by Laura Scott
“Of course. I’ll do that in my office.” Shane headed to his workspace, ignoring the urge to check in to see how Gabby was doing. Nate was likely making her write down her statement, too. He took a seat at his computer and booted up the machine.
The tiny circle on the screen seemed to spin forever before the system flashed on. He typed like a madman, getting all the information down as fast as he could. It wasn’t until he sent the report electronically and hit the print button that he realized why he was in such a rush.
He was driven by the need to return to Gabby.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly didn’t help make the urge to be near her go away. And even though he knew that he couldn’t afford to be personally invested in Gabby, he couldn’t deny that he was attracted to her.
An attraction he refused to act on. She was his responsibility, a woman he’d promised to protect. Nothing more.
And maybe if he told himself that over and over again, he’d find a way to pound that knowledge into his thick skull.
* * *
Nate Freemont’s intense stare was obviously intended to intimidate her but Gabby kept her emotional turmoil hidden behind a mask of indifference. She’d learned a long time ago to suppress her feelings, ever since the tender age of nine when she’d been thrust into the highly competitive environment at the Einstein School of Brilliance. As the youngest student in residence, she quickly realized that showing any kind of emotion was displaying a sign of weakness. A weakness that other pupils wouldn’t hesitate to use to their advantage. She also learned to become impervious to their jeers and insults, remaining strong in order to survive.
Attending medical school and working through her residency as a female surgeon in a male-dominated career hadn’t been much different. Even after Damon’s assault and the subsequent rumors he’d spread about her, she’d kept her emotions tightly under wraps.
“I’ll need you to write your statement,” Nate said, pushing a pad of paper and a pen toward her.
She could type faster than she could write but sensed Nate didn’t care to make things easy for her. She picked up the pen and began to detail the events that were clearly etched in her memory.
The grim-faced deputy didn’t say anything, waiting patiently for her to complete her report. Because her brain was wired to catalog every minute detail, the process took a long time.
The door behind her opened and the back of her neck prickled with awareness as she caught a whiff of Shane’s woodsy aftershave. She told herself to ignore him, but it wasn’t easy. She paused, momentarily distracted from what she’d been writing.
Seriously, she really needed to get her emotions back under control. Especially since she knew she couldn’t afford to trust Shane. Personally or professionally.
She focused on completing the account of what she remembered and shoved the pad of paper toward Nate. “There you go. Let me know if you have any questions.”
His eyebrows rose as he scanned the three pages she’d written. “Uh, no questions. I think this covers everything.”
“Great, then you don’t mind if I head over to the hospital?”
Shane cleared his throat. “Actually, Gabby, would you mind going back to your stepfather’s house with me first? The techs have found something interesting and I’d like your input.”
She turned to glance at him in surprise. “What did they find?”
“They found some documents in Richard’s study.” He avoided her gaze in a way that put her instincts on red alert. “It’s hard to explain—I’d rather show you.”
Gabby knew that she should return to the hospital to check on her stepfather, but at the same time, she needed to see what had been found in his office. She hadn’t known that Richard was in financial trouble, although frankly, she wasn’t surprised. Richard was all about looking and acting wealthy even when he wasn’t.
“All right,” she conceded warily. “I’ll go with you to his place.”
“Great.” Shane turned toward Nate. “You’re the computer whiz, will you start on the background checks? And did you hear that we got an ID on one of the dead men?”
Nate grimaced and nodded. “I heard, although we don’t know much about what Wilkens was up to.”
“So you’ll do the background checks?” Shane persisted.
“Sure, why not?”
“Thanks.” Shane bent over and scribbled the names she’d given him on the pad of paper. “I’ll be in touch.”
She followed Shane back outside to his vehicle. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask about his meeting with Griff, but she held back, reminding herself that Shane didn’t need her interfering with his job.
Once they were seated and ready to go, Shane glanced at her. “How did things go with Nate?”
“Fine, considering he doesn’t trust me.”
Shane’s brows pulled together in a deep frown. “What do you mean, he doesn’t trust you?”
Was Shane being sincere? Or trying to trap her into saying something to implicate herself? “He thinks that I know Creighton and that I took money from him to pay for my outstanding loans that Creighton now wants back.”
“Oh, brother,” Shane muttered. He sent her a sidelong glance. “Gabby, did you borrow money from Creighton?”
“No. But I do have medical school loans that I’m paying off. The details of which I’m sure Nate will investigate,” she said bluntly. Better that she tell Shane everything, before he found out for himself. “He’ll find that my entire salary goes toward paying living expenses for myself, my student loans and Richard’s mortgage.”
“I’m sure everything is in order,” Shane said mildly. “Don’t be too hard on Nate—all cops tend to be suspicious by nature.”
“Including you?”
He nodded. “Yes. But I like to deal in facts and so far none of the facts point to you directly.”
His statement caught her off guard. Did this mean that Shane did trust her?
Or was that wishful thinking on her part?
