PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Shapeshifter Romance: The Vampire's Stolen Bride (BBW Fantasy Alpha Male Romance Books) (New Adult Vampire Fun Mature Young Adult Billionaire Steamy Love and Romance Novella) (28 page)

Dangerously in Love

Chapter 1

Working as a nurse in the hospital meant that Kimmy had to work long hours and that she did not have time to have much of a life outside of work. She did not mind, however, the most important thing to her was her work and helping other people. There were times when she felt completely alone though.

Kimmy loved working, she loved her job, but when she had to go home and spend time alone, she would begin to feel depressed and as if she would never meet anyone to spend her life with.

On the days when she had to deal with couples it was the worst. She would watch a man or woman be brought into the hospital that had been in a car wreck, she was always the one that had to talk to the patient’s partner.  She would watch the fear on their face turn to confusion, she would watch the tears pour down their faces as the concern about their partner grew. She witnessed the happiness that they experienced when they realized their partner was going to be okay.

Those were the times when she felt most alone. She knew that if anything ever happened to her there would be no one worried, no one would cry and no one would be happy when she recovered. She spent many nights crying and feeling completely alone. She dreamed of the day when she would have someone to go home to.

It had been years since she had been in a relationship, her last boyfriend had been when she was in college and he had broken her heart. She swore then that she would never let it happen again.

Rick worked at the local police department. He had been on the force for over three years and loved his job. It was all he had ever dreamed of being when he was a child. His mother had disappeared when he was young and several of the local officers had stepped up to help his family.

Although her case was never solved, they stood by Rick’s family, ensuring that all 6 of the children had everything that they needed. Their wives would treat Rick and his brothers and sisters just like they were their own children.

Rick and his siblings never went without when they were children, but there was always a part of Rick that was missing. That was the only reason that Rick had decided to become a police officer.

He wanted to look into his mother’s case deeper; he wanted to know all of the facts. His father had tried to keep all of the information from the kids when they were growing up.  Rick understood why his father wanted to keep it a secret, but he needed to know what had happened so he spent his spare time researching the case.

It had been one of those days when Rick had not been too busy. He had been looking into his mother’s case and had learned that there had been no sign of forced entry.  When his father had returned home from work the night he had found his wife's purse sitting on the kitchen counter with her keys next to it. There was a cake still in the oven and it had not had time to burn so he assumed his wife had walked to the neighbors. Rick’s father had taken the cake out of the oven and set it on the counter to cool, but began to worry when his wife did not come home.

As it turned out Rick’s father had not called the police until the next day to report his wife missing. Rick knew that this was a huge mistake and could be the reason that his mother was never found. Knowing that the police were not immediately informed bothered Rick and made him wonder what else his father had not told him.

As Rick continued to look through the case file he was called out to a domestic disturbance. He knew the residence well and was not looking forward to confronting the suspect yet again. Rick knew that every time he was called to the residence he would find the woman on the front porch crying and screaming. Once he calmed her down and confronted the suspect the woman would refuse to press charges and he would be called out again later in the week.

The state had tried to press charges several times against the man, but with a witness that refused to cooperate it was all but impossible to make charges stick. Rick despised the man, he wished that he would slip up and leave a mark on the woman. As sad as it was to say, this was the only way that Rick could make a case against him that would stick.

This night was different than the other nights and Rick knew it as soon as he pulled up to the residence. The lights were off and he could not hear the woman crying on the porch. In fact, he did not even see the woman on the porch. The house seemed to be quiet until Rick saw a sudden movement through one of the windows. It was hard to tell what he was looking at but he believed it to be the suspect with the victim in a headlock.

Rick immediately called for backup knowing that he would not be allowed to enter the residence on his own but things quickly intensified. He heard the woman scream and a loud bang. Rick quickly made his way to the front door and knocked loudly.  “Police,” Rick yelled out.

Everything went silent once again. The only thing he could hear was the woman sobbing and gasping for breath. He knew that her life could be in danger and did not have time to wait for back up. Rick checked the doorknob to see if it was unlocked. As the door knob turned he quietly opened the door and shined his flashlight into the home.

Rick heard another bang and everything went black. The next thing he remembered there were lights everywhere.   Red and blue flashing lights, people talking, yelling, and then black again.

Kimmy had been working that evening at the hospital. It had been a calm night until they received the call that an officer was being brought in. Kimmy quickly raced to prepare a room for him; the call said that he had been shot while on duty and that he was unresponsive.

The hospital called the surgeon and prepared for the arrival of the new patient. Kimmy did everything she could to make sure that he would have a room to himself and that he would be comfortable.

Kimmy’s father had been a police officer when she was growing up. He was an amazing man and Kimmy loved him very much. The day his partner had come to tell Kimmy’s mother that her father had been killed in the line of duty was the worst day of Kimmy’s life.

Kimmy had grown up in a bad part of town, and her father had been one of the few black officers on the force and had been gunned down in cold blood. He had not been out on a call, but had simply been sitting outside of a gas station drinking his coffee as he waited for his partner to join him.

A man had come out of nowhere and shot him. They had found the man just blocks away from the shooting. He was sitting on the curb, drinking and talking to himself. The man did not serve time in prison. He was sentenced to a mental institution for the rest of his life after being found incompetent to face trial.

