Deception (21 page)

“Hello?”

“Ms. St. Regis? This is Kayla’s nurse. Looks like Kayla’s coming around. Thought you might want to be here.”

Mia’s heart raced and the blood in her veins sang. “Of course. I’ll be right down.”

Thank goodness the fire on the highway was north instead of south. She glanced at the bill and shoved it and Dylan’s three twenties under the ketchup bottle for a generous tip and sprang from her chair.

She half-skipped, half-jogged to her car parked in a metered spot on Main Street beneath a streetlamp. No more back-alley parking spots where people could snip your brake lines unheeded.

She tossed her bag on the passenger seat, wedged the bag with Dylan’s food against her purse and backed out of the parking spot. When she hit the turnoff for the highway, she could see billowing clouds of black smoke in the other direction, and the wind carried the pungent aroma of charred wood. Dylan would have his hands full, but he’d be thrilled when he found out Kayla had recovered.

Now she could tell them where she got those cookies. On the way to the hospital, Mia kept checking her phone, hoping the nurse wouldn’t call back and tell her she’d been mistaken.

Mia’s car rolled into the hospital parking lot, and she cruised up and down the first two aisles without finding a spot. This parking lot was always full.

She spotted a space near the end of one row and swung into it. She scrambled from her car, dragging her bag with her, and hitched it over her shoulder.

The warm breeze lifted the ends of her hair, and her low heels clicked on the asphalt as she maneuvered between the parked cars. Something rustled to her right. She paused. She scanned the dark parking lot. Her nostrils flared.

Swallowing hard, she made a beeline for the lighted hospital entrance. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure dart from behind a truck.

Adrenaline surged through her, and she spun to her right, arms outstretched. A masked person, completely outfitted in black, charged at her, a gleaming blade clutched in gloved hands.

A scream stuck in Mia’s throat, and she clawed for the pepper spray Dylan had tucked into her bag. The bag slid from her shoulder and hit the ground, discharging its contents.

The stranger descended on her, wielding the knife in front of him. He slashed. She ducked. Never taking her eyes from the dark menace, she dropped to the ground and pawed through the items on the asphalt.

Curling her fingers around the pepper spray tube, she found her voice. She released the scream that had been gathering ever since the figure emerged from the darkness.

Then she wedged her thumb on to the button of the pepper spray. She swung her arm in front of her, the pepper spray clutched in her hand. She screamed again, and then growled, “Back off.”

In the distance, she heard voices. “Hey, hey!”

The voices sounded so far away and the knife looked so close. The blade wavered for a moment and Mia jammed her thumb down on the pepper spray button.

The cylinder hissed, and the attacker staggered back, making another slashing motion toward Mia.

Mia gulped in some air and the taste of cayenne pepper flooded her mouth. She choked and dragged more air into her nose. Her nostrils caught fire and she fell backward.

Her eyes teared up and she choked. The knife came closer. She thrust her hands out…and waited for the first cut.

Chapter Fifteen

Dylan wiped the sweat and soot from his brow with his sleeve. Charred brush blew past him as he got in his car. Felt like the Santa Ana winds might be kicking up from L.A. It was a good thing the fire department got this blaze under control tonight before the winds really took off.

His stomach rumbled and his mouth watered when he thought about those sweet potato fries waiting for him. His mouth watered even more when he thought about the woman waiting for him.

He eased into the driver’s seat and uncapped a bottle of water, courtesy of the Coral Cove Fire Department. He chugged half the bottle before coming up for air and reaching for his cell phone.

He punched the button for Mia’s number and listened to the song playing on the other end. A man answered, and Dylan shot up in his seat. “Who’s this?”

“Is this Chief Reese?”

Dylan’s heart galloped in his chest, and he had to peel his tongue from the roof of his dry mouth to answer. “Yeah, who the hell is this?”

“This is Dr. Chen at the Coral Cove Hospital. Ms. St. Regis had…an accident in our parking lot.”

“What kind of accident?” And what had she been doing at the hospital when she was supposed to head straight back to the Sea View?

“Officer Baxter is already here. He was one of the only ones available because of the fire.”

