An Informal Introduction (Informal Romance Book 3)

by Heather Gray

  The dark cavernous space of the parking garage met them. “I’m on level four,” Lily said. “What about you?”

  “Two.”

  Lily started toward the garage’s elevator, but Maddie’s voice stopped her. “I only told you because you believe, too. You could, you know, pray for us.”

  A compliment twinkled in the midst of those words, and Lily’s tired shoulders lifted in pleasure. “I will.”

  Lily got off the elevator and trudged toward her car. The silence of her nurse’s shoes made the parking garage eerie, almost as if she wasn’t even there. It would have made a perfect scene for some horror flick.

  The echo of footfalls — more than just hers — bounced off the walls. She stole a look behind her but didn’t catch sight of anybody.

  Hm. The sound must have carried from another level. Shift change meant lots of people walking to their cars. Of course, she seemed to be the only one parked on that level…

  Lily turned the last corner and spotted her little silver sedan straight ahead. As always, she clutched her keys fisted in her hand, ready to use them as a weapon if attacked. Not that she’d ever been attacked, but it was a habit she’d developed years ago after a college self-defense course.

  The dim parking garage lights reflected off the occasional oil spot on the ground, mesmerizing Lily as she walked along. When she realized she was staring wide-eyed, she shook her head to clear it.

  The sleep that awaited her once she got home would be bliss.

  The blast of a horn gave her a jolt. Many drivers had a habit of tapping their horn as they rounded the garage’s corners to alert oncoming traffic of their approach. Sound echoed in the garage and made it almost impossible to tell where it originated. Even so, the honking had never bothered her before.

  Why was she so jumpy? Hopefully a good night’s sleep would put everything back in order.

  Lily was feet away from her car when a shadow moved, causing her to drop her keys.

  A fat lot of good they would do defending her if she couldn’t even keep them in her hand!

  Sure she was overreacting, Lily reached for the keys and didn’t spare a second glance for where she’d seen the movement. Before she got her fingers through the keyring, though, a pair of work boots moved into her line of sight.

  She shot to her feet and backed away. The man followed, getting closer than anybody’s personal bubble would ever allow. He reeked of alcohol and grease. His bloodshot eyes and hair-in-need-of-washing only served to emphasize the dirt-encrusted state of his clothing.

  “Wh-who are you?” Lily took another step back, but he mirrored her movement.

  “I need to know how Ken is.”

  “K-ken?”

  “Yeah, Ken Miller. You’re his nurse, right?”

  She eyed the panic button on her keyring. The man stood between her and the keys now, and there was no easy way around him. Even if she got to them and hit the bright red button, would anybody hear her alarm? Would they come?

  “Where did you hear that?” Keep him talking. If he was talking, he was less likely to do other unspeakable things.

  “It don’t matter.”

  Think, Lily! Think! “Are you a reporter?”

  Unless he was with some underground e-zine, the man wasn’t media, but she needed some time to figure out what to do.

  He snorted. “Tell me if he’s gonna be okay.”

  “I can’t talk about patients. I could lose my job.”

  “Yeah, well, I already lost mine. Now tell me about Ken.”

  The puzzle pieces fell together and she took another step back. A quick glance around told her nobody was coming to her rescue. Not another soul was in sight.

  “You’re the man who pushed the button on the machine, aren’t you?”

  He grunted and spit on the cement. “Tell me how Ken is, and tell me now.”

  The sun faded toward the west as Caleb settled back into his truck, his meeting with the captain behind him. He needed some sleep. Leaving the station’s parking lot, he swung right onto the highway and started toward his mom’s home.

  Would he ever think of it as his home?

  His choices weighed on him. He’d done the right thing by coming to live with his mom. From a generation where people married young, she’d never been alone in her life.

  She needed him. The trip to the hospital proved that.

  Still… he didn’t feel at home. That’s what it boiled down to. He hadn’t made it his home yet.

