Carina helped Patricia out of the car. She scanned the hospital parking lot, spotting Aidan emerging from his car a few spots over. There had been a different guy following her each of the last few days. Some of the guys stayed close. Aidan didn’t. He liked to give her more space. Which was fine with Carina.
“Thank you, dear,” Patricia said once she was out. “I don’t know why I need to come back here. I just left.”
Carina gave the woman a sympathetic smile as she helped her across the lot. “They just want to check that the wrist is healing well. They might have a look at your knee too.”
“Pfft. I’m fine.”
Carina bit the inside of her mouth to stop the smile. Of course she was.
They were just stepping up to the doors when Carina saw Victoria and a man round the corner of the hospital and step out of sight. Good. At least if the woman was finished for the day, it meant Carina wouldn’t run into her.
“Are you okay?”
Patricia’s words jerked Carina’s attention back to the older woman. “Yes,” she answered, ushering her charge inside.
Over the next half hour, she waited with Patricia until she was finally taken to have an X-ray. She hadn’t seen Aidan during that time. It was like the guy could just disappear. But she knew he was there watching.
When she stepped into the hall to wait as Patricia was escorted away, she finally spotted him leaning against a wall.
“You don’t need to stay so far away, you know,” she said, stopping beside him.
He lifted a shoulder. “It’s good for you to feel safe while also feeling normal.”
“True.” She crossed her arms and watched another patient being led down the hall. “Tell me, why’s a tall, handsome, sensitive man like yourself single?”
The smile slipped from his lips, and Carina wanted to take her words back. Oh God, had she said the wrong thing?
“There was a woman,” he said quietly. “She’s married to someone else now.”
For a moment, Carina was silent. There was real pain behind his words, and it had her at a loss as to what to say. “I’m sorry.”
He tipped his head in acknowledgement. “That’s life. Full of highs and lows. And completely out of our control.”
She would argue that it wasn’t completely out of their control. But that wouldn’t be helpful to him right now.
“What did you love about her?” she asked before she could stop herself. That probably wasn’t the appropriate thing to ask a man when he was still so clearly grieving the loss.
Aidan smiled slightly, not seeming to care whether it was appropriate. “So many little things. She was confident. Happy. Whenever I’d come home from a bad day, she knew exactly how to make me laugh. She was a live-every-day-like-it’s-the-last kind of person. And the way she looked at me… It was like she really saw me. Like she was the only woman who ever really saw me.”
Heartbreak. It riddled his face and voice. “Maybe you’ll return to each other one day.”
Unlikely if she was married, but maybe…
One small nod. That was all he gave her. And it told her everything. That he didn’t believe they would, either. That in his mind, he’d lost her long ago.
But the woman still meant so much to him. He didn’t need to say it for Carina to know.
A minute of silence passed before she tugged her phone from her pocket, checking for any messages from Flynn. There were none. Not that she was surprised. He was working at Blue Halo today. Probably busy saving the world, one bad guy at a time.
Surprisingly, there hadn’t been a message from Greg in a few days, either. Whether that meant he’d finally left town, she wasn’t sure. She hoped so.
“How are you doing after the other night?” Aidan finally asked.
She pushed her phone back into her pocket. “I’m okay.”
She’d woken in a pool of her own sweat after a nightmare the night of the attack, but none since, thank God. She hated that Flynn had seen her wake up like that. She felt like she should be stronger. Flynn hadn’t batted an eye. Yes, he was former Delta. He was in the security business. But he was still human, just like her.
When she looked up, it was to see Aidan watching her closely.
“You don’t need to lie to me,” he said. “After being attacked like that and having to shoot someone…you’re not supposed to be okay.”
“That’s good. Because I’ll admit, it’s been hard. I also feel so guilty that the guy got away while Flynn saved me.”
“Don’t feel guilty. Saving you was never in question for him.” Aidan’s gaze skittered between her eyes. “One way or another, we’ll find this guy and bury him. If Flynn had lost you, it would have destroyed him.”
She swallowed, feeling the small acceleration of her heartbeat.
When his phone rang, he straightened and pulled the cell from his pocket. “Callum, what’s going on?”
The muscles in Aidan’s arms bunched, and Carina held her breath. Oh Lord. What now?
“Got it.”
When he hung up, she was almost too scared to ask, but knew she had to. “What is it?”
He looked down at her, and her stomach suddenly felt like it had a huge rock inside, pressing on her organs.
“They found the twins.”
That was good, wasn’t it? “Where?”
“Ruud Mountain, in Ketchum. They’ve been dead for almost two weeks.”
Flynn ran a hand through his hair. “We can help, Tom.”
He looked up, his gaze passing over Callum, Tyler, and Liam. They stood in the Blue Halo conference room, and they looked just as frustrated as him. Tom was on speaker, so he could hear all of them.
