She had a good life, she reminded herself as she added the pasta to the boiling water. Every day she tried to make a difference in the world, to help the people of her community live healthier, happier lives. She had no reason at all for this discontent simmering under her skin.
“You know,” he said after a moment, “if Cale and McKinnon do find another placement for Rosa in the next day or two, you would still have time left of your vacation to go visit your mom in southern Utah.”
“Maybe. I don’t want to make any definite plans until things are figured out here.”
The timer went off, indicating the breadsticks were done. She slid them out, aware of him watching her the whole time.
“Anything I can do in here?”
She wanted him out of the kitchen. How could she possibly concentrate on cooking with him crowding her psyche this way? “No. I just need to toss it all together. Go back to your movie. Everything should be ready in ten minutes or so.”
“I can set the table, at least.”
“All right.”
For the next few moments, they worked together in silence, Daniel setting out plates and silverware while Lauren brushed melted butter on the breadsticks and finished sautéing the vegetables.
She was concentrating so fiercely on trying to ignore him that she nearly caused a disaster. When she determined the pasta was done, she carried the stockpot to the sink to drain and almost collided with Daniel, who must have gone to the cupboard by the sink for glasses.
He caught her and steadied her, but a tiny amount of hot liquid spilled over onto the front of his sweater.
“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed. “Are you all right?”
“Fine. It’s a thick sweater.”
This time she was certain his voice sounded rough. She lifted her gaze from his shirtfront to his face and that jumpy, fluttery feeling twirled through her insides at the raw hunger she surprised in his expression.
“I…Good,” she said breathlessly. They froze there in an awkward tableau, then he stepped away.
“You’d better drain that before you get burned.”
The pasta. Right. She hurried to the sink, hoping he would attribute her sudden flush to the cloud of steam curling around her.
The doorbell rang just as the three of them were clearing the dinner dishes. The change in Daniel was rapid and disconcerting. One moment he was teasing Rosa in Spanish, the next he became alert, predatory.
“Stay here,” he ordered, his voice hard and flat.
He headed toward the door, reaching for something under his sweater. He had a gun. Good Lord. She should have realized he would be armed. He was here for protection, for heaven’s sake, she reminded herself. He couldn’t very well face down Gilberto Mata with nothing but his fists, no matter how powerful they were.
Still, the sight of that stark, black weapon in his hand drove home the precariousness of the situation—and the dangerous edge to Daniel’s nature he usually managed to cloak from view.
From the angle of the kitchen cabinets, she only had a sliver of a view into the entryway. She watched Daniel ease to the front window and barely twitch the curtains to look out on to the porch, just like a gunfighter in the Wild West.
She held her breath, but whatever he saw there must have set his mind at ease. He quickly holstered his weapon again and worked the locks on the door.
“It’s okay. Everything’s okay.” She gave a Rosa a reassuring smile when she heard Daniel greeting Cale Davis.
A moment later, both men entered her kitchen, and the cozy room instantly seemed to shrink. Though Lauren knew Rosa had met the FBI agent when she was in the hospital, the girl seemed tense and anxious in his presence.
Seeing her reaction only reinforced to Lauren how very comfortable Rosa had become with Daniel. That thought was further validated when Daniel smiled at Rosa and she visibly relaxed.
“We’ve just finished eating,” Lauren said. “There’s plenty left. Are you hungry?”
He shook his head. “I’m fine, thanks. Megan’s holding dinner for me at home so I can’t stay long. Since your place is on my way home, I figured I would stop and see how things have been going.”
“Quiet,” Daniel answered.
“That’s good. Just the way we like it. Sorry I haven’t checked in with you before now. We’ve been in the middle of a big bust on another case. I think we’ve finally tied up all those loose ends and are ready to put all our energies into this case.”
“Has there been any progress?” Lauren asked.
Cale glanced quickly at Rosa, who was hovering close to Daniel. “Some,” he said. “We’re closing in on the smuggling ring. With the information Rosa gave us, we’ve been able to find Gilberto Mata. We know who he is and we’ve got a tail on him.”
“Have you arrested him?”
Cale shook his head. “Not yet. We’re trying to track his movements, his known associates, that kind of thing, to see if we can figure out who else might be involved and find the other girls Rosa talked about. Her friend and the others. That’s going to take some time. We know from her statement that she knows at least four other men were involved besides Mata, the three other men who raped her and who handled the day-to-day operations and another one who seemed to be calling the shots. There have got to be more than that if they’re keeping the other girls somewhere—”
Rosa said something quickly in Spanish to Daniel, a questioning look on her fragile, half-healed features. She must have been asking him to translate the conversation. Since Lauren had spent the last two days trying in vain to follow the rapid conversations between Rosa and Daniel, she thought she understood how Rosa felt.
“Can I tell her what you said? She deserves to know what’s going on,” Daniel said.
Cale pursed his lips. “You’re right. She does.”
Daniel quickly explained what the agent had said and Rosa nodded. Lauren actually understood her response as she asked him in Spanish why they hadn’t already arrested the man who hurt her.