That was the second worst day of Kimmy’s life. She had hoped that the man that had killed her father would have gotten the punishment that he deserved but she had lost faith in the justice system.

Kimmy refused to let anyone go through what she had went through when her father had been killed. When she was growing up, she remembered how respected her father had been by the rest of the black community, her mother had been the most proud. It was a time when few black men were able to join the force, to make it out of the life that they had gotten stuck in. He was a man that set the standard for all men that came after him.

After her father died, Kimmy’s mother did her best to raise the children on her own. She worked as a hairstylist at a local salon and kept busy. Even though Kimmy hated that she worked long hours she loved that her mother was able to make her hair look beautiful all of the time. The family struggled, but they always knew how much their mother loved them and they looked up to the man that their father had been.

Each of the children had gone to college and had become successful even helping younger inner city blacks find their way back to the right path.

Kimmy heard the sirens as the ambulance arrived with the officer. She with a team of other nurses and doctors met the ambulance team at the door and took over. They told her that the officer had not woken up since they had found him, his blood pressure was dropping and they were afraid that he was bleeding internally.

Kimmy looked at the man, his uniform had been cut away, his pale white skin still covered in blood. He was taken immediately to the operating room where the doctor removed the bullet and stitched him back up.

The bullet had broken into 6 pieces and had caused internal bleeding. It was a miracle that he had been found in time to save his life. He had to have several blood transfusions, but he was moved to the recovery room and Kimmy vowed to keep an eye on him.

After her rounds she would go check on him to see if he was awake. She would check his blood pressure to ensure it was stable as well as his heartbeat. She could not help it as a few tears slipped down her cheeks as she thought about her father.

She imagined the nurses that had worked on him caring as much as she did about Rick and she imagined how traumatizing it had been for them when they were unable to save his life. Kimmy carefully checked Rick’s bandages to ensure that there was no bleeding and she even tried to contact anyone that was close to him.

She began by calling the numbers that were in his cell phone, they were his friends and although they were concerned about him they were not his family. She then called the police station and found that he was not married and that his siblings all moved to different states. The officer that she talked to told her that she would try to contact Rick’s father and would call the hospital if she had any luck.

Kimmy felt bad for him, it was rare that she had someone in her care that did not have anyone there to support them or be there for them when they woke up. That night, Kimmy went home and could not get her mind off of Rick. She wondered if she was the only person worrying about him that night and felt sad that he was alone.

Kimmy looked around her empty house and realized that she was not the only person in the world that spent all of her time alone. It saddened her to think that one of her patients would have to go home to an empty house just like she did each day and that there would be no one there to take care of him.

She was glad that he would have those on the police force to help him, but she also knew that he had a long road ahead of him. Kimmy went about her evening, cooking her dinner, showering and then she went to bed. She had another long 12-hour shift ahead of her the next day and she was actually ready to get back to the hospital. She wanted to check on Rick and woke up several times during the night thinking about him.

Things had not changed in the morning. He was still unconscious. The doctors had little hope that he would wake up. It was several days before there was any change. During this time Kimmy found herself spending most of her shifts with the officer. She would read to him on her breaks, check his bandages, and sit talking to him about her life. By the time he began to wake up, she felt as if she knew him.

One of the nurses called for Kimmy to come to the officer’s room over the intercom. Kimmy feared the worst and moved as quickly as she could to get to the room. Although Kimmy was a nurse and had been taught how unhealthy it was to be overweight, it was something that she had struggled with most of her life.

She had been a very active child, but no matter what she did, she had always been a bit rounder than most of the girls her age. As she got older she had learned to not only accept her curves but to embrace them. The only thing that she hated was that she was unable to move as quickly as the thinner nurses that she worked with.

When Kimmy arrived at Rick’s room, she found that he was sitting up in the bed and that he appeared to be aware of what was going on around him. The other nurses knew how much Kimmy cared about this patient and allowed her to explain to him what had happened.

Kimmy walked up to Rick’s bed and looked down at him. He could see the concern for him in her eyes.

“What am I doing here,” Rick asked, unable to remember what had happened.

Kimmy sat down in the chair next to his bed so that she was level with him.

“You were on a call for a domestic disturbance and a man shot you. You have been in the hospital for 5 days. The doctor was able to remove all of the bullet fragments and he saved your life,” Kimmy stated, in a calm, almost soothing voice.

Rick began to think back to the last thing he remembered. He remembered that there had been a domestic disturbance call and that he had opened the door of the house in order to ensure that woman was safe. He remembered lights flashing around him, but no matter how hard he tried he could not remember being shot.

“What about the woman,” Rick asked, wanting to ensure that the victim was safe.

“I don’t know anything about her,” Kimmy answered, feeling bad that she did not have the information that he wanted, “She was not brought here, but I am sure some officers will be here soon to speak to you. You need to rest and I will call your Captain and let him know you are awake.”

Rick nodded his head as Kimmy stood and walked toward the door. He was glad that he had a nurse that understood why it was important for him to know what had happened to the woman. Kimmy did not know it, but he had heard a lot of what she had said to him on her daily visits, he had simply been unable to respond to her.

Kimmy quickly called the station and was told that a few officers would come to the hospital and talk with Rick. She went about her rounds, but continued to think about that man.

She had never become so attached to a patient before and wondered why she cared so much about him. She decided that it was simply her emotions running away with her and put it out of her mind, but found herself continuing to worry about him.