In the Shadow of the Shield (Secret Lives Series Book 2) (6 page)

“Thank you, Doctor. We miss him very much.” She nodded toward Jackson, who was standing in a corner.

“Yes, thank you, Doctor,” Jackson said.

“As for you, young lady, an orderly will be here in a few minutes to move you. Do you have any questions for me before I go?”

“How long will the nausea and dizziness last?”

“It will improve fairly quickly, but might come and go for a few days. You were very lucky that you had your seatbelt on.”

“Donnie wouldn’t even put the key in the ignition if we weren’t all belted in.”

“Like I said, he was a great man. Take good care of yourself, Mrs. Massey.”

He disappeared out of the curtained area, and a young man wearing green scrubs entered. He grinned as he manipulated the hospital bed up next to the smaller bed she was on. “You all set to move? I’ve set aside the presidential suite for you. We just need to swap out your ride, and then you will be movin’ on up.”

Diana nodded agreement, and the orderly and Jackson helped her move to the other bed. An hour later, she was idly clicking between reruns of
Law and Order
and the new episode of
Wheel of Fortune
. Jackson had finally left at her insistence. He looked haggard and exhausted. The gamut of emotions he had experienced had worn him out. She hated to see her baby boy look that way, no matter how tall and how old he got.

The phone on the bedside table rang. She was in no mood to talk to anyone, but it might be Jackson, so she reached over and grabbed the receiver. Her concussion must have fogged her thinking, because it never even occurred to her that Jackson would call the cell phone that sat next to her on the bed.

“Hello?” she said into the receiver.

“Consider today a warning. You and Officer Do-the-right-thing need to let it go.” The line went dead. The handset fell from her hand and dropped to the floor, pulling the phone base with it. The resulting crash drew a passing nurse into her room.

“You all right, sugar?”

“Ye—yes. I knocked the phone off the side table.” She leaned over to reach for it. The floor swam in front of her, and Diana lost her bearings. The nurse grabbed her as she started to tumble over the bed side.

“Whoa there, young lady—I’ll get that for you. You be a good patient and rest up on those pillows of yours.”

Diana waited while the nurse straightened the phone and tucked her blankets back in around her. Her heart was racing, and the nausea made her stomach churn, but the nurse didn’t seem to notice anything wrong.
Jeopardy
started, so Diana pretended to pay attention to the television until the nurse was gone. As soon as the door to her room shut, Diana grabbed her cell phone and dialed Carter’s number.

“Hello?”

“Ca—Carter?”

“Diana?”

“Yes.” Her voice shook, and the word came out in a squeak.

“Is everything okay?”

“Someone called me. On the hospital phone. They said today was a warning, and you should let it go.”

“I’m coming there right now.”

“No. You don’t have to.” She didn’t sound convincing, even to her own ears.

“Sit tight, and don’t answer that phone again.”

“Okay.”

Carter hung up before she could say anything else.

Twelve hours ago, she had been a grieving widow. Now, she was a hit-and-run victim mixed up in God knows what.

“What have you gotten me into, Donnie?” she whispered, closing her eyes against the nausea.

Chapter Six

Diana tried not to jump out of her skin when a knock sounded at the door. With so many people coming and going from her room, her heart was in a constant state of high-rate panic. The relief that flooded her entire body when Carter entered the room made her want to cry. She was not a weak woman, and she had never fancied herself one who
needed
a man, but when Donnie was around she had the comfort of knowing a loaded gun wasn’t far. Donnie ran into some very unsavory characters.

“I need to get my concealed carry permit.” The words even surprised her.

Carter sat down in the chair beside her bed. “You don’t have one?”

“No.”

“What about in the cemetery?”

“Yeah, about that.” She offered up a sheepish grin. “I held out for years. I was always worried about our son getting hurt, or having some other kind of accident. Besides, Donnie carried everywhere, and I knew he always had my back.”

“Do you know how to shoot?”

“Yup. Donnie used to take me to the range with him.” She pushed the button to raise her head in the bed a little. If she moved slowly, maybe the dizziness wouldn’t be so bad.

“You don’t have to sit up on my account.” He reached over to stop her, but ended up grabbing her hand instead. Without meaning to, she yanked it away. Hurt flashed across Carter’s face, but it was gone in a flash as he offered up a grin.

“I don’t bite, you know.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just strange, you know? I was with Donnie for over twenty years and…”

“It’s okay, I understand. I was only trying to help you with the bed so you had nothing to worry about.”