Officer Baxter? Why did they need a cop there for an accident? “Put him on.”

“Hey, Chief.”

“What the hell is going on out there, Baxter?”

“Ms. St. Regis was attacked in the hospital parking lot.”

The blood pounded in Dylan’s ears, and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. “What kind of attack? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, a little choked up from the pepper spray.”

Dylan threw his squad car into gear and peeled away from the shoulder of the highway. “Someone attacked her with pepper spray?”

“Ah, no. That was her own pepper spray—wind blew it back in her face. Someone attacked her with a knife.”

“Good God!” Dylan almost swerved into oncoming traffic, and the blare of horns trailed after him as he straightened out his car. “Is she cut? Injured?”

“I told you, Chief, just a little choked up…and mad.”

“Did you apprehend her attacker?”

“Nope. He got a little of the pepper spray and took off when a couple of emergency-room docs heard Ms. St. Regis scream in the parking lot.”

“What was she doing at the hospital?”

“I couldn’t tell you that, Chief.”

“Let her know I’m on my way. Have you canvassed the area of the attack for any clues or evidence?”

“Palmer’s doing that. We were the only two on-call with the fire going on.”

Dylan’s eyelid twitched. “Yeah, the fire.”

“Anyone injured out there?”

“No. It was just a brush fire that closed the highway for an hour. I’m on my way.”

Dylan ended the call and stepped on the accelerator. What the hell was Mia doing at the hospital, visiting Kayla? Jimmy Holt hadn’t even published his article yet, and this crazy person had already set his sights on Mia.

She needed to get out of this town, and he planned to bundle her on the next flight out of San Francisco.

He cruised through the hospital parking lot, which now looked dark and sinister, and abandoned his squad car at the entrance. He careened around the corner to the emergency room and nodded at the front desk receptionist. “I’m looking for Mia St. Regis. One of my officers is with her.”

“In the back, first door on your right.”

She buzzed the doors for him and he crashed through. The first door to the right stood open, and a nurse, a doctor and Officer Baxter were all crowded around Mia, sitting on the edge of an examining table.

When she saw him at the door, she jumped from the table and wrapped herself around him. “I’m so glad you’re here. Someone came at me with a knife, and I screamed and I pepper-sprayed him with the stuff you gave me, but the wind blew it back in my face, and you didn’t warn me about that part.”

“Shh.” He smoothed the hair back from her forehead, and she peered at him through red-rimmed eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I am now.” She burrowed her face against his chest.

“Is she okay, Doc?”

“Yes. She inhaled some of the pepper spray, but that will clear out of her system soon. That pepper spray probably saved her life, since she got her attacker, too.”

“I don’t know how much he suffered from the spray. He had a ski mask on, so he probably didn’t breathe in any of the stuff. I think the emergency-room doctors scared him off.”

“And your screaming.” The doctor pressed some eye drops into Mia’s hand. “Make sure you use these before you go to bed tonight. You should be fine tomorrow morning, and you’re good to go home tonight.”

Dylan turned to Baxter. “Has Palmer come back from the parking lot yet? I didn’t see him out there.”

“He didn’t find anything, Chief. And as you heard from Ms. St. Regis, the perpetrator was disguised.”

“Did he say anything to you, Mia?”

“No.”

“What brought you out here?”

Coughing, she clamped her hands to her chest. “Kayla. I got a call from her nurse, or at least someone I thought was her nurse, telling me that Kayla had regained consciousness.”

The blood in his veins chilled. Someone had lured her there, someone who knew how much she cared for her newfound niece. And the fire? Had someone set that fire to separate them?

“Kayla’s nurse never called you?”

“No.”

“Was it a woman who attacked you?”

“No. I don’t know. The person seemed large.”

“But it was definitely a woman on the phone?”

Mia’s brow furrowed. “I think so. The voice was muffled, but I assumed it was Kayla’s nurse.”

“Do you have your phone?”

She pointed to the oversized bag hanging on the back of a chair. Dylan reached over and yanked it open. He felt inside and plucked out her cell. “Show me the call.”

She pressed a key and held out the phone to him.

