by Denise McGee
I glared at the unobtainable remote. Was I expected to sit here and stare at the stained ceiling tile? I was getting desperate for some way to distract myself from the pain in my arm. The throbbing had been growing steadily since I'd awakened.
There was a fingertip monitor attached to my injured hand. I wondered if it was hooked to a central nurse's station. There was only one way to find out. I reached over and plucked it off my left index finger.
Immediately, there was a protest from the machine. Fortunately for my ears, it was more of a low whine than a full-fledged howl. After listening to it for approximately 15 minutes a nurse appeared at the door, a female this time.
She stood there, taking in the bare finger and my wide-awake appearance. "Did you take off your heart monitor?"
I tried my voice and was surprised to find it much improved. How long had I been out? "It slipped off." I gave her my most charming smile. "While you're here, can you hand me the remote and call button?"
She gave me a hard look but retrieved the requested items. "The doctor will be back in about twenty minutes. Try and stay out of trouble until then."
I grinned at her, unrepentant. "I'm a very bad patient. You really should convince Andy to let me go home."
She snorted and slipped the heart monitor back on my finger. "I'm sure Doctor Reyes is well aware of what kind of patient you are." She stalked from the room.
I could hear her exchanging words with someone in the hall as I flipped on the TV. Maybe I could find a good action flick to distract me. I resisted the urge to rub my aching arm in some sort of vain attempt at pain relief. If a movie didn't help me, I didn't know what I'd do.
Laurel walked through the doorway. Whatever rest she'd managed to get hadn't helped. The shadows under her eyes made her look fragile like a good breeze could blow her away. I felt an urge to touch her, hold her until she felt secure and the fear in her eyes went away.
I flipped off the TV. I wanted to talk to Laurel, not listen to drivel.
"You look better," she said.
"You don't," I responded. "Did you get any sleep at all?"
She shook her head, lowering her head so I couldn't see her eyes.
"Dammit, Laurel. Why the not?" I was getting angry. She wasn't taking care of herself and I was tied to this bed. I felt helpless. It wasn’t a feeling I enjoyed.
The pounding in my arm grew with my agitation. It was now itching on top of the pain. And the combination made me want to claw the arm off.
She shrugged, still hiding her face.
"Laurel?" I made my voice as gentle as I could. It was still rough with anger but she finally looked up.
She took a deep breath. "I tried to go home to get some other clothes but wasn't allowed in. They're still looking things over or something. So I ran to Nancy's for something to eat." She paused. Emotions chased across her face so fast I couldn't read anything but fear. "Then I came back here."
"And that's it? You just came back here?" Anger flared even brighter in my gut. Something else had happened. Something she didn't want to tell me about. I wanted to smash something.
"Any idea when I can get out of here?" I ground the words out. The pain was growing and I no longer tried to stop my hand from caressing the soft splint and the itchy stitches below.
She looked relieved. "I don't know. Andy didn't say."
Andy. She calls him Andy. Suddenly, my irrational jealousy earlier didn't seem quite so irrational.
"Aaron, stop." She put a gentle hold on the hand that was furiously scratching under the bandages. I hadn't even noticed I was digging into my arm until she stopped me. Which, considering how much the thing itched, is pretty incredible.
She peeked under the wraps and made a tutting sound. She sounded like my grandmother and it momentarily startled me from my surly mood.
"Did you really just tsk me?" I asked, amused.
She pulled herself up, acting affronted but I could see the teasing gleam in her eyes. "It's a perfectly respectable sound. The women in my family have used it on the men for generations."
I grinned at her. The rest of my anger floated away because whether she knew it or not, she thought I was her man.
Andy wandered in while I was grinning at her like a fool. "You look much more relaxed than I expected. I thought for sure you'd be climbing the walls about now."
"He was," Laurel said. "You need to look at his arm. I think he yanked out a couple more stitches."
