Charlotte Douglas - Licensed To Marry

She’d been an angel to those children. Without her assistance, he doubted he and the others could have moved them from the building as quickly.

And after all her bravery and help, she’d lost her father.

Damn. Life wasn’t fair.

Encountering no one else in the waiting room and observing no one except the nurses coming and going from Laura’s room, he decided she needed a friend. Taking a deep breath and warning himself not to screw things up and upset her even more, he stepped into the room.

She lay propped against pillows as white as her flawless complexion, eyes closed, with long lashes lying dusky against her cheeks. Someone had brushed the dust from her luxuriant hair, spread like a dark halo on the pillow. And someone had washed the grime from her lovely face, its only shortcoming now the paleness in her cheeks. He’d touched the soft silkiness of her cheek in the corridor of the ruined building, and he was consumed now with a desire to touch her again.

He moved beside the bed, and she opened her eyes.

“I came by to check on you.” He silently cursed himself for his awkwardness. She needed comforting, but he couldn’t find the words.

She curved her lips slightly in a smile of recognition. “I’m not very lucid. I think they’ve pumped me full of tranquilizers.”

“You’ve had a terrible shock. I’m sorry about your father.”

Tears welled in her magnificent blue eyes. “My mother died when I was born. I don’t have brothers or sisters. Daddy’s been my entire family….”

He sat on the side of the bed and gathered her long, slender fingers folded atop the coverlet into his own. Her hands were cold, and he rubbed them gently to warm them. “I wish I could help.”

She blinked away tears. “You did help. You saved my life. Are you a firefighter?”

He shook his head. “Just happened to be in town. I work at the Lonesome Pony Ranch near Livingston.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “With C.J. and Frank Connolly?”

“That’s right. Frank’s gone to get C.J. Figured you’d want her here with you.”

He’d be glad when C.J. arrived to stay with her. C.J. was one of the top researchers at the Quinlan Research Institute owned by Laura’s father. A couple months ago, Frank had saved C.J. from kidnapping by Gilad, a member of the Black Order terrorists anxious to learn what the British scientist knew about biological weapons and how to stop them. Frank had fallen in love with the beautiful researcher and married her.

He remembered C.J. telling him that since assuming her post at the research lab several weeks ago, she had become close friends with Laura Quinlan. Not so close, however, that C.J. had divulged to Laura or anyone else at the facility the true nature of the work at the Lonesome Pony Ranch. As far as the Quinlans and the other scientists were concerned, C.J. had married a cowboy, not an undercover agent.

Laura closed her eyes, and her fingers squeezed his tightly.

Poor kid, he thought, then corrected himself. Not a kid. Laura Quinlan had to be in her late twenties, according to what C.J. had told him.

Laura opened her eyes. “Nobody will talk to me, except to say I’ll be all right. Please, tell me what happened to my father.”

Kyle swallowed hard. He wasn’t about to cause her more anguish by describing the gruesome extent of Josiah Quinlan’s injuries. “He died quickly. I doubt he felt anything or even knew what happened.”

He could tell from her expression she was in total denial of her father’s death, and her next words confirmed his fear. “Everyone else in the building was evacuated. Daddy must have been, too. Maybe he’s lost his memory and is wandering the city somewhere. Has anyone looked for him?”

“Laura, the governor was in the same room.” Kyle was firm but empathetic. “He identified your father’s body.”

Yanking her hands from his grasp, she propped herself on her elbows, eyes blazing like blue fire. “Why?”

With patience he’d learned from dealing with his strong-willed daughter, Molly, Kyle grasped her shoulders and gently pressed her back against the pillows. “Promise you’ll stay calm, and I’ll answer all your questions. Otherwise, Nurse Godzilla will throw me out of here on my ear.”

As if all the strength had gone out of her, Laura sagged against the pillows. “Why didn’t Daddy and the governor evacuate like everybody else?”

Hers was a good question, one Kyle and the other investigators had pressed the governor about. “Governor Haskel said his secretary came in when the alarm sounded. She told him one of the capitol police had just assured her the alarm was simply a malfunction in the system. That there was no need for the governor to interrupt his business to evacuate.”

Groggy with medication, Laura shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“Someone wanted to make certain the governor’s office wasn’t empty when the bomb blew.”

“Bomb?” The word seemed to hit her like a blast. “The explosion wasn’t an accident?”

Kyle shook his head.

“I didn’t know,” she murmured. “I thought maybe it was a leak in a natural-gas line…”

For several minutes she remained so still, eyes closed, he thought she’d drifted back to sleep. He started to rise from the side of the bed, but she gripped his hand and opened her eyes. He could see her fighting against confusion and the effects of the drugs she’d been given.

“My father was murdered.”

She’d stated a fact, not asked a question, so Kyle said nothing.

“Did the secretary identify the policeman who told them to stay?” she asked.

“Haskel’s secretary, your father and a policeman doing a final sweep to clear the building were the only fatalities.”

This time she’d didn’t contradict him about her father. She was either in shock or finally coming to grips with his death.

She raised her face and fixed her tear-filled, periwinkle-blue gaze on him. “Why…how could the governor survive and not Daddy?”

Another good question. Even in the depths of grief and the haze of tranquilizers, she exhibited a remarkable grasp of what was important.

“According to the governor’s account,” Kyle explained, “he was leaning down to remove something from the bottom drawer of his desk when the blast occurred. The massive piece of mahogany furniture between him and the direction of the blast absorbed most of the impact.”

Tears overflowed her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. Her full bottom lip quivered. “And Daddy was on the other side of the desk.”

“I’m sorry.”

She swiped away the tears with the back of her hand. “Thank you for telling me. I had to know, no matter how awful…”

He marveled at her poise. Even under the most horrific circumstances, she was thoughtful and kind, considerate of others in spite of her grief. If, as she’d said, Josiah Quinlan had raised her on his own, the man had done a damn good job.

He thought of Molly, abandoned by her mother, with only Kyle to take care of her. Molly would be counting on him for everything. He hoped he could do half as good a job as Josiah had with his daughter.

Laura turned her head on the pillow toward the table where he’d emptied his hands when he’d entered the room. Following her gaze, he picked up the bouquet of pink roses he’d left there. “I’ll have the nurse put these in some water.”

“Thank you.” A ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. “And the science fiction video game?”

“For Jeremy. He’s in the pediatric wing on the next floor. I thought I’d check on him before heading back to the ranch.”

“You are a remarkable man, Kyle.”

Embarrassed by her praise, he shook his head.

“Please, one more question?” she asked.