Chapter One

by Judith Rochelle

  Jake poked his head into the room, happy to see Dr. DeWitt pulling on sterile gloves.

  “You need to get this woman into a different line of work,” he said.

  “Don’t I know it. How is she?”

  “Not as bad as before but she’s ripped open one incision and has a new bullet hole in her. We’ve got the bleeding stopped for the moment, but I’m taking her up to surgery in about five minutes.” He peered over Jake’s shoulder. “I understand her fiancé was making some noise a few minutes ago.”

  “He’s got his own bullet hole. They’re fixing him up now in Trauma Three.”

  “We’ll have to get in and out as fast as we can with her. Go stay with your friend. I’ll come find you as soon as we’re through.”

  ****

  Kate felt the movement of the gurney along the halls, the slap slap slap of the rubber wheels on tile, the thudding of feet in surgical booties.

  “Kate, can you hear me?”

  “Mmm?” she was trying to swim up through inky waters but something heavy kept pushing her down. She tried to breathe and a pain so sharp it took away her breath altogether stabbed at her.

  “Kate, remember me? Dr DeWitt?” He was leaning over her, his mouth close to her ears. All around him nurses worked to complete their tasks as his patient was wheeled toward the surgical suites. He took one of her hands in his. “If you can hear me, squeeze my hand.”

  He felt the answering pressure.

  “Good, good. You’ve been shot again, and done some damage to your previous wounds. We have to do some repair work on you. Do you understand?”

  Another squeeze.

  “We ran a full blood panel, something we always do even if you’ve just been a patient. Things can change, you know.” Pause. “We found elevated levels of hormones. There’s a good possibility you’re pregnant.”

  Long pause. Then a squeeze. “Quinn...”

  “He’s in a treatment room in the ER. They’re removing a bullet from his shoulder but he’ll be fine.”

  She forced out the words. “Hope so.” She tried for another breath. “Don’t tell...”

  “You don’t want him to know?”

  “Not...yet...please.”

  DeWitt shrugged. “It’s your choice, of course. Well, we’ll take good care of you upstairs, and be extra careful.”

  She squeezed his hand again, and forced out one more word. “Thanks.”

  ****

  Jake found Quinn still flat on his back in Trauma Three, his color grey, a massive bandage covering his right shoulder.

  The ER doctor finishing up with him looked at Jake. “He has to stay here overnight. I don’t know what to do short of handcuffing him to the bed. He’s a wild man, even with all this pain.”

  Jake moved to where Quinn could see him. “Kate’s in good hands, Ace. She’ll be fine. DeWitt just took her upstairs again. He said if you behaved yourself and stayed right here, he’d find us and let us know when the surgery’s over.”

  “Go...check on her.” The words sounded as if he’d dragged them from the bottom of a barrel. “After.”

  “Okay. You’ll be able to. But you won’t do her any good if you kill yourself being stupid.”

  “Nolan?” he asked.

  “Unfortunately, not dead.” Nick walked into the room at that moment and stood on the other side of the bed. “In the prison ward at University Hospital awaiting his own surgery. If I hadn’t wanted him so badly for trial I’d have blown his head off.” His face was twisted with pain. “Quinn, I don’t even know where to begin to apologize for this. I can’t—”

  Quinn made a feeble hand wave at him. “Happens. Do...your best, but shit happens.”

  Jake looked over at Nick. “Can you hang out here a while with me until we get news of Kate? This idiot thinks he’s going to get up and go looking for her.”

  “It’s the least I can do.” Nick’s eyes were bloodshot and he looked as if he’d stared death in the face but had pulled himself together. “Why don’t I go get us some coffee? Can the walking wounded have any?”

  The nurse adjusting the IV drip in Quinn’s arm nodded. “We’d just as soon he let this medication work on him, but with all he’s been through, I don’t guess a cup of coffee will do him any harm. If he’s still awake to drink it.”

  Quinn rolled his head to look at Jake as soon as the nurse left. When he spoke, his words were slurred. “I have to go home. Yank this damn needle out.”

