A warm bath, a glass of wine and a long nap were in order.
God knew I needed a day to relax.
I inhaled through the slight discomfort caused by one too many lifts of my arms and kept going, knowing I could do more.
Keep going, keep going.
The mantra fueled my aching limbs as I finished my third set and gratefully sitting the weights back down, my arms reached over my head to test my sore, slightly over worked muscles. I shifted forward again, toward the weight set that was placed just above the one I had just set down. This one was much heavier, one I had never pushed myself to lift but today, I felt strong enough.
I could do it. And then my phone rings, sounding off loudly in the otherwise silent area of the gym.
“Hello?” I answered, not bothering to check the caller I.D. before answering the call.
“Hello, Emberly, this is Linda from Cedar Park Hospital. How are you?”
My stomach dropped in dread at the sound of her voice.
Please don't ask me to come in…
“Hi, Linda. I'm good. Just getting in a work out. Is everything okay?”
“There was a power outage on the second floor last night and we need all hands on deck. When can you be here?”
“Um, today is my day off…”
I cradled my phone under my ear as I pulled my gym bag together and quickly made my way to the locker rooms just inside the entrance.
I didn't even have to ask if she really did need me.
I knew I had to come in.
My blue scrubs slid over my head and fitted tightly to my rounded belly and my head tipped down as I pulled it down to cover the prominent curves underneath the fabric.
Ugly. The thought whispered through my head and I dropped my eyes to my feet, wondering if there would ever come a day when I wouldn't doubt my self worth.I'd been seeing a therapist up until this year and I think those sessions helped me see that beauty isn't only skin deep. That it was who I was, on the inside that mattered and that if someone truly loved me, they would look past my curves and my ripples. As I finished getting dressed, I wondered if there would ever be more for me than just a passing interest. I didn't want a man to have to look past my short comings. I wanted him to see me, for who I was.
Curves, and all.
Was that even possible?
Hudson sees me.
As suddenly as my self doubtful thoughts had come, they were diminished as I reminded myself that one man did look at me that way. Like he desired me.
Hudson.
“I'm leaving the gym now, I'll be there as soon as I can get there”
I heard what I thought sounded like a sigh of relief from the other end of the phone.
“Thank you,” Linda said, her voice softer now and saying goodbye, I slid the phone into the front pocket of my bag.
The warm wind hitting my face cooled my heated skin as I jogged toward my car outside and placed my blue gym bag on the passenger seat.
The engine of my 1969 Mustang convertible revs to life underneath the pedal and I smiled.
God, I loved this car.
* * *
“Oh, I'm so glad to see you, Em. I'm sorry to have to pull you in today, it couldn't be helped, though.” Linda had met me by the entrance of the hospital and when I saw how worried she was, my disappointment for my lost day off disappeared.
They needed me here.
“It's okay, Linda. What happened?”
Her thin eyebrows creased with that same worry I saw before as she leads me to the desk in the center of the room.
“I can't tell you much, honestly. At two this morning, the hospital was locked down. There must have been some sort of security breach.”
All the blood drained from my head at her news and I stopped short, looking up at her for some sort of rhyme or reason to what she had said.
“There was a break-in?”
My stomach turned against the harsh wave of fear that pushed its way under my skin, leaving goosebumps over the surface.
The hospital was nestled in a good, safe neighborhood. Why would someone want to harm us?
What happened?
“Is everyone okay? God, the babies…” My voice trailed off as I thought of the small, innocent souls that slept just upstairs, unaware of all that was wrong in the world.
I jumped a bit when I felt the contact of Linda's hands encircling mine and her soft smile, full of endearment and worry, calmed me.
“No, honey, everything's fine. Why don't you head on upstairs? I am sure Miss Reed will fill you in”
I nodded, even as a dark, sinking feeling rushed through my bloodstream telling me that she was definitely leaving something out.
Why else would an intruder go through all the effort of coming here?
What had he wanted?
The second the elevator of the hospital stopped on the floor I worked on, I grabbed my bag from the floor beside me and hoisted it high on my shoulder as I practically ran toward the nurses desk. As I approached I spotted my friend standing behind the white countered desk, her face blank of the happiness she seems to always exude. Her bottom lip trapped beneath her teeth, she gnawed at it in a habit of worry. It was her tell.
“Shit, Ash, what happened?”
When she saw me, she shrugged her shoulders, lightly, as if all of this wasn't as big of a deal as it was.
“Ash,” I repeated, and she pulled her gaze up to mine where I saw the reflected fear I was feeling reflected. I quickly pulled her small frame toward me and wrapped my arms around her slender shoulders in hopes of taking some of her worry away. She leaned against my hold, the tension leaving her body at the contact.
“He had a knife, Em.” The words she spoke were muffled into the fabric of my sweater but I heard them loud and clear, the nickname she always called me shook with emotion. Dread coiled in my gut as I pushed back from her and shook my head, unbelieving this would happen here.
This was a hospital.
A safe haven.
Why the hell had someone wanted to harm it?
“Were you here?”
Shaking her head, she pulled me to the bench beside the adjacent wall and I grabbed her hand, watched her head fall into her hands.
