Witness Protection (Defenders of Love Book 1) (16 page)

Angelina's back was against the wall. She could feel warm liquid on her fingertips where she held her chest. The wound was bleeding steadily.

Before she could say anything Jack lunged at her. Acting out of instinct, she brought her knee up as hard as she could making contact with Jack's groin at the same time that his foot hit the pool of blood sending him up into the air and down onto the linoleum flat on his back with a thud. Angelina fell against the I.V. pole sending it crashing to the floor with her limp, bleeding body following it.

***

Logan paced the tiles of the waiting room, the half-finished cup of coffee sloshing around in his hand.

"You are going to wear a path in that floor, boy." Aunt Clara had come to visit Kaiden and found him pacing and grumbling in the lounge on her way to her son's room.

"I'm sorry." He stopped where he was and strode over to the window. It was dark outside but the parking lot was well lit below. His reflection in the window took him by surprise. Wild eyes, hair in disarray from the hundreds of times he had run his fingers through it, dirty T-shirt.

"For what?" Aunt Clara cocked her head to the side and studied him, not noticing—or pretending not to notice—the way he looked.

"I don't know. For getting you and the boys involved in this whole mess, I guess."

"There's nothing to apologize for, Logan. That girl was in a load of trouble. You have always been the protective type. It's in your nature."

He dropped down onto one of the cold vinyl chairs and sighed, his shoulders drooping heavily. "If that's true then I should have been more protective over you. Not brought killers to your home. That bunker is your safe haven."

"I don't need protecting. I'm a tough old bird. Who do you think got that first guy who came up the path? He never even knew what hit him!" Aunt Clara glowed with pride as she reached out and patted her nephew's hand. "I have been worried about you for a long time, Logan."

He sat up a little and eyed his aunt warily. "Me? Why?"

"Actually, I worry about all three of you. Kaiden

and Keegan too. You are grown men and you are all alone, every last one of you. I blame myself for that. I

was so busy proving to the world that I could be mother
and
father that I never considered that the three of you might actually need a
real
father in your lives. Not a one of you knows how to have a relationship and that's because I did my damnedest to raise you strong willed and independent—a little too strong willed and independent, I fear. I'm not getting any younger. I wouldn't mind a few grandchildren before I go and at the rate my two boys are going, that responsibility is about to settle on you."

"On me? I'm not even your son."

Clara
tsk
, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. "I've always thought of you as my boy. I hope you know that. Ever since that no good brother of mine...well, ever since you came to me I have only ever looked at you as my child. I love you and I worry about you."

"I love you too, Aunt Clara, but it's not your fault that I am alone. It's
his
." Logan spit out the simple word with such venom that his aunt looked at him with a mixture of pity and sadness that angered him even more. He started pacing the small waiting area again. Aunt Clara stood in front of him blocking his path, her eyes kind.

"My brother was an evil soul, but that doesn't mean you will be like him. Evil is not genetic. You are a kind, caring man who has dedicated his life to protecting and serving others. Don't you think it's also time you had a little happiness in your life?"

"I'm afraid, Aunt Clara. I am afraid of doing what he did. I couldn't live with myself if I turned out like him."

"You don't have an evil bone in your body, Logan James. Stop punishing yourself for crimes you

didn't commit. The sins of the father are not automatically the sins of the son."

"I don't know. I didn't do such a great job protecting Angelina. She almost died. And Kaiden got hurt."

"Kaiden will be fine. He's seen worse than any of us will ever know. A little bullet won't keep him down for long. As for Angelina, did it occur to you that she almost died trying to protect
you
? That man behind the Jeep was just about to take you out when she ran out of the house. She took that bullet for you."

Logan stopped pacing. "She did?"

Clara nodded. "Have you considered why?"

"Because she is a cop and it was instinct to go get the bad guy?"

"I suppose I can see why you'd think that, but you didn't see the look in her eyes when she realized he was about to kill you. I did. And I am telling you it was more than just training that sent her running across the yard."

"What exactly are you trying to say Aunt Clara?"

"That young lady is in love with you."

"We have only known each other a couple of days. How could she be in love with me?"

