Protecting His Heart (A James Family Novel Book 1) Page 15

  Logan stopped pacing. "She did?"

  Clara nodded. "Have you considered why?"

  "Because she is a cop and it was instinct to go get the bad guy?"

  "I suppose I can see why you'd think that, but you didn't see the look in her eyes when she realized he was about to kill you. I did. And I am telling you it was more than just training that sent her running across the yard."

  "What exactly are you trying to say Aunt Clara?"

  "That young lady is in love with you."

  "We have only known each other a couple of days. How could she be in love with me?"

  "The same way you have fallen in love with her. When it's meant to be child, it's meant to be. That's how it happened with your Uncle Jed and me, you know. The first time we met I knew I would marry him one day. And I did. We only courted two months before we ran off and got ourselves hitched. Caused quite the scandal around here actually, especially when the twins came along around about nine months later. No one ever believed we didn't get married just because I was pregnant. It broke my heart in two the day he died when the twins were barely two years old. I still love him as much today as I did then, God rest his soul."

  "I never really believed in love. What my parents had wasn't love by any stretch of the imagination. I just figured I was destined to spend my life alone. How do I know what I feel for Angelina is real? I mean, consider the circumstances."

  "The heart wants what the heart wants and it doesn't consider the circumstances. Stop listening to your brain and see what your heart has to say."

  Angelina's green eyes flashed into his memory and he smiled. He remembered meeting her for the first time and taking her hand in the hallway, the fire in her eyes as she demanded he stay far away from her parking spot. She was feisty and cool but stirred something hot and fiery up inside him. Something that stoked into a real fury the first time they had kissed. Being with her felt good, even when bad things were happening. Holding her felt right, as though their bodies were designed fit together.

  "My heart is stupid, Aunt Clara. It says I should risk everything on love."

  Clara chuckled and patted his hand again. "That doesn't sound so stupid to me."

  "Yeah, well, it is when I have no idea how she feels about me."

  "Take a chance, Logan. I've got a good feeling about this." Just then her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. Checking the caller ID, Clara nodded and smiled as she opened the phone. "It's Keegan, probably calling to check on his brother. Go see your lady friend. She's going to be wondering where you are."

  Logan stood up then leaned back down to kiss his aunt on the cheek. "Thank you, Aunt Clara."

  She nodded and smiled, waving him away.

  Suddenly nervous, Logan forced himself to walk the hallway to Angelina's room. Twice he almost turned around and went back to the lounge in search of a burst of courage but finally he stood outside the closed door and took a deep breath.

  He was certain he had left the door partly open when he left. Maybe a nurse closed it. It was getting late, maybe Angelina was asleep. Gripping the handle, he rapped lightly with a knuckle, more out of courtesy than anything else, and pushed the door open. The room was completely dark. Logan groped for a light switch but froze when a strong odor reached his nose. The fragrance was all too familiar to him.

  Blood.

  The kind of blood at a crime scene not the kind found in a hospital room recovering from surgery. Logan's skin prickled as he backed out of the room.

  23

  Logan

  Reaching for the gun on his hip, he used his right leg to kick the door open flooding the room with light from the hallway.

  The bed was empty.

  "Angelina!" he called into the dark room.

  When there was no response he ducked back out of the room and peered up and down the hallway. No sign of Angelina or anyone else. Stepping back in, he tried to rein in the panic that was building.

  "Where on earth did you go?" Logan murmured as he looked back out the door, checking the hallway in both directions. There was absolutely no sign of anyone. He was starting to lose his cool just a little when a low moan from across the room caught his attention, and he made his way slowly to the other side of the bed. Angelina lay on the linoleum surrounded by a pool of blood. Beside her was the still form of a man.

  Dropping to his knees, he felt Angelina's neck for a pulse, beyond grateful to find even a weak one. Reaching up to the nurse call button on the side of the bed, Logan pushed it impatiently.

  "Can I help you?" An overly cheery voice called out of the speaker.

