Undercover Protector

Chapter 2

Nadine’s chest compressed and the air blew out of her lungs as her body flattened between Anderson’s solid form and the concrete pillar behind her. Vaguely she was aware that just ahead on the other side of the bushes where they now stood, a car had first careened to a halt, then peeled out. But, mostly, the man pinning her to the spot took her attention.

His arms were firm around her waist, his hands warm on her hips. If she’d been able to breathe, she might’ve demanded to know what he thought he was doing. As it was, all she could do was work to draw in a gasp of air as she glared up at him. His ocean-blue eyes stared back, no apology for the intrusion touching them. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed before how intense and stormy his irises were. She felt like she was being sucked in. Drowning. But maybe in a good way. If that was even possible.

After what felt like a lifetime but what really couldn’t have been more than few seconds, he finally released his hold on her. Physically, anyway. His gaze still held her.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he demanded gruffly.

She sucked in a trickle of oxygen, then managed to exhale a single-word reply. “No.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

She tried again. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Speak.

“How do you figure?” It was better, if only slightly.

“You snuck out of the hospital and—”

“Care center.”

“What?”

“It’s technically not a hospital.”

“So?”

“So if you’re going to throw around accusations, you should get your facts straight first.”

“Are you helping me argue?”

“Someone has to. Clearly.”

His mouth twitched just a little. “Okay. You snuck out of the care facility and—”

“Sneaked,” she corrected.

“Really?”

“Well. It’s the more correct word. Snuck is acceptable, but if you want to sound smart...”

“So I seem like I care if I sound smart?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

“Fine. You sneaked out of a care facility where you’re supposed to be on bed rest with IV fluids because you suffered a head injury. In the middle of the night. Does that cover my concern about the death wish?”

“I asked to be checked out days ago,” she replied. “And they were going to let me go until you talked them into keeping me. My leaving isn’t a death wish. It’s a preservation of my sanity.”

“In your attempt to preserve your sanity, did it slip your mind that it’s not safe for you to be walking around alone?” he countered.

“I live here. I need to be able to cross the street without a bodyguard.”

“Someone just tried to run you down, Nadine.”

“Accidents happen.”

His mouth set in a flat line for a second before he answered. “You really think that was an accident?”

Her heart fluttered nervously, but she brushed it off. “Of course.”

“It’s the middle of the night. The spot where you crossed was well lit. There were no other cars, no other people and no reason for whoever that was to come tearing through like that. Think about it for just a second.”

She swallowed. She’d been so wrapped up in her escape that she hadn’t been paying much attention to what was happening around her. Had she even noticed the car before it zoomed past? Would she have seen it at all if it weren’t for Anderson? And if she had seen it, would it have been too late?

And what about the most important question? added a pushy little voice in her head. Is Anderson right? Was the swipe in my direction purposeful?

Now that he’d put the idea forward, she couldn’t deny that it was a possibility. She’d seen what Jesse Garibaldi’s men—or one of them, anyway—was capable of. Her brother’s death was proof of the ruthlessness. And that didn’t even factor in the pipe bomb and fire that had killed her father and scarred her for life.

Unconsciously, she lifted her fingers and ran them over the puckered marks that followed the curve of her cheek. And unexpectedly, Anderson’s hand joined hers. She was too surprised to pull away. Even when he tipped her face up so that their eyes locked again, she didn’t move. Or maybe she couldn’t.

“Now that you’re thinking about it,” he said softly, “and you see that it might be true, do you understand why I might think you’re putting yourself in danger by running out like that?”

Nadine drew a breath. It annoyed her that he was right. It got her back up just enough that she couldn’t help but shake her head, and the motion dislodged Anderson’s grip. For a second, his hand hung in the air. Then he dropped it and shook his head, too.

“No?” he said. “Really? You can’t even acknowledge that staying here might be safer for you?”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re right or not,” she replied. “What matters is that I’m being treated like an incompetent invalid. I’m the one who found Garibaldi’s underground storage unit. Didn’t your partner tell you that?”

“Of course he did. Brayden told me—and the others—everything before he and Reggie left for Mexico.” He shot her a look as he said it.

She refused to be embarrassed. When “everything” happened, Nadine hadn’t known that Brayden Maxwell was an undercover detective searching for Jesse Garibaldi. All she’d been sure of was that Reggie Frost—a waitress at the local diner—had witnessed her brother Tyler’s murder. Nadine had just been protecting herself. So, yes. “Everything” might’ve included knocking Anderson’s friend on the head, a little bit of breaking and entering, and a small run-in with Reggie. But it also meant she’d kept her identity a secret, eluded a trained professional and only come forward because she wanted to.

Her reply came out strong. “So if you know everything, then why am I being kept tied to a bed in a hospital?”