“Your guys have done enough. The boys were shot in the head. This is a homicide now, and I want you as far away from this as possible. The mother is already breathing down my neck, wanting you locked up.”
“I have an alibi,” he said through gritted teeth.
“An alibi with the woman you’re dating.”
Yeah, okay. That wasn’t optimal. But it was what it was.
Callum pushed off the wall. “Let the rest of us help, then. Two teenage boys have been murdered in our own hometown. We found the bodies We can help find the asshole who killed them. We need to find him.”
Tom’s exhale was loud over the line. “I can’t. I’ve got a few people I’m looking into. But I need you guys to stay away from this now. Hell, I shouldn’t have let you help in the first place. I’m sorry.”
The line went dead.
Flynn paced back and forth. “It’s connected. I know it is. The dead kids. The letters Carina received. The man who damn well tried to kill her.”
“Maybe even her fall off her porch?” Tyler said quietly.
Flynn stopped. Every muscle in his body tightened. “You’re right. That could be fucking connected. It was raining, so we just assumed it was that. But maybe someone set it up.”
Goddammit.
“What about that ex of hers?” Liam asked.
Flynn scrubbed a hand over his face. “We’ve done a background check on him. There were no red flags. Nothing in his past. He has a stable job at the University of Michigan Hospital. Grew up with divorced parents, both of whom also worked in the medical field. Nothing in his history to suspect any issues.”
Liam frowned. “Maybe he’s just good at covering his tracks.”
“Where was he the night the boys were killed?” Tyler asked.
Good question. “I don’t know. But according to Tom, we’re not allowed to ask.”
“We can’t,” Callum said quietly. “But Carina can.”
Flynn shook his head. “No.”
He didn’t like anything about Carina’s ex, particularly not the fact he was here to get her back. There was no way he wanted her talking to him, especially to pry information from the guy.
Callum stepped forward. “She could talk to him in a public place like The Grind. You drive her there. We watch them. She’d be safe. And she might be able to learn something we can’t.”
Christ, he was right. And he fucking hated that. “I’ll think about it.”
When his phone vibrated in his pocket, he yanked it out and saw a message from Carina.
Carina: Just packing the last of my things. Want Aidan to drive me to yours?
He shot a look at the time. Almost five. He hadn’t seen the woman since early this morning, and damn, but he missed her.
Flynn: Wait for me. I’m coming to your place now. x
She was staying with him for a while. Partly because he had better home security. But, more than that, he wanted her close. Plain and simple.
Flynn pushed the phone back into his pocket. “Okay, guys, I’m going. I’ll let you know about the Greg meetup.”
It was the only idea they had. And she would be protected. Didn’t mean he hated it any less.
The drive to her place was quick, and Carina and Aidan were already standing by the door with her bag at their feet when Flynn arrived.
He wrapped a hand around Aidan’s shoulder. “Thank you, brother.”
Aidan dipped his head. “You got it. Call me if you need anything.”
The second Aidan left, Flynn tugged Carina into his arms and kissed her. “Man, I’ve been thinking about this kiss all day.”
He felt her smile. “You kissed me this morning.”
“Yeah. It’s been too damn long.” He kissed her between each word. His gaze shot down to the bag. It was huge. “That’s a lot of stuff.”
“So either I’m staying a while, or I’m just high maintenance.”
“Hm.” His mouth hovered over her lips. “I’m thinking the former.”
One last kiss, then he lifted her bag and placed a hand on the small of her back to guide her outside. He waited as she locked the door, then they headed down the stairs.
They were halfway across the yard when the door to the house next door opened. Then came the angry voice.
“Hey!”
He tugged Carina behind him as Eadie Brown marched across the yard. Her eyes were red, her hair a mess, and her clothes rumpled. “You’re a fucking murderer! You killed my boys!”
“I didn’t—”
She shoved him. He didn’t move an inch, which just seemed to enrage her more, so she shoved him again. “Don’t you lie to me! I know it was you!”
“Ms. Brown—”
“I swear, I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done!”
Carina tried to step around him, but he swept an arm out, halting her where she was and preventing her from moving forward.
She reached a hand out. “Ms. Brown, I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t! You were probably in on the whole thing, you little whore! Did you plan it together? Drag my boys off to the mountains?” Her gaze flew back to Flynn. “She watched while you shot ’em, right?”
He gritted his teeth against the accusation. He was tempted to tell the woman her kids were abusive assholes who’d pissed off a lot of people. He didn’t. She was grieving—and her sons clearly hadn’t had the most nurturing upbringing.
“No,” he answered simply.
She shook her head and moved back slowly. “Mark my words. Both of you will regret ever hurting my family.”
