Shelter from the Storm

by RaeAnne Thayne

  When Karen Elliot’s cholesterol level dipped twenty points from her new exercise regimen, Lauren rejoiced as much as she did. When Dallas and Sara Fitzgerald’s baby overcame a rough start as a two-pound preemie and learned to walk by eleven months, Lauren had been the first one standing in line to cheer her on.

  She worried about them, she grieved with them, she celebrated with them.

  This was her town. Her life. She loved it here, warts and all.

  If not for her father’s actions, she would have missed this. She stared at the closed door of her office, startled by the realization. Before R.J.’s arrest, Lauren had been fielding offers from medical facilities across the U.S. She had most seriously been considering an attending position at the Chicago hospital where she finished her residency.

  After her father’s suicide and all the horrible revelations began to jumble up one after the other, she had pulled her name from consideration. She had known she must return to Moose Springs. As she had told Daniel, she felt a huge obligation to the people of this community who had, in effect, paid for her education by default.

  She had come home to help her mother try to pick up the pieces of their shattered world and face down the stares and whispers. In the process, Lauren had begun to build this clinic. She had created something good here—something that might not have existed if not for the chain reaction Daniel had started in his quest for vengeance.

  Daniel. She was still going to have to face him at some point. Could they find their way past the rubble of their shared history?

  She shook off the depression suddenly settling over her shoulders and pushed open her office door. Her voice-mail light was flashing. Big surprise there. The rest of the world didn’t stand still just because she took a few days off.

  She keyed through the lengthy list of missed calls on the caller ID menu. Only twelve missed calls—and six of those were from Kendall Fox. She sighed. The man didn’t seem to understand the concept of rejection.

  She turned on her computer to print out some files and was just about to hit the playback messages button on her phone when it rang, sounding abnormally loud in the empty clinic.

  She intended to let it ring, since she absolutely didn’t want to talk to a drug company salesman or an insurance rep right now. But out of curiosity, she checked the caller ID and groaned when she saw Kendall’s name and mobile number.

  This was ridiculous. She thought she had made her feelings clear the other day at the hospital, but apparently she would have to come down harder.

  “Hello?”

  There was a brief pause, as if he hadn’t quite expected her to answer. “Lauren! I’ve been trying to reach you for days.”

  “I’ve been off. I just came into the office to catch up on some paperwork and saw that you had called.”

  “Only a half-dozen times. I would have called your home or cell but I couldn’t seem to track down those numbers. Can it really be possible that I have failed to get the personal contact numbers of the most gorgeous doctor with privileges at my hospital?”

  If she weren’t so tired, she could no doubt come up with some brilliantly concise reply that would discourage him once and for all without being rude. But with her brain sluggish and slow, nothing came to mind.

  “You found me now. What did you need?”

  “Aren’t you even going to ask me how the Sundance after-party went?”

  “How did it go?” she asked automatically, hoping her complete disinterest didn’t filter through her voice.

  “Miserable. I was lonely and bored and missed you every second.”

  Which meant he probably had only one girl on each arm.

  “Listen,” he went on, “since you’ve been bragging about the cross-country skiing in your little cow patch, I decided to come up this way and see what you’re talking about. I’m just outside town now. I figured I could take you to lunch, then you could show me the trails you’re always talking about. What do you say?”

  Just what she needed, for Kendall to show up and complicate everything.

  She sighed. Last week, she turned him down because she wasn’t interested in a flirtation with a coworker. After the last few days spent with Daniel, she knew she could never go out with Dr. Fox, charming though he might be.

  How could she even look at another man? She loved Daniel Galvez with all her heart.

  “I didn’t realize it was within my power to completely wow you into speechlessness.”

  Heat rose in her cheeks as she realized she had been woolgathering about Daniel instead of responding to Kendall’s lunch invitation.

  “Sorry. It’s been a…strange few days. I’m afraid my mind is running in a hundred different directions. I’m sorry, but today isn’t a good day for me.”

  “Are you saying that because you don’t want to go with me or because it really isn’t a good day?”

  She thought of Rosa at home and the FBI agents who would be on their way to take her with them in a few hours. She should be there with her, she realized, and was ashamed of herself for taking a coward’s way out and escaping to the office.

  “It’s not a good day.”

  “But if it were, you still wouldn’t go, would you?”

  She sighed. “I would have no problem showing you the ski trails around here, Kendall. And lunch would probably be fine, as long as you don’t consider it a date.”

  “And if I did?”

  “Then I would tell you no. It’s nothing personal, I promise. I have the greatest respect for you as a doctor and I enjoy your company, but I just have a strict policy about not hooking up with other doctors I work with. I’ve had a few bad experiences where things became messy and it’s easier all around to keep those parts of my life separate.”

  She paused. “And to be honest, I’m involved with someone right now.”

  It wasn’t precisely a lie. Her heart was involved with Daniel, even if they had yet to even go on an actual date.

  “Let me guess. The big, bad cow-patch sheriff.”

  She blinked. Were her feelings that obvious? “I…why would you say that?”

  “I don’t know. A vibe I caught between you two. Am I right?”