Turning away to stare out the window, she blew out an indignant breath. Why did she care so much about what Shane thought of her?
Ten minutes later, he pulled up in front of Richard’s house. The driveway was still blocked with vehicles belonging to the crime scene techs, so she followed Shane as he cut across the front lawn to reach the front door.
After they walked inside the house, she noticed a crime scene tech waiting for them, holding a batch of papers in his gloved hand. “Hey, Hawk,” he said by way of greeting.
“Hey, Matt. Thanks for calling. No prints on those?” Shane asked.
Matt shrugged. “Time will tell, although I suspect the ones we found so far belong to the home owner. We have what we need off this, and I thought the information here might be pertinent to your investigation.”
Gabby’s stomach clenched as she sat down on the sofa beside Shane. She had no reason to be nervous; whatever trouble her stepfather was in didn’t have anything to do with her.
“This is odd,” Shane murmured. He glanced over at her and then handed her a smudged marriage certificate. “Says here that your mother’s last name was Bennett prior to her marriage to your stepfather.”
The tension increased, causing her head to throb painfully. She kept her hands in her lap, refusing to take or even look at her mother’s marriage certificate. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“So where does your last name of Fielding come from?” Shane prodded.
The pain in her temples increased to the point she pressed her fingers against her scalp in an effort to ease the ache. “My father’s last name was Fielding. My real father,” she clarified weakly as nausea rose in her throat. “I’m sorry, but I think I’m going to be sick...”
She leaped off the sofa and bolted down the hall to the bathroom, splaying the palm of her hand against her stomach as if she could keep the contents in place by sheer will alone. She hung her head over the sink, closing her eyes against the stabbing pain in her h
ead and breathing deep to combat the queasiness.
It had been years since she’d suffered such terrible migraines. They’d plagued her as a child, but over time, they’d occurred less and less.
But remembering her father, and the way she and her mother had been forced to leave Las Vegas over twenty years ago, brought the crippling headache back with a vengeance.
Despite her eidetic memory, she honestly didn’t remember much about that time. Her clearest memory was being instructed by two men in official uniforms to keep the circumstances of their leaving Las Vegas a deep dark secret. And she hadn’t breathed a word to anyone in the ensuing years.
Until now. Because she knew Shane wouldn’t rest until she’d told him everything.
* * *
Perplexed, Shane stared after Gabby’s departing figure, wondering what had made her suddenly feel ill. Was it possible that everything had caught up with her all at once? A delayed reaction from being kidnapped at gunpoint?
He looked back down at the marriage certificate Gabby had brushed against when she’d jumped up from the couch. Gabby had turned pale when he’d mentioned her mother’s last name of Bennett. It seemed obvious that if her father’s last name was Fielding, that her mother must have been married to someone before Richard Strawn.
To Creighton? Was the guy who’d kidnapped Gabby actually Creighton Bennett?
Shane shot to his feet, unable to believe how wrong he’d been. Considering her photographic memory, Gabby surely knew the name of the man her mother had been married to before Richard.
And he’d been a total idiot to have bought her claim that she didn’t know anyone by that name.
He strode purposefully across the room toward the guest bathroom at the end of a short hallway, not far from Richard’s office. Remaining calm wasn’t easy. “Gabby? Are you all right?”
He heard water running for a long minute before she responded in a muffled voice. “Yes. I’ll be right there.”
Shane paced the small hallway, glancing at his watch twice before the bathroom door opened, revealing Gabby’s pale and drawn face.
“I need to sit down,” she said, brushing past him to return to the living room.
His anger faded a bit when he saw how terrible she looked. Maybe there was more to the story. He reined in his temper but sat down on the other end of the sofa, leaving a considerable space between them.
“Tell me what’s going on,” he said. “Who was your mother married to before Richard?”
Gabby’s wide green eyes narrowed with confusion. “What do you mean? She was married to my father and then to Richard. Although I was shocked that she married Richard so soon. Barely six months after she met him.”
He hardened his heart against the anguish in her gaze. “Stop it,” he said sharply. “Why can’t you be honest with me? There’s no reason to keep lying. Your mother married Creighton Bennett before she married Richard, isn’t that right? Maybe Creighton was a terrible man. Maybe he abused your mother and she ran away. I tried to explain this to you before, Gabby. You need to tell me the truth now, otherwise you’re just digging yourself deeper into a web of lies.”
Oddly enough, he was glad to see the fire in her eyes replace the wounded confusion. “Don’t be ridiculous!” she snapped. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I told you I don’t know Creighton. And my mother didn’t marry anyone else between my father and Richard. There wasn’t enough time. She remarried less than a year after my father’s death.”
Was it possible she was telling the truth? In his entire career, Shane had never felt this torn up by a victim.
Maybe because Gabby was more than just another victim.
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone,” she said. “But it’s clear you don’t trust me, so I hope you keep this information confidential. After my father died, my mother and I were taken away from our house by federal marshals.”
Federal marshals? He was stunned speechless for a long moment. “Witness protection?” he gritted out. “Why?”
