Secret Weapon Spouse. B.J. Daniels
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from Rachel.
And that was dangerous. She needed to get back to work behind the scenes, back to what made her feel safe and that was far away from Alex Graham.
At the hospital, they rode together up the elevator to Caroline’s floor. “I’ll wait here for you,” she said as he started down the hall. She noticed that a guard had been posted outside Caroline’s door. “Is that your doing?” she asked, surprised.
“I hired guards 24-7 to keep an eye on her. I’m still not convinced the hit-and-run was an accident. And until I am…”
“Can’t hurt having the guard here, especially if it makes you feel better.”
“You make me feel better,” he said touching her hand and seeming not to notice when she flinched at his surprise touch. “I won’t be long.”
“Take your time. Really.”
She headed down the hall toward the nurses’ station, slowing as Alex nodded to the private guard and entered his sister’s room. Before the door closed, Samantha caught a glimpse of Caroline lying in the bed surrounded by equipment. It was so sad to see this beautiful, young woman bandaged and broken, let alone to think about the baby she was carrying.
In her line of work, Samantha dealt with bad guys all the time—just not up close and personal. For the first time, she was on the front lines and she’d never wanted to see justice done more than she did right now. She would do anything to find the person behind Sonya Botero’s abduction, behind Caroline Graham’s hit-and-run—even if it turned out that she’d been wrong about Preston Wellington III and he was involved.
She walked down to the nurses’ station on the pretense of inquiring about Caroline Graham’s condition. As she spoke with the nurse, Samantha noted Craig Johnson’s room number. It was just up the hall from Caroline’s room.
Alex was still in with his sister as Samantha passed the guard. She waited until he was busy reading a magazine in his chair outside Caroline’s door before Samantha headed for the chauffeur-bodyguard’s room.
She recalled what she’d witnessed earlier from the front window of Weddings Your Way. The driver of the car carrying the men who’d abducted Sonya Botero had appeared to purposely try to run down Johnson before striking Caroline Graham. Had there been more than one target?
She hesitated at the door to Johnson’s room. According to the Miami Confidential team, he was complaining of headaches and claiming he couldn’t recall anything about the incident.
Talking to him would no doubt prove to be a waste of time and possibly make Johnson suspicious, but maybe he had remembered something by now. Something that would help.
She pushed the door to his room partially open and stopped at the sound of his raised voice. He was speaking to someone, his tone strained.
She froze as he moved into her field of vision and she saw that he was on the phone, pacing back and forth in front of the window, his back to her. Cautiously he lifted a corner of the blind and peered out to the street.
“I’m telling you they tried to run me down,” Johnson said. “I was almost killed. What if they try again?”
So much for him not remembering anything about the incident, she thought, and wondered if he might be right about being in danger. But why kill him? There were other witnesses at the scene.
Thinking of the killers hitting Johnson here at the hospital, she heard movement behind her and whirled around, all her FBI self-defense training coming back in a rush.
ALEX HARDLY RECOGNIZED the woman who spun on him, her hands going up in a self-defense move. He jerked back in nothing short of shock. Even Samantha’s expression wasn’t one he’d seen before. She looked ready to kick his butt. More than that, she looked scared as if she’d been expecting someone to harm her.
“You all right?” he asked, glancing toward the hospital door she’d just let close. He’d caught her eavesdropping. Had she overheard something that frightened her?
“Sorry,” she said instantly, seeming embarrassed. “You startled me.”
“I guess.”
“I was just checking to see how Mr. Johnson was doing.”
Mr. Johnson, from what Alex had overheard, was the driver of the limo, the man who was attacked and his client abducted.
“He seems to be on the phone,” Samantha said, with a nonchalance that she didn’t quite pull off.
Alex had noticed Johnson on the phone when he’d come up behind her.
“How is Caroline?” Apparently she’d expected him to spend more time with his sister.
“The same,” he said, wondering again about Samantha. Just about the time he thought he might be figuring her out, she threw him another curve.
Suddenly, he felt exhausted as if the day’s events had finally caught up with him. “I should get you back,” he said. “It’s late. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time.”
“Really, it hasn’t been a problem. Dinner was wonderful, but I’ll take a cab back,” she said quickly as if she wanted to get away from him. “After the day you’ve had, you must be anxious to get home. Like you said, it’s late, and you look drained. No reason to go out of your way.”
How did she know that her office wasn’t on his way home? “It’s too late for you to go back to your office tonight anyway,” he said, suddenly wondering where she lived and why she was trying to get rid of him. “Let me take you home. I’d be happy to give you a ride to work in the morning. Just tell me what time to be there.”
She started to argue but he stopped her.
“I won’t hear of you taking a cab. Not after you were kind enough to spend the evening with me. I really didn’t want to be alone. So you must let me take you home.”
“I have to go back to the office tonight before I can go home.”
Why wasn’t he surprised? “Well, then I’m taking you.”
She nodded as if she’d accepted that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. But he could see that she would have much preferred taking a cab. Why was that? Earlier they’d been so close. But now she seemed uncomfortable in his presence and had been ever since he’d caught her listening in at the chauffeur’s hospital room door. Or was it after he’d caught her in her self-defense mode and seen her expression?
Either way, he’d heard enough to know that this Mr. Johnson was scared—and that the man thought the driver of the black limo had purposely tried to kill him and might try again.
And all this just when Alex had almost convinced himself there was nothing going on, that Caroline’s accident had been just that—an accident.
As they reached the outer door, he took Samantha’s elbow and felt her jump at his touch—her reaction even more pronounced than it had been the other time.
Who was Samantha Peters—a woman who seemed to do everything possible not to be noticed?
Whatever her motivation, he told himself he had every right—and possibly every reason—to find out more about this woman his sister had been working with over the past six months.
Chapter Five
Victor Constantine had the worst case of heartburn he’d ever had in his life. He knew better than to eat spicy food. He parked down the street and watched as the woman got out of the man’s pickup.
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