Sudden nausea hit her.
She stood. “Look, just…I’ll keep you informed of the pregnancy’s progress. Ultrasounds, that kind of thing. But let’s not pretend there’s ever going to be any more than a joint custody kind of thing. We’ll be like divorced parents without the marriage between us. Think how much time and money on couples’ counseling we’ll save. But right now…just…I don’t want to see you anymore. I just…can’t deal with…I just can’t.”
Nikkie Jean looked for the best avenue of escape. And found it.
Izzie and Annie were watching her. Waiting. She nodded to her friends and they stood. Annie had three white takeout containers in her hands.
They already knew she needed them.
Izzie had her keys in one hand and a belligerent look on her face. Izzie was ready to take Caine on right now.
Nikkie Jean hurried over to the people who had never rejected her. “Let’s just go. Please. Hurry. Before I do something stupid, like cry in front of everyone.”
51
HE HAD JUST SCREWED UP. He didn’t have a clue how. But he had.
Now he had to figure out how to fix it. Dalton grumbled in his arms, wanting put down. Caine obliged. He couldn’t stand there staring after her forever. He turned, and looked into a face identical to his own.
His twin had witnessed the whole exchange, no doubt. And heard every word. “Well? Any ideas how I can get through to her?”
“Nikkie Jean’s got a reputation for being very skittish with men. Especially physicians,” his twin said, quietly. “I’ve been very careful when speaking with her not to invade her space too much. The first time I was less than six feet away she nearly jumped out of her skin. Her hurt runs deeply. As does the fear.”
“She wasn’t afraid of me.” Now he wasn’t so sure. Had she not been so upset that night, would they have ended up in bed together? He didn’t like the sour taste that thought left in his mouth.
“How did you meet?”
“She came into the ER. And I met her a few times in town.” He wasn’t going to discuss her with her damned boss, even if the guy was his twin brother. “We have some things to figure out between us.”
“I know the feeling. Jillian and I—we met at a time when she was healing from some significant trauma of her own. Hell, we both were. And it wasn’t easy in the weeks after we met. We both almost died, my brother Travis and his wife also. Then what happened with Marc and Ariella. Trauma, it changes people. I don’t know Nikkie Jean’s full story, but enough to know that it wasn’t something most people would have come out of so strong. But she did. Triumphed. But there are still scars.”
“We all have scars.” He looked at the baby in his arms as some of his own wounds came flooding back. Yes, they all had scars.
“Some heal better than others.”
Caine wanted to go after her. Force the issue. Demand the answers they both needed.
Rafe was a fast source of information, a step toward the goal of getting what he wanted. Caine would take that step no matter how much it rankled.
“We’ll work things out between us.”
“I have no doubt that you will.” His twin smiled. “But you should be aware. Jillian has already told me that she is one hundred percent on Nikkie Jean’s side, no matter what. Said that that is what Nikkie Jean needs most of all. Someone who can put her first, where she belongs.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You do that.” Rafe’s expression hardened. “And you should know—when she was injured and I asked her if she wanted me to call you, she said no. Said that you thought she wasn’t good enough for you. So whatever you’ve done to make her believe that, good luck in fixing it.”
Caine bit back a curse. He’d known he’d done some damage with his stupidity, but that wasn’t what he’d intended at all. Not good enough for him? Hell, she was probably too good for him. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth. If anything, I’m not good enough for her.”
“I know that feeling, too. Good luck. I think you’re going to need it.”
52
FOR TWO DAYS, THE man invaded her brain at every possible opportunity. Nikkie Jean ruthlessly pushed him out. Fortunately, the people at W4HAV knew how to keep things relatively quiet. No one knew about Caine except Lacy, Fin, and Jillian. Well, along with Annie and Izzie, who were quietly supportive.
Jillian and Lacy were far more vocal. Jillian had hugged her and made a point to tell her that their babies would always be family and that Nikkie Jean couldn’t escape her.
Family was everything to the Becks, Jillian had said. And had said that Rafe was thrilled to be getting another niece or nephew to pamper.
The man had started out as a pediatrician, after all.
They were acknowledging her—even if they weren’t quite acknowledging Caine.
Jillian had also told her that Rafe was open to contact, but wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of it. But Rafe wasn’t thrilled with the idea of finding any of his mother’s missing children.
Jillian had hinted there was more to the story than what Ariella had shared at W4HAV. Far more. And that Rafe and the others were willing to meet with Caine if he was ever ready.
As if Nikkie Jean would ever talk to him about that subject.
Apparently, they’d both come from crappy home lives. Something they had in common. She wished her baby would have grandparents, but that apparently wasn’t in the cards.
Well. Unless she counted Cherise and her fiancé Vincent. Cherise had made a point of telling her she was volunteering herself as a grandmother substitute.
Even though there was only fifteen years between her and Nikkie Jean.
Nikkie Jean had gotten all watery-eyed again. No wonder—Cherise had already given her a little yellow and green blanket she’d knitted. Jillian had received one just like it.
It was going to take some getting used to. Nikkie Jean was better at being at the fringes of social groups. It was easier to slip away when she was feeling overwhelmed that way.
