by Laura Scott
“Shane.” The husky note in Gabby’s voice as she said his name made him catch his breath, wishing he had the right to hold her close. She stopped on the landing and turned to face him. “You can’t keep sleeping on the floor outside my call room. For one thing, it can’t be at all comfortable. And for another, I’m safe here inside the hospital. Safer than I’d be anywhere else.”
Shane wasn’t sure he agreed; he believed an anonymous hotel room might be better. But maybe she didn’t feel safe in a hotel room, even if he was staying right next door. And was that different than him staying in a call room next to her? Maybe not.
There was something to be said for being surrounded by people. And security guards, some of whom carried Tasers.
“I’m staying,” he repeated firmly. “If there’s a spare call room right next to yours, I’d consider that, but if not, the floor will do. I’ve slept in worse places.”
“I’m sure there’s an empty call room.” Gabby took the stairs the rest of the way down, and as they walked past the cafeteria, she slowed and then turned in to the doorway. “I guess I will pick up something to eat.”
Shane strode alongside her, glad she was taking care of herself. At least she seemed to have recovered from the shock of her stepfather’s unexpected demise. Maybe being a physician helped her keep things in perspective. She made herself a large salad from the salad bar before walking over to the cashier. When he pulled out his wallet to pay for her meal, Gabby looked as if she might argue, but then allowed him to pay without a protest.
He knew he was going a bit overboard with Gabby. As much as he told himself that he just wanted to protect her, and to keep her safe, he was forced to admit his feelings were much more complicated than that.
He admired her. And was beginning to care about her. Far too much.
Hadn’t he learned his lesson with Linda? He’d been totally devastated when he’d found out she was cheating on him. With a detective from their same district, no less.
He’d loved Linda more than she’d loved him. She’d only felt gratitude towards him, nothing more. No way was he going to make the same mistake again.
So despite how much he liked and respected her, Gabby was off-limits. For her sake, as much as his own.
* * *
Gabby walked to the suite of on-call rooms, wishing there was a way to convince Shane that he didn’t need to stay the night playing bodyguard.
But she knew she’d have more luck talking to a rock. She suspected stubborn was Shane Hawkins’s middle name.
She paused outside the call room where she’d left her duffel bag earlier that afternoon. The pain in her head was better, although there was still a lingering ache. Nothing she couldn’t handle. Still, it seemed as if days had passed since she’d been back here to get her meds, rather than mere hours.
“Is one of the rooms on either side of you open?” Shane asked from behind her.
“I’ll call Security to find out.” She punched the code into the keypad on the door handle.
“I really need to be right next door,” Shane insisted. “If that’s not possible, the floor will work fine.”
She ground her teeth together in frustration as she pushed the door open. “The floor is not fine. Just give me a minute, okay?” Leaving the door ajar, she crossed over to the small bedside table. She turned on the lamp and then picked up the phone.
Security answered and informed her that call rooms ten and eleven were open. The rooms on either side of hers were not. “Please take me out of room five and assign me to rooms ten and eleven, thanks.”
She expected the security guard to give her a hard time over needing two rooms, but he didn’t object. Had Shane already put the security team on notice about the potential danger? The thought didn’t sit well with her, but there wasn’t much she could do about it, either.
After hanging up the phone, she picked up her duffel bag and walked back out into the corridor where Shane waited. “We have rooms located at the end of this hall.”
“Okay,” Shane agreed.
“The doors all have keypad combination locks, and the codes are the full room number located up on the door frame punched in backward.” Gabby demonstrated outside room ten, which was listed on the upper-right door frame as 1010. She put the numbers in backward and the door clicked open. “Do you want this room or the one closest to the stairwell?”
“I’ll take the one near the stairwell,” Shane said, frowning at the push-button locks. “I’m not sure I like the fact that anyone here could easily find out the code to your room.”
Gabby suppressed a sigh. “Only people who work here, the ER staff and the doctors who use the call rooms. These rooms are exclusively reserved for attending physicians—the residents are located closer to the ICU. And we can request the codes to be changed if needed.”
“You don’t know how to do that yourself?”
“No, why would I? I’d have to call one of the maintenance guys to do that.” When she sensed he was about to ask her to go ahead and do just that, her temper flared. “Come on, Shane, this isn’t a high-risk area. The only way to get back here is through a back stairwell or through the ER itself. Neither place is easily accessible to the public. Can you honestly say that this is less safe than some random hotel?”
“I guess not,” he agreed with apparent reluctance. “But I’m not going to apologize for worrying about your safety. Less than twenty-four hours ago, you were kidnapped at gunpoint from right outside this hospital. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The somber note in Shane’s tone caused her brief flash of anger to fizzle. “I know,” she admitted softly. “Trust me, I’d prefer to be safe, too. And I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.” She gestured to the room he intended to stay in. “This is going above and beyond the call of duty.”
His crooked smile made her tummy do another backflip. “No, it’s not. I owe you for saving my life, remember? I doubt I’d be alive if it wasn’t for you.”
