Hold Me (26 page)

And all the while she kept telling Luc that she loved him. She tried to force her strength into him. She begged him to hold on.

David pushed Spot into his car, although she did not want to leave her master and cried pitifully.

No one tried to keep Katie out of the ambulance. She continued to whisper to Luc while the technicians worked around her and spoke with stark, emotionless voices.

They arrived at the hospital. Luc was whisked away by men and women in white coats who shouted orders at each other and handled metal equipment.

And then she was alone.

Katie sank to her knees in the middle of the reception area and covered her face with her bloody hands. A nurse saw her and helped her over to an uncomfortable settee in the waiting room. Then somehow her mother was there again, sitting next to her.

Katie turned her face into her mom’s shoulder and sobbed like a child. “He can’t die,” she cried.

“The doctors will do all they can, honey,” her mother said softly.

The next hours were hell, filled with nothing but waiting. Waiting for word that Luc was in surgery, waiting for word that the surgery was over.

Eventually, Katie cleaned herself up in the restroom. She told her mother about Luc, what had happened over the last few days and why she had been kidnapped. Mom seemed to take it all pretty well, but then Katie wasn’t really paying attention. Her mind was with Luc on the operating table, with him while the surgeons tried to piece together his damaged body.

He had to live. But time trickled by, and there still wasn’t any word. He had to live. He had to. It wouldn’t be fair if Luc died.

Then again, life was seldom fair.

When Némes and David finally joined them in the waiting room, Katie’s mom was pacing, her legs still stiff after having been tied up for so long. At some point during the last couple of hours, she’d been examined and was well as could be expected.

Némes, a white bandage gleaming against his dark hair, stopped to talk to Katie’s mother. David moved over to sit next to Katie in a chair positioned near the settee, a paper cup of horrible hospital coffee clasped in his big, capable hands.

For a bit they were both silent, Katie staring at the floor, David staring into his cup of coffee.

“Némes told us you were already on your way to the casino when he called you,” she said finally, more to distract herself from worrying about Luc than anything else.

“I was.” David stirred. “I was getting suspicious of Liza.” He shrugged. “Nothing major, just little things. And I was looking at everyone on the squad, even the admin. If I’d been smarter, I would have looked at her first.”

Katie blinked. “Really?”

He shrugged. “Sure. Admins know all kinds of things, but they tend to be ignored.”

“Most people don’t realize that.”

David smiled slightly. “I’m an FBI special agent, ma’am. I’m not most people.” The smile faded. “I just wish I’d put things together sooner.”

Katie looked down at her hands. “Liza said Frankie and her father really went all out to make sure she got past the background checks. She even had some surgery in case there were pictures.”

“It had to be a coup to have her placed in the Bureau. When she was assigned to my squad, they must have been ecstatic,” David said. His expression was wry. “We’re organized crime. They must know we have them on our radar. With her as my admin they could find out everything we were doing.”

“But they didn’t know how she felt about Luc,” Katie said.

“Joey didn’t.” David agreed. “Frankie, well, Frankie was one messed-up dude. Just based on what little I know at the moment, I’d say he was playing her.”

“Probably.” Katie shivered. She did not want to think about Frankie Silvano. “All of this doesn’t explain why you were headed for Atlantic City.”

David settled further back in his chair, long legs stretched out in front of him. “I tried to call you guys this morning, but Luc didn’t answer the cell and I couldn’t get anyone on the house phone. I went out to the Museum and found it all shot up with some dead Silvano guys in the front yard. It was not…good.” The restrained emotion in his voice had her putting her hand on his arm. He met her eyes. “I was a trifle concerned.”

“I’ll bet. We couldn’t call you.” She didn’t tell him that they’d suspected him, but David, being David, didn’t need everything spelled out.

His dark eyes twinkled a little ruefully. “Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” When she would have protested, he put his hand over hers and squeezed it. “I know, Katie. I know that I had to be on the radar after everything went down. I don’t fault you or Luc for not trusting me.”

“It ate him up,” she said. “It was killing him.”

David nodded. “When I calmed down,” he said after a moment, “I thought about how Liza had called in and taken a few days off from work for a family emergency. I thought about how often she’s mentioned Atlantic City over the years, and how the Silvanos controlled a casino there. I didn’t have a better lead and I was already in New Jersey, so I figured I might as well go see what I could see. All I could do was hope I’d turn up something or that Luc would contact me. I was almost at the casino when Némes got a hold of me. The rest you know.”

“David—” Whatever she’d been about to say flew from her mind when a nurse entered the waiting room and came striding over to them.

Katie jumped to her feet.

Her mother stepped quickly over to stand beside her and took her hand. Katie stared at the woman in her crisp scrubs, willing her to have good news, to have some news. She must have looked a little desperate, because the nurse smiled at her compassionately.

