Gina's Private Police Force [Men of Montana 3] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) (24 page)

Stepping out of the stairwell, he found Doc Anderson pacing in the lobby. When the man noticed him, he rushed over to him. “Anything?”

Shaking his head in disappointment, Connor answered, “No. He got away but not before he pushed the security guard down and broke his arm.”

The older man shook his head in return. “And to think I was planning on retiring soon. As long as you guys keep attracting these maniacs to our area, I’m not going to be able to.”

Reaching out and slapping the doctor on his arm, Connor chuckled. “You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if you retired. You’d be too bored.”

The doctor chuckled himself before they both headed toward Gina’s room. “True,” Doc Anderson replied. “Very true.”

Entering the room, both men faced Jared, who stood with weapon drawn, and Patti was helping Gina get dressed. Sighing in relief, Jared holstered his Glock into the back of his jeans.

As Connor glanced at a frightened Gina, Jared knew better than to ask any questions, although he knew whatever his boss had seen didn’t pan out.

“We need to get her back to the ranch,” Connor said as calmly as he could.

“How did he know where I was,” Gina’s frightened voice spoke up. “Patti said that he shouldn’t be able to find me here in the maternity ward.”

As if her words struck a memory deep within Connor, he turned on his heel and exited the door again. Out in the corridor, his determined steps led him to the nurse’s station where he found the person he was looking for on the phone.

Her back was too him so she didn’t hear or see him come up behind her, but he overheard her say, “I told you not to call me here. No. I don’t know anything but when the sheriff came back up he was furious. I’m sure you tipped your hand and they’ll be moving her soon.”

Connor cleared his throat, causing the nurse to jump. Spinning around, he came face-to-face with the same nurse that had been watching him earlier in the day. Slamming the phone down, she tried to turn away from him but he grabbed her arm, holding her in place.

“Who were you talking to?” he asked through gritted teeth.

Trying to play it cool, she smirked. “I can’t tell you. It’s confidential.”

Connor bared his teeth in an evil grin. “It’s not confidential when you are talking about me, which you were, nor is it confidential to me when you are feeding information to the man who hurt my fiancé. I could take you in for that. Now, would you like to talk to me, or go down to the jail?”

Gasps were audible throughout the nurse’s station at his declaration and as he glanced around, he found the other nurses busying themselves with work after providing the girl with an evil glance or two.

A quick glance toward the stairwell by the woman had Connor’s heartbeat racing again. In a way he wanted her to try to make a run for it, but then he was already tired from sleeping in a chair and then running after the mystery man.

To silently let her know he wasn’t going to let her go, he glanced at the doorway also and then back to her where he saw her shoulders drop in defeat. Pulling her along next to him, he practically dragged her back to Gina’s room. Pushing her in the door without any gentleness, the woman stumbled as she tried to gain her footing while Connor let the door close behind him and then leaned against the wooden structure.

Nervously the woman looked around the room. Going from first Gina then Jared, she shrank back a bit, but when her gaze landed upon the doctor and Patti, she began to back up toward Connor. When he cleared his throat, she stopped a few feet away from him. Turning to face him, her eyes pleaded for leniency, which he was unwilling to give.

Jared kicked the rolling stool over her way, the sliding noise the only one in the room briefly. When it came to a stop a couple of inches from her legs, Connor gestured with his head for her to sit. She did.

“What’s your name?” Connor asked tersely.

The woman glared at him for a few moments before he took a step toward her. He pulled the handcuffs off the back of his belt and held them in his hands, the chain clinking ominously in the quiet room. Quickly she tucked her hands in under her thighs.

“A…” she began, her voice quivering. Beginning again, she was able to reply, “Amanda, sir.”

The cuffs remained in his hands and he played with them, intentionally making the metal clink together, which kept Amanda’s attention where he wanted it. On him.

“Amanda, do you know the man you were talking to on the phone?”

Shrugging nonchalantly, she looked down at the floor.

Connor stepped to within a foot of a visibly shaking Amanda as she began to wring her hands together. Kneeling down in front of her, he laid the handcuffs on her knee, which caused her to sob.

“Now, Amanda. You know you are in a lot of trouble, right?”

Her blonde head nodded as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

“Then, wouldn’t it be better to cooperate here?” he asked shrugging in indifference although she didn’t see the action. “Or, if you wish, I can take you out of here, in cuffs, to my office and we can interrogate you there. Which do you want?”

“He approached me in the parking lot last night. It was dark. He told me that Mrs. Picard was his wife and she was cheating on him with you. He said you wouldn’t let her talk to him, so he wanted me to let him know when you left her alone,” she explained hastily, watching her hands move rhythmically. Then she looked up at the sheriff. “But I didn’t know he wanted to hurt her. Not until Patti told me after you ran after him.”

Connor sought to soothe as he placed his knee on Amanda’s knee but she jumped instead. “Why were you watching me so intently yesterday afternoon before you said this man contacted you?”

Shrugging again, Connor saw her face go crimson.

“You can talk freely here, Amanda,” Doc Anderson said coming forward and placing his hand on her shoulder. “These are friends of mine. You can trust them.”

Amanda turned to look up at the kind doctor whose eyes offered sympathy. Turning back to Connor, she pulled her shoulders back, sitting up a bit straighter. “I found you attractive, sir. I’ve seen you around a lot and thought you might be interested. Yesterday, when you didn’t even look at me, I got upset and when Mr. Picard called me, I felt…” Her voice faded out with her embarrassment.

Surprising everyone, Gina came over and knelt next to the stool and Amanda. Placing a hand on the blonde woman’s shoulder, Gina said softly, “It’s all right, Amanda. We aren’t blaming you. My husband is dead. He died in a fire.”

Amanda’s head whipped around to look at the woman beside her, panic in her voice. “But this man has scars on his face and hands, like he has been in a fire.”

