“I take it it wasn’t.”
“No. Letty—you met her—decided being married to me was too dangerous, too iffy. In the time I’d been gone she’d fallen for my partner, Levi Allen, and he’d moved in with her. That’s what she was talking about in my hospital room.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Wait. It gets worse. Apparently the guys who’d been sent to kill me weren’t too bright because they followed Letty home and shot the wrong cop.”
“Now it makes more sense.”
“Yeah. She twisted the facts and blamed me for everything. It never seemed to dawn on her that she’d played a part in getting Levi killed.”
“But why go into hiding? Wouldn’t you have been safer among other cops?”
“If I’d thought I could trust them all, yes,” Daniel said. “The problem was, somebody had given the gang an inside tip about who I really was. There weren’t many people privy to that information. Letty was one. Levi was another.”
“And your chief?”
“Yes, but he’s one of the only ones I’m sure is on my side. He had to order me into hiding to get me to go.”
That explanation was true as far as he’d taken it. What he hadn’t said, and didn’t intend to reveal unless absolutely necessary, was that the aftermath of his kidnapping had left him with panic attacks and vivid nightmares. No matter how often he told himself he was stronger than that buried fear he couldn’t seem to escape it.
Call it PTS for post-traumatic stress or just plain emotional scarring, he had it. Bad. And he intended to keep his flaws hidden as long as possible, particularly as far as this pretty woman was concerned.
He huffed, imagining her reaction to a full confession. She was liable to drop him at the nearest police station and wash her hands of the whole affair. Then he’d be up the creek with no paddle for sure.
“Look,” Daniel said, watching her face for signs of distancing. “I don’t want you involved any more than you want to be, but right now I’m out of options. I promise I’ll take off on my own just as soon as I’m able to drive.”
Instead of answering or arguing, Kaitlin opened her door and started to get out. Oh, no! Was this it? Was she dumping him?
“We can cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said flatly. “So, water or sports drink for you? I’m thirsty.”
That was all? Daniel could hardly believe his eyes and ears. She didn’t argue or lecture him or anything. She merely accepted his explanation at face value.
That was almost enough to convince him to tell her everything. Almost. But not quite. If and when he happened to flip out and relive his captivity in her presence he’d have to explain. Until then, it was his secret. Truth to tell, he was kind of ashamed in spite of knowing that that adverse reaction to trauma was one way the brain coped with overload.
Daniel forced a smile as Kaitlin climbed back into the truck toting the entire foam ice chest. She slid it into place on the seat between them.
“I’m thankful this is an old truck,” she said, “so it has a bench seat instead of buckets.”
“Right.” Satisfied that she was through asking questions, Daniel relaxed a little. The throbbing in his leg kept time with his heartbeats and he could tell he had a fever because he felt overheated when the air temperature was moderate if not cool.
“This friend of yours,” he began, “is she liable to help?”
“Yes, I think so.” She brightened. “Hey! Did they give you back your wallet?”
He shook his head. “I assume it’s being held in evidence along with my clothes.”
“Do you happen to remember the number of your driver’s license? Not the real one, the fake.”
“I think so. Why?”
“Because we may need ID at the clinic. All you have to do is tell the truth. You left it behind during the confusion when you were hurt.”
“I doubt that excuse will work but you’re welcome to try. That devious mind of yours scares me sometimes,” he said with a quirky grin.
Kaitlin laughed. “Only sometimes? Huh. I guess I’ll have to try harder.”
As Daniel watched she sobered and stared into his eyes so deeply he almost shivered. “There is only so far I’ll go,” she said. “I won’t purposely break the law unless it’s a life-and-death situation. And I won’t harm anyone. Ever. I meant it when I rededicated my life to the Lord. I’m in all the way. Please remember that.”
“You’re doing the right thing by helping me,” he countered. “You know that, don’t you?”
“I choose to assume so.” She lifted the white foam lid. “So, what’ll you have? Your wish is my command.”
Daniel wanted to give voice to his fondest wishes for her safety and well-being but he held back. Nothing would be gained by making their situation more personal. As it was, he’d had to stop himself from taking her hand when they had casually touched. If he allowed himself to feel too much, to care too much, to think of Kaitlin as anything more than a friend, he would be doing her a disservice, not to mention making himself crazy. Crazier.
Taking the bottle of cold water she offered, he looked beyond their truck and scanned the busy parking lot. No particular menace stood out. No vehicles seemed familiar. Yet they were out there. Somewhere. And they still intended to take his life to get even.
Nameless, faceless men were waiting for him to make a mistake and Kaitlin’s good intentions had carried him right into their neighborhood. Right back into the territory that had nearly cost him his life mere months before.
* * *
The more time Kaitlin spent with Daniel and the more she learned, the worse their situation seemed. If he had told her anything about his history in Springfield she never would have brought him here.
And now? Now, he was pretty sick. Taking him farther without getting proper medical treatment could easily be the wrong move. Furthermore, there was the question of what came next. For both of them. As far as she was concerned they were a duo and would remain so until she was given proof that her job was over.
