Julie Garwood - The Ideal Man

“No, I can’t go back to prison. I can’t.”

“How about a deathbed confession?” Max asked. He was still so angry, he wanted to kill the bastard with his bare hands. He doubted Ellie would let him get away with that.

“This is all the Landrys’ fault. It’s because of them my brother’s dead, and now I’m gonna be dead, too.”

“The Landrys didn’t fire that rifle. You did.”

Ellie pulled off her gloves and reached for her cell phone. She was going to call 911, but Max gave her another number.

“Hershey should still be in Winston Falls. Tell him to send an ambulance.”

The agent answered on the first ring. He told her he was at the hospital with the sheriff’s deputy and Evan Patterson, and that he would send the ambulance right away.

“Did you know he was at the hospital?” Ellie asked. She bent over Willis and checked his pulse. She didn’t try to comfort him.

“Patterson was complaining of chest pain.”

“What…?”

“And they’re required to provide treatment.”

Ellie’s shoulders sagged. “So I’ll have to see him again.”

“You’re not going near him.”

“Has he been there all night?”

Max nodded. “Handcuffed to a bed in ICU.”

Willis started crying again. “I can’t go back to prison. I just can’t.”

“Will you testify in court, tell the judge the Landrys hired you to kill Dr. Sullivan and Agent Goodman?”

“No. They hired my brother to kill Goodman. I was supposed to kill the doctor.” He looked up at Ellie. “It’s nothing personal.”

“Yes, it is,” she snapped. “It’s very personal.”

“I can’t testify against them. I wouldn’t last a day.”

“Then you’re going to prison.”

Willis started screaming again. “This hurts bad.”

Max got up and pulled Ellie to her feet. He had to raise his voice to be heard over Willis’s sobs. “I’m going to change the tire. You’re coming with me.”

“The SUV is ten feet away.”

“You’re still coming with me. I don’t want you close to him.”

“I want to make a deal. I want a deal,” Willis pleaded.

Max looked down at him with disgust in his eyes. “What can you give me?”

“There’s a shipment coming in from Singapore. Over a thousand guns with enough ammo to cover Iowa. Grenades, too. All sorts of crap. Cal had me on speakerphone, and I heard him tell Erika how big the buy was going to be. Cal likes to brag. I think he forgot I was still on the line. Maybe, anyway. But I know where it’s going down. Get me a deal. I want witness protection.”

Max kept his reaction contained. Son of a bitch, he thought. Maybe they could get the Landrys once and for all. If Cogburn was telling the truth.

“You don’t talk to anyone about this,” Max ordered. “You understand?”

“Okay, I won’t,” he groaned. “You better not talk to your people either. There’s a leak, and if the guy running the investigation hears about me, someone in his office will tell the Landrys, and I’m a dead man.” He started crying again. “I want something for pain. Can I get a deal?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Willis was curled up in a fetal position. His gasps were pathetic as he moaned, “You don’t have to worry about the doctor. Landrys called off the hit. I was going to act like I didn’t get the text because I knew they’d want their money back, and I could never get away from them. I was going to use the money to run. Honest.”

“They paid up front?”

“Half,” he said. His voice was getting weaker. “I can’t take this pain. It’s hurting bad.”

A few seconds later, Willis passed out.

Ellie had just pulled the jack from the back of the SUV but dropped it on the ground and ran back. “What did you do to him?”

Max shook his head. “I didn’t do anything. He passed out.”

“The wound isn’t bad,” she said. “He’ll be in and out of surgery in under an hour.”

“If he was in a trauma center, maybe, but this is Winston Falls.”

“I’m sure the surgeons here know what they’re doing. There’s probably one on the way to the hospital now.”

As it turned out, the small hospital had several surgeons on staff, and one was waiting for Willis. It did take longer than an hour to repair the damage, but not by much.

Max had signed Willis in under another name. As soon as Clark got word of the shooting, he had turned around and come back to Winston Falls. He and Hershey stood guard outside recovery while Max explained what Cogburn had told him.

“Are you sure he was telling the truth?” Hershey asked.

Max handed him Willis’s cell phone. “See for yourself.”

All of them were concerned about the leak. “Do you think it could be Hughes?” Clark asked.

“Wouldn’t that be something? He’s been acting like a maniac going after the Landrys,” Hershey said.

“I think it’s someone in his office. He checks in all the time to update them.” Clark made the comment.

“We’ll let Hughes find out who the leak is after we trap the Landrys. Until then, we can’t take any chances. No one in Hughes’s office can know about the shipment,” Max cautioned.

“Not even Hughes,” Hershey added, nodding.

“Speaking of maniacs, where’s Evan Patterson?” Clark asked.

Ellie had been sitting in the surgical waiting room for the past hour. Max had ordered her not to move while he went to check on Cogburn, but she couldn’t wait any longer. She had to find out what was going on. Max saw her looking out and motioned for her to join them.

Hershey knew she’d heard their conversation about Patterson. He looked concerned when he said, “Being in the same hospital with him has to make you nervous.”

“A little,” she admitted.

“One of Sheriff Bennett’s deputies is keeping Patterson company.”

“Where?”

“Patterson’s having a CAT scan,” Clark told her. “He’s been screaming about pain in his head, so they’re scanning him. The sheriff wants to do everything by the book, which means Patterson has to be treated.”

“There’s not a damn thing wrong with him,” Max said.

“Except he’s frickin’ crazy when it comes to Ellie,” Hershey interjected.

“He already tried the chest pain route. There was nothing wrong with his heart. He knows his rights, and he’s playing it for all it’s worth. He’s just looking for a way out, that’s all,” Clark said. The agent then turned the subject back to the Landrys. “How do we get Cogburn a deal so he’ll cooperate?”

“Ben,” Max answered. “I’ll talk to my partner and let him take it to our superior. He’ll decide what kind of deal Cogburn gets.”

“Does your boss have the clout?” Clark asked. “Or does he have to go higher up? The more people who know about this…”

“He has the clout,” Max assured him. “He…”

Max didn’t finish. Two loud pops echoed up the stairwell. The agents knew the sound. Gunshots. A second later an alarm sounded. It was a low, pulsating noise.

“I’ll take the south staircase,” Clark shouted as he pulled his gun free.

Hershey yelled that he had the other staircase and sprinted down the long hallway.

A nurse poked her head out of a patient’s room as Max grabbed Ellie. The woman shouted, “The hospital is in lockdown. Get out of the hall,” and then pulled the door closed.

Max pushed Ellie into a room at the end of the hall. “Keep the door shut.”

Déjà vu, she thought. Max was once again pushing her and telling her to hide.

She didn’t give a second thought to who was firing the gun. It was Patterson. Had to be. People didn’t realize how strong and cunning he was, and that gave him the advantage. It was Patterson, all right. And he was on a rampage.