She stood, then reached out to grab his arm. “Whoa. The room spins when I move too fast.”
A flash of guilt assaulted him. Was he causing more harm than good by taking her out of here? Maybe he’d be better off asking for her to spend the night at the hospital so he could sit at her bedside, keeping an eye on her.
Then his eyes fell on the discarded mop. A tall man with thinning hair stood beside the mop, arguing with a middle-aged lady. There was still no sign of the man with the tanned skin, and the hairs on the back of his neck lifted in alarm.
No way did he believe the guy who’d been looming over Maddy was a hospital employee.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Noah asked. “I can probably convince Dr. Hawkins to admit you upstairs.”
Maddy looked puzzled. “Who?”
“The red-haired doctor.”
“You know her?” Maddy asked.
It was on the tip of his tongue to explain how she knew Dr. Hawkins, too, but he decided that would only make her feel bad. “Yeah, she’s married to a cop, a deputy from the sheriff’s department.”
“Oh, I see. No, I don’t want to stay here. I’d rather go home.” She frowned. “I must not have a purse or a phone, huh?”
“Unfortunately not. It appears the mugger took them.” He bent over to grab her long coat off the chair. “Here, let me help you with this.”
“Thank you.” Maddy slid her arms into the sleeves as he held the coat for her. “Your mother must have taught you manners.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t bother to elaborate since his mother had died a long time ago, and what was left of his family was scattered all over the globe. He and his siblings weren’t at all close. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his older brother. Three years? Four? Rose’s death six months after losing their mother to cancer had torn their family apart and, like the famous nursery rhyme, there hadn’t been a way to put the pieces back together again.
He knew the Callahan clan was a tight-knit family and he wondered again why Matt hadn’t returned his call. Should he start calling her other brothers? The only problem was that he didn’t know their numbers and obviously Maddy couldn’t help. Right now, she didn’t realize she had five brothers—Marc, Miles, Mitch, Mike and Matt—every one of them older than her.
Wrapping his arm around Maddy’s waist, he matched her slower pace as they made their way out of the emergency room. She stopped, looked surprised to see the Christmas tree in the lobby of the ER, as if she hadn’t known the holiday was near. When they were outside, he gestured to a squad car in the small parking lot across the street. “That’s our ride.”
“Okay.”
She ducked her head against the cold wind, walking alongside him down the sidewalk toward the parking lot. As they reached the road, a car came out of nowhere, heading straight toward them.
“Look out!” Noah grabbed Maddy around the waist and leaped out of the way, landing in a snowbank on the other side of the road. The car came close enough to clip the back of his legs, then careened from view.
Noah stared at the retreating taillights, knowing that he wasn’t imagining things. This was the second, maybe even the third, attempt on Maddy’s life—if you considered that the tanned guy who’d been in Maddy’s room wasn’t a hospital employee—all in the span of a few hours.
All these incidents were related, he was convinced, to the upcoming trial of Alexander Pietro. And the thought of Maddy being in danger, not to mention having lost her memory, gave him a desperate sense of urgency.
Right now, he was the only one who could keep her safe.
“Are you okay?” The cop—she searched her memory; Noah?—helped her upright, brushing snow off her pants and coat.
“I don’t understand. What’s going on?” In the second she thought the car would hit her, she’d found herself praying for safety. Was that something she did on a regular basis? Must be, and for some reason, knowing that slight bit of information, that she believed in God and prayed often, helped calm her frayed nerves.
Thankfully Noah had reacted with lightning-fast reflexes, or she was sure she’d have ended up back in the ER with worse injuries. The hammering in her skull was bad enough, and it hadn’t lessened one iota.
“You’re in danger,” Noah said in a grim tone. He put his arm around her waist, urging her toward the squad car. “I need to get you someplace safe.”
“Why?” She braced herself with a hand on the squad car when he released her long enough to open the passenger-side door. “You think the mugging and this close call are somehow related?”
“Yes. I’ll explain once we’re somewhere safe,” he said, his voice clipped.
She gingerly slid into the passenger seat. Noah shut the door, then came around to climb in behind the wheel. She latched the seat belt, then rested her head back against the cushion and closed her eyes, swallowing hard against the increased pain.
Noah didn’t break the silence, and she felt the car moving down the street. It wasn’t until he took several turns, heading away from the hospital, that she opened her eyes and grabbed his arm, seized by a sense of panic. “Wait! I—I don’t know where I live.”
He flashed a reassuring smile, gently covering her hand with his for a long moment before letting go. “Don’t worry, I do. You share a condo with a woman by the name of Gretchen Herald; she’s a flight attendant for Airstream Airlines.”
It seemed so wrong that this cop, this man, knew more about her than she did. Ignoring the pain in her head, she continued pressing him for information. “Tell me more, specifically why I’m in danger.”
“Okay.” His smile faded, his expression turning serious. “Maddy, you’re an attorney, working in the DA’s office.”
His statement should have brought forth a flood of memories, but didn’t. She stared at him, feeling stupid and not at all like a lawyer. “I am?”
“Yes. You have a big trial starting next week. A man by the name of Alexander Pietro is facing serious felony charges related to drug trafficking and gun running. Thanks to your impressive track record of winning guilty verdicts, you’re the lead prosecutor on his case.”
She stared at Noah’s profile, straining to remember. Did the name Alexander Pietro sound familiar? Yes, it did, but she couldn’t picture what he looked like. Was she remembering him from the case? Or because of something she’d heard about in the news?
Why couldn’t she remember?
The deep sense of urgency returned with a vengeance. There was something important she needed to do. But what? The pain in her head intensified as she struggled to push past the haze in her mind.
“Don’t, Maddy,” Noah said in a low voice, reaching over to take her hand
