“No, it wasn’t dumb at all. I would play cards with you if you had a deck in your pocket.” Again, that smile flashed across her face, and he realized he would do just about anything to keep it there. “What would we play? Go Fish, Crazy 8, Old Maid?” Immediately, he knew she was picking on him. The little minx still had her humor.
“Not exactly. I was thinking more along the lines of Rummy or Poker.”
“Sorry, not in the mood for strip poker.” Instantaneously, her cheeks flamed red, and he smiled from ear to ear.
“No?”
“Um…I blame it on the fact that I just came out of surgery. You can’t hold anything I say against me.”
“What can I hold against you?” he asked, aware his voice had gone husky.
“Well…um, geez, I don’t know…”
Hands down, she was the most adorable woman he had ever met. But he would put her out of her misery and give her a few moments to put herself back together.
“I’m going to see what’s on the TV. If we can’t agree on something, I’ll see if I can hunt down some cards.”
The awkward silence slowly segued into a friendly banter session over what she was willing to watch and what he was willing to watch. He suspected that she was playing a game with him, that she just wanted to see how far she could go before he would relent. After all, she was the patient, and he was trying to please her. Finally, after the tenth time through all the stations, she suggested House Hunters, which happened to be the first show he suggested, and his suspicions were confirmed that she’d been messing with him when she declared how much she loved that show. After an episode, the food staff dropped off a tray of liquid supper for Quinn to eat, and she looked miserable when she stared at the options. He smiled sympathetically at her.
“I remember that; liquid diet after surgery is the pits. They have their reasons, though.”
“Not that I’m a picky eater. But I hate most of the food on this table. If you can call broth, juice, and Jell-O food, that is.”
“I hear you. I’m more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy.”
“Mmm, steak would be so good right now.”
“How do you like your steak done?”
“A little pink is fine. But I’m not embarrassed to be girly and refuse to eat something that has barely been cooked,” she said in between sips of broth.
“Ah, the big manly man loves red, juicy steak,” he said, pretending to pound his chest. “But in all honesty, I prefer it a little more done myself.”
“You have to be starving. Or did you eat when I was in surgery?”
“No, I didn’t. I waited to hear about you. But I’m fine. I miss meals often when I’m on the job. Not that this is a job, but you know what I mean, right? I can go a long time without eating…” He stopped talking when he saw the big smile cross her face, the same one that had knocked him off his feet that morning. Had it only been that morning?
“Point for me.”
“Huh?”
“You got me flustered earlier, point for you. Now it was your turn to be flustered; point for me.”
“I didn’t know we were keeping score.”
“Oh, we are definitely keeping score.”
11
Quinn was overwhelmed by Ethan’s attention to her every need. If she was thirsty, he brought her water; if she was uncomfortable, he tried to help make her more comfortable. Too bright in the room, he’d turn off the lights. The TV too loud, he’d turn down the volume. She didn’t care what they watched on the TV. She just enjoyed messing with him over what to watch, mainly to see how far she could push him before he would throw his hands up and say, forget it. But he didn’t say forget it or anything else. In fact, he sat quietly doing her bidding, even if she didn’t ask, and he held her hand when she sucked in a breath because she bumped her hand again. Hell fire, but it hurt. Yet, she had never been this happy in her adult life. Even in pain, this was the best night of her life for as long as she could remember, and it got better when the nurse reappeared and said she could finally have some painkillers.
Once they were alone again, the mood in the room seemed slightly different—almost sad for some reason—and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It took her a moment as the painkillers slowly started to work, but she finally figured it out. She had been having so much fun with Ethan, and she hadn’t allowed herself to have fun in a long time, if ever, and the nurse coming in had dampened that fun. The pause had effectively allowed the events of the day to slowly trickle back into her mind, and worry had lodged itself next to her heart. She would be a liar if she said she wasn’t scared because she was; but she was also a strong woman who had overcome a lot to get where she was, and nothing would take that away.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked quietly.
“Nothing.”
“Liar. If I had to guess, I’d say the day finally caught up with you, right?”
“Yeah.” She sighed.
“You know, I’ve been told that I’m a good listener. Go ahead and talk, and I’ll listen.” She only hesitated for a moment before spilling all of what she was thinking.
“It isn’t a coincidence, the near hit-and-run. They might not have meant to hit us, but they definitely wanted to scare us. The timing is too coincidental, and I don’t think they meant to kill me, but they definitely wanted me hurt and scared.”
“I’m not going to lie, I think you’re right. Only I think they weren’t trying to scare you. Whoever is behind all this doesn’t mess around and doesn’t leave loose ends.”
“You think they meant to kill me?” She was proud that she managed to say that without choking on the words. “The thing is, it’s a ridiculous waste of energy. I mean, I don’t know anything that can take them down.”
“The thing is, they don’t know that.”
“I guess. I mean, Becky did give you a starting point this morning. At least we know where you can start looking.” Quinn had been playing with the blanket on the bed and looked up when Ethan didn’t say anything. Instantly, the hair on her arms stood up at the look on his face. “What? Just say it; don’t hold back to protect me. You found something out, didn’t you?”