  He reached for where it was taped to the back of his hand and Jake knocked his arm away.

  “Are you crazy? They just dug around in your shoulder. You really ought to let them keep you here tonight.”

  Quinn shook his head. “Have...to get home.”

  “I thought you wanted to see Kate? Take a little nap and by then she should be in recovery.”

  He closed his eyes. “You...take care of her. I’m...poison. Just wanted...to see her...myself. ‘S’all.”

  Jake’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Quinn’s words were thick and uneven, as the medication began to work on him. “I...promised to take care of her. Keep her safe. Then I let her get shot, kidnapped, and shot again. Me, the big protector.”

  “Shut up,” Jake ordered, worry lining his face. “Quinn, you look like shit. I’m calling the nurse back in.”

  “No.” His eyelids were fluttering but he forced them back up. “Promised her, Jake. Made her a promise and look...what happened. Why would she even want anything to do with me? She’s better off with me out of her life. I can’t keep anyone safe. Ever.”

  Jake stared at him. “That is just so much bullshit. I don’t even want to hear it.”

  The door opened and Nick walked in carrying a cardboard tray with three cups of coffee. He handed the cups around, Quinn roused enough to take a healthy swallow of his, but Jake grabbed the cup as it started to fall.

  Despite his determination to stay awake, Quinn barely finished his coffee before he succumbed to all the medication they’d pumped into him. Jake and Nick heaved identical sighs of relief when he drifted off to sleep.

  “He says he wants to go home,” Jake said.

  Nick frowned. “He’s crazy. He shouldn’t even get out of bed.”

  Jake shrugged. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him. Or maybe we’ll just refuse to take him and he’ll have to stay.”

  “Let’s see what happens when he wakes up.”

  Four hours dragged by while Quinn dozed fitfully and Jake and Nick made aimless conversation. Finally DeWitt appeared, looking exhausted but smiling.

  “She came through like a trooper. We’ll keep her in recovery for a while, then move her into a private room like before. The DOJ insists on keeping guards on her again while she’s here.”

  “Thanks, doctor,” Nick said.

  DeWitt looked down at Quinn, still asleep. “The ER doctors tell me he needs to be here for at least one night, but that he’s making noises about going home.”

  “That’s what he says,” Jake told him.

  “He needs to be in a bed. Here.” DeWitt sighed. “Maybe try and talk some sense into him, if you can.”

  Nick looked down at his friend. “We’ll do our best but it may be a lost cause. Anyway, we’ll at least make sure he doesn’t do any more damage to himself.”

  The doctor nodded. “Well, I have other patients to see. I’ll let the ER doc know what the situation is.”

  When Quinn woke up he hadn’t changed his mind. Instead, he asked Nick if he’d drive him home.

  “Home?” Nick stared at him. “Are you crazy?”

  Quinn sat up gingerly, testing his shoulder and wincing involuntarily. “Yes, home. Hand me my shirt.”

  “You’re insane,” Nick told him. “You’re in no shape to go anywhere. And what about Kate? An hour ago you were ready to punch out anyone who wouldn’t let you see her.”

  “Had...time to think. You...check her.”

  Nick looked at
Jake. “The medication must have addled his brain. Now he’s got this dumbass idea that all this is his fault and she’s better off with him out of her life. He wants to go crawl into his cave again.”

  “My...choice,” Quinn insisted, and started to pull on the tape over the IV needle.

  “Wait, will you?” Jake grabbed his hand and reached for the call button. “At least let the nurse do it so you don’t cause yourself any more damage.”

  When the nurse came into the room she gave each of them a dirty look, but set about disconnecting the IV. She placed a band aid over the place where the needle had been inserted.

  “Try not to kill yourself,” she told Quinn. “The doctor left a form for you to sign out Against Medical Advice if you insisted. I’ll get it. Then you’re free to go.”

  Quinn scratched his name on the clipboard the nurse brought back, then inched his shirt on with Nick’s help.