"The same way you have fallen in love with her. When it's meant to be child, it's meant to be. That's how it happened with your Uncle Jed and me, you know. The first time we met I knew I would marry him one day. And I did. We only courted two months before we ran off and got ourselves hitched. Caused

quite the scandal around here actually, especially when

the twins came along around about nine months later.

No one ever believed we didn't get married just because I was pregnant. It broke my heart in two the day he

died when the twins were barely two years old. I still love him as much today as I did then, God rest his soul."

"I never really believed in love. What my parents had wasn't love by any stretch of the imagination. I just figured I was destined to spend my life alone. How do I know what I feel for Angelina is real? I mean, consider the circumstances."

"The heart wants what the heart wants and it doesn't consider the circumstances. Stop listening to your brain and see what your heart has to say."

Angelina's green eyes flashed into his memory and he smiled. He remembered meeting her for the first time and taking her hand in the hallway, the fire in her eyes as she demanded he stay far away from her parking spot. She was feisty and cool but stirred something hot and fiery up inside him. Something that stoked into a real fury the first time they had kissed. Being with her felt good, even when bad things were happening. Holding her felt right, as though their bodies were designed fit together.

"My heart is stupid, Aunt Clara. It says I should risk everything on love."

Clara chuckled and patted his hand again. "That doesn't sound so stupid to me."

"Yeah, well, it is when I have no idea how she feels about me."

"Take a chance, Logan. I've got a good feeling about this." Just then her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. Checking the caller ID, Clara nodded and smiled as she opened the phone. "It's Keegan, probably calling to check on his brother. Go see your lady friend.

She's going to be wondering where you are."

Logan stood up then leaned back down to kiss

his aunt on the cheek. "Thank you, Aunt Clara."

She nodded and smiled, waving him away.

Suddenly nervous, Logan forced himself to walk the hallway to Angelina's room. Twice he almost turned around and went back to the lounge in search of a burst of courage but finally he stood outside the closed door and took a deep breath.

He was certain he had left the door partly open when he left. Maybe a nurse closed it. It was getting late, maybe Angelina was asleep. Gripping the handle, he rapped lightly with a knuckle, more out of courtesy than anything else, and pushed the door open. The room was completely dark. Logan groped for a light switch but froze when a strong odor reached his nose. The fragrance was all too familiar to him.

Blood.

The kind of blood at a crime scene not the kind found in a hospital room recovering from surgery. Logan's skin prickled as he backed out of the room.

Chapter Sixteen

Reaching for the gun on his hip, he used his right leg to kick the door open flooding the room with light from the hallway.

The bed was empty!

"Angelina!" he called into the dark room.

When there was no response he ducked back out of the room and peered up and down the hallway. No sign of Angelina or anyone else. Stepping back in, he tried to rein in the panic that was building.

"Where on earth did you go?" Logan murmured as he looked back out the door, checking the hallway in both directions. There was absolutely no sign of anyone. He was starting to lose his cool just a little when a low moan from across the room caught his attention, and he made his way slowly to the other side of the bed. Angelina lay on the linoleum surrounded by a pool of blood. Beside her was the still form of a man.

Dropping to his knees, he felt Angelina's neck for a pulse, beyond grateful to find even a weak one. Reaching up to the nurse call button on the side of the bed, Logan pushed it impatiently.

"Can I help you?" An overly cheery voice called out of the speaker.

"This is Detective Logan James. I am in the room of Angelina Ferrara. We have an emergency!"

The voice didn't respond. Instead a flurry of footsteps raced down the hallway and into the room. The first to enter was Kaiden's nurse, Katie. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "What happened?!"

"I was going to ask you all the same thing," Logan growled. "Hurry, we have to get her back on the bed! She's lost a lot of blood."

"We need a board and collar! Don't touch her!" one of the nurses cried as Logan reached to scoop Angelina up off the floor.

"No time for that!" Logan was on the verge of panic, the same sort of panic he had felt as a child when his father beat his mother with a baseball bat.

Katie and two other nurses scurried over to where Angelina lay. Together, they moved her as gingerly as possible, placing her in the hospital bed. Katie started checking her vitals while another nurse ran off to get a doctor.