Cale apparently understood some Spanish as well. “Explain to her that we can’t move too quickly on this and risk blowing the whole investigation by sending them all running back over the border. As I said, we’re still trying to find the other girls she talked about. We need a few more days to make sure we can get them out safely when this all goes down.”
Daniel translated his words to Rosa, who nodded solemnly.
“Federal prosecutors want to convene a grand jury by Tuesday or Wednesday so we can get some indictments. We would like to prep Rosa to testify as early as the day after that.”
He looked at Lauren. “Do you think she’ll be up to that?”
“Are you asking me as her doctor or as her friend?” she asked, and couldn’t help the ridiculous little glow that blossomed inside her when Daniel gave her a wide smile of approval.
“Both, I suppose,” Cale answered.
“I think you’re going to need to ask her that. Medically, there’s no reason she can’t testify. She’s rebounding remarkably well from a horrific beating. She still has pain and will for some time, but both she and the baby seem to be fine. Emotionally, she’s suffered months of trauma and she’s going to be healing from that for a long time.”
Cale turned to the girl and asked her in Spanish if she would be willing to testify about what happened to her so the men who hurt her could be arrested.
She shook her head vehemently, her eyes wide and her expression taut with fear. Lauren instinctively went to her. But Daniel moved first. He squeezed her shoulder gently and spoke in a soft, reassuring voice.
At first, Lauren couldn’t understand what he said. Only after she translated the words in her mind did his meaning become clear. He told Rosa she was strong and beautiful, courageous enough to handle this task they put before her, as hard as it would be, and he swore he would be with her the entire way.
Rosa swallowed hard, her fingers trembling as she twisted them together. She looked as if she wanted to run
out the door and escape this whole situation, but after a moment she seemed to straighten her shoulders.
“If it will help the other girls to be safe and away from those bad men, then yes, I will tell what I know.”
Daniel smiled at her with pride and affection. As Lauren gazed at those strong, handsome features, the terrifying truth poured over her like someone had just rushed into the kitchen and dumped a bucket full of snow over her head.
She was in love with him.
Instinctively, she fought to deny it. She couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.
Yes, she was attracted to him. That was a normal physiological reaction to a powerful, gorgeous man. Yes, she admired his dedication and his commitment to his job and his town, his kindness and his compassion.
But love.
That was something else entirely.
Even as her mind tried to rationalize, to frantically search for some escape, the inevitable truth seemed to settle into her chest, seeping into her soul.
She was in love with Daniel Galvez.
How could she have missed it all these years? They had definitely been there, these feelings growing inside her. Looking back, she could see clear signs. She had always had a bit of a crush on him as a girl—just like all the other girls at school.
Daniel had been tall, dark, gorgeous, athletic—and slightly rough around the edges. All the things that twittered the hearts of silly teenage girls, and she had been no different.
She had put it out of her mind over the years, but since they both returned to Moose Springs as adults and she watched the kind of man that boy had grown into, these tender feelings had been growing inside her—untended and wild, but still somehow finding root.
Through her dismay, she realized Cale and Daniel were still talking about the case.
“What about the safe-house situation?” Daniel asked.
“We should have everything set by tomorrow afternoon. We’ve got a couple female agents standing ready to stay with her. One of them is fluent in Spanish, too.”
“That’s good,” Daniel said, relief in his voice. “I’ll feel better if she has someone to talk to.”
“Things will be easier with her in our place by the U. This way the prosecutors will have easier access to prep her for her testimony.” Cale paused. “You two okay here one more night?”
“I’m good,” Daniel said. “Lauren?”
No. She was not good. Didn’t anybody else notice the sane order of her life crumbling around her feet?
“She can stay here as long as necessary,” she managed.
“Thanks. Tomorrow should be sufficient.”
Could she make it through one more day? she wondered as Daniel showed Cale to the door and she and Rosa resumed clearing the dishes from the kitchen table.
Oh, this was a complete disaster, she thought as she stood filling the sink with soapy water for the dishes that weren’t dishwasher-safe. She was destined for heartache here.
She thought of the tension that was always there just below the surface when she was with Daniel. He didn’t share her feelings. She had never picked up any kind of vibe like that.
Maybe she just missed it. She had been too stupid to realize her own feelings. But he had kissed her.
A fluke, she assured herself, a temporary aberration brought on by the heat and intensity of the moment.
Who would have guessed when she stepped up to offer a wounded patient a sanctuary for a few days that she would discover a grim truth about herself that would rock her to the core?
“Everything okay?”
She looked up from the sink to find Daniel had returned to the kitchen and was watching her with concern in his eyes.
“Much harder and you’re going to scrub the nonstick coating right out of that pan,” he said.
She stilled her movements, hoping the truth wasn’t painfully obvious in her features.
“Yes. Of course. Everything’s fine,” she lied. “Just fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Chapter 11
Something was wrong.
