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39

JASON

The last of the remaining men fled, giving us the time we needed to get Knight help. Fox was across the room scalping some poor bastard who probably didn’t deserve quite the sendoff he was giving him. Whatever he had done in life, he was paying ten times over for it now.

“Jack!” I called out, rushing over to Kate’s side. “Where’s that ambulance?”

“On the way!”

Kneeling down beside Kate, I took in Knight’s semi-conscious form. I wasn’t even sure how he was still alive, but Kate worked rapidly, refusing to give in.

“Just stay with me,” she said angrily.

“What can I do?”

“Keep pressure on this wound.”

I did as she asked, taking in the other wounds he’d sustained. The man was a fucking wreck. Kate should never have to see her husband like this, but he was damn lucky she was here and had the wits about her to keep moving in the face of death. The way she’d run out into a hail of bullets took balls most men didn’t have.

The sound of sirens approaching filled the air and I looked down at Knight again. “The ambulance is almost here. Just hold on.”

A gurgle left his lips and his eyes flicked to mine, begging me to come closer. I leaned down, putting my ear to his lips.

“Take…care…family.”

“I will,” I whispered, not wanting Kate to hear what I was saying. “I swear it. They’ll be safe.”

“Cash…” he whispered, trying to get out something else, but I couldn’t understand him as the doors slammed open and the EMTs ran over, shoving me out of the way.

I grabbed Kate by the arm, pulling her back as the EMTs got to work. “Let them do their jobs.”

“I’m a doctor!” she shouted, struggling to get back to Knight.

“You’re too close to this. You’ve done all you can.”

“No!” she fought, tears slipping free. “Let me help him!”

I was about to pull her back when she lost it, spinning and slamming the heel of her palm into my nose, breaking it. I stepped back, knowing there was no point in interfering further.

Blood gushed down my face and Jack strode over, tossing me a rag. I quickly clotted it the best I could, but I didn’t dare interfere further. There was no point. It was only a few minutes before they had Knight on the gurney and were wheeling him out to the ambulance.

“I’m going with him,” Kate insisted.

“We’ll meet you there,” Jack told her, turning to find Fox still hacking away at his latest victim. “Fox! Let’s move!”

The glow in his eyes as he turned to us was a little freaky, but damn if I wasn’t glad he was on our side. I ran outside just as Johnny was pulling up with our vehicle. I wasn’t sure when he went to get it, but I was relieved we didn’t have to trek back through the woods to get to it. With one look back at the building, I thanked my lucky stars that no one else had been injured.

I tugged the door open, my eyes still on the shadows of the building. That’s when I saw him…Just at the back of the building, standing with Michael, was Cash. Fury swept over me as I watched him hiding out. We came here to find him and rein him in, but instead, all we found was his brother bleeding out on the floor. Why the fuck hadn’t he come over to help?

I was about to march over and ask him that, maybe even beat the shit out of him, but then I saw the gun in his hand and something stopped me. Whatever was going on, I had to believe that if he wanted to come to us, he would. If I went over there now, I knew I’d fuck something up.

With a swift nod, I got inside and slammed the door, though everything inside me was screaming to find out what the fuck was going on. “Let’s move!”

“Did you see him?” Jack asked.

“Yeah,” I grumbled.

“Michael was with him,” Johnny piped up. “Whatever the fuck happened in there, they weren’t on Knight’s side.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

“Because there’s no way in hell Cash would leave his brother to bleed out. Which means he couldn’t go to him. And the only reason he wouldn’t be able to go to him after we showed up is because he was working on the other fucking side.”

Now that he laid it out like that, I realized he was right. And that just made all of this more complicated. “I guess we’ll find out when we get to the hospital and talk with Knight.”

“If he’s still alive,” Jack muttered.

The ride seemed to take forever, and with no idea what was happening in the ambulance, we couldn’t even report in. We’d had no choice but to let Kate go with Knight alone. They wouldn’t have let us ride in the ambulance with her. I had to hope that nothing bad was happening to her. She was our responsibility, and I’d sworn to Knight that we’d take care of her.

The minute we walked through the doors of the hospital, we found Kate yelling at one of the nurses at the desk. Covered in blood, she looked like something out of a horror movie.

“I don’t care what the protocols are! He’s my husband and I’m a doctor. I know him better than anyone, and if you think for one minute that?—”

“Kate!” I grabbed her arm, pulling her against me just as she gasped, breaking down in tears. She flung her arms around me, holding me tight as her legs gave out. I hauled her up in my arms, carrying her over to a couch that I knew would stain with the blood coating her skin the second I set her down.

“Hey,” I whispered, forcing her to look at me through the tears rimming her eyes. “He’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that,” she sobbed, wiping the back of her hand against her nose.

“I know he’s strong, and I know he wouldn’t leave you behind for anything.”

I didn’t know shit about Knight, but a man like him would give anything—even sell his soul to the devil—if it meant staying with the woman he loved.

“You don’t get it,” she whispered. “His luck is running out. I’m not sure how much more he can take.”

“Probably anything you throw at him,” I offered, hoping it made her feel better. “You should get cleaned up. He’ll want to see you when he opens his eyes, and he won’t like it if you’re covered in blood.”

