Allison Brennan - Silenced

The attacker ran back up and jumped in his van.

Lucy leaned back.

“He’s gone,” she told Ivy. “You’re safe.” She had to convince Ivy to trust her, but how? All she had was a theory. “I know about Wendy,” she said. It sounded like she was talking in a tunnel.

Ivy stared at her. “What?”

“The room. The recordings. Let me help you.” Lucy reached up and touched her head, came away with blood.

“I have to go!” The door was still stuck. Ivy climbed out the shattered window in the back.

“Ivy. Stay-”

She stumbled through the thick shrubs along the embankment and disappeared.

Lucy tried to unbuckle her belt, not knowing if it was really stuck or she was more seriously injured than she thought.

Genie moaned, but didn’t open her eyes. The radio played static, but Lucy fumbled with the channels. “Officer down,” she said. “Need ambulance.”

Two uniformed officers approached from the road below. Lucy closed her eyes. She needed a minute to catch her breath. Just. One. Minute.

Sean bypassed the nurse’s station and went straight to Lucy’s room. No one tried to stop him. As long as he looked like he knew where he was going, and didn’t make eye contact, he’d bet his Mustang no one would intervene.

And if anyone tried, they would fail.

Lucy was in the emergency room, a nurse changing her bandages. He stood outside the door, the privacy curtain partly obscuring her view so she couldn’t see him at first.

Sean pushed down on the fear, burying it under layers of false confidence and bravado. He’d seen Lucy in far worse shape than a few scrapes and bruises. She’d seen him worse as well. In fact, looking at her, other than her unusually pale complexion and the fact that she was wearing a hospital gown, she looked just fine.

She’s fine. Lucy’s just fine.

He had to repeat the mantra before the pendulum in his stomach stopped swinging. When he knew he could speak without his voice cracking, he shook off the remaining anxiety like a dog shakes off water. Took a deep breath. Only then did Sean push the curtain aside and step into the cubicle.

“You picked a lovely day to relax in the hospital.” He smiled broadly to mask his lingering fear. He walked to the opposite side of the bed from the nurse and took Lucy’s hand. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “If you needed a vacation, you should have called me. I’d fly you up to Maine. Beautiful in July.”

“Isn’t your plane still being repaired?”

“I’ll borrow one.”

“You’re not supposed to be in here.” The nurse glanced at him over the tops of her thick glasses. She was younger than Lucy, but the glasses made her look twenty years older.

He winked at the trim, efficient RN. “I won’t stay long. Cross my heart.” He made the gesture.

“She should rest. She’ll be going for X-rays in a minute.”

“Nothing is broken,” Lucy said. “I told the doctor that.”

“You’re probably right, but we’ll X-ray just the same.” The nurse walked to the foot of the bed and picked up the medical chart.

“And you say I’m a bad patient,” he whispered, his voice cracking once as he fought to control the building rage.

“You’re worse than me,” Lucy grumbled. “I am fine. ”

Sean touched Lucy’s bruised face. When he found the bastard who had shot at her, he’d kill him. There was no doubt in Sean’s mind that if he could get away with it, he’d do it.

But was it the shooter he was truly angry at? Lucy was training to be a cop. She would be facing an untold number of bad guys, and Sean wasn’t planning on turning vigilante and whacking every criminal she faced.

It was partly the shooter, and partly the woman who had run from the scene-a prostitute, according to Noah-who left Lucy and a detective unconscious in the car.

But mostly, Noah was the focus of Sean’s still bubbling anger.

When Noah had called him thirty minutes ago and told him Lucy had been in an accident, Sean had wanted to throttle the agent. Sean always had something to say, but this time when Noah called, Sean listened, then hung up.

What he wanted to say would have caused Lucy untold future problems with the agent. And while Sean didn’t care if they remained friends-and would prefer if they didn’t-he wasn’t going to incite the battle.

As long as Noah stayed away from him for the next hour. Or year.

Lucy frowned, her dark, soulful eyes seeking something in his. “Sean?”

He smiled, trying to mask his simmering anger. He’d worried her, and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Were you wearing your seat belt?”

“Of course.”

“Bet your chest hurts.”

“Yes, but-”

He slipped the gown off her right shoulder, since she hadn’t been driving. A nasty bruise was already forming where the seat belt restrained her. “I’ll have a lot of fun playing nurse tonight,” he said with a grin. His vision blurred, but he averted his eyes. The nurse looked at him a moment too long. He faked a smile. It didn’t work.

“This really sucks,” Lucy said. She squeezed his hand.

Sean forced himself to relax. Lucy was alive. Nothing broken. Just bruises. “I’ve never heard you say that word before.”

She rolled her eyes. “Genie’s foul mouth is rubbing off on me.” She said to the nurse, “Monica, right?”

“Yes.” The young nurse seemed pleased Lucy had remembered her first name.

“Would you mind checking on Detective Genie Reid for me? She didn’t regain consciousness in the car, and I’d feel a lot better if I knew she was okay.”

“I’ll see what I can find out. Stay put, the orderly should be here in about ten minutes to take you to X-ray.”

“And then I can go.”

“And then the doctor will look at the film and let you know.”

The nurse left and Lucy said to Sean, “I’m not staying tonight. I didn’t even want to come, but Noah made me.”

“Where is he now?”

“He met me at the scene, I briefed him, he said he’d stop by later. They’re looking for Ivy. It’s all jumbled in my head, but I told him they’re all connected.”

Ivy … the name was familiar to Sean, but he didn’t know why. When Noah called him earlier, he’d been worried about Lucy, but now he wanted to remember why Ivy was important. “What’s connected?”

Lucy whispered, “Wendy James and the two prostitutes. Their murders are connected. I think Jocelyn Taylor was trying to help them all.”

“I’m three steps behind you. Noah didn’t tell me anything.” Lucy’s brow dipped in concentration, and Sean tried to stop her from thinking too hard. “You can catch me up later. You need to rest. You could have a concussion.”

“If you make me tell you that I’m fine one more time, I’ll call Dillon for a ride home. I just need to get my thoughts together. Everything was falling into place right before the crash.”

Sean sat on the edge of the bed and kissed her, trying to ignore the cuts and scrapes on her arms and face. He kissed her again because it felt good. To remind him that she was here, whole, healthy.

“You keep scaring me like this, I’ll have to hire myself to be your bodyguard-and I don’t do personal security. For you, Princess, I’ll make an exception.”

“ Me? You’re the one who fell two stories down a mine shaft not two months ago.”

“You crashed my plane.”

“Did not. It was shot down.”

Sean raised his eyebrow.

“You,” she added, “were kidnapped by a lunatic.”

“So were you.”

“I’d say we’re even then.”

“Maybe we should move to an uninhabited island where neither of us can get in trouble.”