Nothing to worry about, except the way his touch sent sparks flying through her nervous system and caused her heart to skip several beats. Forget the fact that she was at least a decade older than him and she had a head injury that could very well be clouding her judgment.

There was no head injury when you were flirting with him in the diner.

“So, what about that phone call?” she asked, to change the subject.

“I stopped by the switchboard on my way up and asked a few questions. The caller said he was your son, so they put him through.”

“It wasn’t Jackson. He would have used my cell anyway.”

“I know. I wish I knew where to go from here. I haven’t said a word about my suspicions to anyone but you, but someone obviously knows.”

“And they aren’t very happy about you involving me.”

“No.” Carter fell silent for a while, watching the muted episode of
NCIS
on the television. Years of living with Donnie told her Carter wasn’t actually watching anything. His brain was going a mile a minute, trying to process everything going on and making sense of it in lieu of his suspicions. After about five minutes, she spoke.

“Can I ask a question? There’s something that has been bothering me, and I was hoping you would be able to help me understand.”

Carter turned back toward her. “I’ll try.”

She took a deep breath, and gathered her thoughts. This was something she had wondered from the very beginning, but had no idea who to ask. “If the house Donnie went to was a suspected meth lab, why didn’t he smell anything? I mean, he has told me there is a very pungent odor that goes with cooking meth.”

“I wondered that too, so I went back and checked. The dispatcher told him that there were children playing in the house alone. The transcript says a neighbor had called it in, but I went and interviewed all the neighbors, and no one admitted to it. Still, you know Massey, he wouldn’t think twice. Probably held his breath and ran right in.”

She nodded. That did sound like Donnie. “I always knew something like that would get him. He was such a pushover for the innocent.”

“He did the job justice. No matter what he did, he always stuck to his ethics and morals.”

“Thank you for recognizing that.” Her cell phone rang; the display said it was Jackson. “Excuse me for a second, it’s my son.”

Carter nodded and waited while she took the call.

“Hi, honey. Are you home for the night?”

“Yeah. How’re you feeling, Mom?”

“Better. I am sitting up a little now, and I don’t feel like puking my guts out.”

Jackson laughed. “That’s good, I think.”

“It is. I’m going to be just fine, don’t you worry about me.”

“It’s hard not to.”

“I’ll be home tomorrow.”

“What time? I’ll be there to pick you up.”

“I’ll call you when I know.”

“Okay, Mom. Get some rest.”

“You too. Love you, Jackson.”

“Love you too, Mom. Good night.”

“Good night. Oh—Jackson?”

“What?”

“Set the alarm tonight, please. I don’t like you to be home alone.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Just humor me and set the alarm, okay?”

“Okay. I will, I promise.”

She ended the call, and set the phone down on the bed beside her. Carter was busy sending a text. When he was done, he dropped the phone in his shirt pocket and smiled at her. “I have arranged for a cruiser to keep an eye on your house tonight.”

“Thank you. I don’t like the idea of him being there all alone after what happened today.”

“You should try and get some rest.”

“No one sleeps in hospitals. Don’t you know that?” she replied. “Besides, I could never sleep now. What if someone sneaks in here?”

“Not gonna happen. You have your own personal bodyguard now.”

“No, Carter, I can’t let you do that.”

He stood up and smoothed the blankets around her legs. After fluffing and rearranging the pillows, he moved the chair to the other side of the bed so he could face the door to the room. Sitting back down, he threw his feet up on the edge of the bed, one foot crossed over the other, and did the same with his arms over his chest. “Nothing you can do about it now.”

She should insist that he leave, but Diana felt safe with Carter in the room—almost like having Donnie back by her side again. It had been so long since she’d had a man in her bed. Not like Carter was in her bed, but his presence in the room was still calming.

“I
am
kind of tired.” Her eyelids drooped, and her words sounded slurred, even to her own ears.

“Sleep. I’ll be right here.” He patted the holster on his hip. “No one will get by my old pal Glock.”

“Maybe for just a little bit.” Her eyes were closed before she ended the sentence.

***

The sun felt warm against her face as Diana’s eyelids fluttered open to reveal unfamiliar surroundings. The confusion multiplied when she saw the man sleeping in the chair beside her bed—feet propped up, arms folded over his chest, and a gun in his hand. Closing her eyes once more, she reached up and massaged her temples. Images flickered through her mind—Donnie’s grave, a black van, Officer Carter Ryan taking her for coffee.

“Are you awake?” a vaguely familiar voice asked. She opened her eyes again to the handsome young man—Carter—looking at her with a bit of concern in his eyes.

“Mmm…hmm…My head hurts.”

