wasn’t Landon Miller. “I don’t think he knows what to do with love, Olivia. To him it’s all business.”

“He’s scared, Marley. Just be patient with him. He’ll come around.”

Marley wasn’t so sure. She couldn’t go back to just being friends or colleagues or whatever they’d been to each other before. And as much as she loved the man, she couldn’t settle for anything less than everything. Not anymore.

Jake moved up next to Olivia, slid his hands into the pockets of his ruined slacks, and nodded toward Marley’s arm. “How’s the cut?”

“Fine,” Marley answered. “No stitches.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Marley lifted the tea to her lips.

Olivia exhaled a long breath. “I’m gonna go find Landon. Marley, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thanks for everything, Liv.”

Jake turned and watched her go. “I didn’t mean to run her off.”

“It’s fine.” God, now that everything was done and finished, this just felt sad. “How’s your cheek?”

He brushed his fingers over the bandage. “Fine.” Then dragged his thumb down the left side of his jaw. “It’s this I’m more worried about.”

His jaw was a little swollen, but he’d been punched in the face before, so she figured he’d be okay. “It doesn’t look too bad.”

He sat next to her on the end of the ambulance and braced his hands on the edge of the vehicle. After several quiet seconds, he said, “I’m sorry about what happened to McKnight. I didn’t mean to kill him.”

She tugged the blanket up higher with one hand, hoping to ease the chill growing inside her. “It’s okay, Jake.”

“No, it’s not. When I got the call from Bentley and discovered he’d killed those Omega operatives in Colombia, I knew I couldn’t prove it. I knew we couldn’t arrest him. I just knew I had to get him away from you. I didn’t come here to kill him, Marley. I came to tell him to get the hell out of your life. I thought if he knew I was onto him, he’d just leave.”

Her heart sank even lower. He’d told her in the jungle that killing someone stayed with a person, and even though Gray had turned out to be one of the bad guys, she knew this one was going to stay with Jake. Because it was connected to her.

“But you never got the chance because I messed up his plans by turning him down.” She stared into her mug. “He snapped, Jake. I saw it when I was standing on the bridge with him. It was like a light just went on, coloring everything red around him. You were right. I should have listened to you. I shouldn’t have been so stubborn.”

“And I shouldn’t have been such an ass about it. I’m sorry about that.”

They sat in silence for several seconds, neither seeming to know what to say to the other. Finally, Jake said, “You know, the night of your dad’s party, when I showed up? I went to tell you something.” He bit his lip, then said, “I went to tell you that I need you.”

She turned to look at him, afraid she’d heard him wrong.

“I was miserable without you, then,” he said softly, his eyes as tender as she’d ever seen them, “and I’m miserable without you now. We both know what’s happening between us is more than just friendship. It’s bigger. And even if you don’t come back to Aegis, I want a chance to see where it goes. I want you back. I miss you, Marley.”

They were the words she’d wanted him to say for way too long. But her heart didn’t skip like she expected because he wasn’t saying the one thing she needed to hear most.

Carefully, she set the mug on the floor of the ambulance, then pushed the blanket off her shoulders and stood.
Her muscles were tight, her legs sore, and she knew when she took this mess of a dress off she’d have bruises everywhere, but right now, the physical pain in her body didn’t even compare to the emotional pain ripping through her heart.

“You’re saying all the right things, and there was a time when that would have been enough, but things are different now. The night of my father’s party changed things for me. It changed everything. You changed it. Because you made me realize that what I want, you just can’t give me.”

“Marley.” He stood, regret rippling over his face. Regret that tugged on her emotions and made her want to throw herself into his arms, but she held back. “I know what you’re talking about, but if you just give me some time to—”

“Time for what?” Sadness filled her heart. Not because she was mad or upset or disappointed, but because she wanted him to be happy. Wanted to be the one to make him happy. And she never would be. “To realize how you feel about me? It’s been three and a half years, Jake. If you don’t know yet, you’re never going to know. But I’m okay with that. I really am.”