Love Inspired Suspense May 2015 #2 (35 page)

Laura thought about continuing on for the coffee and meeting her aunt in Griffin's room but decided she'd rather not be alone. Not with Vin on the loose. “I'll wait for you out here.”

“I won't be long.” The older woman disappeared into the ladies' room and Laura waited for the janitor in the green scrubs to move away from the water fountain. Once he did, she bent over to get a drink.

A hard hand slammed over her mouth and another wrapped around her upper arm in a bruising hold.

“Hi, baby. Been looking for you.”

Vin! Laura's knees almost gave out.

With a hand still over her mouth, he jerked her up with his free arm and shouldered his way through a stairwell door that was propped open with a mop bucket.

Laura kicked and flailed, her head snapping back into his face. He moved his hand to her throat and squeezed. And squeezed. Until black spots danced in front of her eyes.

ELEVEN

G
riffin looked at the clock for the fourth time in less than five minutes. Laura should've been back by now.

His cell phone rang and he picked it up from the bedside where she had put it for him within reach. Caller ID showed it was Boone.

Griffin answered. Before he could speak, the other man said, “Laura's gone.”

His heart kicked hard.
“What?”

Biting back a groan, he got out of bed and moved over to grab his shirt off the chair. It was a long-sleeved T-shirt. There was no way he could get it on.

“Joy was headed back with Laura. They stopped at the restroom and Laura said she would wait. Joy came out in time to see Laura being pulled into the stairwell.”

“By who?” Griffin said through gritted teeth.

“Joy couldn't see, but she's afraid it was Vin. We heard he escaped from prison with two other men.”

“How would he know where—? Maybe the same way the sniper found her today.” Griffin tossed the T-shirt aside, tucked as much of the flimsy gown into his jeans as possible and left the room, gun in hand. “I'm coming to you.”

“We'll meet you halfway.”

Griffin disconnected and jogged down the hall, pain shooting through him. Adrenaline spiked his system and his shoulder burned like fire, but he kept moving. Boone and Sydney stood in front of the women's restroom.

Winslow motioned that this was the spot where Laura had been grabbed.

“Joy?” He kept his voice low as he approached his friends.

“Sent her to call 911.”

“Good.”

Sydney pointed to a site map on the wall beside the stairwell door. “There's a basement below and three floors above. Arrico can't get very far.”

Griffin just hoped Arrico wanted to keep Laura alive for some reason. “I'll go in this door.” He looked at Boone. “Get the key to the service elevator and go up to the fourth floor, then work your way down.”

The other man sprinted back toward the waiting-and-admitting area.

Griffin motioned Sydney over. “I need you to cover my back.”

“You got it. I can't believe I'm asking this, but would you let Boone and me handle it?”

He just gave her a look.

“Right.”

Griffin approached the door and slowly pushed down the pressure bar, moving in measured increments in order to give himself a brief amount of time to react if Arrico were right on the other side. He gradually opened the door.

Just as he held up his hand to give the “clear” signal to Sydney, a loud clank sounded from the floor above. Something hitting metal. He heard it again, then a grunt.

There were three clangs in rapid succession. Someone was kicking the door. Laura?

Griffin lunged into the stairwell with Sydney right behind him. He crept to the first turn of the stairs, heard the meaty sound of flesh hitting flesh, then more grunts. He brought his gun up with one hand, ignoring the discomfort in his opposite shoulder.

On the next staircase, he saw a flash of dark hair, then green scrubs. That told him Laura hadn't noticed Arrico before he'd grabbed her. Finally, he saw the man's face.

“Laura!”

“Here—” Her words were cut off as the convict dragged her around to shield him.

“Stay back or I'll carve her up.” Arrico's dark eyes were hard, ruthless. Unflinching.

“Let her go. Nobody has to get hurt.”

“I
want
somebody to get hurt. I want Laura to get hurt.”

A white-hot fury blanked Griffin's mind for a moment. He wanted to throw himself over the railing and body-slam the guy. He could see the convict, but he couldn't see his hostage.

Griffin started up the stairs. “Are you armed?”

“Yes.” Arrico began backing away.

“He's got a knife,” Laura yelled before her words were choked off again.

Griffin rounded the corner, now able to see Arrico with his back to the wall as he moved up one stair at a time. With a blade to his hostage's throat and one tattooed arm around her middle, he hauled her with him.

