by Angi Morgan
The Medic nodded and gestured, waving his hands like a traffic officer. “Let’s go. You guys have a train to catch.”
Damn it, they did need to get out of there, but he tapped on the window holding one finger up. “She needs a minute.”
That’s all they could afford for her to stay with her brother.
“Have you thought about the consequences of getting tangled with her?”
“I am not tangled.”
“You do realize we’re still standing outside the loading dock, trying to escape with a prisoner, right?” the Medic pointed out. “What if the brother is guilty? What are you going to do then?” He was not involved with Darby. She knew that. He knew that. No matter how first-rate the kissing. He had a duty. A promise.
“Pike’s murderer is still out there. I know my responsibilities.” And one of them was to keep her safe. They were taking too long. “Son of a…” He slammed the back doors shut, closing Darby inside and rounding on the Medic. “Get in the van. Now. I don’t care who’s watching us leave with you.”
It would be a short ride to the next rail stop, but he received a soft smile from Darby as a thank-you. She needed the time with her brother. It might be a while before she saw him again.
“Are you thinking with that organ in your chest instead of that thing you call a brain?” the Medic asked. “She’s going to get you in serious trouble.”
“Why don’t you keep that thing you call a trap shut?” He didn’t want to admit the Medic was even close to spouting the truth. Ignore. Evade. “Where are you stashing O’Malley?”
“In plain sight at the VA hospital down the street,” he said. “I’ll have him in a room before they know he’s missing at Parkland. Thought you didn’t want to know.”
“I didn’t want Darby to know. She’s a terrible liar.” He pushed his hair away from his face, keeping his hands behind his head, trying to think. “Stay in touch with Thrumburt. You’ll be with Michael 24/7?”
“That’s what you asked. Not a problem.”
“One last thing.” Erren watched the other man for his reaction. “Any idea where the hell this damn package is?”
“No clue what you’re talking about, man. Make this quick. I roll in less than five.”
The van pulled beside the Sergeant Major and Sean, who waited at a DART Rail park and ride. Sean stood with his arms crossed tight over his chest, but met them at the back of the van. The Sergeant Major had a small towel, which he had been using to polish the broad, black stripe on the hood of a classic baby-blue Mercury Cougar.
“Paladin,” the Sergeant Major acknowledged.
“Sir.” Erren walked to him. “Nice car.”
“I like it.” He slapped Erren on the shoulder—a bit more friendly than the day before. “The kids think it’s too retro. Plates were borrowed with the permission of my neighbor.”
The man was different. Lighthearted. Smiling. Whatever Darby had said to convince him of Michael’s innocence had lifted years from the man’s disposition.
“It’s a ’70 or ’71 Cougar?” He slid an envious hand over the shiny hood. “She got a 230 or 390 horsepower?”
“Seventy and the 390. So you know cars.”
“Had a ’67 Ford Ranger, found a 427 Cammer for the engine. Never got to finish her though.”
“Transport is leaving,” the Medic said.
Darby climbed out of the van without the wig hiding her gorgeous red hair, and Sean climbed in. Their father squeezed Erren’s shoulder a couple of times in gratitude.
“I’m keeping you at your word, son.”
Erren knew what he meant. Keep Darby safe.
“Enough about the cars already. Michael’s set to go.” Darby used that cute lift of her eyebrow and a smile to soften her words. She hugged her father like it was the last time she’d see him. Maybe she believed that. Maybe it was true. “Thanks for believing me, Dad.”
“I always believe you, Darb’tagnan. Always.” He pulled her back into his embrace. When he let her go, he didn’t look in their direction, but his hand swiped at his cheek a couple of times before he got in the van and closed the doors. Erren touched the middle of Darby’s back to remind her without words it was time to go.
Once in her father’s retro Cougar, Erren raced the engine. “Now that,” he said, listening to the engine rev, “is a thing of beauty.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered. He left the parking lot headed away from the hospital.
“I thought you were the man with all the answers.” Darby looked in the direction of the ambulance. “Excuse me, I forgot. Doctor McCoy is merely the man who is a doctor and not a miracle worker.”
They stopped at a red light and he caught her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. The physical contact reacted with the rush he had from succeeding. Dangerous. The operation wasn’t over by a long shot.
“You were great in there, Nurse Chapel.” He didn’t release her hand.
“That was amazing how you looked three inches shorter.” She didn’t pull her hand away.
“I’ve had some practice.”
“I want to thank you for helping my family.”
“Not necessary. You know I have my reasons.” No more lies? Could he afford to be honest about his motivation before they found the package?
The highway beckoned, but he took roads heading north, following a roundabout path to nowhere. One problem conquered. The next wasn’t too complicated, just undecided. “Guess we need some more clothes and a place to lie low until we figure out where to look for the package.”
“Any chance we could get into the house? Michael crashed at my old apartment a couple of times. I moved the things he left behind.”
“I got inside without the cop out front knowing.” He smiled at her and after he faced the road again, he realized the smile was genuine, not calculated. That reaction was happening more and more often with this woman.
“Do you know how to get there?” She patted his arm in a comforting, thank-you sort of way.
