Page 10 of Devious Madness

“We’re ready for her.” A tall guy in a pair of nurse’s scrubs glares at me when I don’t get up from the bed immediately.

“You can just go home, hun.” Mira emphasizes the last word with too much sweetness. “I’ll have Cara drive me home; I know you need to get to work.”

She can’t possibly think she’ll be getting rid of me this easily.

“I promised Megan I’d wait,” I say.

“Megan will understand.” Her eyes narrow a fraction.

She’s right to be suspicious. She’s been on the run for six months, and she’s finally been caught.

I lean over her bed, bringing my lips right above hers.

“I’ll be right here when you get back. Don’t do anything stupid, Mira. I’m tired of chasing you.” I brush my lips across hers, then press my mouth to hers, intending to put on a show of a husband saying goodbye to his wife.

But once my lips touch hers, it becomes something else entirely. Something deeper, something darker, like I’m free falling with no charted course ahead. I deepen the kiss, shifting from soft to savage.

When I break away, Mira stares up at me like she’s uncertain what just happened. Her lips puffy from the harshness of my kiss.

The nurse reaches across Mira to bring up the railing ofthe bed, effectively pushing me out of the way. “You can wait here; we’ll bring her back to the same room.”

I step away as they wheel her out of the small room and down the hall. My instinct is to go with her.

The woman is slippery. She’s been able to stay hidden this long, and I’ve always wasted enough time finding her this time.

My phone goes off just as they turn a corner with her. She’s with the staff, and she won’t be able to go anywhere while she’s with them. I answer my phone just as the old woman from the front comes hustling toward me

“Oh, good. Can you come up front for a second. We need to get your wife’s insurance situation all settled.” She peeks into the empty room. “I’ll have you back before she gets back.”

I end the call. Sasha can wait.

“Fine.”

She doesn’t react to my glower as I follow her back up to the waiting area. There’s no insurance to deal with, so this shouldn’t be difficult. I’ll pay cash, whatever the bill is.

It takes the administration people twenty minutes to get through all the screens on their little computers before they finally tell me what sort of deposit they want since we’re not using insurance. I throw a bundle of bills on the desk and walk out.

Mira’s got to be back by now. I throw the double doors open and stalk back to her room. The doctor who had been treating her stands at the desk chatting with the nurses. No one seems to be in any hurry.

The curtain to her room is closed. Already I feel anger simmering in my veins.

I throw back the curtain.

The bed is empty, a Mira sized wrinkle in the bedding where she’d been sitting.

“Where’d she go?” The male nurse taps my shoulder. “The doctor wanted to go over her CT results.”

I glance down at my shoulder, where he put his hand on me before slowly raising my gaze to meet his. He retreats a step, the color draining from his cheeks.

She’s gone.

Again.

Oh, Mira. You should have listened to my warning.

Ishould have left after the first note he left at the Dive Bar. I should have left the second I spoke to him at the diner. There were so many chances to get away, but I convinced myself I was just being paranoid.

As I race up the wooden steps up to my apartment over the dry cleaners, my foot slips off the last step, and I stumble. The edge of the stair hits me in the shin. Pain ricochets up my leg. At least it takes my mind off the throbbing ache of the cut over my eye.

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