Page 18 of Rugged Fox

At least it was only an hour, and Mary was one of the younger nurses. She had an adorable one-year-old daughter and no family, besides her husband, to watch the little girl. I knew all about that.

"Of course, I can stay. Give me a minute to send a text off to Lyla so I can let her know."

"Thank you so much. Oh, and there's a delivery for you up at the nurses’ station."

I stopped pulling my phone out of the pocket of my scrubs. Never in all the years I worked at the hospital have I ever had a delivery. I didn't date. If Lyla wanted to bring me something, she came herself and handed it directly to me no matter how busy I was. Lucien was sweet but he wouldn't bother to send something to my place of employment. He would wait until I got home.

That left Easton, but something told me he wouldn't be sending me anything. Not after our awkward encounter yesterday. I'm not sure which one of us was weirder. Both of us didn't seem to know what to do with our attraction. At least, I hope he was attracted to me and wasn’t acting weird because I was making him uncomfortable.

Oh God, I mentally groaned and slapped my forehead. Now all I could think about was that I’d been making him uncomfortable. Was that why things were awkward? It wasn't like I had a lot of options when it came to a security company. They were the only ones in town.

One of the guys mentioned a friend in a similar line of work. Maybe I could see about them transferring me to him.

I brushed the thought off for now and sent a quick text to both Lyla and Lucien that I would be late. Then I made my way over to the nurses’ desk to find two of my co-workers munching on cookies.

"Someone has a secret admirer," Alexa singsonged.

"At least whoever it is has good taste." Nancy held up the cookie in salute to me.

I reached for the envelope with my name on it. The box nor the card gave any indication of which bakery the cookies were from. I found that strange as I pulled out the handwritten note.

You should've just let us have the boy. Now you're going to pay.

The card slipped through my fingers as I batted the cookies out of my friends’ hands. "Who else ate one?" I practically screamed at them.

"What the hell, Kati? We always share goodies!" Alexa genuinely looked hurt by my actions, but she didn't realize I only wanted to save her life.

"What's going on over here?" My supervisor was by my side in seconds and I pushed the note closer so she could read it while doing my best to touch it as little as possible. I had no idea if the threat was an immediate one, or meant to make me look over my shoulder for the foreseeable future.

"We need anyone who touched these to get tested immediately. I have no idea what the person meant by that note."

I could see out of the corner of my eye that my words had their desired effect. Both Alexa and Nancy looked green and I couldn't blame them. What they thought was a harmless treat from an admirer could turn out to be something deadly.

If I thought my shift earlier was hectic, it was nothing compared to how things were for the next couple of hours. Anyone who had come in contact with the box or treats inside was immediately put under observation. The local authorities were called and now the nurses’ station looked like a crime scene.

I wanted to scream. It was one thing to disrespect my home. I could handle that. It only affected me and my family. But bringing this war to the hospital, my place of employment, wasn't okay. These patients came here to seek help, not to be put in further danger.

I was sitting in a hospital bed, waiting for my own test results to come back, when a knock echoed through the room.

"Come in."

With any luck, it was Dr. Williams telling me I could go home. My one hour of overtime turned into two hours of being a patient, and Lyla was stuck at my house because of it.

"Kati?" I heard my name before I saw the person who said it, but I didn't need to see him to know exactly who came in. So much for luck.

"Yeah, it's me."

The curtain raced along the metal track and all too soon I was face-to-face with the man who made my stomach somersault in ways that hadn't happened in nearly twenty years. It was sad to think the last time someone made me feel this way was when I was a teenager.

"The sheriff explained what happened. Are you okay?"

I doubt it mattered what I told Easton; worry was etched into every line on his face and didn't look to be going away anytime soon.

"I'm fine. More pissed off than anything. I should've been home by now. I freaked out for nothing."

I didn't think it was possible for Easton's expression to get harder. The worry lines were now accompanied by blazes of anger.

"A threat isn’t nothing and that note was meant to be one. You should never take that lightly."

---