A Time To Protect. Lois Richer

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СКАЧАТЬ kidding. What did she hit you up for?”

      “Nothing, really.” Chloe wished she hadn’t said a word.

      “Tell the truth. I can take it.” He raised one eyebrow meaningfully. “I know my mother is like a steamroller. You won’t hurt my feelings.”

      Chloe took one look at his face and knew he’d pry it out of her somehow.

      “The blood drive last spring,” she told him. “She needed someone to put up posters. She was rather…emphatic that I help out. I came home after work to find two hundred posters on my porch, with very explicit directions.”

      “That’s my mom.” He nodded, then shrugged. “I can’t cure her, so I just love her. Be glad she didn’t find out you have kids.”

      “Why?” Chloe swallowed the last of her sandwich and sipped her chocolate milk. “Doesn’t she like them?”

      “Oh, yeah, she likes them just fine. But she likes their toys a lot more.” He shook his head at her puzzled frown. “Never mind. It would take too long to explain my mother. Anyway I wanted to ask you about the mayor.”

      “I already told you—”

      He held up one hand. “I got the official line. I’m not after that.”

      “Then what?” She finished the rest of her lunch, rose and carried the tray and contents to the nearest garbage. She had ten minutes more but decided not to linger. That would only mean answering more of his questions and she didn’t like to tell strangers anything. She’d learned not to trust long ago.

      “Mrs. Tanner?” Brendan Montgomery followed her to the elevator.

      “It’s Chloe. I don’t have any more information about the mayor than his medical condition. And I told you about that.”

      “Anyone visit him?”

      The lurch of the elevator sent them upwards. Chloe thought a moment.

      “His wife and children. And a cousin or something from Europe. They left around nine-thirty to go home for a rest, but I’m sure they’ll be back tomorrow morning. There’s nothing they can do while he’s unconscious and with the surgery he’s just had…” She let it trail away.

      “Yes, of course. I knew about Lidia and her family.” He matched his pace to hers. “Anyone else?”

      “No—oh, yes. The deputy mayor. Mr. Frost, isn’t it? He was here for a while, but he just stood on the sidelines. Never spoke to Mrs. Vance, either, except to offer his regrets. At least, that’s all I heard.”

      “So no one else stopped by?” He sounded disappointed.

      Chloe didn’t understand what more he wanted. She was a nurse. She was paid to care for the patients, not to ask the names of whoever stopped by.

      “It’s a restricted area,” she told him again. “The general public isn’t allowed up here.” The elevator doors opened. She stepped out, stopped. “Look!” She pointed at a small figure in jeans and a flannel shirt standing in the door of the mayor’s room. The police guard was missing.

      “You know I did see someone with a shirt like that earlier. I just can’t remember—hey!” The figure stepped into the room. “What are you doing? She’s not supposed to go in there,” she told Brendan over one shoulder.

      Chloe raced down the hall, mentally preparing to take on the intruder to protect her patient while realizing that somewhere along the way she’d accepted Brendan’s unvoiced suspicion that someone who wasn’t supposed to be here would visit the mayor.

      The question was—why did the FBI think that?

      Chapter Two

      Chloe Tanner sprinted like a greyhound at the track, long legs eating up the distance down the gleaming hallway tile with effortless ease.

      Brendan followed, his gaze fixed on the nurse as she closed in on the interloper. When she spun the person around he almost choked. “Colleen?”

      “You know this person?”

      Chloe had released her hold, yet Brendan knew that Colleen didn’t have a chance of evading the nurse. He’d already made a mental note that Chloe’s reaction times signaled some kind of martial arts training. Earlier she’d taken him down without blinking and he didn’t cave easily. So she was well-trained—black belt probably.

      Some women carried pepper spray or even a gun for protection. Some learned basic methods of self-defense. But Chloe’s quickness, the speed with which she reacted, signaled more than routine training. Had Madison mentioned her mother’s dedication to some sport?

      His mind clicked into the familiar police mode and Brendan found himself wondering about the ex-husband. Maybe Chloe had to defend herself and her children against him. A burst of gall in his stomach told him how much he hated that thought.

      “Do you know her?” Chloe repeated, her voice threaded with steel.

      “I know her. She’s my cousin and a reporter for the Colorado Springs Sentinel.” Brendan turned his attention back to the feisty blond cousin he’d never been able to keep in check all through their wild and wooly childhood. “What are you doing here, Colleen?”

      “Reporting on the mayor’s shooting, of course. It’s what I do, remember, Bren?” Colleen’s blue eyes dared him to comment on her job.

      “Well, what I do is look after the patients,” the nurse explained, her voice soft enough not to disturb any patient, but firm enough to make it clear she meant business. “When they are in this hospital there is a certain expectation of privacy which we try to provide for our patients. In this particular ward there are restrictions which are clearly posted. We do not allow reporters to wander into Intensive Care with tape recorders to talk to our patients. Even if they could speak.”

      Brendan felt his jaw drop as Chloe slid the recorder out of Colleen’s hands, removed the tape and handed it back.

      “You can’t do that! I had some other stuff on there—”

      “I’m very sorry, Miss Montgomery, but I’m just doing my job.”

      Brendan couldn’t detect a hint of remorse on Chloe Tanner’s gorgeous face. Her eyes—wide open, guileless and blue—stared back at his cousin, the thick lashes a perfect frame for those giant irises. Even with that gorgeous mane of shimmering auburn scraped back off her face, Chloe Tanner was a beautiful woman. In fact, her hairstyle only emphasized the clear alabaster tone of her skin and offered an enchanting view of her haunting cheekbones and full lips.

      “You will have to leave now, Miss Montgomery. You do not have a visitor’s pass and you are not permitted to be here.” Chloe stood in the doorway of the mayor’s room, slim, defiant, the blue of her eyes a different tone than Colleen’s lighter ones, but every bit as determined.

      Brendan braced himself for the argument his cousin would mount, then realized something was wrong. “Just a minute, Colleen. There’s supposed to be a guard here.”

      “Oh, Sid was all doubled over when I came. СКАЧАТЬ