Lethal Consequences (31 page)

Bullets sailed by Landon’s ears. He ducked down. The stairs curved behind a boulder, and by the time he lifted his head to look, he couldn’t see Olivia anymore. He raced down the steps, staying as low as he could. On the water, far below, a boat’s engine roared to life. Reaching the landing where Olivia had just been, Landon rounded the corner. A fist slammed into his jaw.

He stumbled back. The gun fell from his grip. The shithead who’d hit Olivia lifted his hand and nailed Landon in the jaw again. “Fucking prick.”

The salty taste of blood rushed over Landon’s tongue. The blow rang in his ears. He glanced past the big guy still coming at him and searched for Olivia. She was already down on the next landing, fighting with everything she had in her.

A fist sailed toward his face. Landon ducked away from the blow, grabbed hold of the man’s wrist, and whipped around behind him, dragging the guy’s arm with him.

The man cried out in pain. Landon jerked the man’s arm against his neck, cutting off his airflow. The man gasped, reached up with his free hand to try to pry Landon’s away. Landon only braced his feet against the wood decking and pulled tighter.

The thug kicked out. Sputtered. Landon gritted his teeth and squeezed harder. The man struggled for air. Rasped. The muscles in Landon’s arms and legs burned as he held on, not letting go. A choking sound echoed in the night air. Another gasp for air. Then the man’s muscles went lax, and he slumped in Landon’s arms.

Landon released him. The terrorist fell to the decking with a crack. He stepped over the limp body and rushed down the steps, his only thought to get to Olivia.

He hit the next switchback and spotted her ten yards away. The guy holding her drew his arm back and slapped her across the cheek with the back of his hand. She cried out in pain. Stumbled. Landon’s chest constricted. His legs moved faster. Olivia righted herself, then raised her arm quickly, slapping the flat of her hand up into the man’s balls. He grunted and doubled forward. She gripped his head in both hands, twisted it to the side, and then jammed her knee into his balls even harder, shoving the fucker back with her momentum.

He crashed into the railing. It gave with a crack. He grappled for something to hold on to and grabbed a fistful of Olivia’s hair. She screamed as his center of gravity pulled them both back toward the ledge. Fear shot Landon’s heart rate into the triple digits. He raced to catch her. The thug’s body hit the rocks and bounced, and then they both disappeared over the ledge.

No.
No!
“Olivia!”

Landon rushed to the landing and looked over, fear and disbelief swirling in every cell in his body. Scanning the darkness, he spotted the terrorist’s body lying on the rocks far below. Sweat broke out all over his spine as he searched for Olivia. And then he spotted her, climbing up the ledge toward him, her fingers turning white as she gripped the rocks, her body covered in dirt, twigs sticking out of her hair.

“Oh sweet Jesus. Oh God . . .” Landon skidded down the hillside. Rocks and dirt went flying. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Finally reaching her, he grabbed her as gently as he could and hauled her into his arms. She staggered into him. “I’ve got you, Livy. I’ve got you. Tell me you’re okay. Talk to me, baby.”

“I’m”—her shaking hands landed against his chest—“fine. I’m fine, Landon.” Her fingers curled in the soft cotton of his shirt. “Where’s Dani?”

“She’s safe. She’s with Stone.” Trembling, he wrapped her tight in his arms, buried his face in her neck, and breathed her in, amazed and awed and so very thankful for her all over again. “God Almighty. I thought I’d lost you. When I woke up and you were gone . . .” Words clogged in his throat, and he swallowed hard. “That was dumb. So freaking dumb. What the hell were you thinking?”

Her shoulders dropped, and she relaxed against him. “I was thinking about what you’d do. I was doing the only thing I could. They can’t get her, Landon. If you’d have been in my place, you would have done the same thing.”

She was right. He’d have taken that blood sample and gotten as far from Dani and her as he could.

“What about Victoria?” she asked against him.

“She got away.”

“That means Dani isn’t safe.”

She was worried about Dani right now? This woman never stopped surprising him. Even now. “Don’t worry about Dani. Dani will be fine. It’s you I’m . . .” A lump formed in his throat. His eyes slid closed, and he held her tighter, not wanting to let her go, even an inch. “Don’t ever make me do that again. I can’t make that choice.”

“You didn’t have a choice to make.”

His heart squeezed so hard, a swift shot of pain radiated all through his chest. He would never be able to forget that moment. Having to choose Dani over her. Knowing she was right—that it was the only thing he could have done.

He turned his head and pressed his lips against her temple.

