by Katie Knight
“Oatmeal, Daddy!” the little boy said when they walked into the bustling space. Staff and patients’ families crowded the area as people got coffees and rolls and whatever else they needed to start their day. Preston got Parker’s oatmeal and a side of toast then ordered himself a plate of eggs and bacon before paying for it all and carrying the tray back out to the elevators, one-handed.
Hopefully, Lila was feeling better this morning and would be discharged as soon as Dr. Basmati made her rounds again.
“Mommy?” Parker said, attempting to push every button in the elevator. Thankfully he wasn’t that tall and could only reach the first row. Still, it was a few more stops than they needed to make. At least they were alone in the elevator car, so no one else would be inconvenienced. “We see Mommy?”
“Yep, that’s where we’re headed, buddy.” Preston said, exhaling as they stopped on the second floor, then the third. Finally the doors closed and they headed up to four, where Lila’s room was located. Perhaps if her head was clearer today, she’d be able to remember more details about what had happened. He’d run into Tom on the way past the lodge this morning too. Apparently, the investigation into what had caused the accident was still underway. They hadn’t found much yet, according to Tom, though a few people said the guy who’d been riding with Lila had been acting suspiciously before she fell. Preston’s gut tightened each time he thought of it. If only he’d been there, maybe he could’ve stopped it from happening. Maybe her fall was connected with what had happened at the ice rink the day before, or the tampering with her cabin door. Maybe whoever he’d been tracking had found out about him and was now coming after Preston through those he loved.
Maybe his fatigue was making him paranoid.
Ding!
The elevator jolted to a stop and the doors opened. Preston led his son off the elevator and down the hall toward Lila’s room. Several of the new nurses on shift nodded as they passed, smiling down at Parker. Then he looked up and spotted a man entering Lila’s room. Dressed in a black jacket and dark jeans, it wasn’t a nurse. Not a doctor either, or an orderly, or a janitor—or anyone who seemed to have any legitimate work-related reason to be there. His heart tripped as adrenaline rushed his system.
“Hungry, Daddy!” Parker said, yanking on his hand.
“Right.” Preston stopped at the nurses’ station and placed the tray on the counter. “Any way you guys could watch him for a minute? I want to check on my fiancée alone first.”
“Sure,” one of the nurses said, smiling. “Happy to help. Which breakfast is his?”
“The oatmeal.”
With his son in good hands, Preston briskly walked toward Lila’s door.
He automatically reached for the weapon he usually kept locked and loaded at his waist before remembering he didn’t carry his firearm on leave. Dammit. Okay. Fine. If this man turned out to be a threat then Preston would take him down using his bare hands. Probably safer that way anyway, given their surroundings. He had black belts in Krav Maga and Jujitsu. He’d handle this guy one way or another, if the guy meant to harm Lila.
Seizing the element of surprise, Preston shoved open the door and spotted the man leaning over a sleeping Lila. Adrenaline searing through his veins like wildfire, he lunged forward at the man at the same time the stranger bolted for the door. They collided near the end of Lila’s bed and tumbled to the ground.
As Preston grappled with his attacker, Lila stirred. “Preston? What happening? What’s going on?”
He managed to get a few good punches into the stranger’s torso before the loud crash of a cart in the hallway distracted him, allowing his opponent to escape. Preston was well-trained as a fighter, had to be for his job. The fact that the guy had managed to get free meant the attacker must be a professional too, sent here specifically to harm Lila, but why?
Before he could contemplate that further, the guy used Preston’s distraction against him and slammed Preston’s head hard into the tile floor before scrambling away and out the door. The commotion of the nurses out in the hall merged with the squeak of the man’s shoes as he fled.
“Sir, are you all right?” one of the nurse’s asked, crouching beside him on the floor.
“I’m fine,” he said even though his head ached from the fight. “Check on her, please.”
Several more nurses entered to tend to Lila, who was now panicked.
“Where’s my son?” Lila screamed. “Parker?”
“He’s at the nurse’s station, ma’am,” a technician said. “They’re keeping him busy eating his oatmeal.”
The nurse helped Preston to his feet and handed him an ice pack for what would surely be a bump on his head. He’d have a hell of a headache tomorrow, but he didn’t care about that. All he cared about was keeping Lila safe.
“We’ve called security, sir,” the nurse said, checking his scalp for blood. “There don’t appear to be any lacerations. How’s your vision? Are you feeling nauseous at all?”
“No.” Preston winced slightly as he shook his head, not because of dizziness, but because it caused the knot forming on the back of his head to shoot pain down his neck. “I’m fine. Really. Did anyone get a good look at the man’s face?”
“No, sir,” a couple of the nurses said in unison.
“He was fast, and we weren’t expecting him. Hopefully the cameras in the hall caught something,” the nurse who’d given him the ice pack said.
Preston waited until they’d gotten Lila calmed down then took the seat beside her bed as Parker came running in. “Mommy? You okay?”
She held his hand through the bars of the bedrail, forcing a tremulous smile. “I’m fine, buddy. Can you go back out with the nurses for a minute? I need to talk to Preston about something. See if you can draw me a picture to make me happy again.”