“He’s alive,” she told them. “One of his lungs collapsed during surgery—”

Katie gasped.

“—and his condition is critical, but barring any complications, we expect him to make a full recovery.”

Katie let go of her mother, sank back down onto the uncomfortable settee, and hid her face in her hands.

Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God.

Luc was alive. Luc would live.

Luc’s private hospital room was dark and quiet when Katie walked in. She paused briefly in the doorway, struggled to hold back more tears, and just looked at him. His skin had lost all color, his big body still for once, his face more vulnerable than she’d ever seen it. The only noises were the beeps and whirrs of the equipment they’d hooked up to him; the antiseptic odor of the hospital made everything seem impersonal and maybe somehow horrible. But even from across the room, she could see his chest rising and falling as he breathed steadily in and out. He really was alive.

Moving silently forward, Katie dragged a chair over to the bed and sat as close to Luc as possible in the cramped space. She touched his hand on his uninjured side, careful of the IV and other tubes going into his arm, then threaded her fingers through his and gripped him, holding on tightly. With her free hand she brushed his dark hair away from his forehead, trying not to worry about how drawn and haggard he looked.

“Jerk,” she whispered. “Stupid jerk, getting yourself all shot up like this.”

Staring at him, touching him, the reality of the last couple of hours, the last couple of days, slammed into her.

She’d killed a man, shot him dead. Watched his face disappear. Watched his blood spurt and his body jerk because she’d pulled a trigger on a gun.

Yes, it had been Frankie Silvano, and yes, he’d been threatening them, but still. She’d ended his life.

God, how she wished Luc was awake so she could talk to him about it, so he could soothe her with his deep, smooth voice. So he could hold her until she stopped shaking inside.

She ran her fingers through Luc’s too-long hair, loving its silky texture, then let her fingertips trace over his scar, over his firm mouth, ran her thumb over his lips. They parted and for a moment, she stopped breathing, thinking that he was going to wake up, but he just whispered a sigh against her skin.

She’d fallen in love with this man, deeply in love. Fallen so far in love that she’d been insane from the need to be with him.

It had happened so fast. It had taken years. She didn’t know him at all. She knew him better than anybody. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

She smiled slightly and sat, holding his hand, watching him sleep. For the first time in her life, she understood how her mother felt about her father. That understanding terrified her.

Because the truth she saw inside herself as she stared into Luc’s pale face was that she wanted him to be with her. But more than that, she desperately wanted Luc to want to be with her.

She needed him to love her back.

And what scared her the most was the knowledge that maybe he never would.

Time meandered by, the machines hummed and clicked, and Katie sat, staring into Luc’s face, thinking.

David seemed to materialize beside her. Katie had been so focused on Luc that she jumped, startled. He was carrying her purse under his arm like a football and he smiled at her, but his sharp, dark eyes missed nothing.

Katie felt a little awkward and nodded at the purse. “I was wondering where that was,” she lied. Actually, she hadn’t even thought about the thing until now, but it was something to say.

“I just got it from one of the uniforms. He found it at the casino.”

“Thanks.”

David shrugged and moved next to the bed. “My pleasure. But if I’m going to have to rescue it on a regular basis, I’ll have to go back to the gym to build up my strength. It’s like carting around an anvil.”

“Smart aleck.”

“They want me to convince you to go away now.”

“No.” Katie had waited hours to get into this room. She wasn’t leaving.

“Yeah, I told them you’d say that. I also told them to let you stay. You’re not hurting him, and you’re probably helping.”

Katie looked at him with some surprise. “Thanks again.”

David pulled another chair over to the bed and sat down beside her, dropping her purse to the floor with a thud. He leaned back and stared at Luc, brooding.

“Did Mom ever get a hold of Melanie?” Katie asked. She’d finally remembered to tell her mother that Melanie was Luc’s foster sister and that she should be called.

“Oh, yeah.” David smiled at her. “She also got in touch with your father and brothers.”

Katie gulped. “She did?”

“They’re on the way, like the proverbial cavalry. And one of your sisters is coming too. Brenna, I think she said.”

“Jeez.”

“They all want to meet Luc.”

“I’ll bet they do.”

David laughed again. “Don’t worry. Maureen is working on calming the troops.” He hesitated. “She’s quite a woman.”

Katie studied him, wishing she could read what was going on behind his calm mask, wondering if she needed to tell him to keep his hands off her mother, wondering if the situation would get even more surreal.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Am I in trouble for shooting Frankie?” she asked. It had belatedly occurred to her that the law tended to frown when you killed someone.

“No. It was obviously self-defense. You’ll have to give a statement to the police about what happened, but nobody’s going to shed any tears over the fact that you offed Frankie Silvano. In fact, the cops might give you an award. I know I want to. Hell, Joey Silvano might give you an award for getting rid of Frankie. He hated the little bastard, but I think his wife wouldn’t let him do anything about it.”

