The Merciless Travis Wilde

“Okay. But if it’s so secretive, if it’s experimental, how do we get Jennie into the program? There’s no time to waste, Jacob. We all know that.”

“She’s already in,” Jake said. “My guy called the Boston neurosurgeon, faxed him her medical file. He phoned me.” Jake gave a little laugh. “Turns out, there are times it pays to be a wounded warrior with a shiny medal.”

Caleb nodded, as if Jake could see him. He knew how his brother hated to talk about what had happened to him during the war, how he shunned all publicity about the medal he’d won. That he’d shared such a thing with a stranger, used it for leverage, was filled with meaning.

“Good job, man,” he said softly.

Jake cleared his throat. “Hey, it’s for Travis, right? And there are no guarantees.”

“You mean,” Caleb said, “anything could happen.”

“I mean,” Jake said bluntly, “that first the surgeon has to check Jennie out and agree to do the operation. And even then—”

“Right.” Caleb hesitated. “Travis will have to know that.”

“He’ll know it. And he’ll go for it. Hell, man, it’s all we’ve got.”

“Sure. But will she?”

“Good question,” Jake said. “Only one way to find out.”

“I’m on my way to Travis’s place right now,” Caleb said.

“Me, too. Meet you there in ten.”

“In five.”

Jake made a sound that approximated a laugh.

Maybe, just maybe, things were looking up.

* * *

They arrived at Travis’s condo less than a minute apart.

They’d told him to shower. Eat. Rest. The only certainty was that he’d showered: his hair was still wet, and he’d changed his clothes.

Aside from that, he looked like a man who’d been pacing the floor and slowly going crazy.

The way he greeted them confirmed it.

“I cannot go on doing this,” he said. “Just standing around here, my thumb up my—”

“Calm down.”

“Calm down?” He spun toward Jake, eyes blazing. “The woman I love is out there alone, a—a monster consuming her brain, and the best you can do is tell me to—”

“I have one of the Wilde jets standing by.”

Travis blinked. He looked at Caleb.

“You found her? How? Where? Is she okay? Did she ask for me?”

“One question at a time, Trav. I pulled some strings. Called in some favors. She’s okay, she’s on a plane heading for Boston, and she couldn’t ask for you because she doesn’t know we found her.”

“Boston,” Travis said. “She’s going home. To New England.” His face twisted. “Doesn’t she know I’d want to be with her?”

Jake and Caleb glanced at each other in unspoken agreement that there was no sense in trying to answer that question.

Obviously Travis knew it, too.

“Okay,” he said, “let’s go after her. She’s from New Hampshire. How will she get there? Has she rented a car?”

“She’s changing planes in Boston. Actually she has two changes—”

“Which gives us time to get to Boston before she does.”

Jake and Caleb looked at each other.

Travis’s voice was stronger. He was taking command. It gave them hope he’d come through this, no matter how it ended.

“I love her,” he said, his voice filled with certainty. “I won’t let her face this alone.”

“Yeah.” Caleb laid his hand on Travis’s shoulder. “There’s something else.”

“What?”

Jake cleared his throat.

“It’s a long story,” he said, “but it turns out there’s an experimental program. A surgery to treat—what the hell do you call these things? Inoperable meningiomas.”

“An oxymoron,” Travis said angrily. “If the thing is inoperable, there can’t be a surgery for it.”

“I’m not a doctor, okay? Maybe I’m saying it wrong but the guy I knew at Walter Reed...I told you, it’s a long story. The bottom line is that there’s a surgeon—a team—doing this stuff.”

The hope that suddenly glowed in Travis’s eyes made both his brothers want to take him in their arms.

They didn’t.

They knew Travis had to stay focused. And strong.

“First, they’d have to agree Jennie qualifies for the operation. And then,” Jake said with brutal frankness, “it doesn’t always work. Some patients die during the procedure. Some never come out of the anesthesia and end up on life support. Some survive but they’re—they’re damaged.”

Travis gave a bitter laugh. “That’s your good news?”

“What I said was, it doesn’t always work. But when it does...” Jake drew a breath. “When it does, those patients resume normal lives.”

“Oh, God,” Travis whispered. “Oh God, Jennie...”

“Don’t get your hopes too high,” Caleb said bluntly. “This is one huge risk. Jennie will have to understand that.”

“You don’t know her. My Jennie never met a risk she wouldn’t take.” He glanced at his watch. “Why are we still standing here? We’re wasting time.”

Jake and Caleb nodded. They could hear the courage, the energy in their brother’s voice.

“Go on,” Jake said. “Pack while we get things going. Then we’ll get the hell out of here.”

Travis nodded, headed for his bedroom.

Jake and Caleb would buy what they needed in Boston.

Both men phoned their wives, offered quick explanations of what was going down.

“Tell Travis I love him,” Jake’s wife said.

“Tell Travis we’re all with him,” Caleb’s wife said.

Two minutes later, the Wildes were on their way to the airport.

* * *

They reached Boston an hour before Jennie’s plane was due, and stood at the gate, waiting.

Travis had never imagined time could move so slowly.

Whenever he looked at his watch, the hands were in the same place on the dial.

After the fifth or sixth time, he figured it was broken—except, Jake’s watch read the same as his.

Jake said, “How about coffee?”

Caleb said, “How

about a sandwich?”

Travis shook his head. All he wanted, all he needed, was to see Jennie.

They waited. And waited.

At last, a plane taxied to the gate. A disembodied voice announced the arrival of the flight Jennie had taken.

The ramp door opened.

The first of the disembarking passengers appeared. Most of them hurried into the terminal.

After that, nothing.

Travis’s heart was racing.

Where was she? Was Caleb’s information wrong?

His breath caught.

There she was.

Walking slowly, her face white, her eyes huge. He could almost feel the pain throbbing in her head.

He wanted to run to her, sweep her into his arms...

She saw him.

And froze.

He had not let himself think about this. About how she would react on seeing him. She had left him, after all.

“Jennie,” he said, and opened his arms.

She sobbed his name, and flew into them.

He held her to his heart. Rocked her in his embrace. She lifted her face to his and he kissed her, kissed her again and again.

She was weeping. He was, too.

Behind them, Jacob and Caleb looked at each other, then turned away.

Their eyes were damp.

It was turning into one hell of a day.

* * *

Jake had taken a suite at a hotel in Boston.

Caleb had arranged for a limo.

They drove to the hotel in silence after a brief conversation, Travis saying, “Honey, these are my brothers, Jacob and Caleb,” Jennie saying, “Hi,” Jake and Caleb saying Hi in return.

Then she’d looked at Travis and asked him why his brothers were with him, how had he found her and where were they going?

Travis had considered everything he had to tell her.

Yes, but not here.

Instead, he’d drawn her closer to him—he hadn’t let go of her since she’d gone into his arms—kissed her temple and said, “Will you trust me, sweetheart?”

Jennie knew there was only one possible answer, and she’d given it.

“Yes,” she’d whispered, because what else could she tell the man she had already trusted with her heart?

* * *

The suite was spacious. A sitting room. Three bedrooms. Three bathrooms.

Caleb and Jake vanished into two of the bedrooms.

Travis led Jennie into the third.