Page 55 of Knife to the Heart
He caught it midair and crumpled the pages in his fists. “The whole idea of you being in a hospital bed is to rest, not work. Stop being a brat.”
“Then plug my computer in, or I swear I’ll grab Easton’s rifle and shoot you in the kneecap.”
Easton snickered from where he relaxed in a recliner by the window. “Help yourself, darlin’. It’s right behind me.”
“Thank you.” She looked at Cannon. “Now, tell me more about this boy who’s been kidnapped.”
“That’s not for you to worry about. Let me see the leg.” He checked her wound and covered her back up with the sheet. “It looks good.”
“I know. When can I go home?”
“Soon.” By that, he meant once Malgor was caught. If Rosalie’s theory about him hurting the people they cared about was true, the safest place for Julia was in his hospital.
He motioned for Easton to join him in the hall and gave a quick rundown of how he could help find Aidan.
“Great. We’ll start working on it right away. Julia needs something to do.”
“She needs to rest.”
“You know, you can leave her alone once in a while. Maybe convince Rosalie to get away with you and take a vacation.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You can use Daddy’s time-share in Hawaii.”
“No, I can’t. Remember what happened the last time I took a vacation?”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was.” A few months after his father had died, he’d taken off for the weekend with his friends.
“Trust me,” his mother had said when he’d repeatedly asked if she could handle Julia and the aftermath of her Friday chemo session. It had only been a few months since his father’s death and the breakdown that had left his mother emotionally paralyzed. How much progress could she have made since then?
Not enough, because she’d frozen when Julia had stopped breathing.
He clenched his fists against the memories. “My sister didn’t just almost die while I was having sex in a crappy motel room with some chick I barely knew. Shediddie.”
Easton shook his shoulder. “But she didn’tstaydead.”
“Only because luck brought Annie and her casserole over. If she hadn’t come by at the right time…” He raised a fist to the wall.
Easton stopped his punch. “I know you feel guilty about leaving Julia that night, and I swear on my rifle that nobody blames you for what happened except your stupid self, but you’ve got to stop treating Julia like she’s going to die tomorrow. She needs tolive, not just breathe.”
Cannon blinked at the truth in Easton’s words. Guilt settled in his gut, and not the kind he usually felt.
TWENTY-TWO
Rosalie opened the door to Cannon’s office and slid into the dim room. As she tiptoed past his prone form on the sofa bed, she yelped when he grabbed her thigh.
“Shouldn’t an FBI agent be stealthier in the dark?” He pulled her down on top of him.
She braced above him on her elbows. “I thought you were asleep. It’s almost twoa.m.”
“Not even close. Grady just left. We’ve been looking over maps of the town and have come up with a list of places where hiding a child recovering from surgery would be feasible. Easton and Julia have been making some calls to locals, asking if they’ve seen anything.”
She pressed her lips to his forehead. “I knew you were the right man for the job. How did your meetings go this afternoon?”
They’d only crossed paths briefly a few times today, but something had changed between them since she’d admitted she cared about him. His squeeze to her shoulder when he’d popped into the conference room at lunch for pizza. The chocolate-covered cherries he’d sent up from the gift shop. His deep sigh when he’d pulled her on top of him as if he’d been waiting for her and could finally breathe.
“All of my meetings sucked. The drug trial people want assurances that we can recover the data soon. The department heads are still stressed as all hell. And we’re still sending patients to Grand Pines, which terrifies me, considering what happened to Aidan.”
She relayed that a known associate of Malgor’s had been apprehended as a result of the IP address she’d found. “The suspect is unconscious from a head wound sustained during his attempted escape.”