Young Revelations (Young Series) (29 page)

After that, time seems to slow down to a crawl. I hear a muffled crack and a puff of air from Marcus, and look over to find his eyes wide and his mouth open in surprise. Glancing down slightly I see the reason: he’s been shot. I turn back to the cabin in time to see Frank retreat from an upstairs window, gun in hand, and Marcus crumbles to the ground. It takes me a fraction of a second to come to the conclusion that I’m alone. He never called for backup and at this point it wouldn’t matter; I have no way of knowing exactly where we are to tell them and by the time they reach us it might be too late for both of us. The only reason I’m not backing away right know is the knowledge that my son is in that house and there is no way I’m leaving him alone now.

As I exit the trees, the front door opens, revealing Natalie. She stops dead at the sight of me and I see her pale. She glances over her shoulder and mutters something; another second and Leo has joined her. I’m less than a hundred feet from them now and all my focus is on Leo. He’s watching me expressionlessly.

“Did you come to help me or them?” I say to him. There’s no need to raise my voice out here.

Leo gestures for Natalie to go back inside. “Turn back, Matt,” he tells me. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Really?” I reply. “So you’re going to tell me you haven’t been behind all this shit from the beginning? Getting the Russians involved with the chip. The threat to Sam and Tyler. The plane. Next time you want to kill me, Leo, make sure I’m fucking dead.”

Leo glances over his shoulder, then steps off the porch, even as I’m cocking the gun in my hand. “Matt, I didn’t—”

“Save it,” I say disgustedly. “Just do me one fucking favor, Leo. Tell me why? What the fuck did I do to make you hate me so much? You know how easy it would have been to just walk away when you got out of the Marines? You were so fucked up you didn’t know whether it was night or day. I gave you a job, a place to live, and I never asked anything in return but your fucking loyalty to me. This is how you’re going to repay all that?”

His expression hardens suddenly. “You think I wanted to live in your fucking shadow all this time?” he barks. “Leo, go do this. Leo, go do that. You had everything you ever wanted and you didn’t appreciate a
Goddamn thing! You were an entitled, egotistical bastard and you didn’t deserve any of it!”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I shout back incredulously. “I worked my ass off for everything I have. If one of us didn’t deserve what he had, it was you.”

He shakes his head. “You just don’t get it, do you? This isn’t about money or the fucking company. It’s about appreciating what you’ve got when you’ve got it.”

“What don’t I appreciate, Leo?” I ask impatiently.

“Your family,” he replies immediately. “I would have killed to have what you had growing up. And I get why you pulled away from your dad, but fuck, Matt… You didn’t appreciate Lucy; you lost her. You didn’t appreciate Samantha; you lost her. You didn’t appreciate Natalie; you lost her. You’ve got a kid that fucking adores you and you’d rather keep messing
that
up.”

So what, this is some sort of after school special to teach me a lesson? I bite my tongue against words, realizing the kid that adores me is still inside that cabin. Or at least I hope he is. I suppose it’s possible Natalie and Frank took off with him again. “What is it you want?” I ask, trying to keep my tone even. “Leo, you don’t have to do this. You want me dead? Fine. Let Tyler go. He hasn’t done anything. He’s just a kid.”

Leo looks like he’s hesitating for a flash of a second, then Natalie returns and I get the first glimpse at my son all day. He’s on her hip looking incredibly confused, but thankfully unhurt. His head turns and finds me immediately, just like when he was a baby, and he beams at me. I try to smile back reassuringly, but that freezes on my face when I see the gun she’s holding at her other side, just hidden from Tyler. “This isn’t getting us anywhere, Matt,” she calls out. “You know what I want.”

I wrack my brain, scrambling for any idea of what she might be talking about. Only one thing comes to mind and it once again confirms just how right Samantha was about everything. “The chip,” I say.

Natalie grins in a way that used to turn me on in a second. Not so much anymore. “The chip,” she repeats. “Pretty ingenious of you, hiding it in your son’s toy watch, Matty. I tried to convince you before this entire mess went down to get rid of it, but of course, you knew best and if you could get something bigger and better, then by God, you were going to do it. I had you pegged from the very beginning—mourning the loss of your marriage, needing someone to take care of you… You didn’t really think a woman would actually put up with all that talk about your wife and son all the time, did you? It was pathetic. Oh, and Leo and I were sleeping together the whole time.”

My eyes dart to Leo and he flinches. I’m not sure why this revelation is bothering him when I’ve just found out he’s been conspiring against me for who knows how long. “Whatever you want,” I tell them. “You want the chip? It’s yours. Just let go of my son.”

