Jodi Thomas - Twisted Creek

Luke smiled. He would not destroy this for Nathan. “They’re right. He is a hero. If he hadn’t distracted the guy with the automatic, I might not have gotten close enough to jump him.” If Nathan was going to have the scars, he might as well get the glory.

“Did you get the third one?” Paul asked.

“Yes, but Nana and Allie ran into him first. They’re downstairs now. Willie’s waiting for them to come out.”

“Nathan doesn’t need us.” Paul took Mary Lynn’s arm. “We’ll be downstairs when you finish here. If they are both injured, Willie may need our help.”

“Good.” Luke turned and took three steps toward Nathan’s room before he glanced back. They were at the elevator. “Thanks,” he said. “Thanks for being there.”

Mary Lynn smiled. “You’re welcome, but there is no need to thank us. They’re my family, don’t you know.”

Luke collided with a nurse coming out of Nathan’s room. She frowned at him, looking up and down from dirty boots to bloody shoulder.

“I hope you don’t think you are going in this room,” she snapped.

“Yes, I do.” Luke prepared to fight. If he had to he’d move her out of the way.

She placed her fists on her ample hips and seemed to widen like a fullback preparing for the snap. “Visiting hours are over.”

If Luke hadn’t been so tired he might have tried charm, but charm was never his strong suit. The memory of another fight he’d had with an emergency nurse in Houston flashed through his thoughts. He’d insisted on seeing to one of his men and she’d had him barred from the hospital.

“I have to see him.” Luke tried to think of something to say that would get him past this dragon.

“Then I suggest you clean up first.”

“Look, lady, I carried him…”

“Morgan?” Nathan yelled. “Morgan, you made it.”

The dragon nurse melted as if she’d been wax. “You’re the man who got him out. Nathan’s told us all about you, Luke Morgan.” She stepped out of the way. “He said you jogged a mile with him on your back.”

Luke relaxed, his anger gone. “More like half a mile. Can I just see him for a few minutes?”

“Of course.” The dragon fullback nurse now reminded him of a grandmother type in a cookie commercial. “But he’s had a sedative, so he won’t last long talking.”

0215 hours

University Hospital

Lubbock, Texas

Luke took his time filling Nathan in on every detail of what had happened after he was shot. The kid would be out of the hospital tomorrow and probably insist on working the case. It was his home office, he’d take the lead. Nathan would go to work with his arm in a sling and a bandage on his neck. Every man in the office would want to hear the details.

No matter how much Luke wanted to get downstairs to check on Allie and Nana, he’d do his job. He owed it to Nathan.

Finally, when they were the only two in the room, Nathan said, “I wasn’t standing in enough cover. I’d stepped out too far. The lights of that car caught me before I could step back.”

Luke gripped Nathan’s good shoulder. “The lesson almost cost you your life.”

Nathan nodded. His voice shook slightly. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“You’re a better agent now than you were four hours ago.” Luke could think of a few hard lessons he’d learned over the past ten years. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. I could have made the same mistake. In that blackness it was hard to tell how far away from cover you were. If the car had been going the other way, its lights would have flashed on me.”

“You think so?”

“I know so,” Luke answered. “If I’d been caught in the light, you’d have been the one who made the jump toward the bad guy and then you’d have had to carry me.”

“I would have,” Nathan answered without hesitation.

“I know. That’s why I’d partner with you again, anytime.”

Nathan looked tired and still in pain, but he smiled. “Thanks, Morgan.”

Luke straightened. “Anytime.”

They talked for a few more minutes, then Nathan, almost asleep, said he’d see Luke tomorrow.

Luke saluted a sleeping comrade and left the room.

He forced himself to walk slowly down the hall even though he wanted to run. It seemed a hundred years since he’d kissed Allie in the tiny office this morning. The longing for her was an ache deep inside. Reason told him she wasn’t hurt bad. She’d driven to the hospital. She was being released tonight.

But reason could be wrong.

When he stepped off the elevator, his blood pressure jumped at the sight of the empty chair where he’d left Willie less than half an hour ago.

Luke walked over to the chair and stared. Not only Willie, but Mary Lynn and Paul were gone.

“Looking for something, mister?”