“Yeah, I can find it.”
His body’s reaction to her simple pat wasn’t a surprise. His adrenaline level was ramped up and he’d wanted her since the moment they’d met. The desire hadn’t stopped when they were in danger, at a safe house or during an actual op. Nope, the desire was natural. The admiration he had for her made him swallow hard.
That should have him running as far and as fast as he could.
He needed to keep his mouth shut and not say anything or he might admit his admiration for the great job she’d done.
Quiet had never been a problem on his part when riding in a car. His parents had taught him that silence was golden. And then he’d learned that it was his grandmother who had imposed that rule on his father. This moment was a bit different. Not awkward, not forced—just comfortable.
Darby leaned back on the headrest. She was relaxed. No note-taking, no tapping, no twirly thing with a pen. Her breathing even deepened for a minute where he thought she was asleep. Less than ten minutes and they’d be down the street from her house.
“The Medic seemed like a nice guy,” she said. Her eyes were still closed, and her voice a bit heavier.
“Don’t worry about your brother. He’s in good hands.”
“No worries, Sean and the Sergeant Major are staying with him.”
“So you’re covered. They know what’s at risk,” he said.
“Have you thought past this point?” she asked. “What do we do now? We can’t depend on Michael to wake up.”
The possibility of her brother not waking for some time had hit her hard inside the van. If anyone could muster him from his deep sleep it would be the Sergeant Major. Her dad wasn’t leaving Michael’s side.
“One thing at a time. Now, we’ll get clothes, food, more rest.”
“Rest?” Darby smiled.
She recognized the adrenaline rush wearing off. Her relaxed muscles matched the deep breaths that let
her sink into the soft leather seat. But there was a tremor deep inside. A persistent anticipation that hadn’t and wouldn’t leave her alone since Erren had sat on her in her kitchen.
No, she didn’t want to think, watch, analyze her partner or act like a nurse. She felt alive and wanted to do a lot of resting with Erren.
“You aren’t in a hurry to find the next clue?”
“We need to regroup.” Erren tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “I meant to tell you that it was a good idea to look inside the frames. Pike might have slipped a map, message or whatever behind another photo. We just have to find where.”
Looked like they’d be thinking instead of kissing after all. She sat straighter and stretched her arms within the confinement of the Cougar. “I still believe we’re looking for digitized information.”
“Are you thinking your brother had the information and tried to get it to Pike? Doesn’t exactly fit our routine. Who else would have pictures of Michael?”
“The Sergeant Major, but there aren’t many. We moved a lot and my father wasn’t too keen on holding on to keep-sakes. They would have mentioned if a strange picture of my brother had shown up recently.” She pulled her notebook off the backseat and doodled to get her mind working. She found her brother’s coded message and kept tracing the figures.
“We can assume the dopers tossed Michael’s place first and didn’t find anything since they hit Pike’s place, too. Did Pike keep pictures on his desk?”
“Only of Marilyn. Nothing is left at the academy. I boxed all his personal belongings for the investigation, scrutinizing everything and finding nothing. No notes, no files and absolutely nothing about those men and women on the cabin wall. I’m out of angles.”
“There’s always another angle. Pike may have been compromised. One of the guys on the wall may be a turncoat.”
“Twenty-one pictures on the wall, minus you, Michael, Brian, the Medic, and our deceased officer.” She turned to her list of Pike’s Guys descriptions, but caught his skeptical look. “That leaves sixteen leads out there somewhere.”
He shrugged the way he had the night before. Ambivalent. The words doubting her brother’s complete innocence didn’t have to be said.
“Even if he weren’t my brother, I’d eliminate him as a suspect. He was shot.”
“We’re missing something. Something big. It’s right at the edge of my consciousness, but I can’t pinpoint it.” Erren tapped his fingers on his thigh. “I’m taking a pass by your house to see if anyone’s watching it. Sink down out of view.”
Knight Errant was acting a bit nervous. Why? She released her seat to completely lie back, disappearing lower than the window. The bucket seats were one of the nicest features of her dad’s car. She flipped through her notes, page by page. Erren was right. There was a rudimentary clue here that would bring the puzzle together. There had to be. Just one small thing and they’d know what they were looking for. She revisited the images her brother had left. Why would he tell her to stick with Erren?
“It still bothers me that our pictures aren’t on the wall,” he said.
“I thought you believed it was to protect your identities.”
“Yeah… Those weren’t the only copies of the pictures. Why would Pike use the originals?”
“You think Michael used them?”
“Maybe.” He slowed the car and searched each direction for someone who may have been watching for their return. “No unmarked police cars, no sedans. Your house has crime-scene tape across the front door. I think we’ll be safe if we park on the next block. Then we’ll check the inside to make certain no one’s waiting for you to show up again.”
She didn’t need to verify his assumptions about the street. And then it hit her like a sledgehammer… She completely trusted him. No holds barred. She’d trusted him to rescue her brother and she trusted him to ensure their safety.
