Marked By Desire - The Complete Series, page 11
He was just relieved that she was alive, but that was also the strange part. Messorelli had clearly been there, after her again, but such an experienced hit man wouldn’t have missed her so many times, would he? And if by some chance it was just Hannah’s quick reflexes that had saved her, how had Messorelli found her to begin with?
Once, Luke was willing to write off as a rookie mistake by some low-ranking officer that slipped up. But twice? That said something else. Messorelli had to have some way of finding Hannah. Of either tracking her, despite a new identity and a new city, or of getting information on her location. Information from the inside.
Luke gritted his teeth. There was someone in his own agency feeding this murderer information. Someone who was trying to get Hannah killed.
His phone rang. It was Calloway and he briefly considered just not answering. This conversation wasn’t going to go any better than the first one. They just didn’t want to believe that there was a mole in their agency.
Ultimately, though, he answered the phone. “Blake.”
“How’s the girl, Luke?” Calloway’s voice was still deep, but gentler than usual.
Keeping calm, Luke answered, “I don’t know. I’m still in the waiting room. What the hell happened, Robert?”
“Someone cleared out the building. Emergency fire alarm, except the local fire department never got any calls.”
“Frank and Walter?”
There was a long pause, before Calloway told him. “Dead. Both shot in their room.”
Luke swore. That explained why no one was around to hear anything or help Hannah. But who sounded the alarm? Who killed Frank and Walter? Messorelli? While Luke had no problem believing the man had shot the two agents, it seemed like a lot of effort to pull off a fire alarm that cleared out a building, yet didn’t alert any emergency response.
“Robert, we’ve got to consider that this wasn’t just some clerical error this time,” Luke said seriously.
“Damnit, Blake. We just lost two of our own, you really need to go and railroad another?”
“Once was an unlucky clerical error,” Luke replied. “Twice means someone’s feeding this guy information. And we need to figure out who that is before our witness ends up dead.”
Calloway paused again. “I’ll look into it.”
“Thanks, Robert.”
“I said I’ll look into it, but that doesn’t mean I believe you.”
With that, they both hung up. Luke took a steadying breath. At least two deaths, Hannah in the hospital, and someone on the inside playing double agent. He didn’t have any choice. He was going to have to do this on his own.
“Mr. Blake?” A nurse in baby blue scrubs and carrying a clipboard walked up to him.
“Yes. How is she?”
“Ms. Masters is going to be fine,” the nurse said. “Her cuts were deep and there were quite a few of them, but we’ve patched her up and prescribed some antibiotics in case of infection. She seems to have had quite a scare, though. You said she fell through a plate of glass?”
Although the woman’s voice remained calm and even, he could sense the suspicion beneath it. Chances were, she had noticed the bruising around her neck and probably those on her ribs as well, and didn’t buy the accidental-falling-through-a-glass-door story. The less people who knew who he really was, though, who Hannah really was, the better.
“That’s right,” Luke said firmly, forcing believability into his story through sheer force of will. “It was a bad fall. I’m lucky I got there when I did.”
She paused a long moment, then said, “Yes, very lucky.”
“Can I see her?”
The woman seemed to consider his request long and hard before nodding her head. “Of course. She’s still shaken, though, so be gentle.” She put hard emphasis on ‘gentle.’
He walked quickly past her, down the hall towards Hannah’s room. He could have just flashed his badge when they’d arrived and explained the truth, or at least part of it, to the doctors, but if his hunch was right, then he didn’t want to attract any more attention to Hannah’s whereabouts than he already had. If it had been an option, he would have avoided the hospital altogether. But her safety came first.
Room 201 was Hannah’s. Luke stopped just outside of it, calming the emotions raging within him, before knocking carefully and pushing open the door. “Hannah? It’s Luke.”
She was half out of her bed before he made it entirely through the door. When she heard his voice and saw who it was, she paused. “Luke?”
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
The answer was obvious. She had bandages covering her arms and legs, bags dragged beneath her normally bright eyes, and the bruising on her neck looked worse than ever. And the fear. Her face was a mask of it.
“How did he find me?” she demanded instead of answering. “This was supposed to be safe. I changed my name, my home, my city, everything, and he still found me.”
He ran a hand through his black hair. She had every right to be angry. He had promised her protection and instead, she’d ended up in the hospital. “I don’t know how, Hannah, but I promise—”
“What the hell good are your promises?!” she practically screamed at him.
Luke closed the door behind him, trying to keep the sound of her voice from traveling to the nurses and causing more attention. He moved towards her, but she scrambled backwards, and he realized she was afraid of him now, too.
“Hannah, please,” he pleaded in his softest voice. “I know you’re scared.”
Her lower lip trembled, so he didn’t move any closer towards her. “I know this isn’t your fault, that you didn’t ask for any of this, but it’s happening to you and it’s my job to protect you. I haven’t been doing very good job lately, but I need to.”
She was still trembling, but she no longer looked like she was a cornered animal ready to bolt if he moved any closer.
