by Karen Rose
Kate’s cheeks heated at the praise. ‘I didn’t actually drop on him. I don’t think I could have taken him down, even from a tree.’ Because Griffin Davenport was built like a freaking tank.
‘Hell, maybe not even from a helicopter,’ Dani murmured. ‘So what did you do?’
‘I landed behind him, stuck my rifle in his back, and took him by surprise. But he wanted to be found, so he cooperated, which was a good thing. I would have hated to have to shoot him. Unfortunately the traffickers didn’t have that concern.’
Dani nodded soberly. ‘I haven’t had a chance to thank you yet.’
Kate frowned. ‘For what?’
‘For saving Deacon’s life. He was standing next to Davenport when the bullets started flying. If you hadn’t stopped the shooter the way you did, there might be more patients filling these ICU beds. Or bodies in the morgue. So thank you.’
Kate fidgeted. ‘I was just doing my job. Any of the other agents there would have done it.’
Dani lifted one dark brow. ‘The way I heard it, none of the other agents there had the skill with a rifle to stop a speeding car half a mile away.’
‘Deacon exaggerates,’ Kate mumbled, now very uncomfortable even though it was true. She was a skilled shot, but she wasn’t a fathead. ‘Besides, they were already fleeing the scene by then. I didn’t mean to kill them. I wanted them alive for questioning.’ She’d stopped them, but she’d also taken out the shooter and one of his trafficking partners. The only passenger who’d survived knew so little about the trafficking business itself that he was all but useless.
Dani shook her head. ‘You may have wanted them alive for questioning, but I’m glad my brother is alive period. I owe you one, Kate. Seriously.’
Kate started to laugh it off, but then she realized that Dani Novak really was very serious. ‘He’s my friend,’ she said simply. ‘I would have done the same for any other agent, but the fact that it was Deacon made it easier to sleep that night.’
Except that she hadn’t slept. She’d woken with the dream. She hadn’t had the dream in almost a month prior to coming to Cincinnati, but she’d had it every single night for the past week. It might have been triggered by the gunfight with the traffickers or the fact that she’d been bunking down in a strange hotel bed. Or that she was plain exhausted because she really hadn’t slept at all. Or that she’d strained her back sitting in the uncomfortable chair in ICU.
Kate rolled her head, hearing her neck crackle. ‘I hate falling asleep in chairs.’
‘Then maybe you should go home to bed,’ Dani said mildly.
‘So,’ Kate said brightly, ‘I didn’t expect to see you here checking on Davenport.’ She didn’t care that her subject change had all the finesse of a clubbing from a baseball bat. ‘Are you back on duty?’
Dani’s leave from the ER had started a few months before. Kate knew the bare bones of the story, partly from phone and email conversations she’d had with Deacon over the past nine months and partly from the news she’d read online. Dani was HIV positive – and Kate figured that however that had occurred was Dani’s business and Dani’s alone.
But someone else hadn’t agreed, because Dani’s status had been leaked to the media, leading to negative press and finally to Dani going on leave. Again, Kate didn’t have details, but she knew the Novaks well enough to be sure that Dani had taken every sensible precaution on the job. Hopefully her presence here today meant that the hoopla had died down enough for the woman to resume the career she’d worked so hard to achieve.
But a shadow had passed over Dani’s face. ‘No. I resigned.’
Kate’s mouth fell open. ‘What? But why? And when? You mean just now?’
Dani took a deep breath and let it out. ‘I’m not actually here to check on Agent Davenport,’ she said, her subject change equally clumsy, her tone so bright that it was brittle. ‘Deacon asked me to check on you. He’s worried you’re spreading yourself too thin keeping vigil.’
Kate wanted to ask why Dani wasn’t suing for discrimination. She wanted to ask if Dani had another job, because she hated the thought of the woman not being able to pay her bills. She wanted to make sure that Deacon’s sister would be okay.