"One of you needs to call security." Logan motioned to the man still on the floor. "He's alive but I don't know who he is. He damn sure doesn't belong in this room!"

"I know who he is," a small voice spoke up from across the room. Logan turned to see a young woman in a pink striped apron. A hospital volunteer, no doubt. "He said he was Ms. Ferrara's brother."

"All visitors are supposed to be cleared through security! If he had been, he would be wearing a visitor's badge!" Logan bellowed.

"I'm so...sorry! I didn't...know!" The girl covered her mouth and ran from the room in tears. Logan was too worried about Angelina to be concerned

although he knew he would feel badly later.

The doctor showed up then. One look at Angelina and his expression turned grim. "We need to get her back to the OR stat! All her stitches have been torn apart. What happened here?"

"One of your hospital's fine volunteers broke protocol and let someone in the room without a visitor's badge!" Logan snapped.

"Did you do that to him?" the doctor asked.

"Of course not!" Logan glared at the man on the floor. "I actually think Angelina did."

The nurses were moving the bed toward the door, one frantically trying to reinstall her I.V. line as they nearly jogged the bed out of the room and down the hall.

"Well, you stay here and deal with that. I'll take care of the patient." With that, the doctor jogged off after the group heading to the operating room.

"Oh, I'll take care of him all right," Logan muttered, murder in his words.

It took all of his self-restraint to stand by while medical professionals dealt with the man's injuries. As soon as the man was in a bed, Logan slapped the cuffs on him with a vulgar feeling of satisfaction that almost embarrassed him.

Thirty minutes later, Logan stood by the bed of witness protection agent Jack Mulholland, trying very hard not to pummel the man. With a bandage on his head and handcuffs on his wrist, the man looked small and pathetic despite his large stature. Not at all the way Logan expected a federal agent to be and definitely not a fair fight.

Once Angelina was out of the room, chaos had ensued. Security officers who had never before dealt

with anything more serious than an upset relative ran in circles around each other trying to figure out what to do with the man on the floor. Logan had finally stepped in and suggested they call hospital management.

Local police had arrived and, after hearing just enough of Angelina's story from Logan to be as disgusted as he was, placed Mulholland under arrest. Logan would have been perfectly happy to throw the man over his shoulder and carry him to jail himself but the medical personnel insisted he be checked out for a head injury prior to leaving the hospital. No one wanted to be responsible if he died in their custody so everyone agreed to let him stay as long as he remained under arrest and twenty-four hour guard.

After giving his boss a call and filling him in, Logan was now waiting for Mulholland to wake up. The man had a lot to answer for.

Sometime later a nurse entered the room to take Mulholland's vitals. Logan was folded into a small chair in the corner of the room. When she saw him she offered up a tired smile.

"He must have done something awful." She nodded to the handcuffs.

"Conspiracy to commit murder on a police officer awful enough for you?" He didn't mean to sound so annoyed, the words just slipped out before he could stop them. Waiting around on Jack Mulholland to wake up was wearing his patience way too thin.

"He try to kill you?" she asked nonchalantly as she checked the prisoner's heart rate and jotted some things into Mulholland's chart.

"Not directly," Logan responded, light on tolerance and heavy on the impatience. "When's he going to wake up? I need to get some answers."

"Head injuries are funny things, there is no telling what will happen or when. You just have to have patience."

The door to the room opened again. The uniformed officer standing guard outside poked his head in. "Detective James? Ms. Ferrara is out of surgery. Doc says you can see her in about thirty minutes."

"Thank you." Logan let out a long sigh of relief.

The nurse smiled knowingly at him but left the room without another word. Logan glanced at his watch. Half past two in the morning. He could see Angelina in half an hour. That gave him enough time to wake up Mulholland and get his confession. Maybe beat it out of him if he got lucky.

Logan stepped out in the hallway and headed to the rest room. He needed a moment to compose himself before waking the bastard up and getting his confession. The short trip only served to aggravate him even more so he headed back to get the job done.

It only took a minute to get back to Mulholland's room. By the time he opened the door and entered the dimly lit room, his pulse pounded loudly in his ears and anger coursed through his veins. That man had put Angelina at risk when he was supposed to be protecting her.

