Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

office door and Captain Dean stepped in. “Cooper,” he greeted with a nod.

“Captain.”

“I’ve just talked to a supervisor from the FBI, along with the officers from the gas station incident, and the other agencies involved in The Stallion case.”

“Sir?”

“Everyone has what they need from you, so you’re free to go.”

“Go?”

“Vaughn, don’t be dense. You’ve been working round-the-clock for nearly a week, you have an injury.”

“Doctors and psych cleared me to do desk work.”

“Go home. Sleep. Recharge. That’s not a suggestion, Cooper. It’s common sense.”

Vaughn could have argued, he could have even pushed, but for what? In one FBI raid, half his cases had been wiped out. Families were being reunited, people were getting answers.

The crimes that had been committed would leave a mark, there were still people to find, but Vaughn had what he’d been on the brink of losing his mind over. Case closure.

He still felt dark and empty.

Because things had shifted. Natalie had given him light for the first time in a long time. A priority that existed beyond cases and police work. Someone who understood what it was to put someone else first, and the complexity of dealing with the unsolved.

Natalie understood, in ways most people probably couldn’t. The unknowns, the toll it took, the complex emotions.

And that...that was a foundation that existed. A foundation that was stronger than any he could build with his own two hands. Possibly...possibly even a foundation that no one else could touch.

Natalie was nothing but a bundle of nerves. Her mother sat stoically next to her in the hospital waiting room, and her grandmother was saying fervent prayers over her rosary.

The relationship between all three of them had been strained for so long, Natalie didn’t know how to breach it now. For eight years she’d been certain her mother and grandmother’s irritation and frustration with her obsession with Gabby’s case had been a weakness.

It had been a betrayal. How dare they give up on Gabby?

But now...she realized they had all dealt with tragedy in the ways they could. They were all strong, independent women who had endured too much loss and hurt, and had dealt with it in the differing ways that suited them.

A nurse came through the door first, holding it open for a woman. Though she was nearly unrecognizable from the young woman Natalie remembered, it was too easy to see Dad’s nose and Mom’s pointed chin, and Natalie’s own big eyes staring right back at her.

Natalie didn’t remember getting to her feet, and she barely registered Grandma’s loud weeping. Everything was centered in on...something indescribable. This woman who was her sister, and yet...not.

Her skin prickled with goose bumps, and she could scarcely catch a breath. Was she moving? She wasn’t sure, but somehow she was suddenly in the middle of the room with...her sister.

Taller, older, different. And yet hers. She was flesh and blood and here. Natalie reached out, but she wasn’t sure where to touch, or how.

“Nattie.”

Even Gabby’s voice was different, the light in her eyes, the way her mouth moved. Natalie was rendered immobile by all of it, crushed under the reality of eight years lost. Of the grief that swelled through her over losing the sister she’d known, that nickname, and all it would take to...

Her outstretched hand finally found purchase...because Gabby had grabbed it. Squeezed it in her own. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t the same person she’d been all those years ago, because Natalie wasn’t the same person, either.

But they were still sisters. Blood. Connected.

“Say something,” Gabby whispered, barely audible over the way Mom and Grandma were openly sobbing.

“I don’t know...” What to say. What to do. Even as she’d thought about this moment for years, actually being here... “I’m so sorr—”

But Gabby shook her head and cupped Natalie’s face with her hands. “No, none of that.”

Which broke Natalie’s thin grip on composure, and soon she was sobbing as well, but also holding on to Gabby, tight, desperate. Gabby held back, and though she didn’t make a sound, Natalie could feel tears that weren’t her own soak her shoulder.

“Mama, Abuela,” Gabby’s raspy voice ordered. “Come here.”

Then all four of them were standing in the middle of a hospital waiting room, holding on too tightly, struggling to breathe through tears and hugs.

Gabby shook, something echoing all the way through her body so violently, Natalie could feel it herself.

“Are you all right? Do you need a doctor? I’ll go get the nu—”

But Gabby held her close. “I’m all right, baby sister. I just can’t believe it’s real. You’re all here.”

“They...told you about... Daddy?”

Gabby swallowed, her chin coming up, everything about her hardening all over again. “The Stallion made sure I knew.”

“But...”

Gabby shook her head. “No. Not today. Maybe not ever.”

Natalie had to swallow down the questions, the need to pressure. The need to understand. She could want all she wanted, but Gabby would have to make the choices of what she told them herself. That was her right as survivor.

“One of us needs to get it together so we can drive home,” their mother said, her hand shaking as she mopped up tears. Her other hand was a death grip around Gabby’s elbow.

“I’m all right,” Natalie assured them. “I’ll drive. Right now. We’re free to go. We’re... Let’s get out of here. And go home.”

“Home,” Gabby echoed, and Natalie couldn’t begin to imagine what those words elicited for her sister. She couldn’t begin to imagine...

Well, there’d be therapy for all of them, there’d be healing. One step at a time. The first step was getting out of this hospital.

But as they turned to leave the waiting room, someone entered, blocking the way.

It took Natalie a moment to place him, because the last time she’d seen Agent Alessandro he’d had much longer hair, a beard. He’d looked as menacing as The Stallion, if not more so.

He’d had a haircut and a shave and today looked every inch the FBI agent in his suit and sunglasses.

Gabby stopped and everything about her stiffened. “Agent Alessandro,” Gabby