Just A Little Bit Dangerous Part 23

"I'm listening." Rising, Buzz went over to the coffee station. Reaching far into the back of the cabinet mounted on the wall, he removed a small flask and two cups. Back at his desk, he set one of the cups in front of Jake and filled it with two fingers of amber liquid. "I keep this stuff for emergencies," he said.

"I reckon this would qualify as an emergency."

"Yeah, decking a sheriff's deputy isn't real subtle."

Jake reached for the cup and drank. The whiskey burned his throat, but he emptied the cup. "I screwed up, Buzz."

"You're not going to get an argument from me."

"No. That's not what I mean." He cut Buzz a hard look. "I screwed up big time."

Buzz sighed. "That female convict got to you, didn't she?"

"I slept with her," Jake admitted.

In the twelve years he'd known Buzz Malone, Jake had never seen the other man flinch. "What?"

"I said I-"

"I know what you said. What I'm wondering is why the h.e.l.l you're telling me and what the holy h.e.l.l you're going to do about it."

"She's innocent."

Buzz groaned. "Jake-"

"d.a.m.n it, Buzz, she's innocent."

"She murdered a store clerk, for G.o.d's sake! Why do you think that deputy was so hard on her? She stole money and guns and-"

"She didn't do it."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Look, I know this sounds crazy-"

"It sounds a lot worse than crazy. It sounds like you did something that's going to cost you your career and you still don't have her out of your system."

It hit Jake then that he wasn't ever going to get her out of his system. The realization sent panic skittering up his spine, hitting his brain like a high-voltage spark. Fear churned in his gut. Fear of what he'd just realized, of what he'd known was true since the moment he'd first set eyes on her. Fear for the woman whose life he now held in his hands.

"I love her." His own words stunned him, rocked him to his very foundation. "G.o.d, Buzz, I love her."

Across from him Buzz got creative with his cursing. "Jake, you're tired. You've got a bullet wound in your side. You just came out of a high stress situation. Give yourself a couple of days to clear your head and cool off."

"A couple of days isn't going to cut it." Jake slid his cup across the desk. Buzz obliged by filling it.

"I need your help," Jake said.

"What you need is for Sheriff n.o.ble to look the other way and let this go."

"Someone framed her."

"Jake-"

"If you won't help me, Buzz, I'll do it without you."

"Do what?"

"I've got a couple of leads to follow up on. I can't do it alone. I need your help."

"I'm not a cop anymore."

"Tomorrow at this time, I probably won't be, either. But I've got to work this. I've got to work it smart-"

"What you need to be working on is damage control. h.e.l.l, I can't believe you slugged that deputy. If he files a complaint, you're in big trouble."

Remembering the way Abby had looked on her knees on the wet asphalt, Jake grimaced. "He had it coming."

"If this woman-Nichols-starts spewing claims of improper police conduct, you can kiss your career goodbye."

"She won't."

Sighing, Buzz leaned forward and filled his own cup, looking as if he needed the drink as badly as Jake. "I don't have to remind you about your track record with women, do I?"

Jake knew he was referring to Elaine. Buzz was the only person who knew about her. The only person he'd confided in. He thought about Abby, tried to align the parallels, realized he couldn't. Abby Nichols was nothing like Elaine. Jake was willing to bet his career on it. Lord, he was willing to bet his life on it.

"Are you sure you want to throw your career away on a convicted murderer?"

Tossing the empty cup into the trash container beneath Buzz's desk, Jake rose. "I'm going to take a shower, then head over to Mercy General." He gave Buzz a hard look. "Are you coming with me?"

"You going to clue me in or keep me fumbling around in the dark?"

A frisson of relief went through Jake. "I'll explain on the way."

For the first time that day the cold got to Abby. As the female deputy led her to her temporary cell, it seemed to rear up inside her, and burst forth from her very bones. She began to shiver. Her teeth chattered. Her hands were shaking so badly, she could barely hold the state-issue blanket and pillow they'd given her down in processing.

Oh, G.o.d in heaven, what had she done?

The question was moot because Abby knew d.a.m.n good and well what she'd done. Not once, but twice. She'd trusted a man she'd known would betray her. She'd given him her body and let him use her. Worse, she'd given him her heart and now it was breaking.

Oh, Jake, how could you do this to me?

The interview with the D.O.C. officials was a blur. Mostly, they'd wanted to know how she'd gotten out, if anyone within the prison system had helped her, and what she'd done once she was free. The cops weren't quite as nice and concentrated most of their questions about a sporting goods store clerk who'd ended up dead. From what Abby had gathered, the cops had found Grams's truck and somehow the guns and money taken from the sporting goods store had ended up in the truck. They'd been relentless in their questioning, asking the same questions over and over again. Cold and wet and hungry, by the time they were finished with her some four hours later, she was almost ready to confess just so she could get into some dry clothes.