“I think someone in the agency is tipping off Messorelli,” he finally admitted.
“In the agency?” she mumbled. “You mean, one of you?”
He nodded, disgusted at having to be lumped together with the same person who was doing this to her. “Yes. I don’t know who it is yet. I’ll find out, I swear I will, but right now we need to keep you safe. That is my top priority.”
And he meant it. He didn’t know what it was about her that made the need to protect her so strong, but it was like a fire lit inside of him. He couldn’t let anything happen to her. Twice, he’d already failed to protect her and getting there in the nick of time didn’t count for anything. Being a five- or ten-minute car ride away wasn’t good enough anymore. He had to be closer.
“Hannah, I know you’re scared and you’re hurt,” he began. “I know you feel like you can’t trust anyone, but you can trust me. I’m going to protect you the only way I know how.”
Her blue eyes looked up at him, daring to hope. “How?”
“We’re going to run.”
12
Hannah sat in the passenger seat of the car Luke had acquired, and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t want to look at him outright, because she still wasn’t sure what to think. Fear kept her from being able to trust him fully, even though he had been the one to save her from Carlos’s attack in Boston, and according to the nurse, he’d brought her to the hospital. But how had he gotten there so fast? He wasn’t her handler anymore.
She shouldn’t have even called him.
“Does Caroline know where we’re going?” she finally asked him, unable to resist her own curiosity, and growing tired of the silence.
Luke didn’t take his eyes off the road as he answered. “Not exactly. She knows I’m with you and that I’ll keep you out of trouble, but she doesn’t know where we’re going.”
Hannah bit her lip. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Yeah. I know a place.”
Hannah thought about pressing the matter, demanding he told her just where he thought he was taking her, but she was tired. They’d been driving for several hours now, having left Columbus far behind them. The sun was beginning to rise behind them and that was the only real way she knew they were headed west.
“How did you find me so fast?” she asked suddenly.
“What?”
“In Ohio, how did you get to me so quickly? I mean, you got there before my handler, even though you said you called her to let her know.”
Luke hesitated, like maybe he was afraid she wouldn’t like his answer. “I didn’t stay in New York,” he admitted. “I had… business to take care of in Columbus, so I was in the area. It was luck that I made it there so quickly.”
Hannah stared at him, wishing she could see into his green eyes. She thought she might see the truth there, but they stayed firmly on the road this time. “Lucky.”
“What about you?” Luke retorted, a little ruffled by her question.
“What about me?” she demanded. She crossed her arms over her chest, a bubble of irritation forming inside her.
“Why was I the first person you called?” he asked. “Like you said, I called to let Shelton know you were in trouble, not you. She’s your handler, not me.”
Heat flushed her cheeks. She felt flustered. “I was panicked,” she said, feeling defensive. “I dialed your number because I still had it under speed dial and—”
“Why wasn’t Shelton’s number on speed dial then?”
“It was, I just…” She didn’t know what to say to him. Caroline should have been her first call, not Luke. Luke had been removed from her case and he hadn’t even put up a fight about it. He just handed her off like she was a problem to be shucked onto someone else’s plate.
She realized now that had hurt her. Through this whole ordeal, she felt as though he had been a small piece of stability. There to protect her, because he wasn’t like the others. She was supposed to be a person to him.
Her mind flashed again to his hands upon her, the tenderness of his touch, the sincerity in his promises to protect her.
“What was that in the station?” she threw out suddenly, desperate to fluster him since she couldn’t validate her own actions.
“What are you talking about?”
“The station in Boston. When—when Carlos found me the first time. When I was injured and you found me and then you asked me if I was hurt. What was that? Just part of the job?”
“Don’t be stupid,” he snapped. “That’s never part of the job.” He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white.
They sat in silence for a moment, the weight of what he’d just admitted lingering in the air. Hannah didn’t want to consider what his words meant, because she found that there was a hint of hope nibbling at her. She knew what she wanted it to mean and it scared her, because she still didn’t know who to trust.
Instead of pushing the conversation further, she let the silence hang.
Luke was the one to break it, his words curt, trying to keep something in him under control. “You should try to sleep. We’ll be driving for a while still.”
Not sure what else to do, she took his advice and curled up against her passenger door. She fell asleep in minutes.
Luke woke Hannah when the car finally stopped. They were parked outside of a Motel 6. Not the nicest looking place around, but affordable and the clerk wouldn’t ask a lot of questions.
“Where are we?” Hannah asked through a yawn as she stretched out her stiff arms.
“Cedar Rapids.”
“Iowa?”
He nodded his head. “Yeah. You get settled and I’ll run down the street and pick up some things.”
She stood up out of the car quickly, suddenly terrified of the idea that he would leave her alone. “I’ll come with you.”
Luke stopped her, shaking his head. “No. The fewer people that see you, the better.”
“But you were the one who said that in witness protection I should go about my business as usual, act like I belong.”
