“I know. I know.” All I could do was hold her at this point, trying to keep her from continuing to watch.

  But I did.

  It was necessary.

  I would take what Jack said seriously. My gut told me whatever was going on wasn’t over.

  Not by a long shot.

  A formal state affair.

  I hated them almost as much as I did funerals. Jasmine had insisted we return to DC, which I understood but I was still concerned even after a few days had passed. In the days since, she’d retreated back into a shell, unable to discuss or convey her feelings.

  Since then, she hadn’t shed a tear either.

  I’d given her space while striving to continue protecting her, the news on what had occurred no more helpful than it had been the day after the shooting.

  Jack and his team as well as Valerio were in the SUV located behind the motorcade. Justin Sinclair’s body had finally been released, allowing his coffin to return to his home country for burial.

  Jasmine had opted to stay with her mother, allowing us only fleeting time to spend together. While I didn’t like it, what the hell was I supposed to say? She was allowed to grieve and care for her shattered mother.

  At least Jade’s physical injuries would heal quickly enough, but the emotional scars were something else altogether. The once vibrant woman was merely a shell of herself.

  “I wish there was something I could offer in the way of information,” Valerio said as the various vehicles pulled into the private airstrip. Justin’s body would be given a ceremonial send off, members of Congress and the vice president present.

  However, it had been deemed too dangerous for the president to attend. Given no one knew who was responsible, the conspiracy theories had gone wild.

  Jack and his team had remained diligent, doing their best to track down Santini, who’d been safely tucked away in his estate in Australia. Of course, that didn’t mean he hadn’t ordered the hits, which had left eight powerful men dead. The heinous acts were considered one of the worst events in DC’s history.

  But as I’d heard more than once, there were still no leads, which had put every member of law enforcement into a significant panic. I couldn’t blame them, but everything within the city limits was in full lockdown mode, which didn’t bode well for so many of the businesses.

  Every foreign dignitary who’d been on camera had expressed terror. Somehow, I doubted their lives were in jeopardy, but I certainly couldn’t provide my own theories.

  “You can tell me if you’ve found anything out via your contacts,” I told him. Their limo was just now pulling up thirty or so yards from the secure plane, our driver preparing to stop as well. I’d been surprised we’d been given clearance, but we were pretty darn persuasive when we wanted to be.

  “I wish I could provide you with something but no one is talking.” Valerio seemed tired and stressed. He’d finally gone into detail about the threats our company and family had received, although they’d amazingly stopped coming on the day the hits had been made.

  I was hoping clues could be found by deciphering them one at a time, but none of them seemed to be connected to the other. Maybe the fucker just wanted us on edge after all, concentrating on potential problems instead of paying any attention to the secret book found.

  Right now, I wasn’t in the mood to play a guessing game, for the rest of the night at least. With her mother heading back to Australia, I needed time to spend with Jasmine. She would feel alone, more frightened than before.

  At least she was staying in the US, but I had a feeling part of that was based on wanting to find out who her father’s killer was. I’d need to watch her carefully or she was likely to do something drastic.

  “Yeah, as I suspected. Tomorrow, we start figuring this shit out.”

  I noticed Valerio and Jack studying each other. Yeah, maybe they had every right to think I was nuts. If the cops couldn’t figure out the person responsible, how the hell was I supposed to? Didn’t matter. I was more determined than ever.

  When the FBI agents stepped out given their official duties, assisting both Jasmine and Jade onto the concrete, I was on the tarmac in a split second.

  Within seconds, all four men flanked my side. I knew that I needed to keep my distance until all the pomp and circumstance duties were over. However, all five of us were armed and prepared in case of an attack. Of course the person responsible would be a complete idiot to plan anything at this location. It was heavily armed, the Marines and Secret Service assigned prepared to issue rounds of fire without hesitation.

  Jasmine stood with her mother, darting glances in my direction every minute or so. She was so different yet stronger somehow after the ordeal. Yet I sensed the significant impact would change her forever. How so remained to be seen.

  As his funeral vehicle’s back door was slowly opened, still following every protocol, I wasn’t entirely certain how I felt. When the casket was removed, the carved wooden object draped in the Australian flag, Jade began to sob all over again.

  “Mrs. Sinclair couldn’t provide any details of who attacked them?” Valerio asked, trying to keep his reverence for the moment.

  “No. Whoever broke in threw bags over their heads so she saw nothing. No one spoke either, which tells me whoever it was had an accent.”

  “Interesting,” Jack said from beside me.

  “Yeah, but not earth shattering.” We stood in silence for a couple of minutes as the casket was lowered onto an official gurney, several men guiding it toward the back of the plane. “I hate this shit.”

  Justin’s casket was wheeled slowly toward it, everyone standing in reverence. Jade remained hysterical while Jasmine had barely reacted, keeping her head face forward instead of her eyes following the casket’s movement. I suspected much of the guilt she was feeling had to do with her telling her father she’d hated him.

