Passengers stared and scoffed as she ran past. She didn’t care. This would be much easier if she could call a timeout and kick off her heels. One glance behind her told her it wasn’t a good idea. She knew they couldn’t have had weapons. They’d been through security like her. And yet, she didn’t want to find out what they could do to her without weapons. Especially Scar.
The men sprinted and closed the gap to ten feet. Her chest heaved. Her rolling bag squeaked out its displeasure at being dragged behind her at this speed. Looking back, Scar’s mouth twitched in premature celebration. His eyes were intense. Something in the way he looked at her wratcheted-up her adrenaline. Now, she was full-on running.
Her head swiveled back and forth, searching for the way out. Kirin darted to the right, in front of two passengers cutting them off short. They cursed her. A few feet ahead, the revolving door separated the main part of the airport from the family waiting area. Adjacent to the waiting area was security.
The sound of slapping footsteps and gasps from other passengers, told her the people behind her were pushed out of the way to get closer to her. Her fingers ached from clutching her skirt and the handle of her rolling bag so tightly. Please God, don’t let her trip.
Her quick and flawed plan to get through the revolving doors faster, was to squeeze in with another person into the one-person compartment. It’d be tight, but it might work. And maybe if she could get to the door ahead of a few people, she could create some space between her and the men. On the other side, she could yell to the security guards to help her.
Running in her senseless, black heels, she stumbled a little and fell headfirst into a compartment with another woman, dressed primly in a navy business suit. Barely enough room for both ladies plus luggage, they were crammed into the small glass space, squished together like old friends.
The woman glanced sideways. A nervous smile accompanied by an annoyed, ‘What are you doing?’ look crossed her face.
Kirin let out a frustrated breath. The woman walked the pace of a slug. Kirin placed her hand on the glass and pushed the door faster. She would not lose her lead time. In her peripheral she watched Scar and Babyface reach the revolving door in perfect time for it to cut them off. His glare spoke volumes.
A few more seconds for her to figure out what to do. The two men were stuck behind a family two doors behind her, looking ticked. The revolving door opened to the other side and on instinct, she ran toward security.
As she emerged, the squeals of her sweet little boys echoed in the corridor off to her right. They’d come to surprise her.
Her motherly instinct changed her trajectory toward them without hesitation. It didn’t matter if Scar and Baby Face came at her or took the stupid book. Hell, take it. But they’d be in for a rude awakening if they came near her boys. Her only thought was to protect them. She ran to them, dropped her bags and her purse and scooped them up, holding them tightly.
Rosa’s smile changed in a hot second from a happy reunion to fierce worry as her eyes met Kirin’s. She glanced up and somehow, without saying a word, grabbed Kirin’s purse off the floor, and wrapped it around her body.
The revolving door opened, and the two men tumbled out, falling over the top of each other. Heads on a swivel, they searched the crowd. They caught sight of her at the same time a security officer noticed them, forcing them to compose themselves. She could swear Rosa growled as the two men passed between security and where they stood.
Scar veered around them, glaring. Never blinking, he stared into Kirin’s eyes and straight through to her soul. A warning meant to intimidate. Cold gray eyes never left hers until he passed. Baby Face looked straight ahead as if he was embarrassed. Kirin swung the boys around. The two men strolled through the lower level glass doors and climbed into a waiting black limo.
Kirin crumbled to the floor bombarded with kisses and hugs. Little Jack spoke fast. “Mama, guess what we did?” Before she could answer, she caught sight of Will. His eyebrows pushed with concern. He searched her face then looked around. That boy always had a sixth sense. She snuggled him into her and whispered, “It’s okay, buddy.” He nodded.
Grateful, she smiled at Rosa who stood still and glared at the limousine through the window. Concern etched her face. Absentmindedly, she touched Kirin’s head.
Little Jack’s chubby fingers pulled her face back toward his and talked a mile a minute. “Mommy, you know what? We went to the park and to a movie and Rosa bought ice cream. I got chocolate. Can we watch the planes land, Mommy? Please?”
