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But where was Dan? Did he get hurt?
Carlie couldn’t stand the thought of her shadow being harmed because of her. But she couldn’t ask, and her head weighed about a ton. Her eyelids drooped again, and she slipped off for a nap.
Green and purple cows and orange and blue nails danced through her dreams.
“How much longer is she going to sleep?” Dan asked, frustrated.
Dr. Wong retained his calm. “We don’t know, Agent Maddox. It depends on how she reacts to pain meds, plus a number of other variables.”
“I have to get her out of here.” Dan began to pace. “They nearly got her this time.”
“This time?”
“That’s why she’s in the Witness Protection Program.” When they’d first brought Carlie into the hospital, Dan had no alternative but to reveal his identity and their situation. It was the only way he could get adequate protection for his charge.
“Then I’d better not ask you more questions.”
Relief felt good. “I appreciate that. And I appreciate the care you’re taking with her.”
“It’s all in a day’s work,” the young doctor said with a grin. “I’ll alert the rest of the staff. I’m sure they’re dying to know about Carlie’s vast and professionally serious extended family.”
“Thanks.” Dan hadn’t known how he was going to disguise the crew his boss, Eliza, had sent. The doctor’s understanding would go a long way in keeping things under some kind of control.
“But, Mr. Maddox?” the doctor said. “You yourself need to rest. You took in a big wallop of smoke, almost as much as Carlie did. And those burns of yours can get infected very easily.”
Dan shrugged. “It’s all in a day’s work.”
“Tripped up by my own words.” Dr. Wong punctuated his words with a wry grin. He tapped his forehead in a salute, then turned and left the room.
Dan returned to his sentry post on the nasty green pleather chair next to Carlie’s bed. But his patience wasn’t much to write home about, and before too long, he paced again from the foot of the bed to the large window that looked out on congested traffic.
“Noooooooo!”
The ear-splitting scream shocked him still for a moment. Then he spun, ran to Carlie’s side, and found her scooted up hard against the headboard, her legs bent at the knee, her medicine tree tipped partway over the bed.
Horror contorted her beautiful features, and the slight smudge of soot under her right eye, one the nurses missed when they’d cleaned her, added to the atypical, weirdly tough-girl look she now wore.
“Get out of here!” she yelled. With her non-IVed hand, she scrabbled through the pile of sheets and blanket at her side. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she wanted to find, who she wanted to summon.
“It’s okay, Carlie. It’s me, Dan Maddox. You’re fine. The hospital and I are taking good care of you.”
A bulldog expression replaced the horror on her face. “I don’t know what your game is, bub, but you’re not Dan Maddox. He has gorgeous blond hair. You don’t have any.”
Something in Dan leaped when she admired his hair. But it soon settled down thanks to reality. “Carlie, it is me. They shaved my head because so much of my hair got singed when I went after you in the barn.”
She wrinkled her nose, and drew close. “You sound like Dan, but you look a little alien, kind of like that weird guy on the bottle, that Mr. Clean on TV commercials.”
“Gee, thanks. I’ve always wanted to make a beautiful woman think of floor cleaner.”
“Now I know you’re not Dan Maddox. He’d never tell me I’m beautiful. He’d call me trouble, a pain, crazy and who knows how many other snotty names.”
What could he tell her? That he had to force himself to think of her along those “snotty” lines to keep him from thinking of her as the drop-dead gorgeous woman she really was? That he didn’t want to admit her quirky sense of humor made it tough for him to keep from laughing? That he was scared to death he might fall for her over the duration of his assignment?
Not in this lifetime.
“I’m sorry you think I’m snotty, but you are a handful,” is what he went with. “And you don’t make my job—keeping you alive—any easier.”
“Oh.” She seemed to melt into her pillow. “You are Dan after all. Well, I guess that’s good. You really look scary, though. Wouldn’t want to bump into you in a dark alley.”
“Maybe that’ll help us. Just think. Maybe I’ll scare your brother’s buddies away.”
She snorted. “That’s not even funny. They’re pretty determined.” She settled down under her blanket again. “So what’s our next move?”
“It’s not all sewn up yet, but one thing’s for sure. We’re leaving the mid-Atlantic area ASAP. They got your apartment, and they followed us to the Millers’ place.”
Before Carlie had a chance to comment, a knock at the door drew their attention. Dan slipped his hand inside his jacket then nodded for her to answer.
He never would have guessed the identity of her visitor. Fourteen-year-old Jonas Miller walked in, his steps hesitant, his face flushed, his old-fashioned button-down shirt and dark navy pants an odd contrast to his youth.
“Jonas!” she exclaimed. “How are you? Do your parents know you’re here?”
Pure misery filled his adolescent face. “Ja. They know. They made me come. They even brought me.”
She blinked. “I see. And why would that be?”
The boy looked down at his feet and mumbled something Dan didn’t catch. Obviously, neither did Carlie, since she asked him to repeat himself.
“I’m sorry, miss. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Carlie looked more puzzled than ever, but her voice came out soft, gentle, caring. “What are you sorry about, Jonas? What is the ‘this’ that happened?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t mean for the old barn to burn.”
“And that means…?”
“That it was all my fault.” Jonas looked ready to cry. “I—I know it was wrong, but the guys are always mocking me, so I figured I’d better practice for the next time after school.”
Dan knew what was up, but Jonas had to do this on his own.
“What were you practicing?” Carlie asked.
Jonas shifted his weight from foot to foot. He shoved his hands in his pockets. Then he seemed to come to a decision, squared his shoulders and stared straight at Carlie.
“I don’t want to choke when I smoke again!”
Carlie’s reaction was a quick blink. Dan had to fight the laugh on its way out. Then his mob widow surprised him—again.