He scratched at his chin, his face showing his frustration clearly. “Look, Nadine...”

“Yes, Detective?” There was more than a hint of sarcasm in her reply.

“It’s just plain safer for you to be in one spot.”

“My apartment is one spot.”

“Your apartment is also private.”

“Isn’t that better?”

“No. The hosp—care center, I mean, is full of people around the clock. Approaching you there would be a dangerous move for Garibaldi.” He spit out the man’s name with a grimace, then added, “We know that he doesn’t want to expose himself publicly, so staying here...”

“But for how long, Anderson? There are only fifteen long-term rooms here, and if I had to guess, I’d say you can only talk the doctors into believing I’m more injured than I am for another few days at most. And after that, you can’t expect me to just hide. The school is waiting for me to come back. People will start to talk. It’s not like it’s a secret that I’m here. You’re protecting me and exposing me at the same time.”

He had a funny look on his face, and she had a feeling he might’ve missed everything she’d just said.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“That’s the first time you’ve said my name.”

“Is there something you’d rather be called? You don’t look like much of an Andy, but if that’s what you want...”

“No.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You’ve been calling me ‘detective’ for a week.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Not when anyone can hear.”

“No,” he agreed. “When anyone can hear, you don’t call me anything at all.”

“We’re getting off topic.”

“You’re right. We are. We need to be talking about you going back upstairs.”

“No. We need to talk about the fact that I’m going home.”

“You can’t go home, Nadine. Garibaldi’s men could be watching your apartment. Waiting for a wrong move.”

Fear made her shiver. “I don’t want to stay here.”

He lifted his hand again, reached it toward his face, then dropped it to his side instead. “First, let’s go back upstairs. If you really think you can’t stay here, I’ll call the team. I’ll see what they say. We’ll find a solution. I promise.”

“You promise?” she echoed doubtfully.

“Do you think I like the idea of living my life on a bench outside your room? ’Cause I really don’t. I can’t get any further in my case if I’m playing watchdog. And I’d really like to build on what Brayden found out about Garibaldi.”

“So go work on it, then.”

“And leave you unprotected? I don’t think so. That’s not how I work. Whether you think so or not, keeping you alive is more important to me than making progress on the case.”

Another snarky reply popped into Nadine’s mind, but a trickle of conscience kept her from saying it aloud. She’d been right when she’d surmised that the detective had things he’d rather be doing. But she hadn’t really considered it in terms of a sacrifice on her behalf.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go back up. But I don’t want the IV. And I want to know that you’re going to keep that promise.”

His face cleared, a charming smile making an appearance. “I will.”

“Don’t be smug.”

“I’ll try not to be.”

“That sounded smug.”

“Sorry.”

“Can we just go?”

“Yep.” He stepped back and swept an arm out. “Ladies first.”

Nadine snorted. She moved ahead of him anyway. But as they came out from their secluded spot, she stopped abruptly. The care center’s lobby was jam-packed, and the wail of distant sirens cut through the air.

* * *

It took Anderson only a second to figure out that the facility was in the process of being evacuated. A couple of administrative staff held clipboards and were checking off names and filtering people through to frazzled-looking medical personnel. Mobile patients to one spot. Those in wheelchairs to another. He cast a glance toward Nadine. Whatever was going on, he was damned sure it had something to do with her. Which meant he needed to get her as far away as possible.

He grabbed her elbow and started to steer her away from the building.

“Well,” he said, “I guess you’re going to get your wish and not be stuck here any longer.”

She let him guide her for all of five steps before she planted her feet so hard that his fingers slipped from her arm. “Wait.”

“Seriously?”

“Don’t you think we should find out what’s going on?”

“It’s an evacuation.”

“An evacuation? Why are they still inside, then?”

“They must be confident that whatever’s happened, the lobby is secure,” he said. “And they could be doing a full head count before they escort them all outside. Easier to keep everyone straight if no one can wander off.”

Nadine’s gaze swiveled sharply to the scene. “A head count?”

“Yes.”

“So they’ll figure out that I’m gone.”

“Presumably. But I’m more concerned about making sure you’re safe than I am about reassuring the staff that they’ve got the right number of patients.”

“But it could be worse in the long run. I really think we should take a minute and ask what happened.”

Anderson’s teeth wanted to grind together, and he wondered if this new state of impatience was going to become permanent. “If I go over there and ask, will you agree to leave?”

She nodded. “It’s not like I want to stay.”

Now his teeth did grind together. “I’m going to walk you to the spot we were a second ago, and I want you to promise me you’ll stay put.”

Amusement made her brown eyes warm for a second. “Like a good girl?”

“Right. As if that’s the role you’re going for.”

A laugh escaped her lips as his hand closed on her elbow again, and for a second, Anderson was surprised into stillness. In the week since he’d met her, he hadn’t once heard Nadine laugh. It was a nice sound, and Anderson liked it enough that he almost forgot his irritation.