“Oh sweetie, we’re way past wanting the chip,” she says with feigned remorse. “You really should have been on that plane, Matty. It would have saved everyone so much trouble. Samantha and Tyler could have lived peacefully and you’d never be able to put them in jeopardy again. Now we have to resort to this.” She looks at Tyler who is trying to pull away from her as she places a kiss on his forehead. I take a few steps forward, ready to kill two people who once meant so much to me. Natalie sees the movement and in a flash she raises her gun, pointing it directly at me. I stop in my tracks again and she smiles, apparently realizing the power she now has over me. Slowly she turns the gun to point at Tyler and my heart stops.

“Please,” I beg, dropping my gun and putting my hands in the air. “Natalie, please, put him down. If you want to shoot someone, shoot me. Please let him go.”

She cocks her head to the side and watches me for several seconds. I glance over to find Leo looking between us as though he’s trying to figure out who to side with. We all hear a noise from within the cabin and Natalie steps aside, the gun returning to point at me. That’s when I see Frank again, with his gun, pointed out the door. I close my eyes, hoping to whichever deity might be listening that once I’m gone, they’ll do the right thing and let Tyler go unharmed. Even if they just leave him here while they run; someone will find this place soon, especially with Marcus somewhere behind me. There’s a tracker in his badge that activates if his body temperature lowers significantly. Another invention of mine. I hear the crack of the gun, a strangled cry that may or may not have come from me, and wait for the pain. When I don’t feel a bullet hit me, I crack open one eye to figure out what’s going on and find Leo on the ground several feet in front of me, doubled up in pain. I stare in shock when I realize he’s just taken a bullet for me.

The shock is short-lived. Natalie has dropped Tyler to the ground when she realized she shot Leo rather than me, and Frank is looking as though he never saw that coming either. Guess that makes three of us… In another split second, Natalie raises her gun, points it directly at me again, but before she can pull the trigger, there is a gunshot behind me that hits her in the shoulder, then another to her leg. She drops in pain, her gun falling away from her. I look over my shoulder to see Marcus limping his way out of the trees, his gun still pointed towards the cabin.
At some point while my gaze is averted, Frank has abandoned Natalie and taken off into the woods.

“You okay?” he asks as he moves as quickly as he can past me.

I nod, wide-eyed. “You?”

“I just got shot,” he reminds me indignantly. “What do you think? Get your boy; I’ll find Marone.”

Not bothering to find out how he’s going to remain conscious long enough to do so with the amount of blood trickling from his chest area, I rush to where Tyler is curled up beside the stairs, his hands covering his ears to protect himself from the noise. I drop to my knees beside him and pull him into my arms, sobbing into his hair. “You’re okay,” I tell him over and over. “You’re safe.”

He latches onto me like he’ll never let go again.

“Matt…”

I turn and l
ook around to find out who whispered my name, finding Leo turned towards me, reaching out his arm. Part of me wants to ignore him, let him die from that bullet hole in his chest. Part of me is reminded he’s been my best friend since we were kids. We’ve been through hell and back together, and even though he’s apparently turned against me, my instinct is that he doesn’t deserve to die alone.

“Ty,” I whisper, trying to free myself from his grip. “I need you to stay here for a second, okay? I’m not going anywhere and I promise I will be right back. Just stay right here for a minute.”

He’s understandably reluctant about letting go of me, but eventually the grip he has around my neck loosens and I can sit him against the porch.

“Don’t move,” I tell him, glancing over at Natalie. I don’t know if she’s alive or dead, and I frankly don’t care, as long as she’s unconscious. Just to be safe, I grab the gun she dropped and tuck it into my belt before going to Leo. He’s reaching out for me with bloody hands and when I’m near enough, he grasps my shirt in his fist to pull me closer.

“What?” I ask him.

“I’m sorry, Matt,” he tells me in raspy voice. “I wanted to stop her, never wanted you to be hurt…”

I swallow hard, wiping away the tears in my eyes. “You should’ve told me, Leo,” I say roughly. “I don’t care that you were fucking her. Probably would have pissed me off, but I’d rather have had my best friend at my side than anything else. And you know it.”

He nods, his eyes growing a bit heavy. I move to prop him up, uncertain whether I’m trying to help him survive or speed up the process of his death to lessen his suffering. “I know. Take care of them, Matt. Don’t let them go again.”

I know he’s referring to Sam and Tyler. I glance over at my son who’s watching my every move as though he’s afraid that if he blinks, I’ll disappear. Now probably isn’t the time to tell Leo Samantha is leaving me, all because of what he and Natalie did. “Who edited the video?” I ask him quietly.