  "This is Detective Logan James. I am in the room of Angelina Ferrara. We have an emergency!"

  The voice didn't respond. Instead a flurry of footsteps raced down the hallway and into the room. The first to enter was Kaiden's nurse, Katie. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "What happened?!"

  "I was going to ask you all the same thing," Logan growled. "Hurry, we have to get her back on the bed! She's lost a lot of blood."

  "We need a board and collar! Don't touch her!" one of the nurses cried as Logan reached to scoop Angelina up off the floor.

  "No time for that!" Logan was on the verge of panic, the same sort of panic he had felt as a child when his father beat his mother with a baseball bat.

  Katie and two other nurses scurried over to where Angelina lay. Together, they moved her as gingerly as possible, placing her in the hospital bed. Katie started checking her vitals while another nurse ran off to get a doctor.

  "One of you needs to call security." Logan motioned to the man still on the floor. "He's alive but I don't know who he is. He damn sure doesn't belong in this room!"

  "I know who he is," a small voice spoke up from across the room. Logan turned to see a young woman in a pink striped apron. A hospital volunteer, no doubt. "He said he was Ms. Ferrara's brother."

  "All visitors are supposed to be cleared through security! If he had been, he would be wearing a visitor's badge!" Logan bellowed.

  "I'm so sorry! I didn't know!" The girl covered her mouth and ran from the room in tears. Logan was too worried about Angelina to be concerned although he knew he would feel badly later.

  The doctor showed up then. One look at Angelina and his expression turned grim. "We need to get her back to the OR stat! All her stitches have been torn apart. What happened here?"

  "One of your hospital's fine volunteers broke protocol and let someone in the room without a visitor's badge!" Logan snapped.

  "Did you do that to him?" the doctor asked.

  "Of course not!" Logan glared at the man on the floor. "I actually think Angelina did."

  The nurses were moving the bed toward the door, one frantically trying to reinstall her I.V. line as they nearly jogged the bed out of the room and down the hall.

  "Well, you stay here and deal with that. I'll take care of the patient." With that, the doctor jogged off after the group heading to the operating room.

  "Oh, I'll take care of him all right," Logan muttered, murder in his words.

  It took all of his self-restraint to stand by while medical professionals dealt with the man's injuries. As soon as the man was in a bed, Logan slapped the cuffs on him with a vulgar feeling of satisfaction that almost embarrassed him.

  Thirty minutes later, Logan stood by the bed of the man now identified as Witness Protection agent Jack Mulholland, trying very hard not to pummel the man. With a bandage on his head and handcuffs on his wrist, the man looked small and pathetic despite his large stature. Not at all the way Logan expected a federal agent to be and definitely not a fair fight.

  Once Angelina was out of the room, chaos had ensued. Security officers who had never before dealt with anything more serious than an upset relative ran in circles around each other trying to figure out what to do with the man on the floor. Logan had finally stepped in and suggested they call hospital management.

  Local police had arrived and, after hearing just enough of Angelina's story from Logan to be as disgusted
as he was, placed Mulholland under arrest. Logan would have been perfectly happy to throw the man over his shoulder and carry him to jail himself but the medical personnel insisted he be checked out for a head injury prior to leaving the hospital. No one wanted to be responsible if he died in their custody so everyone agreed to let him stay as long as he remained under arrest and twenty-four hour guard.

  After giving his boss a call and filling him in, Logan was now waiting for Mulholland to wake up. The man had a lot to answer for.

  Sometime later a nurse entered the room to take Mulholland's vitals. Logan was folded into a small chair in the corner of the room. When she saw him, she offered up a tired smile.

  "He must have done something awful." She nodded to the handcuffs.

  "Conspiracy to commit murder on a police officer awful enough for you?" He didn't mean to sound so annoyed, the words just slipped out before he could stop them. Waiting around on Jack Mulholland to wake up was wearing his patience way too thin.