He squinted at the
restricted
message. “We can try to trace that call by having your carrier ping your phone.”

“Do you really think the person would be dumb enough to call me from a traceable phone? You know as well as I do that number’s going to go back to one of those temporary, throwaway phones or even a phone booth.”

“You’re probably right, but we’ll give it a try anyway.” He caught a tear trailing down her face.

“That’s just from that horrible pepper spray.” She blew her nose with a tissue. “And because Kayla’s still in a coma.”

“You’re coming home with me again tonight.”

The officer coughed and his cheeks reddened.

“Baxter, get out of here. I’ll discuss this with you tomorrow. You on duty?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go home and get some sleep.”

“You, too, sir.”

Dylan glanced at the younger officer with narrowed eyes, but he’d turned away and exited the examination room.

“Are you ready?”

Mia nodded. “I just wanted to rip that ski mask off his face and ask him what he wanted. I don’t understand any of it, Dylan. This much fanaticism over a house just doesn’t make sense.”

“Somebody’s lost their mind. Just like that math teacher last summer.”

She grimaced. “Yeah, another distant St. Regis relative.”

As they left the hospital, Dylan slung his arm around her shoulders and pulled her flush with his body. “Could that be it? Some long-lost St. Regis relative?”

“The only long-lost St. Regis relative around here is Kayla. And look what happened to her.”

An hour later, Mia snuggled against Dylan in his bed. When the masked man wielding the knife popped into her head, she closed her eyes and ran her hands across Dylan’s smooth, warm flesh. The sensation made the nightmare recede.

But her actions made Dylan antsy.

The third time her hands fluttered across his flat belly, he grabbed them. “You’re asking for trouble.”

“Seems I don’t even have to ask these days.”

He rolled toward her and pressed the length of his body against hers, along every line. She had on another one of his T-shirts for pajamas, and the thin cotton only heightened the sensation as the cloth rubbed against every sensitive part of her body.

As he held her close, his heartbeat reverberated against her chest. The steady rhythm hypnotized her, soothed her until the masked man disappeared.

He murmured into her hair, “You’re going home. Coral Cove isn’t safe for you, and nothing I can do can make it safe for you.”

“I have to get Kayla settled first.”

“Let me handle that. When her parents get here, they can take her home. She needs to be home with her parents right now, Mia, as much as you want her to be a substitute for Marissa.”

Dylan knew her inside and out, every nook and cranny. “And my plans for the park?”

“Long distance. You already have the paperwork from Fielder. Teleconference, set up one of those online meetings. I’m sure he’ll be happy to accommodate you.”

“My sister?”

“You’re not going to find her here. I’ll handle that, too. We can treat her as a missing person, put out some bulletins.”

“You have all the answers, don’t you?”

He rubbed her back and she arched into his touch. “I try.”

“What about us?”

His hand stilled. “I’m not letting you go, Mia. Not this time.”

“You can’t have it both ways, can you?” She flattened onto her back, away from his magic hands. “You can’t send me away and hold on to me at the same time.”

He tugged at the hem of her T-shirt and rolled it up her thighs. Didn’t look like she could ever escape those magic hands. Didn’t want to anyway.

“It won’t be forever. Once you start demolishing the house, it’s the end to whatever crazy plans this lunatic had for Columbella. It will be a done deal, not that I’ll ever stop looking for the person who threatened you, harmed Kayla and killed Hank.”

“You think it will ever be safe for me to return to Coral Cove?”

“Eventually. Hell, the guy could’ve made a mistake tonight. Maybe he left something in the parking lot, something we’ll discover in the light of day.”

“I hope it gets better. I want a real relationship with Kayla, away from all this drama. I want to get to know her as a person, not as a substitute for Marissa.”

“I think you’ll have that chance.”

“Everything always seems better when I’m with you, Dylan. It always did.”

He slid his hand beneath the T-shirt, and splayed it across her belly. “You should’ve asked me instead of Peter to marry you that summer.”

She clenched her stomach. “I never wanted you like that, not through trickery. I always wanted you to come to me on your own. I waited.”

He walked his fingers up between her breasts and cupped one in his hand. “You don’t have to wait anymore.”