“Me,” he murmurs, his eyes closing. “Sent it. Didn’t want Sam to lose the baby… Sorry…” I nod. Whatever he’s been doing, I can’t say I expected him to be actively trying to kill my unborn child. “Frank…”

“Marcus is going after him,” I say quietly.

Leo shakes his head minutely, his eyes now fully closed. He takes a couple shallow breaths. “Watch out… Frank…”

“What about him?” I ask, knowing this is some sort of warning of things to come. He doesn’t answer and I realize he’s no longer breathing. I close my eyes, feeling mixed emotions. I knew someone was going to die tonight, but I had no idea it would be my best friend, nor did I know it would be because my best friend turned betrayer took a bullet for me. Despite his apparent bitterness of living in my shadow, his last act was to save my life.

I lie him down on the grass and return to Tyler, hardly registering that I’m covered with blood. The moment my son is in my arms, a swarm of FBI agents come out of the trees, and I tell them briefly what happened and where Marcus went. A couple of them lead Tyler and me back towards
the clearing where the fleet of SUVs is waiting for us. It takes half the walk to realize my son has fallen asleep on my shoulder. And even longer to realize it’s all over now. Well, aside from Frank, but I’ll deal with that later. I’m hesitant to go home, knowing the moment I do, the moment I hand Tyler back to Samantha, she’s leaving.

It’s nearly dawn and I’m once again being rushed through the doors of a hospital, though admittedly, this time is by my own steam. After several of the longest hours I’ve ever experienced, we finally received the call we’ve been waiting for—the one that told us Matthew was on his way home with Tyler. Claire had answered that call and put it on speakerphone for me to hear. I’d wanted to answer it myself, but between my fears of receiving bad news and the memory of my last disastrous conversation with Matthew, I couldn’t do it. He sounded more exhausted than I remember ever hearing and a little broken. He was vague on most of the details of whatever happened tonight, but told us Tyler is perfectly fine and was fast asleep in his arms. In a cracking voice, Matthew said he’d see us soon and hung up.

I still haven’t told Claire what happened before Matthew left, but the glances I’ve caught her shooting me out of the corner of my eyes tells me she at least suspects something isn’t right. But for once, I think she might actually let me tell her without her constant prodding. Or maybe she’s just taking pity on me due to my current predicament. Whatever it is, it’s the last thing I want to worry about, especially as I turn a corner and run right into Dr. Mark Reilly.

He looks down in surprise. “I was actually just coming out to meet you,” he tells me quietly, sending Claire a smile over my shoulder.

“What?” I ask, startled. “Why?”

“Well, I saw your brood come in not long ago and thought you’d prefer to go straight to your son rather than waste time trying to find him,” he says, turning and gesturing for us to walk with him.

“Is Tyler okay?” I ask as we walk.

Mark smiles reassuringly. “Tyler is perfectly fine. He’s got some bruises and scratches, but nothing lasting. He’s asleep right in here…”

I can’t even form the words to tell him thank you before Claire is shoving me into the room, muttering something about giving me time a
lone with my son. Once inside the room, I immediately spot my son curled up in the middle of a large hospital bed, fast asleep. There is no machinery in the room, which confirms he’s really not hurt and that’s enough to break the dam of tears that has been building for hours. I don’t hesitate to crawl into the bed with Tyler and pull him into my arms, and I’m not even the least bit surprised when he doesn’t stir. It’s been a very long day for him and I imagine he’ll be sleeping for several more hours. Crying silently into his hair, I think about the decisions I’ve made tonight. I’d meant what I said to Matthew. I can’t take this mess anymore. And the thought that it could have been avoided if he’d only listened to me about Natalie…

I think about Tyler and how attached he’s become to Matthew over the last several months; it won’t be easy for him to go back to not seeing Matthew every day. The two of them have bonded in ways I’ve only imagined over the last five years and it’s going to be rough on everybody. There is no lack of love towards Matthew. In fact, after tonight, I love him more than ever. He promised he would get Tyler back and he did, despite what happened between us before he left. I just think we need distance from one another right now. Anytime we’re together there’s passion and happiness until the brick wall rises up and we run right into it at full speed. When that happens, we shatter and it takes an act of congress for us to get back on track. I feel like we need to slow down, take several deep breaths, and figure out what it is we want. I know he wants to marry me and I want that too, but I want it for the right reasons rather than we think that’s how our lives should go. I want to be confident in our relationship and my role within it. I want him to trust me and open up to me. If we can’t reach those goals, I can’t see us having a successful marriage. And with two children in the mix, we have to be absolutely certain we’re doing what’s best for them.