But once the baby came, she wouldn’t do that. Her baby would be a part of a community. Even if she had to build that community by stepping outside her comfort level.
Her baby would have brothers and a sister. Her baby would have cousins, including the three boys Annie was adopting. There were going to be actual aunts and uncles—something she hadn’t ever had before—and there would be a mother and a father who loved the baby.
Of that, she had no more doubts.
Caine had gotten the softest look in his eyes when he’d spoken of the baby. And he’d been wonderful with Dalton.
She could so easily see those big hands of his cradling an infant. A girl, like he’d mentioned.
Damn him; he wasn’t even there and she was starting to want to see him. Actually…almost…yearning to see him.
Just what had he done to her?
Nikkie Jean started across the parking lot instead of continuing to her car.
She needed W4HAV, needed someone to talk to about the man she couldn’t get out of her head. She covered her stomach with her hand. “Baby, Mommy will figure this out. Somehow. Because I can promise you this—I don’t think Daddy will ever go away.”
Which meant she was going to have to deal with the attraction she felt for the man, before she did something completely insane.
Like actually think she was brave enough to try with Dr. Caine Alvaro.
She really was going crazy.
53
CONNIE WAS GETTING clingy. Wallace didn’t know how much longer he could drag out the inevitable. Movement caught his attention, and he looked. Nikkie Jean, walking through the parking lot and talking to herself.
Heat flashed through him.
Had she seen who he was with?
He didn’t want someone at FCGH seeing him with Connie and gossiping. It would be too easy for it to get back to Jennifer.
Wallace knew exactly how to keep his affairs from making it back to Jennifer.
/> He hoped Nikkie Jean hadn’t seen. She was the last woman he wanted to know about Connie besides Jennifer.
He forced himself to breathe and relax. She probably hadn’t seen him. Seen them.
Nikkie Jean had poor vision at a distance. She’d told him that herself. A damned fine surgeon, and she saw well enough close up with glasses and contacts, but he should be too far away for her to see exactly what it was he was doing. Or even who he was.
Jennifer’s words from the night before ran through his head. You always screw up anymore, Wallace. Why should this be any different. Just fix this. Just do it. I don’t care how.
Now, Jennifer was obsessing over how much damage had actually been done to her campaign.
Wallace thought she was gasping at ghosts, but she was the strategist in their relationship not him.
Dr. Holden-Deane’s new audit of every department in the hospital was going to reveal some things Wallace wasn’t proud of. As was Alvaro’s. Rumor had it Alvaro had hired hound dogs to dig for every blip in every department. And he was starting with Wallace’s. It was a possibility they’d find exactly what Wallace didn’t want found.
Maybe Jennifer was right; maybe Wallace’s entire future—their entire future—truly was at stake.
If he lost that, and he couldn’t secure a position on any of the other hospital boards, Jennifer’s goal of him attaining a chief-of-medicine position would be gone.
He understood why she wanted him in a position of such authority. He did. Her entire platform was that she was a natural leader who understood the people far better than millionaire Turner Barratt, who had just fallen into the position when the previous mayor had died of a heart attack and Barratt had been appointed in his place.
Wallace would have to think of something.
He’d disappointed Jennifer so many times in the past; he didn’t want to do so again. Not now, when it was so important to her.
Jennifer had never wanted anything more than she wanted this. He had to do what he could to make it happen for her. It was what a man did when he loved a woman as much as Wallace loved his wife.
Wallace slipped into his sedan and left the parking lot, head full of worries and ways he could fix things for Jennifer, aware of Connie’s car behind his as she pulled out after.
54
NIKKIE JEAN BREATHED a sigh of relief when she recognized Jeremy Tolvert, one of the county’s TSP deputies, as the man waving her down from the middle of the road this time. She really needed to find another route home, apparently.
She didn’t know him well, but he and his wife attended the same church where she’d worked a recent clothing drive with W4HAV. She’d spent the day with his wife working the intake. And had liked her quite a lot. “Jeremy…what’s happened?”
“I thought that was your car, Doc. We need help. MVA. We got fifteen down at least and only two ambulances nearby. Sheriff and Bailey are just up ahead.”
“Let me pull over.” The least she could do was help stabilize people before they were transported to the hospital. It would be Barratt County. It was closer. But if there were that many injured, no doubt FCGH would take some of the overflow. She’d most likely get called back in anyway.
She grabbed her phone, called Wanda the ER intake nurse to let her know to just be prepared, and then grabbed the small first aid kit from her trunk. Within two minutes she was following the deputy toward the lights. And the smoke. “Air ambulance for FCGH on its way?”
Jeremy, a man a few years younger than Nikkie Jean, nodded. “Clay already called for it. But, Doc, I don’t know if it’ll be enough. I’ve never seen such blood.”
Nikkie Jean grabbed her bag and ran.
The wreck must have happened just minutes before he came up on the scene. Caine pulled his large 4x4 off the road where it wouldn’t obstruct the rescue vehicles, and he grabbed the bag he carried everywhere. Some lessons he’d learned in the military would never be forgotten.
