Part 21 (1/2)

And Katie saw Teal's fingers blur into motion, fast sign language, just as a guard reached her and dragged her backward toward the waiting plane.

Katie retreated-had to retreat-as the steroid-swollen hulk coming down from the plane sprayed a hail of automatic fire in her direction. He was a terrible shot, but he didn't have to be good to kill her. Just persistent.

Juan yelled at his son in Spanish, and Rudolpho stopped shooting. They must have realized that it put Teal in danger.

Teal's sign language had said, Can't go now, have to find out more, you go with Lena.

G.o.d, Teal was choosing to stay.

More bullets bounced Katie's way, driving her back. The guards were arriving, and they had an angle on her that wouldn't endanger Teal. She had seconds to live.

”Teal, come on! Run! You have to!” Katie shouted, even as she fired at the guards and retreated across the open tarmac. Behind her, Stefan's Learjet was powering up, and she could hear him shouting something, but it was lost over the roar and gunfire.

Something hot grazed her thigh. Katie controlled her flinch and dropped two more gunmen, steadily retreating and facing the enemy the whole way.

Teal didn't-wouldn't-follow. She stood there, watching, until two guards closed in on her and began dragging her toward the other plane, where Juan, his son and the other man waited at the top of the stairs.

”Teal!” Stefan yelled. ”Teal, come on!” He was on the ground now, out of the plane. Katie cursed and kept firing until her gun ran dry, grabbed a second clip and changed it on the fly.

”Stefan, get in the jet!” She was twenty feet away. Less.

Instead, Stefan came toward her. Staring toward Teal, oblivious to his own danger.

”Stefan!” she screamed, and in that moment she knew he was right, she was precognitive. For all the good it did.

She saw the bullet strike him in slow motion, low in the chest, and then explode out of his back in a spray of blood.

Stefan staggered, mouth opening, and went down to his knees. He looked confused as he tried to get up, as if his brain simply wouldn't admit what had happened.

Katie screamed, emptied her clip toward the plane, grabbed Stefan with one hand and towed him toward the steps. She had to drop her gun to get him up into the fuselage.

”Go!” she yelled to the pilot, who was standing in the c.o.c.kpit opening, looking frozen. He threw himself into the seat and flipped switches. ”Oh G.o.d, no, Stefan-”

Katie sobbed, but she didn't let it stop her. She grabbed the steps, yanked them up and closed and locked the hatch. Bullets were rattling on the skin of the plane, and it was entirely possible they were all going to die here, all of them, but it was out of her hands now and Stefan was bleeding....

Lena was sitting in one of the leather seats, eyes wide, looking terrified. Katie barely registered her presence as she threw herself to her knees next to Stefan and rolled him over to take a look at the wound in his back.

It wasn't gus.h.i.+ng, so he had no torn arteries, but it was bleeding badly. Katie stripped off her peasant blouse, wadded it up and jammed it into the wound, pressing as hard as her shaking muscles would allow.

”Don't,” she panted. ”Don't you die on me, Stefan. Don't you dare die on me now.”

His eyes were open, but she wasn't sure he could see her. Her tears fell on his face as she rolled him onto his back, pinning the makes.h.i.+ft bandage in place, and applied pressure to the bullet wound in the front. He was still breathing. There was still hope.

There had to be hope.

”Teal,” he said, in a pale thread of a voice. Katie choked back another sob and put her hand on his cheek.

”It's all right,” she said. ”We have Lena. She's safe.”

”Teal,” he said again, and his eyes drifted shut. ”She stayed. She wants to be a hero.”

Katie hung on to him against gravity and the world as the plane hurtled down the runway and into the air.

Chapter 14.

T he only sounds in the hospital room in Los Angeles were the sounds of machines. Stefan's chest rose and fell, draped in white. Katie pillowed her head on her crossed arms and tried to sleep, but despite an extreme amount of weariness, she couldn't close her eyes.

She had the feeling he was an illusion, that the second she looked away, he'd disappear and she'd be left with nothing but tears.

Somehow, he'd hung on during the flight; they'd put down in El Paso, and Stefan had been rushed into surgery. It had taken days before he was strong enough to transfer via helicopter here, to Cedars-Sinai. She hadn't left his side. Neither had Lena Poole, until the FBI had arrived to debrief her, then return her to her family.

Katie missed Lena. The girl had brought warmth with her, a kind of constant cheer that left the world feeling a bit colder in her absence.

Small victories, seeing Lena cradled in her mother's arms.

Small tragedies, seeing Teal's family without that comfort.

The FBI had come and gone. Katie hadn't paid much attention really; she already knew that she was likely to be censured, at the very least, and she had no argument with it. She'd done what was necessary at every turn, and so had Stefan.

And Stefan had paid the real price.

”Katie.”

She raised her head. Ben Blackman was standing there, holding out a cup; she registered the warm, nutty aroma of coffee. Another product of Colombia, like the bullet that had torn through Stefan's chest, narrowly missing the tangle of arteries, nicking his right lung but miraculously avoiding any of a dozen fatal bounces.

Stefan's spine was intact, and so was his heart. Hers was near to breaking, though, at the look in his father's eyes.

”I'm sorry, sir,” she said, and stood up slowly. ”I'm so sorry. I broke my word to you.”

Ben put the coffee down and opened his arms. Katie stepped into his embrace, sucked in a deep, uncontrolled breath, and tried-failed-not to cry. It felt good, being forgiven so freely. She didn't deserve the grace.

”My son loves you,” Ben said, and moved her back to look into her tear-streaked face. ”You do know that, don't you?”

”He barely knows me.”

”He knows you better than you know yourself, Katie. And you didn't break your word. My son's still here.” He kissed her gently on the cheek and let her go. He walked to the bed and took Stefan's limp hand in his. ”I know you can hear me, son. I love you.” He smoothed Stefan's tangled hair back. ”Angelo sends his love. He even forgives you for the car, but he says you have to pay him back. So you have to wake up. It's a really big loan.”

Katie covered her mouth with her hands, tears sparking again. Stefan hadn't moved or spoken since that terrible moment on the plane, and the doctors weren't sure whether or not there had been brain damage from the blood loss. He could wake up five minutes from now, or next year, they'd said. He could be fine, or he could be severely impaired. The brain is delicate. We'll just have to see.

She half expected him to open his eyes, but Stefan just continued to sleep, limp and pale, fed by tubes.

When Stefan's mother came in, Katie retreated, heartsick. She walked down the hall for air, got coffee she couldn't taste and didn't want, and paced. There were a hundred dramas unfolding around her, but she couldn't care about any of them at the moment.

Teal wanted to stay. Stefan hadn't explained that, and she couldn't explain it. It wasn't possible for Teal to have been brainwashed so quickly, was it? Lena hadn't hesitated to take the opportunity to run, but Teal...Teal wanted to stay. Because Teal understood how deep this thing went.

Teal was offering herself as a secret agent, already on the inside.