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Sh
e had saved Mark, and she had saved herself. And Alex hadn’t been there when she needed him.
He’d never forget that.
Outside the house they heard the scream of tires, the slam of doors, a siren blasting through the night.
Hell, this was happening too damned often in Somerset. Fucking stalkers, homegrown terrorists, and insane citizens.
“Fuck. ” Alex looked to where Tyrell was checking on Hoyt.
Augusta had shot her son in the chest, though not directly through the heart. Alex hoped one of those sirens was an ambulance.
“I tried to stop her. ” Hoyt’s muffled sob was painful to hear. “She went crazy when Dad died. As long as she was medded up . . . ” He coughed. The sound wasn’t pleasant. “As long as she stayed on the pills, she was okay. ”
“Rest, son,” Tyrell told him gently. “Help is coming. ”
“I told her about the stairs at the restaurant, in the banquet room,” he wheezed. “Then she started slipping in there when no one was looking. When she used the bombs, I knew. I couldn’t stop her. I should have said something. ”
“Hoyt, hang on,” Tyrell growled. “You have to hang on for us, son. We need to know what happened. ”
“Nothing can help. Journal. My journal has it all,” Hoyt whispered and coughed again. The rattle in his breathing had Alex cursing. He moved to where Tyrell was trying to stabilize him, and watched as Hoyt stared back at him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. A second later, Hoyt Napier took his last breath. The young man’s face lost its somber, worried expression. It filled with a sense of peace as Alex hunkered down beside him and glanced at Tyrell.
The other man’s face was heavy, lined.
“This is why I wanted out,” Tyrell whispered heavily. “Kids dying in my arms. Fucking crazies filling the goddamned world. ” Anger colored his voice. “This is why we left, Alex. ”
Alex gripped the other man’s shoulder before rising and making room for Mark. The other two men didn’t touch. They didn’t embrace or cry. But the bond between them was so damned strong it was almost humbling. And for a second, just a second, Tyrell let his head rest against Mark’s hard shoulder as they stared at Hoyt.
As raised voices and the creak of the cellar door were heard, they straightened and rose to their feet, tucking their weapons out of sight. State police officers were the first to rush into the cellar, followed by a harried Timothy. Behind him were the Mackays and the sheriff.
Timothy moved straight to Janey and stared down at her, his expression creasing in concern, eyes twitching as his lips thinned and a sense of fear filled him. Alex had never seen Timothy frightened.
“Janey!” Natches was pushing through, his expression tormented, his green eyes dark with rage and worry as Dawg, Rowdy, and Ray followed behind.
Alex lifted her from the couch. “She’s drugged,” he told them, refusing to give her to Natches as he tried to take her from Alex’s hold. “Is the ambulance outside?”
“This way, Major. ” The first officer waved him back to the cellar doors. “Agent Cranston filled us in on the way. We have an ambulance waiting on the street. ”
An ambulance, several more cruisers, and every damned citizen on at least four city blocks were crowding the area now.
As he carried Janey to the waiting ambulance, he wondered if there was any damned way to get her to close that fucking restaurant down long enough for him to get his head back on straight.
He’d nearly lost her. Hell had opened up in his mind when he’d heard her being taken and realized he wasn’t close enough to protect her, that he might not be able to get to her in time.
The communications device she had taken with her had been erratic, staticky, making it hard to determine where she was. But she had kept her head. She’d used the device the best way she knew how. He was going to have to teach her the proper way.
As the EMTs moved aside to allow him to lay her on the gurney, he detailed the possible injuries and handed them the dart he had picked up off the truck seat earlier. He touched her hair, kissed her brow, then pressed his head beside hers as he fought the fear tearing through him, even now.
He had promised to keep her safe. Sworn it. And still, she had nearly died. He had nearly let her be taken from him because he hadn’t stayed with her. Because he had let someone else watch over her.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Natches growled behind him.
Alex lifted his head as an IV was being attached to Janey’s arm and the medics prepped her for transportation to the hospital.
“I left her,” Alex whispered, shaking his head.
“With a damned able soldier,” Natches argued back, his hair mussed, his eyes still wild. “She’s alive, dammit. And when she wakes up, she’s not going to need a guilt-ridden lover. And she better fucking have a fiancé, not some son of a bitch ready to walk out on her. ”
