Page 23 of Nowhere to Hide
“Didn’t you have a cop on the door?”
Stone looked down at his regulation shoes. “He had to take a bathroom break and then one of the patients coded and the nurses were distracted.”
“What the actual fuck? Does your partner think it’s more than just a sick sex crime now?”
Stone’s jaw flexed, but he said nothing.
“No?”
“It’s not that simple.”
I paced away from him and slammed my fist into the vending machine.
The anger raged and bubbled under the surface.
All I could remember was her small frame in that bed. The monitors and anemic light over her bed made her seem impossibly frail. I knew this godforsaken life wasn’t fair and could take people at a whim.
Not her.
I shut my eyes and reined the anger back in. This was why I lived on my damn boat.
I wasn’t fit for anyone.
Why Dom, my boss, had cut me loose.
After Milligan had been killed, the anger living inside me had no outlet other than my fists or my gun.
I blew out a slow breath, then dragged in a long, deep one until my chest filled to bursting before I let it out again. “Did he hurt her?”
“No. Not for lack of trying.”
“What does that mean?” I whirled back to face him.
Stone’s impassive face and shuttered eyes matched his partner’s.”She’s alive.”
“Did he hurt her?” I said slowly with a near growl between each word.
“He used the cord of one of the machine’s to try and strangle her.”
“Fucking Christ.” I paced away from him. “How did she...” I couldn’t ask the question. All I could see was her on the pier with that heavy rope around her throat.
“She’s a fighter and made enough sound for the cop on the door to come back in. The nurses were dealing with someone coding in the next room. Chancey, the cop on the door, has a concussion. He’s down in the ER now.”
I swallowed down the flood of acid that burned my throat and coated my mouth. “Will the officer be all right?”
“Yeah, but he barely caught a glimpse when the intruder slammed an IV pole into the side of his head.”
“Jesus.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “And Diaz doesn’t believe this is bigger than a simple attack?”
The first crack of annoyance showed as Stone used his thumb to crack his knuckles along one hand.”Could be anyone trying to get rid of a witness.”
“But you don’t think so.”
He didn’t say a damn thing, which was just as good as saying yes as far as I was concerned.
This woman wasn’t my problem.If the cops knew she was in trouble, they would protect her.
“The wit is the only one who’s seen this guy. I need to talk to her. I tried earlier, but she had a panic attack. I was coming back before I had to go on shift to see if I could try again and...”