People were out of their vehicles, attempting to give first aid to those who needed it. Or helping others out of the vehicles and out of the way.
Caine didn’t bother with anyone already up and moving—he headed straight to the sheriff’s deputy.
With this number of cars involved, there would be more serious injuries near the epicenter. Caine scanned the vehicles, looking for a familiar dark-purple Jeep.
It was too dark to see for certain.
Her schedule had been shifted back a few hours, she’d said. She was most likely still at her own hospital. The deputy in charge looked at him. “Dr. Caine Alvaro, head of Barratt County General. I’m here to help.”
“I don’t know. There are too many.”
The sheriff was shouting orders from about one hundred feet away. The deputy was struggling to not get overwhelmed. To not let the panic show.
Caine made a decision.
He’d seen more field experience than this man; far more. This wasn’t the first disaster scene Caine had been on, either. “Get someone to form a triage area over there, away from the vehicles in case of fire. Those cars in the middle. They still have people trapped?”
The young deputy, probably just out of school, nodded. “We’re trying to get the ones out that we can. Before anything ignites. Make sure you’re not in one if it does. That’s what the sheriff said.”
“Listen, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Don’t let anyone see just how scared you are. You’re their source of confidence out here tonight. That uniform is all the strength you need. Lean on it. You’ve got this. No one is doing it alone out here.”
“Yes, yes, sir. I’ll remember.”
Caine took off toward the center of the crushed vehicles. It was there that the worst of the injuries would be.
The man inside the first truck was gone. It was obvious with one look. But the car nearby—there were people working next to it.
Pulling children from it. And shouting about fire.
Caine ran toward them it just as the sheriff’s female deputy, Nikkie Jean’s friend who’d played third base, lifted a little boy from the car.
Another woman slid out behind the child, barking orders.
Caine took one look at the glasses and the pretty face. The blood on her scrubs. Terror shot through him.
She was supposed to still be at her own hospital.
His hands went under her arms, and he pulled her free of the car. “Where are you hurt?”
She looked up at him and shook her head. “I was on my way home. Came up on it a few minutes ago.”
“Me, too. Be careful out here. Watch for glass and don’t fall.” She and the deputy had a first responder working with them. But it wasn’t enough. He wanted to carry her out of the way where she’d be safe. But every pair of hands out here could mean life or death out here. Her hands and his, especially.
The last place he wanted her was on the scene of a massive trauma event. He didn’t want her anywhere near here.
“I can handle myself. Just go, Caine. Hurry; I’m going with that kid and his family.”
The deputy was there, yelling about someone with burns.
Nikkie Jean shot him an impatient look. “Go! Don’t worry about me! I can take care of myself!”
Caine took off.
When he next looked up, Nikkie Jean was gone. It took him ten minutes to learn she’d taken off with one of the ambulances. Most likely with that little boy she’d pulled free.
That didn’t help him feel any better.
He found her again when he made it back to his own hospital. She was in his ER, giving orders to his staff. Some of his tension lessened. “Taking over, Netorre?”
“Sorry, not sorry.”
“Status of the MVA patients?” Caine wrapped one hand around her elbow and kept her from disappearing. And just to touch her, reassure himself that she was safe. He looked at Jakob, his charge nurse on duty. “Children first?”
“Two kids are in critical, but it looks good. Three others are in stable.
A few were treat-and-street, thank whoever you want to thank. Seven adults are in critical but good. Some of them are damned lucky you and Dr. Netorre were out there tonight, sir. Good thing you left when you did.”
And not a moment before. If he’d left five minutes earlier, he could have been one of the ones on the stretcher.
Him or her. He looked at Nikkie Jean. She wore scrubs with rainbows and what looked to be candy-colored ponies he was all too familiar with. Scrubs covered with blood. “I’ll take it from here; you sit and rest. Jason will get you some clean scrubs. Some juice and crackers.”
“Thanks on the scrubs; I’m going to stay a while. My Jeep is still out alongside the road, and I’m not exactly certain how I’m getting home yet. And those kids we pulled out tonight? I want to stay until I hear how they are doing. Their parents are in your exam rooms now. They’ll need someone to keep them updated on their kids. Or I may get called in to FCGH. One of your ambulances is doing a transfer there in the next hour. I’ll hitch a ride.”
It was the life of a surgeon, to be called when needed. Especially pediatric and trauma. Nikkie Jean would always run the risk of being called in at a moment’s notice.
“Sit. Rest. I’ll run you home myself on the back roads as soon as I can.”
55
NIKKIE JEAN SPENT SEVERAL long hours in the waiting room, helping comfort the loved ones who had started trickling in twenty minutes after Caine had disappeared into the surgical ward. Nikkie Jean looked like she knew what she was talking about; people needed that. Especially tonight.
People had died on that highway tonight.
When Caine finally emerged, he had changed into standard blue scrubs that made his shoulders look ridiculously wide.
She blinked. He looked just like Rafe right there.
Except for the dragon tattoo.
It was twenty minutes past midnight, and he looked as exhausted as she felt.
Lost in the Wind Page 20
