But then, a minute could mean everything. The world, as anyone knew it, could shift and turn irrevocably in a minute. In a second. In the blink of an eye.
Nick knew that all too well.
He rounded the corner at a dead run. Down in this narrow alley, an otherwise totally empty space, he saw something that should have stopped him cold.
A cop, Laura and a gun.
The gun was between them, in the cop’s hands, pointed at Laura’s beautiful face.
Nick was thinking clearly enough to realize that he should have turned and run the other way, toward the security guard, who no doubt had a radio and could summon help. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that, because that would take too much time.
He would not give the man with the gun those seconds.
If Nick left Laura and Rico alone with this man with the gun it might be too late.
Hell, it might already be too late.
Guns were incredible things—one touch of one little finger against the trigger could blast a hole that might as well be a mile wide.
The thought was insane and obscene and had him nearly paralyzed with fear.
Nick couldn’t help but wonder how those kids at the high school had felt that day when Carter Barnes went on a cold-blooded rampage through the hallways, leaving Jason Williams dead on the floor in the foyer near the athletic department’s trophy case.
Did they watch the whole thing, as he was watching this, with this sinking feeling in their guts? Knowing it was too late to save poor Jason from the crazy person with the gun?
It couldn’t be too late for Laura. Or for Rico. Nick made that promise to himself.
He had to do something. He hadn’t done enough for Carter, hadn’t been there when the boy snapped, but he was here now for Laura and Rico.
He never had a chance last summer to put himself between the other boy and that other gun, but he had the chance now. And he was going to take it. This time would be different.
Nick ran into the middle of things. -Laura looked relieved, and he hoped he could justify her faith in his ability to help somehow. The cop looked murderous. Absolutely murderous. His cheeks and his nose turned beet red, his beefy arms appearing strong and sure of themselves as he leveled the gun at Nick.
At least it wasn’t pointed at Laura anymore. Nick had accomplished that much. Now he didn’t know what to do.
“You’re not taking the boy anywhere,” Nick said.
The cop answered by clinking what Nick suspected was the safety off the gun and pointing it at his chest. “I think I’m taking that kid anywhere I want.”
Over my dead body.
Nick couldn’t help but see the irony in that—this time three days ago, he wouldn’t have been that sorry to have this man pump a bullet into his chest, but now it mattered a great deal to him. Now he had something to fight for, to live for.
He was going to help Rico with whatever was bothering him. And he was going to kiss Laura Sandoval at least one more time. If he was very lucky, he was going to do much more than kiss her.
Nick couldn’t believe the turn his thoughts were taking with a gun leveled at his chest, but he had two very strong objectives right now—a little boy and a kiss. He couldn’t let this madman with a gun win.
“Who the hell are you?” Nick asked, wanting to do nothing more than to keep the man talking enough to give Nick time to think this through. “And why is this little boy so important to you?”
“Who the hell are you?” the man shot back.
Nick could just imagine the reaction he’d get when the man found out he was a psychiatrist. Frankly, he didn’t see much comparison between the power of his degree and experience and this man’s weapon.
Frantically he searched his mind for something to do. Just then, in the distance, a siren whined. Coming closer? He couldn’t be sure. He knew the hospital was behind them. Seems it would be a safe bet the vehicle was headed this way. Now, if only he could remember whether police sirens sounded different from the ambulance sirens.
Who are you? this crazy cop had asked him.
“I’m the man who called the police,” Nick said as the sirens grew louder still.
Either there was no difference in the sound of the sirens or the cop wasn’t thinking clearly enough to detect it. He looked taken aback.
Of course, he still had the gun, still had it pointed at Nick.
Rico was sitting in the wheelchair beside the car, huddled against Laura. Nick didn’t want them that close to the vehicle if the cop should decide to leave with the two of them anytime soon.
“Get away from the car,” he said to Laura.
She looked back at the cop, something he couldn’t afford to let her do.
“Do it,” he repeated.
The cop made a quarter turn to the left, this time pointing the gun at her. “I give the orders around here,” he said.
“You stick around much longer and you’re going to be surrounded by a half-dozen cops,” Nick bluffed, but it was enough to bring the gun back toward him.
“You’re lying,” the cop said.
“What if I am?” he shot back. “But then ... what if I’m not? Can you afford to risk it?”
The sirens came closer still. Nick prayed they wouldn’t reach the emergency room anytime soon and the cop would head the other way down the alley before that became an issue.
“What are you going to do?” he asked, turning up the pressure.
Laura had pushed Rico to the side and down the walkway about ten steps. It wasn’t far enough, but before they could take another step, the gun was back in their faces.
“Lady, does it look like he’s in charge here or me?” the cop asked.
Laura said something in Spanish that Nick didn’t understand, but the cop seemed to have no trouble translating it. He snarled at her.
“Cops are coming, man,” Nick said, determined to keep the man’s attention on him. “What are you going to do?”
The man turned from Nick, to Laura and Rico, back to Nick. During one of those shifts, Nick detected some movement to the side. He was sure Laura was up to something.