  Did any child truly ever hate their parents? Some should but the bond was usually tight, the need to please there from the beginning. Hell, I’d even felt the same way. Still, seeing her face in so much pain was terrible. Not being able to provide the comfort she needed was worse.

  I couldn’t take it any longer, turning around to face the others. “We need to get to the bottom of this.”

  “For your sake or for hers?” Jack asked.

  “Both. I think you were right in saying this still isn’t over yet, even if we don’t know what the hell is going on.” I was doing my best not to raise my voice.

  “One way or the other, we’ll figure it out.” My brother seemed so sure. He’d clapped me on the shoulder, even squeezing as he used to do when we were younger. “I know how much you care about her.”

  “I do, more than I believed possible.” We were all facing the other way now, Jack and his team using the excuse of keeping a close eye on the perimeter. “She’s very special, a light to my darkness.”

  “Yet you wanted to hunt down and kill her father yourself,” he said, almost in jest but I knew he was doing nothing more than reminding me of what I’d said.

  “Yeah, I’d wanted Justin dead. I’d planned it in my head but for an entirely different reason. I would have killed him given the opportunity.” There was another moment where the electricity that shot through me wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

  Valerio caught my stiffness and glanced over his shoulder. “Shit.” Almost immediately, he backed away, causing the others to do so.

  I turned around, uncertain what to expect.

  Although I should have.

  She cracked her palm across my face, her look of hatred matching her expression of indignation. “You fucking asshole. You acted as if you cared about me, treating me like a princess after luring me to your island. All the while, you were planning my father’s murder?”

  “That’s not it, Jasmine.” I cupped the side of my face, feeling the burn as I deserved.

  “Then what is it? I mean come on. You get me to sleep with you, to trust you telling you private things. Did you use those against me because you were planning all along to kill him?” She took a long stride backward.

  When I took one closer, she threw out her hand. “Jasmine. We should talk.”

  “You know, I don’t think we have a single thing to talk about and if you come closer, I’ll make certain you’re arrested.”

  “He hurt you.” What the hell was I trying to accomplish by reminding her of that? I was a calculating man. Shit didn’t just flow from my mouth.

  She laughed bitterly. “Yeah, he did, but not nearly as much as you have. My father wasn’t the best of men but he was still my father, my blood. You’re not.” She shook her head and once again, I gave her some space. “I need space. Time.”

  “You’re still in danger and you know that.”

  “Maybe so but I can’t stand the sight of you right now. In fact, I don’t think I can any longer.”

  “What are you saying, Jasmine?”

  There was a new hardness about her, a sense that I’d betrayed her. “What am I saying? I think it’s perfectly obvious. I never want to see you again.”

  CHAPTER 28

  Four months later

  Braxton

  There were no beeps coming from machines like in worthless movies. There were no screeching carts coming in and out of the room, medical professionals frantic. There were two IV drips that made no noise.

  Everything else, including my thudding heart was encased in silence. I stood by the hospital window, my hands in my pockets doing nothing more than staring out onto the full parking lot. The hospital was busy because it was considered the best in San Diego, which I’d demanded the ambulance driver head to even though it was fifteen miles further away. I knew the doctors. I knew the nurses.

  Fortunately, I’d only needed them once for my own medical condition. Several served with me on various charity boards, our discussions over wine or whiskey eye opening. The medical profession was fucked, only those with money to burn able to demand the finest, the best, the most cutting-edge drugs, but no amount of money would keep me from providing the best care for…

  Her.

  The pronoun was easy to use at this point, less biting. Only there were two pronouns attached to the frail person lying in the bed completely unconscious. But I couldn’t think that way. Not now. Maybe not ever.

  I heard footsteps as Valerio came up from behind, hesitantly placing his hand on my shoulder.

  “Any additional news?” he asked after a full minute of neither one of us saying anything. Gage was actively making phone calls, taking the burden of attempting to get a lead on the person responsible off my hands. Family could be invaluable.

  “Time will tell,” I said, almost shocked there was no emotion left. Maybe that was good since I’d gone into a rage, nearly beating two strangers to death for getting in my way. Right now, I felt nothing, although I knew another wave would surface at some point. “She’s in a light coma, the possibility of internal bleeding still existing and her vitals are erratic.”

  He cleared his throat before responding. “And the baby?”

  The baby. He had to say it, to make the little creature human. My little human. God. There were so many questions, so much to discuss with Jasmine but I wasn’t entirely certain I’d be given the opportunity. God didn’t owe me any favors. I’d done this to myself.

  My arrogance.

  My greed.

  My lack of tolerance.

  I rubbed my eyes, finally forced to blink given their dryness. “Another wait and see. At least forty-eight hours.”

  I could tell by the way Valerio was sucking in his breath he was just as distraught as I was. Yeah, family could be tight when the chips were down.

  “What about the driver? There were some witnesses.” I was preparing to make more demands even though I’d grilled the crowd hovering around her like vultures with the tenacity of a drill sergeant.

  He didn’t say we’d been over it ten times. “The police took several statements, but the accounts were all over the place. A black SUV, a blue sedan. Hell, one bystander even mentioned a red Dodge Ram.”