  "He try to kill you?" she asked nonchalantly as she checked the prisoner's heart rate and jotted some things into Mulholland's chart.

  "Not directly," Logan responded, light on tolerance and heavy on the impatience. "When's he going to wake up? I need to get some answers."

  "Head injuries are funny things, there is no telling what will happen or when. You just have to have patience."

  The door to the room opened again. The uniformed officer standing guard outside poked his head in. "Detective James? Ms. Ferrara is out of surgery. Doc says you can see her in about thirty minutes."

  "Thank you." Logan let out a long sigh of relief.

  The nurse smiled knowingly at him but left the room without another word. Logan glanced at his watch. Half past two in the morning. He could see Angelina in half an hour. That gave him enough time to wake up Mulholland and get his confession. Maybe beat it out of him if he got lucky.

  Logan stepped out in the hallway and headed to the rest room. He needed a moment to compose himself before waking the bastard up and getting his confession. The short trip only served to aggravate him even more so he headed back to get the job done.

  It only took a minute to get back to Mulholland's room. By the time he opened the door and entered the dimly lit room, his pulse pounded loudly in his ears and anger coursed through his veins. That man had put Angelina at risk when he was supposed to be protecting her.

  His boss would tell him to have patience. Follow procedure. Screw procedure. He was completely out of patience, tolerance, and everything else a good detective was supposed to have. The only thing he could think about was how badly he wanted to kill the man lying there in that hospital bed.

  Angelina and Aunt Clara were completely wrong. He was exactly like his old man.

  Grabbing a pitcher full of ice chips off the portable tray table, he dumped the whole thing on Mulholland's face. Jack woke with a start, his eyes wild as they frantically searched the room before settling on Logan.

  "Who the hell are you?" he demanded, yanking at the handcuff securing his wrist to the bedrail.

  Logan stepped up to the side of the bed and glared down at the other man. "I am about to become your worst nightmare."

  "Get the hell out of my room!"

  "How much did Salvatore Ricci pay you to give up Angelina Ferrara?"

  Jack froze. His already pale face went completely white. "I don't know what you are talking about."

  "Of course you do," Logan replied evenly. "You put a tracker in her necklace then recorded her every move. Ricci paid you fifty grand to track her movements so one of his lackeys could kill her."

  "If that were true," Jack responded haughtily, "then why did he wait over a year to kill her?"

  "That I don't yet know for sure but I intend to find out."

  "Well, you can't prove a thing. I'm innocent. I'm a law man just like you, for crying out loud."

  "You're dirty, Mulholland. Angelina's not your first, is she? She's just the first to survive."

  "I don't know what you are talking about."

  "Where do you keep the money? Swiss bank account? Cayman Islands? Coffee can in the back yard?"

  "Go to hell. I want a lawyer."

  "Of course you do. Good thing too, you're sure going to need one." Logan turned to exit the room but stopped at the door and turned to look at Jack one last time. "What did she ever do to you anyway?"

  "You got the hots for her? I think you got a thing for her," Jack spat back. "Don't waste your time. Word on the street is that bitch is ice cold."

  "You have no idea how lucky you are that you are cuffed to that bed. I never hit a man who can't fight back."

  "Bring it on, man." Jack's free hand balled up in a fist. "I can take you down single handedly."

  Logan laughed, a humorless sound in the small room. "Save your strength, you're going to need it in court."

  The echo of the door slamming followed him down the long, dimly lit hallway. The only thing left on his mind was seeing Angelina. It took all his self-control not to run down the hall to the elevator. As he stood waiting for the next car to arrive, the cell phone he'd borrowed from his aunt buzzed in his pocket. Not anxious to delay his check on Angelina, he may have sounded a little more impatient than he meant to when he answered it.

  "James."

  "It's me, George."

  "Hey, L.T. Shouldn't you be asleep in the middle of the night?"

  "I'll sleep when I'm dead. You got a minute? I have some news."

