Rio’s face became expressionless. “Your brother knows you’re safe. Garrett will handle reporting in. We work for Garrett but this is his mission. He took the assignment from Marcus.”
She nodded. “It’s enough that he knows. Garrett will handle it.”
“Can you try to sleep?” Rio asked gently. “You can stretch out and put my pack against the door to lay your head on.”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m so exhausted and yet I feel like I’ll never sleep again.”
“Let me give you something,” he said. “It’ll relax you and allow you to rest. It’ll alleviate some of the anxiety you’re feeling.”
She hesitated and he pressed. “You need the rest, Sarah. You’re dead on your feet and when Garrett wakes up and sees you like this, he’s going to wig out, and then we’ll have no hope of getting him the care he needs. He’ll be too worried about you.”
“That was dirty,” she said with a scowl.
“Thank you, ma’am. I do my best.”
“Oh all right,” she conceded.
“Pull your sleeve up,” he directed as he dug back into the pack.
She complied and he uncapped a prefilled syringe. She looked doubtfully at it as he swabbed an area of her skin with alcohol. Then before she could question, he plunged the needle into her arm. She gasped and then rubbed when he withdrew.
“Sorry,” he said.
“That seemed like an awful lot of medicine for something that’s just supposed to bring me down and relax me a bit.”
“Oh it’ll knock you on your ass for several hours,” he said cheerfully.
Already the world was going hazy around her and her eyelids grew heavy. “When I wake up, I’m going to kick your ass,” she slurred.
Rio leaned her toward the window and tucked his pack underneath her head. He gave her a gentle smile. “Good night, Sarah.”
SAM paced the tarmac with restless energy while Donovan and Ethan leaned against the door of the Kelly jet. Sam checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes and swore under his breath.
“Where are they?” he demanded. “What the hell’s taking them so long? I hope they didn’t run into trouble.”
“We’d know if they did,” Donovan said. “Rio can handle it. They’ll be here.”
Ethan remained silent, his expression tense. “Garrett called home. He knew the women would be upset. If he was thinking of Mom and Rachel and Sophie, he’s fine.”
The distant sound of a helicopter quieted the conversation. The hum grew louder until the chopper burst over the dense area of trees. A few minutes later, the chopper touched down several feet away from where the jet was parked and Rio hopped out of the cockpit.
Sam started over, his brothers on his heels. Sam waited for the engine noise to die before addressing his team leader.
“What the hell happened? Where’s Garrett?”
“He needs medical,” Rio said. “There’s a clinic about thirty miles out. It’s safe.”
“That’s stupid,” Ethan cut in. “We can get him on the jet and take him home to a hospital there.”
Rio shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“You want to explain why?” Donovan asked.
A dilapidated old van creaked onto the tarmac and drove noisily over to where the chopper had landed. Rio motioned to Terrence, who ducked into the helicopter and came out a moment later, a woman curled into his arms. He carried her toward the van while Sam and his brothers watched in confusion.
“Is that Sarah?” Donovan asked. “Was she hurt too?”
Rio shook his head. “Look it’s a long story and one I’d love to tell you, but right now we need to get Garrett out of here.”
Sam glanced at his brothers and then nodded. They hurried over to the helicopter to see Garrett lying on a makeshift stretcher.
“I can damn well walk,” Garrett growled at Browning who had the misfortune of sitting next to Garrett’s head.
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t look like it to me,” Sam drawled. Even though he purposely needled his brother, the relief at seeing him lying there bitching as usual nearly staggered him. He had to grip the doorway to steady himself.
“Goddamn it, Garrett, you scared the shit out of us,” Donovan cursed.
Garrett picked his head up and saw his three brothers crowded into the doorway of the chopper. “Well, son of a bitch.”
Ethan grinned back at him. “You look like a pussy.”
Garrett rose up to flip Ethan the bird but groaned as the motion rippled pain across his midsection. Yet something else his brothers would give him hell over. He grinned as he stared at the roof of the chopper. Some things never changed, and he hoped to hell they never did.
“One of you assholes help me sit up. I can walk out of here, damn it. I don’t need a goddamn stretcher.”
Ethan chuckled but reached his hand out for Garrett to grasp. Donovan shouldered in and reached for Garrett’s other. His muscles protested, but he was gratified to be able to get out of the helicopter without collapsing.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, he looked around, taking in the surroundings “Where is Sarah?”
“Relax. Terrence took her to the van. I gave her an injection to make her sleep. She was wound tighter than a spring,” Rio said.
Garrett relaxed and then took a good look at the van in question. “Well, hell, Rio. Is this what you call a first-class ride?”
Rio chuckled. “It’s all about blending in. Can’t have a limo showing up at some out-of-the-way clinic.”
“We have the jet here,” Sam said with a frown. “You should damn well let us take you home. You can’t continue this job in your condition.”
Garrett ignored him and started toward the van. Ethan followed and grasped Garrett’s arm to steady him. He was grateful for his brother’s help, not that he’d admit it. The last thing he wanted was to face plant on the runway. He wouldn’t live down that humiliation ever.
“Goddamn it, Garrett,” Sam said in resignation. “I swear if you didn’t already look like you’ve been rode hard and hung up wet, I’d kick your ass.”
Garrett turned and shot a cocky grin over his shoulder. “You can try, big brother. You can try.”
Donovan shook his head and followed the procession over to the van.
Garrett stuck his head inside to see Sarah curled onto the floor of the van. There were only two seats in front and the entire back was empty. She was out cold and her features were drawn into a tight grimace, but at least she was resting. The past few days had been hard on her, and she’d already been through enough.
He hesitated before entering the van and turned to face his brothers. “I’ll make this quick. We need to get out of sight. I’m not going home with you.” He held up his hand to stop the protest that Sam was already preparing to launch. “You three get your asses home. Make sure the women aren’t worried. Tell them whatever you need in order to make them feel better. I don’t want the family involved with this. Think about the danger we’d be bringing to our front door. Lattimer is a wild card. The whole point of this job was to flush him out. I’m not going to do that in any way that puts our family at risk, and you damn well know I’m right.”
“My suggestion was to leave Rio with Sarah. Let his team take over the job. You need to get your ass home and be in a real hospital,” Sam said.
“And I’m telling you right now, I’m not leaving Sarah.”
He stared his brothers down. He saw Donovan shake his head and blow out his breath in resignation. Donovan knew. He already had a damn good idea that Garrett was in way over his head with the woman.
“There is still a threat to Sarah, one I haven’t identified. And do you think for one minute that if we all go home, Resnick won’t be all over us in a minute? Hell, he’s probably on his way here right now. He’s a complication I don’t need.”