Speaking of jobs, she thought, carefully navigating the busy thoroughfare that bisected the town, hers was probably in jeopardy already. Not only was she skipping classes for her paramedic certification, she could miss her next shift on the ambulance crew.
It took mere moments for her to realize she had her priorities straight. The man beside her had been thrust into her safekeeping as if she was his only real hope. She had to stick with him, to keep helping him. It was the right thing to do.
Signs for businesses in passing strip malls were a jumble of names and colors. If not for her phone’s navigation app she would have sailed past the small storefront urgent-care clinic without noticing.
Daniel pushed himself more erect in the seat. “Are we there?”
She waved her phone. “Yes. I’ve decided to chance telling my friend the whole truth and throwing you on her mercy.”
“You’ve decided?”
“Yup. My truck, my rescue, my decision.”
A sigh from him became a groan as he tried to move his leg. Lack of further comment worried her more than an argument would have.
She pulled her keys and grabbed her purse. “Stay here and wait. I’ll go find my friend and set things up for you.”
All he did was nod and close his eyes. Perspiration glistened on his forehead and dampened the scrub top with patterns of darker green. The worse he got, the more sure Kaitlin was that she had made the right choices.
Passing through the waiting room, she dreaded the likely germ-ridden atmosphere. Considering all the snorting, sneezing and coughing going on around her, she wished she could hold her breath through the entire visit.
A portly, motherly-looking receptionist slid back a glass partition. “May I help you?”
“I’m here to see Mags—I mean Margaret. We went to college together.”
The woman picked up a telephone receiver and spoke into it. Kaitlin couldn’t hear every word but she got the gist of the conversation. The receptionist doubted her credibility and wasn’t shy about saying so.
Nevertheless, a tall, slim nurse practitioner in a white physician’s coat came hurrying from the rear, arms open, smile beaming. “Katie! I haven’t see you since we both got booted out of med school.”
“Those were the days.” She accepted Mags’s embrace. “We always did want to do things our way.”
“Moral code over rules,” Margaret said.
“Yes.” One arm around her waist, Kaitlin drew her friend aside and spoke privately. “That’s the kind of problem I have now.”
“Uh-oh. What did you do?”
“Saved a cop’s life.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Mags was fingering the earpieces of the stethoscope looped around the back of her neck.
“Nothing, except he’s hurt and can’t go to the hospital.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a long story.” Kaitlin cleared her throat and reached for her friend’s hand. “We need your help.”
“So, bring him in.”
“Can’t. He needs to stay under the radar to stay alive. It’s complicated.”
“I imagine it is.” Margaret was shaking her head but starting to grin. “What have you gotten involved in now?”
Kaitlin shrugged and matched the other woman’s grin. “Oh, nothing much. Just kidnapping, murder, assassins and drug gangs.” She would have mentioned Letty, too, but that would have taken too long to explain.
“So, nothing serious.”
“Right. Listen, we just need antibiotics and first-aid supplies. I can treat him myself.”
“You like prison jumpsuits? Orange will clash with your blond hair.” The nurse practitioner sobered. “I’m sorry, kiddo. I can’t prescribe without examining the patient, not even as a favor to you.”
“Okay.” Kaitlin could identify. “He’s out in the car. Can I at least wheel him in the back door?”
“Wheel?”
“Yeah. He’s not steady on his feet right now and I’d hate to see him fall and be injured worse.”
“Okay. That I will permit.” Mags approached the receptionist and leaned over her desk to speak softly, then straightened. “I’ll see your friend in a back exam room. There’s access off the alley. The door is marked but locked. Drive around. I’ll be waiting.”
Kaitlin gave Mags a brief, ecstatic hug and almost ran back to her truck. At first she didn’t see Daniel. Before she had time to panic she jerked open the door. He’d pushed aside the ice chest and was lying on his side across the seat.
“Are you okay?”
“Keeping out of sight. Did you get the meds?”
“We will. Soon,” she told him. “Sit up and scoot over. We have to move around back.”
Although he did push himself into the passenger’s seat it wasn’t without considerable groaning and grimacing. Kaitlin could tell he was also dizzy because he blinked rapidly and steadied himself by grabbing the dash.
“Hang on,” she said, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. “It won’t be long now.”
There was no nod from him, no acknowledgment. He simply held on, his breathing shallow and rapid. This was not good. Not good at all. One plus surfaced to confirm her earlier choice. Coming straight to the clinic had been for the best. Now all she had to do was get her friend to put off immediately reporting a bullet wound and they’d be home free.
She started the truck and backed out. A black SUV slowly cruising up the lane between parking areas captured her attention. Should she mention it to Daniel? See what he thought?
No, Kaitlin told herself. He had enough to worry about. Added strain on his physical resources could push him over the edge and leave her manhandling the body of a muscular six-foot-tall man. She had to protect his last ounces of strength or they’d both be in trouble.
“Lay over the ice chest,” she ordered. “It will bring more blood to your brain and keep you out of sight at the same time.”
