Resist Me (Change Me Book One - standalone): McCoy Raven Boys (28 page)

Drasco answered her question, “A single gunshot. It seems the bullet penetrated and exited the muscle.”

A gun shot? A fucking gun shot? Lisbeth was shot? I wanted to punch someone, not once, not even twice, but just keep beating until their fucking face turned into a bloody mess. But first it would make more sense to find out who I needed to sock. “Who did that to her?” I asked Drasco in a sharp voice.

“One of those punks. He’s dead.” Drasco informed me.
 

That took care of the problem. Before I had a chance to find out who shot him, Lisbeth clasped my hand. She must have seen how furious I was. I looked at her, and my anger evaporated. Just like that. Instead, my throat closed with some unknown emotions.
 

“Gloria was extremely brave.” I heard Drasco’s voice. “The guy attacked her. He jumped on her back and knocked her down to the ground. But she managed to overtake him, nevertheless. When I arrived, he was the one on the ground, and she had a gun pointed at him.”

I watched Lisbeth. She quietly conversed with the paramedics. I noticed her jaw tighten in pain and her eyes squeezed shut, while they patched her up. She was going to the hospital, no matter what she said. I knew she would object. Just knew it. But I wouldn’t have it. She had to be stitched up and examined for any other injuries.
 

I turned to Drasco and motioned with my head for him to go with me to the side for some privacy. I kissed Lisbeth’s hand and said, “I’ll right back.”

I stood up in and walked ten yards toward the water. Drasco followed.
 

We stopped. He cleared his throat. I put my hands in my pockets. The night air felt cool and fresh. The pleasant fragrance of the woods carried over to the shore. The party boat was quiet, and I wondered if someone finally called the cops to end that nonsense.
 

“Did you find another gang member? Vince?” I asked.
 

“Yeah, we did. Was that you? You cuffed him to that bush and gagged him?”

“Sure did.”

“Awesome job. Thank you.” He nodded curtly. “That simplified a lot of things for the Bureau.”

“I hope so. Did you question him?”

“Not yet. He’ll remain in our custody though. We’re taking him to one of our locations.”
 

I didn’t care what location, so his air of secrecy simply washed over me. But I wanted to know if they learned about Senator Kiersch. “You didn’t talk to him at all?”

“We will.” He sounded positive. Upbeat even.
 

I crossed my arms and looked back at Lisbeth, sitting in the same spot as before and watching us. I smiled to her. She was beautiful. I wanted to go to her, to hold her. I wanted her so much. But instead, I averted my eyes from Lisbeth and looked somberly at Drasco. “So you don’t know who’s behind all these crimes?”

Drasco’s features rearranged from carefully polite to tense. “What do you know?”

“I pressed Vince to tell me. Have you ever heard about Senator Kiersch?”

His watchful eyes drilled into mine. “What exactly did you learn?”

“Senator’s kid was the one who murdered Gloria’s friend Helen. The same one you shot. His name was Ed.”

Drasco swore and turned away from me. He walked off a few feet away then turned around and walked back, frowning and deep in thought. He stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and slowly raised his eyes to me. They were still hooded with his brows. “That little asswipe I shot was the Senator’s kid?”

“Yeah, and an innocent girl’s rapist and murderer. What, you’re fucking remorseful, because that was some dirty politician’s son?”

He didn’t let me continue, “Do you understand what’s happening here?”

This time I cut him off, “I do. A Senator is desperately trying to cover up a gang rape, a murder, and the multiple attempts of another murder. Oh, let’s not forget a destruction of the federal property and the murder of a few federal agents.”

That shut him up. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the spot between his eye brows with his fingers. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck!” he said much louder, looking at the dark water.
 

“Yeah. No kidding.” I nodded in mocking assent. “Still having second thoughts about going after a big fish politician?”

He exhaled with force and wordlessly looked at me.
 

