Heart in Wire: A by a Thread Companion Novel (2 page)

Love…Love never did anything for him. Love was shit. Love didn’t stop people from hurting each other, betraying each other, leaving each other… Love was absolute shit.

He sighed and turned over, running his hand over the curvy hip of the woman next to him in bed. The wonderful, smart, funny woman that had kept him from doing anything stupid for the last year and several months lay in his bed and had for over six months. Her light brown hair had fallen over her face and he moved it out of the way, kissing her forehead before he got out of the bed. He loved Camille Rodriguez, he did.
Right?
She was everything he needed. She was funny, smart, hot in bed, cooked, and most importantly, she wasn’t El.

“Where you going, babe?” Millie asked, her voice hoarse from sleep.

“Run,” he answered and pulled on pants and a shirt, then pulled his fleece on over it.

“Okay.” She turned over and went back to sleep, her perky pink tank top showing as the comforter fell to her hips.

He wished he could run with Cooper. He missed running with El and Cooper. That dog leaving this house had left a huge hole in his heart. Yeah, the dog, he’d go with that. He softly closed the door behind him and made it through the house he’d been in over five years with his best friend, Billy, who was still asleep, of course.

Patrick put his earbuds in his ears and bent down to tie the laces on his running shoes. He needed to figure out how to help El. He couldn’t really wrap his brain around the last four years, but when he went back to the beginning of this train wreck, it looked like the whole damn thing was his fault.

He’d recruited his childhood friend, Jamie Rivers, to work for the ATF (The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), where Patrick worked. His agency was under the United States Department of Justice, the same as all the other law enforcement agencies. The ATF was just better than the others. They did massive undercover operations that dealt with the trafficking of weapons, explosives, bombings, and acts of terrorism that occurred in the United States. The agency covered such a wide variety of areas of the law that they bumped into the FBI, Homeland Security and sometimes even the U.S. Marshals when trying to determine jurisdiction over certain crimes.

After Jamie graduated from college, he’d moved in with Patrick and Billy, bringing his fiancé with him a few months later. However, it didn’t quite end up the way anyone expected. Jamie went undercover sooner than anticipated and well, it all went to hell from there.

Patrick had just gotten out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist when he heard the doorbell ring. Padding up to the front door, a wide grin spread across his face, growing impossibly wider when he threw open the door and saw his old friend standing on the steps, military duffel back over one shoulder.

“Jamie! You’re early.”

“They bumped my flight up and I just took a cab here. I didn’t want to bother you guys.” Jamie’s sandy blond hair was cut in a short version of the Georgia-boy haircut, shaggy and a little unkempt.

Patrick stuck his hand out and pulled Jamie in for a half-hug. “Come in, man.” Patrick held the door back.

“Is that how you answer the door for everyone?” Jamie’s face showed his amusement.

“Just my new roommate.” Patrick laughed. “Let me go get some clothes on real quick and I’ll show you your room.”

“I hope you don’t answer the door like that for your other new roommate!” Jamie called to Patrick’s back.

“No towel for that one,” Patrick mocked. He threw on cargo shorts and a t-shirt and came back out of his room. “Come on.” He motioned to Jamie, who stood in the exact place Patrick had left him. “It’s down here,” he said, walking down the stairs. “How was your flight?

“Good,” Jamie answered, his voice animated.

As they got to the bottom of the stairs, they turned into a basement that was in an L shape. The room was massive, but oddly shaped. There was a narrow area that spanned the entire length of the house and two closets on the far wall. The spot for the bed and bathroom was hidden from view, but everything else was open to the stairs. There were a few boxes sitting in the open space, but other than that it was empty. It didn’t look much like a real room, but it was big enough for two people.

“No door?” Jamie asked, eyeing the room skeptically.

“Well, no one’s lived down here before, so we didn’t need one. I’m sure we can figure something out.” Patrick shrugged.

“Where’s Billy?” Jamie asked, putting his enormous duffel down in the empty room.

“He’s out of town this weekend, something with his sister,” Patrick answered.

“So this is it,” Jamie said, sort of to himself.

“This is it.” Patrick put his hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you, man. This will be fun, you’ll see. We’ll have all summer to let loose before your old ball and chain gets here. You training with Duffy?” Patrick asked, referring to one of the ATF trainers for new recruits.

“I’m not sure,” Jamie said, distracted by his phone notifying him of a text. He smiled broadly. “Stella,” he said to Patrick, typing something back into the phone before looking back at him. “So, I’m starving, let’s grab something to eat.”

“Sure, let me get some shoes and we’ll go.”

