by Barb Han
“Maybe it is a good idea for me to sell. My handyman, Ralph, can keep things running until the sale. He can see to it if anyone needs a rental. You were right to have me call my daughter,” she said to Colton. “Good luck with everything. Take care of yourselves.” Peach glanced from Makena to Colton and back. “And take care of each other. If you don’t mind my saying, the two of you have something special. That’s probably the most important thing you can have in life.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Colton said.
Again, Makena didn’t see the need to correct Peach despite the thrill of hope she felt at hearing those words. Peach had been through a traumatic experience and Makena wasn’t going to ruin her romantic notions by clarifying her relationship with Colton. He had become her lifeline and that was most likely the reason the thought of being separated from him at some point gave her heart palpitations, not that she’d reactivated real feelings for him. The kind of feelings that could go the distance.
* * *
COLTON CHECKED HIS WATCH. He surveyed the area, well aware that it had only been a short while ago that two perps had been walking across that same street.
A second deputy pulled up. Colton motioned for him to go on inside. He didn’t want anyone working alone on this scene or this case.
He turned to Makena. “River is probably still in surgery. Do you think you could eat something?”
Peach wasn’t the only one in shock. Makena was handling hers well, but she’d had months of being on the run and hiding to practice dealing with extreme emotions.
Makena closed the distance between them and leaned against him.
Colton looped his arms around her waist and pulled her body flush with his. This time, he was the one who dipped his head and pressed a kiss to her lips. He told himself he did it to root them both in reality again, but there was so much more to it, to being with her.
The thought of how close he’d come to losing her sent a shiver rocketing down his back. He’d lost enough with Rebecca and he didn’t want to lose another friend.
Makena took in a deep breath. “How do you think he knew?”
Colton knew exactly what she was talking about. She was picking up their conversational thread from a few minutes ago.
“It’s possible he didn’t. It’s likely he assumed that something could happen. He might have followed them here. Maybe they disappeared for a couple of days, and he realized they were searching for you and had found you. So he must’ve decided following them was his best chance at finding you. You were the wild card. They had no idea when you were going to show up and what evidence you might bring with you. They’ve probably been looking for you this entire time, and the fact that you disappeared when you did made it look that much more like you had something to hide or fear.”
“Timing,” she said on another sigh. It was a loaded word.
She blinked up at him and those crystal clear blue eyes brought out feelings he hadn’t felt since college. He had no idea what to do with them. Complicated didn’t begin to describe their lives. But he liked her standing right where she was, her warm body pressed against his and his arms circling her waist.
Colton glanced around, surveying the area. Even with two deputies on-site he couldn’t let his guard down.
“What do you say we eat at the cafeteria in the hospital?” Makena asked.
“I need to let these guys know where we’re headed and communicate with Gert so she can keep someone close to us.” Traveling this way was cumbersome and frustrating. An idea sparked. He twined his and Makena’s fingers before walking back inside the building. “How about one of you gentlemen lend me your service vehicle? I can leave my truck here. I don’t want either one of you driving it. I’ll have it towed back to my office. And then the two of you can buddy up on the way back to the office, where you can pick up another vehicle.”
Both of his deputies were already nodding their agreement.
Deputy Fletcher pitched a set of keys to Colton, which he caught with one hand. He figured that he and Makena would be a helluva lot safer in a marked vehicle than his truck. Not to mention Bic and Stitch knew exactly what he drove. They may have even pulled some strings and run the plates by now, which would work in Colton’s favor. He highly doubted they would’ve shot at a sheriff if they’d known.
Colton led Makena out to the county-issued SUV.
The drive to the hospital was forty minutes long. Colton located a parking spot as close to the ER doors as he could find. He linked his and Makena’s fingers before walking into the ER bay. He was ever aware that a sharpshooter could be anywhere, waiting to strike. But what he hoped was that Bic and Stitch had gone back to Dallas to regroup.
Now that their chief was aware, they would be brought in for questioning. It would have to be handled delicately. Their plan to set up River had blown up in their faces, as had their plans to erase Makena.
The strangest part about the whole thing was that they were targeting her based on what they thought she knew, while she really knew nothing. But now Dallas P.D and the sheriff’s office knew what the men were capable of.
On the annual summer barbecue night, Colton and his staff would sit around a campfire way too late and swap stories. Conversation always seemed to drift toward what everyone would do if it went down, meaning they had to disappear.
The first thing people said was obvious. Get rid of their cell phone. The next was that they’d stay the heck away from their personal vehicle. Another thing was not to go home again. That seemed obvious. Most of the deputies said they’d go to the ATM and withdraw as much money as they could before heading to Mexico. At least one said she would head toward Canada because she thought it was the opposite way anyone would look for her.
