hoped she hadn’t gasped aloud. This was like watching one of Dee’s soap operas. It was super embarrassing to see but fascinating at the same time. “I really should go,” she said, backing toward the doorway.
“No,” Daniel barked. “It’s not mine and she knows it.”
The weeping waned. “But you love me. You said so. We can get married like you wanted. I’ll make you happy, darling. I promise I will.”
“Out!” he shouted, pointing to the exit. “Now.”
Hands covering her mouth, sobs shaking her shoulders, Letty ran into the hallway.
“Shut the door,” he ordered Kaitlin, then added a softer, “please?”
She tried a smile. “Well, since you asked politely...”
“I’m sorry you had to hear that. Letty broke up with me months ago and I thought all the fighting was over.”
“She seems sorry now.”
“Yeah.” He raked his fingers through his wavy dark hair and shook his head. “She didn’t get what she’d bargained for.”
“The other guy ditched her?”
“No,” Daniel said soberly, sadly. “Levi was murdered.”
“Whoa! That’s terrible.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his leg through the blankets as if that would hurry the healing. “The police think the bullet that killed him was meant for me.”
Speechless, Kaitlin stared. Daniel’s gaze captured hers and held it. The suffering she saw in his expression was unmistakable. There were so many things she wanted to ask that she didn’t know where to begin. One fact was evident. He had been using an alias for a good reason.
“You were in hiding here in Paradise?”
“Yes. My chief sent me to that old homestead in the hopes my department could break up the gang that was out to get me.”
“There’s really somebody after you? You’re sure?”
“Unless this was a hunting accident, the way your sheriff assumes,” he said with a gesture at his bandaged thigh. “I’m not done for, so I’m not positive. Hit men usually have better aim.”
“Terrific. It’s nice to know they take such pride in their work.”
Shock was quickly replaced by his laugh. “You’re something else, Ms. North. You know that?”
“Call me Kaitlin,” she said. “We saved each other’s lives. We should be on a first-name basis.”
“Agreed.”
“So, Daniel, suppose you fill me in?”
“You already know too much. It’s better if I don’t reveal more.”
“Better for who?”
“For you. Letty’s coming here is bad enough. She could have been followed.”
“What did Sheriff Caruthers say when you told him you’d been attacked?”
“He figured a careless hunter shot me and I didn’t argue.” Daniel waved a hand as if cleaning a dry-erase board. “I don’t trust anybody. Okay? It’s not that I think your sheriff is crooked, it’s just that I can’t be certain who he might talk to.”
Scowling, she reminded him, “He knows your real name. It’s on the chart. There’s a good chance he’s already contacted law enforcement because your girlfriend showed up. Where have you been working?”
“Still in St. Louis. I don’t have anybody special there but I did have friends. And a partner I trusted until he moved in with Letty and paid the ultimate price.” He paused, rubbing his leg and wincing. “That’s why I have to get out of here ASAP.”
“Impossible. You shouldn’t be moved, let alone stand.”
“Yeah, well, that can’t be helped.”
“And here I was thinking you were intelligent. You have no proof your real identity has been shared with the bad guys. That woman, Ms. Montoya, didn’t seem like the kind who would purposely out you. After all, you’re no good to her and her baby if you’re on the root side of the lawn.”
“I do not intend to marry her, or anybody else. I should have realized that my job is too dangerous to take the chance of jeopardizing a wife, let alone kids.”
Kaitlin was about to agree with him when Letty burst through the door. Her eyes were wild, her face flushed.
She pushed Kaitlin aside and lunged at the bed, grasping Daniel’s arm and shaking him. “We have to go. Now. They’re here! I saw them.”
It took Kaitlin several seconds longer than Daniel to react, but once she’d made up her mind he saw decisiveness fill her expression.
Grabbing Letty’s arm she wrenched it away, insinuating herself between the patient and his ex. “Leave him alone. He shouldn’t be moved.”
Letty reached out. “He’d better be.”
Daniel understood his ex’s sense of dread because he shared it. Until they knew who had shot Levi and killed him, anyone could turn out to be the enemy. Kaitlin, however, seemed fearless. That was not a plus. Not in this case.
He managed to slide off the bed and stand on his own. “I can handle myself. Get me my clothes.”
“You won’t want what you came in wearing,” Kaitlin said. “It’s a mess. It’s also probably been bagged as evidence. You were shot, you know.”
“I know the importance of that better than you do,” he told her. “These guys mean business. Letty’s right. I need to get out of here before they find me and other people get hurt, too.”
“And go where?” Kaitlin stood firm, hands fisted on her hips, feet apart in a no-nonsense pose. If Daniel hadn’t been filled with dread he might have laughed.
“Scrubs, then. Get me some of those.”
When neither woman moved, he shouted, “Scrubs!”
Instead of heading for the door to do his bidding, Kaitlin pointed at Letty. “Go down the hall, third door on the left. That’s a linen closet. You know his size better than I do.”
Surprised, Daniel scowled. He’d expected the EMT to fetch him something to wear. The fact that Letty obeyed, although reluctantly, was a surprise.
As soon as the door closed behind the other woman, Kaitlin threw her purse onto a chair, dashed to the closet and pulled down a clean, folded, hospital-green outfit. She thrust
