try anything funny while I’m gone. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
Daniel grabbed her wrist to stop her. “No. It’s too dangerous. That room is the first place they’ll search and Letty knows what you look like.”
“But the other guys don’t.”
As she was speaking she was reaching behind her neck. When Daniel saw her long, wavy, blond hair fall loose over her shoulders, his heart, which was already racing, made a little extra jump.
“What about your uniform? She’ll surely spot that.”
“No worries.” Kaitlin stripped off the light blue tailored shirt that bore her first name and the ambulance company insignia and handed it to him. Underneath she wore a plain, sleeveless tank top that matched the navy of her plain slacks. Spreading her arms she twirled for him, obviously pleased with herself. “See?”
“Be careful.”
“I will. Wait right there.” She sobered and eyed him, head tilted. “Promise?”
“I promise. Just hurry.”
He watched her for as long as he could, then hunkered down in the chair. Kaitlin had to make it. She had to come back to him in one piece.
Sighing, he closed his eyes, tried to quiet his mind and prayed for exactly that.
* * *
The hospital corridors were fairly crowded since visiting hours had begun. Kaitlin checked her watch. Shift change was coming, too, and the new nurse on duty would surely notice that Daniel was missing and sound an alarm. She didn’t have much time left.
What she wanted to do was press her back to the wall and inch down the hall sideways. She didn’t, of course. That would definitely draw attention. Instead, she straightened her shoulders, pasted a passable smile on her face and stepped forward boldly. The rubber soles of her work boots on the polished floor kept her passage silent.
One more turn. Five more doors. Her pulse was thudding so loudly she was nearly deaf to sounds around her. She raised her hand and placed her palm on the door to the room Daniel had just vacated. Something stopped her. Voices? Yes! A woman was speaking. In seconds, Kaitlin deduced that Letty was on the phone.
“He’s gone, I tell you. I’m in his room and the bed’s empty.” The other woman sounded panicky. “No, I didn’t see where he went. He can’t have gotten far.”
In the hallway, Kaitlin held her breath. Tell me where they are right now and where they’re headed, she thought, adding, Please, God, as an unspoken prayer.
“All right. I’ll wait for you here,” Letty said, “but hurry.”
No! Kaitlin wanted to scream. If she hoped to rescue Daniel from these thugs she had to get to her purse and truck keys. And Letty was in the way. Now what? If she waited until the men arrived there was no way she’d be able to retrieve her purse. Suppose Letty discovered it? Stole it? Kept it? Then what? They’d have no resources that couldn’t be traced and little money for traveling.
There was only one thing to do—stage a blitz attack.
Life on the streets as a wild teen had been hazardous and difficult, but it had taught Kaitlin a few tricks. One, an unexpected assault usually worked better than a face-off. The main trouble with a physical confrontation was the conflict with her Christian faith.
“I’ll forgive Letty later,” Kaitlin vowed. “And ask her to forgive me.”
Right here, right now, her task was clear. She had a duty to perform and the tools with which to do it lay inside that hospital room.
Preparing to burst through the door, Kaitlin heard the clicking of Letty’s heels on the hard floor. She strained to listen. The sound was receding, then stopped. Could Daniel’s ex have spotted her purse? There was no time to waste.
Kaitlin pushed open the door. If it had squeaked Letty would have noticed but it moved on silent hinges. Letty was standing at the window, her back to Kaitlin, concentrating on her cell phone.
Unmoving, Kaitlin waited for just the right second to spring. She didn’t want to hurt anybody, not even this deceitful woman, yet she must act boldly and with force or fail Daniel. What good would all her prior efforts do if that happened?
Still facing the window, Letty spoke into her phone. “You won’t believe this. I see him! He’s...”
Kaitlin rushed her. Knocked the cell phone out of her hand and threw her onto the empty bed.
Letty fought back, kicking and scratching. Her false fingernails raked Kaitlin’s bare arms like a hawk’s talons as they rolled back and forth, grappling.
The pain actually helped. So did the fact that Kaitlin had been exercising to keep fit for her job. She was stronger, but the spitfire she was trying to subdue was quick.
They rolled to the edge of the bed. Kaitlin grabbed a pillow to try to buffer the blows. That threw Letty farther backward and they slipped off the bed in a tangle. Letty landed first, with a stunning whack to her head.
Kaitlin grabbed the smaller woman’s hands and bound them together with tubing from Daniel’s IV. That would do as long as Letty was groggy. There was no time or reason to do more.
Gasping, staggering, Kaitlin lunged for the chair where her purse had been. It was gone! She fell to her knees in despair—and spotted the leather handbag on the floor.
Letty’s discarded cell phone lay nearby. Kaitlin could hear a male voice shouting through it. “Stay there. We’re on the way.”
Rational thought insisted on immediate action despite the fatigue and pain from the fight. Pushing off the seat of the chair with her hands, Kaitlin straightened and grabbed the purse. She ran to the door. Two nurses in the hallway had stopped and were staring at her. That couldn’t be helped.
Swiveling, she looked both ways and noted movement to her left. Whoever was headed her way was not wearing white or hospital green. That was enough for her.
Kaitlin went right, clutching her purse to her chest and breaking into a run. She heard a ruckus behind her. Knew the thugs must have discovered Letty.
The final turn was right there. As she whipped around it she chanced a look back. One surly-looking man was at the far end of the corridor, zeroed in on her as if he were a hungry lion and she a helpless gazelle.
Well, she was not about to become anyone’s victim. And she certainly wasn’t going to let the man who had saved her from the streets be harmed. Not while she had one spark of life left.
Kaitlin plunged her hand into the gaping open top of the purse as she exited the hospital at a run. “Keys! Keys. C’mon, where are the keys?”
Her fingers probed the recesses. She’d switched to a key ring with a furry fob for this very purpose, to be able to locate her elusive keys no matter what. So where were they?
For an instant she wondered if they might have fallen out onto the floor when she and Letty grappled. That notion stuck in her throat like a dry cotton ball until she finally touched something soft and fuzzy. That was it!
Almost