  “My money is on the SUV. The impact caused damage.”

  “Whoever it was might just park the damn thing where it will remain until the heat passes,” Valerio reminded me.

  Gage ended the call, groaning afterward. “If she arrived on a commercial flight then she used another name. I have a buddy in the aviation industry who’s going to check on private flights coming from Australia.”

  We had no clue if that’s where she’d flown in from. In truth, it was highly unlikely. I’d gone to her country, her home. I’d grilled her mother, anyone on the staff. Either she was no longer staying there or she’d been hidden well. Either way, I hadn’t found a trace of her and I’d hired the best private investigators to do everything to locate her.

  Including breaking the law.

  “Anywhere else she mentioned visiting or wanting to go to?” Gage was pulling at straws but I was appreciative. The hours since she’d been brought into the hospital had been gut-wrenching. “Nowhere. I think she mentioned Paris once. Or maybe it was Milan.”

  I could tell my two brothers were giving each other that knowing look.

  “Let me see what I can do,” Gage said. “I need caffeine. Anyone else want a cup of coffee?”

  “That rotgut shit?” Valerio hissed. “No, find a liquor store on your way back.”

  The two of them could laugh and at least I could provide a waning smile. After Gage left the room, Valerio shifted in front of me, leaning his back against the window. I always knew when he wanted to chastise me by how quiet he was.

  “What?” I hissed. “Say it.”

  “What do you want me to say, brother? To provide a reminder you can’t go off halfcocked beating up the world? That you still have a business to run? That there’s nothing you can do but allow the medical professionals to do their jobs?”

  I gritted my teeth. The nurse had taken a new round of blood what seemed like hours ago. Additional tests. Learning more. Right. Where the fuck were they with the results? Did they need to go to another goddamn city to get them? I made a note to purchase a lab for fuck’s sake. “I know that, Val, but I also need to do something or I’ll go mad.”

  “How can I help?”

  “How? You can help me hunt down the person responsible.” I slowly turned my head, studying the way his hard expression softened. In the last four months, things had finally started to quiet down, the DC news no longer covering the various scandals like rats consuming their prey. Still, the news that several important, prominent people were involved in keeping their own little black book, which had allowed them to blackmail and extort in their efforts to get to the top, had been all I’d heard about.

  Justin Sinclair’s name and that of his family had been shamed, people in their government turning their backs on the situation. However, I’d learned Justin had been a bit player, used more than being the user. Not that it mattered at this point. He was dead.

  “I can try but we need to do this methodically and only after you learn about Jasmine’s prognosis.”

  “Are you handling me again, Val?”

  “Someone needs to, or you’ll end up in prison.”

  He wasn’t necessarily wrong. I was ready to kill someone with my bare hands. “Anything to protect the woman I care about.”

  “I know this is too little too late,” he told me. “But it’s good to see you caring about someone. I wasn’t certain if it would ever happen.”

  I was so bone weary I couldn’t come up with some ridiculous answer. Maybe the rage was starting to return.

  Valerio’s phone rang and I shook my head. “All business.” I wasn’t being kind.

  “Maybe I put out a few feelers to try and satisfy your request. Give me a minute.”

  I certainly didn’t need to be terse with my brothers, but I’d never felt so helpless or hopeless in my life. The memory of her face, the wheezing as she’d tried to speak would forever be ingrained in my mind.

  Another reason I would have no issue making good on my mental threats to the person responsible.

  I’d fucking kill them.

  Hands.

  A knife.

  A gun.

  A machete.

  I wasn’t going to allow her injuries and the danger to our baby to go unavenged. As he walked from the room, I took another deep breath. Being alone with Jasmine was both necessary and horrifying.

  My heart was heavy, which affected my stilted movements, but I returned to her bedside, gently pulling her hand into mine. There was so much I wanted to say, so many emotions running through me that just being able to say them was more difficult than almost anything I’d done. Maybe I was a cold-hearted man.

  Some would call me a king.

  Yes, I had all the money in the world, but Valerio had been right after all. Without someone to share in the spoils of war and happiness, wealth meant nothing. I brushed hair from her face, loathing how pale she was. As I brought her cold fingers to my mouth, a single tear rushed past my lashes.

  I wasn’t a man prone to crying. That wasn’t in my makeup, but the sadness was overbearing. “I’ll hunt them down, baby. Whoever did this will pay dearly.” Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to say with her unconscious state but my need for revenge was the main thing keeping me going.

  She was breathing on her own, which was an improvement from when she’d been brought in, but the doctor remained skeptical. I hated that the professionals were so close-mouthed. I knew why. They didn’t want to get my hopes up.

  “I love you, little koala. I adore our child and I promise to do everything in my power to protect and make you happy.” I only hoped the promise wasn’t being made in vain.

  It had been far too long since there’d been any update. I couldn’t stand the silence. I would learn the latest.

  Or I’d beat it out of the doctor.

  “I’ll be right back. Just rest.” I hoped she could hear me and was able to take comfort in my voice. Who knew with these things.