  Caleb crested a rise and caught a last glimpse of the sky’s brilliant colors before they morphed into the starless blanket of night.

  Living in the city meant sunrises were difficult to enjoy and sunsets were almost impossible to catch. The stars remained hidden from view, too. Not for the first time, he wondered what the sunrise looked like from heaven. Man, that had to be some sight. One his father got to revel in every day.

  A sense of foreboding drifted in on the evening breeze and settled into the cab of Caleb’s truck, curling its tentacles around his bones and sending a chill through his blood.

  The incongruity of dread so closely chasing thoughts of heaven froze him. When his mind started moving again, though, it took off at lightning speed.

  He’d experienced this heavy feeling before, almost always right before disaster struck or something went terribly wrong. Heeding the warning had saved him and his fellow deputies a heap of trouble more than once back in Texas.

  So who was in danger now?

  The last time he’d felt it…

  He picked up his phone and dialed his mom’s number.

  “What is it, son? You checked up on me thirty minutes ago.”

  “Anything going on at the house, Ma?”

  “The house is locked up tight, I’m fine, and the television is keeping me company. Why?”

  Caleb wasn’t sure how to answer the question. “I got this feeling.”

  She was quiet for a second. “You call it a feeling, I call it the Holy Spirit. Either way, if the Spirit’s talking, you need to listen.”

  The breeze shifted and the weight in his chest changed. Like an image breaking down into individual pixels and reforming itself into something wholly new and distinctly recognizable, a face came into focus.

  “It’s Lily.”

  Ma’s intake of breath was audible. “Oh, dear. Did you jot down her number while you were at the station?”

  “No. It wouldn’t have been right.”

  “Then what do you plan to do?”

  “I’ll figure something out.” Caleb came to an intersection and made a quick U-turn on the wide boulevard. “Keep your phone close so you can reach me if anything comes up.”

  “Sure thing. Be safe.”

  “Always am.” He hung up, certain Ma was already praying for him. Caleb knew it the way he knew she’d leave her bedroom door open so she could hear him when he got home. Some things never changed.

  Caleb eyed the clock on his dashboard as he struggled through the evening traffic. Shift change for the nurses was at seven. It was half past that, and he was forty-five minutes from the hospital.

  He should have asked for her number when he’d had the chance.

  Sometimes nurses ran late, though, and not just because they’d been pulled over for drunk driving.

  Maybe the night nurse was behind schedule and Lily hadn’t left yet.

  At least he could describe her vehicle.

  Never mind that he had no clue where she normally parked.

  Glad he’d programmed the number in when Ma was admitted, he told his phone to call the ICU.

  “Intensive Care, can I help you?” He recognized the voice from the times he’d called during the night to check on Ma.

  “This is Caleb Graham. My mom was discharged earlier today. I wondered if her nurse is still around.”

  “Sorry, Mr. Graham. Lily’s gone home for the night, but I’d be happy to take a message to give her next time she’s on shift.”

  “Which park
ing garage does she use?”

  “Uh…” Hesitation crept into the conversation. He could imagine her scribbling a note to someone nearby. Lily has a stalker. “I don’t think I can tell you that.”

  “Can you connect me to security, then?” This was taking too much time.

  “Is Lily in danger? Is something wrong?”

  Caleb expelled a breath. “She might be, and I want to ask security to sweep whichever garage she usually parks in.” Danger was a bit of a stretch, but the nurse on the other end of the phone didn’t need to be told that.

  The woman sighed. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but she’s usually in E, the one by the main entrance. The bottom two levels are reserved for staff, but they fill up fast. If she didn’t find a spot there, she would have kept going up the ramp to search for a space. Whenever E’s full, she goes over to R, the garage by radiology.”

  Relief pushed back at Caleb’s worry. “Thank you.”