Griffin didn't have a clear shot at the jerk. “You're not getting out of here, Arrico.”

“As long as she doesn't, either, I'm good.”

He could see Laura. Her face was paper white and she had a wound on her neck. The blood was stark red against the paleness of her skin, drawing attention to the mark left behind after she'd been strangled.

Though her gaze was locked on him, he kept his attention on the escaped prisoner. The convict misjudged a step and stumbled, causing Laura to scream and grab at the wall for support. Arrico recovered quickly, lugging her up with him.

Her scream reverberated in the stairwell. The shrill sound triggered a memory of other sounds—gunfire mixed with cries for help.

Griffin blinked, aware of the cold sweat on his neck and hands. No, no, this wasn't Afghanistan. He wasn't on a military mission. This was Laura. He had to protect Laura.

He reached the landing, which put him four steps below Arrico. He had a clean shot and at this range, he couldn't miss.

He tried to corral the rage that blasted through him. “Let her go, Arrico.”

“No way. I'm getting out of here and she's going with me.”

“That's not happening,” said a feminine voice from below them. Sydney.

Arrico's head jerked around Laura's as he spied the female agent on the lower staircase. Gaze darting around, he ducked again behind Laura and half dragged, half carried her up two more stairs.

She clawed at his hand with both of hers, but she couldn't break his hold. She wheezed for breath as Griffin followed, one slow movement at a time.

Behind Arrico, Griffin spotted Boone's legs. It didn't appear as if Arrico had seen the other man yet.

“Covered up top.” Winslow's voice was low and steady.

The convict's face flamed, his eyes blazing in fury. He yanked at Laura, pulling her with him back in the direction they'd come from.

“You're surrounded, Arrico.” Griffin fought against the images strobing in his mind. Ace, broken and bleeding on Griffin's back. J.J. and Davy trapped in a crevice.

He had to stay focused on Laura.

Arrico stopped with one foot on a lower step, positioning Laura so that her body covered his entire front. He kept his head behind hers.

There was no air in here. Griffin felt as if he couldn't breathe, but he waited. He didn't blink, didn't move. He had waited on a target for days in much worse conditions. There was no way this jerk could outwait Griffin. Arrico would become impatient and make a mistake.

The man's gaze moved frantically, searching. Up the staircase, then down. The closest door. There were no options without Griffin, Sydney or Boone.

Suddenly Arrico yanked Laura's head back, then shoved her down the stairs. “I'll get you sooner or later!”

She stumbled but managed to catch herself against the wall. Finding her footing, she leaped the last two steps and ran. Boone moved at the same time and tucked her behind him.

Arrico threw his shiv and it clattered down to the landing.

Finally, a clean shot. Griffin sighted his target. If he took this guy out, everything would turn out as it should.

Laura could come out of WitSec and live a normal life. If he had killed that goat herder in the Hindu Kush as he should have, his friends would be alive.

He was almost afraid
not
to take Arrico out. If the guy walked, he would go back to prison, where he had already proven he could get at Laura if he knew where she was. He wouldn't stop trying to kill her.

A low hum filled Griffin's head. His finger curled on the trigger. Griffin would be totally justified in killing him. The news had said the escaped felons were armed and dangerous. All of them had been convicted of murder. As long as Arrico was alive, Laura was in danger. She would have to live in the shadows under another assumed name.

His vision narrowed to just Arrico. His breathing slowed as he sighted the bridge of the convict's nose.

“Devaney?” Sydney's voice penetrated the buzz in Griffin's mind.

Arrico put his hands in the air. “I'm not armed.”

“Devaney!” Sydney raised her voice.

Griffin snapped out of his fog, his aim true, his grip rock steady. His gaze shifted to Laura and he saw both fear and pleading in her eyes. Boone watched him closely and he could feel Sydney's steady strength behind him.

Something inside Griffin said don't shoot. But he wanted to so badly that long seconds passed before he could make himself take his finger off the trigger.

And the weasel knew it. The gloating look on Arrico's face made Griffin almost squeeze off a round right then. But he didn't.

Sydney moved out from behind him, her gun trained on Arrico. She pushed the convict into the wall face-first, flattening an arm across his back as she searched him for other weapons.