He raised his left arm and used it as a pillow without argument or comment. Kaitlin had been keeping an eye on the suspicious SUV until she’d looked in her mirrors while pulling the rest of the way out. When she looked back, it was gone.
Was that good? Of course it was. Her patient’s paranoia had merely influenced her otherwise sensible thoughts and made her unduly jumpy.
After wheeling around to the rear of the row of single-story buildings she slowed until she’d located the clinic door.
It was opening. Mags was waiting with a wheelchair.
Kaitlin sighed. Everything was going to be all right.
SIX
Daniel was disgusted with himself. If he got much worse he’d pass out cold and he knew it. How much more could he take? And how much more could he ask of his rescuer? She’d already gone far beyond expected. That spoke well of her character.
A tall, no-nonsense woman in a long white coat hustled them into an exam room and shut the door. His slightly blurred vision did not hide her rising temper as she eyed his injured leg.
“What in the...”
“He was in a hospital,” Kaitlin explained. “That’s where he was first treated. We had to leave in a hurry and I didn’t have a chance to pick up fresh bandages or meds.”
“Why?”
“Why did we have to leave?” Kaitlin cleared her throat and laid a hand on his shoulder. “It’s complicated.”
“So you said. That’s not good enough, Katie. Spill.”
Daniel braced his arms on the wheelchair and tried to hold still as the nurse practitioner slit the leg of the scrub pants. That gave him instant pain relief, meaning his thigh had swollen since he’d dressed.
He made eye contact with Kaitlin and asked her, “Can you cut off both legs so they look like shorts? That way we can get to the bandage and get rid of the stain.”
“Smart.” She gave him a wan smile as she proceeded to remove the covering on his good leg and trim up the rough edges on the wounded side.
Her friend had withdrawn and was standing aside, arms folded across her chest, scowling. “Well?”
“I don’t want to reveal more than I have to,” Daniel said. “I really am a cop but I have no way to prove it to you. And there’s a hit squad chasing me.”
“Looks like you ran too slow.” Margaret did not appear convinced.
“They got me when my guard was down,” he countered. “After I landed in the hospital they came after me there. If it hadn’t been for Kaitlin I’d probably be dead by now.”
While he’d been explaining, Kaitlin had gloved up and removed the old bandages.
Daniel gripped his throbbing leg with both hands, hoping to stop some of the radiating pain, as the nurse bent to assess it.
“The bullet’s out?”
“Yeah,” Daniel told her. “It was a through-and-through.”
“Well, that’s one good thing.” Margaret was glowering at Kaitlin. “If you hadn’t brought him somewhere for treatment it wouldn’t matter who was after him. This wound would have done him in.”
“That’s what I figured.”
“And now you expect me to do what?”
He was looking back and forth between the two old friends as though sitting in the stands watching a tennis match.
“Give me supplies, mostly,” Kaitlin said. “You know what he needs.”
“Probably.” Mags handed him a digital thermometer and began to pile bandaging and gauze pads in his lap. “Once you stop hauling him all over Missouri and let him rest, the bleeding should stop. I can’t suture it or infection will build up inside.”
“What about a broad-spectrum antibiotic?”
Margaret was shaking her head as she focused on him. �
�Any allergies?”
“Not that I know of.”
“What were they giving you in the hospital?”
Unsure, he deferred to Kaitlin. “Do you know?”
“No. I hadn’t been planning to make a run for it or I’d have looked.”
“All right. I’ll give you some physician’s samples but I won’t write a prescription for a man with no ID. You were never here. Understand?”
Grimacing in pain as Kaitlin began to rebandage his leg, Daniel nodded. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. We never met, remember?” Margaret was turning and had placed her hand on the knob when there was a knock so loud the door vibrated. She jumped. “What is it?”
A screeching female voice shouted, “Call the police! We’re being attacked.”
That was enough for Daniel. He levered himself to his feet and pushed the nurse back to where Kaitlin also stood, jaw agape.
Slowly easing open the door he peered down the long corridor. Several rough-looking men on the lobby side of the interior window were shouting and throwing anything they could get their hands on. One kept demanding access to the exam rooms. Little wonder the waiting-room chairs behind them had emptied. Standing between the thugs and everyone in the back of the clinic was an obviously locked entrance.
As soon as the leader turned aside Daniel said, “Stay here,” and slipped into the hallway. Passing three closed doors he peeked inside each room. They were unoccupied. The fourth held an elderly man, thin and stoop-shouldered, keeping his baggy trousers up with suspenders.
“Go out the back,” Daniel commanded, his voice raspy.
The man stood as straight as his bent back would allow. “Sonny, the name’s Barney, and once a marine, always a marine. Fought in plenty of battles. We never run from a fight.”
“These guys will have you for lunch,” Daniel warned, ducking into the room to protect them both from discovery.
Eyeing Daniel’s bandaged thigh, the senior citizen chortled. “Looks to me like somebody already took a bite out of you.” He raised his cane. “Stand aside and let me at ’em.”
Marked For Revenge (Emergency Responders Book 2) Page 5