Parker nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, Mommy! Make you dinosaur.”
He took off out of the room and Preston exhaled slowly. “Are you sure you’re all right? When I came in here and saw that guy near your bed, I just lost it.”
“I’m okay.” She reached out for his hand this time and he twined his fingers with hers, grateful for the warmth of her soft skin against his. “Better than you at the moment. How’s your head?”
“Fine.” He set the ice pack aside and leaned in closer, lowering his voice. “I’m not sure why all these things are happening to you, honey, but I swear I’ll find out and put a stop to it.”
“What do you think he was after?” Her voice trembled slightly and Preston tightened his grip on her hand, hoping to reassure her. Her brave expression crumpled again and tears welled in her eyes. “Oh, God. Parker. If anything happens to him, I won’t be able to…”
“Shh.” Preston kissed her hand. “Nothing will happen to him because I won’t let it. I promise, okay? Try to get some more rest if you can. I’ll wake you when Security gets here.”
Nineteen
“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t see anything,” Lila said an hour later to the uniformed police officer standing beside her hospital bed. She’d already gone over all of this with the hospital security guard, who’d then felt a call to the cops was warranted. “I don’t know who the man was or what he was doing here in my room. I’m sorry.”
Across the room, she spotted Preston talking with another officer, this one dressed in a suit and overcoat. They kept glancing her way periodically and it was starting to annoy her. She didn’t like feeling so helpless and out of the loop.
Finally, the uniformed officer finished scribbling in his tiny notebook and moved out of the way. Preston brought the other man to her bedside. “Lila, this is Detective Morrison. I’ve been telling him about the other things that have happened the past couple of days.”
“Other things?” She tried to scoot up in her bed but failed as her body protested the movements. With a huff, she crossed her arms atop the covers. “All I did was fall though the ice while we were skating. I hardly think whoever broke in here had anything to do with that
. And as for falling off the lift, I don’t even remember what happened around the accident, so no help there either.” Her head ached again at the mention of her lost memories, but she shoved it aside to focus on Preston and the detective. “I’ve already told the other officer everything I know.”
Preston lowered his head, his expression looking oddly remorseful. “What about the signs of tampering with the front door? The fact the window in Parker’s room had been unlocked? After today, I think those things are more significant than ever.”
She scowled. He’d not pushed the matter at the time, and she’d gone along with him, thinking the idea that someone might have been trying to attack them was ridiculous. But now, the sense of violation, coupled with the powerlessness growing inside her, pushed her over the edge. “Why didn’t you make more of a fuss about it then if you were so concerned?”
He at least had the decency to look sheepish. Not that it dampened her anger at all. “I should have, I realize now. At the time, I didn’t harp on about it because I didn’t want to worry you and I figured I could handle the problem myself. You already had so much on your plate, but I should’ve been more insistent about calling the police.”
“You thought you could handle it yourself?” She leaned forward now, ignoring the sharp pains in her muscles as she geared up to let him have it. Perhaps she might have been overreacting a bit, taking out her pent-up frustrations on him, but at that moment she didn’t care. “First off, you don’t get to make those decisions about what you can and can’t handle for us. You showed up out of the blue a week ago, risen from the dead. Parker might be your son biologically, but he’s my responsibility. Mine. No one else’s. You don’t even know if you’ll be around next week, so you don’t get a vote here in what I do or don’t know when it comes to his safety. How dare you decide not to tell me something like this? You put my life at risk. My son’s life at risk.”
“I’m a trained SEAL, Lila,” Preston said, his tone flat. “It’s my job to take care of people. Like I said, I thought I could handle it.”
“Yes, because you did such a stellar job of it today.”
Preston’s tanned face paled a bit at her insult and Lila inwardly cringed. That had been a low blow, regardless of how angry she was.
“Folks, if you could calm down and focus on the incident at hand, things would progress a lot more smoothly,” Detective Morrison said, holding up his hands. “Fighting between yourselves won’t help us catch this guy any sooner.”
Damn if the detective wasn’t right. Lila’s anger deflated, leaving her feeling hollow and embarrassed. Preston wouldn’t look at her, just stared down at his toes.
“Tell me exactly what you saw that first day,” she said, finally. “When you came over to my cabin.”
“The front lock had been tampered with, like I said—like someone tried to force it open,” Preston said, exhaling slow and looking out the doorway into the hall. “I showed you the sawdust on the porch and gouges and scratches on the wooden doorframe. Later, when I checked the rest of the house. I found the window in Parker’s room closed but unlatched. I told you about that, too. When we left, I went back and looked around the area outside his window, and there were footprints outside leading away from the cabin. Male footprints. Those, I didn’t mention to you.” She scowled and he winced. “Anyway, I checked again each time I went to your place to make sure everything was secure and there were no new signs of a break-in. There weren’t. That’s when I started to think maybe it had been a one-time thing, a freak occurrence or just kids messing around. But then you fell through the ice.”
“And you think that’s related? How?” she demanded. “There’s no way anyone could have known I’d be over that exact spot when I was. I doubt that’s related to anything.”
“True,” he conceded. “But it got me thinking again about the possible break-in at your cabin, and it raised my guard where you and Parker are concerned even higher.”
