Sneak Peek from Guilliam

Man Down: Guilliam (Book #5)

There is no greater motive than bloodlust, DNA, and revenge mixed up in a cocktail of hatred…

Guilliam watched his long term relationship dissolve and to a certain extent he understood it. He knew when the time was right, he’d try again. He didn’t expect to see her immediately upon arrival at the hospital though as he joined Jasper’s investigation team.

Janelle walked away from Guilliam to nurse her sick mother. It was supposed to be temporary but the cancer was deadly and she was staying in the hospital room knowing it was her mother’s last few weeks. Finding out Guilliam was there helped, but knowing he was involved in something deadly had her feeling like she was being watched all the time.

It takes everyone to get to the bottom of this nightmare, but not before it gets way worse…

G uilliam Lafranko stepped into the hospital and located the room number Tesla had given him. He made an ever-so-slight knock before stepping inside.

She looked up, blanked out for just a moment, then stood up and threw her arms around him. “You came,” she cried out.

He hugged her closely. “Of course I did,” he murmured, as he looked over at the friend he’d known for so long and sighed. “I sure don’t enjoy seeing him like this.”

“He won’t enjoy you seeing him like this either,” she admitted.

“Understood,” Guilliam replied, with a nod. “Warriors should always be on their feet, never like this.” He looked back at her and asked, “The men, have they found anything?”

“Lots,” she admitted, “just not enough.”

“It’s always that way,” he noted. “I’ll go find them.”

“I haven’t told them you were coming.”

He waved his hand. “I contacted Jasper, so he knows I’m here.”

“Oh good, I wasn’t sure how he would take it.”

“It doesn’t matter how he takes it,” he replied, smiling at her. “All that matters is that we get the job done.” He took another close look at his longtime friend Mason and asked, “He’s conscious, no?”

“He has been, yes. He manages a few minutes, recognizes me, then goes back under.”

“That’s good,” he noted. “You don’t want to push him for more than that right now. If he understood what was going on out here, he would fight to stay conscious, and then he wouldn’t heal.”

She stared at Guilliam and then nodded. “That’s very true. I have to remember that.”

“You need to temporarily look after yourself, the baby, and Sebastian, without Mason’s help, while Mason looks after himself, despite his condition.”

“I hear you,” she muttered. “It’s just been so terribly hard to sit here and to wait.”

“It won’t be much longer,” he stated. “Hopefully we’ll solve this before he wakes up permanently.” He gave her a gentle hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You stay here, where it’s safe.”

“How did you get past the guard?”

“The guard knows me,” he said, with a smile, “at least he did once he recognized me. Most people don’t recognize me right off the bat. I do that on purpose, but I knew who the guard was on duty right now, so it’s all good.”

“As long as nobody else can pull that trick.”

“No, nobody else will pull that trick. I promise. Do you need anything?”

“No,” she whispered, her voice wavering a bit, as she touched her swollen belly. “I just need Mason back.”

“He’s alive. He’s fighting to come back to you. He’s waking up occasionally to remind us that he’s still in there, fighting. Solving the case and keeping everybody safe in the meantime is up to us.”

She nodded. “Do you need anything?”

He smiled. “No, I’m fine.” Then studying her for a moment, he asked, “What’s up, Tesla?”

She hesitated. “It’s just that… Janelle is here.”

He raised an eyebrow, as he contemplated Tesla. “Looking after Mason?”

“No, it’s her mother. She’s a patient here and in a pretty bad way.”

He froze, and a sad look entered his gaze. “I’m so sorry to hear that.… Janelle’s always been very close to her mother.”

“And to you,” Tesla pointed out.

“And to me,” he confirmed, “but it just wasn’t our time. This isn’t the time either,” he stated, looking at her sternly. “No matchmaking.”

She smiled. “I’m not matchmaking. I’m just telling you that she’s here, in case you want to see her.”

“I’ll see,” he replied. “Is she working here at this hospital?”

“Sometimes. She comes and goes.”

“Of course, and her mom is here?”

Tesla shrugged. “She is. It sounds serious, as if she may not have too long.”

He winced. “All right, I’ll,… I’ll see about contacting her.” As he walked away from Tesla and Mason, Guilliam knew he couldn’t see Janelle—or her mother. If ever you had loved and lost that one special woman in your life, you sure as hell didn’t want to go through such pain again. As he headed down the hallway to the stairs, a woman called out to him.

“Guilliam?”

He froze and turned to look, as Janelle walked toward him. “Janelle,” he said, with a smile. “How are you?”

“I’m fine. How are you?” Her words were barely more than a whisper, and her face was pale with shock. “I never expected to see you.”

“I can’t say that I planned to be here, but Mason ,” he said, with a nod toward his room.

She winced and nodded. “That makes sense. If ever somebody would bring you back here, it would be him.”

He hesitated before he added, “Tesla told me about your mother.”

Janelle stiffened at first, then slowly relaxed. “Honestly, at this point, her passing will be a blessing,” she admitted. “Watching her suffer is pretty hard to take, but it won’t be long now.”

“I’m so sorry.”

She shrugged. “It will be a good thing for Mom.”

“In that case,… I hope for an easy passing,” he said, as he inched away.

As she headed toward her mother’s room, avoiding any more discussion with Guilliam, she called back, “Were you going to contact me?”

He looked up at her and schooled his features. “I just got here. I didn’t know you were here, not until Tesla mentioned it.”

“Your head may not have known,” she stated, “but your heart would have.”

And, with that comment, he knew that any pretense would be completely useless. “I might have looked you up once I realized just what the lay of the land was. My first focus has been on Mason.”

“Of course,” she replied, a little more formally. “Still, if you can spare a few minutes at some point, it would be nice to spend some time with you.”

He stiffened, knowing that spending time with her, although it was everything he’d always wanted, would also be terribly painful for him to endure.

She cut away his unspoken protest and added, “A lot of heartache remains between us, but I would very much like to heal that pain.”

He groaned. “I’m not sure that healing for you is the same as for me.”

“Maybe not,” she whispered, “but it might help us both to spend some time together to find out.”

He searched her features. “This is new territory for me, so I don’t know what to say.”

She nodded. “Me too. Nothing like watching somebody dying to make you realize that other decisions you’ve made may not have been the best.” He winced at that, and she nodded. “I hurt you, and I didn’t mean to, and I hurt myself as well,” she admitted, with a sigh. “I thought I was doing the right thing because my mother needed me.”

“She did need you,” he confirmed, “and, of course, you had to come help her.”

“I did, and you’re right, but I didn’t have to tear apart what we had. I,… I don’t know what I was thinking or why I did what I did.”

His phone went off at that moment, like a lifesaver, and he nodded. “We’ll talk. Beyond that, no promises. I have to go.”

And, with that, he bolted down the stairs to get out of the hospital and to get away from his past as quickly as he could. One thing he had learned a long time ago was that you could never go back to the way things had been before. Still, a tiny voice in the back of his head whispered that maybe he didn’t have to go back to that. Maybe, just maybe, something better was ahead.