Andy shot me a look that could have melted cheese and moved to the left side of the bed. "Keep your paws off my handiwork. I can't use you as a human billboard if you make me look sloppy. Those stitches need to stay in a couple more days."
I ignored his complaints. "How soon can I get outta here, Andy?"
"Well, I was gonna let you go in the morning but now I'm not so sure. You just popped two stitches and I'll need to redo one for them for sure. Possibly both. And since you were digging in there with your dirty fingers, I'll need to add an extra day's worth of antibiotics."
I opened my mouth to object but a soft voice at the door stopped me. "Am I interrupting?" Nicole flowed through the door.
"Nicole." I couldn't keep the pleasure from my voice. She'd been my partner until I'd gotten promoted and if she hadn't lost the baby, she would have been the mother of my child. I wasn't talking out my backside when I said I knew the funny things near-death experiences did to your common sense.
I caught the appreciative look on Andy's face as he looked at Nicole. I really couldn't blame him. Nicole was a knockout. She was a competitive dancer and had a tight flexible dancer's body. She occasionally gave classes, too. I wondered if I mentioned it to Andy, he'd be in the next one.
I glanced at Laurel, almost afraid of her reaction after my own intense jealousy. To my surprise, she looked pleased to see Nicole.
"Hey Nicki," she said, astounding me even more. My jaw dropped and I knew I looked like a fool...again. This was not my day for looking suave.
"You two know each other?" I blurted the words.
They both laughed at my expression. I was in my rights to feel a little disconcerted. I absently rubbed my aching arm again. Laurel just as absently stilled my fingers by placing her hand over mine.
Nicole looked at Laurel and the glance held companionship underscored by humor and complete understanding. "He's such a baby when he's hurt, isn't he? He started whining about wanting out of here yet?"
"Of course he has," Andy put in. "And he broke two more stitches today. I'm tempted to knock him out until he's fully healed. Speaking of the stitches, I'll be back in a moment to redo those." He exited the room, looking back for a lingering look at Nicole before going.
Nicole grinned at Laurel and twitched an eyebrow at the door. Laurel laughed. It was obvious they knew each other pretty well.
"What brings you down here, Nicki?" Laurel asked.
"Him, of course. You knew we used to be partners, right?"
"No, I didn't realize that was Aaron." Laurel's voice held a considering note. I wasn't sure I liked the look in her eyes, either. It was like she was weighing me.
I glared at them both. "Did you drop by to talk about me or to me?" I didn't need the two of them tag-teaming me right now. And I really didn't want to get into an in-depth conversation about relationships. Although Nicole and I hadn't been true lovers, we had been true friends and partners. Even her unexpected pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage hadn't changed anything between us. I just didn't feel up to explaining all that to Laurel while still under heavy doses of narcotics.
"Relax, Sweetcheeks. I'm here to fill you in on what's been happening since you blew yourself up." I perked up at that. I even managed to manfully ignore the 'Sweetcheeks'.
"Tell me everything."
She snorted. "Like I'd dare leave anything out, your Lieutenant-ship." I knew what she was doing, of course. She was distracting me from the pain and the urge to scratch places that shouldn't be scratched by teasing me. She knew me far too well.
>
"Well, get on with it then!" I said.
"Yessir, Lieutenant, Sir!"
At the right side of my bed, Laurel was quietly laughing while still holding onto my hand. I twined my fingers with hers, ignoring the speculative glances from Nicole. I was sure I'd get an earful from her later, but she wouldn't comment while Laurel was there.
"The bomb was indeed in the package from your husband's office." Laurel stopped laughing and I hated the serious, fearful look that stole across her face and settled in her expressive eyes. "It was set to go off whenever you opened the box. If you didn't open it, it had a timer as a failsafe."
She paused, grimacing at the expression on Laurel's face. "Yeah, someone wanted you dead or injured. The bomb was big enough to put a nice big hole in your house. Well, you saw what it did to your car. "
"How did someone slip a bomb into a package from my husband's office?"
