CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Maggie tried not to look afraid. That was hard to do. It wasn’t the procedure that frightened her. No, the sooner they had the marrow, the sooner Sunny could get better. But what frightened her were all the things that could go wrong at the Mustang Ridge hospital.
Like an attack.
Jake was armed and ready, and they’d left Billy hidden away at the front entrance of the building. Sheriff Marcus was standing guard at the back. And since there were only four inpatients at the hospital, all on the second floor, there was minimal staff. Added to that, they were doing the marrow harvesting in a surgical room in the part of the hospital that was completely deserted, and it would stay that way unless there was some kind of emergency that required the use of the room. Even then, Jake had assured her they’d have notice so she could be moved if necessary.
But not notice through his cell phone.
There was no service in this part of the hospital since it was also where radiology was located. However, both Billy and the sheriff had been given the landline number.
“Everything will be fine,” Betsy whispered to Maggie, though she heard the concern in the nurse’s voice. She saw it in the doctor’s eyes, too, when he walked closer to the surgical gurney and looked down at her.
Dr. Allen Blake. The tall, lanky doctor looked barely old enough to be out of medical school, but Betsy had assured Maggie that he knew what he was doing. “I have to ask again if there’s any part of this you want to reconsider.” He had some forms attached to a clipboard, but he didn’t offer them to her.
“No,” Maggie insisted. “I’m going through with this.” She glanced at Jake, who was wearing a surgical mask and standing guard by the door.
That didn’t seem to please the doctor. Probably because he’d already tried to talk her into having a general anesthesia. Maggie had declined, opting for a local instead. She didn’t want to be asleep in case something went wrong, even though the doctor had warned her that she’d be more comfortable with the general because the local would only numb the area when he’d need to inject the harvesting needle.
Maybe that comfortable would apply to physical pain but not to anything else.
Dr. Blake had finally conceded to her wishes and had given her a shot in her right pelvic bone. She was already numb and anxious to get on with this.
She took the clipboard from Dr. Blake and signed the release form. “Let’s do this now,” she insisted.
Thank goodness he didn’t continue to argue. He disappeared for several minutes and came back scrubbed and ready to go.
“If we had more time,” the doctor explained, talking through his surgical mask, “I could give you a drug to stimulate growth of your stem cells, and we could extract them through your blood.”
“But you said it would take five days,” Maggie pointed out. “I want my niece to get the marrow tonight.”
Maggie shut out his response. She shut out everything when she felt the pressure from needle into her pelvic bone. Then, the pain.
Oh, yes.
There was pain.
She tried not to grimace or react, but she made the mistake of glancing at Jake. He knew her too well and saw right through the facade, and even though she couldn’t hear what he said, she thought he was mumbling, “I’m sorry.”
Hopefully, the pain was the only thing he was sorry for.
They hadn’t had a chance to discuss the fact they’d had sex, and even though that might be a troubling conversation, Maggie concentrated on it now. It was far better than thinking about the pain.
Soon, if he hadn’t already, she figured Jake would go through a major guilt trip. Sleeping with her probably felt like a betrayal to Anna, his marriage and the family they’d created together.
Maggie felt some of that, as well.
She loved her sister and missed her, but Maggie’s feelings for Jake ran deep. There was no way she could turn that off, especially after the mind-blowing sex. She’d been right about them screwing up things in a big way. She didn’t regret what they’d done, but she would have to come to terms with the consequences.
Jake, too.
Maybe he would see this as a new beginning of sorts. Not necessarily with Maggie. But the start to the next phase of his life. Anna certainly wouldn’t have expected Jake to live like a monk.
Maggie glanced at Jake again and saw that he was volleying looks between the hall, the needle and her. His forehead was bunched up. His eyes were strained.
I’m okay, she mouthed to him. And she just kept repeating it to herself.
Maggie didn’t know how much time passed, and she didn’t look at the clock. Or the doctor. Especially not at the needle. She focused only on Sunny’s face and let the minutes crawl by.
“We’re done,” she finally heard the doctor say, and it seemed as if all three of them had a collective sigh of relief. “I have a medical courier on standby. I hadn’t told him my location for security reasons, but I’ll obviously have to tell him now. I’ll get him over here so he can transport this to the hospital in Amarillo.”
Yet one more obstacle, but hopefully this would be easy.
“Make sure the courier has the two guards with him that I hired,” Jake added.
Maggie had known about the guards because Jake had called to arrange them while they were still at Royce’s house. She welcomed the extra security. After everything they’d been through, nothing was overkill.
The doctor left the room with the harvested marrow, and Betsy bandaged the area around the injection site. “You’ll be numb for at least another half hour,” Betsy explained. The nurse turned to Jake. “Wait here with her while I get her some pain meds. She’ll need them once the local anesthesia wears off.”