She nodded vacantly, then finally met my eyes, gasping when she saw my face. I smirked at her, knowing exactly what she saw.

“He did a damn good job teaching you self-defense.”

She covered her mouth, shaking her head as she looked at my busted nose. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You were fighting to get to your husband. That’s fucking admirable. And it’ll be the first thing he hears when he wakes up.”

She took a steadying breath and nodded. “When he wakes up.”

* * *

I checked the time on my phone, debating whether or not to call Izzy. It was only five in the morning by her, but I desperately needed to hear her voice. We had hours before we’d find out anything pertaining to Knight—if he survived the surgery. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around what the fuck happened at the warehouse.

I dialed her number and prayed she was awake. I needed to hear her sweet voice if I was going to get my head on straight. When she answered, full of life and excitement, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, baby.”

“It’s five in the morning. What’s going on? Is everyone okay?”

Okay. That was a relative word. “We’re at the hospital,” I answered, the weight of the situation heavy in my voice.

She sucked in a breath, waiting to ask the next question, but I beat her to it. “It’s not our team, but…”

Fuck, I just realized that Knight was her brother. How the hell could I have forgotten that? Suddenly, this phone call seemed like a very bad idea.

“But what?” she asked, her voice laced with anxiety.

There was no way out of this. I couldn’t keep this from her. “It’s Knight. He was shot, and he’s in surgery.”

I waited as her breathing halted. She was strong. I had to believe she could handle this.

“Okay, so he’s alive.”

“Yes. Kate’s here. She kept him alive until the ambulance could get to him.”

She said nothing for a solid minute. Fuck, I shouldn’t have said anything. I hated to think of her all alone at her house, wondering if her brother was going to make it.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something.”

“What about Cash? Is he alright?”

“He’s…He was fine the last I saw him.”

You could have heard a pin drop. “What do you mean? He’s not there?”

“He had to leave.”

There was no fucking way I could tell her we suspected that he was no longer on our side.

“He had to leave?” she snapped. “His brother is in the hospital and he had to leave?”

I winced at the anger in her voice, but was luckily saved by the doors opening and the doctor walking out. “Izzy, the doctor is here. I’ll call you back.”

I ended the call without another word and stormed over to where the doctor stood by Kate.

“—he’s alive. The surgery was touch and go, but he’s strong. He’ll be out of it for a while, and the recovery will be hard, but he should pull through.”

Kate sagged in relief, tears spilling down her face. “Okay. I can deal with that. When can I see him?”

“We’ll get him settled and then get you, okay?”

He was going to live. That was all that mattered right now. I needed to let Izzy know and someone had to call Cap at Reed Security. Then we had to figure out transport and where the hell to take him. Kate would want him home. But we needed security. There was no telling if anyone was still looking for him.

The buzzing of my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. Glancing down, I saw a strange number and almost didn’t answer it. Stepping aside, I slid my finger across the screen.

“Yeah?”

“Is he alive?” Cash’s voice rumbled through the phone.

I glanced back at everyone, catching Jack’s eye. Johnny saw too. “Just got out of surgery.” I nodded to them, hoping they understood. “He’ll survive.”

“He needs to die.”

“Say that again?”

“He needs to die,” he said slowly.

“What the fuck is going on? Why the hell?—”

“I shot him,” Cash snapped, taking me by surprise.

My eyes locked on Jack’s. This was fucking bad. “Why would you shoot him?”

“I had no choice. You make sure he stays dead.”

A million things ran through my mind, and it took me a minute to understand what he was saying. He didn’t actually want him dead. He needed us to make it appear that he was dead.

“Do you really think that will work after what happened with Kavanaugh? They know he’s alive. They’ll suspect Knight isn’t dead.”

“Then you’d better make it really fucking good. He’s come back from the dead before. I have no doubt they know about it. You’ll have eyes on you the whole fucking time.”

“And what happens if he lives, Cash?”

“Then this will all be for nothing. I need to end this. Don’t fuck it up for me.”

The line went dead.

I jerked my head to the side, catching the attention of Kate, also. When we were far enough away from prying ears, I filled them in.

“Knight needs to be dead. Eyes are on the hospital right now.” I turned to Kate. “Cash said Knight has been declared dead before. This isn’t going to be easy. How the fuck do we get him out of here and move him to a safe location?”

“A hearse,” she responded immediately, the tears gone as she considered all our options.

“It won’t work,” Jack informed her. “That’s how we got Kavanaugh out. They know he’s alive now, so they’ll be looking for anything similar.”

“Then we need to leave.”

“No,” Kate said immediately.

“Kate, you have to play the grieving widow.”

“I’ve done that once before,” she snapped. “I won’t do it again.”

“If you don’t, Cash is dead. Is that what you want?” I argued.

She bit her lip, turning away as tears filled her eyes again. “How do you expect me to leave him behind?”

I had no fucking clue. Faking his death wouldn’t be anything like what we did with Kavanaugh. “We’ll work out the logistics. For now, he needs to appear dead. You’re the doctor. Tell us how you want to handle this.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “Now that he’s out of surgery…it has to be from complications. If I can bribe one of the doctors?—”

“No,” Jack interrupted. “We have to assume that anyone here is on their payroll. We have to do this alone.”

“Then I’m going to need some supplies.”