“That’s the easiest thing,” she told Jonas. “All you have to do is not smoke. You’ll never choke that way. And those ‘friends’ will be the ones to worry about lung cancer and emphysema while you’re still healthy as a horse. You’ll have the last word.”
“But these guys already tease me because…well, I…I…”
The poor kid’s face turned redder than pizza sauce.
He shrugged. “I get good grades. It’s not so hard. I just go to class, do the homework, and that’s it. But they think I’m some kind of sissy.”
“Jonas, my man,” Carlie said, a smile on her lips. “Come on over here. Have a seat in Dr. Carlie’s office. You and I need to have us a chat.”
Dan’s admiration grew as each one of the next fifteen minutes went by. With her sense of humor and brilliant smiles, Carlie soon had the teen laughing with her. By the time she was done, Dan knew Jonas Miller would never pick up another cigarette. And he genuinely regretted the fire he’d caused. Then Carlie threw him for a loop.
She held her hand out to Jonas and invited him to join her in prayer. For some strange reason, their earnest expressions did something to him. He didn’t back off as he normally would have, but instead he stayed and watched them, their heads close, their hands clasped, their voices low and intense.
An odd pang hit him, a sudden loneliness, nothing he’d experienced before, something he hoped never hit him again. It was a restless sensation, an urge for some unknown something, a sense of need.
After they said amen, Jonas headed for the door. “Bye, Miss Carlie.”
“Now you just wait one cotton pickin’ minute there, Jonas Miller.” Carlie’s fake scolding dripped with her trademark humor. “You don’t think you can leave here without giving me a hug, do you?”
Dan watched the boy, one whose background inspired reserve, bend down to Carlie and give her the hug she’d asked for. It was an awkward, stiff hug, but a hug is a hug is a hug.
Amazing.
A nurse came into the room as Jonas left and she shooed Dan away. She insisted he had to go so she could take Carlie’s vital signs. He left, went to the snack shop downstairs, and bought himself a bucket of coffee and a gooey sticky bun. Of course, as soon as he bit into the pastry, his cell phone rang.
“Yeah,” he mumbled around the mouthful of delicious dough.
“How’s it going?” asked his partner, J.Z. Prophet.
“If I said bad to worse, it wouldn’t begin to give you a clue.”
“What’s the deal? The family’s after you again?”
“They never stopped.” Dan gave J.Z. a brief rundown of the latest events, even told his partner about Jonas’s ill-fated attempt at being cool. That made them both laugh, but didn’t ease their concern.
“You know what’s got to happen, don’t you?” J.Z. asked.
“Yeah. We’ve got to hit the road again. I’m just waiting for Eliza to let me in on the secret of our destination.”
“And she’s no more cooperative than usual.”
“You got it.”
“Well, Maryanne and I will keep you both in our prayers. Be safe.”
The prayer bit made Dan squirm on his stool. He ignored that statement, and said, “You, too.”
He hurried to finish his pastry and the transfusion of caffeine. He had to get back to Carlie. Who knew what kind of trouble she’d kicked up by now? The woman needed a keeper, and unfortunately, the Bureau had picked him for the job.
The second he stepped into the elevator, his cell phone rang again. This time, the caller wasn’t quite as welcome as his previous one.
“Yes, Eliza. Do you have instructions for me?”
In brief, his boss gave him a laundry list of steps to follow. When she finally disclosed their ultimate destination, Dan couldn’t stop his groan.
“You’ve got to be kidding, Eliza. That’s inhuman.”
“Live with it, Maddox. It’s the best solution for a difficult situation. Or to be more accurate, the best solution for a difficult witness.”
He didn’t much care to hear his snippy boss refer to Carlie that way; it was different when he did it. He knew Carlie, while Eliza had just met her once or twice during the investigation into Carlo Papparelli’s murder.
“Fine,” he said. “We’ll take off as soon as the doctors let her go.”
“You might not want to wait that long, Agent Maddox. I won’t tell you how to do your job, even though I can, and you know it, but don’t think time is on your side.”
The elevator door opened just as Dr. Wong walked out of Carlie’s room. “I hear you loud and clear, Eliza. And now I have to go meet with Carlie’s doctor. I’ll let you know as soon as we hit the road.”
Dan hurried to catch up with the doctor. He explained the need for speed, the urgency of the situation.
But Dr. Wong refused to commit. “I’ll discharge her as soon as she’s ready to go.”
He wouldn’t budge from that stance, no matter what Dan said. So, more frustrated than ever, he retreated to Carlie’s room.
“Hey, Sunshine,” she called when he walked in. “What’s with the joy and happiness?”
That was all he needed: Carlie in one of her more outrageous moods. How was he going to break the news to her?
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m a lot better. But it still feels like I breathed in a bunch of mascara brushes.”
Mascara brushes? “Then I hope you cough out the little porcupines faster than you breathed them in.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you’re going to have to feel well enough to sneak out of here sometime tomorrow. We have to get going while we still can.”
Her eyes widened, and she swallowed hard. “Where are we going? Or can’t you say?”
“I shouldn’t say anything, but I know how hard this has been on you. Prepare yourself. We’re headed for the steam bath better known as Florida in August.”
Once again, Carlie took his words and turned them upside down. “Really?” she asked, excitement in her voice. “I’ve always wanted to go to Florida! Promise me one thing.”
“I’m not promising anything. Tell me what you want, and I’ll tell you whether we can work it out.”
She sat up and crossed her arms. “Work it out, nothing. You owe me, Secret Agent Man. You wouldn’t take me shopping at the outlets, so now you have to take me to see the Mouse. We, Danny Boy, are going to Disney World.”
Dan had the sinking feeling he’d lost control of his assignment. And the loss was all because of a beautiful blonde, her killer smile and his growing desire to please her.
He was in trouble. And it had nothing to do with the mob.