But Dani had made it clear that she wasn’t willing to discuss it any further, so Kate drew a deep breath of her own and made herself smile. ‘You can tell Deacon that I’m okay.’
Dani’s eyes filled with a gratitude she didn’t voice. Instead she made her reply sharp and tart. ‘I’ll tell him that you were asleep in your chair and that you probably haven’t been eating properly. He’ll be here soon enough to yell at you in person.’
Kate made a sour face, just for form. ‘You’re supposed to be the nice Novak.’
Dani grinned. ‘Surprise! Well, since you’re okay, I guess I’ll just see you later.’ She started to stand, and Kate found herself reaching for the woman’s arm to yank her back.
‘No, Dani, wait.’ She didn’t want to be left alone with her post-dream thoughts. She didn’t want to fall back to sleep. She didn’t want to hear that gun go off again. ‘Can you stay, maybe talk for a little while?’ She tried for a brave smile. ‘You can keep me awake.’
Dani frowned at her gently. ‘If you’re that tired, maybe you should go home and go to bed,’ she said, repeating herself.
‘I can’t go home. I’m staying in a hotel until the movers bring my stuff.’ But she didn’t want to go to the hotel either. Because I will dream again, and I just . . . A shudder passed through her, and that she didn’t even try to control it told her something. Either she was exhausted, or she simply felt comfortable enough with Dani to reveal her vulnerable underbelly. Or maybe a little bit of both. ‘Besides, I need to sit here with Agent Davenport, in case he wakes up again. I was one of the last people he saw before he was shot, so I’m hoping that I can calm him down if he’s disoriented when they try waking him again.’
‘Again? They tried waking him up already?’
‘Yeah, but it didn’t end so well.’ Suddenly antsy, Kate stood up to stretch her back and to better see Davenport’s mask-covered face. A lock of the man’s blond hair had slid down his forehead, and she gently pushed it back. ‘They tried to bring him out of the induced coma this morning before I got here, but he became agitated. He was thrashing and trying to pull out his breathing tube, so they sedated him again right away.’
‘He’s way too big a boy to be thrashing,’ Dani murmured. ‘He could injure someone.’
She wasn’t wrong about that. Davenport was over six feet tall, his enormous feet nearly hanging off the edge of the bed. He had to weigh at least two-fifteen, and there was not an ounce of body fat anywhere that Kate had seen.
That she’d actually looked was something between her and the four walls. She wasn’t in the market for a man to share her life, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate the scenery while she made the journey. And Griffin Davenport, even in a coma, was very nice scenery. Apart from the chest full of muscles, he had a strong jaw, golden hair, and pleasing features, even though most of his face was still covered with the ventilator mask.
Like all the Avengers rolled into one. With liberal helpings of Thor and Captain America, her personal faves. Of course, she also knew he was going to wake up. The doctors had all but guaranteed a speedy recovery. If his life were in the balance, then looking would be just wrong.
‘The nurse said it took three people to hold him while a fourth sedated him.’
‘Agitation while coming out of sedation isn’t uncommon,’ Dani said. ‘It can be a disorienting experience. Kind of like waking from a really vivid nightmare.’
The shrewd tone of Dani’s voice had Kate glancing over to see that the woman had stopped looking at Davenport and was now watching her. It was then that Kate realized she’d been stroking Davenport’s forehead. Tenderly, actually.
/> And it wasn’t the first time. She had found herself touching his face several times over the last week. She told herself it was because she knew that comatose patients had some sense that people were with them. She told herself it was because she didn’t want him to be alone or afraid, that touching him was simple human compassion, but deep down it was still disconcerting seeing her fingertips stroking another man’s skin, and she wasn’t exactly sure why.
Maybe because a caress that should have felt rusty with disuse felt so . . . natural? Or because she hadn’t recoiled in disgust at the feel of him?
‘The doctor said that they weaned him off the paralytic that was keeping him immobile and they’ve started weaning him off the narcotics again. He could wake at any time.’
‘I’m sure he’ll appreciate a friendly face,’ Dani said softly.
