by Lisa Kessler
Ugh. I took a slow breath. We needed to talk before I made myself insane.
“Your mom likes Neil Diamond?”
He nodded, keeping his attention on the highway. “Yeah.”
“My grandma Nani loves him. She claims she’s his biggest fan on the islands.”
“Has she ever seen him in concert? My mom says he puts on a great show.”
I shook my head. “No. Or at least not as far as I know.”
“Sounds like you miss her. What’s keeping you from talking to her?”
Suddenly this was deeper conversation than I had intended, but I’d already told him about my visions, and he’d not only believed me, he’d kept my secret. Maybe I was starting to trust him.
More likely I was just sick of being alone. Trust wasn’t exactly an area where I had much experience.
“I left for Brightwood even after she said no. Looking back on it, I have no idea how they were able to enroll me without my guardian’s consent, but I didn’t think about it at the time. I was an angry preteen who thought she knew everything.”
“You think she’s still upset with you?”
“Maybe.” I swallowed a ball of emotions I’d never shared before. “I’m still angry at my mother for walking out on me. Why wouldn’t Grandma Nani have those same feelings about me?”
“Your mother walked out on you?”
He turned onto the hospital’s street and I prayed for green lights to escape this conversation. At least he couldn’t look at me and drive at the same time. “Yeah. I was six. I came home from school and Grandma Nani was waiting for me. She said Mom took a job on the mainland. I asked when I’d get to move over there with her and Nani said I couldn’t. I’d be staying with her from now on.
“I wrote letters, prayed, and cried, but my mother never came back for me and never explained. And as I got older, I stopped being sad. I’ve been angry ever since.”
He parked the car around the back, far from the hospital entrance. He took my hand. “You were a little girl who needed her mother. You have every right to be mad. But I bet your grandmother is too worried to stay upset about you leaving against her wishes.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, willing the tears back. “I can’t call her now. Even if I knew her number, I could end up leading Nero right to her.”
“Once Adam gives the okay for the Pack to get involved, Nero won’t be able to touch you. Your grandmother will be their next target.”
“They might’ve already gone after her once. I tried to warn her.” My stomach twisted into a sick knot. “If she didn’t know anything the first time around, why would they go back?”
“To Nero, she’d be leverage to get to you.” His voice softened a little. “She’s your family. I think we should bring her here so we can protect her too.”
My heart clenched as a vise of regret tightened around my rib cage. “Sebastian thought they might question her to see if she could tell them where I was. They could already have her for all I know.”
He lifted my hand to his lips, distracting me from the cesspool of guilt for a second. “If they had her, they wouldn’t bother coming to Reno. Not with the Pack here. They’d make you come to them. I’m sure of it.”
I stared into his eyes. Confidence and courage blazed in his gaze. For the first time since I’d met him, my instinctive distrust for doctors, for men, for anyone who appeared to care about me, faded. That voice I’d grown so accustomed to hearing inside my head, reminding me to be wary, to watch for lies, to cut and run, was silent.
“Kilani?”
His tone carried a raw tenderness, no sign of that infuriating medical practitioner bedside manner. I wasn’t sure I could speak.
“Yes?” I squeaked out.
“Are you all right?”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “I’m sitting in a car with a werewolf who thinks I’m his mate, waiting to go inside to work where I may or may not meet some guys from Nero who want me dead, and my grandmother, who I haven’t spoken to in years, is probably in danger because of me.” I wiped a tear with a humorless chuckle. “I’m totally fine.”
He smiled and leaned in to kiss my forehead. I closed my eyes, drinking in the comfort of his masculine scent.
“Okay, that was a dumb question.” He squeezed my hand and released me to pull the keys from the ignition. “I’ll be watching for Nero inside the hospital, and Jared’s covering the exits. We’ll keep you safe. In the meantime, we need to find out who tipped off Nero and told them you’re here. Then we can silence him.”
