Deception (Southern Comfort) (25 page)

“Hectic because you pick up every available shift here and then spend the rest of your time at the hospital,” Dane shot back.  “When do you sleep, Samantha?  Although staying in that apartment of your brother’s I imagine you need to keep one eye open.  It’s a wonder you can sleep at all.”

Sam’s hands stilled over the beer nuts, and she looked at him in confusion.  Where had this sudden concern come from?  He was starting to sound like Josh.  “Actually, I’ve been staying with a friend this week.  I sort of moved out of the apartment.” 

“That’s wonderful,” he flashed a million dollar smile, beaming approval all over her.  “That move was long overdue.  Donnie living there was one thing, but a single, attractive female quite another.  So who are you staying with?  Sherry?”

“No.  I –”

Sunlight suddenly poured through the bar’s front door, backlighting the figure stepping through it.  It took Sam’s eyes a moment to adjust, and when they had she blinked in surprise.  “Actually, here’s my… condo-mate right now.”

Dane turned, his own surprise apparent.  He obviously hadn’t been expecting the likes of Josh, but then, neither had Sam.  She knew he was crazy busy at work and the Roadhouse wasn’t exactly his milieu.  Then she thought about all the possible reasons he would want to talk to her in person and the bottom dropped out of her stomach.

JOSH
spotted Sam at one of the back tables, noted the wary expression on her lovely face.  And as always, he was so taken with the sight of her that he almost missed the fact that she had company.  The man sitting across from her, expression startled, looked like he just stepped off the pages of the Harvard Review.  Dane Wilcox, no doubt. Josh had to admit that Chris was right.  He was the All-American frat boy.  The type voted most likely to succeed, who had the coolest car, and unerringly got the hottest girl.

And he was sitting awfully close to Sam.

Josh hated him on sight.

The man apparently held a similar opinion, because his eyes narrowed territorially as Josh approached. The sonofabitch.  And if what he had to talk about with Sam wasn’t so damn important, Josh might have enjoyed a little stand-off.  But unfortunately it was, so he left the horn-locking and leg-lifting to another time.

“Hey.” He countered the arctic breeze coming off of the other man with a warm smile for Sam.  And when he dropped a kiss on top of her head, the breeze turned into a gale.  Dude was so not pleased by this turn of events.  Josh would nail his negligee-buying ass to the wall yet.  “Can I talk to you alone for a minute?  It’s important.”

“UM
, sure.”  Sam was a little startled by that kiss.  And by the weird vibe he was putting off.  Like he was trying to give Dane the impression they were…

No.  That was ridiculous.  And if he were doing anything of the sort it was only because he still had some kind of suspicions about Dane, which was patently ridiculous also.  Like
one of the most eligible bachelors in the entire southeast would have even the slightest interest in her.  “Uh, Josh Harding this is Dane Wilcox.  Dane, this is the friend I was telling you about.”

“Mr. Harding,” Dane said coolly, extending his elegant hand. 

“Detective,” Josh corrected, squelching a smile at the trepidation that flashed in Wilcox’s eyes.  The man had something to hide, no doubt about it.  Josh couldn’t wait to rout it out.  They shook briefly, each squeezing harder than strictly necessary, a miniature pissing-contest neither could resist. 

They eyed each other with contempt.

“Well… Detective, I’ll leave you to your important conversation.”  He rose from the chair and offered it begrudgingly to Josh, drawing himself up to emphasize his superior height.  Josh resisted the urge to break the chair and brain him with one of the legs.  Then the bastard turned a mega-watt smile on Sam.  “Sam, darling, I’ll be in my office in case you need me.”

Josh
watched with narrowed eyes as the man walked away, nearly snarled over the endearment. 
Darling,
huh?  They’d just see about that.

“Are you okay?”
Sam asked Josh worriedly as he took the other man’s abandoned seat.

Whatever
amusement Josh had gleaned from jockeying for position with Wilcox faded immediately as he looked at Sam.  There was both good and bad news to deliver, and he knew it would hit close to home.  He leaned forward, grasped her hands.  “We found Karen.” He squeezed the fingers which had gone bloodless beneath his own.  “Alive, Sam.  We found her alive. And she’s going to be okay.”

