Julie Garwood - The Ideal Man

“We?”

“Another agent, Ben MacBride, and I are working this together, and we have to question you.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “Where is he?”

“At the crime scene,” he answered. Where I should be, he silently added.

“Why don’t you start asking your questions while you walk with me.”

“Doesn’t work that way. I’m going to record what you say.”

“Okay, then we need to find someplace quiet, right?”

“Right.”

Ellie passed a bank of elevators and continued on to the stairs. “I’ll grab my things, and we can get out of here. I stand a better chance of actually leaving if you’re with me.”

“How’s that?”

She smiled. “You’ve got a gun.”

Max kept pace as she ran up three flights. “You have a thing against elevators? A phobia?”

“This is the only exercise I get.”

“You were running the track when the shooting started, weren’t you?”

“How did you figure that out?” she asked, taking the steps a little slower while she waited for his answer.

“I’m an FBI agent, trained to be observant,” he said.

“Oh, please. You thought I was one of the kids on that high school soccer team.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I did,” he admitted. “One of the other agents told me you were running the track.”

He could laugh at himself. What an appealing trait, she thought. She liked that quality in a man… Seriously! What was happening to her? She really needed to get away from him as soon as possible.

“You haven’t answered my question. Is it a phobia or just a quirk?” he wondered.

“I do the stairs and I run the track and I don’t particularly like being crammed inside a little metal box with a bunch of other people.”

He grinned. “So that’s a yes. You do have a phobia.”

Probably, she thought, but she wasn’t going to admit it. She did ride in elevators with patients when she had to. She didn’t like it, but she did it anyway.

“Where do you keep your things? On the roof?” he asked.

“Just here.” Ellie entered the hallway on the fourth floor and opened the door to a dark room filled with lockers. She switched on a light and walked to the third one on the left. Had she been alone, she would have locked the door and changed into jeans and a T-shirt, but she wasn’t alone, so she was going to have to stay in her scrubs. She didn’t like wearing them outside the hospital, but she didn’t have a choice now. She pulled out her backpack, put some of her clothes inside, grabbed her keys from the top shelf, and was ready to leave.

She followed him to the stairwell, appreciating the fact that he wasn’t pushing the issue with the elevators. When his cell phone rang, he stopped on a landing to answer, and she stopped to wait for him.

Max’s partner, Ben MacBride, was on the line and wanted help with a couple of uncooperative witnesses.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll be there in five.”

“Hold on,” Ben said. “Agent Hughes wants to talk to you.”

While Max was waiting for Ben to get Hughes, he turned to Ellie. She stood on the step above him, and her eyes were level with his. He found it impossible not to stare at her. The woman was breathtaking. Her eyes were the most intense shade of blue. Her nose was dotted with freckles, which he found damn alluring, and her mouth… ah, man, he really needed to stop staring. He was already conjuring up all sorts of fantasies involving her full, luscious lips, and he was going to be in real trouble if he let his eyes wander lower.

Max didn’t wait for Hughes to get on the line. He abruptly ended the call, turned, and continued down the stairs.

“Where are we going to do this?” she asked.

He smiled. Now, that was a leading question, considering where his thoughts had been.

“Go home.” His voice was brisk.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, glancing back at her. “You can go home, and we’ll come to you.”

“Great,” she said. “I can get out of these scrubs. Let me give you my address…”

“I’ve got it.”

“Cell phone?”

“Got that, too.”

“But how-”

“You’re a witness. I had all your information downloaded to my phone while I was waiting for you.”

“You Googled me?”

“No, I didn’t need to.”

Ellie wondered what she would find if she Googled him. Under “occupation” would it say he was an FBI agent and give her the number of criminals he’d apprehended… and shot? No, of course not. His profile probably wouldn’t tell her whether he was involved with anyone or whether he was married, either. She had taken the time to notice that he wasn’t wearing a wedding band, and something told her that, if he was married, he would always wear it.

Now, why would she make that assumption? She wasn’t clairvoyant, and the truth was, she didn’t know anything about him other than he carried a badge, could be quite intimidating at times, and had a great smile. Was she making him admirable because she wanted him to be? From what she knew about the FBI-which was precious little-outsiders weren’t privy to personal information, but she might Google him anyway just to appease her curiosity.

Okay, she really needed a life outside of the OR. Then maybe she wouldn’t have such a strong reaction to a man she barely knew.

They reached the main floor on the south side of the hospital. Ellie’s ancient SUV was parked in the doctors’ lot adjacent to the hospital. Max opened the exit door for her. She brushed against him as she walked outside and got a hint of his masculine scent and just a trace of aftershave. For a man who looked as though he hadn’t picked up a razor in quite some time, he smelled really good.

She knew what she smelled like. Disinfectant. Unfortunately, that had been her perfume for the past several years. It could be worse, she thought. The pathology residents smelled like formaldehyde, even when they were off duty. The odor seemed to permeate their skin.

Max walked her to her car. It was a gentlemanly thing to do, but not at all necessary since it was light outside and there were police cars all over the campus. The crime scene team was still there, combing the park for additional evidence. Ellie didn’t believe she could be any safer.

“Do you walk out here in the middle of the night?” Max asked as he looked around.

“Yes. Why?”

“I count only six lights, and this is a big parking lot with countless places to hide. Not good.”

“If I’m leaving during the night, a guard walks me to my car.”

“What happens when you get called to come in?”

I park my car, then run like lightning to the doors with pepper spray in my hand, she thought but didn’t say.

“I try to park as close to the hospital doors as possible, and I’m vigilant,” she stated with a nod.

“Vigilant, huh?”

His smile could stop traffic. She couldn’t tell if he was teasing her or laughing at her.

Max opened her car door. “I’ll see you later. It will probably be a couple of hours before we get to your place. Don’t go anywhere. Stay home.”

“Of course.”

It wasn’t until she had driven out of the lot and was on her way home that she glanced in the mirror. No makeup, hair a mess, and wearing scrubs that were two sizes too big for her-lovely. No wonder Max had escorted her to her car. He probably felt sorry for her. He wouldn’t have given her a second glance under normal circumstances.

Oh well, what did it matter? After a brief interview, he would be history, and after next Tuesday, hopefully, she would be, too.

The Landrys had escaped once again, but Max knew it was only a matter of time before the notorious couple would run out of luck. Since Dr. Ellie Sullivan was a potential witness to the shooting, it was his job to find out all he could about her before he added her to the witness list for the federal prosecutor.