Page 8 of Tapped

My nails sink into the skin on my arms where I’m doing everything I can to hold myself up with my clammy hands. All of a sudden, I’m cooperating with the federal agent. “With the nanny. They should be home anytime. Please tell me what’s going on.”

“Dammit,” he bites and brings the radio up as if he’s going to respond. Instead, he speaks to me. And his demand sets every nerve ending in my body on fire. “Contact the sitter and get them home. Now. And tell me their location so I can send a unit to escort them.”

I rattle off directions to the park in the neighborhood and almost drop my cell when I pull it from my pocket while fumbling the screen to text Tonya. “This is my son. I deserve to know what’s happening.”

Agent Emmett orders a unit to look for Tonya and Chase before clipping the radio back on his waist. He exhales a big breath before crossing his arms over his wide chest. “Ma’am, I’m not sure how to break this to you, so I’m just going to come right out and say it. Your husband put out a hit on your life.”

My cell hits the hardwood floor at my feet, and I can barely hear my own voice. “What?”

He lifts his chin once to confirm that my life really is turning into a nightmare made for cable TV. “Money has exchanged hands. The job is paid in full.”

“No,” I whisper. “We have our problems, but you must be mistaken. He wouldn’t do that.”

The agent nods, as if to argue the defense of my husband who I just kicked out of our home. “And not just you.”

I shake my head, willing this to be a mistake.

“Your son too.”

My vision tunnels.

I stumble backwards.

The agent’s icy blue eyes narrow. “Evita, are you okay?”

I can’t shake my head. The cool air in my house is suddenly too thick, and my chest is so heavy. I can’t pull in a breath.

The last thing I see is the agent lurch forward and feel a large hand wrap around my arm. I’m pulled into his chest, and another arm wraps around my waist to keep me vertical.

My growled name vibrates through my body. “Evita.”

My knees give out.

That’s when something happens that I only understand because I’m a doctor, because it’s never happened to me. I’m completely caught off guard by my own body.

I pass out.

3

LIFE-CHANGING EVENT

Evie

“This is Emmett. I need EMS at the targets’ residence. Michaels’ wife is unresponsive.”

The radio crackles from a mile away. My brain is too hazy to argue or beg for help, but the last thing I want is EMS barging into my house.

A deep, irritated voice comes over the radio as my mind and body re-enter reality. “What the hell did you do to her?”

“I told her that her shithead husband paid to have her killed. Just get a unit on the way. I caught her before she cracked her head open. Like I don’t have enough reports to write.”

I barely notice how difficult it is to pull in shallow breaths, because arms circle me in a vise.

New arms.

Strange arms.

Arms so solid and impenetrable, I’ve never felt anything like them.

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