“Thank God.  Oh, thank God. What happened?  Is she sick?”

“Among other things,” he admitted wearily, picturing her battered body in the ICU.  “I’m afraid she was abducted.”

Sam’s hand jerked beneath his.  “Was it… the rapist?  The one you’ve been talking about?”

“It looks that way.  There’s some solid evidence leading us in that direction, but the case is far from closed.  There are a few discrepancies that still need to be checked out.”  Like the fact that Karen couldn’t remember a tattoo.  The other victims had described it as being located on their attacker’s forearm, a spot that was highly visible.  Karen had worked with Tony Salinas for months and was certain that she’d never seen it.  Unless he covered it, or it was a decal of some sort that he’d applied when he’d attacked the other women. “I can’t go into too many details because it would be a breach of her privacy for me to do so, but things could have been a lot worse.  A whole hell of a lot worse.”

She squeezed her eyes shut briefly.  “Could she describe him?” 

“She went one better than a description.  She told us the bastard’s name.  He was an orderly she worked with at the hospital.”

“Oh!” Sam exclaimed, leaning toward him across the table.  “I bet I know who it is.  The one who was giving her problems. The jerk I caught twisting Donnie’s arm.”

“Someone twisted Donnie’s arm?”

“Yeah.  Donnie was thrashing around on the bed, and this guy was a whole lot rougher than he needed to be in restraining him.  Like he was actually trying to hurt him.  I told him to back off.”

“When was this?”

“The night Donnie had the seizure I told you about.  When was that?  Two or three days ago?”

“The night after Karen turned up missing.”

“That’s right.”  Sam extricated one of her hands and brought worried fingers to her temples.  “She told me about him, Josh, just a couple of days before that.  She didn’t like him and didn’t seem to trust him to do his job.  She mentioned that she’d checked his references.  Oh, God.  Poor Karen.”

Josh squeezed the remaining hand in his own.  “Do you happen to know if she ever went to her superiors about him, maybe lodged any kind of complaint?”

  “I don’t know,” she told him shakily.  “Do you think he went after her for some kind of revenge?”

“I’m not sure. I’m just trying to fit all the pieces together.  Like I said, there are a few discrepancies.  And just to be sure we’re talking about the same man, do you happen to remember his name?” 

Sam rolled her head back on tense shoulders.  “I think Karen may have mentioned it, but…” she looked back at him and grimaced, “I’m sorry.  I just wasn’t paying enough attention.  That was the night that Donnie spoke, and I’m afraid everything else seemed insignificant.”

“That’s okay. One of the detectives handling the case can ask Karen about it.”  Josh would also have to tell them to ask Karen if there had been any type of indication that Salinas may have been abusing incapacitated patients.  That type of behavior was more typical of a sadist, and from what Karen had told him about her own ordeal, it certainly seemed to fit.  The attacks on the other women, however… well, like he’d told Sam, there were definitely some inconsistencies in behavior.

“So did you catch him then?” Sam inquired, interrupting his musings.  “Is he in custody?”

“Well, that’s another interesting situation.  The townhouse he was renting burned this morning, and it’s possible he went with it.”

“Burned?  So he’s dead?”

“The verdict’s still out on that one,” he told her. And couldn’t resist brushing his thumb in a small circle against her palm.  “The detectives working the case are trying to run down some dental records to make a positive ID, because the remains found in the unit were burned beyond recognition.  If worse comes to worst, I may have to do a reconstruction, because all of the viable DNA comparisons burned in the fire. Unless he kept a comb or a toothbrush at the hospital.  But anyway, until then, I’m not accepting anything at face value.  I still want you to be cautious.”

“So do you think this guy is responsible for the break-in?  Or sending me the negligee?”

“Negligee, no way.  It just doesn’t fit this guy’s profile.  He wouldn’t care enough to want to attempt to entice you.  But the verdict is also still out on the break-in. It could be a retaliatory thing.  Did you happen to have any confrontations with this guy other than the other night?”