“I will let you stew on that problem.” I turned around to head back to Lisbeth. But a few steps away, I stopped and turned to face him. “I think Vince will testify. Just offer him your best protection. I suspect Lisbeth will do the same. But I can’t guarantee that she’ll freely go back into your program. If that’s even necessary now. She needs
the best
safeguarding there is though. Can you offer it?”
 

He nodded. “Yes. Anything to keep her safe. I’ll personally make sure she’ll be taken care of.”

I walked back to him. “I won’t ask for a name, but I need to know the truth—do you know who your mole is?”

His eyes opened wide. Didn’t he expect to be confronted wtih that? I waited.
 

He nodded again, pressing his lips into a thin line. “We had a suspicion, but couldn’t nail the son of a bitch without a definite proof. But he gave it to us on a silver platter. With only three agents in the van, we narrowed it down. When the gang showed up here, there was no way he could deny his tipping them off.”

“Okay then. Do you know if there are any other members of that gang that went free?”

“We got all of them. We’ve been chasing them for a while. All are rounded up.”

“So Gloria is safe?”

Drasco’s eyes softened. “To best of my knowledge, yes. But as I already promised to you—I will personally take care of arranging the best protection available for her.”

“I’ll remember that.” I walked back to Lisbeth.
 

She was on a stretcher and about to be carried off to the ambulance. Jack squatted next to her, together with Cornell. She was shaking her head, disagreeing about something. Jack noticed me and motioned to me to get to her. As if I wasn’t running already.
 

Lisbeth turned her face to me. One look at her sad, worried expression and I felt a stab of pain straight through my heart.
 

I kneeled on one knee next to her and took her hands in mine. “You need to go to the hospital, but I’m coming with you.”

Her face lightened in relief as if a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. Careful not to touch her injured arm, I pressed her to me and whispered in her hair, “Did you think I would let you go alone?”

She made a noise like a tiny squeak. Then her back shook. She was crying, and I wasn’t sure if these were the held-back tears, induced by all the horrors she went through or if they were the tears of relief. But that didn’t matter, as long as I was privileged to hold her in my arms and protect her.

Chapter Twenty Nine

LISBETH
 

I’ve always hated hospitals. The smell, the lack of color, and everything else was driving me crazy. As soon as the good doctor stitched up my arm and gave me the bill of health, I asked Ethan to take me somewhere. Anywhere; just away from the hospital.
 

He was with me all the time, even though the nurses tried to kick him out of the room and make him wait in the hallway. They didn’t care he was a paramedic. Finally, I threatened that if they won’t stop harassing Ethan, I’m gonna stab each of them in the eye with Ethan’s knife. I even tried to grab it, but Ethan wouldn’t let me.
 

A short, very round nurse with rosy cheeks and a bad case of adult acne called the hospital security. I called the FBI. Special Agent Drasco was waiting in his car right outside the building. He came in and straightened everything out, much to Ethan’s relief. I probably acted irrationally, but my nervous system was running on hot-red, and there was no single reasonable thought left in my brain.

Ethan stuffed me into a wheelchair much to my chagrin.
 

“I can walk,” I pleaded, but he wouldn’t even listen.
 

“Can you just let me do that for you?” he asked, exasperated.
 

“Fine.” I stared straight ahead as he pushed the wheelchair through the hallway, into the elevator, and then outside through the double sliding glass doors.
 

Special Agents Drasco and Cornell escorted us to the unmarked, black sedan. We slid into the back seat. Ethan enfolded me in his arms, pressing me close to him, and kissed the top of my head. I looked up at him and said, “Thank you. For everything.”

“Don’t mention it.”
 

I put my hand over his hard-with-solid-muscles chest. His heartbeat drummed against my palm. It was the most comforting feeling I knew. I leaned closer and pressed my cheek to where my hand was a moment earlier, wrapping my arms around his waist. A long, quiet sigh escaped me. I closed my eyes and listened to Ethan’s body. His breathing was slow and deep, and I tried to match my own breath to his. I felt his fingers gently slide over my hair and his lips caress my forehead. I wanted to stay like this forever.
 