"They didn't." She held up a hand to forestall any questions. "The FedEx guy wasn't a FedEx guy. And as far as we can tell, the timer was triggered after you signed for the package."
"Clever. That way the delivery guy wasn't literally sitting on a ticking time bomb. I don't suppose there are any clues as to where it really came from? Or who trashed her house?"
"Well, that's where we get lucky. The bomb was supposed to go off indoors. If the house hadn't been trashed where would you have taken the package, Laurel?"
"Probably Nathan's office. I doubt I'd even have opened it, though."
"And when it went off the entire bedroom section of the house would have been destroyed. Most likely killing you since I know you'd have been in your office."
Laurel nodded and swallowed, absorbing the information. "So whoever it was, knows me? Knows where I'd be?"
"Possibly. Or you may have been under surveillance."
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better."
Andy came back. A nurse followed behind him with a cart of what appeared to be torture equipment. "Everything ok?" He asked, taking in our disturbed expressions.
Nicole smiled at him, "Yeah, we were just discussing the explosion."
"Ah." Andy had all the tact I never would possess. He'd never ask and never admit curiosity was eating him alive.
So, of course, I didn't tell him a thing. And it had nothing to do with the fact that he was messing around with my hypersensitive arm. Really.
"Hmm," he said in his best Doctor Noncommittal voice. I gritted my teeth and tried to not flinch, as he prodded a slightly swollen section of stitchery.
"You're a lucky bugger, Aaron. You only burst one stitch and it doesn't need to be redone. You can go home in the morning if your next set of x-rays show continued improvement."
I forgave him instantly. "Can I get untied now? My shoulder is aching from being in one position for so long."
"Well, you're secured like that because your arm needs to be elevated. Elevation limits the chances of you getting blood poisoning. Can I trust you to keep it up?"
I just looked at him.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Let's keep it tied until morning."
I decided I'd forgiven him too hastily.
Laurel and Nicole were chatting in the corner where Laurel had been napping when I'd first awoken. She looked up at me and smiled, but didn't come back to my side. I wasn't sure how I felt about that.
I hissed as the nurse pinched a stitch while bandaging my arm. "You sure I can't get out of here tonight? I'm bored to tears."
"Oh, I doubt that'll be a problem," Andy said as he plucked a syringe off the tray. "I'm gonna hit you with another dose of painkillers. You'll probably sleep until morning."
"Can't you just take the edge off?"
"And have you up all night sniping at my nurses and messing with your stitches? I know you too well." I glared at him as he inserted the needle into my IV line but didn't protest further. He was right and we both knew it.
Laurel ended her conversation with Nicole with a laugh and hobbled back to me. It occurred to me I hadn't even asked her how she felt this evening. I was such a self-absorbed jerk.
I didn't sink immediately into sleep like I had done earlier and I shot Andy a grateful look. He saluted me with a cocky grin on his way out the door.
"You'll be back tomorrow?" I asked Laurel, feeling the meds start to take effect. The room got fuzzy and faded in and out. It reminded me of how I felt right after the explosion. The room fell away and I was left once more with the image of Laurel's expressive eyes.
CHAPTER TEN
Nicki Attacked
LAUREL
I watched Aaron's eyes close and sighed. It seemed like my life since the blast revolved around watching him sleep. I sighed again and looked up to see Nicole watching me.
"C'mon," she said. "We'll go back to your place and get you some clothes. I heard you tried to get in today but wasn't allowed.
I smiled in relief. "Thank you. I didn't really want to go back there alone."
"Understandable," Nicki said. "I guess it goes without saying that we'll take my car."
“And yet you did.” I smiled.
We chatted easily on the trip to my home. Nicki knew I was nervous and she tried to keep my mind off what we'd find by telling me dance gossip. I'd met Nicki when I'd been doing research for 'Foxtrot in Florence' two years ago. It'd taken place at an international dance competition so I'd come to her for details. We'd been friends ever since.