“Hey, everything is okay, now right? We're safe.”
She moved her head from her palms after a few seconds and nodded.
“He wanted to know who was working the desk here. Leila called out last night, her son apparently had an emergency at his school. I didn't have anything going on so I told her I'd be happy to cover for her.”
I nodded, squeezed her hand in mine in a show of faith, the ball of worry that had formed in my stomach growing larger as time went on.
Leila was our newest nurse to come on staff here and she was amazing. She hadn't missed a day of work since coming on almost three months ago. If she'd needed coverage yesterday, it had to be an emergency.
“It was dead all night so I just had to check in on the baby unit one last time before clocking out for the night. The phone rang and Linda answered from downstairs.”
My heart was in my stomach as I gripped her hand tighter, a mixture of worry and abrupt fear spreading through me.
“He asked for you?”
Her eyes closed and she began to gnaw on her bottom lip again.
“That's what Linda said. She thinks he was the man that's been stalking me for the past month.”
I hated that she was going through this. God, it shouldn't be happening.
This is a safe place.
“But didn't you say he had a knife? If it wasn't you…”
Understanding cleared my fogged mind and I instantly felt horrible for being annoyed with Linda when she asked me to come into shift, today.
If only I'd known…
“She's okay. She was a little shaken up yesterday, but she seemed fine when I came in early this morning. You know Linda. She's tough as nails.”
It had to have rattled her, though. A man with a knife obvi
ously had intentions of hurting us, at least scaring us. But, why?
My mind wouldn't stop wandering to that question. It was on a continuous loop that would probably never stop, not until we knew what was going on and who wanted to hurt us.
Looking back at Ashlee, I saw the annoyance in her eyes, a tell that she isn't exactly happy about more security measures.
“I think it's a good idea, Ash.”
Sighing heavily, she drags in a breath of hair before her mouth tips up in a small smile.
“He's overbearing, Em.”
I poke her side playfully as we head back toward the desk and her faint smile begins to grow.
“He's endearing.”
She laughs softly and pulls the color coded shift schedule from the shelf above the desk we stand behind, skimming her hand down the sheet until she reaches today's date.
“You wanna be with the babies today?”
Raising my head to her gaze, I grin.
“I would love nothing more, Ash.”
Chapter Five
Hudson
There was a break in, Officer Lennox. No one was hurt, but the intruder left this behind. Taking the note from Linda, the administrator at Cedar Park Hospital and ironically, a close friend of my mothers I clenched my eyes shut, trying to rein in my control. I had only been on Ashlee Reed's detail for two days now and I already knew it would be best if I pulled myself off and let another fitting cop take my place. Not because I thought I couldn't do the job or protect my sergeant's daughter as if she were my own. And not because I was unworthy or unfit for the job. No, it was because of her.
Emberly. Jesus, even her fucking name was like a punch to the stomach.
Short, pixie cut hair that just barely grazed round, slender shoulders and smooth, blonde locks that framed a pale, freckled face that damn near brought me to my knees. Meeting her wasn't supposed to be some sort of cosmic moment that I would become infatuated with, thinking about it at all hours of the day even dreaming about it on the off nights that I found sleep. But it had. Emberly was so kind, down to her core. Sweet and soft and beautiful, in the simplest and most complex of ways. It was the way her eyebrows drew together when she was met with a problem in her work and how her front teeth came down to worry her bottom lip until she figured it out. It was the cute as fuck way her eyes would sparkle with mischief whenever she caught me staring or saw me adjust the always present hard on I had whenever she was near. The smell of her vanilla scent and minty breath when she would hug me goodbye at the end of her driveway. Almost as if she didn't want to let go.
Was I just dreaming it up?
Did she feel it too?
“Fuck…” Pulling my angered, agitated hands through my hair, I dropped my head and read over the note the bastard had left in his wake, as if we'd want to hear his side of the story. I didn't care what his motives were or why he thought it was okay to not only endanger the lives of Emberly and Ashlee but of Linda and a whole hospital of innocent, struggling civilians.
It was wrong. Every damn bit of it. I had to get this son of a bitch before he strikes again. The thought was a mantra, a belief, a promise to myself and those I'd promised to protect. The note was cryptic, if anything ever was.
She wasn't here, but I'll be back. Keeping her from me will only end in more pain, I promise you that.
Until next time.
Bx
Tracing my finger over the signature, my frown deepened in utter confusion. B. It was a clue, one that was as cryptic as the rest of his note because with only a first initial to go on, I had nothing. There were fingerprints, fibers, even but with how smart he had been with all of this- I doubted he'd leave any trace behind. I had nothing.
“Hey, anything?” Tristan stood beside me, stripped of his blues as it was his day off and I shook my head, angry all over again that this was happening and with all of my training, my instincts, my badge- I couldn't get a break.
“Nah, man. He left this shit behind, but it's all just BS. Nothing to fucking go on.” Handing him the note, I watched as he read it over and his face masked with the same muddiness I felt, too.
“There has to be some sort of clue, Hudson. Has to be. And we'll find it, alright?” I nodded my head, but for once my partners assurances didn't settle me. This wasn't just some case. I would protect my sergeants daughter with my life and as for Emberly…
I had to protect her.