It’s a little disconcerting how calmly I’m thinking right now. How calmly I was thinking when I removed my engagement ring and locket. If I can so calmly end my relationship with Matthew, the man I’ve always considered to be my one and only true love, what does that mean for us?

There’s a slight breeze behind me, my back facing the door, and it takes me a moment to lift my head through my own exhaustion to look over my shoulder. My heart skips a beat when I see Matthew leaning against the wall just inside the room, watching us longingly. As carefully as I can manage, I place Tyler back onto the mattress, slip off the bed, and cross the room to wrap my arms around Matthew. He exhales a surprised breath before tentatively putting his arms around me. I don’t know how long we stand like that, and I couldn’t care less. Whatever will happen in the next several weeks will happen regardless, but ri
ght now, we both need this. Every time he breathes, I feel some of the tension leave his body, and each time he lets out a shuddering breath, he holds me a little tighter.

After several minutes, I pull back slightly and feel disappointment when his hold loosens. Looking up into his eyes, I’ve never seen anyone look so defeated and resigned and sad. His eyes are dull as though he’s just completely given up on everything. He’s never looked at me like that and I can’t deny it’s a little frightening. I do the only thing that makes sense: my hands slide up his chest, around his neck, and I stand on tiptoe to press my lips to his softly. Neither of us deepens the kiss like we’d normally do and as my feet lower back to the floor, I whisper, “Thank you for bringing him home.”

He only nods, his eyes barely darting over my shoulder to see Tyler in bed before coming back to me. I have no idea what is going on in his mind right now, but his eyes are starting to unsettle me, so my gaze drifts down to the rest of him, checking for injuries, and my heart stops cold when I reach his shirt, finding it covered in blood.

“Matt,” I breathe, “you’re hurt.”

His brow furrows slightly as he looks down to confirm my statement. He shakes his head. “It’s not mine,” he whispers, his voice hoarse.

I look up at him in confusion, trying to figure out how that could even be possible with the amount of blood all over him. “Who…” I begin.

Eyes hardening, Matthew swallows roughly, not looking away from me. “Leo,” he says shortly, then reaches for me as I stumble backwards suddenly.

“What?” I breathe. He nods once, keeping me steady on my feet. “Is he…?” I can’t even finish the sentence.

“Dead,” he bites out.

Sadness fills me at the thought. I can imagine Matthew holding his best friend in his arms as Leo took his last few breaths. “Matt, I’m so sorry,” I tell him, pressing against him again.

“There’s a lot I need to tell you, Sam,” he whispers, resting his cheek against my hair. “But I’m fucking exhausted. Can we talk in the morning? Please?”

With the way his voice cracks, I know better than to push him right now. I nod. “Of course.”

“Thank you.”

When we eventually part, Matthew turns and reaches for a bag of what seems to be clothing. I don’t know where it came from, but he hands me a pair of Tyler’s pajamas before heading into the bathroom to change himself. That’s a bit of a surprise. He’s never been shy about disrobing around me. I can only imagine the night has taken a very hard toll on him and I wish I knew how to make him feel better.

I focus on getting Tyler out of his dirty clothes and eye the very minor injuries—a few new bruises on his legs that I know weren’t caused by his usual activities and some scratches on his back that look disturbingly like fingernails. I swallow hard against the bile rising up at the thought of who did this to him. A thought that when Leo died, hopefully he took Natalie with him crosses my mind, and if not, I’d be happy to rectify that. Just as I get Tyler settled into bed and tuck the blankets around him, Matthew exits the bathroom, stopping short and looking around the room with a furrowed brow as though he’s confused by something. He then turns towards me, looking uncertain.

“Would it be alright if I slept here tonight?” he asks awkwardly. “I just want to be nearby…”

My heart breaks a little at his words. “Of course you can sleep here,” I reply. “Should we call for a cot?”

He shakes his head, walking over to a pair of armchairs and pulling them closer together, then retrieving a blanket and pillow from a little closet in the room. I watch him arrange himself, wondering how he could possibly sleep comfortably like that; I then realize he has no intention of sleeping. He’s set himself up so he has a perfect view of both Tyler and me, and the door. He’s putting himself on guard.

Uncertain what else to do, I climb back into bed with Tyler under Matthew’s watchful eyes and turn off the room lights with the push of a button. Exhausted as I am, though, I can’t sleep. I don’t know what happened tonight and I know he said he wanted to wait until morning to explain, but my mind is in overdrive as it begins coming up with its own conclusions. I try to focus on the fact that my son is in my arms again and that he’s perfectly safe now. I then wonder how I didn’t end up here in the hospital on my own after last night. Last time all it took was seeing my fiancé screwing his ex-girlfriend on a video and I nearly lost our baby. Maybe it’s because of the sedative Claire gave me early on, but while I spent my night almost on the verge of pure panic, I never felt that I might be in danger of miscarrying.