  The elevator doors slipped open and Logan stepped inside. "I'm on my way up to check on Angelina, she's out of surgery again. Just spent a few minutes chatting with our new friend Jack Mulholland."

  "He give you anything?"

  "Nah. Lawyered up. Still acting tough, threatening to knock my lights out with a concussion and one hand cuffed to the bed."

  "That's okay, I think there will be more than enough to prosecute. Our friends down at the Witness Protection bureau are not at all happy with Mr. Mulholland. They are tearing his cases apart, going through financials, and basically picking his life apart with a fine-toothed comb. He's going away for a long time."

  "What about Ricci and his hit man?"

  "They're looking at that too. So far, there hasn't been any concrete link between Mulholland and Ricci, but something will turn up. In the meantime, the Ricci family thinks your friend is dead so she should be safe for now. You heading back this way anytime soon?"

  "Not tonight. I want to make sure Angelina is all right."

  "Sure. I understand."

  The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open quietly. "I'll check in tomorrow afternoon, L.T."

  "Take care of yourself, James. Get a little rest."

  "I'll rest when I'm dead."

  He heard his boss chuckling as they bid each other goodbye. Stowing the phone in his pocket, he headed to the recovery area. A nurse stopped him at the door, but a quick flash of his badge and ID later he was sitting beside Angelina's bed.

  Angelina didn't stir, even when he took her hand in his. Her fingers were icy cold. Logan didn't like how blue her lips were but a passing nurse assured him that it was normal after surgery. A dozen hoses and wires monitored her vital processes. The entire set up brought back way too many memories from his childhood.

  "Don't worry, Angelina," he whispered, stroking the cool skin on the back of her hand with his thumb. "No one will ever hurt you again."

  24

  Angelina

  Angelina clicked aimlessly through the twelve channels offered on the hospital's television. After seven days confined to the small space, she was out of her mind with boredom. Every time the door opened her heart jumped in her chest hoping to see Logan standing by her bed. The last time she had seen or talked to him was right before Jack tried to smother her with a pillow. He had promised to come back, but as of that moment, he hadn't kept that promise.

  There was no one to call. No one to ask if Jack was in custody. Anyone she called could give her aw
ay if Jack was still on the hunt, and she definitely didn't want word to get out to Salvatore she was still alive. To be honest, she felt safest where she was despite her burning desire to go home.

  Not like she really had a home to go home to. The cottage on the lake was out of the question. At least for the time being. She was supposed to be dead. Until she knew what was going on with Jack, she couldn't call into the Witness Protection office, and she definitely couldn't go back to New York City if she didn't really want to end up dead.

  Relaxing back against the stack of pillows, Angelina shut down the television and sighed heavily, closing her eyes against the starkness of the hospital room. The doctor had told her she would be released in the morning. That was supposed to be good news but it was hard to be excited about it when she had absolutely nowhere to go.

  The hinges squeaked as the door to her room opened for about the hundredth time that day. She didn't bother to open her eyes. Maybe if she pretended to be asleep the nurse would go away and just leave her alone.

  Soft footsteps crossed the room and then stopped next to her bed. Angelina remained perfectly still, willing them to go away. She waited a full minute but the steady breathing beside her bed didn't stop. Whoever was there wasn't leaving anytime soon so she cracked an eyelid open slightly.

  Logan, dressed in dark jeans and a freshly pressed white button down shirt stood smiling down at her. His hair, still damp from a recent shower, curled slightly over his ears.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked carefully.

  "Visiting hours don't end until six." He winked at her, his smile broadening a little.

  "There have been visiting hours every day for the last seven days. Suddenly you show up today?"

  "I've been busy."

  "Busy?" she echoed, crossing her arms gingerly over her chest. The movement caused her lung to ache but she ignored it, determined to be disinterested and annoyed at the handsome man now pulling a chair up beside her hospital bed. She reached for the remote and turned the television on again. A soundless advertisement for hemorrhoid cream filled the screen.