She blushed and shrugged. “You never mentioned who shot you and why.”
Shane’s expression clouded over. “I was working undercover on an illegal arms case. Unfortunately I eventually found out my boss was dirty. I’m lucky I was only shot and not killed outright.”
His boss? “Lieutenant Vaughn?”
“No, my former boss, Lieutenant Nash, from the Milwaukee Police Department. I just recently joined the sheriff’s department because I didn’t trust anyone at my old district.”
“That must have been terrible,” she said with a frown.
“Not really. After all, going through all of that is how I met you.”
She felt her cheeks growing warm again, but resisted the urge to cover them with her hands. She couldn’t help but be impressed by how Shane was able to put a positive spin on everything he’d endured. And oddly enough, knowing he’d had to overcome adversity, just like she had, gave them something in common.
“Try to get some sleep, Gabby,” Shane said, interrupting her thoughts. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”
She nodded and turned away, feeling the intensity of Shane’s gaze on her back as she went into her newly assigned call room and quietly shut the door.
For a moment she stood there, aching for something she didn’t dare name. Why was she so attracted to him? Shane wasn’t like any of the men she worked with. And not just because he believed in God and prayer, although that was certainly a rarity in her experience.
He was different in the way he treated her, as if she was special. And not supersmart special, either. She wished so much that she hadn’t pulled away from his kiss.
Because she wanted a chance to repeat that kiss. And soon.
Stop it, she told herself sternly. Didn’t she have bigger issues to worry about right now than thinking about what it might be like to be with Shane on a personal level? She had patients who needed her care and a funeral to plan for her stepfather. Not to mention tryin
g to figure out who had tried to kidnap her and why.
Yeah, more than enough going on in her life at the moment. She pushed away from the door and quickly washed up before sitting on the bed to eat her salad. When she finished, she crawled into bed, despite the fact that it was barely nine o’clock at night.
It seemed as if she fell asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.
All too soon, the nightmare that had plagued her as a child returned. Deep in the recesses of her mind, she knew it was just a dream, but she couldn’t seem to break loose.
Her father was working from home that day, sunshine streaming through his office windows. He hadn’t minded her being there as long as she was quiet and didn’t interrupt. Since she loved to read, that wasn’t a problem and she was reading one of her old favorites, The Black Stallion, when the doorbell rang. Her father stood up and walked across the study just as there was a loud banging noise as someone burst in through the front door.
“Hide, Gabriella,” her father whispered urgently. “Under the desk. And don’t make a sound! No matter what happens, don’t let them see you!”
She hadn’t understood what was going on, but she scrambled beneath the oak desk and covered her ears when the men started yelling.
Pain crushed her temples and suddenly, Shane was there, shaking her awake.
“Gabby, wake up! You’re safe, Gabby. It’s only a dream.”
Her eyelids fluttered open and she realized the lamp was on and Shane was standing over her, holding on to her shoulders as if to keep her from thrashing around.
“What happened?” she asked in confusion, trying to throw off the effects of the nightmare. “Why are you here?”
“You were screaming,” Shane said in a low, gravelly voice, his eyes full of concern. “You scared me to death, I thought for sure Creighton had found you.”
She grimaced and put a hand to her head, trying to press the ache away. Now that he mentioned it, her throat hurt as if she’d spent the day shrieking at the top of her lungs. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“I’ll get you a cup of water,” Shane said, releasing her shoulders and heading into the small bathroom.
She pushed herself up until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She had to grasp the bedside table to keep herself steady.
“Here you go.” Shane returned to her side and handed her a cup of water.
She was grateful for the arm he anchored around her shoulders. “Thanks,” she murmured, taking a sip. “I’m sorry, but I might need my headache pills again. They’re in my duffel.”
He brought the pill bottle over and held her glass so she could take them. “You don’t have to apologize, Gabby. I’m just glad you weren’t in danger.”
She couldn’t suppress a shiver and did her best to push the last remnants of the nightmare away. “I haven’t had this particular nightmare in a long time. Years, actually.”
“But you’ve had this one before?” Shane asked with a puzzled frown. “What happened?”
She hesitated, reluctant to relive the painful past. “It’s nothing, really. Just a memory of my father telling me to hide. And then nothing but angry voices and pain reverberating through my head.”
“Your father told you to hide?” he echoed. “But you don’t remember anything more? That seems odd, considering your amazing memory.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she hadn’t said anything at all. “I was eight,” she reminded him. “And it hurts to think about it.”
Shane knelt down in front of her so he could meet her gaze. “Gabby, don’t you think it’s strange that you get a headache every time you think about your father?” he asked in a gentle tone.
It took all her willpower not shut him out. “Of course I think it’s strange. My mother took me to see a psychologist right after we moved, but that didn’t help. Besides, as I said before, what difference does it make now? My father died twenty-one years ago. Why on earth would anything happening now be connected to something that transpired way back then?”
“I don’t know,” Shane said. “I agree that it doesn’t seem likely that someone who might have known your father had come back to find you after all these years.”