The fact he’d not told her everything about what he’d seen outside her cabin still stung. She’d thought they were in a good place, that the lines of communication between them had been restored after his disappearance from her life all those years ago. Thought she might finally start to trust him again, but now… Ugh. Uncertainty clawed fresh wounds in her heart. How could she place her safety and that of her son’s in the hands of a man who couldn’t be relied on, even during the rare occasion when he was there by her side?
He cursed under his breath and turned away. “I talked to Tom on the phone a little while ago while you were being interviewed by the police. He said they took witness statements from the slopes around the time of your accident. More than one person reported seeing a man on the same lift chair as you. By their accounts, the man appears to have deliberately knocked you off the lift.”
The ground beneath her seemed to disappear, leaving Lila in free fall. “What? Someone pushed me off the lift?”
“It appears so, ma’am,” Detective Morrison said. “Do you have any enemies? Anyone who might want to harm you or your son?”
“No. No one.” She hugged her arm tighter around herself and shuddered. Someone had tried to kill her? Why? She’d always tried to be a good person, took care of her neighbours, paid her debts. At that last thought an image of the day she’d gone in to pay off her balance to Sal flashed through her head. The sleazy pawn shop. The equally sleazy patrons and employees she’d encountered there. But Sal would have no reason to come after her. She’d paid him in full. No. There was no reason for him or anyone else to wish her ill. “Maybe this man who came into my room here at the hospital was just a random weirdo.”
Except, even as she said the words, the unease inside her grew.
“That doesn’t explain the lift accident though,” Preston said. “The man people described from the slopes matches the attacker from today. Big, male, dressed all in black.” He rubbed the back of his head where the guy had slammed it into the floor. “I can attest he knows how to fight. I’m a trained hunter and he got the best of me. I’d say he might’ve even served in black ops at some point, though I don’t know for certain. All I know is he nearly took out an active Navy SEAL, so make of that what you will.”
“Right.” Detective Morrison made a few more notes, then stepped back toward the door. “I’m going over to the lodge now to speak with the owners and take a look at the cabin. I’ll have a team of uniformed officers go over everything as well to make sure this man hasn’t damaged or sabotaged the cabin further. If I have any additional questions for either of you, I’ll let you know.”
Once he’d gone, Lila looked back at Preston, who was lingering near the end of her bed looking determined.
“I meant what I said.” He met her gaze. “About looking out for you and Parker. I’ll stop this guy, by whatever means necessary. He got lucky because I was distracted earlier. I won’t let it happen again.”
“Don’t worry. As soon as they discharge me, I’m getting out of here. I won’t risk Parker’s life over some Christmas card holiday experience.” She shook her head. “I want as much distance between us and Northern California as possible.”
Preston blinked at her a second, then frowned. “What if he follows you?”
“What?” Lila stared at him, wide-eyed. God almighty, she’d never thought of that and now her fear boiled over. It was like some nightmare horror film or something. She’d brought her son here to celebrate and now they might end up running for their lives. “Do you think that could actually happen?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head and moved to the side of the bed again, taking her chilled hand in his. “I’m sorry, Lila. I don’t want to scare you. Just the opposite. But we have to be realistic. Until the cops catch whoever’s responsible for these accidents of yours, I think it might be safest for you and Parker to stay put at the lodge. The cops are watching now, as am I. I’ll move into your cabin with you and keep an eye on things. Maybe he’ll make a mistake and then we’ll catch him, once and
for all. What do you say?” He kissed her fingers again, his gaze beseeching. “It means you’ll have to trust me.”
After all the lies, that was a tough thing to ask, but deep in her heart, she believed him. Besides, until she got out of the hospital and back on her feet again, what choice did she have? She needed someone to look after her son—who better than a trained SEAL? She nodded. “Okay. I trust you, for now. But if you hide anything from me or lie to me once more, Preston Lawson or Fleischer or whatever it is you call yourself these days, you will never see me or your son again. Understood?”
He nodded.
“Good.” She pushed her hair back and squared her shoulders. “Now let’s see what the doctor says about when I can get out of here.”
Twenty
Preston drove Lila home from the hospital the next morning. Dr. Busmati had recommended one more night under observation after the traumatic events of the day before and also due to the lingering dizziness and nausea Lila was still experiencing when she tried to stand or walk.
He'd left Parker with Clara and her twins at Lila’s cabin and the minute they pulled into the driveway, the little boy ran out onto the porch without his coat, jumping up and down and waving to his mother. “Mommy!”
Lila gave him a tired smile and leaned against Preston’s chest as he helped her inside. He’d have liked to keep her near him all day, but unfortunately, he’d finally gotten a message from James and needed to check in with his CO. He got Lila settled beneath a blanket on a chair in the living room before the crackling fireplace, then pulled Clara aside.
“Hey, can you stay with her a few minutes?” Preston asked once they were alone in the hallway. “I need to go next door and make a phone call.”
“Sure,” Clara said, glancing into the living room where the twins and Parker were busy showing Lila all the drawings they’d made for her while she’d been away. “She’s in good hands with me.”