Page 25 of Nowhere to Hide
Priscilla was alive and that would have to be enough for me.
I was tainted anyway. Nothing I did would help her at this point.
You know that’s a lie.
I hunched my shoulders at Milligan’s voice in my head.
What did he know? I killed him too.
I burst out the sliding doors into the heavy night air. Humidity had soared over the water and stayed with its heavy summer blanket. But it wasn’t a hospital.
Even if my T-shirt immediately stuck to my back as I practically ran around the path to the parking lot. I’d unearthed my dirt bike from the storage hull. It worked better for tooling around the Caribbean islands. Not exactly the best for a real city, but I wasn’t locked into worrying about a fucking share ride.
My palms itched and I scrubbed them down my jeans.
“Jordan!”
I hunched my shoulders and kept moving toward my bike.
“Hold up.”
“It was a mistake to come out here, Stone. You’re right.”
His heavy footfalls gained ground as he met me at the parking spot. “Just wait.”
“What?” I whirled around. “Because I’m about five seconds from going through that hallway swinging. She was supposed to be safe with you people.”
I shouldn’t care.
It wasn’t my job to care, goddammit.
But seeing how battered she’d been haddriven me to my damn knees.
Another cord around her neck.
Another moment she could have been lost.
Not my problem.
Not my problem.
She needs you.
I fisted my hands at my sides. I threw my leg over the bike and flicked up the kickstand. She didn’t need me. I was a fuckup and screwed up everything I touched.
“Jordan, I can’t protect her. I’ve been busted down to a fucking beat cop. They won’t let me protect her. We don’t have the budget for round-the-clock protection, nor will my captain give it.”
“Even after that?”
“Even after today. We can watch her until she’s out of the hospital, but after that all they could offer was a drive by patrol. It’s not like I have a safehouse for her for fuck’s sake. She’s not even from around here. I don’t have jurisdiction in New York even if I could get her there. She has no one.”
“What the hell do you think I can do?”
“What you were trained for. What else are you doing?”
Nothing. Which is why you’re going to protect her.
I shook off Milligan’s voice. “I’m a stranger. You think she’s just going to get on my boat?”
