Page 22 of Guarded

Trinity put her hands on her hips, eyeing Briar. “So. Bed rest. As in, flat on your back bed rest until further notice. You’re gonna do as you’re told, right?”

Briar let out a grudging chuckle. “This time, yes.” She rubbed her belly. “This little one’s been through too much excitement already.” She glanced at Matt, and he saw the remaining trace of guilt in her eyes.

Before he could say anything more to reassure her, his phone rang. He ignored it, but the women looked at him. “Sorry,” he said, noticing as he pulled it out to silence it that the call was from the CIRG commander. He tucked it back into his pocket.

Briar lifted her eyebrows. “Something going on at work?”

“It’s okay. Tuck’s on it.”

His wife stared at him for a long moment but let it go and resumed her visit with Trinity. When his phone buzzed twenty minutes later he pulled it out to find a text from Tuck.

Urgent. Call me or CIRG commander asap.

Hell. Matt glanced at Briar. “Be right back.” He dialed Tuck as he stepped out into the hallway. “Hey. What’s up?”

“Apparently you know the suspect.”

Surprised, Matt headed for a quiet spot near the window at the far end of the hall. “I do?”

“The name Greg Harding ring a bell?”

Shock rippled through him as a face swam into focus in his mind. “Yeah. I met him back when I was first at the academy.” Harding was a fellow Marine and had attached himself to Matt on the first day. “He washed out a month from graduation, wound up in psych care after he tried to kill himself.” Matt had gone to see him, tried to get him the right help, but it hadn’t been much and he could admit now that it hadn’t been enough.

“He must have fooled everyone into thinking he was stable at some point, because he managed to became a cop.”

Jesus, and now he’d snapped and taken his wife and kids hostage. “So what does CIRG want from me?” They knew about the situation with Briar.

“Harding initially told negotiators he’ll talk to you.”

Matt scrubbed a hand over his hair. Fuck. “Yeah, all right, I’ll give it a shot. Have CIRG patch me through to the head negotiator.”

Once he was on the line Matt told the negotiator what he knew, agreed to speak to Harding over the phone if he was willing.

Fifteen minutes and multiple attempts to reach Harding later, the negotiator received a text. “I’ll only talk to DeLuca. In person, it says.”

Matt set his jaw. “I can’t do that.”

“Hang on, there’s more. He says only you, and it has to be in person by tonight at seven or his family dies.”

Shit. He dragged a hand over his face. What the hell did he do now? “Buy me some time. I have to think about this.” Explain it to Briar, decide together what to do. “I’ll call you back with an answer asap.”

On his way back to Briar’s room Matt thought of the little girls and their mother being held hostage by the man who was supposed to protect them. His gut clamped tight as a dark memory surfaced from an op he’d been on years ago, but he shoved it back in its box. Even though Briar was okay for now, he couldn’t leave her.

Her keen gaze locked on him when he pushed the door open. “What’s happening?”

He let it swing shut behind him. “Domestic dispute became an armed hostage situation in North Carolina. Marine vet threatening to kill his wife and kids.”

“Is one of your teams responding?”

He nodded. “Blue Team’s being deployed.”

“With who as commander?”

“Not sure. Maybe Grant.” Gold Team’s leader. He had the training and experience. He could handle it.

Briar looked at Trinity. “You knew.”

Trinity didn’t deny it. “Brody got called in just as I was leaving.”

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