Bic and Stitch had to have a backup plan. It was just a cop’s instinct to talk through worst-case scenarios. And if they thought like typical cops, like he was certain they did considering they had twenty-six years of police experience between them, he figured they had an escape plan, too.
So the thought of them going back to their homes or to Dallas was scratched. Their cover was blown.
But did they realize it?
One thing was certain: they didn’t have anything to gain sticking around town. In fact, it would do them both good to hide out until this blew over. And then take off for the border.
What would their escape plan be? He wondered where they’d been hiding while River booked the motel room.
It was a lot to think about. Colton needed a jolt of caffeine and he probably needed something in his stomach besides acid from coffee. The piece of toast he’d had for breakfast wasn’t holding up anymore.
He stopped off at the nurses’ station in the ER.
“Can you point me to the cafeteria?” It wouldn’t do any good to ask about River yet and these women most likely wouldn’t know. He would go to the information desk, which would be in the front lobby.
“Straight down this hallway, make a right and then a left. You’ll find a lobby, which you’ll need to cross. You’ll get to a hallway on the exact opposite side and you’ll want to take that. You can’t miss it from there.”
Colton thanked the intake nurse and then followed her directions to a T. A minute later, they were standing in front of a row of vending machines that had everything from hot chocolate to hot dogs.
“Does any of this look appetizing?” he asked Makena.
She walked slowly, skimming the contents of each vending machine. She stopped at the third one and then pointed. “I think this ham sandwich could work.”
Colton bought two of them, then grabbed a couple bags of chips. She wanted a soft drink while he stuck with black coffee.
There was a small room with a few bright orange plastic tables and chairs scattered around the room. Each table had from three to six chairs surrounding it. There were two individuals sitting at different tables,
each staring at their phone.
Makena took the lead and chose a table farthest away from the others. The sun was shining, and hours had passed since breakfast.
“So I noticed you didn’t ask about River.” Makena took a bite and chewed on her ham sandwich.
“No, the intake nurses either wouldn’t have information or wouldn’t share it. There’s an information desk we can stop at after we eat. I know most of the people who work there and figured that would be the best place to check his status” He checked his smartwatch. “Gert would let me know if the worst had happened, if River had died.”
“Have you given much thought to what your life might look like once this is all behind you?” Colton asked Makena after they’d finished eating.
“Every day for the past six months I’ve thought about what I would do once this was all over. To be honest, I never really had an answer that stuck. I went through phases. One of those phases was to just buy a little farmhouse somewhere away from people and live on my own and maybe get a golden retriever for company.”
“There are worse ways to spend your life.”
She smiled and continued. “Then, I had a phase where I wanted to move far away from Texas and live in a major metropolitan area where there would be people everywhere, but no one would bother me unless I wanted them to. If I wanted to be left alone, people would respect that. But I would be around life again. I’d be around people doing things and being busy. I wouldn’t have to hide my face.” She looked out the window thoughtfully. “None of those things stuck for more than a month.”
“And how about now?”
“I have a few ideas.” She turned to face him and looked him in the eyes. “Now I feel like I know what I want, but that maybe it’s out of reach.”
Before he could respond, a text came in from Gert that River was out of surgery. Gert had connections in most places and the hospital was no different. Glancing at his watch, he realized an hour had passed since they’d arrived at the hospital.
Colton made a mental note to finish this conversation later, because a very large part of him wanted to know if she saw any chance of the two of them spending time together. It was pretty much impossible for him to think about starting a new relationship while he had one-year-old twins at home, especially with what was going on with his family.
His mind came up with a dozen reasons straight out of the chute as to why it was impossible and wouldn’t happen and could never go anywhere. Why he couldn’t risk it.
But the heart didn’t listen to logic. It wanted to get to know Makena again. To see if the fire in the kisses they’d shared—kisses he was having one helluva time trying to erase from his memory—could ignite something that might last longer than a few months.
Logic flew out the window when it came to the heart.
“River is out of surgery and I can probably get us up to his floor if not his room.”
Makena looked like she wanted to say something and then thought better of it.
“Let’s do it.” She took in a sharp breath, like she was steadying herself for what she knew would come.
Colton cursed the timing of the text, but it was good news. He led them to the information desk where he could get details about which floor River was housed in. Trudy, a middle-aged single mother who lived on the outskirts of Katy Gulch, sat at the counter.
As sheriff, Colton liked to get to know his residents and look out for those who seemed to need it. Trudy had been widowed while her husband had been serving in the military overseas. She’d been left with four kids and not a lot of money. Colton’s office led a back-to-school backpack drive every year in part to make sure her children never went without. Gert always beamed with pride when delivering those items.
Gert organized a toy drive every year for Christmas, a book drive twice a year and coats for kids before the first cold snap.
“Hey, Trudy. You have a patient who just got out of surgery, and we’d like to go up to his floor and talk to his nurse and possibly his doctor,” Colton said after introducing Trudy to Makena.
