Before the Dawn(99)

"She's all right," Macey said quickly. "She's at the hospital. I found her in time-"

Thank God.

"Look at her wound," Tucker cut through Macey's words. "Help her."

And Macey's fingers flew over her back. A sharp pain stabbed Dawn but she didn't cry out. Because Tucker had shifted to the side, she could see Anthony again. "Help...him."

This mattered. For Tucker...this mattered.

"Didn't hit anything vital," Macey said. "I'll keep pressure on her wound. She's going to be okay... But what about you, Tucker? Is that your blood?"

"I'm fine," Tucker growled. "Through and through shot."

"That's a lot of damn blood," Macey argued.

His jaw was clenched. "I'm fine..." Tucker stared down at Dawn. "Had much worse."

Tucker was going to make it. Dawn was determined to survive. And Anthony... "Help...him," Dawn said again.

"Fuck! Don't move," Tucker ordered Macey with a glare. "She's the priority. You stay with her. You work on her." His jaw locked. He turned to Anthony's jerking body. And then Tucker put his hands on Anthony's throat. He shoved his fingers down hard and Dawn knew he was applying pressure, trying to stop the blood flow.

Macey began yelling out orders about what Tucker needed to do.

Tucker's fingers turned red as Anthony jerked again and the blood kept pumping from his throat.

And in the distance, Dawn heard the scream of sirens.

* * *

SHE WAS BEING...wheeled...down a hallway. Dawn blinked against the lights. She was on her stomach, but there was no pain any longer.

"It's okay, baby," Tucker told her as he squeezed her hand. "You're going back for surgery. They're going to take that bullet out and you'll be good as new."

She could hear the screech of wheels and she glimpsed a few other people nearby-people in scrubs and wearing gloves. She tried to talk, but her tongue felt thick in her mouth. Drugs. They've already given me drugs. But before she passed out, she needed to say something. "You...you'll be here...when I wake up?" That was important. He was important. 

She'd lost him once. She never wanted to lose him again.

His bright blue eyes locked on hers. His handsome face stared down at her. And he smiled, flashing his dimple.

Her Tucker.

"I'll never leave you again, I swear it."

She trusted him to keep his word. Satisfied, Dawn's lashes closed. When she woke up, she'd have another scar. Big deal.

When she woke up, she'd have Tucker. That was what mattered.





  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Two weeks later.

"ARE YOU SURE you want to do this?" Samantha Dark asked Tucker as they stood in the narrow jail corridor. "You don't have to go in there with him. I'd more than understand if you didn't want to go through with this meeting."

Yes, she would understand, he knew that. Everyone on his team had been nothing but supportive over the last two grueling weeks. The nightmare was almost over now, all of the evidence collected, the threat eliminated.

"I need to go inside." For a final face-off with the brother he'd never known about. The bastard who'd tried to take Dawn from Tucker.

When will they learn? No one ever takes her from me.

"Besides-" Tucker cleared his throat "-Anthony called this little meeting. If he wants to confess, I'll let him finish burying himself."

She gave a nod. "Okay, then, but I'll be close."

Close, but not in the room with him because that had been part of the deal. Anthony Deveraux had said he'd talk freely with Tucker under the condition that no other FBI agents were present.

A little family chat.

Tucker squared his shoulders and entered the small room. The guards at the front of the jail had already taken his gun, so he went in unarmed. Anthony was seated at the small table in the middle of the room, his hands cuffed in front of him, and he was wearing a garish orange jumpsuit.

A jagged, bright red line-a scar-sliced across Anthony's throat.

A uniformed guard stood a few feet away from Anthony, but there was no attorney in that little room. No one else was present at all. But a video camera was perched in the upper right-hand corner of the room and their entire conversation would be monitored. He knew Samantha and the DA were both just down the hallway, settling in to watch the show.

Anthony raised his brows when he saw Tucker. "You sure took your sweet time getting here, brother."

Tucker pulled out the chair across from Anthony. He stared at the other man, searching for similarities in their features. Maybe something he'd missed before. The hair was the same shade, he saw that now. Anthony's was cut a lot shorter than his, so Tucker couldn't tell if the texture would be the same. And maybe their jaws were similar. The dimple in their left cheeks-that was the same, too, but since it only appeared when Anthony smiled, he hadn't seen it much when he'd first met the guy.