  “I’m going home.” He groaned again and his words were slurring. “Jake will have things to do, so you can take me or I’ll figure out how to get there myself.”

  Nick exchanged a glance with Jake, then nodded. “Okay. If that’s what you want. You sure can’t go anyplace by yourself.”

  “And can you please just play chauffeur and keep your mouth shut?”

  “Whatever. Let me check to see if we need anything from the nurses’ station out here.” He flicked his eyes at Jake, a silent indication to follow him.

  “What the hell do you think that’s all about?” Nick asked as soon as they were outside the room.

  “He blames himself for everything and thinks he should just walk away from her.”

  “Well, hell.” Nick shook his head in disgust. “Okay. I plan to spend the night with him and one way or the other, injured or not, I’ll see if I can straighten out what’s going on in that screwed-up head of his.”

  “I’ll check on Kate, then. Call me when you can talk.”

  “Will do.” Nick sighed, realizing he had a long night ahead and some hard work cut out for him.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Quinn and Nick were sitting on Quinn’s front porch drinking coffee the following morning when Jake’s Explorer pulled up in the driveway.

  “I see everyone’s still alive,” he commented as he came down the walk. “You look like shit and your face is greyer than my suit.”

  “I didn’t have the heart to kill him,” Nick joked. “Maybe we should just cut off his head.”

  “Still singing the same song, huh?” He looked at the coffee mugs. “Any more of that poison left?”

  Nick pushed himself out of the chair. “I’ll get it for you while you give him the morning medical report.”

  Jake leaned his hips against the railing and folded his arms across his chest.

  Quinn held up a hand when Jake opened his mouth. “I’ve already had all the lectures I need. I still think I’m right so save your breath.” He paused. “How is she?”

  “Doing very well and wondering where the fuck you are.” Jake’s voice was heavy with fatigue.

  “I told you. She doesn’t need me screwing up her life any more than I already have. How many people do I have to get killed or shot before you all realize I’m a walking death warrant?”

  Jake glared at him. “After the holy hell she raised this morning when she found out you were gone, I’d say she has a different opinion.”

  “She probably just wants to chew my ass out, which she has every right to do.” Quinn took a swallow of coffee, grimacing as he moved and pain lanced through his shoulder. “I’ve gone over and over it in my mind, Jake, and I come to the same conclusion each time. It was my stupid decisions that put Kate’s life in danger. I can’t take the chance I might do it again.”

  The screen door banged as Nick brought Jake’s coffee out. Then he looked at Quinn. “Listen, buddy. I’m not saying you don’t have history on your side for a major case of bad luck. But that’s what it is, Quinn. You did everything right. Both situations. And there’s a woman in that hospital who’s probably going to rip up Dewitt’s beautiful handiwork trying to get out of bed if you don’t get your ass down there to see her.”

  “Then you’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t do that. I’m depending on you. Now, if you don’t mind, thanks for everything but I think I’ll go lie down.”

  He levered himself gingerly out of the chair and walked slowly into the house, closing the door behind him.

  Nick and Jake looked at each other.

  “Let’s give him a little space,” Nick said. “Then we’ll try again. Meanwhile, which one of us gets to tell Kate?”

  Jake gave him a tired grin. “Both of us.”

  ****

  The nurse coming out of her room sighed in relief when she saw both men heading toward her. “Oh, thank goodness. Is one of you Quinn? That woman’s about to make herself sick asking about you.”

  “Don’t we wish,” Jake said.

  Nick opened the door to the room and they walked in. Kate was heavily bandaged again and more machines were hooked up to her, but she was sitting up in bed. And no matter how pale her face was, she was wide awake and worried.

  “Where is he?” she demanded. “He’s hurt worse than you told me, isn’t he?”

  Jake walked to the side of the bed and kissed her cheek. “He’s a little banged up, but otherwise fine. He’s home.”

  “Home?” Her eyes widened. “Why isn’t he here?”