“Sure, sweetie.” She smiled down at him and walked toward the large windows overlooking the tarmac. As her heart rate slowed, plane after plane landed. She concentrated on the squeals of delight coming from her boys.
“Mom, can we fly somewhere soon?” Will interjected as another 747 landed.
“Sure, we can.” She stroked Will’s head. He gazed at her. He looked as if he wanted to ask something else, but turned, squinting into the setting sun. He wrapped his arm around his little brother who bounced like a basketball as a 747 landed.
Kirin squeezed Rosa. Neither one mentioned the men or the fear. They herded the boys toward the door. As they walked in the parking garage toward Rosa’s car, Kirin’s head looked like it was on a swivel. She searched side to side, looking for the two men, but finding the rows of cars empty of anyone suspicious. Kirin threw her bags in the trunk and jumped in. Rosa locked the doors, placed her purse gingerly in Kirin’s lap and headed for the exit.
The parking attendant cocked an eyebrow at Rosa as she handed them Kirin’s cash. No doubt because they both glanced around as if the boogeyman would get them. Rosa doublechecked the locks before heading down the ramp toward home. This had spooked her too.
As Rosa drove them home, the boys chattered in the backseat. Rosa silently concentrated on the road, while Kirin’s mind raced with questions. What did they want? How were these men affiliated with her father? Did he owe them money? It had to be the damn book.
She felt unprotected. Then, her mind wandered to Sam. She’d felt so shielded with him around.
Kirin smiled. Meeting Sam had shifted her paradigm. Angry as he’d been when they’d first met, he’d awoken something in her. Even if she never saw him again, he’d made her think about a relationship.
Kirin shuddered. Then again, she’d been fine all alone, hadn’t she? Trusting men had never been her strong suit. Her dad had seen to that. She’d trusted him too much. God knew she didn’t need to put her already damaged heart out there to be broken again.
Sam though. He seemed trustworthy, didn’t he? He was most certainly her type. The only problem was, she had no way to reach him. She hadn’t been brave enough to get his phone number or even slip him hers.
Maybe she simply wasn’t ready to date again. In that department, she’d always been a big chicken.
None of that mattered now, she had bigger fish to fry. She had to discover what was so important about her father’s damn book.
It had moved to the top of her to-do list.
Chapter Seven
Kirin groaned as she dragged herself into her closet. Grabbing her pink and white scrubs and Nikes, she trudged down the hall to wake the boys for school. Rosa was already downstairs making something in the kitchen that smelled like bacon-wrapped heaven. A warm, spiced-coffee aroma wafted toward her room. Today was going to be a much better day.
After devouring breakfast and hugging Rosa and the boys so tightly they all complained, she ran out the door, jumped into her car and drove to work.
A bright spring sun peeked around the tall, shiny downtown Knoxville buildings as Kirin drove into the parking lot. She locked her car and trotted to the elevator to push the button for labor and delivery. She couldn’t remember today’s code and had to ride the elevator for three minutes like a stalker before she could get a nurse on her floor to text her back.
What were they all doing?
When the code came through and the doors opened, six nurses
crowded around a massive bouquet of red roses. She stepped off the elevator toward them. They scattered like smiling roaches.
Her BFF Stacy sauntered over like an old gunslinger. Her other bestie, Laura, scampered around Stacy and grabbed Kirin, hugging her. Stacy had a huge smirk on her face, but Laura’s face was, as usual, unassuming.
“How’d it go, hon?” Laura’s eyebrows pushed together on her round face as she held Kirin out at arm’s length to get a good look at her. Laura was Kirin’s Christian influence. She always took the high road and never talked badly of anyone. She’d make a comfort food and bring it over if a friend had a cold. The opposite of Stacy who was tall, dark, and flirty, with a love of new shoes that trumped her love of gossip.
“I’m fine,” Laura’s doubtful expression made Kirin add, “really.”
Stacy leaned her tall frame against the nurse’s station, sizing up Kirin with her head cocked sideways. Her eyebrows lifted as a devilish grin unfurled.
“Meet anybody new?”