Jake nodded, and while he continued to keep watch from the doorway, he took off his mask. Betsy went through the other door where the doctor had gone earlier.
“I don’t know how I can ever thank you for this,” Jake said.
Maggie didn’t want his thanks. And got a little queasy when she realized what she wanted was Jake.
Oh, yes. Now, she was headed to fantasyland. Because a life with Jake was the one thing she couldn’t have. He’d already told her that when they left the hospital, he’d drive her to the marshals’ office in Amarillo where she’d no doubt be reprocessed for WITSEC. Soon, the McCalls might have to do the same unless they wanted to live the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders for Tanner.
“No need to thank me,” Maggie finally answered. “I just want what you want—for Sunny to be okay. And if this doesn’t work, if she needs more marrow harvested, I’ll make sure you have a way to get in touch with me. No more do-not-contact orders.”
He nodded. Glanced into the hall again and then came across the room. Jake dropped a gentle kiss on her lips, looked deeply into her eyes and brushed his hand across her hair before he walked back to the door to stand guard.
It was hardly the hot embrace they’d had at Royce’s, but it somehow seemed more intimate.
Maggie turned toward the other doorway when she heard the phone ring in the other room. Then, the hurried footsteps, and a moment later, Betsy appeared. One look at her face, and Maggie knew something was wrong.
“Billy just called,” Betsy said. She had a death grip on the phone in her hand. “Someone’s here.”
* * *
JAKE’S HEART SLAMMED against his chest.
In thirty minutes, maybe less, he could have gotten Maggie out of there. She would have been on her way to safety.
Judging from Maggie’s stark expression, she felt the same. She didn’t have much color in her cheeks, but that pretty much drained what was there. She shook her head, whispered something. Maybe a prayer. They might need a boatload of them before the night was over.
Jake motioned for Betsy to bring him the phone, and the woman rushed across the room to hand it to him. “What’s wrong? Who’s here?” he immediately asked Billy.
“A black van just drove up and parked about twenty feet from the door. Could be nothing, but I got an uneasy feeling about it.”
So did Jake, and he hadn’t even seen the van. Of course, anybody’s arrival at this point would put him on edge. Unless…
Jake snagged Betsy’s attention. “Ask the doctor if the medical courier would arrive in a black van.”
Betsy shook her head. “I already asked, the second Billy told me. The courier’s still fifteen minutes out, but he does have the two guards with him that you hired.”
Jake didn’t want the courier walking into this, but he wouldn’t mind having the guards as backup. But fifteen minutes wouldn’t be nearly fast enough. If Tanner’s men were out there in the parking lot.
He was betting they were.
“Keep me posted,” he said to Billy, and Jake pressed the end-call button. He turned to Betsy again. “Where’s the doctor right now?”
“In the lab. He’s processing the marrow. It has to be tested before the courier picks it up.”
Jake didn’t want to delay the testing, especially if it could delay Sunny getting the donation, but he couldn’t risk the doctor or Betsy’s lives. “Is there a lock on the lab door?”
She nodded.
“Go there, lock the door and stay put. Call me on this landline if anything goes wrong.”
Betsy turned to hurry away, but Jake thought of something else. Something he didn’t want to consider, but he had no choice. “If things get bad here, call the courier and tell him to stay away from the hospital until I can get things under control.”
Another shaky nod, and Betsy practically ran out of the surgical suite.
Maggie moved, too. Using her elbows, she tried to lever herself up. “If Tanner’s men get inside in the building, the surgical suites are the first places they’ll look for us.”
Jake didn’t doubt that. He had to get Maggie out of there, just in case, and he needed to do it now.
“Wait,” he insisted when she tried to get up again. There was no way she could walk just yet.
Jake went to her and handed her the phone so it would free up his left hand. He kept his gun gripped in his right, and despite the adrenaline punch, he forced himself to stay gentle. His instincts were to grab her and run, but he didn’t want to hurt her after all the pain she’d just gone through.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To the back, where Sheriff Marcus is. We might be able to get out that way.” He returned to the door and peered out into the hall.
No one was there, thank God.
With Maggie in his arms, Jake left the suite and went right—toward the back of the hospital, in the opposite direction of the black van.
There was a set of stairs there, an elevator, too, but Jake didn’t want to go to the second floor since that’s where the patients were. If there was trouble, he didn’t want to endanger sick or hurt people who were incapable of defending themselves.
Maggie fell into that category.
Jake couldn’t allow her to be hurt. Not after everything she’d done for Sunny and him. He had to get her safely out of there.
The Mustang Ridge hospital wasn’t big by any means, and it didn’t take Jake long to work his way from the surgical area, through a set of double doors and to the back exit.
“It’s me,” Jake called out when he made it to the hall where Sheriff Marcus was standing guard.
