Did she have any kind of drugs he could take that would give him a stronger immune system when it came to her? he wondered as he finally left her clinic and drove toward home. Something that would keep her from invading his thoughts and completely taking over?
He had told her these last twenty-four hours had been full of unusual circumstances. Right at the top of that list was the fact that he had spent more time in her company since he walked into her clinic yesterday evening than he ever had. Even when he hadn’t been with her physically, she hadn’t been far from his mind.
Was it wishful thinking on his part to think perhaps she wasn’t completely immune to him, either? He had sensed several times last night and again this morning that she might be softening toward him. Things between them seemed easier, somehow. Slightly more comfortable.
He liked it. More than liked it.
He drove past her massive childhood home, the biggest house in town, all wrought iron and elegant cornices and perfectly groomed grounds. She had sold the place after her father’s death to a young couple from Utah County. Nice people. The husband commuted to Orem every day to work in the state’s own version of Silicon Valley and the wife volunteered in the little Moose Springs library.
A few blocks later, he reached his own house, the same four-room clapboard house where his parents had raised their family. He had fixed it up before his mom lost her fight with cancer, added a family room off the back and another bathroom, but it was still a small house on a tiny lot.
Daniel sighed. Here was the hard reminder he needed. Lauren had been raised in luxury and comfort, the pampered only child of two doting parents. He had grown up fighting for one minuscule bathroom with two brothers and a sister.
The biggest obstacle between them wasn’t really his humble upbringing or her socially elevated one. He might see that as a glaring difference, but he had a feeling Lauren really wouldn’t care about that.
She would, however, care about his role in her father’s downfall and subsequent suicide.
No amount of wishing on his part could change that.
Chapter 6
She was ready for a vacation.
Friday morning dawned stormy and cold as she drove the busy canyon from Moose Springs to the hospital in Salt Lake City. Her wipers worked steadily but they couldn’t keep the big, juicy flakes off the window and she was grateful for the all-wheel-drive of her car.
Lauren had grown up driving in snow but she still wasn’t crazy about it. She always found it stressful and demanding. Winter driving wasn’t so bad in tiny Moose Springs, where she never encountered more than a few other cars on the road, but the early-morning commute into the city was another story altogether.
By the time she pulled her Volvo into the parking lot at the hospital, her shoulders were tight and her fingers ached from gripping the steering wheel. She climbed out of her vehicle and stepped into four inches of snow that hadn’t been scraped off the parking lot yet.
Maybe later in the week when things were settled with Rosa, she ought to give in to her mother’s pressure tactics and head to southern Utah for a few days. Soaking up the sun in St. George seemed like a lovely idea right about now.
A week of leisure time would be a decadent luxury. She hadn’t had a break longer than a quick weekend in five years and the grim truth was, she wouldn’t be taking this one if not for Coralee and her anniversary cruise.
A little respite would be good for her, a chance to recharge and remember why she started in medicine in the first place. And some sunshine right about now might lift her spirits out of this funk.
She walked through the door, stomping snow off her boots. The first person she saw in the lobby was Kendall Fox, talking to a couple of women in scrubs. He looked ruggedly handsome, with that sun-streaked blond hair and skier’s tan, and she had to admit her ego enjoyed a nice little boost when his eyes lit up with pleasure at the sight of her.
He excused himself from the other nurses and headed toward her. “Lauren! I was hoping I would bump into you today.”
“Oh?” Why couldn’t she summon a little attraction for vivid blue eyes and a man who knew just what to do with them? Instead, all she could think about were Daniel’s eyes, dark and warm and solemn.
“Yeah. Don’t ask me how I did it but I scored an invite for one of the huge after-screening parties up at Deer Valley tonight. I need to find a gorgeous woman to escort, and of course I thought of you. What time can I pick you up?”
She had to admit to a flicker of temptation. When he wasn’t hitting on anything that moved, Kendall could be funny and charming and attentive. She was tired of living like a nun. Was it wrong to want a little diversion from the solitude of her life?
A moment’s reflection was all she needed to reinforce what a lousy idea that would be. She wasn’t at all interested in a player like Kendall, who probably had the cell phone numbers of every available female at the hospital and a few unavailable ones as well.
If she went out with him and had to spend the evening fighting off his inevitable moves, she would be left more depressed than ever.
“Sorry. I’ve got plans tonight,” she lied.
“Break them. Come on. How often do you get to mix with the Hollywood glitterati in your little Podunk Cow Springs?”
“Moose Springs. You’re right, almost never. And yet somehow I still manage to lead a rewarding, fulfilling life.”
“You want fulfillment, I can provide it beyond your wildest dreams,” he murmured in her ear.
She barely restrained from rolling her eyes. Okay, forget lousy idea. Going out with Kendall Fox, even for the sake of a little conversation, would be a nightmare of epic proportions. She would spend the whole night fighting off his wandering hands and wishing she were somewhere else. Or at least that he was someone else.
She started to answer—or at least tell him to back off and give her a little room to breathe here—but the words died in her throat. Some instinct had her looking up and she was horrified to find Daniel standing ten feet away from them, watching her out of those dark eyes of his that suddenly didn’t look remotely warm.