“I have no clue who would’ve told Nero anything. I haven’t been here long enough to really make any friends, and even so, I’d never tell them the real reason I was in Reno anyway.”
“It wouldn’t have to be specific. Nero may have offered money for anyone with information on new nurses.”
“I’m not the only new person on the payroll. Besides, hospitals have new nurses all the time, per diem, part time, full time. I wouldn’t be anything special or out of the ordinary.”
“Not on paper, but…” He rested back against his seat. “If Nero made a list of potential hiding places for you and added Reno to the list, they would’ve come around offering a reward for information on new nursing staff from New York, since that was the last place you’d been. They might’ve given out a visual description, too. You may be using an alias here, but you’re still a Polynesian nurse from New York. That’s a much smaller pool of people. Definitely worth checking into if someone gave them a tip.”
New York. My conversation over pizza with Todd from the stroke floor flashed through my head. There was no way Todd was an informant. But still.
“I split a pizza a couple nights ago with a nurse on the stroke floor. He can’t possibly be the one, but I did mention moving from New York.”
“It’s a starting place.” He gripped the bottom of the steering wheel tight enough to bring out the muscles in his forearms. Was he jealous? “What’s his name? I can check him out while you’re working.”
“Todd. I don’t remember his last name, but he works on the floor just above mine.” I shook my head. “There’s no way he’s in contact with Nero. He’s not that type.”
“If money is involved, there is no type.”
I stared out at the building, suddenly wishing I’d taken Jason’s advice and called in sick, but I was too proud to admit I might’ve been wrong. Pride won out. I got out of the car. “I need to get changed.”
“We didn’t bring any clothes…”
“I’ve got scrubs in my locker.”
He came around to my side, but he didn’t touch me. All his attention was focused on the parking lot, the hospital. “Be careful. Call my cell if you see anything off.”
“I could if I had your number.”
He broke his visual scan of the area, cursing under his breath. “Sorry. I forgot to give it to you.”
We swapped numbers. He also gave me Jared’s just in case. Hopefully I wouldn’t need to use either one.
I headed inside. Adrenaline bound up every muscle in my body, but so far no visions. I chose to take that as a good sign. My whole life, a flash of premonition usually preceded danger. I’d have to trust my track record.
The automatic glass doors parted and Stan tipped his hat from the welcome station. “Good to see you, young lady.” His smile faltered. “Everything all right?”
Did it show? I drew in a breath, struggling to mask the anxiety eating me up from the inside out. “Yeah, I’m fine. Some car trouble, but hopefully it’s nothing major.”
He relaxed and nodded. “Nothing worse than an unreliable vehicle.”
“I agree.” I walked by, calling over my shoulder, “Good to see you, Stan.”
“Likewise, Kelly.”
I was getting better at not being tripped up when I heard my alias. Maybe I wouldn’t need it much longer. If Jason was right, and Sebastian could convince Adam I wasn’t a threat, the Pack would help me and Nero would leave me alone.
And go after Nani.
I punched the elevator button harder than I meant to, glaring at the ceiling to keep the unwanted tears at bay.
Suddenly the elevator faded away and Jason lay on the ground, blood trickling from his nose. Before panic could grip me, I searched for details, clues to time or place. Ropes surrounded him in a square. The damned boxing ring. No. Come on, Jason, no more beatings. I spun around, hoping to gain more. An older guy counted. Someone else called out third round.
And then I was back in the elevator.
He wasn’t fighting right now. When? If I warned him, would that keep him from climbing into that ring again? Not likely. From what I’d seen, he was every bit as hardheaded as me, and against my better judgment, here I was at the hospital for my shift. How could I stop him from fighting?
The doors opened, and the scent of disinfectant and rhythmic beeps of the machinery welcomed me, calming my jumbled nerves. This was my universe. No guessing, no fear, just hard work healing those who needed extra help.