  Nick cleared his throat. “Kate, we have something we need to tell you. We don’t understand it any more than you will, but here’s how it is.”

  They told her what Quinn had said, and why he wasn’t in her room, sitting next to her. And wasn’t likely to be. Her eyes grew wider and wider as they talked, and angry red spots stained her cheeks.

  “What? Is he crazy?” A heavy breath rasped out of her lungs and she began coughing.

  Jake pressed the call button for the nurse while Nick supported Kate with his hand and tried to prevent her from choking.

  “What are you men doing to this woman?” the nurse demanded as she stormed in. “My God, she’s not twenty-four hours out of surgery.”

  “We know,” Jake answered. “We just had to...give her some news that wasn’t too pleasant.”

  “I’m calling DeWitt. She doesn’t look good.” The door swished shut behind her.

  “How dare he leave me like that?” Even weak and thready, the anger in her voice was evident. “Doesn’t he owe me an explanation?”

  “Kate,” Nick began.

  “Wait.” She let out a ragged breath and went on. “He got hurt because of me. That’s why he left, isn’t it? I told him this was dangerous. That’s why I didn’t want him involved.”

  She blinked at the tears crowding her eyes, trying to hold them back, but a sob wrenched from her body and the tears streaked down her cheeks.

  The men were fervently thankful that DeWitt breezed in at that exact moment, the nurse behind him. He checked Kate over, gave some orders to the nurse, then turned to the two men.

  “All right. What the hell is going on here?”

  Uncomfortable with what he had to say, Nick explained the situation, just as the nurse returned with a hypodermic and injected something into Kate’s IV line.

  DeWitt picked up one of her hands with his. “Just try to relax, Kate. This will make you drowsy. You don’t need to put stress on yourself this soon out of surgery.”

  “But—”

  “No buts.”

  He stood there with her until her eyes closed and she drifted off, tears still staining her cheeks. Then he motioned the men outside.

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on with your friend,” he told them angrily, “but if he cares about her at all he’d better get himself down here and quick.”

  Then he turned on his heel and stomped away.

  Jake and Nick looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

  “What the hell is that all about?” Jake asked finally.

  Nick s
hrugged. “Got me. Maybe we’d better talk to Quinn again. But after he’s had a chance to settle down.”

  ****

  The men did their best, but a week passed and Quinn was still hiding up in the hills. He didn’t answer either the land line at the house or his cell, so Jake and Nick finally gave up.

  “I’ll give him a couple more days,” Jake said, “then I’ll take another crack at him.”

  DeWitt released Kate from the hospital with the stipulation that someone had to stay with her. Lane Barton moved her into one of their safe houses, along with Sharon Langford and two agents to guard her. Just because the head of the giant was locked up didn’t mean there weren’t underlings looking to exact revenge for their leaders. They’d learned the hard way it was almost impossible to prevent messages from leaking out of the jail. And Lane Barton wasn’t taking any chances with Kate’s safety.

  Sharon grinned when Kate walked in the door. “This time I’m chaining you to the furniture,” she joked.

  “I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about,” Kate told her in a quiet voice. “No one will be trying to break me out again.”

  Trying to hold in the tears that always seemed to be ready to spill, she let Sharon lead her to the bedroom where she’d be sleeping.

  “I did some shopping for you,” Sharon told her, pointing out the packages on the bed. “At least enough to tide you over until I can get you to a store.”

  “Thank you. Really. Would you think me rude if I said I’d just like to lie down?”

  She tried to ignore the sympathetic look on the other woman’s face.

  DeWitt had confirmed the pregnancy before she left the hospital and made an appointment for her with an obstetrician. Two days later, Sharon drove her to see the doctor and to get her prescriptions filled. She forced herself to eat because of the baby, and to begin an exercise routine. She walked around the back yard, swallowing tears because it reminded her of the walks she and Quinn had taken at the cabin. Knowing she needed the rest, she made herself get in bed early each night, even though she was a long time falling asleep.