Into the Night(89)

Tucker gave a low whistle. “Wesley went to Jonah seeking justice for his sister. Looks like he got a whole lot more than he bargained for.”

“I—I need to see Bowen,” Macey whispered. “I need him.”

Samantha nodded curtly. “We’ve got this scene.” She motioned to the glaring EMT. “Take her to the hospital.”

“About time,” the woman muttered.

They loaded Macey into the ambulance and right before those doors closed—

“Wait!” Macey called.

She saw Samantha and Tucker turn back to her. “There’s someone else involved,” she managed. “Not just Wesley...something else...someone else...”

Samantha and Tucker shared a dark look.

The doors closed.





CHAPTER TWENTY

BOWEN FELT LIKE HELL. Absolute freaking hell. He was lying in the hospital bed, bandages were all over him, and the light coming through the blinds fell right into his eyes.

And Macey isn’t here. Where is Macey?

He’d woken in that room, and his last memory had been of Macey’s fingers closing around his as she jerked the gun toward Jonah.

Had they shot the other agent? Had the bullet found its target?

Where. Is. Macey?

He grabbed for the side of the bed and began to haul himself up. Pain lanced through him, but he didn’t care. There was an IV line pumping into his vein, but he grabbed for it—

“Are you trying to undo all the hard work that the doctors here did? That I did on that godforsaken mountain?”

Macey.

His head whipped to the right. She was standing there, bruises on her beautiful skin, a bandage on her cheek and a faint smile on her face.

He could only stare at her.

“Bowen?” Her smile slipped away as she hurried to him.

He grabbed her; the IV burned, and he didn’t give a fuck. He pulled Macey closer, wobbling there on the edge of the bed.

“No, Bowen, you don’t even want to know how many stitches you have!” The beep of machines was wild around him. “Stop!” Gently, she pushed him back. “You have to take it easy.”

He didn’t want easy. He didn’t want anything but her. “Couldn’t...remember what happened.”

Her eyes widened. Such perfect eyes. Eyes he could stare into forever. “We shot Jonah.”

Okay, so they had shot him.

“Then you almost died.” Her lips pressed together and pain flashed on her face. “And I have never, ever been so scared in my life.” She eased him back onto the bed. “Not even when I thought Daniel Haddox was taking my life.” She started to back away.

But his hand flew out and curled around her wrist. “Thought...Jonah was going to...kill you.”

“I don’t believe that was ever his intention.” Her lashes swept down. “He was very twisted up. He managed to get past us all, for so long. Managed to work at the FBI. I’d sworn I wouldn’t be fooled again—”

Bowen brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers.

“I wasn’t going to let him get away with what he’d done.” She stared into his eyes. “I wasn’t letting you die on that mountain.”

His Macey was safe. They’d both made it.

“You were in surgery for over six hours.” Her left hand rose and pressed to his chest. “That chunk of metal missed your heart.”

“Because you already had it.”

Her head tilted. “Bowen...”

“I know we won’t be together in the field anymore.” His words rushed out. His throat was sore, his voice a bit raspy—he figured they’d had some tube shoved down his throat during surgery—but he had to keep talking. “If we can’t be partners there...”

She was shaking her head.

“Then I want us to be partners...I want us to be partners in life.” He was screwing this up. Still sick from surgery, weak, but the words needed to be said. He’d come too close to losing the one thing that mattered most to him.

Macey.

She wasn’t shaking her head any longer.

“Will you marry me, Macey?” He could barely breathe.

“This isn’t some delirious proposal that you won’t remember later, after your pain meds wear off?”

“Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

Fuck, yeah! He yanked her closer and his mouth pressed to hers. He didn’t care about the pain he felt because he had Macey in his arms. Macey in his life, and she’d just promised him forever.

No pain could ever compete with that.

“I love you, Bowen,” Macey whispered against his lips.

He knew they’d come through the darkness. Knew that they’d survived. And now...now he had Macey.

He would fight like hell to always keep her at his side.

As his friend, as his partner, as the woman he loved more than any-fucking-thing.

His Macey.

And he held her even tighter.

*

DR. AMELIA LANG hurried back to her motel room. She’d just heard on the radio that FBI Agent Jonah Loxley had been killed—and that the man was the suspected perpetrator in several homicides.

Wesley Kaiser was wanted by authorities.

Wesley... Carlisle.