a black T-shirt, jacket and a baseball cap so I couldn’t see if his long hair was pulled back, but everything about him fit what I remember.”
Her lower lip quivered when her gaze met Kyle’s. “What am I going to do? I want to be brave for Angie’s sake but the thought of facing that man makes me sick to my stomach. She must be in terrible shape to take the chance of sending for me.”
Take the chance? The more he learned, the less he liked it. “Why were you and your sister estranged?”
“It’s complicated. We don’t have time for the whole story.”
“Okay, fill me in later. Right now, the important thing is your reunion. Obviously, she wants to make peace or she wouldn’t have asked for you. So, make the best of it.”
The shiny metal doors slid open on their floor. Rachel stepped into the hallway, looked around and froze.
Kyle placed his hand lightly at her waist. “You can do this. Come on. ICU is this way.”
She didn’t move. “What if...? What if I was right and I did see Peter? He can be violent and he could be right behind us.”
“If he is, I’ll take care of him.”
“You’ll watch my back?”
“Of course. When you and your sister want privacy, just say the word and I’ll step outside.”
“Outside the room, maybe. Not outside the hospital. Not that far away. Promise?”
“I promise,” Kyle said, frowning.
Rachel blinked back tears. “I wish we had brought Stryker or another K-9 for self-defense. Peter VanHoven is more than Angela’s significant other. He’s also a sadist with a hair-trigger temper. I’m positive he’s the reason she’s in intensive care. If he is around here we won’t want to cross his path.”
“You’re that scared of him?”
“Let’s just say I’ve experienced Peter’s foul moods firsthand. And I have the scars to prove it.”
“I’ll stick close.” Kyle had already been entertaining an urge to protect and shelter her. Now, it blossomed. It had been a long time since he’d allowed himself to feel proprietary toward any woman, let alone a beautiful one. Why had he failed to notice how truly attractive this vet tech was before?
Kyle’s cheeks flamed. That kind of thinking made him decidedly uncomfortable. Rachel Fielding had always acted as if she was just as determined as he was to remain unattached. That constant standoffishness had puzzled him from time to time, but he hadn’t questioned her because he was comfortable with it. Now that he’d seen how afraid she was to face her sister’s boyfriend, her attitude was beginning to make perfect sense. The man had physically and emotionally injured Rachel in the past and now her poor sister was hurt, too. That was totally unacceptable.
Confounded by his innermost thoughts, Kyle clenched his fists as they made their way down the hallway. A part of him was wishing they would run into this Peter guy so he could tell him off—or more. It wasn’t an exemplary Christian attitude, but it certainly was human.
On alert, Kyle stood taller and braced himself to repel the unknown. No low-life abuser was going to get his hands on Rachel without going through him first.
Keeping watch behind and to the sides, Rachel let Kyle request admittance to the sealed-off ward via the intercom. Automatic doors swished open and her senses were assailed by pungent medicinal smells, beeping machines and an atmosphere so hushed, so heavy, it seemed tangible. If she had not yearned so strongly to be reunited with Angela, she would have turned and fled.
Up ahead, a woman wearing a mask, gloves and a long-sleeved disposable smock gestured to them and pointed. “Ms. Fielding is in the last bed in this row. Behind that curtain. We don’t usually allow more than one visitor at a time and a neighbor brought her daughter to see her, but under these circumstances you can go ahead, too.”
The extra strength Rachel needed came from the man beside her. She took a deep breath, steeled herself for what she might see and started forward. Off on her left and right, other patients were clearly struggling to survive. Most were elderly, but not all. Angela was barely thirty. This was so unfair.
As they drew closer, Rachel could hear a woman speaking to a child behind the partially drawn curtain next to Angela’s bed. When Rachel reached out and pulled it aside with a trembling hand, the sight of her sister’s swollen, bruised face and emaciated arms made her gasp. Tears immediately blurred her vision. She rushed forward as an older woman carrying a little girl backed away to make room.
“You came,” Angela whispered.
“Of course I did.”
“I was afraid you might not.”
Previously unshed tears began to slide silently down Rachel’s cheeks and she noted that her sister was also weeping. What could she do or say to help? Fond memories made her revert to a long-unused quip. “I had to see my favorite sister.”
To Rachel’s delight, the comment brought a slight smile to the badly beaten face. “I’m your only sister.”
“Picky, picky.” Rachel’s hands were clasping Angela’s on the side of the bed opposite the IV, and she could feel bones inside the painfully thin fingers. Beeping from a nearby machine increased in frequency, and she realized she was hearing her sister’s racing pulse.
Slowly, tenderly, Rachel reached to smooth Angela’s damp hair off her forehead. “Take it easy, sis. You need to rest so you can get better and take care of your daughter. This pretty little girl must be Natalie.”
“Yes. Natalie, this is your aunt Rachel. Maria Alvarez is my neighbor. She’s the one who called the police when I couldn’t.”
Not only did Angela’s weeping continue, she looked past Rachel and the others to focus on Kyle. “You’re her friend?”
“Kyle Roark. We work together,” he said.
“But you are friends, too?” She kept struggling to control her emotions enough to speak.
Rachel answered for him. “Yes. Kyle and I are friends. He drove me here.”
“He’ll stay?”
That question made Rachel stiffen and peer behind her. “I thought I saw Peter downstairs. Is he...?”
Attempting to shake her head, Angela winced in pain. “He’s in jail. The police arrested him for doing this to me.”
“Thank God for answered prayers,” Rachel confessed. “He’s the last person I want to run into. Ever.”
“That makes two of us,” her older sister admitted, sniffling and struggling to go on. “I’m so sorry, sis. I should have listened to you and left him years ago.”
“That’s all in the past.” Rachel stroked Angela’s forehead