At least until she spoke again, her voice back to its slightly stinging tone. “Are we going?”

He jerked his head in a short nod of ascent. “Yep.”

He guided her quickly to the other side of the bushes, shot her his best stern-cop look, then moved away again. Fast enough that she couldn’t comment. As he strode toward the front of the building, though, he kind of wished he could hear that laugh of hers again. It was light and pleasant. Not quite musical. But almost.

Yeah, he definitely wanted to hear it again. Preferably soon.

He reached the automatic glass doors then, and they slid open. He tried to step through, smiling automatically as a woman in a nurse’s uniform approached him right away and stopped him from going any farther.

“Can I help you, sir?”

“I hope so.”

“Well, I’ll try. But I’m afraid we’ve got a bit of situation and can’t let in any visitors.”

“Yeah, I figured that much out.” He widened his smile. “I was actually already inside. Took a patient for a walk a short bit ago. Just a little worried about getting her back in.”

“What’s the patient’s name?”

“Nadine Stuart.”

The nurse bent to make a note, then lifted her head again and smiled back at him. “All right. She’s accounted for.”

“She is?” He couldn’t quite keep the surprise from his voice.

She laughed. “That’s a good thing. And her doctor himself noted that he saw her out here, so even better. We’re actually taking everyone outside shortly so the police can do their thing. I’m going to suggest just sitting tight for now.”

“Anything we should be worried about?” Anderson asked, relieved that if there had to be a head count error that at least it worked in his favor.

The nurse turned her head to the side like she was checking to see if anyone was listening before she leaned a little closer. “You’re probably better to hear this from me anyway. Rumors from everyone won’t be accurate.”

“Definitely not.”

“A patient saw someone in a mask sneaking around upstairs.”

Anderson stifled a frown. “Scary.”

The nurse nodded. “If it’s true.”

“You don’t think it is?”

“Who knows? No one else saw anything. But the guy was adamant. Says Mr. Mask went right past his room on the third floor. So here we are.”

“Well. Thanks for the tip.”

“No problem.”

He offered her a final smile, then turned on his heel. As he exited the door, he was glad to have left when he did—the siren was now at a high, and the familiar flash of blue and red appeared at the end of the block. He stepped up his pace to just under a jog and slid behind the bushes.

“All right, Nadine, I think we—”

His words died abruptly on his lips. The spot where he’d left her was empty.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered.

He turned back to the open space behind him, his head whipping back and forth in search of her. There was plenty to see—two police cars had driven up onto the shoulder of the road and the people inside were being moved, single file, to the exterior of the building. The one thing he saw no sign of was Nadine Stuart.

Cursing, Anderson swept his gaze wider.

Now seemed like a bad moment for to assert her need for independence. She might think she was taking advantage of the chaos, but the reality was that there were a dozen people who might see her and stop her. People who were—rightly—motivated to keep her from disappearing into the night. She sure as hell wouldn’t want to be accosted by any well-meaning cops or doctors.

Or by a masked lunatic roaming the halls.

Anderson dropped another curse as a second possibility filled his mind.

Maybe she didn’t leave willfully. Maybe someone took her.

Concern quickly overtook his irritation. He inched out a little farther, knowing that if he drew attention to himself—an out-of-place man hiding on the property—he’d risk sabotaging his whole case. The local cops wouldn’t appreciate having their toes stepped on, and though his own boss had sanctioned the investigation, they were supposed to tread lightly until they had proof of Garibaldi’s wrongdoings. Anderson knew he’d be walking a thin line if he got hauled in. He’d be asked questions he didn’t want to answer.

And that’s not even factoring in Nadine.

His jaw clenched with worry as he scanned the grounds and the crowd once more. Aside from the general confusion happening right then, he didn’t spy anything that looked terribly at odds with the surroundings. No strange vehicles, no one lurking in the shadows. He breathed out, told himself that was a good indication that Nadine hadn’t been grabbed, and he tried to focus on potential escape routes.

Where would he go if he was trying to escape notice and slip away? As soon as the question came into his head, he knew the answer. He’d try to blend in with the crowd. Take true advantage of the chaos so as not to stand out, then slip away the moment an opportunity presented itself. His eyes came to the group of people in the courtyard. Now that they were all outside and spread out a little, he could see that there weren’t more than fifty of them. Ten or so medical personnel, half that many nonmedical staff, a few nicely dressed administrators, a few people who were casually dressed and appeared to be overnight visitors, plus two dozen patients in varying shapes, sizes and conditions. Anderson focused on the last group, ruling them out, one by one.