“This isn’t witness protection, Hannah, this is hiding. There’s a hit man out to get you and someone who’s supposed to be on our side is helping him, I’m sure of it. That means we can’t afford to let anyone know where you are.”
“What if someone spots you?” she argued, feeling desperate to convince him to let them stay together. “Wouldn’t they know we were together?”
Luke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in weariness. “I’m a lot easier to explain than you are. Besides, I don’t have a hit on my head.”
Hannah gripped her own arms, the fear that had been plaguing her since the day Lorenzo died returning in full. “I don’t want to be here alone,” she admitted in a small voice.
Her admission softened him and after a moment he nodded. “Alright. We can pick up some stuff on the road. I need to sleep anyway. But you’ll stay in the car when we get there and if anything looks funny, you drive. Doesn’t matter where, you just go. Don’t wait for me, understand? That’s the deal.”
She nodded her head immediately, relieved that he would stay with her. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed his hand, smiling at him.
He didn’t pull away.
Luke really did need to sleep. It was an eight hour drive from Columbus to Cedar Rapids and he hadn’t exactly slept the night before. He was exhausted, and the set of twin beds in their room was looking incredibly inviting. But he’d promised her. Hannah was his first priority. She had slept most of the drive here and he wasn’t going to just leave her to stay up and stew in her own fear.
So he stayed awake a little longer, trying to make sure she was going to hold together. He believed in her, believed she would, but she was so fragile-looking. So young. Not much younger than him, he’d been told, but she just seemed like she needed someone to look out for her.
She sat down on the edge of the first bed, hands in her lap.
“We’ll be safe her for awhile,” he told her, unsure what else he could say to comfort her that wouldn’t be an outright lie.
She nodded. Numbly, she asked, “How long will we be here?”
“Just the night. Not even that. We’ll get a few hours’ sleep, then take off at nightfall.”
Frowning, she looked up at him curiously. “Why are we traveling at night? Isn’t it better to drive during the day?”
He shook his head. “So far, Messorelli has only attacked at night, probably because it’s easier to get around undetected. We’ll close that window and since the room is paid for the entire night, records will show that we’re here even when we’re not.”
Hannah bit her lower lip, but didn’t say anything. It was written on her face that she was terrified, but that was nothing new.
Luke ran a hand through his hair. He was tired and nervous. They didn’t know who was tipping off Messorelli—and Luke just knew that it was someone working in the agency itself—they still didn’t know for sure whether there was a Borteli link or not, and to top it all off, Hannah was starting to strain under the pressure. It showed through her sagging posture and her dull eyes that she wasn’t sure what to do anymore or how to deal with what was happening around her.
Luke still wasn’t ready to admit—to her or himself—why it bothered him so much what was happening to Hannah, but it did bother him. And he had to do something about it.
He sat next to her on the bed. “It’s going to be okay, Hannah. We’re safe for now. Why don’t you try to rest?”
Though she had slept for a few hours already, she still looked exhausted and she nodded her head. She crawled up onto the bed, putting her head on the pillow. She faced the door, staring at it as though it might burst open at any moment. That was what made Luke come and sit beside her, he decided. That look of fixation and dread on her face.
She moved to accommodate him, making room for him on the bed. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she laid her head on his chest.
“I was starting to write again,” she told him quietly.
He squeezed her shoulder gently. “That’s good. That’s what you want to do, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I joined that writer’s group at the bookshop.” Her voice was a little more animated than it had been, but there was a hint of sadness there, too. She had started to get settled in Columbus, he realized.
“What are you working on?” he prompted, trying to keep her talking.
She blushed and glanced away.
He couldn’t help but smile at her embarrassment. There was something endearing about it, about her. Without even thinking about it, he put his finger under her chin and lifted it, making her turn to look at him. “You can tell me, Hannah.”
She bit her lip, then releasing it said, “I think it’s about you.”
“Me?” he asked, surprised. “Why?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Luke froze. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, either. She had scared him pretty badly when she ended up in the hospital, and he was sure she didn’t even know it. The first time Messorelli found her, he was terrified he would get there too late. He almost had. He had to keep an eye on her, even though officially he’d been taken off her case. Even though they no longer had any reason to be connected—but they were.
His voice rough, he told her, “You should get some sleep.”
“I’ve slept all night,” she responded quietly.
She felt warm beside him, small and delicate. His fingers grazed the soft skin of her arm. It was supposed to be comforting, he thought, but all it did was build tension within his body. He responded to her in ways he hadn’t felt since the disaster that had been Julia.
That scared him. It wasn’t just that this was unprofessional; it was that he could feel himself growing attached to her in ways unexpected.
Looking at her now, feeling her beside him, listening her speak as though maybe she was feeling it, too… Luke let his hand trail up her arm and along her shoulder, to ghost along the bruises covering her neck that still made him so angry. He forced himself to pass them by, tracing the soft curves of her cheeks until he stroked back the wild tangles of blonde hair.