His boss would tell him to have patience. Follow procedure. Screw procedure. He was completely out of patience, tolerance, and everything else a good detective was supposed to have. The only thing he could think about was how badly he wanted to kill the man lying there in that hospital bed.

Angelina and Aunt Clara were completely wrong. He
was
exactly like his old man.

Grabbing a pitcher full of ice chips off the portable tray table, he dumped the whole thing on Mulholland's face. Jack woke with a start, his eyes wild as they frantically searched the room before settling on Logan.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded, yanking at the handcuff securing his wrist to the bedrail.

Logan stepped up to the side of the bed and glared down at the other man. "I am about to become your worst nightmare."

"Get the hell out of my room!"

"How much did Salvatore Ricci pay you to give up Angelina Ferrara?"

Jack froze. His already pale face went completely white. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Of course you do," Logan replied evenly. "You put a tracker in her necklace then recorded her every move. Ricci paid you fifty grand to track her movements so one of his lackeys could kill her."

"If that were true," Jack responded haughtily, "then why did he wait over a year to kill her?"

"That I don't yet know for sure but I intend to find out."

"Well, you can't prove a thing. I'm innocent. I'm a law man just like you, for crying out loud."

"You're dirty, Mulholland. Angelina's not your first, is she? She's just the first to survive."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Where do you keep the money? Swiss bank account? Cayman Islands? Coffee can in the back yard?"

"Go to hell. I want a lawyer."

"Of course you do. Good thing too, you're sure

going to need one." Logan turned to exit the room but stopped at the door and turned to look at Jack one last time. "What did she ever do to you anyway?"

"You got the hots for her? I think you got a thing for her," Jack spat back. "Don't waste your time. Word on the street is that bitch is ice cold."

"You have no idea how lucky you are that you are cuffed to that bed. I never hit a man who can't fight back."

"Bring it on, man." Jack's free hand balled up in a fist. "I can take you down single handedly."

Logan laughed, a humorless sound in the small room. "Save your strength, you're going to need it in court."

The echo of the door slamming followed him down the long, dimly lit hallway. The only thing left on his mind was seeing Angelina. It took all his self-control not to run down the hall to the elevator. As he stood waiting for the next car to arrive, the cell phone he'd borrowed from his aunt buzzed in his pocket. Not anxious to delay his check on Angelina, he may have sounded a little more impatient than he meant to when he answered it.

"James."

"It's me, George."

"Hey, L.T. Shouldn't you be asleep in the middle of the night?"

"I'll sleep when I'm dead. You got a minute? I have some news."

The elevator doors slipped open and Logan stepped inside. "I'm on my way up to check on Angelina, she's out of surgery again. Just spent a few minutes chatting with our new friend Jack Mulholland."

"He give you anything?"

"Nah. Lawyered up. Still acting tough, threatening to knock my lights out with a concussion and one hand cuffed to the bed."

"That's okay, I think there will be more than enough to prosecute. Our friends down at the witness protection bureau are not at all happy with Mr. Mulholland. They are tearing his cases apart, going through financials, and basically picking his life apart with a fine-toothed comb. He's going away for a long time."

"What about Ricci and his hit man?"

"They're looking at that too. So far, there hasn't been any concrete link between Mulholland and Ricci, but something will turn up. In the meantime, the Ricci family thinks your friend is dead so she should be safe for now. You heading back this way anytime soon?"

"Not tonight. I want to make sure Angelina is all right."

"Sure. I understand."

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open quietly. "I'll check in tomorrow afternoon, L.T."

"Take care of yourself, James. Get a little rest."

"I'll rest when I'm dead."

He heard his boss chuckling as they bid each other goodbye. Stowing the phone in his pocket, he headed to the recovery area. A nurse stopped him at the door, but a quick flash of his badge and ID later he was sitting beside Angelina's bed.

Angelina didn't stir, even when he took her hand in his. Her fingers were icy cold. Logan didn't like how blue her lips were but a passing nurse assured him that it was normal after surgery. A dozen hoses and wires monitored her vital processes. The entire set up

brought back way too many memories from his

childhood.

"Don't worry, Angelina," he whispered, stroking the cool skin on the back of her hand with his thumb. "No one will ever hurt you again."