Gabby winced and pressed her fingers more firmly into her temples. “I don’t know, and stop glaring at me like that! I was eight years old at the time. What I do remember is that we were told my father had died and that we needed to disappear. So we were given new names and sent across the country to live in Chicago.”
Whatever Shane had expected, it wasn’t this. “Witness protection,” he repeated. “And you don’t know anything more about what your father was involved with?”
She winced and squeezed her eyes shut. “No. I’m sorry, but just thinking about that time brings on a terrible migraine.” Several moments passed before she finally said, “And what does it matter anyway? That was twenty-one years ago. Nothing that is happening now has anything to do with something that took place back then.”
Shane disagreed, but the pain etched in her features concerned him, so he changed the subject. “How did you and your mother end up in Milwaukee?”
“Richard did sales for a national company and traveled a lot back then. He met my mother in Chicago, apparently she was one of his buyers, but his home base was here. When he proposed to my mother, we relocated to Milwaukee. It all happened so fast...” Her voice trailed off, despair shadowing her eyes.
Shane couldn’t hold back any longer. He moved closer to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She held herself stiff at first, but then relaxed, resting her forehead on his chest.
Her citrusy scent filled his senses as he gazed down at her, debating with himself on whether or not to believe her.
And more important, whether he could find a way to convince Griff and Nate to believe her. He knew from past experience the feds never discussed the people they placed into witness protection. They claimed that maintaining supersecrecy, even from other branches of law enforcement, was the main reason they’d never once lost a witness in the entire history of the program.
Which meant they only had Gabby’s word to go by.
SEVEN
The throbbing in Gabby’s head was so intense, she felt as if her skull might explode from the pressure. In the subconscious portion of her brain she realized she was physically leaning against Shane for support, soaking up his strength instead of being afraid.
She tensed again when he gently smoothed his hand over her back, and she tried to relax, taking several deep breaths. Listening to the steady beat of his heart helped calm her nerves, but obviously she couldn’t stay here like this forever. She needed to move, and when she did, the headache would get worse.
It would take more than willpower to make this headache go away.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his deep, husky voice rumbling close to her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered, since any and all movement hurt. “I probably need my medication. Will you please take me back to the hospital?”
There was a long pause before he spoke. “Sure. Just give me a few minutes to see if there’s anything else that I need from Richard’s office before we go.”
She was shocked at the urge to curl her fingers into his shirt as if to make him stay. What was wrong with her? Shane needed to do his job and she needed to put distance between them. She pushed herself upright, trying to summon a smile. “Okay. I’ll wait here.”
His gaze searched hers for a minute as if to make sure she was really all right, before he rose to his feet. She sank back against the sofa cushions and closed her eyes again. Usually darkness helped her migraines, although it had been years since her last one, so she was definitely out of practice in dealing with them.
Relaxation techniques used to help, so she took more slow deep breaths while imagining she was swinging in a hammock by the beach, listening to the waves rolling in.
The pain eased to a more manageable level by the time Shane returned roughly fifteen minutes later. She opened her eyes, not surprised to see he had several thick file folders in his hands.
“Did you find something else?” she asked.
Shane shrugged. “More evide
nce that your stepfather was in financial trouble. I see lots of money going out and not much coming in. Did Richard like to gamble?”
For a moment the neon sign of a well-known Vegas casino flashed in her mind, immediately followed by a rolling wave of pain. She quickly shoved the image aside. “Not that I’m aware of, although I can’t say I’d be surprised. As I mentioned before, we weren’t very close.”
“Yeah, I remember. You haven’t talked to him since your mother’s funeral, right?”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes, that’s right. Even before then, we weren’t a close-knit happy family. Richard liked things to be done his way, which really bothered me. But my mother certainly didn’t seem to mind, which only bugged me more. Thankfully, I ended up working most of the holidays anyway, so I had a good excuse to avoid them.”
Shane frowned. “I can’t imagine not getting together for family events and holidays.”
“I know. Your sister, Leah, always talks about how much fun you had together, and she’s even more excited now that she’s married Isaac.” Gabby pushed herself to her feet, wondering why she was telling him all this. Her feelings regarding family, or lack thereof, wasn’t at all pertinent to his investigation. “Can we leave now? I’m more than ready to get out of here.”
“Do you need help? My hands are full, but you can take my arm,” he offered.
“I’m fine.” Gabby was determined to walk outside under her own power. She didn’t like the way she was falling apart around Shane. First last night, after the kidnapping, when she’d allowed him to carry her inside the hospital to her call room, and now succumbing to a crippling migraine headache.
She was stronger than this. She didn’t lean on others for support, not even after a devastating event. Her mission in life was to take care of others, to heal the injured. She was fully capable of looking after herself.
At least she had been, until two men with guns had kidnapped her outside the hospital parking lot. Hours later and the entire incident still seemed surreal.
“Do you want me to drive around to the front of the hospital where the pharmacy is located?” Shane asked.
