Love Inspired Suspense May 2015 #2 (29 page)

Laura closed the door behind him and stepped back into the kitchen.

“Whoa!” Sydney exclaimed. “What's going on with you and Devaney?”

Laura looked from Sydney to her aunt. “Nothing.”

“Something,”
her aunt interjected. “Something romantic.”

Laura shook her head. She had no intention of telling them about the kiss she and Griffin had shared.

Sydney pushed away her coffee mug and leaned forward. “Oh, yes, something's going on. You can feel the electricity between you two.”

Laura hadn't thought it noticeable to anyone but her. “There might be a spark there.”

The agent chuckled. “That's like saying the Grand Canyon is big.”

“Oh, honey.” Joy beamed. “This is wonderful.”

“No, it's not.”

“Why not?” Joy and Sydney asked in unison.

She tried to keep her voice steady. “There's no future in it. I'm leaving in two days. We agreed to leave things alone.”

“
We
agreed?” Sydney asked. “That sounds like Devaney admitted he's interested. Y'all talked about it?”

Laura nodded.

The other woman's eyes widened and Joy's mouth dropped open in surprise.

“What's the deal?” Laura asked, slightly exasperated.

Sydney drummed her fingers on the table. “I've never seen Devaney like this.”

“Like what?”

“All soft and...gooey. Like he's interested in a woman.”

Didn't his coworker know that he'd once been engaged?

Joy fingered the handle of her mug. “Y'all have gotten close in the last day or two. Maybe shared some things with each other.”

He had, but Laura wasn't going to say a word about his last days as a SEAL or anything else.

“In the three years I've known him,” Sydney said, “this is the closest I've ever seen him come to a relationship.”

“Same here,” Laura's aunt said.

“We're not in a relationship.”

“Maybe not yet.” Joy's eyes lit up.

“Not ever.”

“Honey, if you get out of WitSec, it might be worth exploring.”

Sydney nodded. “He's a good man. Not a lot of those around.”

Laura would dearly love to ask Sydney about the tension between her and Alex, but she knew it wouldn't stop the woman asking questions.

“Getting out of the program is a big
if
. Even if Griffin can tie Vin to the attempts on my life and his, Vin's already proven he can get to me even if he's in prison.”

Her aunt's face fell and Laura felt a sharp stab of disappointment as she realized she really wouldn't have a future with Griffin or anyone else.

“Unless Vin is out of the picture permanently, my future is WitSec.” Certainly not with the former SEAL she feared she was developing feelings for.

“I want you to have a future with someone.” Tears welled in Joy's eyes. “Even if it isn't Griffin.”

“Maybe someday,” Laura said, although she didn't believe it.

She was a little unnerved at how quickly Joy and Sydney had determined there was something between Laura and Griffin, but she could see why they had.

There was an ease between them today that hadn't been there yesterday and she knew it was partly because of the story he'd shared with her in the barn.

She realized now that she had started to settle in with him. She couldn't let herself do that, couldn't let herself get caught up in what had happened between them yesterday, because in the end, it wouldn't change anything.

* * *

If she's got anything to do with the case you're working, I can see why you're so invested in it.

Ghost's words about Laura hammered at Griffin as he drove her to the clinic. Griffin didn't even try to deny it. She was the first woman since Emily to spark more than a passing interest, but it didn't matter.

He didn't want to start something he couldn't finish and he knew she didn't, either. Why did he have to fall for a woman who was walking out of his life just as quickly as she'd walked into it? He'd loved one woman who'd chosen to walk away and now he was interested in one whose only choice was to walk away. He wondered if that was what had Laura so distracted earlier in the kitchen. Or was it what he'd told her in the barn? He had spilled his guts, and surprisingly, he didn't feel strange about it. What he did feel was frustrated that he couldn't fix things so the woman could stay in Oklahoma City. So she could stay with him.

She'd talked about God sparing Griffin in Afghanistan. Could that really be true? Did God care enough about him to be active in his life? To intervene in bad situations? To send Laura into his path? If so, she wouldn't be leaving, would she?