Her muscles tensed against him, and she hissed in a pained breath. Easing back, he looked down, and a new sort of panic spread through him.

Her face was smeared with blood. Her T-shirt and hands were also stained red. Blood was even matted in her hair.

“You’re bleeding.” Frantic now, he checked to see where it was coming from. There was so much. “Shit, you’re bleeding.”

She pressed a hand against the side of her head and cringed. “I think I hit a rock.”

A quick look in the moonlight confirmed she had a two-inch gash across her skull. Blood poured down her skin.

Tugging off his T-shirt, he pressed it to the wound and placed her hand over the cotton. “Hold this here.”

He swept her up into his arms. Holding his shirt against the wound, she laid her other hand on his chest as he jostled her against him and picked his way back to the stairs. “I’m fine, Landon.”

“You’re not fine. Don’t freakin’ argue with me this time. You need stitches.”

They made it to the stairs. He shifted her higher in his arms and started climbing.

Against him, Olivia muttered, “You came after me.”

“I’ll always come after you.”

She smiled and leaned her forehead against his scruffy cheek. “I like that.” Drawing in a deep breath, she exhaled softly and said, “I really, really like that.”

So did he, so much more than he ever thought he could. “You didn’t need me, though. You kicked that guy’s ass.”

A smile pulled at her mouth. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Where’d you learn that move? You looked like a street fighter.”

“Mick taught me.”

Hedley. When they’d been in Italy. Landon was going to kiss the guy the next time he saw him.

He reached the top of the steps, and his feet stilled when he took in the scene. A team of men and women he immediately recognized as DIA agents were swarming the house.

“What’s wrong?” Olivia asked, lifting her head.

Slowly, he set her on her feet. “I don’t know. Keep that shirt pressed to your head.” He reached for her hand. “And stay close to me.”

They crossed the yard together and moved up the porch. Bright light blinded him as he stepped into the house. He blinked several times. A man in slacks and a dress shirt standing in the large kitchen turned in his direction. Recognition passed over his dark features. “Miller.”

“Reagan.” Landon had gone through training with Paul Reagan. He, like Landon, usually worked alone. So the fact he was here now signaled something big was going down.

A woman—one Landon had never met—also dressed in slacks, stepped around Paul Reagan and moved toward Olivia. “I’m Kristin Sommers. Ms. Wolfe, it looks like you’re a little banged up. I’ll need you to come with me.”

Sommers tried to pull Olivia away, but Landon held on firm to her hand. “She’s not going anywhere.”

Sommers glanced toward Reagan. Unspoken words passed between them. Reagan pulled out his cell phone and started speaking rapidly.

Still holding the T-shirt to her head, Olivia’s eyes grew wide as she looked from the newcomers back to Landon. Her hand tightened around his. “Landon, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Just don’t say any—”

“Miller.” Landon’s head came around when he recognized the voice to his right. His CO at the DIA, Luke Neuhaus, stepped into the room and leveled him with one hard, bone-chilling look. “Let the girl go. That’s an order. It’s time we had a few words.”

L
andon’s stomach twisted into a knot as he stood outside the door to Dani’s lab hours later.

Guilt pushed at him from every angle. Guilt that he wasn’t with Olivia at the hospital right this minute. Guilt that he’d had to pick Dani over her when those terrorists had been holding her. Guilt that he was about to ruin Dani’s life all over again.

He drew in a deep breath, told himself to stop being a pussy, and pushed the door open.

The DIA had cleared out the bodies, and someone had already cleaned up the mess. He’d been surprised when they’d told him Dani was down here—the last place he expected her to be holed up was in the same room where she’d almost been killed—but her research had always calmed her. After her parents had died, it was the one thing that had kept her focused.

She was sitting at the counter on the far side of the room, using some kind of pipette to transfer liquid in a test tube to a slide. When she didn’t immediately look his way, he cleared his throat and waited.

Slowly, her head came around, and she glanced over her shoulder. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

Her eyes were still a little bit wild, but her hands were no longer shaking. A good sign, he decided.

He moved farther into the room. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“I’m not hard to find.” She placed the slide on the microscope and leaned over the eyepiece to take a look. “Did they catch her?”

Her mother. Landon had been shocked when he’d walked out onto that lawn and seen the DIA swarming the house. Then surprised when Neuhaus had informed him Ryder had been the one to call and alert him to the fact Dani was still alive and that her mother, known terrorist organizer Annabelle Cabrero, was really Victoria Crossler and that she was one of the FBI’s most wanted.

“No.”

