Page 73 of Break My Fall

Lucy chatted with Aunt Minnie as they returned to the front, and once they were back at the desk, Meredith forced herself to take measured steps as she returned to her office. Once inside, she closed the door, then set the vase on her desk and plucked the tiny white card from the blooms. The scrawl on the note was firm and bold, much like the man who had written it.

I kept a few of these for myself, and I put them in a vase in my office. They are yet another something that reminds me of you.

She stared at the words. The paperbushes grew on the side of the bank. They weren’t convenient to reach. He would have had to climb down to pick them.

Meredith studied the arrangement, then picked up the vase. Sure enough, on the bottom there was a tiny anchor. Landry’s mark.

He’d picked the flowers, then he’d gone to Cal and Landry’s for a vase. Then he’d hand delivered the arrangement to her.

“Dr. Quinn?”

Lucy’s voice came through the speaker on her office phone. “Yes, Lucy.”

“You have patients ready in rooms 1 and 3.”

“I’m coming.”

Meredith took three long breaths. Each one drew the scent of the paperbushes toward her, but she set down the note on her desk and forced all thoughts of flowers and cryptic notes and men who made her want to scream from her mind.

She had patients to see.

And at lunch, she had a phone to return.

TWENTY

At 11:55 a.m., Gray answered his office phone. “Chief Ward.”

“Can you meet a friend of mine tonight?” The female voice on the other end of the line was filled with urgency.

The words were a code. The undercover agent in Neeson had information he needed to send out, but he didn’t feel safe using any of his electronic resources or any of the normal methods.

Since Gray had been aware of him, he’d only used this method once before. And knowing what Gray now knew, the timing lined up with the week when Meredith helped that young woman escape from Neeson. He suspected that things got so hot that the undercover agent hadn’t dared take any risks.

Which begged the question, what was happening in Neeson now? He wanted to know, but he didn’t ask. “I’ll be there.”

“Thank you.” Faith sounded stressed in a way he hadn’t heard before.

“Anything else I can do?”

“You can hide him if he needs out?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to lose him to these people. He’s determined to stick it out, but—”

“I’ll make sure he knows it’s safe to come in from the cold.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll call you tonight with an update.”

A light blinked at him from his office phone. It was the one that told him Glenda wanted to talk to him. He disconnected the call and hit the intercom button. “Yes?”

“Dr. Quinn to see you.”

Finally. He wasn’t ashamed of the way his hands went damp in anticipation. “Send her in.”

Twenty seconds later, Meredith stood at his door, phone in hand. “I planned to return this earlier. But I had an emergency—”

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