“Not really. It’s what we didn’t find.” He looked at her with a sober expression on his face.
“Just say it. I would rather know everything, so I know what I’m up against and can prepare myself for whatever may come.”
“First, I don’t like the sound of that. Second, I will tell you what I know. I just, crap…” He ran his hands through his hair again. “I hate to dump this on you now when you need rest.”
“Let me decide if I need rest or not, okay? I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”
“Right, well it doesn’t hurt to let someone take care of you once in a while.” He paused, but before she could say a word, he continued. “We drove by the house that Becky told us about—”
She cut in. “You just drove by? Why didn’t you stop and ask questions?”
“We would have if there was a house left to visit.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“The house is gone. It wasn’t until we drove to the house that I remembered why the address sounded familiar. The house had been burned down, and there’s an ongoing arson case. The house was demoed not long after they gathered all the evidence.”
“What did the investigation find?”
“It was definitely arson, but they knew that without the investigation, but you can’t just run a case on conjecture. They had to follow through with all the bells and whistles even though they knew what they’d find.”
“Why were they so certain?” she asked. Something in the back of her head was struggling to break through like she’d heard a similar story recently.
“There were a half-dozen bodies found inside the home when the flames were extinguished. They hadn’t died from the fire; they were all executed with a bullet to the head.”
She sucked in a breath, and as hard as she tried
to hide her reaction, she couldn’t, because she had figured out why the story sounded familiar. There was no way anyone within the state of Wisconsin could have missed that case. It wasn’t every day a house burned down taking six lives, and it was even less likely that all of the people inside would be victims of execution. All of the victims had been young, late teens, and all had been women. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream, but she wouldn’t. She had already cried once that day out of fear and guilt over nearly getting Kara killed. And even though she wanted to scream and cry over the realization of what Becky had led them to, she couldn’t. She needed to keep a level head.
“I remember that fire; I remember it well. Those kids—I refuse to call them adults even if they were 18—had all wandered through the center at one time or another. We tried to help each of them, but we weren’t able to stop them from the path they were going down. Becky’s friend was probably one of them. Of course, we have no way of knowing unless we show her pictures of the kids that died in that fire. She was being held in a dungeon when that fire happened. Someone needs to tell her. I want to be there for her when she finds out.”
“I think you’re right that there’s a good chance that her friend was one of the victims. We were able to identify them all, which you know. We can show her the pictures of them and ask her if any are her friend, but it really won’t help the case. That’s why they were killed. Cutting ties in the easiest way they know.”
Quinn nodded, suddenly beyond tired as the painkillers coupled with the day she had sapped the last energy from her. With a huge yawn, she looked at him, and without thinking about it or overanalyzing what she was about to do and say, she reached for his hand, twined her fingers with his and squeezed.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For staying here all day with me, for keeping my mind busy so I wouldn’t think of the pain or meltdown from the day, and most of all, thank you for telling me the truth about what you found out. I appreciate that honesty.” She released his hand and reached for the controller to call in a nurse.
After the nurse appeared, she asked if there was any way they could get a cot for Ethan to sleep on. The nurse smiled and said he would be right back. He returned a couple minutes later with a cot and asked her if she needed anything else. She said nothing other than some sleep, and he left.
“I didn’t need a cot.”
“You need some sleep, too.”
“I can sleep in the chair. I don’t mind.”
“I do, go lie down. I’m beat, and I promise I’m going to close my eyes and sleep. But do you mind if I keep the TV on for some background noise? I know they’re really quiet out there, but even the slightest noise might send me through the roof, which would definitely hurt.”
“I don’t mind the white noise. Get some sleep,” he said.
“Yes, sir.” Her words were soft and slurred as she closed her eyes and sleep claimed her.
Ethan woke with a start and was momentarily confused about his surroundings until he remembered that he had stayed at the hospital with Quinn—the tough, funny, and smart woman that he wanted to take on a proper date. Only the evening was nearly perfect, other than the whole hospital room, broken bone, surgery, and narcotics thing, but if you took all those things out of the equation, it was pretty magical. He sat up cautiously so as not to wake her.
“About time you woke up,” came a sleepy sounding voice.
“What are you doing up?”
“They came in to poke and prod me a few minutes ago. When they left, you woke up. Some cop you are sleeping through an intruder like that,” she said jokingly. “You must have been beat.”
“Yeah, I guess I was. I’ve been working a lot of long days recently. Crime doesn’t rest and all that good stuff.”
“You shouldn’t work so hard,” she said.
“Look who’s talking,” he said back.
“I guess you’re right. But the center is kind of what I have going for me, and I enjoy what I do for a career. I don’t even think of it as work because for me, it isn’t work. But, yes, I do spend too much time there. I know that just like you know you spend too much time at work.”
“Like you said, it is kind of what I have going for me.”
“Riiight,” she said, drawing out the word.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, his hackles rising.