  Caleb sped around the corner. Flashing blue lights reflected from somewhere inside the parking garage, level four or five most likely. It was hard to tell with the way the lights bounced off the interior of the cement structure. Unlike his last time coming to the hospital, he faced no delay getting through the entrance. He collected his ticket from the machine and began the mechanical motion of climbing up the ramps within the garage. Right turn, drive, right turn, drive, right turn, drive…

  As he made the turn onto level 4, he came to a stop. The path was blocked by two police cars and a hospital security car.

  If you could call it that.

  The word car required a bit of imagination where the security vehicle was concerned. It was larger than a golf cart, which was a bonus, but legal on a real street? Probably not. Then again, the hospital didn’t plan for high-speed chases, either.

  Caleb jumped out of his truck and ran into the melee. Badge in hand, he flashed it as he came around the first car. His eyes searched everywhere until they found her.

  Lily.

  Ignoring the security guard approaching him, he went straight to her. She sat, legs tucked up beneath her as though trying to fold in on herself. She faced out the open door of a squad car’s backseat, but she was in a daze, her stare halfway to blank.

  He squatted down in front of her. Every part of him wanted to pull her into a breath-stealing hug, but he held back. Caleb still didn’t have the whole picture, and it would break his heart clean in two if he spooked her and she turned fear-filled eyes on him.

  He hadn’t known her long enough to care as much as he did. And yet…

  “Lily?”

  She peered up at him. Her eyes were wide, the kind of wide you find on someone who’s so tired they can’t think straight but is forcing themselves to stay awake. Her hair was tumbled from its bun position and hung down her back in a loose ponytail. Her lips, faded to a barely-there pink, matched her ashen face.

  “Lily, are you okay?”

  She nodded and rubbed her eyes. “Are you the one who notified security?”

  Caleb tipped his hat in answer.

  “How did you know anything was wrong?”

  “I had a feeling.” From God, but he kept that part to himself. Just because Ma said Lily was a believer didn’t mean she’d be comfortable with his prompted-by-the-Holy-Spirit explanation.

  Her hand fell back down to her lap. “Do you get those often?”

  He lifted a shoulder in dismissal. “Sometimes. I’m glad I got this one.”

  She stared at him, her eyes glassy.

  “Hey! You the one who reported this?”

  Caleb spun to find one of the officers approaching him. He stood and acknowledged the man. “I contacted security and motivated them to do a sweep.” His badge was still in his hand, so he showed the officer. The guy examined it before waving him toward the other car.

  “The perp’s over here. He’s not talking, though.”

  A glance back at Lily told him she was listening. He lowered his voice. “What did he do to her?”

  The officer shook his head. “He chatted her up, best as we can figure, but without her permission. Doesn’t seem like he assaulted her, and he didn’t fight when I secured his wrists.”

  “Give me a second.”

  Caleb strode back over to the squad car he’d just left. “Lily, what can you tell me about the guy who was out here with you tonight?”

  She rubbed her eyes again. “He kept asking about one of my patients. I didn’t tell him anything. He knew I was his nurse, though. I think…”

  Caleb reached out and took hold of her hand, pulling it away from her now-red eyes. “Ease up there. Tell me what you think.”

  “I think he might be the one who caused the accident. He mentioned losing his job because of it.”

  “I’ll be right back. Then we’ll get you home. Hang tight for now.” Caleb squeezed her hand before setting it gently in her lap. Then he stood and moved away, working out the puzzle of Lily Ziminski.

  When Caleb got to the other squad car, the back door was open. The man sitting inside couldn’t be more than twenty-three and looked like he’d seen better days. His eyes held no fear. No remorse, either. His unsettling stare was simultaneously blank and intense. A chill went down Caleb’s spine.

  “Who told you she was his nurse?” Caleb was pretty sure he’d worked out who the patient was, even though Lily hadn’t given a name.

  The young man gazed at him with emotionless slate grey eyes. “It don’t matter.”

  “It matters to me.” Caleb stopped short of demanding an answer.

