buckshot as she sat in a chair in the critical care unit of the hospital.
Lineberry had gone through emergency surgery. He was now lying unconscious with tubes and lines covering him. Pine found her gaze constantly drawn to the monitor, checking the man’s blood pressure, respiration, and pulse, waiting for the alarms to ring, which they had already done twice, causing nurses and doctors to rush in and do what needed to be done to quell the noise.
She rose and nervously looked down at Lineberry. She’d had several brief conversations with the surgeon and the attending physician. The bullet had done damage inside, cracking bone and severing blood vessels. They had removed the bullet and repaired the damage. They were cautiously optimistic that Lineberry would make a pretty full recovery if he regained consciousness and no other complications arose.
Blum, Wallis, and Laredo had come and gone.
The SUV that Pine had shot up had been discovered, abandoned miles down the road. There was no sign of anyone, but there had been traces of blood in the front seat. It was now being processed.
“The SUV was reported stolen outside of Atlanta about three hours before it showed up near Andersonville,” Laredo had told her.
“They were waiting for us,” Pine had told him. “They weren’t chasing after us, they were ahead of us on the road.”
“So they knew you were coming back from Atlanta?” said Laredo. “But how?”
Pine had no answer to give him.
Jerry Danvers was standing guard outside the door along with a police officer from Sumter County.
Danvers had been very upset when he reached the hospital, blaming himself for not having driven them to Atlanta.
“That’s my job,” he kept telling Pine over and over.
“And he’s your boss and he wanted to drive himself,” she pointed out, to no avail.
She rose from her chair when Lineberry moved around, moaning slightly. Her eyes darted to the monitor but all the numbers there remained steady.
She leaned down and looked at him. It was nearly inconceivable to her that not that much earlier, they had been in his fabulous penthouse sipping expensive wine and looking out over the Atlanta skyline.
And that was where she was told that her mother had been involved with the mob.
Her head swirled with this revelation. It was like someone had just tossed her off a boat into the middle of the ocean. Pine didn’t know whether she was coming or going. But she had Lineberry. He knew all of it. And she couldn’t lose him.
“Jack, can you hear me? You’re out of surgery. They patched you up. You’re going to be okay.” She put a hand on his good shoulder and squeezed gently.
Pine was surprised when his eyes fluttered open and he looked wildly around the room.
“Jack?” she said. “You’re okay. You’re in the hospital. You’re out of danger. You’re going to be okay.”
His gaze finally found her. He looked up at her and his lips parted, his jaw moved, and she realized he was trying to say something.
She leaned down closer. “Jack, what is it?”
“A-Aman-d? I…Aman-da?”
Pine didn’t know what to do or say. His look was so desperately pleading that she took his hand in hers and nodded. “I’m…I’m Amanda, Jack. I’m here for you.”
She felt his fingers tighten around hers. He nodded and said, “L-love you.”
He searched her features for an answer.
“I…I love you too,” she said.
He managed a weak smile, his eyes fluttered once more, and then he returned to unconsciousness.
Pine slowly let go of his hand and sat back down.
She involuntarily shivered at what had just happened.
I just played the role of my mother to comfort him.
It was the only thing she could think to do under the difficult circumstances. And yet she had not felt good about it. It was just another act of deception—for good reasons or not, it didn’t matter—and Pine was growing sick of the lies she had discovered since coming here.
She left the room and confronted Danvers out in the hall. He was dressed in a suit and tie, but it was wrinkled, and he looked uncharacteristically disheveled.
“Got time for some coffee?” she asked him.
At that moment Tyler Straub came around the corner. He looked neat and dapper and did not seem nearly as emotional about what had happened as Danvers.
“Hey, Jerry, I’m here to relieve you. How’s he doing?”
“Mr. Lineberry will recover,” said Danvers firmly, his features twisted in anger.
Straub gave Pine a wary look. “O-kay. Hey, well, that’s great. We get to keep working then.”
Danvers barked, “That comment is