“Honestly, I don’t remember even seeing him before then.  Certainly no confrontations.”

“Okay.”  Josh blew out a breath. 

“Is Karen at MUSC?  I’d really like to stop by and see her.”

“I think that would be a great idea, but she’s over at East Cooper Regional and won’t be allowed visitors until tomorrow.  She’s in ICU right now.”

“ICU,” Sam said weakly.  “Oh my God.”

He squeezed her fingers again.  “Mostly, it’s because she caught that flu or whatever was going around right about the time she was abducted and then spent several nights… somewhat exposed to the elements.” Locked in the bathroom of an unheated building, which she unfortunately couldn’t really describe to them because she’d been unconscious when she’d been brought there.  “And if it’s any consolation, I told her you were taking great care of Snickers.  That alone seemed to help her improve.”

“It would.” Her smile was watery.  “She’s crazy about that stupid dog.”

“You said it, not me.”

Sam laughed a little, and Josh felt his heart swell.  “Look, I have to get going.  I’ve got that rehearsal dinner tonight.”  And he’d agonized over whether or not to invite Sam, but thought she’d be too uncomfortable under the circumstances.  “Just do me a favor and keep your eyes open, okay?  Just because the man who attacked your friend may be dead doesn’t mean that your situation is all well and good.  There’s still the chance that whoever sent you the negligee,” Dane Wilcox, the rat bastard “is also the perp who trashed your apartment.  It may not have anything whatsoever to do with what happened to Karen, but I’m still not discounting the possibility of a stalker.”    

“Got it,” she assured him.  “I promise I’ll be careful.”

“Good. You going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Alright then.”  He stood up and pushed in his chair.  “I don’t know how long this thing is going to go, so I may not see you until tomorrow.”

“Have a good time,” she prompted.

“I’ll try.”  He smiled down into her face.  “Turn the alarm on when you get home.”

SAM
watched him go, returning his wave as he pushed through the door, the afternoon sun sparkling in his eyes.  He looked so handsome and genuine and well, perfect that she forgot where she was for a moment.  She wanted him, wanted that.  Wanted that feeling of inexorable rightness whenever they happened to be in the same room. 

The hand falling lightly upon her shoulder made her jump in surprise.

“Are you okay?” Dane asked from above her.  Way, way above her.  Josh was crazy if he thought anything else.

“I’ll be fine,” she offered a smile, returned her focus to the beer nuts.  “Just some bad news about a friend.”  And the fact that she wanted to rail at whatever whim of fate that made her fall in love with the perfectly wrong man.

“I’m here for you, if you need to talk.”

Sam looked up at Dane’s handsome face, surprised by the fact that it appeared earnest.  The only thing Dane had ever seemed earnest about before was having a good time.  But he and Donnie had somehow gotten along really well despite their myriad differences, so he couldn’t be all that bad.  Maybe he really did see her as a friend.

“Thanks, Dane.”  She touched his hand briefly before turning around.  Considering him, Josh and Justin her collection of male friends was now truly impressive.  Three gorgeous, intelligent and classy males who had absolutely no interest in her sexually.  It was quite a step in the right direction.

She thought of Josh, and how beautiful he’d looked silhouetted in the doorway.

Too bad the right direction evidently sucked.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THERE
were two dozen roses in front of his door when Josh returned home that night.  He blinked, unable to reconcile himself to their presence, then bent down to retrieve the small white envelope nestled amongst the fuchsia blooms.  Josh figured they were probably meant for one of his neighbors and had been delivered to his condo by mistake.

He opened the envelope, drew out the card.

SAMANTHA MARTIN

White hot fury set his blood to boiling, followed closely by the icy grip of fear.  Drawing the small pistol out of the holster on his ankle, he kicked the vase of flowers to the side.  They spilled over, water rushing out to darken the carpet as Josh fitted his key in the lock.  Sam’s name emerged as a desperate shout as he pushed through his front door.