out and pitches a fit?”
“No problem. I’m already wearing a flak vest under my jacket.” He glanced toward the foyer, where Delvecchio was speaking to additional reporters. “Don’t I have to fill out paperwork?”
The direct answer was yes. Daniella chose to handle it another way in order to keep her distance from the news crews. “I can help you with those details while you hold your dog—I mean your partner.”
She helped him lie down and lifted his boots to rest on the narrow exam table. When she picked up a PDA and began poking its screen with a stylus, she wished her hands would stop shaking. “Your name, please?”
“Isaac Black. How long have you worked in ER?” he asked, frowning.
When his fascinating, dark gaze locked with her green eyes she could barely force herself to look away. “Seven years. Why?”
“Because you’re acting awfully nervous. You aren’t afraid of dogs, are you?”
“Don’t be silly. I love animals.”
“Then what’s wrong? If you had already examined my leg I’d think I was hurt worse than I’d imagined.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, Mr.—I mean Officer—Black.”
“May as well call me Isaac. It solves lots of problems.”
“Fine. Can you put the dog on a chair long enough for you to be treated?”
“Of course. If I’d been able to drive myself over here I’d have left her at headquarters. Unfortunately, I was overruled.”
“A wise decision,” Daniella said. She laid the tablet aside while her patient pointed to a chair and the beagle obediently jumped into it.
“I’m impressed,” she said. “My cat barely comes when I call him for supper.”
“Not surprising. Cats have devious minds.”
If he hadn’t been smiling at her, Daniella might have thought he was serious. “That’s debatable.”
The resulting twinkle in his dark eyes was so appealing she had to force herself to look away. He was taller than most of the men she knew, and far more muscular. His smile was amiable enough, yet there was an aura about him that made her think of danger. Either that or she was simply being influenced by the disquieting thoughts that had begun the moment she’d heard the news of an explosion.
Once she had recorded Isaac’s necessary preliminary information, she slit the leg of his uniform pants the rest of the way to his knee, folded back the fabric and carefully removed his boot.
“Well? How bad is it?” he asked.
“The doctor will make that assessment when he gets here.”
“Let me put it this way.” Isaac reached for her wrist and clasped it, gently but firmly, sending another shiver zinging up her spine. “If I just bandage it up and go back to work, will I be sorry?”
“I would certainly think so.”
He heaved a telling sigh. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“You got hurt at the monument, like the others, right?”
“Right. Abby and I were there to do a safety inspection of the area. She couldn’t have missed detecting the bomb. It had to be placed there after we made our sweep. There’s no other possible explanation.”
Her brain absorbed very little more after he said bomb. That word had been a trigger for a surge of negative emotions for many years, and this instance was no different. Latent fear gripped her heart, stilled her movements and turned her fingers to stone. It wasn’t until she felt his warm touch on her forearm that she snapped out of it. Sort of.
“You okay?” The dark, dancing eyes had narrowed and he was studying her as if she were a specimen under a microscope.
“I’m fine.”
“You keep telling me that but every now and then I see something else.”
“Must be your imagination,” Daniella assured him.
The expression on the police officer’s face was clear. He didn’t believe her. And little wonder since she was anything but fine. Matter of fact, at this moment, all she wanted to do was run out the door, disappear into the night, leave everything behind and never look back.
Isaac had been visited by a physician and was sporting twenty-three stitches by the time his boss, Captain Gavin McCord, arrived at the hospital and began berating him.
“You broke at least two rules tonight. You should have cleared that area the instant your dog alerted and waited for an ambulance instead of hitching a ride,” McCord said with a scowl. “Care to tell me what happened?”
“I did clear it. The problem wasn’t because of me or Abby.” Isaac had been enjoying the pretty nurse’s company as she’d begun to bandage his calf and he smiled in her direction.
McCord eyed her, too. “Could you finish that later? I’d like to talk to my team member privately.”
“Of course.” She stripped off her latex gloves.
In spite of her quick, compliant reply, Isaac could tell she was hesitant to leave him. Why? They hardly knew each other.
Given no personal background on her he was in the dark, but if he’d had to guess he’d have concluded that she was either normally high-strung or suffering from serious guilt. He hoped it was not the latter.
Isaac and his captain watched her edge away, then disappear through a gap in the curtains surrounding the exam area. Their eyes met.
“Was she that uptight when you got here, or have you done something to upset her?” Gavin asked.
“Hey, don’t look at me.” Isaac raised both hands. “If anything, she’s acting a little better than she did at first. Her jitters were so noticeable when I walked in, I asked her if she was new on the job.”
“And?”
“And, she said she wasn’t.”
“Curious. You’d think an experienced trauma nurse would have steadier nerves.” His brow knit. “I think I’ll run a background check on her, just in case.”
“She can’t have been responsible for the incident tonight. She was working here, right on schedule, when it went down.”
“That doesn’t mean some of her friends weren’t involved.” McCord studied Isaac’s leg. “You sure you guided Abby to every bench?”
“Yeah. The area was clean when we’d finished our sweep. She didn’t alert until after the press conference had started.”
“Okay. We’ll concentrate