Gina glanced up at Connor while Jared moved over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Fear crept into her eyes at the announcement. Whispering more to herself than anyone else, she exclaimed, “Oh, God…he’s not dead!”

Gina swayed but Jared’s strong hands kept her in place. Panic crept silently into her face as she began to shake. Kneeling behind her, Jared wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against him as he kissed along her shoulders to comfort her.

Connor reached over and placed his hand over hers. “It’s going to be okay, darlin’. We are going to get to the bottom of this.”

Panic laden though still in a whisper, Gina began to hyperventilate as she spoke. “He’s going to kill me. I know it. Just like that last night. I have to get away.”

Doc Anderson moved over to the anxiety-filled woman between her two men. “Gina, you have to listen to me. You need to calm down. You are going to make yourself sick.”

Her voice rose as she began to wail. “Oh, God! He’s found me! He’s going to kill me! He’s going to kill Nathan! I have to leave!”

Striking out at the arms that were trying to offer comfort, her nails drew blood from her men, the doctor, and even herself. She tried to stand but Jared kept her grounded as he tried to get control of her hands. Finally wrapping his arms around hers, he was able to deter more damage but in the melee, Patti had retrieved a syringe and handed it to Doc Anderson.

Accepting it, Doc Anderson raised the sleeve on Gina’s shirt a bit and stuck the needle in her arm. As the thin needle sank into her flesh and she realized what he had done, she let out a low, soul-hurting wail. “No!”

* * * *

Connor glanced up at a very frightened and confused Amanda. When her eyes met his, he saw her own tears. Whispering, she tried to tell him, “I don’t understand any of this, but I’m so sorry for all of it. I can’t believe I hurt someone I didn’t even know.”

Her own heart broke as she turned away, covered her face in her hands, and began to weep. “I am so, so sorry. I deserve to be hauled away.” After dealing with Gina’s hysterics and hearing Amanda repeat herself over and over again, Connor finally stood. Pulling Amanda up by her arms, he motioned with his chin for Patti to come help. Then he and the coherent nurse helped the younger nurse out of the room and into another.

They helped her into a chair and then Patti knelt beside her, smoothing her long blonde hair from her face. “Amanda, it’s all right,” she crooned, trying to soothe the upset woman. “It’s going to be fine. That’s why we had her hidden here, to protect her. Now you know and you can help us keep her safe.”

Amanda’s hysterics lessened a bit as she looked into Patti’s face. “They are going to hate me. Everyone is going to hate me now.”

Connor was pacing the room, trying to think of what to do. Obviously this man knew where Gina was staying, for he had gotten right in behind her on the road outside the ranch. He knew she was here at the hospital, probably because he knew they would take her to the local hospital. How were they going to protect her?

Patti’s soothing voice spoke up again. “No, Amanda. We aren’t going to hate you. You thought you were doing the right thing. Unfortunately, we all make mistakes sometimes when we think we are helping. We are going to get you past this, just like we will get Gina past this. But you need to cooperate with the sheriff here.”

Connor stopped pacing when Patti mentioned him. He knew what he wanted to do but wasn’t sure if it could be carried off. He watched Amanda stand slowly and start toward him, her crying now down to the occasional sniffle. Surprise engulfed him when she held out her hand to him and let the handcuffs dangle from her dainty fingers.

Raising a brow in confusion, Connor asked, “What’s this for?”

“I want to make this right. I deserve to go to jail for what I did. I just hope I can make it up to you somehow.”

Connor looked at Patti when she gasped at the young woman’s declaration. “I’m not taking you in. I know you were trying to help, and Gina will understand that in time, but right now, she is in a fragile place. We need to take care of her and get her someplace safe. Right now, I believe Patti will want to talk to you about your indiscretion.” Taking the cuffs from her and heading for the door, he said, “If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on my woman.”

A shiver ran through Amanda at the forceful and possessive way he referred to Gina as his woman. She knew that Jared was Gina’s man also. She wished she could just find one man to call her own, but so far, no one had asked her out since she started working here a month earlier after graduating nursing school in Bozeman. Stability and love is what she sought now that she had accomplished her goal of becoming a nurse, but now that she had screwed up, she didn’t even think she had the stability of a job.

Turning, she found Patti watching her intently. Surprise occurred when Patti linked her arm in hers and announced, “You remind me of me when I was your age. I thought I knew everything when I graduated nursing school, but it was life that threw me for a loop.”

“But this was really bad.”

“Oh, it’s bad,” Patti agreed. “But I’ve seen worse. Your heart was in the right place. That’s the important thing. Now in the future, you will know there are questions to ask to verify information, and apparently around here, a woman’s life is very valuable to the men who love her.”

“Sounds like a fantasy,” Amanda said numbly as she let Patti escort her out to the nurse’s station.

“I thought so, but I have found my prince. I’m sure yours will come soon enough.”

The other nurses all eyed Amanda after the altercation with the sheriff, but Patti patted her hand before helping her sit behind the desk before turning to address them. “Ladies, we have had a small incident where a man has impersonated a patient’s husband. I would like to not have this repeated in the future. You are to ask for ID and check with the patient to verify whether or not the person is really who they say they are. I know several of you are still new, but this also goes for those of you with more tenure. We need to all stay on our toes.”

Nodding their agreements, the nurses all agreed vocally before returning to their tasks. One of the older nurses, a woman with graying hair came over to Amanda and patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, dear. I’ve had my share of incidents. It may have been your first, but it won’t be your last. Just make sure you give the right baby to the right parent when they leave.”

The woman chuckled as Amanda gasped at the declaration. Dread streaked through her as she let her head fall forward, letting it land with a loud thud against an open patient file. “God, I am such an idiot,” she mumbled.