It had been a while since she’d wanted that type of confidence in anyone and it sort of felt nice. In spite of their fascination with the Three Musketeers, their family motto was not All for One and One for All. No, they’d been raised as independent thinkers. Letting someone else run the show was extremely hard.
The engine slowed, she popped her seat to a sitting position and he pulled into the back driveway of a house that looked almost identical to hers.
“Damn, my bike’s gone. I didn’t think it would be here after two nights, but I dang sure wanted it to be.” Erren looked so disappointed.
Just like her brother Connor had been growing up—every time the Sergeant Major told him he couldn’t keep the lost dog, stray cat or injured squirrel. Connor had always known what the answer would be before he asked yet somehow had continued to hope for a different result.
A fleeting moment of insanity painted what her future could be. Erren getting along with her father. Being on the same team as Michael. Gaining the respect of Sean. Meeting Connor when he returned from Afghanistan. Those weren’t only insane images, they were dangerous ones.
Erren Rhodes was her partner and it was perfectly logical to grow to respect his opinion. Or even to trust him. She could turn to a blank page in her notebook and fill it with attributes. And again, she could flip the page and fill it with how the man pushed her to her utmost limits of restraint.
Oh, God, I actually like him!
He parked and collected their things, beginning the block-and-a-half walk to her backyard.
“I…um… Erren, I need to tell you about the map on your picture.”
“What about it?”
He was on the lookout. Every two or three steps he looked behind them. He hesitated and slowed their pace before crossing a driveway partially blocked by tree limbs. He wasn’t taking any chances on their safety.
She needed to take a chance on him. Hand over the last morsel of information he didn’t know.
“I’m certain Pike didn’t draw the map on your photo. It was all the same handwriting as Michael’s.”
“I’ll go with your judgment. Was there a message in all that scribble?” He smiled, but it was different from his last in the car. More calculated, more predictable, more…copied. “Your brother is safe now. You ready to tell me what the drawings meant?”
“Michael’s note said ‘stick to guy coming for package.’ We developed the code as children.”
He grasped her arm, stopping her and twisting her to face him at the same time.
“That’s the entire message? No meeting time? No location of the package?” The frustration in his voice rose steadily with every word. “I’ve been keeping you close to me this whole time for nothing?”
Chapter Twelve
There was a sharp jab throughout her body as his words struck home. Darby wanted to disappear behind one of the wooden fences lining the alley. She could hop over, sink into the dirt and perhaps be swallowed whole. It wasn’t every day that the man you’d come to like and trust admitted he’d wasted his time.
The first major disappointment had been the transfer to the academy instead of undercover work. Then Michael was accused of murdering her partner, resulting in the sidelong glances and awkward silences from her coworkers. Neither of those events were enough. No, she had icing for this particular pity cupcake. She hadn’t been considered good enough to be on Pike’s wall of secret agents.
Pike had been her partner and it seemed he hadn’t fully trusted her.
And this last reaction by Erren? Hmm…the cherry on top? That was a pretty big cherry. Dammit.
Well, she didn’t consider working with the agent a waste. She’d learned a lot in the past two days. He and the Medic had gotten Michael to safety, completely immersing themselves in their roles.
But Michael was only momentarily safe. Pike’s information was hidden and she still needed to clear her brother’s name. Maybe Erren was right. Maybe she was a glorified paper pusher.
“Let’s move, someone may see us,” he said.
“You mean someone may see you standing here wasting
your time.”
“That came out wrong.”
“Really? You didn’t mean we’re exactly where we started two days ago?” The shakiness crept into her voice no matter how much she wished it gone. She walked, not because he commanded, but with every intention to brush it off. “Never mind.”
She had to pull it together. She couldn’t let it matter that he’d only kept her by his side in the hopes of obtaining information. And even then, she’d come up short.
They were within three feet of her back fence. He grasped her elbow and shot them forward through the gate, whipping her around to face him as soon as it was closed.
“I didn’t mean it,” he whispered.
“Get over yourself. It’s no big deal.” The hurt cut deeper than it should.
“I said that came out wrong.” He raised a finger to her lips to stop her objection. “I’ll take the lead checking out the house…okay?”
“No,” she said and moved past him. “My house. My responsibility.”
She released the safety and led the sweep of her home. Just let him try to take the duty from her.
Guns drawn, they searched room by room to verify no one waited inside. The place was a disaster.
Drawers were emptied, cabinets opened, cushion covers ripped and thrown on the floor. After they found the package, there would be a horrible mess to clean up as a reminder of her inadequacy. They ended their search in the bedroom. At least she hadn’t slept with Rhodes. Nothing to clean up there.
“I just got this place looking halfway decent. I can only assume the regular cops didn’t do this and someone came back looking for the package.”
“Sorry this happened, Darby,” he said.
Apologizing for the mess or the kissing or for involving her at all? The kissing at the hospital she understood. Highly tense situations, resulting in attraction. Simple. Psych 101. Nothing special. Except that he’d made her feel…special. It sucked big-time that she wanted to feel special.
Erren dropped his gun on the nightstand. He levered her hands open, and placed her gun next to his. His long fingers gently surrounded her face, engulfing her skin with warmth and vital energy.