Katie looked down. The thin, cruel face melting away. Red blood splattering the white wall. Please. No award necessary.

“What about Liza?” she asked.

“She’s in the hospital. Another hospital,” he qualified. “Her injuries are minor, but she needed to be stitched up. There’s a chance she has a concussion.”

Katie squirmed, remembering how hard she’d hit the other woman with the butt of that gun.

“Once she’s been released she’ll be a guest of the fine state of New Jersey,” David continued.

“Will my mother and I have to testify or anything?” She dreaded the possibility, but she had to know.

“Well, I just spoke to the agent I put in charge of cleanup at the casino. They think they’ve found a journal on Frankie Silvano’s computer. It clearly implicates Liza in all kinds of things. That, combined with Némes’s statement, and the fact that her records were doctored to get past the Bureau’s employment checks should be enough for us to put her away for quite a while without your testimony. Maybe not for attempted murder, but one way or the other she’ll go down.” He glanced at her. “I’d like to keep you and your mother out of it if I can.”

“That would be nice,” Katie murmured.

“You can certainly pursue charges against Liza if you want to—”

“No.”

David smiled sympathetically. “I thought you might feel that way. In that case, I think you’ll be free to go after you give the police your statement.”

Katie closed her eyes. It was over. It was finally over.

She and David listened to the hum of the machinery for a while.

It was over. Now what?

There was a slight rustle. The hand clasped in hers twitched, the fingers tightening briefly.

“Katie?” The voice was weak and a little slurred, but it came from the bed.

“Luc.” Everything else was immediately forgotten as she clutched his hand in both of hers and bent over him. “Luc, are you awake?”

“I guess,” he said. Then his eyes opened and he blinked up at her. “Unless you’re an angel.”

“Not bloody likely.” Katie laughed and cried at the same time. She kissed Luc beside his mouth, just barely restraining herself from kissing every inch of his tired face. “You’re awake.”

“A very perceptive woman,” Luc whispered.

Katie turned back to David, smiling broadly. “He’s awake.”

“I can see that.” David laughed and stood. “Soon he’ll be able to start on all of the paperwork he’s going to have to fill out.”

“Go to hell, David.” Luc moaned.

David grinned. “I’ll get the nurse.” He squeezed Katie’s shoulder and left the room.

“Don’t go, Katie, okay?” Luc murmured. He looked like he was trying to focus on her face, but the painkillers and the aftereffects of the anesthesia were obviously still bothering him. “Don’t leave.”

Katie just couldn’t stop herself. She leaned forward and let her lips trail over his cheekbone, moving up the long scar in a soft caress. “Never,” she promised in a whisper.

She sat back abruptly when David re-entered the room followed by a nurse, who took Luc’s vital signs with calm efficiency.

“Mr. Vasco needs to rest,” the woman announced when she was finished. She eyed Katie with ill-concealed hostility. “I think you should go now, Ms. McCabe.”

“But—”

“No!” Luc’s eyes popped open. “No, she stays.” His tone was low but firm, and Katie thought she heard an undercurrent of desperation that surprised her.

“Luc.” She shifted under the nurse’s stare. “Maybe it would be best—”

“No. I want you to stay. You said you’d stay.”

“But—”

“You stay,” he insisted again, gripping her hand tightly, obviously fighting against unconsciousness. “Please. Please stay.”

Katie stroked back his hair, felt the softness against her fingers. “Of course I’ll stay.”

He smiled at her, just a little, and his eyes closed again. After a couple of minutes she knew he was asleep.

From a distance, she heard David talking quietly to the nurse and muffled footsteps as the woman left the room. Then he let out a soft sigh, and the other chair scraped against the floor as he settled down beside her again.

“I think he’s going to be okay,” he said.

Katie felt her face stretch into a wide smile. “Yes.”

David sat, silent. “You’re going to get hurt, Katie,” he finally said.

She hesitated, but decided that she wouldn’t pretend not to know what he meant.

“You can’t be sure.”

“Maybe,” David admitted. “I love Luc like a brother, but I’ve known him a long time.” He paused. “Long time. He hates hospitals. Always has. When he was six or seven his mother got sick and ended up in the hospital. Next thing he knew his mom was dead and he was alone.”

Katie stared down at Luc’s sleeping face but didn’t say anything. Poor little boy.

“Don’t take the fact that he asked you to stay too personally. He would want somebody here with him watching his back until he’s more in control. Don’t read more into it than’s there.”

“Then why didn’t he ask you?” Katie said softly. “Why me and not you?”

David sighed again. “You’re not going to listen to me, are you?”

She didn’t bother to answer. She knew David was trying to help her. He was a good man. Maybe he was right, and she would get hurt.

Or maybe David didn’t know Luc after all.