A room number flashed in my head and I went to the right. I could put on my scrubs in a second. Inside, the sleeping patient’s arm crimped the oxygen tube. The monitor wasn’t buzzing yet, but it would soon. Carefully I untangled the tubing without disturbing her and watched her levels stabilize.
Satisfied she was taken care of, I headed into the break room, grabbed my extra scrubs from my locker, and quickly changed in the restroom. Two hours flew by in a blur of IV bag changes, blood draws, and checking vitals.
With a few minutes to myself, I ducked inside the break room for a bottled water. Being busy definitely helped to calm my fears. It hadn’t been a mistake to come in after all. Maybe Sebastian was wrong about Nero. Maybe they came to Reno on a hunch without knowing where I worked.
Grabbing the black Sharpie from the table, I labeled my water bottle and stowed it in the fridge. When I stepped into the hallway, a vision of Jason flashed through my head. He had Todd pressed against a wall. Todd’s eyes widened with terror, and blood dripped from his lower lip. I turned my focus, catching sight of gauze pads and tape before it faded.
A supply closet. Shit.
My stomach twisted as I pulled out my cell and hit Jason’s name. It went to voicemail. Damn it. I pressed Jared’s number, my fingers trembling. He answered on the first ring.
“Hello?”
I ducked back inside the break room, keeping my voice low. “Jared, it’s Kilani. Jason didn’t answer his cell and there’s trouble on the fifth floor.”
The air rushed past the phone speaker; he was already on the move. “On my way. Where are you?”
“Fourth floor.”
“Stay there. I’ll find him.”
And he was gone. I stared at my phone for a second before I slid it into my pocket. If I hurried, I might be able to stop Jason. My visions were usually at least a few minutes into the future. I jogged to the elevator, calling to the charge nurse at the desk, “I’ll be right back.”
The doors opened on the fifth floor and I looked down the hallway. Which way? To my left, a muffled cry was followed by a slamming door. With my heart hammering in my chest, I chased the sound to a supply closet. Farther down the hall, a nurse paged security.
I had to hurry.
Chapter Thirteen
JASON
After Kilani entered the automatic glass doors safely, my cell phone buzzed. “Yeah?”
“I’m casing the north side of the building. No scent of any jaguars, but if Nero sent a human team, we’re screwed.”
Hearing Jared’s voice relaxed me a little. We’d patrolled together on many new moon nights to keep the jaguar shifters from hunting in our territory. Besides being my twin, he was my partner, and when he had my back, I could focus on other things.
“I’m on the south side, main entrance. No sign of the jags here, either. Sebastian told Kilani his brother was here with a team from Nero. Even if the team is human, Sebastian’s brother is a jaguar, so we should catch his scent. I’m going inside. She told one person she was from New York. It can’t be a coincidence that a day or two later, Nero is here in Reno.”
“Keep me posted. Be careful.”
“You too, Jared.”
I slid my phone back into my pocket and made my way through the cars toward the front doors. As I got closer to the main entrance, I caught Kilani’s scent, awakening my wolf and derailing me from the task at hand. I ground my teeth together, forcing the animal part of my spirit to back off. We both wanted to be with Kilani, but right now, our mission was to find the mole who tipped off Nero that she was here. If I could find him, I might have a chance at getting information from him to get to the Nero ops before they discovered us.
At the elevator, I pressed the button and waited for the doors to open.
“Dr. Ayers?”
A leggy woman with long blond curls down her back headed straight for me. Barb Turk. I hit the lit arrow three more times.
The doors opened just as she touched my arm. “Jason?”
There was no pretending I didn’t see her anymore. “Barb? How have you been?” Now the damned doors opened. “I’ve gotta run—”
“I’m going up, too.”
She followed me into the elevator, the prison doors closing behind her.
“I’m so glad I ran into you. I’m in town for a few days if you want to meet me for dinner.”
Barb was a pharmaceuticals rep with a Sports Illustrated swimsuit body and ambition almost as bright as her bleached teeth. I’d gone out on one date with her, drank too much, and woke up in her hotel room bed.