“You took a good noggin whack when that car pulled out in front of you.”

“Oh, right. I was in an accident.”

“Don’t you remember?”

She nodded. “It’s coming back to me now. I slept so soundly, I think I forgot where I was—and why.” It was true—she hadn’t slept like that since before Donnie died.

“Do you want me to call a nurse?”

“No, I’m fine. Just a little groggy still. Must be the pain meds. You stayed here all night?”

“I told you I would.” He flashed her a grin that warmed her insides a little bit.

“Thank you. I haven’t slept like that since…well, since before Donnie died.”

“So glad Glock and I could make you feel safe. The nurse came in every couple of hours to check your vitals, and you never even stirred.”

“Like I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a good night’s rest. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you giving up your bed for me.”

Carter stood up and returned the chair to its original position. “I didn’t mind at all. Unfortunately, I have to go home now and get ready for work, but you have my number. If you need anything, you can call or shoot me a text.”

“I wouldn’t want to bother you at work.”

“It’s no bother at all.” The slightest hint of huskiness brushed over his words, and it made her cheeks warm. Diana felt like a schoolgirl, with the blushing and butterflies Carter kept stirring up in her.

You are an old woman, much too old for him. Get over yourself, Di.

No amount of mental admonishment seemed to lower her racing pulse as he picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “If it’s all right with you, I would like to stop by this evening and see how you are faring. I’m going to do a little poking around today too, so I might have something to report.”

Her brain was demanding she pull her hand away, but her stubborn muscles weren’t listening. His touch spread heat to parts of her that hadn’t been warm for a very long time and she liked the feeling.

Donnie is barely cold in the ground, and here you are panting over some young buck with a sexy smile and shoulders that really know how to fill out that flannel shirt.

Barely cold? Donnie died a year ago. The only thing colder than his body was her bed. What would it hurt to indulge herself a little? He was only holding her hand; it meant a whole lot more to her than it did to him. She had a sudden longing to touch him, to test those muscular shoulders under her fingertips.

Diana!

She shook her head as though trying to clear the myriad thoughts that had begun to cloud it. Years of working the phones had given her a very vivid imagination.

“No?” Carter asked.

“No, what?” she answered, confused.

“No, it’s not all right if I dropped by this evening?”

“Oh. Yes. Sorry. Yes, of course. I won’t be going anywhere. My car is in a bit of a mess at the moment.”

Carter chuckled. “Yeah, about that. Let me know if you want to go car shopping.”

She groaned. “I hate car shopping. Surely you have something better to do than trudge through dealerships with me.”

“No, I really don’t think I do.” He let go of her hand and tipped an imaginary hat. “I must be off to work now, Miss Diana, but I will return. Have a safe day, and set that alarm I heard you mention last night until I get there.”

Before she could respond, Carter was gone. Diana leaned back against her pillow and let her eyes fall closed again. The last twenty-four hours had been a roller coaster of action. She went from wandering around the house, a lonely, old widow, to discovering her body still liked the touch of a good-looking man, even if he was way too young for her.

She should have told him not to come over. She should have insisted she didn’t want to know any more about Donnie’s death. If she had half a brain in her head, she would leave it alone. Donnie was gone. She should leave well enough alone—let her husband rest in peace.

Unfortunately, now that Pandora’s Box had been opened, she wanted to know more. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to know more about: how Donnie died, or how Carter looked without that flannel on.

Dirty old lady!

She giggled. A light rap on the door to her room caused her body to tense. She relaxed when Jackson walked into the room.

“How are you this morning, Mom?”

“Much, much better, son.”

“The nurse at the desk said the doctor should be by soon. She said you are going home.”

“Thank goodness. I miss my own bed.”

Of course, she had slept pretty well in the hospital bed.

It’s not like Carter will be there every night when you sleep. Time to get back to the reality of cold sheets and pillows piled up to make the bed smaller.

She had the distinct feeling he would warm her bed if she asked him to. Diana groaned as her nether regions warmed and tingled.

“What’s wrong?” Jackson looked concerned. “Does your head hurt or something?”

She smiled at her son.
When had he grown up so much?
“I’m fine. Just anxious to blow this popsicle stand.”

A woman in a white coat entered the room then. “Good morning, Mrs. Massey. I’m Doctor Barrington. Are you ready to get out of here?”

“Most definitely, Doctor.”

“Well, your vitals looked good through the night. We are going to run one more CT scan this morning to check for swelling in your brain. If everything looks good, you will be home before lunch.”

“Sounds good. When is the CT scan?”

“How about right now? I’ll be back to talk to you later.”