There was no choice. No plan B. She was the priority. Number 1.
Tristan's strong, always assuring hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me from my deep thoughts of the case and mainly, Emberly.
“Whatever it takes, yeah?” There was no sway in his conviction this time, no self doubt or reservedness of the case that had me so messed up. He was there with me, no matter what it took. And he always had been.
“Yeah.”
Chapter Six
Emberly
“OH, THERE'S MY boy.” I cooed to little baby Lee as he suckles his mouth around the tip of my thumb as I lift him from his crib. I slide my palm beneath his head, smiling as he wiggles against my hold, trying to move already. Beginning to gently rock him as I walk with him, warmth bursts in my chest. There is nothing that quite explains the sensation of holding a little life in your arms. To know that his life has just begun and you have the pleasure to hold him in his earliest moments in the world.
A hopeful feeling of joy curled underneath my skin as he popped his oval eyes open and I saw the flecks of color developing in his irises. The little man is only a few months old and he's sadly had a rough go at the start, but look at him now. God, he's so darn cute!
“Let me get you a new diaper, okay? Then we'll go find your Mama, does that sound good to you?” I cooed to him, my voice soft and low and he blinked a few times, his eyes squinting at me.
Taking that as a good sign, I pressed my hand under his bottom making sure to cradle his head as he's lowered to the changing table in the corner of the room.
Kicking his feet, excitedly, I moved them down to the paper underneath as I changed him to make sure he doesn't get too excited. In my first days as a Neonatal nurse, I had a few accidents with excited babies and slippery hands.
A shiver at the memory.
Bodily fluids I could handle, in small amounts but having baby poo covering my hands and most of my forearms was something I never wanted to experience again. Thankfully, I was a fast learner and those were my only shining moments.
A gentle knock against the unit's glass has my head popping up from the little man's freshly changed diaper and I smile when I see Tristan, uniform and all, standing behind it.
Gently placing baby Lee back into his crib, I placed a kiss to my fingers and pressed them to his tiny hand, getting a cute as hell smile in response.
I pushed the door open quietly, not wanting to wake anyone from their afternoon nap and grinned as I approached Tristan.
Him and my best friend were dating and ever since meeting him a few weeks ago, she was so much happier, lighter, filled with excitement. It made me happy that she was happy. Because of that, he'd had my stamp of approval for a while now.
Intersecting the white coffee cup from him, I moaned as the taste of my favorite caffeinated beverage hit my taste buds. White chocolate and cinnamon was my weakness and he knew it.
“Thank you.” I mumbled, taking another grateful sip.
“It's no problem.”
Nodding, I took another sip, leaned against the glass for a moment.
“Thank you for looking after my girl, Tristan. This whole situation scares me.”
His usually stoic face softened at my words and he nodded, bumping my shoulder playfully.
“One, she's my girl. We've talked about this.” The tease in his voice helped ease the tension that had taken root in my stomach from this mornings events and I was grateful for it.
“And I have had my partner on her since I heard about this shit with her stalker. I am not about to take any risks when it comes to her. It'
s not an option, Em.”
I gasped, surprised and then as if two mismatched puzzle pieces had clicked together in my mind, I nodded.
Was Hudson his partner?
The sexy as sin man had been everywhere I looked over this past month. I had caught myself on more than one occasion feasting my eyes on him from the corner he always stood in, close, but not too close.
For some reason, he had kept his distance. No matter where I was or how I enticed him to talk to me, he stayed put and worse, he stayed quiet.
In those moments of silence between us, I craved him. Wanting him closer, closer, nearer. I wanted him to grace me with that roughly sensual voice once more. I wanted to know him and that fact scared the shit out of me.
From the first day my eyes caught on Hudson, I had an inkling that he was a protector. I just had no idea he was an actual cop. The fact that he was didn't surprise me.
“Hudson?” I asked and Tristan nodded, tilting his head in curiosity.
“You've met him.”
He didn't ask me, he knew.
Nodding, I shrugged my shoulders as I attempted to make light of the fact that I had met him. But the truth was, it was everything.
He was an impenetrable man, with haunting sky blue eyes and a map of ink that covered his skin that I yearned to uncover.
“Yeah, he stays close to the desk. I work there most of my night shifts.”
Standing up a bit straighter, he quirks a brow at me.
“He say anything about me?”
“Uh, no. He isn't exactly chatty.”
Stepping back and taking a long sip of the iced coffee in his hand, he makes a weird face. As if he is perplexed by what I had said, or he just thinks it strange.
I'm not entirely sure but when he shrugs his rather large shoulders and waves a hand, retreating down the hallway he had come from, I'm sure I have the same look of confusion on my face.
* * *
The afternoon seemed to drag by after I fed the babies. I begrudgingly returned baby Lee back to his cradle after a happy visit with his mother, his always kicking feet resting in my palms when I heard the in unit telephone ring with a phone call from the main desk. Pointing at the little man, I smiled when he scrunches up his nose in the cutest damn way.
Air I Breathe (Hudson and Emmy Book 1) Page 3