She’d been trying to get me back there ever since.
I pushed the button for the fifth floor. “I’m seeing someone right now.”
“No strings, then.”
Her expensive perfume assaulted my heightened senses as I shook my head. “I’m really not interested, but there are plenty of doctors in this building who would be thrilled to take you up on the offer.”
“But you’re the doctor I want.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder. “We were good together. Why do you keep putting me off? I’m not asking for marriage, just a fun night.”
“I already told you, I’m seeing someone.” The bell rang for the fifth floor. Thank God. “Sorry, Barb. I—”
She grabbed my hand. “I don’t see a ring on your finger. You don’t need to be straight-laced with me.”
“Enough.” I retrieved my hand, my patience dwindling. Rapidly. “I’m working.”
I walked out, grateful not to hear her impractical shoes clicking behind me. I’d made more than my share of dating mistakes over the years, but Barb Turk had to be in my top five. I stopped at the nursing station for the fifth floor.
“How can I help…” Her badge read Kendra, and the name clicked as the nurse glanced up from the keyboard and smiled at me. “Jason?”
I hadn’t seen Kendra in…two years, three? She got up and came around to give me a hug. I returned the embrace.
“Did I hear you got married?”
She’d been my longest relationship. After a year together, she’d wanted to move in, and although I should’ve loved her, I didn’t. At that point in time, mates had seemed like a farce.
The joke was on me now.
We broke up, and she moved on. “Who’s the lucky guy?”
She pointed to a picture by her computer screen. “That’s David. We just had our first anniversary.”
“Congratulations.” And I meant it. She deserved a lifetime of happiness.
“So what brings you up to the stroke floor, Dr. Ayers?”
“I’m looking for a nurse named Todd. Is he on today?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I think his shift is almost over. Want me to page him for you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I can find him. Thanks, Kendra. Great seeing you.”
“Take care, Jason.” She started to say something else, but the phone rang and she was right back to business. It was just as well.
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I’d had my fill of visits with ghosts-of-relationships-past for one day.
Listening for male voices, I ventured down the hallway and around the corner. A nurse came out of one of the rooms, his attention on the tablet in his hand. His badge said Todd. He looked up and recognition hit me like a Mack truck.
“Wolf?”
Holy shit. Todd, the nurse on the stroke floor, the potential mole for Nero, also ran my underground fight club. The same Todd. Damn it. I’d been shooting the breeze with him while he’d been selling out Kilani, leading Nero right to her.
Rage erupted, burning through my bloodstream until my hands trembled with adrenaline. Damn it. “Shut up and come with me.”
He stiffened. “What are you doing at the hospital? Is someone in your family sick?”
I grabbed his upper arms and pressed him back against the wall, lowering my voice. “I’m not going to ask again. We need to talk.”
He nodded, and I took a step back. Keeping hold of one of his arms, I walked him toward a door labeled SUPPLIES. Once we were inside, I threw him to the far wall, pinning him there. “How long have you been working for Nero? Is that why you invited me to the club? Have you been giving them intel on me, too?”
He shook his head, stammering. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do.” I clenched my hand into a tight fist. “And if you don’t start answering me, I’m going to jog your memory for you.”
“I don’t work for them.” I pulled my hand back. “Okay, okay. Some guy came in about a month ago, told me to watch for new nurses from New York. There was money in it for the information. He said they were taking a survey or something.”
My fist landed in his gut on instinct, before I realized I was going to punch him. He wheezed, collapsing to his knees. I yanked him back onto his feet. “You stupid bastard, Todd. It never occurred to you that these guys might want to hurt her? You led them straight to her.”
He gasped for air. “You know Kelly?”
I almost corrected him, but I managed to keep her cover. “Yeah, and now she’s in danger. And it’s your fault.”
“I’m sorry, Wolf. I needed the cash.”