  He shrugged. “My cousin’s girlfriend knew someone who could get the name. Something like that.” Another shrug dismissed the importance of the whole conversation. “My cousin owed me.”

  Caleb glanced at the nearby officer. “Has he been Mirandized?”

  The man shook his head. “Nope, and you shouldn’t be talking to him.”

  “Read him his rights. I need to question him.”

  The officer bit his lower lip and frowned. “I think you already did that, and anything he told you won’t hold up in court, so you might as well call it a day. I’m still trying to figure out what went on so I can sort out this mess.”

  “What do you plan to charge him with?”

  The officer’s frown morphed into a scowl. “None of your business.”

  Caleb motioned the hospital’s security guard closer. He’d been leaning against the hood of his environmentally-friendly work car. Once the guard was within range, Caleb crossed his arms to stop himself from poking at the man’s chest to make his point. “You need to inform ICU that somebody in their unit leaked information about who Ken Miller’s nurse is and that she was accosted in the parking garage because of it.”

  Then Caleb gave a barbed look to the officer. “Do you follow the news?”

  He nodded, stubbornness in every ounce of the jerky movement.

  “See anything about a guy losing his arm in an industrial accident?”

  The officer turned a new shade of green as he reached up and massaged his left shoulder. “A tire shredder, right?”

  Caleb hooked a thumb at the man in the backseat of the squad car. “I think you’ll find he’s the one who caused the accident.”

  The officer let out a low whistle, some of his previous bluster gone. “So, did he go after the nurse so he could figure out a way to finish the job or because he felt bad and wanted to make sure the guy was okay?”

  “That’s for you to determine. I’m taking her home.” Caleb plucked two business cards from his wallet. He held out one to the officer and another to the guard. “Here’s my contact information. Get in touch if you have any questions.”

  As the officer took his, Caleb held on a second longer than necessary. “I don’t want to hear about him getting out on a technicality. Make sure you do your job.”

  A grimace met his words, but the officer at least nodded in acknowledgment.

  “He didn’t do anything to me. He scared me, and I got
an adrenaline rush because of it, but then it wore off and I crashed, which is compounded by how tired I am from a long day at work.”

  Caleb glanced over at Lily before pulling onto the main highway that ran by the hospital. Her voice was slow and dreamlike, yet she still managed to talk like someone who’d done way better in science class than he ever had.

  “Are you hungry?”

  The corners of her mouth hinted at a smile. “Starved, but you can take me home. I don’t think I want to be anywhere noisy.”

  Caleb meandered through the still-busy streets of the city. Cars moved around him, racing to their destinations.

  “You take the no-speeding thing pretty seriously, don’t you?”

  “I have no reason to rush. We’ll get there when we get there.”

  A light chuckle filled the truck and pushed away the last remnants of the foreboding from earlier in the evening. “Do you even know where there is?”

  “I have my priorities.” Caleb offered her a grin. “Food first, home after. And yes, I know right where I’m taking you. At least for the food. You’ll have to tell me where home is.”

  The street lights shone into the cab and highlighted her frown.

  “Honest. Nothing noisy. Trust me.”

  She sighed. “You’re not giving me much of a choice, are you? My car’s back at the parking garage.”

  He gave her hand a light squeeze then released it. “You’re exhausted. It wouldn’t have been safe for you to drive home.”

  Lily tried to stay awake but faded in and out. Caleb seemed to be driving around in circles. A lot of circles.

  Hm. When had she started thinking of him by his first name? Rather than tackle that question, she went after the obvious one. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

  He glanced her way. The city lights illuminated the dim interior enough to highlight his smile.

  She’d never given facial hair much thought before, but on him… it worked. What did he call it, anyway? He didn’t quite have a beard, but it was more than a five o’clock shadow.

  Would she ever stop being surprised at how good looking he was? Or how single-minded her brain got when she was tired?