Pandora's Daughter

'Bullshit.'

She started toward the Camry.

'Let me go with you, Megan.' Phillip hurried after her. 'When you calm down, you'll realize you can use a friend in-'

'Down!'

Megan was knocked off her feet as Grady pushed her and Phillip to the sand.

A bullet splintered the glass of the windshield of the Camry!

'Shit.' Phillip was crawling toward her. 'Get her in the car, Grady.'

'You get her in the car.' Grady was covering her body with his own. 'The gunfire is coming from around the side of the house over there. I saw a glint on metal. We can't risk exposing her to that-'

Another bullet plowed into the sand next to her.

Another bullet followed.

Grady was cursing. 'Damn him to hell.' He rolled them both over behind the car. 'Stay here. I'm going after him.'

'Who is-'

But Grady was gone.

Don't just lie here. Get inside the car. She'd left her purse underneath the front seat. She had to reach her cell phone and call 911. She started crawling toward the passenger door.

Another bullet hit the side-view mirror.

Where the hell was Grady?

And where was Phillip?

And then she saw him.

SHE WAS KNEELING IN THE SAND BESIDE Phillip when Grady came back to the car ten minutes later.

'I've been waiting for you,' she said jerkily. 'He's been shot. We have to get him to a hospital. I called 911, but I don't know when they'll get here.'

'Any minute.' Grady fell to his knees beside Phillip. 'The sirens scared away the shooter. We were playing cat and mouse, but he jumped into his car and took off. How is he?'

'I don't know. The bullet plowed across his skull. He's unconscious.' Her teeth bit hard into her lower lip. Hold on. Don't let go. She had to help Phillip. 'Head wounds can go either way. Any trauma to the cerebral hemisphere is chancy. He could be okay tomorrow. Or he could be a vegetable. I slowed the bleeding. That's all I can do.' Her hands clenched into fists. 'I feel so damn helpless. I want to help him, Grady.'

'We'll get him the best help, Megan,' Grady said. 'At the best hospital. I promise you.'

'Why would anyone shoot Phillip?' she whispered. 'He was good, Grady. Even you couldn't make him into something he wasn't.'

'Then obviously he must have been guarded by the angels,' Grady got to his feet as he saw the flashing lights of the ambulance spearing the darkness. 'They've come for him. It's a bullet wound and there will be questions. I'll take care of them. You go with Phillip to the hospital.'

She nodded, her gaze never leaving Phillip's face. She felt as if she were splintering inside. She wanted to scream and pound her fists into the sand. 'I won't leave him. I'll never leave him.'

PHILLIP DID NOT REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS in the next ten hours.

The next day he was transported by helicopter from the local Myrtle Beach Hospital to the neural ward at Emory Hospital in Atlanta.

'No change?' Grady asked the next morning as he came into the waiting room where Megan was sitting. He handed her a cup of coffee. 'Test results?'

She shook her head. 'They think there may be brain damage, but they're not sure. He just won't wake up. They say he may never wake up.' She had to wait a moment to steady her voice. 'He's in a coma. They have him hooked up to those machines to keep him alive.' She swallowed. 'I don't know how many times I've ordered patients put on life support. But this is different. This is Phillip.'

'I'm sorry,' Grady said gently. 'He's a fine man. He didn't deserve this.'

'No, but he got it, didn't he? It doesn't matter if he deserved it or not.' She looked away from him. 'I've been thinking a lot about Phillip while I've been sitting here. I never had anyone but my mother who cared about me until he came into my life. That's why it hurt so much when I thought he'd betrayed me. I felt… fooled. I thought he'd just been pretending.'

'He did care about you, Megan.'

'I know that. I could feel it. And it wasn't any of that psychic business. He was… We were a team.' She shook her head. 'He said he wished I could have been his daughter. I wished that too. My father died before I was born and I never knew him. But no one could have been more loving than Phillip. You can't imagine how good he was to me.'

'I can imagine.'

'Of course, you brought us together. But you know, that doesn't even bother me any longer. The important thing is that we had those years together.' She drew a deep breath. 'I have questions but I don't want to think about anything but Phillip right now.' She had to talk to Dr. Pretkay, the specialist they'd brought down from Johns Hopkins. Not that they'd given her much hope. It was only one more avenue to explore. 'I just have to know one thing. That bullet wasn't meant for Phillip, was it? He was shooting at me.'

Grady nodded. 'You were the prime target. Though I'm not saying that the shooter might not have wanted to eliminate all witnesses.'

'And that night I was run off the highway?'

'Deliberate. Probably the same man.'

'Why?'

'Nothing you did. The man who killed your mother wanted to eliminate every member of her family.'

'What? That sounds like some Mafia vendetta.'

'Molino would appreciate that comparison. He grew up in Sicily in the shadow of the Mafia.'

'Molino? He's the one who killed my mother?'

'He gave the order. The man who actually killed her was one of his men, Ted Dagnos.'

'Why would Molino want my mother dead?'

'Revenge.'

'Revenge for what?'

'It's a long story and you said you didn't want to think about it now. I'll be here to answer questions when you're ready.' He studied her. 'You've accepted the fact that I wasn't her killer, haven't you?'

'As I said, I've had a lot of time to think sitting here. It was hard for me to accept that she was murdered.' She added unsteadily. 'But I have to do that. Whatever other madness and mental chaos I went through in that cave two nights ago, I do believe that my mother's death was not an accident. Everything else is still suspect. I have to prove it to myself.' She immediately shook her head. 'No, you're right. Not now. But I'm going to want all the answers, Grady. You'd better be prepared to give them.'

'Any day. Anytime.' He added soberly, 'Let me know when you hear something more about Phillip.'

She nodded jerkily. 'It should be soon.'

'Would you like me to stay?'

She gave him a level glance. 'No, I can't say I like the idea of leaning on a man who's been as deceptive and manipulative as you've been with me.'

He smiled. 'You have a point. And I don't think you're afraid of me manipulating you anymore.'

'I'm not.' But it was true she no longer felt the danger from him was immediate. In the past days he had been with her constantly, fast, efficient, arranging everything for Phillip. He never intruded but was always a quiet presence in the background. 'And you weren't the one shooting at me at the beach. You may have saved my life. I'm sure it was probably for purely selfish reasons, but you clearly don't want me dead.'

'Very clearly.' He turned toward the door. 'You have my cell number. Call me if you need me.'

'Where are you going?'

He shrugged. 'You don't want me here, but I have to keep and eye on you. I'll be around. Give me five minutes'