Satisfied he didn't have more, she slipped a pair of flex cuffs on him. Over her shoulder, she said to Griffin, “Joy called 911 and Marshal Yates. He wasn't very far from the hospital when he heard what was going on. They should be here soon.”

She nudged Arrico in the side with her Glock. “Start moving.”

He did, but not before he found Laura and blew her a kiss. Fear drew her features tight. Sydney marched the prisoner past Griffin, who opened the door into the ER hallway.

He recognized the drawl in Marshal Yates's words as he took custody of Arrico. As soon as the jerk disappeared through the doors, Laura ran down the stairs to Griffin.

Dismissing the fiery pain in his shoulder, he caught her in a loose hug with his other arm. After a moment, he drew back to get a good look at her neck. He spied only the two cuts. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No.” Tears had dried on her cheeks. “Is your shoulder all right?”

“I'm fine.”

“I know it was difficult for you not to shoot him.”

He nodded. Had that been the right decision? “It would've solved your problem.”

“I know.” Looking conflicted, she laid a hand on his chest. “What you did was right.”

He wasn't sure. He was afraid they would both come to regret it.

He and Laura followed Boone out of the stairwell into a swarm of police and medical personnel. Nurse Daisy hovered over him like a mother hen, guiding him back to his treatment room. She announced that everyone who needed to interview him about the standoff could do it at his bedside while he waited for the doctor to check him out.

After reassuring her aunt that both she and Griffin were all right, Laura stayed with him. One by one, she, Griffin, Boone and Sydney answered law enforcement's questions and recounted the events in the stairwell.

After a long while, when everyone seemed to have what they needed, Floyd Yates stopped by Griffin's room. “How are you doing, Devaney?”

“Still set to go home. Just waiting on the doctor.” He dragged a hand down his face.

He was ready to get out of here. The walls seemed to be closing in. He kept second-guessing his decision not to take care of Arrico permanently. Because he hadn't, Laura was returning to witness protection. It was harshly real now. She was leaving, just as Emily had.

He'd known all along that she would. It wasn't Laura's fault and yet it still felt as if he were being dumped all over again.

He'd fallen for one woman who had chosen to walk away and now he'd fallen for one who
had
to.

* * *

After what had happened with Vin yesterday, Laura was surprised the incident wasn't dominating her thoughts. She had been terrified at first. Then her emotions had changed to anger, then desperation and back to fear.

Angry that the men he'd hired to kill her had failed, Vin had let her know that he would continue to terrorize her. Griffin had been right that her ex blamed her for not being with his father when the old man passed. He'd made that very clear.

She had never known a hate so strong that it felt like a greasy film, impossible to get off. She'd felt it from Vin. He wouldn't stop until one of them died. If she went back into WitSec, he would find out her new name and where she was.

Laura believed him. Just because he hadn't done it yet didn't mean he couldn't.

She hadn't told Griffin everything Vin had said in the stairwell. Her bodyguard had been wounded while saving her from being shot and he'd gotten her safely away from her crazy ex. Griffin didn't really need anything else dumped on him.

He deserved to not worry about her, especially since there was no immediate threat. Still, she wanted to talk to him about her future, with or without witness protection.

She wanted out. On the drive to the clinic, Laura couldn't quit thinking about it. Even though she was fully aware that the way to stop the threats against Griffin and anyone close to her was to disappear again.

But she was tired of Vin controlling her life. She was tired of hiding. Even though she felt selfish to some degree, she also believed she deserved some normalcy. Didn't she? She'd done the right thing by testifying, by helping put Vin behind bars. Did she really have to spend the rest of her life this way?

Reality told her she did. At least for the foreseeable future. Still, she couldn't help but wish.

Aunt Joy had ridden with them today, and when they arrived, Griffin parked, then walked them both in.

Laura received her final filgrastim injection, then was shown into a small room outfitted with an apheresis machine and a chair that could be adjusted for her comfort. She shuddered when she recalled the man who had posed as a nurse and tried to kill her three days ago.

She could see Griffin remembered, too, as he planted himself just behind Nurse Brooks and watched the older woman with narrowed eyes and an intimidating ferocity.

As the nurse slid a needle into Laura's right arm, she explained that her blood would be taken from a vein in that arm. The blood would flow through the apheresis machine, which would remove the stem cells, and then the blood would be returned to Laura through a vein in her other arm.