‘I thought so. I’d want someone to be there when I woke up.’ She gave Davenport’s brow a final stroke, then sat back down, frowning when her stomach growled. ‘I need to eat or I’ll get mean. Meaner, anyway,’ she added and saw Dani smirk. ‘I’ve eaten all my protein bars and the food in the cafeteria sucks. Do you hear that, Davenport?’ she said tartly to the man in the bed. ‘You need to wake up right next time so I can leave this hospital for some real food.’
‘Does he have family? Someone else you can call who’d be familiar to him?’
‘None that I’ve been able to identify so far. He’s been undercover for a couple of years. Usually those guys get picked for the deep undercover jobs because they don’t have families. He listed his handler as his emergency contact, but the handler was killed last week by other members of the trafficking group. The line for a second contact was blank.’
‘How lonely,’ Dani murmured.
Kate had thought the same thing. It made her feel an odd sort of bond with him, because she no longer had an emergency contact either. But at least she had a few people she could ask. Which she needed to do ASAP, because HR had been on her case about it for the last week.
‘Listen, Dani, you remember that favor you said you owed me? I’m ready to collect. Of course, if you don’t want to do it, I totally understand.’
‘Just ask,’ Dani said patiently.
‘I went to fill out all the transfer forms in HR and realized that my emergency contact was . . . no longer available.’ Don’t think about the dream. Don’t— She flinched when she heard the echo of that gunshot once again. ‘I’d ask Deacon, but . . .’ She let the thought trail with a shrug.
Dani tilted her head. ‘But?’
Kate sighed. ‘But he’d ask me why I needed a new contact and I really don’t want to get into it with him right now.’ Or ever. ‘He doesn’t mean to be nosy, but . . .’
‘But he is,’ Dani finished. ‘So am I, actually, but I’m a bit more discreet.’ Her voice softened. ‘Your old contact, was it Jack?’
She’d asked so kindly, so compassionately, that Kate felt compelled to nod. Her voice didn’t want to work and the nod was all she could muster. But at least it was the truth.
Jack Morrow had been her emergency contact. Until he’d blown his brains out all over the chair in her living room. And the wall, and the carpet, and the ceiling. And the afghan her grandma had crocheted just for her when she was six.
‘Then I’m sorry for your loss,’ Dani said gently.
‘Thank you.’ Kate forced the words out, knowing she should feel guilty for allowing Dani to believe that Jack was someone she’d cared for, but she couldn’t muster that either. And it wasn’t entirely untrue. She had cared for Jack as a treasured friend, but that had changed.
Jack had changed. And so had Kate. In many ways not for the better. What if Johnnie could see you now? What would he think of the woman you’ve become?
If Johnnie could see me now, then he’d be here, which means that Jack would be here and I wouldn’t be having this idiotic conversation with myself, so shut the fuck up.
A sharp pain in her neck made her realize she was grinding her teeth hard. And of course Dani had noticed. ‘You gonna be okay?’ Dani asked soberly.
‘Yeah. Peachy.’ I just can’t fall asleep again. Not until I’m alone. Because the nightmare always returned. She might not dream again for a week or two, but it always came back, usually when she least expected it.
Like when I’m fucking asleep, she snarled to herself.
‘Call me if you need anything,’ Dani said.
‘Same goes.’ Kate’s brain kicked into gear just as Dani got to the door, and she remembered what she’d most wanted to ask about Dani’s resignation. ‘Dani, wait. Do . . . do you have another job lined up? I know Deacon won’t let you starve, but I just want to make sure you’ll be okay.’ Her voice broke, mortifying her. She lifted her chin. ‘I need to know that you’ll be okay.’
Dani’s smile bloomed, a sweet smile that reached her incredible eyes. ‘Yes, I’ll be okay. Thank you. I’ve been working part-time for the free clinic that’s part of the Lorelle Meadows shelter. The board just approved the creation of a full-time position and they offered it to me. Frankly I resent the hell out of being pressured into leaving emergency medicine by the media and general bigotry, especially when I followed all of the AMA guidelines to the letter. But I’ll be an important part of the community at the clinic and that makes me feel very okay. I start on Monday. When you get settled, come down and I’ll show you around.’