Dani lifted her head from the microscope, closed her eyes, and exhaled a long breath.

“They’ll find her, Dani.”

“Yeah. But not today.”

No. And that’s why he was here.

He tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. The fresh T-shirt he’d grabbed before his heart-to-heart with Neuhaus brushed against his belly. “We need to talk.”

She moved the slide to the counter and placed a new one on the microscope. “No, we don’t. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

For a second, confusion hit, and then he realized she was talking about the way she’d tried to kiss him in his bedroom.

That guilt came back full force. Not for what had happened to her parents, but because he couldn’t be what she needed. And he never should have tried.

“Dani.” He took a step forward. “You’re not safe here. I can’t protect you anymore.”

Slowly, she turned to face him, and he saw the pain brewing in her sad blue eyes. But for the first time in almost two years, he knew the pain wasn’t his fault, and he wasn’t willing to take it on as if it were.

He couldn’t keep living in the past. He couldn’t keep blaming himself for things that couldn’t be changed. As Olivia had told him that night in Italy when she’d mesmerized him with the depth of her ability to forgive, it didn’t matter what he’d done. All that mattered was what he did now.

“Why not?” she asked. “Where are you going?”

That knot twisted tighter in Landon’s gut, and his COs words from their meeting echoed in his head.
“You knew what you were giving up when you signed on with the DIA. You know we don’t do normal. If you care about Wolfe at all, the humane thing to do is to let her go without a fight. The government invested a lot in you, Miller. It’s not about to forget.”

Pain lanced his chest. His was not the kind of job a person simply walked away from. He’d known that going in. And it wasn’t worth it to try if it meant putting Olivia in danger.

“I’m heading back to the DIA next week. I won’t be around to help you. It’s time you—no, it’s time
we
both let go of the past and moved on.”

“I . . . I don’t know how to do that,” she whispered.

“The first step is letting others help you. I’ve arranged a deal for you. If you agree to hand over your father’s notes on the formula for the antidote, the DIA will put you in protective custody. You can start over with a new name, a new identity, in a brand-new place where your mother will never find you.”

“I . . .” Surprise filled her damp eyes, and she glanced around the lab. “I don’t know if I can do that. I can’t leave my research.”

“Do you want to live?” he asked. Her gaze shot back to his. “Because that’s what this is about. If you try to run again, if you try to hide, I won’t be there to help you. And you won’t just have your mother to worry about. The DIA will track you down. They’ll find you and manipulate you, and eventually use you for your science. If you agree to witness protection, you call the shots. The DIA can’t control you. You can start over with a new identity, a new purpose, new research.”

She was quiet while she looked around the room. “That’s it? Just my father’s notes?”

“And the serum for Olivia.” That was the other catch. “I need you to make it for her. She’s running out of time.”

Slowly, Dani’s gaze slid back to his and flicked over his features. “You love her, don’t you?”

His throat grew thick. “With everything that I am.”

“Even knowing you can’t be with her?”

“Yeah.”

Her brows drew together. “Why her? I mean, why is she so special?”

He thought of Olivia’s sweet smile, her determination, her innate ability to forgive and see the best in everyone. And when he remembered the way she’d loved him, the way she’d held him, the way her eyes lit up whenever she saw him—even when she had every right to be pissed at him—his entire body warmed. “Because she doesn’t need me. She never did. But she still wants me. Even knowing all the bad shit I’ve done in my life.”

Dani’s gaze drifted down to her hands, resting in her lap, and she hooked a foot over a rung in the stool. “I’ve never known love like that. My parents certainly didn’t love each other that way.”

“Neither did mine.” In many ways, he and Dani were very much alike. Both loners, wounded, two people struggling just to get by. But he didn’t want to just get by anymore. He wanted to know that what he did mattered. And this—saving Olivia’s life when no one else could—this was the most important thing he’d ever done. “Say you’ll do it, Dani. Please say you’ll take the deal.”

She was silent for several moments, then finally looked up at him. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Hope leapt in his chest.

“On one condition.”

“What?”

She climbed off the stool. “For that I need to talk to your CO.”

“This is ridiculous.” Olivia glared toward the nurse holding her wrist, counting her pulse. “I’m fine. Can you both hear that? I said I’m
fine
.”

The nurse just rolled her eyes and glanced at the clock high on the wall. From the cell phone set on speaker, sitting on the tray in front of her, Eve huffed. “Stop whining already. You sound like a freakin’ cat, Olivia.”