“Exactly,” she said with a sigh.
“But, Gabby, I have to be honest with you,” Shane continued, his expression grave. “These terrible headaches of yours are troubling. I think they’re a sign of something serious, something you shouldn’t ignore.”
She frowned, not liking what he was insinuating. “You honestly want me to see a shrink?”
“I didn’t say that. But don’t you agree it’s possible you may have repressed some painful memory? Something that’s going to continue to cause you headaches until you figure out what happened?”
She stared at him for a long minute. Deep down, she knew he was right, although she desperately wished that he wasn’t.
“I don’t know,” she whispered helplessly. “Maybe. But do you really believe that my headaches have anything to do with what’s going on now?”
“I don’t think we can afford to assume that your past isn’t connected to whatever is going on now,” Shane said. “Maybe Creighton is linked to Richard’s gambling debts. Or Creighton might be linked to Eric Ambrose, who certainly has a reason to search for the notes you kept during your residency. But will you promise me to at least think about it?” His gaze burned into her as he reached out and took her hand in his. “Please? For your own personal health as well as for your safety?”
She nodded, unable to refuse his request. Because he might be right. Not only would she be free of these infernal headaches, but maybe she needed to know what key her mind held about the past.
And she couldn’t deny that not only was her safety important, but Shane’s was, too. Because she was certain he’d do anything to protect her.
Which meant she needed to do her part in protecting him, too.
TEN
Shane slowly rose to his feet, relieved that Gabby had agreed to investigate the source of her headaches. His pulse still hadn’t returned to normal after he’d woken to her heart-thundering scream.
It had taken him two frustrating attempts to get the combination numbers entered correctly, long seconds that had seemed to stretch forever. When he’d barreled inside, he’d been overwhelmingly relieved that she’d been alone and not held captive by some madman.
Although finding Gabby screaming, crying and covering her ears while in the throes of a horrible nightmare hadn’t been a whole lot better.
He hated seeing her so deeply afraid.
Shane took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The hour was still early, barely four-thirty in the morning, so he headed for the door.
“Shane?”
He paused and turned back to face Gabby. “Yes?”
“Thank you for coming to my rescue.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, forcing a smile. “Try to get some sleep, okay?”
Her answering smile was wry as she shook her head. “I’ll try, but I doubt I’ll be able to.”
He hesitated, hating the idea of leaving her alone. “Is the cafeteria open this early? We could grab some coffee.”
Gabby’s expression brightened. “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind? The cafeteria isn’t open yet, but we could get some coffee from the ER and then head over to the cafeteria to sit down for a bit.”
“I don’t mind at all,” he said, speaking the truth. He liked spending time with Gabby, far more than he should. Oh sure, he could tell himself he was playing bodyguard in order to safeguard her, but in reality he wanted to be there. The mere thought of handing over the job of protecting her to someone else didn’t sit well, either.
“I’ll, um, just grab my shoes,” he said, glancing down at the pair of scrubs he’d used to sleep in. He needed to get a new uniform, but there should be time for that later.
“Okay, sounds good.”
He left Gabby’s call room and quickly pulled on his black cop boots, which looke
d ridiculous with his scrubs, so he took a few extra minutes to change back into his uniform. Not just because of the shoes, but because he didn’t want to leave his weapon behind.
Just in case.
When he was fully dressed, he left the room, realizing that today was Sunday. His day off, unless a SWAT call came through.
Would Gabby be interested in attending church services with him?
He was surprised at how badly he wanted her to.
Shane returned next door to Gabby’s room. “Ready?” she asked, looking better, as if she’d successfully put the remnants of her nightmare behind her.
He couldn’t help but grin. “Absolutely.”
Gabby led the way down the hall, past the rest of the call rooms. Shane glanced at room five, the one she’d used last night, frowning when he noticed the door to the room was ajar.
“Gabby, wait,” he said, his voice rising with urgency. “Go back to your call room.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, swinging around in alarm.
He pulled his weapon, keeping his gaze laser focused on the door. The odds of anyone still being inside were slim, but he didn’t want to take any chances. Not with Gabby’s life.
But room eleven was way down at the end of the hall, the exact path that an intruder might take to get away. On second thought, he decided she was better off staying here.
“Flatten yourself against the wall,” he instructed in a hoarse whisper.
By now she’d noticed the open door, too, and thankfully did as he asked.
Shane pressed himself against the wall on the opposite side of the door before reaching out to shove the door open. It swung inward, and from his angle he could see the main part of the room appeared to be empty.
Ransacked, but still empty.
A chill snaked down his spine. The bed linens had been tossed on the floor, the mattress shoved partly off its corresponding box spring. The drawer to the small bedside table was upside down on the floor.
“Go back to your call room and contact Security,” he ordered. Then he used the radio clipped to his label. “Dispatch, this is unit twelve. Potential intruder at Trinity Medical Center, location in question is call room number five situated behind the ER. I need officer backup ASAP.”