‘I will.’ When Dani was gone, Kate let her gaze fall back on Griffin Davenport, whose chest continued to rise and fall. ‘No offense, Griff, but I wish you’d hurry and wake the hell up. I really need to sleep and that’s not happening here. Not again.’
She straightened abruptly, thinking she’d seen the quirk of one of his fingers against the white sheet. She even called the nurse in to check, but the woman found nothing to indicate he was waking up. In the end, she patted Kate’s hand and advised her to go home to sleep. Told her that she was starting to imagine things.
Biting back what would have been a completely unacceptable reply, Kate sat back in the chair, set up her laptop, retrieved her knitting, and prepared herself for another rousing evening of listening to Davenport’s undercover tapes.
She paused, holding her earbuds in one hand. ‘You realize that if you’d just wake up, you could tell me what I’m looking for. So come on, Davenport.’ She watched again, but there was no further response, so she put the earbuds in and got to work.
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Wednesday 12 August, 10.30 P.M.
Long ago he’d learned that the best place to hide anything was in plain sight. It was for this very reason that he’d pulled his car through the broken gate at the back entrance of King’s College and was now waiting for his informant to arrive. No one would raise an eyebrow about a car parked here – it was the closest that King’s College came to a lovers’ lane.
Well, maybe a little bit of lovers’ lane crossed with drug-buy-central.
And there were no cameras. None that worked, anyway. The students themselves had made that happen. Anyone who said that today’s youth grew dumber every year had obviously never met any crafty college kids bent on getting high or laid or both.
There had been some brouhaha about campus security early the semester before after two young women were abducted. The college administration was shocked and appalled that their safety record had been blemished and had replaced every light bulb and camera on the campus proper. Then they’d patted each other on the back for their good deed and never looked back. The camera here at Lovers’ Lane was the first one to go. It hadn’t even lasted a week.
He’d learned all this from his clientele. College kids tended to get really chatty when they were high and his stuff was among the best. Everybody knew it.
However, if the camera was actually working for a change, that was okay too. It would see exactly what he wished
it to. But that didn’t mean he was keen on sitting here, risking observation. Eventually somebody would come by. It was still Lovers’ Lane, after all.
He glanced at his watch – yes, he still wore one even if it made him an old man – and frowned. She was late. He did not appreciate tardiness. It showed a general disrespect that could not be tolerated. But it didn’t really matter. She wasn’t going to survive long enough to get to her next appointment, wherever that was.
He heard her before he saw her. Sidney Siler drove a motor scooter that was in severe need of an exhaust repair. She slid in sideways, sending gravel everywhere. He rolled his eyes. Killing her was going to be a public service. She was a road menace.
She climbed into his passenger seat. ‘Sorry I’m late. I know you don’t like that.’
She didn’t make an excuse and he appreciated it. Not enough to let her live, but whatever. ‘Well? Did you see her?’
‘I did, and she totally bought that I was her attorney’s assistant. I wore my black suit, the one I only wear to funerals. That and the authorization on her attorney’s letterhead got me past the front desk at the jail with no issues. I really owe you one for that.’
Of course the authorization had passed muster. He’d forged it himself. That she’d worn her funeral suit was just delicious irony. ‘So? How did it go?’
Sidney made a face. ‘I will be extra-special careful about my drug buys from now on. That jail is nasty dirty. I would not like to end up on the other side of the glass.’
‘I would hope the cleanliness of the facility wouldn’t be your only deterrent,’ he said dryly. ‘How was Alice?’
‘Cool.’ A genuine shiver shook Sidney as she grimaced. ‘I mean glacially so. I’m glad she believed I was on her side. I wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.’
That had to have been one of the smartest things Sidney had ever said. ‘And?’