Olivia scrunched her face at the phone, even though she knew her sister couldn’t see her. Frustration warred inside her. She was going out of her mind wondering what was happening back at Dani’s plantation. She hadn’t heard from Landon since the DIA had swept her into a small jet and flown her to the hospital on Virgin Gorda. That had been several hours ago. She’d tried to call him, of course, but he wasn’t answering, and every moment that passed without word from him put her more on edge.

After having her head stitched and bandaged, the nurse had dumped her in this private room with a view that looked out over a cluster of rustling palms, and hooked up an IV—which she was sure would do no good—then told her to sit tight. Through the open door she could see two of the DIA’s finest, standing outside, but it was impossible for her to just sit here when she didn’t know what was going on with Landon. What if they took him away before she had a chance to say goodbye? What if he’d already gone back to the States?

She didn’t have much time left. She’d already resigned herself to the fact she was dying. She didn’t want to spend that time in a hospital being guarded like she was a criminal.

Panic pushed in. A panic she hated. She glanced down at the IV in her arm.

“Don’t even think about it,” Eve said through the speaker.

“Don’t think about what?”

“About tearing out that IV.”

The nurse’s head shifted Olivia’s way, and she lifted her brows in an
oh, you’d better not do that
move.

How the
hell
did her sister do that? She was on a plane headed to the Caribbean from Iceland with Marley and Zane, but she couldn’t see Olivia through the damn phone. Just the fact Eve could anticipate Olivia’s thoughts pissed her off even more.

“I can’t sit here,” Olivia snapped as the nurse lowered her arm to the bed and moved to the sink to wash her hands. She wanted her clothes. Wanted out of this damn hospital gown. Wanted Landon. She threw back the covers. “You can’t keep me locked up here like a prisoner.”

“Olivia,” a male voice said from the doorway. A familiar, sexy, male voice. “Stop harassing the poor nurse.”

Olivia’s head shot to her right, and her breath caught when she saw Landon standing in the doorway.

He was dressed in clean jeans, a light-blue T-shirt that made his eyes sparkle, and he’d shaved, all the scruff from the last few days missing from his handsome, scarred face. Her heart—which had been set on perpetual throb—took a long, slow tumble.

“Landon.” She sat forward. Wanted to get up and run to him. Wanted to reach for him. But the damn IV in her arm stopped her from moving.

The nurse dried her hands on a paper towel and crossed to stand next to him. “She’s a handful, this one. Watch yourself.”

“I know,” he said quietly, not looking away from Olivia’s face.

The nurse shook her head and then disappeared into the hall, and for a heartbeat, Landon didn’t move. Just stared at her from across the room with the softest, sweetest eyes. Finally, he made his way around the side of her bed. “Hi.”

Hi? That was the best he could do?
Hi?
Oh, forget that.

She shoved the tray away and reached for the front of his shirt, tangling her fingers in the soft fabric as she yanked him down to her. “I’ve been going out of my mind waiting for you to call.”

He sat on the side of her bed and leaned down toward her as she pulled him in.
She smelled the fresh scents of soap and some fruity shampoo, making her think of him naked in the shower.
Making her wish she’d been there with him. “I’m sorry. It’s been crazy.”

“No, this—making me suffer—is crazy.”

She lifted her mouth to his. He immediately opened to her kiss and slid his tongue along hers, and with the first taste, all the fear and frustration leaked out of her. All that mattered was this. All she wanted was him.

“Miller,” Eve said in a gruff tone from the phone. “Get your tongue out of my sister’s mouth, or I’m going to have to add a second ass-kicking to my Miller to-do list.”

Landon pulled back, leaving them both breathless, and rested his forehead against Olivia’s. “Say goodbye to your sister,” he whispered.

Olivia grinned. “Goodbye, Eve.”

Landon reached toward the phone.

“Dammit, Miller. Don’t you dare hang up on m—”

He clicked End, then kissed Olivia again with those tempting, tantalizing lips of his. And when she was aching, when she was so wild for him she was ready to pull him on top of her, right here in this hospital bed, he drew back and smiled down at her.

He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Hair she knew was still matted and needed a good shampoo. “How do you feel?”

“Better now that you’re here.” Her fingers grazed his muscular chest. “What happened after I left?”

He leaned a hand against the mattress on the other side of her, and she loved that he was locking her in, that he was sitting close, that he wasn’t moving away. “The DIA showed because of Ryder.” He told her about Jake finding the matching photos, the FBI wanted list, and contacting Landon’s CO when he realized Crossler was hunting Dani, then the DIA swarming because they’d been looking for Albert Crossler’s research for years and because Dani’s mother was such a huge game player.