Nine were men. Six were kids. The remainder were women. A few were too old to fit the bill. A few were brunettes. One was on crutches, one in a wheelchair. Another, though, made Anderson narrow his eyes. The woman stood just outside of the main group, her shoulders slumped, a blanket draped over her head and squeezed at her chin.

Bingo.

He took one wide step toward the crowd. He started to take a second, then stopped short as a hand landed on his arm. Instinctively, he spun, raising his fist as he prepared to defend himself.

Chapter 3

By the time Nadine lifted her face, Anderson’s balled-up fingers were already flying toward her face. She knew she should be pulling back or ducking—anything to protect herself from impact—but, instead, she panicked. She couldn’t even squeeze her eyes shut; she just froze, waiting for impact. But it didn’t come. His fist stopped just a hairbreadth from her cheek, so close that she could feel its warmth. It hung there for a long moment before it dropped down to close on her wrist. He pulled her back to the spot between the bush and the pillar and rounded on her.

“Nadine.” Her name was almost a growl. “What’re you doing?”

Her voice shook as she answered, “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

He dropped his arm and he exhaled. “Where were you?”

Nadine held out her bag. “I dropped this when you saved me from the car.”

“Well, I’m thrilled you’re acknowledging that I saved you. But I’m confused about why you thought it was a good idea to go grab the bag? Now?”

“I thought it would look suspicious just sitting there in the middle of the road.”

“You could’ve been caught by the cops. Or by—” He cut himself off and shook his head. “We should leave.”

But she wasn’t going to just let it go—not with the way her heart suddenly jumped in her chest. “Or by who?”

“No one. Let’s just go.”

“By who, Anderson?”

“Whoever’s after you, Nadine.” His hand, which she just realized still clasped her wrist, gave her a little tug. “Let’s talk about it in the car. I’m parked one street over and it’ll only take a second to get there.”

She dug her heels in stubbornly. “Did you see someone? Garibaldi?”

“I didn’t.”

“But someone else did?”

“A doctor saw you. Counted you in with the rest of the patients.”

“That’s bad?”

“Not specifically. But it means anyone could’ve seen you. C’mon.” He dragged his fingers down, threading them through hers.

Heat jumped from the points where their skin met, startling her enough that she didn’t resist when he pulled her along this time. Her hand even tightened on his as they slipped out of their hiding place. And she couldn’t make it loosen. Thankfully, Anderson didn’t notice. Or at least didn’t comment as he led her away from the hospital.

“Why were you going back down in the crowd by the care center?” Nadine asked, trying to distract herself from how natural and reassuring it felt to be holding his hand. “The cops were already there.”

“Because I was looking for you.”

“But I was meeting you by the bushes.”

“You were supposed to wait by the bushes,” Anderson corrected.

“Didn’t you think I’d come b—” She cut herself off as she clued in. “You thought I ran off on you.”

“Is it much of a stretch?”

Nadine felt an odd warmth creep up her cheeks, and she silently scolded herself for blushing.

Aloud she said, “I told you I would stay.”

She could swear Anderson was eyeing the pink in her face as he lifted an eyebrow her way. “Pretty sure you gave your doctor the same impression before sneaking off in the dead of night.”

“Ha-ha.”

He stopped in front of a midsize pickup truck, and when he freed his fingers from Nadine’s to grab his keys from his pocket, she immediately experienced a pang at the loss of contact. It was accompanied by an urge to reach out and grab his hand again. She actually had to fight to shake off the need to do it, and she was suddenly glad that her cheeks were already heated. At least it provided a good cover for the new embarrassment tickling at her now. And the embarrassment only intensified as Anderson took a chivalrous moment to open the passenger-side door for her before he moved to get in himself.

“You don’t have to do stuff like that,” she said.

Anderson frowned as he turned the key in the ignition. “Like what?”

“Opening the door.”

“You don’t want me to be polite?”

“You can be polite without being so nice.”

He pulled the truck out onto the road. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me.”

Nadine sighed. “I know you’d rather be working the case. You just told me as much a few minutes ago.”

“I am working the case. You’re my connection to Jesse Garibaldi.”

For some reason, the statement pricked at her. “You know what I mean.”

“No,” he said, “I’m not sure I do.”

“You don’t have to pretend that I’m not an inconvenience by being thoughtful.”

“Did it ever occur to you that I might just be thoughtful?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Why would you be thoughtful toward me? I’m disrupting your investigation.”

“You don’t think all people need thoughtfulness, you know...just because?”

“That’s not what—Ugh.”

“Ugh?” His mouth twitched.

“I’m not saying this because I don’t think people deserve respect in a general sense.”

His tiny smile slipped away completely. “You think that you don’t deserve respect?”

“No. I mean yes. Of course I deserve respect.”

“Just not from me?”

She couldn’t help but glare at him. “You are seriously a pain in the—”

“Hold on. I thought I was too nice.”

“Now you’re getting it.”