“Just a second, Sheriff. I’ll look that up right now,” Trudy said with a smile. Her fingers danced across the keyboard.
Makena’s gaze locked onto someone. Colton followed her gaze to the man in scrubs. The doctor came from the same hallway they’d entered the lobby from, and then headed straight toward a bank of elevators.
The hair on Colton’s neck prickled. Trudy’s fingers worked double time. Click-click-click.
As the elevators closed on the opposite side of the lobby, something in the back of Colton’s mind snapped.
“The patient you’re looking for is on the seventh floor. He’s in critical condition. No visitors are allowed.” She flashed eyes at Colton. “No normal visitors. That doesn’t mean you. He’s in room 717.”
Colton thanked her for the courtesy and realized what had been sticking in the back of his mind. The doctor who’d crossed the lobby wore a surgical mask and regular boots. Every doctor Colton had seen had foot coverings on their shoes. They usually wore tennis shoes with coverings over them for sanitation purposes.
This guy had on a surgical mask and no boot covers?
One look at Makena said she realized something was up. Colton looked at Trudy before jumping into action the minute he made eye contact with Makena and realized she was thinking along the same lines.
“Trudy, call security. Send backup to the seventh floor and help to room 717.” Colton linked his fingers with Makena and started toward the elevator. Of course, he had a deputy on-site and the hospital had its own security. So imagine his shock when the elevator doors opened and his deputy walked out.
“Lawson, what are you doing?”
His deputy seemed dumbfounded as Colton rushed into the elevator.
“What do you mean? I’m going to get a cup of coffee. Hospital security relieved me and said you authorized a break.”
“And you didn’t think to check with me first?” Colton asked.
Lawson’s mistake seemed to dawn on him. He muttered a few choice words as he pushed the button for the seventh floor, apologizing the whole time.
It seemed to take forever for the elevator to ding and the doors to open. At least, they knew where one of the men was; the other had to be close by. The two seemed to travel as a pair.
As soon as the doors opened, Colton shot out. He shouted back to Lawson, “Make sure no one comes down this hallway.”
There were two hallways and several sets of stairs, but Lawson could make sure no one followed Colton.
Unwilling to let Makena out of his sight, Colton held on to her hand as he banked right toward room 717. As suspected, there was no security guard at the door.
Colton cursed as he bolted toward the open door.
Inside, he interrupted a man in a security outfit standing near River’s bedside. The man in uniform had a black mustache, neatly trimmed.
“Sheriff, I saw him. Someone was in here. He ran out the door.”
“Put your hands where I can see them,” Colton demanded.
Chapter Sixteen
From behind the curtain dividing the room, a window leading to the outside opened.
“Hands where I can see them,” Colton repeated, weapon drawn, leading the way. River lay unconscious with a breathing tube in his mouth as multiple machines beeped.
The security guard dropped down on the opposite side of the bed. And then, suddenly, an alarm began to sound on one of the machines. Was it unplugged?
Another wailing noise pierced the air.
Colton kept Makena tucked behind him as he took a couple of steps inside the room. He planted his side against the wall, inching forward.
A nurse came bolting in and froze when she saw Colton with his gun drawn. The divider curtain blew toward him with a gust of wind. Colton saw a glint of Mustache as he climbed ou
t the window.
Red must’ve been on the other side of the divider all along. He must’ve made it inside the room. Colton assumed he’d be the one wearing the surgical gear.
“Freeze.” Colton took a few more tentative steps before squatting down so he could see underneath the curtain. He saw no sign of shoes and assumed both men had climbed out the window and onto the fire escape they’d seen earlier. And since assumptions in his life of work could kill, he proceeded with extra caution. Someone could be standing on the bed or nightstand. Hell, he’d caught a perp climbing into the ceiling tiles at the bank before.
There was no more sound coming from that side of the room. He took a few more steps until he was able to reach the curtain and pull it open. He scanned the room before checking on the other side of the bed.
“Clear. Nurse, you’re okay.” It was all Colton could get out as he heard the sounds of feet shuffling and her scurrying to plug in the machines that were most likely the reason River was still breathing.
Colton rushed to the window and looked out in time to see someone wearing scrubs along with Security Dude climbing down the fire escape and around the side of the building.
He glanced back at Makena.
“Stay here. Someone will come back for you. Stay in this room. Nurse, lock this room and stay with her. As soon as I’m out of this window, I want you to lock it.”
A moment of hesitation crossed Makena’s features. She opened her mouth like she was about to protest and then clamped it shut.
Colton climbed out the window and followed the path of the perps. He climbed down to the corner, stopping before risking a glance.
The second he so much as peeked his head a shot rang out, taking a small chunk of white brick before whizzing past his face.
Colton quickly jerked back around the side of the building and pulled himself back up. His body was flat against the building, his weapon holstered.