“Daniel!” she exclaimed. She had no reason to feel so absurdly guilty but that didn’t keep hot water from washing over her cheekbones.
She quickly stepped away from Kendall.
“Lauren. Dr. Fox.” She couldn’t tell if that reserve in his voice was politeness or disdain.
She forced a cheerful smile. On the one hand, she was grateful to have a ready excuse to escape Kendall’s persistence. On the other, she would have preferred anyone other than Daniel be the one to ride to her social rescue.
“I imagine we’re here to see the same person,” she said brightly. “I’ll walk up with you.”
An instant of surprise registered in his eyes, but he quickly veiled it. “All right.”
Kendall’s features tightened with annoyance. He opened his mouth but she cut him off. The last thing she needed right now was for Daniel to be standing nearby when she told Kendall she wasn’t interested in ever going out with him.
“Have a good time at your party,” she said, hoping her refusal was firm and clear, then led the way through the hospital lobby toward the bank of elevators.
She and Daniel were the only two people taking the elevator. In such close quarters she was acutely aware of his size and how small and fragile she always felt next to him.
He look rested, she thought. Or at least not quite as exhausted as he had two days earlier in her office, when she had seen him last.
“We need to talk,” he said abruptly, when the doors glided closed. He smelled of soap and clean male and he was freshly shaved. It was all she could do not to run her hand along that strong, hard jawline.
She blinked. “Okay.”
“Are you planning to write discharge orders today?”
Right. Rosa’s case. What else would they have to talk about? “I can’t know that yet until I have a chance to look at the chart and see how her pain le
vel was during the night and whether she’s had any repeat contractions. If she had a quiet night, I don’t really have any reason to keep her longer. Unless you think she’s safer in the hospital.”
“I don’t,” he said as the elevator lurched to a stop on Rosa’s floor. The doors opened and Lauren was vastly relieved to step out into the hall, where she could breathe without inhaling his delicious scent.
“I got a call from hospital security this morning that there was a suspicious man lurking around here last night just as visiting hours were closing,” he went on. “He walked down the hall, saw the security guard outside Rosa’s room, then backtracked. They tried to detain him for questioning but he disappeared. I have to believe they’ll try again.”
Her hands tightened on her laptop case. “Does Rosa know?”
“Not unless security or the FBI told her. Cale is meeting me here this morning to talk about a safe house situation for her.”
“It’s good of them to keep you in the loop.”
“I’m making sure they do on this one. She trusted me enough to tell me what was happening and I won’t betray that trust by just turning her over to the FBI without making sure they have a good placement for her.”
When they reached the secured unit, they found Cale and his partner Gage McKinnon standing at the nurse’s station. Lauren had met Gage the summer before during the search for Cameron Vance. She smiled a greeting and asked after his wife, Allie, and his daughters and infant son, whom she had met at Megan and Cale’s wedding.
They exchanged small talk for a moment, then Lauren excused herself. “I need to check in on my patient,” she said.
Rosa was sitting up eating breakfast and watching Spanish soap operas when she walked in. The girl smiled at her. Three days after her attack, the bruises and swelling were beginning to fade and Lauren could see the fragile loveliness begin to emerge.
She greeted the girl in her painfully precise Spanish and asked how she was feeling.
“Good. Better,” Rosa said with a shy smile.
“I see that. You’re looking good,” Lauren said. “Did you sleep well?”
Rosa shrugged and said something quickly in Spanish that she didn’t quite catch.
“Sorry. Slower, please,” Lauren begged.
Rosa repeated her statement and this time Lauren caught the key word. Nightmare.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Those will fade in time, I promise.”
This, she knew from experience. Her own had faded some time ago, though once in a while they still reared their ugly head. Two nights before—the night after she had caught the man in Rosa’s hospital room smothering the life out of her and he had struck her—Lauren’s own nightmare had returned for the first time in a long time.
In her dream she had been eighteen again, trapped and helpless and frightened.
This time she had fought back, as she hadn’t dared do then, and had kicked and clawed and finally stabbed her attacker with a conveniently placed scalpel.
If she had the right words in Spanish, she would have told Rosa that nightmares could sometimes be empowering, could sometimes alert a woman to the amazing truth that she had grown past her fears into a capable, strong woman.
She didn’t have that kind of command of the language, though, so she only squeezed her shoulder. “It will get better,” she promised again.
She finished her exam of the girl and then returned to the hallway, where Daniel stood talking to the FBI agents.
“What’s the verdict?” Cale asked. “Do you think she’s in any condition to be released?”
Daniel wasn’t the only one who felt protective toward the girl. She folded her arms across her chest. “Before I’m prepared to answer that, I need to know if you have a safe place for her to go.”
“You sound just like Dan. I’ll give you the same answer I gave him. Not yet, I’m afraid. At least not any option I’m all that crazy about. Our best possibility is a safe house we use down in the Avenues, close enough that we can get her to the hospital in just a few minutes if we need to.”
“Sounds perfect,” Daniel said.
“Only trouble is, it’s not available right now and it won’t be for another few days,” McKinnon said.
