Nowhere To Run (To Protect And Serve) (3 page)

“Our attending will be right with you
, detectives.”

“What can you tell
us about the kid’s status?” Riley didn’t really expect her to give him any information, but her expression was enough to tell him it didn’t look good.

“Dr. Colton
will explain the details of the case.” The nurse didn’t give Riley the chance to ask another question. She stepped to the far end of the station and began sorting charts.

“Detectives?” They turned
in unison in time to see a man who appeared to be in his mid-forties approaching.

“I’m
Doctor Elliot Colton.”

Riley
took the doctor’s offered hand. “Detective Donovan. My partner Detective Burbeck.” He introduced Frank who gave the doctor one of his brusque nods.

“You’re here about Jeremy Scott?”

“Yes. Can you tell us what his prognosis is?”

The doctor shook his head
gravely. “Not good, I’m afraid. Please come with me, detectives.” Riley and Frank exchanged a quick look then followed the doctor to the elevator.

“To tell you the truth, I’m surprised he’s still alive
,” Colton added once they reached the fifth floor. “But I don’t expect him to make it through the night. The bullet did tremendous damage to the brain. I’m afraid there was nothing we could do for him.”

They stopped in front of one of the rooms. “
His sister is with him now. She was on duty tonight, thank God. Otherwise…” He left the rest of the sentence unspoken. Words weren’t necessary. They both knew the kid’s time here on earth would now be measured in minutes.

Being in homicide
for going on five years, Riley had seen his fair share of deaths. Still, he couldn’t imagine watching a family member die in such a horrific way.

The doctor showed them to a small waiting area set up
directly opposite of the room. An assortment of magazines had been spread out across the chairs and small glass table. The hospital’s chaplain had authorized several religious pamphlets as well as a Gideon bible placed on one of the side tables.

“Can you tell me anything about
Jeremy or his sister?” Riley began his questioning while trying to distance himself from the kid’s tragedy.

“I’ve known Jordan since she
first interned here. She’s an excellent doctor and a good person.”

“What about the brother.” Riley
looked up from jotting notes at the doctor’s noticeable pause. He didn’t miss the way the doctor seemed to choose his words carefully.

“Nothing out of the ordinary that I can think of. Jordan practically raised Jeremy when
their parents died – I think he was ten maybe. She became his legal guardian. The only real mother Jeremy ever knew. He adores her. And Jordan would do anything for him. She worked two to three jobs most of the time just to get through medical school and provide for her brother—“ The doctor’s cell interrupted the conversation. “Excuse me.” He turned away to answer the phone and spoke briefly.

“Yes. Make sure he’s stabilized. Call me if his condition worsens. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He flipped the phone closed then took a moment to collect himself before facing them again.

“That was the ER. Apparently, there’s been another shooting.” He shook his head. “Must be a full moon tonight. Would you like to speak with Jordan?”

Riley
gave a succinct nod. “Yes, I think we need to clear up some of the discrepancies with her. Thank you for your help, doctor.” The doctor spared them another quick glance then disappeared inside the room.

While they waited,
Riley studied the stack of outdated magazines scattered across the tabletop, going over the details of the case in his head. It had surprised him when they’d found Caesar Santiago’s business card stuffed inside Jeremy Scott’s wallet. At first, he’d dismissed it as pure coincidence, but through the years of watching the man beat every single charge brought against him, Riley knew where Santiago was concerned, there was no such thing as a coincidence. Still, what was a kid like Jeremy doing mixed up with one of the biggest alleged drug dealers in the city? It hadn’t taken more than a phone call to learn the truth. Jeremy Scott’s sister was engaged to be married to Caesar Santiago.  

“Shit
,” Frank muttered once the doctor was out of earshot. “I hate this crap. Man I knew the second the phone rang five minutes before our shift ended it was going to be bad. Just one of those damn feelings. We should’ve let Benson have this one, bubba.”

Riley picked up a magazine
and flipped through its pages. He hadn’t said as much and God only knew he hated to give credence to one of Frank’s ‘feelings’, but something was definitely telling him, for once, Frank Burbeck might just be right.

Doctor Colton stepped out of the Scott kid’s room
a few minutes later followed by a petite brunette dressed in hospital scrubs. Riley gauged her age to be somewhere late twenties possibly early thirties. Her light brown hair was pulled away from her face revealing the most haunting green eyes he’d ever seen.

H
ow had someone like her come to be involved with Santiago in the first place? She had clean-cut, squeaky clean written all over her. No way would they travel in the same public circles. He made a mental note to check out recent social events hosted by the hospital. Santiago had a reputation for being a philanthropist. Perhaps that would explain their connection.

She said something to Colton and then her
gaze connected with Riley’s. An awareness sparked between them unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. For a second, he forgot about being a cop, his instincts were all human, all male. Riley’d never considered himself an overly macho man before, and yet the strong need to protect her which control of his emotions proved otherwise. He wanted to make all of her pain go away unbalanced him for a moment.

Looking into
her eyes was like having a front row seat to the worst possible event in her life. He could feel the depth of her pain as if it were his own. It made one thing perfectly clear. She didn’t have a clue what her fiancé was involved in.

“Jordan, these are the detectives investigating Jer
emy’s…accident.”

Frank
, who’d been pacing the small waiting area, trying to drive out some of his pent up energy, jerked around at the sound of the doctor’s voice. If the situation hadn’t been so grave, the expression of surprise on his partner’s face at the sight of Jordan Scott would have come across as comical. Nothing rattled this hardened detective. But if he didn’t know better, Riley’d have sworn Burbeck’s jaw dropped about a mile as he studied the pretty young doctor.