I must’ve fallen asleep, because it surprised me when the car stopped.
 

“It’s time to go,” Ethan’s voice reverberated in his chest.
 

I sat up and looked around. We parked in front of a large, well-lit building. “Where are we?” I asked.
 

“The Nines hotel in Portland. Two female agents will stay in a room directly across the hall from yours,” Ethan explained. “Drasco and Cornell are off to do the briefing with their superior. They will see you tomorrow.”

I looked at him, tensing up. “And you? Where are you going?”

He smiled. “I was hoping you’d let me stay in your room.”

I closed my eyes in relief and smiled back at him. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
 

Ethan took me straight into the room. I guessed the booking was done over the phone while we drove here. I covered my head and upper half of my face with the hood of my jacket, just the way I’ve been doing since first taken into the FBI witness protection plan. Maybe the danger was gone, since I was told that all of the gang members were captured. But some habits die hard.

I walked into the room and gasped. It was a beautifully appointed suite, with a separate living room, one bedroom with a king size canopy bed, and nice furniture. The bedding looked luxurious, and the shower in the bathroom was large and equipped with two showerheads.
 

“No way!” I laughed. “Who’s paying for all this?”

“Don’t worry about that. You deserve a real comfort.” Ethan sprawled in a plush armchair, crossing right ankle over the left knee. “I wanted to take you to my place, but the feds think it’s better to still take precaution and keep you in an unknown location, just in case, until they have the arrest warrant for the Senator.”
 

“Am I still in danger?”
 

“The FBI doesn’t think so. All of the gang members are in custody. Or dead. There isn’t an immediate threat to you, but the Bureau wants to keep an eye on you.”

I nodded. The explanation made a lot of sense. I was safe. Or, at least, much safer than I’ve been for a while. That made me feel better.
 

When I smiled, Ethan smiled back to me and then closed his eyes. “That shower looks very tempting,” he said in a quiet, raspy voice.
 

You look tempting
. My heart beat in some crazy staccato rhythm. “I think it has my name written all over it.” I chuckled, but I didn’t feel like joking. I felt like climbing on top of him and letting him have me right here, right now. But I didn’t do that, because I didn’t know how to be so upfront with a guy. So instead, I headed toward the bathroom. Besides, I badly needed a shower. Preferably icy-cold.
 

“Ah. Now I know why that shower looked so tempting to me,” he said.
 

That stopped me in my tracks. Very slowly I turned my head and glanced at him. One corner of his mouth was up, and he watched me from under half-closed lids. Reclined comfortably and looking so relaxed and dreamy, he was the most stunning, most suggestive male I’ve ever seen. And I wanted him. Badly. He probably knew that. Yeah, he did, and I was happy. I wasn’t into playing games.
 

Despite my raging desire, I made myself go off to the bathroom. On the way there, I grabbed my backpack. I was relieved to see that Ethan remembered to bring it from Ryley’s cabin. I made a mental note to thank him. All my belongings were in there, including a few clean pieces of my very limited wardrobe: a couple of t-shirts, a tank top, and one pair of shorts. I hoped I had at least one pair of clean undies somewhere in there too, although I doubted I needed them right away.

I turned the water on and waited for it to star running warm. When it did, I slid the curtain open and stepped inside the tub. The hot water felt heavenly on my skin. I just had to keep my arm semi-dry. The nurses supplied me with a few changes of wound dressing. I needed to take care of that after I was done with the shower. From the small corner shelf, I picked a tiny bottle of shampoo, opened it, and poured half of the contents onto my hair. I worked it into a thick lather and then rinsed it off. Next, I applied a bit of the conditioner to my hair from another miniature bottle and rubbed my skin with a bar of soap. It smelled wonderful—like a rose garden in bloom.