My eyes begin to adjust and I can just make out the form of Matthew sitting in his chair, unmoving. I realize it’s because I knew he wouldn’t rest until he brought our son home to me that I didn’t end up in the hospital tonight. He made me a promise, even after I told him I was leaving, he would get Tyler back and I had no doubt in my mind he would follow through. Tonight has cost him so much—his relationship, his best friend, whatever else went on—and he’s still trying to remain the strong one, probably for my benefit. He’ll remain that way until I’m out of sight, then he’ll have his breakdown. And I can’t deny that it hurts knowing he won’t want me to be there for him, but that’s just how he is. He reacted the same way when Tyler was first born and we didn’t know whether he’d ever come home with us. There were days I’d walk past the nursery after a day spent at the hospital to find him crouched on the floor with
his shoulders shaking. The one time I tried to comfort him, he downplayed it, telling me he was just tired.

“Matt?” I whisper through the darkness, half-hoping he hasn’t heard me so we can have a few peaceful hours.

“Yes?” he whispers back a few moments later.

I sigh, turning so I can see him a little better. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but will you tell me what happened to Leo?”

When he doesn’t respond for several minutes, I think I’ve pushed my luck with him a little too far. I should have just let it be… His chair creaks as he moves around. He sighs. “Leo is the leak I’ve been looking for all these months,” he says quietly. So quietly that I know I can’t have heard him right. I recall the night Claire’s house was broken into and how Matthew showed up hours later. He told me about his suspicions that someone who was close to him might have betrayed him. If he’d suggested Leo then, I would have told him he was insane, that Leo wouldn’t have done that to him. “He’s been involved from the very beginning and I looked right past him every time.” I can hear the dull sound of his fist thumping the arm of the chair with every word he speaks. “I’m still working out the details, but hindsight is 20/20, right? He showed up at the cabin where Tyler was right around the same time as Marcus and I did. I thought he was there for the same reason we were—to get Tyler back. I almost wish someone had taken a picture of my face when that fucking door opened and Natalie exited and greeted Leo with a hug.”

My confusion mounts. “What…?” I ask.

He snorts humorlessly. “Yeah,” he says bitterly. “Apparently he and Natalie had a thing. I suspected that for a while and confronted Leo on it last week, but that was before I knew what I know now. The idea I got was she went straight from me to him, and I was clueless. It’s my understanding that it was going on even before she and I broke up.”

I have no words to respond to this. He spent so long blinding himself to these things that when it all comes to a head it’s as much a surprise to him as everyone else. And I can’t even imagine how these revelations are affecting him.

“You know the worst part about all this?” he asks in a whisper. He doesn’t wait for me to respond before going on. “Finding out that the people I trusted with everything in my life without a second thought have been filling my head with lies. For
years
. I trusted people I should have kept as far from me as possible, while the people I
should have
trusted with every fiber of my being…” He trails off, but I know what he’s trying to say.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I say, realizing how lame it sounds and how he’s going to react to my words.

He lets out a short huff of breath. “I appreciate the attempt to make me feel better, Sam,” he says wryly, sounding like himself for the first time since I got here, “but this entire mess is my fault in some way. Whether it was getting involved with Natalie or introducing her to Leo or turning a blind eye to some of the things people around me do, it’s my fault. And if something had happened to Tyler tonight that damn sure would have been my fault. As it is, I’m going to have a difficult time forgiving myself for this…” He sighs again. “I fucked up, Samantha, plain and simple. And now I have to live with the repercussions.”

We’re silent for several minutes and I think he might have managed to fall asleep. I’m silently crying, making no move to wipe my tears, and wondering how he’s going to come back from this. In one evening, his world is falling apart—he hasn’t even asked if Tyler and I will be staying or leaving; friends he’s trusted implicitly, even over my word, have shown their true colors; his best friend is dead. Even though I still believe this might have been avoided if he’d listened to me about Natalie, I don’t blame him for the situation. Matthew doesn’t easily trust on principle, but when he does trust someone and he trusts them completely, that person can do no wrong. I know Leo was in that circle and at one point, so was I; for him to realize suddenly that everything he thought and trusted has been a lie is probably a very painful shock to his system. It’ll be a miracle if he ever trusts another person in his lifetime.