What had she said?
The only person I've ever known with a love like that is God. Besides giving His Son's life for you, He gave you three friends willing to do the same.

Griffin had certainly never thought about it that way.

Strangely, he felt more settled inside than he had since he'd lost Ace, Davy and J.J. As if there was some kind of resolution. Griffin wondered if it was possible to turn over some of the guilt to God.

He had to stop thinking about all this. He couldn't afford to split his focus right now. Some solid information from the pastor would help. What he needed was a lead or piece of evidence that directly linked Arrico to these latest murder attempts, but even if Griffin managed to do that, it would only extend Arrico's sentence. That wasn't enough to keep Laura out of WitSec and it had Griffin grinding his teeth.

He took the Kilpatrick Turnpike to southbound Lake Hefner Parkway. After exiting on Fiftieth Street, he drove west to Portland Avenue. The clinic was located at one end of a string of businesses.

The companies were a collection of individual buildings. With their Tudor facades and stone exteriors, they looked more like houses.

Griffin chose a parking space available in the front. He came around to open Laura's door and hurried her inside out of the cold. They stepped into a waiting area done in calming blues and creams. The receptionist motioned them over when she spotted them. They walked through the door that separated the front desk and exam rooms from the waiting area.

The halls were carpeted with the same commercial-grade carpet as the entrance of the facility, while the exam room floors were a shiny linoleum.

Mary Jo Brooks, the plump silver-haired nurse who had given Laura her previous injections, met them halfway down the hall. Already dressed in a paper gown and shoe covers, she had a mask hung around her neck. On their first day, she had explained the staff wore shoe covers because their hall floors were carpeted and couldn't be sterilized daily like the linoleum surfaces.

The nurse wore her usual broad smile. “Laura, Griffin, how are you today?”

“Just fine.” Laura smiled.

Griffin really liked the older woman. Her perky personality and no-nonsense way reminded him of his third-grade teacher.

Nurse Brooks led them down the hall. “We'll use the back exam room today.”

Passing several closed doors, they followed her to the last room on the right.

“Busy today?” Griffin asked.

“Yes.” The woman showed Laura into the room, telling Griffin that a mask, gown and shoe covers had been provided if he wanted to go in with the patient.

He decided it would be better to monitor things out here. “Thanks. I'll just wait in the hall.”

“All right.” The nurse indicated the exam table next to the wall where Laura should wait. “I may not be the one to administer your injection today. I'll try, but we're pretty backed up.”

“It's okay.”

Griffin noticed that she didn't seem to mind. Laura had told him this had happened yesterday, too. Nurse Brooks had given Laura her first injection but not her second. The older woman backed out of the exam room and closed the door, giving him a wink as she hustled her way down the hall and into another room.

He leaned back against the wall, arms crossed as he observed and listened. The receptionist showed a male patient back into an exam room. A female nurse, middle-aged with short brown hair, exited a room with two vials of blood and disappeared around the corner behind the front desk.

A male nurse, wearing a paper mask and gown, stepped out of a room just to Griffin's left and angled across the hall toward Laura's room. The mask covered most of the man's face, but his brown eyes were visible. The gown came past his knees, revealing a pair of khaki slacks.

He put a hand on the doorknob to Laura's room and glanced at Griffin. “This will just take a minute.”

Griffin nodded, bothered by something he couldn't identify.

The man stepped inside and closed the door. The sense that something was wrong nagged at Griffin, but he couldn't quite— Brown shoes! The guy wore no shoe covers!

Griffin lunged for the door and burst into the room just as the man pushed up Laura's shirt sleeve.

Griffin grabbed the man's arm. “Stop!”

“Hey!” The nurse recoiled. “What is your problem?”

“Where are your shoe covers?”

The nurse went rigid and he tried to pull away, but Griffin clamped down hard on the guy's biceps. Laura had frozen on the edge of the exam table, eyes wide with apprehension.

“Shoe covers,” Griffin snapped.