  She didn’t know how to answer that. After a moment, he gave a short laugh. “I’m right. If you ever get tired of the tough jock type, you know where to find me.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Hey, speaking of the sheriff, what was the deal with that girl we treated last week? I meant to stop by and see how she was doing, but she had more security around her room than a movie star hiding out from the paparazzi. Next I know, she was released. Any word on how she’s doing?”

  “She and her baby are both fine,” Lauren answered. “She’s an amazingly resilient young woman.”

  There was an odd pause on the line and she thought for a moment his cell call had dropped, before he spoke again. “She had some great doctors. Especially the extraordinarily talented one she had in the E.R.”

  “I’m sure that has had a great deal to do with her rapid recovery,” Lauren said dryly.

  He laughed, though it sounded oddly strained. “Well, since I’m already in town, the least you can do is tell me how to get to the ski trail you’re always talking about.”

  “Right.” She gave him directions to the trailhead for an easy-to-moderate groomed trail that led past pine and aspen to a frozen waterfall.

  “You can just ski there from your house?”

  “Right. I’m just a quarter mile down the road,” she said absently. “The last house before you get to the trailhead.”

  “Good to know. Thanks.”

  He seemed in a hurry to hang up after obtaining the directions.

  After she said goodbye and disconnected the call, she spent a fruitless twenty minutes answering e-mail and trying to finish her paperwork. When she realized she had been staring at the same computer screen for ten minutes, she finally gave up, gathering the papers she needed and stuffed them in her briefcase.r />
  She didn’t want to be here, she wanted to be home with Daniel and Rosa. The irony didn’t escape her—for three days she had balked at being stuck in her house, had felt trapped and isolated and restless, but now she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  Would Daniel be back at her house yet? she wondered. And if he had returned, was she ready to face him?

  Yes. The knowledge washed through her, warm and sure. She loved him. She loved his laugh, she loved his strength, she loved the deep sense of honor that had compelled him to tell her something painful at a time when any other man would have ignored his conscience and taken what he wanted and she had been more than willing to give.

  That he had started the investigation that destroyed her father didn’t matter. She sat up in her office chair, staring unseeing at the sage walls. She loved him. He was a loving son who had been grieving for his father and angry at the mistreatment of his mother. She couldn’t blame him for wanting vengeance.

  Daniel may have been the catalyst to the finale, but R.J. had been completely responsible for his own downfall.

  She thought of the heat of Daniel’s kiss, the tenderness of his touch, his kindness with Rosa. That was the man she loved.

  She wanted what they had started the night before. No, she wanted more. With a deep, fierce ache, she wanted to see him, to tell him she was sorry for her reaction the night before and the cold words she had uttered.

  Despite the anticipation spiraling through her at seeing him again and trying to make things right between them, she couldn’t seem to shake a vague sense of unease as she climbed into her Volvo and headed back to her house. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but something niggled at her, some dissonant tone to the music of her morning.

  She was just tired, she assured herself as she neared her house. Exhaustion from her sleepless night was playing tricks on her.

  All seemed quiet at her house as she pulled into the driveway. Smoke curled up from the chimney and sunlight glittered off the fresh snow. When she opened the garage door, she saw Daniel hadn’t returned. Teresa Hendricks’s personal SUV was still parked in the second bay.

  She walked into the house and her unease ratcheted up a notch. Something wasn’t right. The television was playing in the family room, but neither Rosa nor Teresa were anywhere in sight.

  “Teresa? Rosa? Hello?” No one answered.

  “Hello?” she called again, only to be met by more silence.

  She grabbed her cell phone out of her coat pocket and punched 911. Just as she moved her thumb to hit the send button on her way to check Rosa’s bedroom, she heard a low, anguished moan.

  Warily, her heart pumping with thick urgency, she followed the sound to the entryway, then shock sucked the air from her lungs at what she found there.

  Chapter 14

  Daniel perused the duty roster for the week, his second-in-command across the desk.

  With a department of only eight full-time officers, including himself, sometimes personnel issues and making sure everybody’s schedules worked for the slot they were assigned was his biggest challenge.

  “I still don’t know what we’re going to do about tomorrow night.” Kurt Banning shook his head. “I’ve juggled and juggled but no matter how we shake it, we’re still short a deputy and we’re completely maxed out on overtime this month.”

  “Davis and McKinnon said they’re coming for our witness this afternoon. That should free me up from guard duty so you can add me back on to the rotation. I can handle the graveyard shift tonight and a double shift tomorrow.”

  “You sure about that? Maybe you ought to take a few days off after your tough ordeal of sitting around Lauren’s place all day drinking tea and watching movies.”

  “Ha ha. You’re hilarious, Banning.”

  “So they tell me.” His lieutenant and good friend grinned. Banning had given him a hard time today about his “easy” guard duty at Lauren’s place. They probably would have a tough time believing he would rather have been out in the middle of a blizzard directing traffic than enduring more time in Lauren’s company, knowing she despised him now.

  “Just put me on the schedule. I don’t mind the extra hours.”

  “Will do. So the feds are coming for the girl today, you said?”

  “Right. In a few hours. They’re moving her to a safe house in the city so they can start prepping her for grand jury testimony.”