Daniel covertly studied Lauren throughout the remainder of the evening, trying to figure out exactly what had happened at dinnertime to make her so jumpy and out of sorts.
She tried to hide it, but he could see some kind of turmoil seething in her blue eyes. Though she went through the motions of watching another DVD with them, he didn’t think she caught any of it. Half the time she wasn’t even looking at the screen, she was gazing into the flickering fire or out the window at the snow. She seemed the proverbial million miles away.
Maybe this situation was harder on her than she let on. He sure as hell found it a nightmare.
Being this close to Lauren—living in her house, surrounded by her things, by her scent, by her sheer presence—was just about the hardest assignment he had ever endured.
He had gone undercover as a scumbag drug dealer for five months back on the job in Salt Lake City and had seen—and done—things that still made his gut burn. All for the greater good of busting up a crime ring that focused exclusively on hooking junior high and high school kids on methamphetamines.
The whole thing had been a miserable, soul-sucking time in his life. While the two dozen resulting arrests hadn’t completely washed away the stink of it from his skin, they had certainly helped.
Sitting in Lauren’s house, pretending a casualness he was far from feeling, seemed much harder than those five months.
He ached to touch her again. Every time he came within a few feet of her, he had to shove his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her.
Maybe that’s why she was so twitchy, because she feared he was going to jump her again any minute now.
She didn’t need to worry. He could have reassured her on that score. He had vowed to himself the night before that he would keep his hands off her for the duration of this assignment and he would damn well keep that oath, no matter how impossible it seemed at times.
The music on the movie swelled and he realized the closing credits were rolling. He hadn’t paid much more attention than Lauren. He only hoped Rosa had enjoyed it.
“Do you want to watch another one?” Lauren asked in Spanish.
Rosa shook her head. “I’m tired,” she said softly, her hand resting on her abdomen.
Lauren studied her with concern. “You’re hurting, aren’t you?”
Rosa started to deny it, then finally she shrugged.
Lauren turned to him. “Can you ask her if it would be all right for me to check her temperature and blood pressure? I’m afraid I don’t quite have the language skills.”
He repeated her question to Rosa, who shrugged again. She did look achy and upset and he admired Lauren’s powers of observation.
She rose with her usual grace and left the room. When she returned, she carried her medical bag. She flipped up the lights they had dimmed for the movie and sat down next to Rosa on the couch.
As usual, he found watching Dr. Maxwell in action far more absorbing than anything on the silver screen. Despite her halting Spanish, she made Rosa completely comfortable with her quiet skill. After a quick check of temperature and blood pressure, she pulled out a small sensor from her bag, the same one she had used during her initial exam of Rosa.
“I’m going to check the baby’s heartbeat, okay?” She patted her chest to pantomime a heart beating and pointed at Rosa’s abdomen.
“Do you want me to leave?” Daniel asked.
“That’s up to Rosa.”
He repeated the question to the girl, who shook her head. “Just turn around,” Rosa ordered.
He had to smile at the peremptory tone—something she was using more and more as she became more comfortable with them both. He complied, then was astonished a moment later to hear a rapid, steady heartbeat filling the room.
“Is that the baby?” he asked, amazed at the strength of it.
“That’s her,” Lauren said. “She’s a fighter. That’s a strong, normal heartbeat.”
When he shifted his gaze, he saw she was putting the monitor thingie away while Rosa pulled her shirt back down. Instead of looking thrilled to hear the heartbeat, she was looking increasingly distressed.
Lauren must have picked up on it, too. “What is it?”
Rosa shrugged but her chin gave an ominous quiver and her big dark eyes started to fill up with tears.
Daniel’s first instinct—like that of any sane man—was to shove his chair back and run like hell. Lauren could handle it. She must know exactly how to deal with a young girl’s tears.
She’d been one, after all.
He started to shift his weight forward to escape, but Lauren caught the movement. She impaled him in place with a glare.
“What is it? Everything is fine. Good. Are you hurting somewhere else?” she asked in her stilted Spanish.
He sighed. As much as he desperately wanted to escape any emotional outburst, he couldn’t leave, not with the language barrier between Lauren and her patient.
Rosa pressed a hand to her chest. “Here,” she said.
“You’re having chest pains?” In her dismay, Lauren forgot herself and asked the question in English, then looked helplessly at him. He repeated the question in Spanish.
Rosa sniffled once, and then unleashed the floodgates. “My heart,” she sobbed. “It aches inside me. I worry so much. What will happen to my baby? She did nothing wrong and I do not want her to die. I am glad she is a fighter, as Dr. Lauren says, that Gilberto Mata did not kill her. But I cannot love her. Who will take care of her?”
Daniel couldn’t begin to imagine what she must be going through, pregnant as a result of rape, afraid for her life in a country where she didn’t speak the language.
“What did she say?” Lauren demanded, frustration at the language barrier obvious in her features.
“She’s worried about the baby.”
“Her heartbeat was fine. Better than fine. It’s great,” Lauren said, clearly baffled.
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