“I guess I forgot to put them on.”

Griffin yanked the guy's mask down, revealing burn scars on one side of his face. The man wrenched his arm away and Griffin put himself between the stranger and Laura.

“What's going on?” Her voice was sharp with fear.

“What
is
going on?” a feminine voice demanded from the doorway. Nurse Brooks.

Griffin jerked his head toward the stranger. “This guy one of your nurses?”

“No, he is not! How did you get in here?” She started into the room.

“No!” Griffin yelled as the fake nurse lunged for the older woman.

Before he could grab Mary Jo, Griffin knocked the guy into the wall, slamming his face into the textured surface. The woman squealed and jumped back.

“What's in that syringe?” Griffin ripped it out of the man's hand. “Laura, go with Nurse Brooks!”

Just as she leaped from her chair, the assailant swung at Griffin, and the punch glanced off of his jaw. Griffin swung back and heard a bone crack. Blood spurted from the other man's nose.

Griffin reached for his gun at the small of his back.

Laura retreated to the corner.

The man kicked, landing a foot in Griffin's midsection. His gun flew from his hand, skittered off somewhere. Griffin doubled over, then rammed his head into the jerk's stomach. He fell against the wall with a thud. Framed posters on the wall shook. The visitor's chair near the window spun away and cracked against the cabinet that held a sink.

Laura ran across the room and into the hall with the nurse. By this time, several people had gathered there.

“I called the police!” Nurse Brooks shouted.

Griffin advanced on the other man, who was bleeding from the nose. Blood trickled from a cut to his own forehead.

His opponent sneered, whipping out a Ka-Bar knife and slashing at Griffin. He barely managed to avoid the blade, aiming a kick at the man's knee. When the jerk stumbled, Griffin reached under his jeans for his ankle sheath and pulled out his own combat knife.

He advanced, narrowly missing a slice to the arm. He brought his other arm up from below, slamming his elbow into the guy's chin. The other man's knife clattered to the floor. Griffin flattened him against the wall, blade to his throat.

The guy grunted, breathing hard.

Griffin slowed his heart rate, steadied his nerves, just as he'd learned in his training. “Who sent you?”

“I ain't talkin'.”

Griffin increased the pressure of the knife until it pricked the skin. A dot of blood appeared. “Who?”

“That ain't gonna work on me. I ain't talkin'.”

Griffin didn't ease his hold on the man, but he saw a fear behind the belligerence. This guy was more scared of who'd sent him than he was of Griffin.

Sirens sounded outside and Griffin heard feet pounding down the hallway.

“Police! Step back! Let us through!”

Two black officers, one a female, took in the scene. Griffin held up his hands and backed away, knife in the air.

“Drop the knife!”

Griffin did, using his foot to slide it away from the fake nurse. He looked toward the policewoman. “That's my gun on the floor.”

“You licensed?”

He nodded. “It's in my billfold. I'll get it out when you're ready.”

“You're familiar with police procedure.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“What happened here?” the female officer demanded.

“I want a lawyer,” the assailant said.

“He tried to kill my friend.” Griffin nodded his head toward Laura, who stood white faced in the hall, the nurse's arm around her.

The woman, whose name badge read Rydell, scanned the group gathered outside the room. “Anybody else see this?”

“I did,” Laura said, her voice shaky.

Nurse Brooks stepped forward. “So did I and it's just like Mr. Devaney said. Miss Parker is here for a special injection and I was supposed to administer it. Instead, I get to the room and this one—” she motioned to the man in custody “—is in here with his own syringe. Never seen him. Don't know him. He does
not
work here.”

Rydell's partner, Grissom, his badge said, peered at the man still flattened against the wall. “Name?”

“I want a lawyer.”

The lumbering cop frowned. “You got anything to say about what went on here?”

“I want a lawyer.”

“All right, then.” Grissom handcuffed the assailant.

Griffin pointed to the makeshift weapon where it lay on the floor. “That's the syringe he had. I'd sure like to know what's in it.”