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 Kylie, I nobody did a sweep of the building. Although his breathing told her he was
on the move, his voice remained carefully calm. For whatever reason, this caused her
nerves to stretch tight.  What if you re not the only one hiding in there? he went on.
 What happens if our guy is holed up inside the club?
Fear s icy fingers tickled her spine. She hadn t thought about the killer hiding inside the
club.
 I ll tell you what happens, Trevor went on in the face of her silence. Leashed fear
strained his words.  He trips over you on his way to take me down. Get out of there.
Right now.
Imagining a murderous maniac lurking somewhere inside the building triggered her
flight instinct in a big way.  I m going, she gasped.
 Good girl. I m almost at the back steps. I ll meet you there.
Hands shaking, she fumbled with the exit bar on the back door. The latch finally gave
way, and she stumbled through, completely off-balance. Even as the world tilted and the
concrete rushed up to meet her, her eyes scanned the lot for Trevor. She saw him running
her way, but as he ascended the first step, a hulking figure in dark clothing and a ski
mask broke away from the shadows between the stairs and the wall of the building. A
blunt object glinted at the end of his upraised arm.
Kylie screamed at the same time the arm began a powerful downward arc. Trevor
started to turn, feinted left, and grunted as the makeshift mace connected with his head.
The next instant, he tumbled facedown on the asphalt. The heavy, hollow thud of
something solid connecting with flesh and bone reached her ears like a radio signal on a
five-second delay.
She screamed again his name this time and scrambled down the stairs to where he
lay crumpled and unconscious. The attacker stood stock-still for a second, as if shocked
by her presence. Then a voice in the distance yelled,  Freeze!
Nobody froze. Momentum didn t permit her to do anything except continue closing the
distance to Trevor. The assailant took off down the narrow alley behind the buildings. Ian
approached at a full run, shouting instructions into a phone& radio& something.  Officer
down! Repeat, officer down! Hernandez, get your ass over to the mouth of alley and cut
this bastard off. Without breaking stride he yelled,  He breathing?
Oh, God. Was he? With a burst of strength born from adrenaline, she rolled Trevor over,
almost crying with relief when she heard his low groan of protest.  Yes! The relief
evaporated when she saw his face. Blood flowed freely and copiously from a cut near his
temple.
 Stay with him, Ian barked as he flew by.  Ambulance is on the way.
Chapter Thirteen
Trevor hated emergency rooms. He hated getting scanned and stitched. He hated
concussions. Most of all, he hated Ian telling him the perpetrator got away.
About the only thing he didn t hate was having Kylie glued to his side whenever some
nurse, doctor, or technician wasn t shooing her away so they could inflict more torture on
him. Of course, he gladly would have traded her worry and guilt for less tear-inducing
emotions, but one thing seemed fairly obvious to him, even with his somewhat fuzzy
head. She cared. A lot. Whether she liked it or not.
By the time the ER finally spat him out, the sun had dawned skull-splittingly bright
against a cloudless, electric blue sky in the City of Angels. Despite his protests, he found
himself propped between Kylie and Ian, and walked to the curbside pickup/drop-off zone
like a ninety-year-old invalid. Seeing the yellow Bug pulled up to the curb improved his
mood slightly. He liked his ride home, at any rate.
Kylie ran around to the driver s side while Ian held the passenger door and helped him
into the seat.
 Captain said he doesn t want to see your face before Wednesday.
 What will you do without me  til then?
 Oh, don t worry your pretty little head about it. He wants to see my ass ASAP.
 Hey, what happened wasn t your fault. Tell him 
 He knows. I already explained we had an unforeseen factor in play, Ian said quietly.
Their eyes flicked over to Kylie, but she d turned to reach for her seat belt and didn t
appear to have heard.  Anyway, I m going to keep digging into backgrounds. Maybe our
man has kept his official record clean, but somebody, somewhere, has seen this guy s
dark side.
Trevor nodded, and then winced as pain sliced through his head.  E-mail me some of
the files. I ll dig, too.
Ian stood and shut the door.  You can start digging on Wednesday.
 I ve got a concussion, not brain damage. I can read, type a few e-mails. I can dial a
phone.
 Hmm. Ian s eyes drifted back to Kylie.  I m thinking, if you play your cards right,
you re going to be otherwise occupied.
Oblivious, Kylie leaned across the interior of the car until she could see Ian out the
passenger-side window.  Can you continue this later? The doctor said Trevor s supposed
to rest.
Ian grinned.  We re done. He s all yours, Ky. Take him home and put him to bed. The
lazy wink he added was, in Trevor s opinion, neither subtle nor discreet, but Kylie was too
busy gunning the engine to catch the insinuation. As soon as she pulled away from the
curb, it became apparent exactly where her thoughts were.
 Are you dizzy? In pain? Do you need me to stop for anything?
 I m fine. Looking forward to being home.
She glanced at him, her expression uncertain.  Are you sure? You look pale and your
eyes are kind of squinty. The doctor recommended ibuprofen for the pain. I should stop at
the drugstore and pick some up.
 My eyes are squinty because it s bright out here. He closed them and settled back in
the seat, shifting around until he found a reasonably comfortable position in the compact
space.  I have ibuprofen at home if the headache gets to be more than I can stand.
 Okay. Straight home. Go ahead and take a little nap if you feel sleepy. I ll wake you up
when we get there.
 I m fine. Honest, he replied, not bothering to lift his eyelids, which suddenly felt as if [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]