“Nothing. I just find it hard to believe that the amazingly sexy Ethan Vanderbilt has no social life.” One, two, three, and there was the flush he had come to expect when she said something she didn’t mean to say.
“You think I’m sexy?” His smile was devilish. “Well, believe it. I work too much to devote a lot of time to dating, and I don’t want to date just anyone anymore. I see how happy Kara is with Caleb, and I realized that I want that.”
She swallowed audibly but didn’t say anything else for a moment. Just when she was about to say something, there was a knock at the door and in walked Dr. Brennen.
“Ethan! What a surprise,” she said.
Almost as big a surprise as it was when he found out that Vanessa was related to Caleb. With all the time he’d spent at Caleb’s parent’s house, he had never run into her. A crazy small world, and yet mere seconds on more than one occasion when they were at the family cookouts had kept them from discovering that his best friend’s aunt happened to be the one that had saved Kara. Part of the life of being a cop, working odd hours and not always getting to spend very long at family get-togethers, and Vanessa herself worked long hours and didn’t make it to enough family functions. Even so, it still seemed almost impossible that they had never run into each other.
“Hello, Vanessa, how are you?” he asked as he shook her hand.
“Quite good, thank you for asking. Yourself?”
“Not bad at all.”
“I was shocked to see Quinn’s name on the board this morning, but even more shocked to find you here with her.”
“He refused to leave me alone. That whole protective, testosterone, ‘I’m a man’ gene he has going for him.”
“Ah, yes, I know it well. Caleb has a bit of it in him, as well. In fact, I had to talk to him this morning. Kara called begging me to beat some sense into him. They told me you know, also—wonderful news about the baby.”
“It is absolutely wonderful. Did she seem a little calmer about the whole thing? With Caleb going all alpha male, she looked a little overwhelmed,” Quinn said.
“She was doing pretty good. Sounds like Ethan might have gotten through to her.” Vanessa smiled at Ethan. “Thank you for that.”
“I know the wheels were turning; there’s simply no way she could turn into Constance.”
“None, indeed.” She smiled warmly at him. “How are you feeling this morning, Quinn?”
“Not bad. I slept fairly well, but still in quite a bit of pain.”
“Unfortunately, that will probably continue for a few days. The good news is that you’re free to go home this morning. I have the discharge paperwork here. I wanted to give it to you myself and say hello. Also, I wanted to reiterate how important it is that you let any surgeon who operates on you know that you had an adverse reaction to anesthesia.”
“No worries there.”
“Don’t be a stranger; it’s been too long since the last time we got together.”
Ethan had almost forgotten that Quinn had basically been adopted by Vanessa. It shamed him that he hadn’t kept in touch with her over the years, especially since he was practically part of Caleb’s family. Now he had a chance to make up for that. Since she was also close friends with Kara and related to Caleb, it was easy to keep in touch. The darkness Ethan had found himself enveloped in when Kara had been taken and the years after had slowly started to retreat, allowing him to finally make lifelong friendships.
“That’s fabulous news! Not about the not getting together, but about the getting to go home,” Quinn said, flushing again, and darn it but he wanted to kiss her every
time that flush crossed her face.
“Do you have a ride home?” Vanessa asked, pointedly looking at Ethan.
“Yes. Mr. Heavy Handed over there not only insisted on staying here all night but in driving me home. Some malarkey about my car being delivered home, that I shouldn’t drive on narcotics, and I have a prescription to fill.”
“All sound advice, if you ask me.”
Ethan grinned from ear to ear when Quinn’s bottom lip stuck out a little. She looked like an insufferable little girl. Not for the first time, Ethan wondered how old she was. He figured she was close to Kara in age, but the pouty lip had her looking somewhat younger, though not by much.
“Gah, it’s like you two conspired to set this up behind my back.”
“Not at all. You are on pain medication, you don’t have a car, and I do have a prescription ready to call in for more pain medication. It’s all very clear to me. No car, plus drugs, and need to stop for more, equals ride from someone.”
“I could call a friend or take a cab.” Again, with the pouty lip, and Ethan was almost undone.
“Why, when you can have one of Darkness Falls’ finest, not to mention most attractive, detectives take you home? I say this is a win-win for you.” With a sneaky smile, Vanessa handed the paperwork outlining care instructions to Quinn, briefly went over all the highlighted points, and then with a pleasant goodbye, was on her way to make her rounds.
“She’s so…so…”
“Amazing? Awesome? Intelligent? Compassionate?” he offered.
“Any other superlatives you want to use to describe her?”
“Such big words, Ms. Sanders.” He smiled from ear to ear. “I’ll be right back.”
Ethan walked out of the room as she was winding up to throw her empty cup at him—at least, he thought it was empty. A laugh escaped him, and he shook his head. The banter between them was more fun than he’d had in a long time. Walking up to the nurse’s station, he asked if there was any chance they had some spare scrubs that Quinn could wear home since her clothes were trashed in the accident. He told them that he’d have Kara return them. One of the nurses said she would see what she could do, but when she returned, she had a bag in her hand and a twinkle in her eye.
Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Page 10