As the cop turned back that final time, something flew at his face. Dirt, rocks, dust...a cloud of it. From Rico, the kid of the streets.
Nick lost precious seconds fighting off surprise and admiration. The cop was on one knee, coughing and choking. The gun was clutched awkwardly in one of the hands rubbing furiously at his eyes.
“Run,” Nick mouthed to Laura, then nodded toward the way they had come.
He lunged for the cop and the gun, but at the last second the gun came up toward him. A sound exploded from it. Nick heard the bullet ricochet off something behind him and to the right. The cop had fired wildly; he was still rubbing at his eyes. He could hit anything or anyone next. There was no way to tell.
Nick was close enough to get one foot on the man. He kicked the cop in the chest, guessed at his odds of getting the gun away from the cop even then. Nick decided he was better off making a run for it. Besides, Laura couldn’t move that fast while she was half carrying Rico. He took off after them, scooped Rico up into his arms and ran.
As they struggled to make it to the corner of the building and to what he believed would mean safety to them—at least for the moment—Nick waited for the sound of another bullet at any second.
It never came. Finally they rounded the corner, to see three police cruisers come screaming into the parking lot with lights blazing and sirens blasting.
Laura started to run toward them, but Nick hesitated. He’d never called the cops. Who had? They couldn’t have come in response to the shot, because the shot had just been fired.
“Wait a minute,” he said.
Laura stopped and faced him.
“This way.” He turned to the right and pulled her along behind him. They came to the back entrance of the hospital, the one they’d exited through only moments ago. The security guard was moving cautiously toward them with his radio to his ear.
“There’s a crazy man back there with a gun,” Nick said, as they kept on running.
They didn’t stop until they turned two more corners to the hospital entrance facing the main road. Nick hailed the cab parked at the curb, pushed them inside, then got in himself.
Rico’s face was a lifeless gray, the same color as the interior of the cab. Laura’s wasn’t much better, and the three of them were struggling to catch their breath.
“Michigan Avenue,” Nick told the curious driver, who looked ready to kick them out of the cab. “North, and hurry.”
The cab sped off. Laura seemed to have a million questions, but he held up a hand to silence her.
She pulled Rico into her arms and onto her lap. He was trembling, his tears just now starting to fall.
Nick didn’t even question the urge that had him closing the distance between Laura and him, or this urge he had to protect her and Rico. He settled himself against Laura’s side, put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her even closer. She was trembling, as well.
Rico, looking bewildered, put his head on Laura’s shoulder. His dark-brown eyes flooded, then tears overflowed again.
“That man...he hurt my mama,” the boy finally said.
Chapter 8
Nick couldn’t believe it. Rico had decided to talk now, when Nick bad to ask the kid to keep his mouth shut. Nick didn’t want the cabdriver to be any more curious than be already was.
Nick needed time to think. There was some crazy cop with a gun after them. The cop wanted Rico, enough to try to run him down in the street, enough to try to take him by force from the hospital today. Because Rico knew the cop hurt his mother? Or had the boy seen something even more damaging to this cop? If he actually was a cop.
“Nick?” Laura said. “I just remembered something—”
He pressed his lips against hers. He could have found a half-dozen ways to quiet her, but this was the one he chose. He’d been waiting for a chance to do this since yesterday, right after she’d kissed him. He’d thought about it all night long and all day.
So what if his timing was a little off—it was one hell of a kiss.
He meant for it to be simple, brief, almost impersonal, because he had to be able to think relatively clearly afterward, but that was too much to ask after kissing Laura.
Maybe it was the fact that they both could have been killed only moments ago. Danger and adrenaline had a way of heightening all the senses.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t kissed a woman in more than a year. Maybe she was just one incredibly beautiful and unique woman.
Maybe he wanted so badly to find someone to believe in him... yes, maybe that was it.
All he knew was ending that kiss was one of the hardest things he’d ever done.
Laura’s mouth was incredibly soft and warm and yielding, her lips already parted, the taste of her as intoxicating as a couple of shots of whiskey.
When he managed to pull away, they were both breathing hard. And Rico was right there between them.
Laura looked guiltily at the child, whose eyes were wide and wet with tears.
“Oh, baby,” she said, flustered for a change, wiping the little boy’s tears away, then concentrating on him alone. “He hurt your mother?”
Rico nodded.
“Not here,” Nick warned before she asked any more questions, then nodded toward the cabdriver.
He looked out the window of the cab, still making its way through downtown traffic. There was a train station coming up on the right.
“We’ve changed our minds,” Nick told the driver. “You can let us off at the station.”
They rushed out of the cab and into the crowded station. Nick found a bustling corner full of pay phones, and they lost themselves in the crowd milling around them.
“Why didn’t we stay at the hospital?” Laura asked. “The police cars were right there.”
“Because I was bluffing. I didn’t call the police.”
“Oh.” She paled. “What would you have done when the sirens stopped and the police didn’t arrive?”