Patrick opened the door to the early winter morning; his breath curled around his eyes and then disappeared. He pulled his wool cap lower on his head and ran toward King Street. The music pumping through his earbuds helped him forget things and let him focus on just running, his steps helped him pound out what had happened in the last year. The rhythmic beats let him forget for a while how her eyes looked when she’d found out he’d betrayed her. Patrick needed to find a way to chase away all the images that haunted him, the thoughts he could never tell anyone. He turned left and ran down the main drag of Old Town Alexandria, appreciating the early morning quiet. He ran past all the restaurants and bars that reminded him of El. It was maddening—everything reminded him of her. He hit the end of King Street and took another left. When he passed George’s house, he shook his head, thinking how the events that had unraveled in the last few years had conspired against him. He’d thought things would be so different than how they were now. El was supposedly happy with George, but she wasn’t even talking to Patrick, her best friend. He hoped she still thought of him that way. Of course, she’d spoken to him to get what she wanted, and then he was out in the cold again. He pushed himself, running as fast as he could for the next mile before letting up and trotting through the back roads toward his house.

Two months after Jamie had moved in with them, Jamie, Billy, and Patrick were sitting in Austin Grill on King Street. Patrick took another bite of his burrito and looked out the window. They’d been talking about the Nationals recent loss and Billy was explaining his disgust at their performance this season.

Jamie leaned back in the booth across from Patrick and put his hands behind his head in a relaxed way before exhaling slowly. Something about the way he leaned back made Patrick look from the window. “So, I’ve decided to go undercover for six months.”

Patrick wasn’t surprised, he’d heard rumblings about a new rookie ATF agent being groomed by Agent Burns. He hadn’t had the chance to talk to Jamie about it. Patrick thought it was a mistake. Burns was careless, a cowboy that didn’t follow the rules, which sometimes led to legal clusterfucks for the agency.

“When did you decide that?” Patrick asked.

“Cool,” Billy replied.

“Yeah, pretty cool until you leave your brand new fiancé here for us to deal with.” Patrick winked at Billy.

“Ohhh. Yeah, I didn’t think about that,” Billy confirmed. “Is she still living with us?”

“Yes. She doesn’t know. When I leave, I think it’d be great if you guys would kind of make sure she’s okay.” Jamie smiled, not answering Patrick’s question. “You know, show her around and stuff.”

“Wait, what?” Billy was sitting up now, paying attention. “You’re leaving and your fiancé is going to be living with us? No way, dude. No fucking way. We only agreed to her living with us because you would be there to deal with her. We only allow select girls in our house and that usually includes one of us getting laid.” Patrick laughed and shook his head. Although Billy’s statement was true, he wasn’t sure he minded a girl moving in. His problem was that they didn’t know her at all.

“I know this isn’t what we talked about, but I can’t help it,” Jamie said, nervously playing with his phone.
“I didn’t know they’d put me under so early.”

Examining his hands, Patrick noticed he still had dirt under his fingernails from washing his car earlier. “So, why are you going under so early? It’s not protocol.” He raised his eyes to meet Jamie’s.

“I don’t know. Burns said it’s necessary for the mission. I haven’t even been through the entire training process. He told me for undercover work it’s more on-the-job learning anyway.”

“So how long are you under?” Billy asked.

“Six months,” Jamie confirmed in a confident tone that was lacking before.

“SIX MONTHS? No way.” Billy’s eyes wide with panic.
“Patrick, tell him. NO.”

Chapter Two

A HORRIFIC, WONDERFUL IDEA

By the time Patrick got back from his run, he’d gone through all the scenarios in his mind and was resigned to the fact that El was working this angle without him. When she found out that he’d known Jamie was alive and hadn’t told her, he could feel her pulling away from him, slapping him with her words and stabbing him with her eyes. Because he’d lived with her for so long, he knew her as well as he knew himself. It was the ultimate betrayal for her and she was done. He’d begged her to let him explain, but he didn’t know how to begin to explain why he’d kept the secret from her. She’d walked out of their house with George in tow and it crushed him. Then she left, hating him, and wouldn’t return his calls. Then that fucker blew up her field office with her in it, but that wasn’t enough, so he shot her. When Patrick heard about what happened, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Now Jamie had kidnapped her from Atlanta. It was unreal. He couldn’t believe the Jamie he knew would do that, but he rationalized that the Jamie he knew probably didn’t exist anymore. Last night, Millie showed Patrick a video of El, her face bruised and battered, in Key West with George. It’d gone viral through YouTube and Twitter. Even with what happened, she looked happy in the video. Millie was freaking out because of all the rumors and innuendos about George and El online and on Twitter and whatever. All Patrick cared about was that all this was going on and he hadn’t known anything. She’d kept it from him. He’d warned George a few weeks ago about what he thought was going on in Atlanta. Of course, he’d had his own selfish reasons for doing so, but still… Sitting on George’s back porch, Patrick had told him that El had requested he locate Jamie, and once he had, in Atlanta, El had taken off. His motives weren’t pure when he’d let George know that Patrick was helping El find Jamie and she was keeping things from him, again. Instead of fighting with El about it George had taken the information and done nothing. A week or so later, Jamie kidnapped her.