“Yeah. Texts. She’s not dealing very well with what happened. She’s been in therapy but I’m not sure it’s helping yet.”
“You’ve talked to others too, right?” Calum asked.
Gillian nodded again. “Yes, a bunch of us exchange texts and emails regularly. We feel as if we’ve bonded. We’ve been through hell and somehow survived.”
“How often do you talk to them?”
Gillian shrugged. “I don’t know. I talk with some more than others. I text Andrea pretty regularly. And Janet sends me texts and pictures of Renee. We’ve talked about how best to deal with the angry feelings that we all still seem to have. About how unfair it was that it happened to us.”
“What about Alice Hicks and her husband Wade?” Calum asked. “You were seated next to them before the plane was taken over. Right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you talk to them?”
“I’ve gotten an email or two. The situation was really hard on Alice. She and Wade are newlyweds. They were asleep when it all started and they were separated. Alice seems to be the kind of woman who doesn’t do well at all in stressful situations. She cried a lot, and I saw Wade doing his best to make eye contact with her throughout the entire ordeal.”
“What about Muhammad Nassar? He’s Muslim. Did you see him have any one-on-one contact with the hijackers?”
“No,” Gillian told them. “As I’ve said over and over, I didn’t have much contact with the men at all. I didn’t even see most of them. I couldn’t tell you what Muhammad did, although I don’t think it’s fair to think he might be the seventh hijacker simply because of his religious beliefs.”
“We weren’t accusing him of anything,” Calum said smoothly. “We’re just trying to find out as much information about everyone as possible.”
And so the questioning continued. Alejandro Chavez, Mateo Herrera …they went through every single person, including the passengers from Canada, Japan, Colombia, Panama, India, Nicaragua…
By the time they were done, Gillian could hardly function.
She felt as if she’d taken the world’s hardest test…and failed. She didn’t think she’d given them anything useful. If she had any suspicions about who the wolf in sheep’s clothing might be, she would’ve told someone before now. The entire interview just seemed so pointless. Did they really care who had stomach problems because of lack of food and water, and who didn’t?
“If you think of anything else you didn’t tell us today, please contact us as soon as possible,” Gary told her. “Anything, no matter how small, could be the difference in taking one more terrorist off the street or letting them continue to ruin lives in the future.”
Well, gee, no pressure, Gillian thought. She nodded.
“And you need to be extremely cautious,” Calum added. “You were handpicked by Luis to be their voice for some reason. It could be the seventh hijacker was really the one calling the shots, and he chose you. Until this person is behind bars, your life could be in danger.”
Gillian shivered. Wasn’t that a fun thought? “Do you really think whoever it is will come after me?”
“That’s the thing, we just don’t know,” Gary told her. “But killing you could be a way to get back at the fact that six of his friends didn’t survive their mission.”
“They had to know there was a pretty big chance they weren’t going to live,” Gillian insisted.
Both investigators shrugged.
Great. Just great. “Can I go?” she asked, hating how weak her voice sounded.
Gary and Calum stood, their chairs making obnoxious and ear-splitting screeches as they moved back.
Moving stiffly, Gillian nodded at them, not bothering to shake their hands, and made her way to the door. She knew the men were just doing their jobs, but she needed out of that room.
The second she opened the door, Walker was there. He stood in front of her saying something, but she didn’t hear it. She walked to him, then leaned her head against his chest. His arms went around her and held her close.
Gillian didn’t even have the energy to put her arms around him in return. She just stood in his embrace with her arms hanging limply by her sides and closed her eyes.
Walker had her. He’d make sure she got home. She didn’t have to think about anything but how good he smelled and how thankful she was that he was there.
Trigger wanted to know what the fuck happened behind that closed conference room door more than he wanted his next breath. His woman was fucking exhausted and almost catatonic. He should’ve tried harder to be allowed in there with her. He would’ve made sure the two investigators didn’t push her too hard.
“What’d you do?” he growled as Gary and Calum exited the room.
They both looked surprised at the venom in his tone. They looked from him to Gillian then back.
“She did good,” Gary said quietly. “Much better than we’d expected.”
“We might’ve gone on a little longer than we did with the others, but she had a lot of really useful information,” Calum told him.
Again, Trigger mentally kicked himself for not at least forcing them to take a break. Gillian had been in with them for over five hours. She’d missed lunch and had obviously been pushed too far.
Wanting to lambast the investigators, but knowing that would delay getting Gillian home, he turned his back on the two men and leaned down to the exhausted woman in his arms. She was strong as fuck, but even superheroes had their breaking points.
“Ready to go home?” he asked gently.
She nodded against his chest.
“You want me to carry you?”
She shook her head but didn’t move.
Trigger couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t rush her, simply waited for her to gather enough strength to walk out of the building by his side. Within a minute, he felt her take a big breath and pull away from him.
He didn’t let her go far, keeping his arm around her waist. She leaned heavily on him and he felt her finger hook into one of the belt loops of his jeans. He wanted to ask her what happened, what was said, but knew that was the last thing she needed. Right now she needed food, and to feel safe.
Gillian didn’t need his protection because she was weak. She was far from it. But he needed to give it to her because she was important to him. Over the last month, he’d found himself thinking about her almost every minute of the day. She’d quickly become one of the most important people in his life. And he’d be damned if he did anything to harm her in any way.
He got her to his Blazer and helped her get buckled in. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the seat, exhaustion easy to read in her body language. Before starting the car, Trigger took the time to order food for them from a diner near her apartment. He stopped to pick it up before heading to her place. She didn’t even ask what he’d ordered or what he was doing, she was that tired.
The second they entered her apartment, she turned to him. “I’m going to go lie down…is that all right?”
He hated seeing her like this. “You don’t have to ask my permission to lie down in your own apartment, Gilly. Go on. I’ll be in soon with some lunch.”