“Well…yeah. Why?”
Stacy pointed to the flowers.
“For me?” Kirin’s voice sounded too high and raspy.
She hesitated, then walked over and grabbed the already tattered card. She was positive everyone on the OB floor had inspected it.
The card read, “Glad you made it home.” It was unsigned.
Her mind raced. Was this Sam? How did he know where she worked? Had she told him? Shoot, she’d been so shaken, she couldn’t remember.
Or could this be from them? She leaned more toward believing this was the work of the black-suited men trying to intimidate her than her handsome, aloof savior in the parking lot.
She stood stock still and stared at the blood-red flowers. She shook her head, halting her racing mind.
Stacy stood across from Kirin, head still cocked to the side, obviously puzzled by Kirin’s reaction to the flowers. She rhythmically tapped her foot waiting for an answer.
In the nick of time, one of Kirin’s assigned delivery rooms buzzed for help. She shot Stacy a smug grin and pushed the call back button.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I need my nurse, please, in room 304,” a small shaky voice croaked.
“I’ll be right there,” Kirin smiled brightly at a frustrated Stacy, who promptly stuck her tongue out like a toddler.
No time for stories. Babies don’t wait to be born. She walked confidently down the hall feeling Stacy’s glare on her back and grinning to herself. For the moment, she’d won.
Kirin waltzed into the room. This was her playground. This was where she felt most confident and where she’d gained most of her self-worth. For years she’d fantasized about her father witnessing her in action. In her dream, he’d beamed with pride. It was silly, she knew.
But each time a new father held his newborn, she’d wondered…had her father vowed, like she had when her boys were born, that nothing would ever hurt her? The first eight years of her life he hung on her every word. Those memories faded and were then replaced by years of silence. And now she’d never know what she did to make him leave.
Kirin took a deep breath and shook the memories before greeting her patient.
“Good morning,” Kirin sang, smiling. She popped open the dry erase pen and scribbled her name on Emily Hall’s whiteboard.
“I’m Kirin. I’ll be your nurse this morning. Who’s ready to have a baby?”
Emily and the young man next to her both raised their hands like they were six. Kirin laughed but noted they looked exhausted and terrified. She reached out and shook the young husband’s clammy hand who introduced himself as Chris and turned to Emily.
Emily was a twenty-four-year-old, first-time mom. Panicked from the word go, she yelled out whenever any twinge of pain shot through her.
Her husband wasn’t much better, running to get ice chips and texting relatives the play-by-play of every contraction. Emily’s contractions had lasted all night and neither had slept. Chris’s demeanor ran the gamut from wide awake and terrified to snoring.
“We’ll take good care of you today.”
The young woman nodded at Kirin nervously. “Now, let’s get your vitals and check your progress, okay?”
Emily’s face softened and her shoulders lowered six inches. Kirin had always had a way of calming the chaos when she walked into a labor room. It was her special gift.
As she checked Emily’s vitals and progress, which was something she could do with her eyes closed, Kirin’s mind raced back to the flowers. As much as she’d wanted to pin them on Sam, she knew they were a threat. A threat meant to scare her.
Chris cleared his throat. “Is there something wrong with her heart?”
Kirin looked down at her hands. Lost in her own issues, she’d held the stethoscope there too long. Both the patient and her husband tracked Kirin’s every move. She snapped it up and folded it around her neck.
“Oh, gosh no, I was just listening … good, strong heart young lady.” Both soon-to-be parents relaxed. Get it together Kirin. Heat crept into her cheeks.
She recorded the vitals and reassured them, without eye contact, that at three centimeters dilated, her progression was normal.
Emily wanted to wait for her epidural, so Kirin put the anesthesiology department on standby before leaving the room.
“Try and rest between contractions. I’ll check on other patients and be right back.”
Emily’s half-asleep husband Chris jumped up. His voice was high-pitched with fear, “But what do I do if she starts to have this baby and you and the doc aren’t here?”
Why were guys so scared of childbirth? It’s not as if physically they had to do anything. Kirin reassured him, “She’s got time, don’t worry, and if you need me, press the buzzer and I’ll run right back.”