“What’s behind Door Number Two?” Lauren asked.
“You won’t like it,” Cale predicted.
“Try me.”
“We thought maybe we could check her into a hotel near the hospital until she testifies to the grand jury next week.”
Lauren narrowed her eyes. “No way. You can’t possibly be considering dumping a frightened, pregnant girl who doesn’t speak English into a cold, impersonal hotel somewhere.”
“I know that. That’s the dilemma we’re facing. We have agents and safe houses in other states where we could send her, but we need Rosa close for her grand jury testimony. Are you sure she’s ready to be discharged?”
She wanted to tell him no, that Rosa should stay right where she was, but she couldn’t lie in good conscience, not when the bed should be used for someone who really needed it.
“There’s no medical reason for her to stay,” she admitted. “Her condition is stable and she is recovering nicely from her injuries. But I’m telling you right now that if you plan to abandon this girl in some seedy motel somewhere, I will damn well make something up to keep her here!”
Daniel had to smile as Lauren’s impassioned words rang through the hallway, drawing the attention of several nurses at the desk. He knew she was a good doctor, but this was the first time he realized how committed she was to the welfare of her patients.
No, he didn’t want to cheer. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her until they were both breathless.
“Do you have any other suggestions?” McKinnon asked.
“Yes,” Lauren said firmly. “She can stay with me.”
“What?!” Daniel and both of the FBI agents exclaimed the word at the same time.
“I’ll take her to my place in Moose Springs until your safe house is ready. After today, I’m off for a week and I can stay with her and watch over her, keep her company, monitor her for more contractions. I can give her one-on-one attention.”
“Absolutely not,” Daniel snapped.
Lauren lifted her chin, apparently not at all intimidated by three menacing males. “Why not? It’s a perfect solution. She’ll be absolutely safe at my house. Who would ever think to look for her there? And I can care for her far better than any FBI agent stuck in a safe house with her!”
“It’s completely out of the question. Isn’t that right?” he demanded of the FBI agents.
He was stunned when he glanced at Cale and found his lips pursed as if he were giving the idea serious consideration. “I don’t know. It’s certainly an option.”
“It is not an option.” He wanted to shake Lauren and Cale both. And maybe McKinnon for good measure, even though the other FBI agent hadn’t said a word. “How can you even consider putting a civilian in that kind of danger?”
“What danger?” Cale asked. “It makes a lot of sense. Rosa needs a safe place where her medical condition can be closely monitored. This seems like a good solution and if we handle this right, the smuggling ring would have no way to connect Rosa with Lauren.”
“Other than the minor little fact that Lauren is her doctor, for hell’s sake!”
He was apparently talking to himself. Lauren ignored his objections—and so did the FBI agents, whom he had always considered reasonable men before this.
“We would need to figure out a way to sneak her out of the hospital in case they’re watching the entrances and exits,” McKinnon said. “Your address isn’t in public record, is it?”
“No,” Lauren said. “I use a PO Box for all my personal correspondence and everything else comes to the clinic.”
“This could work,” Cale said. “We’ll have to run it past the brass to get their input but I think this could definitely work as a temporary option for only a few days unt
il our safe house is available and our staffing issues resolve a little. What do you think, Gage?”
“It can’t hurt that your house is just a mile away from Dr. Maxwell’s, for additional support if it’s needed.”
“True.”
Before he could say anything else, a cell phone rang suddenly. The two agents exchanged looks and McKinnon answered his phone in a low voice. A moment later, he hung up.
“Sorry, we’ve got to run,” he said, heading toward the door. “We just got a break in another case we’re working.”
“What about Rosa?” Daniel asked. “We need to settle this!”
“We’ll make a few phone calls and see if we can put the wheels in motion,” Cale said. “We’ll get back to you later today.”
To his intense frustration, they both hurried toward the elevator before Daniel could raise the whole host of objections crowding through his mind. He and Lauren were left standing alone.
“You don’t have to stand there glaring at me like I just ran over your foot or something,” Lauren said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
“I think you’re insane. And I think Davis and McKinnon are right there with you in Crazy Town.”
“I didn’t see you coming up with anything else! You know they can’t just toss her into a hotel somewhere. She’s been raped and abused and nearly strangled. She’s frightened and alone and she needs friends more than anything else. Right now, we’re the only people she knows and trusts in the entire country!”
“What if they figure out where she is somehow and follow you to Moose Springs?”
“They won’t.”
“What if they do?” he pressed, his attention on the stark white bandage on her cheek. “You’ve already been hurt once watching out for her. You have no idea what kind of resources these people might have. They found her here, didn’t they? I sure as hell don’t need that kind of trouble in my town.”
He could see the temperature in her eyes drop well below freezing. “Since when is Moose Springs your town? I don’t believe I need your permission to invite a guest to my home.”
“In this case, you do,” he snapped. “Despite their misguided enthusiasm for the idea, Cale and Gage and the others at the FBI will never agree unless I give the final okay. I’m the local law, I get the last word. That’s the way it works. I can make all kinds of trouble for them until they decide maybe it’s not such a great plan after all.”
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