The girl at the desk had been replaced by a blonde looking five years younger than the one before, but no brighter.

“I’m looking for my friends.”

“Old guy who smelled like fish?”

Luke raised an eyebrow, wondering if hospitals kicked people out for smelling bad. “Yes,” he said as he walked closer. There couldn’t be two men running around hospital halls after midnight who fit that description.

The blonde grinned like she’d just gotten a question right on Jeopardy!. “He left with a couple.” The emergency waiting room was empty but she busily sorted papers.

“Any idea where they went?”

“They followed a woman we released. Oh, yeah, the old man said they were going to ICU.”

Luke didn’t bother to say thank you. He stormed down the hallway not caring that his boots echoed off the walls. Two left turns later, he spotted a sign pointing to ICU. Willie slept on a bench beneath the sign. Paul and Mary Lynn waited just outside the door a few feet farther down. They all turned as he neared as if they expected him.

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked the question, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

Mary Lynn spoke. “We’re just waiting for Allie to come out. Even though it’s late, we finally talked the nurse into letting her just look in on Nana. Allie promised not to make a sound and the nurse said she’d allow it if only Allie stepped in.”

Luke faced the closed door and stared through a tiny window, his tired gaze searching for Allie amid the equipment-packed hallway.

She stood thirty feet away, staring into a glass room. He couldn’t see Nana. He didn’t have to. He could see Allie’s heart breaking. Her clothes were dirty and torn. Her hair wild. Her face wet with unchecked tears. Her world was splintering and she stood all alone.

Every muscle in his body tightened. He wanted to rush to her and pull her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be all right. Deep down he felt the need to protect her, but he knew he couldn’t. He blamed himself for what had happened. He knew she’d blame it on the bad luck she thought followed her. She wouldn’t understand that if she hadn’t been waiting on that dock, Skidder might have run right past Jefferson’s Crossing. Allie wouldn’t be bandaged and Nana wouldn’t be in ICU if he hadn’t made the date.

Paul stood beside Luke, giving him the facts in a low voice. “Allie’s only got a few cuts. She’s fine. Nana lost a lot of blood, but they’re just keeping her here for a few days to run some tests.”

Luke braced his hands on the door frame, fighting not to shove his way through. He knew if he held her now, he’d never be able to let her go and he still had a job to finish.

Luke shoved away from the door. “Can you get Allie and Willie home?”

“Of course.”

“I need to file a few reports and have a talk with the men being brought in.”

“I understand. Don’t worry about Allie.” Paul hesitated as if knowing his question was anything but simple. “Don’t you want to stay to talk to her?”

“No,” he said, trying not to sound as tortured as he felt. “I’ll get the work done first. Tell her I’ll see her later.”

Walking away was the hardest thing Luke had ever done in his life.

I don’t remember the drive home or the shower I must have taken. I don’t remember falling asleep, but I think I cried until I had no energy left to worry about being lonely.

The morning blinked into my bedroom and I rolled over, welcoming the day for a moment before I realized Nana wasn’t with me. I forced myself out of bed and dressed without paying any attention to what I wore. Then, finding comfort in routine, I went downstairs and made the coffee.

The kitchen didn’t feel right without Nana and the wonderful smells of her cooking. I flipped the first cabinet door open and began following her recipe for buttermilk biscuits.

She’d always made it look so easy, but it wasn’t. I had to roll the dough into a ball and start over three times. The first time it stuck to the counter because I forgot to put flour down first, the second I rolled it almost pizza-thin. By the third try the dough felt leathery, but it at least looked right.

I’d forgotten to write down how to cut the biscuits. I knew she used an old glass, but which one? The juice glasses looked too little, the tumblers were too big. I finally settled on an old glass Nana always called the snuff glass, even though I’d never seen snuff. I used a little bacon grease from a can Nana kept on the back of the stove to oil the pan, flipped the biscuits over in the thin film of grease, and shoved them in the oven.

If I keep busy, I told myself, I won’t think about all that happened last night. The hospital told me not to show up until nine, so I had a few hours to kill. I promised myself I wouldn’t spend them crying.

I fried up sausage patties and slipped them into the hot biscuits, then set a tray on the counter ready for customers.