As Kirin left the room and walked back to the nurse’s station, Laura and Stacy leaned against the counter like gang members waiting to jump her.
After some prodding, Kirin told them about her weekend. She recounted the creepy men at the funeral, Janet, who gave her the book and her run-in with Sam and the tomatoes. And later how Sam saved her from the crackhead mugger in the parking lot. She made extra sure to keep her voice even when she told them about him.
Stacy was the first to speak. “Umm-hmm.” She narrowed her eyes as if she’d found a Prada purse at a garage sale.
“What?” Kirin narrowed her eyes.
“Was he hot?”
“W-what?...No…I don’t know, maybe.” Kirin stammered, “He was insulting at first, but after he’d captured the robber, he was kind. Caring even.” her voice trailed off.
Laura piped up as her gaze drug over the flowers. Her usual grin turned down in confusion. “So, did Sam send you the flowers?”
“I don’t know,” Kirin’s voice lowered.
Her heart wanted it to be Sam, but her mind screamed out a warning. The black suits had sent her a threat. Hell, they had her cell phone, how hard would it be to discover where she worked?
Under the fluorescent lights, Stacy leaned an elbow on the counter and smirked.
“What?” Kirin demanded.
Stacy shook her head, then turned and walked backward, grinning. After a beat she called out, “Glad you’re back in the game.”
Kirin shot her a look as Stacy’s face lit up with a mischievous grin. She knew Stacy was mentally scanning through her list of old boyfriends to find Kirin a blind date. She shook her head no and Stacy’s grin widened.
As most nurses dispersed, Kirin was left alone with the flowers. She saw them now, in a different light. Slightly wilted and the color of day-old blood, they sent a chill up her spine. She should just hand over the damn book. But what if the book was the only leverage she had with these people? If she gave it to them would they leave her and her family alone? Something told her no. She knew deep down, when they’d chased her in the airport, they didn’t want to talk. The scarred one looked as though he’d take pleasure in hurting her. She hugged herself.
The buzzing from a patient startled her and she yelped. She pushed the button and her voice shook.
“Yes?” Kirin replied.
“Miss Kirin,” squeaked the weak female voice.
“Yes, Emily?”
“Can I get that epidural now, please?”
“I’ll call right now. Hang in there.”
Delivering babies connected her intricately with the parents. She could help deliver babies all day long and be happy. In her element, she didn’t have to feel like her father’s cast-off. Here, she knew she was worth something.
Kirin called and got a script for the meds, then buzzed the tech in pharmacy and ordered the epidural. As she marched into Emily’s room to prep her for the procedure, her mind spun in circles.
Crack open the tray and lay out the alcohol swabs…I’ve got to make time to dig into the book…move chairs so the anesthesiologist has room… why would my father put me in this position?…Sit patient on the side of the bed with her legs dangling down…I don’t want to read the damn thing from cover to cover, but I have to.
When Dr. Watkins shuffled into the room, Kirin touched Emily on the shoulder and smiled reassuringly. She’d already explained the importance of remaining still while the Doctor administered the epidural.
Dr. Watkins was as round as he was tall and known for being a crochety old fart. It was widely believed he made a point to berate and demean at least one nurse per shift. Most of the newer docs walked the patients through what would happen. Not him. His demeanor was more reminiscent of an old country vet shoving a cold thermometer up a horse’s rear.
Abruptly, Emily yelped, and her body jerked. Kirin’s head snapped up and met the angry eyes of Dr. Watkins. The smell of rubbing alcohol stung her eyes. He’d swabbed Emily’s back without warning her or Kirin, and she’d jumped.
“Nurse Lane,” he growled, “keep that patient still.” His voice was tight and angry.
Their eyes locked. Kirin gripped Emily’s shoulders tighter and whispered, “Remember, it feels like a sweat bee. Tiny pinprick, that’s all. Close your eyes, grit your teeth, but don’t move.”
Entangling: Book One of the Kirin Lane Series Page 6