The sheriff already had his gun drawn, and his attention was fastened to the back parking lot. “Billy called me,” Marcus said, glancing back at them. “And I was just about to call you. An SUV just drove up and parked.”
Jake cursed. It was too early for the courier, which meant Tanner had likely planned for both exits to be covered. No escape route. It was a smart move for Tanner. A bad one for them.
Marcus tipped his head to Maggie. “You should probably get her away from this door.”
Jake agreed, especially since Maggie was making small, muffled sounds of discomfort. But he didn’t want to go too far from the exit in case Marcus needed backup. He hurried up the hall and tested the knobs on the closed doors. The first two were locked so he rounded the corner at the end of the hall and started trying the doors there.
Finally, he found one unlocked. It was the waiting area of a pediatric office.
He didn’t turn on the overhead lights, but there was enough illumination coming from the hall that Jake could see that the room was filled with chairs and small tables piled high with books and toys. There was a reception desk, closed off with a partition and a glass window. That part was locked, too, and so was the adjacent door that led into the doctor’s office.
Of course, it was possible that someone could unlock that office door from inside since it likely had an exterior entrance in the T-shaped building. Plus, there was the window. Not exactly his first choice for security. He was in the middle of a quick debate about what to do when Maggie made another of those muffled sounds.
Jake looked down at her and saw the pain on her face.
“I’m okay,” she insisted.
No, hell, no, she wasn’t. The numbness was wearing off, and here he was jiggling her all around. That ended his debate, and he took her to the corner by the partition—away from the window. It was close to the locked office door but at least out of the line of sight of the hall. Jake eased her onto the floor. Not ideal, but if Tanner was indeed about to launch an attack, there was nothing ideal about their situation.
Jake checked his phone and saw that he actually had service in this part of the building. That was something at least. Now Billy, the doctor and Betsy had two ways to contact him. His family, too, but he prayed that wouldn’t be necessary. He hoped that Sunny was asleep and dreaming of the Christmas presents she’d get to open soon.
“Give me your backup weapon,” Maggie insisted.
He actually had two backup weapons, and he took the small Smith & Wesson from his boot holster. “This might turn out to be nothing.” He hoped.
She nodded and, while her eyes said she was hoping the same thing, Maggie took the gun and maneuvered herself into a sitting position. She took aim at the door.
A shaky aim.
“I’ll try to get you out of here as soon as possible,” he promised. He especially wanted to do that before the rest of the numbness wore off.
Maggie’s gaze met his. “Kiss me,” she whispered.
He stared at her, cursed. “I’m not kissing you goodbye.”
She huffed. “Not goodbye. Just kiss me. And then get your butt to the door and keep watch.”
In a potentially dangerous situation, Jake normally wouldn’t have taken the time for a kiss. But this was Maggie, and he wanted to kiss her. To reassure her. Heck, to reassure himself.
Jake leaned in, and he touched his mouth to hers. Just a gentle brush of their lips before he increased the pressure. Before he slid his hand around the back of her neck so he could angle her head and kiss her the way he really wanted. It was longer, harder and deeper than he’d planned, but Jake was glad that it was one plan that had gone south.
He’d needed that kiss as much as Maggie apparently had.
Their gazes connected again when he eased back. Just a few seconds, and Jake knew that was all they were going to get. For now anyway. Maybe this would be over soon, and he could get her out of there.
The thought had no sooner crossed his mind when there was a slight crackling sound, and the lights went out. The office was instantly plunged into darkness.
“Marcus?” Jake called out. He hurried to the door and glanced out into the hall, but it was too dark for him to see the sheriff.
“I didn’t turn them off,” Marcus answered.
Another jolt of adrenaline slammed through Jake because he doubted this was a coincidence. Yeah, it was snowing, but it wasn’t nearly bad enough to knock out the power.
He waited, listening, but the only sounds he could hear were Maggie’s and his breaths and his own heartbeat in his ears. The seconds ticked off in his head, but he didn’t hear something he should have heard.
The generator kicking in.
Jake knew the hospital had one, and it should have turned on by now.
“Tanner’s men did this,” Maggie mumbled.
Yeah, they’d likely tampered with it, and it made him wonder what else they’d tampered with.
“Call Betsy,” he told Maggie. “I don’t want her moving from wherever she is, but I need her to phone someone on the second floor. It needs to be shut down. I don’t want any of Tanner’s men able to access it.”
Or the patients there.
He kept watch at the door while Maggie did that, and Jake hoped it would be enough. There weren’t any other emergency personnel he could request for backup tonight except for the fire department, which would already be on call. But he didn’t want them walking into a dangerous situation since they wouldn’t even be armed.
“Jake?” Marcus called out. “We got a problem.”
“What?” he asked, and prayed it that it would be a problem with a quick, safe answer.
“Get down!” Marcus shouted a split second later.
And the sound of a gunshot blasted through the building.