“He was definitely pretending. I’m an only child, and I had no siblings when I was placed in foster care. Did you run the number of the caller?”
She had to shake her head. Rayanne had no intention of telling him that she’d kind of fallen apart after hearing he was dead. Investigating the caller had been the last thing on her mind.
It wasn’t now.
Once she had this other issue of the hit resolved, she’d look into a fake foster brother making an equally fake death notification.
She made the mistake of looking at Blue. Her eyes meeting his. And that punch came, one that brought the memories flooding back again. For a few bad seconds, anyway. Thankfully, her phone rang, giving her mind something better to do than remember intimate things she should forget.
“Seth,” she answered after seeing her stepbrother’s name on the screen. “I need some good news.”
“Sorry. Won’t get it from me. How’s Blue?” But it sounded more like something he should say rather than something he wanted to know. It was one of the reasons she loved Seth. He wasn’t a natural-born hugger, but if he thought it’d help her, he’d do hugs.
And walk through fire for her.
“Blue’s alive,” he said, obviously able to hear Seth’s question. Blue grumbled something else that she didn’t catch, and he shuffled his way back to the bed, dragging the IV pole along with him.
The back of his gown was wide open, giving her a much-too-good view of his naked butt, which on a scale of one to ten was a forty-six. Rayanne did some grumbling of her own and looked away.
“What’s the not-so-good news, then?” Rayanne asked Seth.
“Just got off the phone with Rex Gandy. And no, he didn’t confess to hiring those gunmen who attacked Blue and you. In fact, he claims he hasn’t seen them in months.”
That seemed to be going around. “Please tell me you’re still bringing him in for questioning.”
“Yes and no. Gandy will be coming in, but I can’t question him. The ATF has called dibs on this.”
Rayanne tried not to groan too loud. She hadn’t expected to be allowed to do the questioning, but she’d wanted Seth in on the interview. Or a second choice would have been her brother Cooper. They weren’t exactly on the same side when it came to their mother’s trial, but Cooper was a decent sheriff. And better yet, both Seth and he would have told her exactly what Gandy had or hadn’t said.
But the ATF was a different matter.
“I’m guessing Caleb Wiggs will run the interview?” she asked.
“I’m sure he’d like that, but Gandy’s already objecting.”
“Why? They have some kind of history together?”
“Gandy won’t say. He just told me I’d be a bloomin’ fool to trust Caleb. And before you ask me, I’m already on it. I’ll check out the connection between the two men and see if there’s any reason for me not to trust a fellow Justice Department agent.”
Good. Because she’d already been blindsided enough and didn’t want to go another round with a man she couldn’t trust. “If you can, go ahead and run another check on Blue’s missing friend, Woody Janson.”
Seth stayed quiet a moment. “You think he has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Rayanne admitted.
She heard Seth’s heavy sigh. “Does Blue know about the baby?”
“He knows.”
“And what the heck is he going to do about it?” Seth snapped.
“Absolutely nothing, because I’m not going to let him do anything.”
Again, it seemed as if Blue had filled in the blanks about the conversation, because he glared at her in a stubborn way that only he and a mule could have managed.
“Hold a sec,” Seth suddenly said, and the line went silent. Probably because he’d had to take another call.
Maybe one that would give them good news.
Any news, she amended.
She watched as Blue fumbled to get back in the bed. Another view of his backside. But it didn’t hold her attention, because she saw the sweat pop out on his forehead, and he was clenching his teeth.
Clearly in pain.
Rayanne reached for the door to see if Doc Howland was still hanging around so he could give Blue another dose of meds. But reaching for the door was as far as she got.
“We have a problem,” Seth blurted out when he came back on the line. “You have your gun?”
That didn’t help steady her nerves, and they were already on edge just hearing the tone of Seth’s voice.
“Yes. Why?” Rayanne asked her brother.
“Because I just got a call. A guy matching the description of the missing gunman was spotted on the traffic camera just a block from the hospital. He’s not alone, and he’s headed your way.”
Before Rayanne even said a word, Blue knew something else had gone wrong.
He didn’t waste his energy on another groan or more profanity. He’d already been doing way too much of that, and he was already figuring this wasn’t something a groan or cursing could fix.
“The guy who tried to kill you is less than a block away from the parking lot,” she explained, helping him from the bed. “Backup’s on the way, but it might not get here in time.”
Yeah, he’d been right about that something gone wrong.
What he needed was a gun so he could try to protect Rayanne. And the baby. Of course, she wouldn’t exactly appreciate any efforts from him to protect her, but she was going to get those efforts whether she wanted them or not.
Well, maybe.
His third attempt to stand wasn’t any easier than his first two had been. Blue had to fight to push away the pain, but he finally got to his feet. In the same motion, he yanked the IV needle from his arm.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rayanne snarled.
“We’re getting out of here. I figured that was pretty obvious.”
Judging from the way her eyes widened, then narrowed, that wasn’t so obvious after all, and it clearly wasn’t the solution she’d had in mind. “We can hide in the bathroom.”
“Bullets can go through the door, and I’d rather not be trapped in a small room with someone gunning for me.”
Even if he couldn’t remember who exactly wanted him dead or why. But he seriously doubted these thugs were coming here to fill in his memory gaps or have a conversation with him. Whatever he’d done to rile them, it was serious enough for them to send out a death squad. A squad that, according to the hit order, he was supposedly a part of.
He wasn’t.
He hoped.
Even without the memories to prove it, Blue knew in his gut there was no way he would kill Rayanne. Agreeing to do it and making someone else believe it, however, was a different story. He could have done that for some reason that he hoped like the devil would become clear to him soon.
“My brother will be here in a few minutes,” she reminded him. “And there’s a deputy outside.”
That