When we pulled into my driveway, I steeled myself to enter my violated home – all our easy talk forgotten. I wasn't looking forward to this. In the back of my mind, I was wondering if I would have to sell my home since I no longer felt safe even visiting.
I took a deep breath, lifted my chin and exited Nicole's car. I could do this.
The first thing I noticed upon entering was the silence. There was no hum of electronics. Even the A/C fans weren't blowing. Nicole crunched across the debris on my porch into the living room behind me. Her inhalation of breath was loud in the stillness and I realized I'd been holding mine.
The icemaker kicked on in the kitchen, making me jump. Nicole crouched, reaching for the gun she'd locked in her car. She grinned at me sheepishly. I didn't mind. My grin matched hers.
"I can’t believe there’s still power,” I said.
“I think your lines are all underground.”
I nodded and looked thoughtfully at the door. I'm gonna need to get a better alarm system, I guess," I said.
"What did you have before?"
"Door and window locks." I laughed at myself, but it wasn't that big a town. I never expected to need more.
Nicki shook her head at me in disbelief then took a good look around. "You wanna try and do a little cleaning while we're here?"
"Not really. I'll need a crew for this." I looked at Nicki, "You don't know a cleaning service, do you?"
"On my salary?" she laughed.
"Maybe Cheryl can recommend someone."
I moved down the hall toward my bedroom, sweeping glass marbles away with my boot before stepping. I hadn't had a chance to peek into the room when I'd done the walkthrough with Aaron, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I opened my door and a startled gasp escaped me. Nicole was at my side a moment later. She peered into the room and whistled.
"Someone wasn't happy."
It looked like a knife-wielding maniac had whirled through my closet like a cartoon Tasmanian Devil. Everything I'd had hanging was sliced, torn or ground into the remains of the Ficus tree I'd been growing in the corner.
The mattress and pillows from my bed had been as thoroughly de-stuffed as the couch in the living room and items from my dresser now decorated the piles of fluff.
I managed to find a couple pairs of jeans that were merely dirty and a pair of jammies that'd managed to cling to a tossed drawer. I was at a loss for what to do for tops, though. And there was no way I was touching any of the strewn undergarments.
Nicki wandered away while I was searching and she returned with some clothing sh
e'd found untouched in a hamper. There were a skirt and several tops as well as undies. I took my finds to the laundry room and shoved it all into a washer. The heck with sorting, I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I was just glad I didn’t have to hit up a laundromat on top of everything else.
The kitchen furniture was overturned but not broken, so Nicki stood the table and a couple chairs upright while I found the pieces to the coffeemaker and some unbroken mugs. The machine had been knocked to the floor but hadn't broken.
There's something about the smell of brewing coffee that is soothing and as the smell permeated the house I started to believe that maybe I could live there again. Once a kickass alarm system was installed, of course.
I surveyed the mess on my kitchen floor and said," Are you hungry? I'm hungry. I'm thinking a pizza would be really good about now."
We passed the time while waiting for the pie by cleaning up the kitchen. I'd need new dishes but I'd never liked the set we had, so I didn't really count that as a loss.
I was moving my clothes from the washer to the dryer when the doorbell rang.
"There's cash in my purse, Nicki," I called.
She mumbled something and I heard her crunch her way to the door. There was a murmur of voices. A feminine squeal, a shifting sound - like someone sliding on rubble – and a thud followed.
Silence.
"Nicki?" I called. "Are you ok?"
Silence.
I poked my head around the corner, peering into the living room. The door was standing open and, framed in the light from the streetlamp, a figure bent over a dark shadow where the entry table used to be. "Drop the pizza?" I asked, amused.
The figure stood up and took a step in my direction. I had time to register that this person was bigger than Nicki, much bigger, before a horn from outside caught his attention and he disappeared out the door like a wraith. The pizza guy had pulled up out front.
I fumbled my way across the dark and treacherous room, eyes on the still figure in the doorway. I hit the switch for the porch light, hoping for some illumination. All my living room lamps had been smashed and there was no ceiling fixture.