Finally, Burbeck seemed to remember why they were there.
“Jordan Scott?” Frank wiped a hand across the jacket of his off-the-rack, dark green suit then stuck it out. “I’m Detective Frank Burbeck. I’m with the homicide unit.”

“
Doctor
Jordan Scott.” She corrected automatically. No doubt, after years of dealing with arrogant male attitudes, she’d become accustomed to having to assert herself.

“
I apologize, Doctor Scott.” Suddenly Frank seemed ill at ease. In all the years they’d been partners, Riley wouldn’t have gauged Burbeck for having a softer side, but clearly he’d been wrong.

“
Can’t this wait detective? I need to be with my brother.”

Riley stepped forward at the reemergence of Frank’s impatience, infusing sympathy into his tone. “I’m sorry, Doctor Scott, I’m afraid it can’t.”
He raked a careless hand through the unruly waves of his sandy-blond hair. “I’m Detective Riley Donovan. We need to ask you some questions about your fiancé. Caesar Santiago.”

***

Riley Donovan didn’t have that hardened, distanced look she’d come to expect from most of the detectives she’d encountered in the past. His startling blue eyes took her breath away from the moment she looked into them. For a brief second, her pain took second place over feelings she thought would have been banished forever from her emotions after Caesar’s betrayal. It took her a minute to regain her equilibrium.

Riley continued to watch her carefully, but something shifted in those blue eyes. He felt it too.
It was as if he were weighing her every reaction. A cop’s instinct. She’d seen it plenty of times while being interviewed in child abuse cases. It became second nature for most cops.

Then she remembered his
question. It had both surprised and rattled her. It carried all the muscle of a blow, reminding Jordan of the argument she’d had with Caesar earlier that night. And the elation that had been in his voice.

“
What are you talking about? What does my fiancé have to do with this?”

Detective
s Donovan and Burbeck exchanged a look that sent an uneasy shiver along her spine. Donovan moved closer. She could feel the pressure of warm fingers against her lower back as he guided her away from Elliot’s range of hearing, which only served to increase her fears. Elliot had wanted to stay. Be protective, but clearly the direction Detective Donovan’s questions had taken made him uncomfortable.

“Doctor, if you could
give us just a few minutes.” Strength seemed to radiate from Detective Donovan like a protective shield. He would be someone to turn to in a crisis. God she wished she could let herself lean back against his tall, warm body and rest in his strength.       

Jordan closed her eyes
, resisting that need with difficulty. “Whatever you have to say can wait. I need to see my brother.” She freed herself of the detective’s touch and started back to her brother’s room. Before she’d taken even a single step, the PA system announced a ‘code blue’. Someone was crashing. Oh, God. Jeremy!

Within second
s, the trauma team raced past them toward Jeremy’s room. Jordan pushed past the detective and followed, a thousand different thoughts chasing through her head.

The last conversation she’d had with Jeremy
ran through her head. There’d been something in his tone. It was the first time they’d actually had a real conversation in – what – a couple of weeks. He told her he needed to talk to her. She’d assumed it could wait. She’d told him she would call him later that night. She hadn’t. Instead, she’d been caught up in her own tragedy.

Why had she chosen to
pull a double shift? Why hadn’t she listened to that little voice inside her head that told her Jeremy needed her?

The
room became crowded with emergency personnel working frantically to save her brother’s life. She stood immobile at the foot of his bed watching her nineteen-year-old kid brother slowly slip away.

Someone announced --
“Time of death…”

Someone
screamed.

The doctor in charge
gave Jordan only a cursory glance before pronouncing the time -- twelve-o-seven AM.

T
hen the room tilted and braked to slow motion. Blackness crowded in and strong yet strangely familiar hands reached through the darkness to catch her before she could fall. She held onto that strength until she could face the pain waiting for her back in the real world.

***

In the blink of an eye, time became a precious commodity. Every second counted.

With a brief nod to his partner,
Riley lifted and carried Jordan’s limp body to one of the empty rooms close by. His partner followed, standing guard outside of the Scott kid’s room.

Riley
closed the door, laid Jordan on the bed, and tucked her hands in his. They felt as cold as ice. Shock did strange things to the human body.

Sleeping
and unaware of the drama unfolding around her, she appeared almost fragile, but he knew she wasn’t. Anyone who dealt with the trauma of life and death on a daily basis had to be made of strong material.

“
What happened?” He hadn’t realized she’d regained consciousness until she spoke. She stared up at him. The pain in those hazel eyes tugged him back to the moment. He’d never seen eyes quite so clear or expressive before.

She pulled her hands from his,
covering her eyes for a moment.

Riley
leaned closer, inches from her face. That same look of awareness pooled in her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat. “You fainted. Are you okay?”

Slowly
she propelled herself up on her elbows. “Yes, I think so.” It took another moment before she remembered her brother’s death. “Jeremy. Oh God.” Her face crumbled and the tears she’d been fighting since they’d met came in a rush of sobs.

The
whooshing sound of his sigh as his breath left his body was lost over the heartbreaking measure of her grief. Time be damned.
Procedure
be damned. He needed to touch her. Riley sat next to her and gathered her close in his arms. Her resistance was brief and then she accepted him, clung to him. He wanted to hold her like this forever. Protect her from the truth. But there could be no protecting her from this truth.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her hair, his lips brushed against its soft strands.. The moment he touched her for the first time, he felt it stronger than ever before. He’d formed a personal connection with her. As much as he wanted to hope otherwise, he knew it that had nothing to do with grief really. All his years with the Bureau had insulated him from this part of death, dealing with facts only, the details of murder instead of the personal side. Coming to homicide proved to be a revelation.