  The deputy shook his head. “Hell of a case to fall into our lap, wasn’t it? My heart just breaks for that little girl and for the others who came over the border with her.”

  “She’s had a tough time of it, but she’s hanging in. Tell me what’s been going on with the Cole case.”

  They spent a few more moments discussing progress in some ongoing investigations and were just starting to wrap things up when they heard a shout from outside.

  “Sheriff! You need to get in here now!” Peggy yelled from the dispatch desk.

  He and Banning shared one quick look and his lieutenant’s expression mirrored his own shock. Peggy had been dispatching for thirty years and she never lost her cool. The urgency in her voice moved them both to action and they rushed from the office.

  She had put the 911 call on the speaker and his gut tightened with raw fear when he instantly recognized Lauren’s voice.

  “I need an air ambulance immediately at my house, Peggy. Officer down. Deputy Hendricks has been shot in the stomach. She’s bleeding heavily and drifting in and out of consciousness. I need the local paramedics here with oxygen but call LifeFlight first and get them in the air.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “Where’s Daniel?”

  He rushed forward and picked up the mike. “I’m here, Lauren. Are you hurt? Where’s Rosa?”

  “I’m fine. I don’t know where Rosa is.”

  Though he could tell she was trying her best to stay in control, he could hear the anguished panic filter through her voice and it ripped him apart. “I went to the clinic for a while. I was only gone maybe an hour. I just walked in the door and found Teresa on the floor and no sign of Rosa. I think they’ve got her. Please hurry.”

  “I’m on my way, sweetheart. Hang on.”

  He rushed for the door, strapping on his weapon and yelling orders as he went for Banning to let the FBI know, mobilize all deputies and call the county sheriff for reinforcements.

  “We need to establish a search perimeter and block off all exits into and out of town. I don’t know who we’re looking for or how many suspects, but whoever it is, they’re armed and dangerous. Do whatever it takes to protect yourselves and the girl.”

  Sick with worry and guilt, he rushed to Lauren’s house with his lights and sirens blaring. How the hell could this have happened? He should never have left her house. Skulking away that morning before she woke had been an act of cowardice, borne from a selfish wish to avoid seeing the disgust in her eyes.

  As a result, a damn good deputy was injured and Rosa was missing and he didn’t know how he would ever live with himself.

  For the second time in his life, he had let his own emotions stand in the way of the job.

  Put it away, he ordered himself. There would be time for recriminations and blame-slinging later. Now he needed to focus on the situation, on Rosa and Teresa.

  He covered the distance between the sheriff’s office and her house in record time and jerked his Tahoe to a stop in the driveway. Inside, he found Teresa on the floor of the entryway, with Lauren applying a pressure bandage to her blood-soaked abdomen.

  She looked up at him with vast relief. “Daniel!”

  “How is she?”

  “Stable, for now, but she’s losing blood fast. Peggy says LifeFlight is on its way. Our volunteer medics should be bringing oxygen.”

  Teresa blinked her eyes open when she saw him and struggled to sit up, but Lauren held her fast.

  “Sheriff,” Teresa mumbled, her eyes glazed. “Sorry. So sorry.”

  He had a narrow window of o
pportunity to obtain as much information as he could. Though his instinct was to let her rest and conserve her energy, he had to push. “What happened? Where’s Rosa?”

  Teresa groaned. “Don’t know. She was in the bathroom when the doorbell rang. I told her to stay put there. Lock the door. Through the peephole, I saw a blond guy, looked familiar. Five-ten, five-eleven, maybe. Red SUV in driveway.”

  She coughed a little and Lauren changed compresses. His gut clenched and he thought of Teresa’s two kids and John, her husband. If she didn’t make it through this, he would never forgive himself.

  “I shouldn’t have answered the door,” Teresa mumbled. “Rookie mistake. Knew better. Guy asked for Lauren. Said he was a friend. She’s not here, I tell him. He says he’ll wait and pushes his way inside. Next I know, he’s got a weapon out, tells me not to move. Asks me where the girl is. I played dumb, just like we talked about, but he wasn’t fooled. Knew she was there, he said. Told me to get her. I tried to draw my weapon, then he…shot me. Everything after that’s blurry.”

  “Did he find Rosa?”

  “I don’t know, Sheriff. I don’t remember. I heard him looking, tearing through the house, but then…the pain. I passed out.”

  Before he could ask her any more questions, the volunteer paramedics arrived, bringing oxygen and equipment.

  Daniel forced himself to step back and let them do their job. His deputy was in good hands. Lauren would do everything possible for her here and that high level of care would continue after the chopper airlifted her to the University of Utah.

  He needed to focus on finding Rosa. He headed to the bathroom. According to Teresa, Rosa had been there when everything went down.

  The bathroom door had been kicked in, he saw immediately, careful not to disturb any forensics.

  That matched Teresa’s story. She said she told Rosa to lock the door. The perp would have checked every door, found this one locked and probably known immediately this was where he would find his prey.

  Daniel looked around, then his gaze caught on something discordant. The hamper had been moved. He had showered in this bathroom for three days and he absolutely remembered it being against the other wall.