“I didn’t think there were any police coming. I thought it was an ambulance pulling into the emergency room.”
“They don’t even have the same kinds of sirens, do they?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t remember.”
She looked dangerously close to fainting then.
“It was the first thing I thought of,” he told her, “and I said it.”
Laura still looked incredulous. Nick threw his arm around her shoulders and held on tight, just as she held on to Rico. Nick tried not to think about how natural it felt to be holding her like this or how the three of them had become a team through all of this.
“Don’t get scared on me now,” Nick said to Laura, then ruffled the tight brown curls on Rico’s head, until the boy looked up at him with a million doubts showing in his eyes. “We’ll come out of this just fine.”
“Why do you think the police were there? Do you think someone else called them because of what happened to us?” Laura asked. “Or were they were there for some other reason?”
“I don’t think they had time to arrive that quickly if someone called them because of us. Who knows why they were there?”
“But they were right there. All we had to do was tell them what happened.”
“Laura, that cop was holding a gun on us. And he had a police car with a police radio. He may also have a lot of friends on the force. He may have accomplices there.”
“Oh.” She sagged against him as the reality of the situation sank in. “I didn’t even think of that. I...I’m having trouble thinking, period.”
“We don’t have any idea what we’re up against,” he told her, wishing he could sugarcoat it for her.
“Oh.” She waited, considered, then started to talk again. “I was going to tell you in the cab—I remembered something. I’m not sure if it’s important or not, but Rico’s mother used to date a cop.”
“What?” He thought that sounded very important.
She nodded. “Off and on now, for months, and Rico didn’t like the man. He made Rico nervous.”
“What was his name?”
“I don’t know”
Nick looked down at the frightened little boy, his lower lip trembling but mashed against the upper one. Nick had a feeling the boy was done talking for a while. Nick wanted to comfort him, but he wasn’t sure Rico would accept that from him. Besides, Laura was right there. She would likely handle this much better than Nick. He decided to leave the comforting of little boys to her.
“See if you can get the name out of him,” he told Laura.
“Okay.” She already had her arms around Rico. “What are you going to do?”
“I know a lot of cops from the work I used to do. I don’t know that I want to call any of them right now. But A.J. has a brother-in-law with the FBI here in Chicago. I’ve worked with him before, and I’d trust him with my life. And Rico’s,” he added, then felt his throat tighten. “And yours.”
He realized, as he said it, that’s exactly what he would be doing—entrusting their lives to Drew Delaney. Laura caught the change in his tone, or maybe she felt the ripple of both surprise and conviction that had gone into those simple words. She was watching him intently now.
He wondered what she saw when she looked at him, what she would have thought of him if she knew how far he’d fallen and how he’d lived merely a few days ago. She had no idea what she and Rico had done to change his life so quickly.
He had a purpose now, a mission — he was going to help Rico, and in the process, he was going to learn to trust himself again. He might even learn to forgive himself and put his life back together.
“Laura, there are a lot of things I need to tell you, when there’s time, but this... this can’t wait. I want you to know that I feel guilty as hell about what happened to that kid last summer, and part of the blame was mine. But I can’t accept all of it. A lot of other people f
ailed that boy, as well. I just...I hope you can understand that.”
And believe it. And accept it. And still find it in your heart to have faith in me.
She smiled at him, despite the chaos surrounding them. “I know that.”
Already she’d known that? He was amazed and humbled. What did a man do to inspire such faith from a woman? Certainly he hadn’t earned it. He was right — she was one incredibly generous woman, and he felt damned lucky to have met her.
Now, if only he could keep her alive long enough to see what might develop between them.
Nick forced his mind back to the most immediate problem—this crazy cop with a gun. From his spot in the corner, with his back to the wall, he looked through the crowd of people into the station to see if anyone was looking back at them. Seeing no one, sensing no one’s attention focused on them, he turned back to Laura. She was standing behind Rico, with her arms around him, one hand ruffling his hair and the other holding him close.
Rico gazed up at Nick with something he read as a cross between trust and terror. The boy knew what was going on. He had recognized that cop. Did he know why the cop was trying to get to him? Or had Rico seen something he hadn’t even understood, something dangerous and deadly?
Nick had to know. He had to convince Rico to tell him, and soon, but first they needed someplace safe to hide.
“I’m going to call Drew,” he said, then more softly added, “why don’t you see if Rico has decided to talk some more?”
Laura nodded and turned to the little boy. Nick fished a quarter out of his pocket and found a phone. Drew came on the line quickly, and Nick told him as succinctly as he could everything that had happened.
“First, where are you?” Drew asked. “Out in public ?”
“Yes, we’re—”
“Don’t tell me,” he cut in. “I’m probably being paranoid, but just to be safe, don’t tell me. Are you calling from a pay phone? Or someplace that, if the call should be traced, would no longer lead to your location?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Where are you going now?”
“If you were me, where would you go?”
“I’d disappear for a few hours while we check this out. Do you still have that apartment you rented last year to get away from those reporters?”
Temporary Family Page 9