Processing was a nightmare, but Abby had simply let her mind leave her body as she was checked into the Chaffee County jail. She was allowed a shower, given a prison-issue jumpsuit and taken to her small cell in the bas.e.m.e.nt where a female deputy pa.s.sed a lukewarm dinner through the bars. After arraignment the next morning, she would be transferred back to Buena Vista.

Where was Jake?

The question had come to her a thousand times since she'd walked away from him in the parking lot of the ranger station. She wondered if, after everything that had happened between them, after everything they'd shared, he believed the lies about her.

He hadn't come to see her. He hadn't kept his word and gotten her transferred to a place where she would be safe.

Oh, G.o.d, what had she done by trusting him?

Abby stared at the untouched tray of food. She knew she should eat. It had been almost twenty-four hours since she'd taken in any nourishment. But her stomach was in knots and her appet.i.te had long since fled. Standing in the center of her cell, she felt physically ill and cold to the depths of her soul.

Jake wasn't going to come for her. He wasn't going to keep his word and try to clear her name. He'd used her; she'd allowed it. Her body. Her heart. He'd given her hope and then s.n.a.t.c.hed it away. The cruelty of the act hurt more than any physical blow.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Abby sank down to the cold, concrete floor. She knew better than to cry; crying never helped anything, but the tears came in a flood. Her sobs echoed off the walls of the hollow room. She cried openly, her heart bleeding as if it had been slashed. The pain doubled her over, and that was when she knew she'd made the ultimate mistake. Not only had she let Jake use her. But she'd fallen in love with him.

Chapter 15.

Jake sat on the gurney in the emergency room of Mercy General Hospital in Denver and watched the nurse inject numbing medication into the bullet wound on his side. He'd filled Buzz in on the story Abby had told him about Jonathan Reed and her suspicions with regard to the deaths of at least two homeless patients.

Buzz hadn't said much, certainly hadn't admitted to believing such a far-fetched tale, particularly with consideration to Jake's source-Abby Nichols. But Jake knew Buzz well enough to recognize the cop's suspicion in the other man's eyes. Buzz would help. And he knew if Buzz came upon one ounce of proof, he'd jump on it like a wolf on a rabbit. He'd left Jake at the nurse's station and begun the uncertain and tedious process of questioning the staff with regard to Abby Nichols, Jonathan Reed and the death of a homeless man named Jim.

"Numb enough for you, Officer Madigan?"

The nurse's voice jerked him back to the present. Jake looked over at her and forced a smile. "I don't feel a thing."

"Good, because you're going to need about eight st.i.tches."

Nurse Holly Forbes was in her forties, with pretty brown hair and a rea.s.suring smile. Jake watched her work the curved suture needle for a few minutes before asking, "How long have you worked at Mercy General?"

"Oh, gosh, it'll be fourteen years next month. Just doesn't seem possible, you know? Didn't even have the new wing when I started."

"Did you know Abby Nichols?"

Her hands faltered for a fraction of a second and she cast him a sidelong look. Jake stared back, trying to read her, and went with his gut. "Off the record," he said.

She resumed st.i.tching. "I knew her. She was a very nice young woman."

"Did you know her well?"

"We were friends. Used to take our dinner break together when we worked graveyard shift. Terrible about what happened." She pulled another st.i.tch, then snipped the end with scissors and began tying it off. "She's in prison from what I hear."

"She is."

"She didn't seem like the type, you know? Made quite a stir here in the hospital when what she did came out in the trial."

"Do you think she did it?"

Their gazes met. Jake narrowed his eyes, desperate now to read her. "Are you working on her case?" she asked carefully.

"No. I'm her friend."

"I suspect she could use a friend."

He paused, wondering how much to tell her, knowing there wasn't much time. "I don't think all the information came out during the trial, do you?"

Her previously steady hands began to tremble. "I wouldn't know."

"If you care about what happens to that young woman, you'll follow your instincts and tell me what you know," he said.

She finished tying off the last st.i.tch and set the needle and scissors in the stainless-steel tray. "I don't know what-"

"I'm pretty good at reading people, ma'am, and you have 'I know more than I'm telling you' written all over your face."

"Deputy Madigan-"

"Her life depends on the truth," he said.

She smiled, uncomfortable. "I don't know anything for certain. And I told the police everything. But I have my suspicions, but that's all they are. Suspicions."

"Suspicions about what?"

"Look, I've got three little kids to support and no husband to help me do it. This job is important. I can't risk-"

"I promise you, this will go no further than this room." There he went again, making promises he might not be able to keep.

Another nurse came into the room. Holly smiled uncomfortably at the other woman, then looked down at the tray in front of her and unwrapped a sterile gauze bandage. "I can't discuss this here."

"Someone's trying to hurt Abby," he said. "She doesn't have much time."

The nurse closed her eyes and sighed. "The person you need to talk to quit about a year and a half ago."

"Who?" he pressed.

"Donna Sullivan. She was a nurse here."

"Why do I need to talk to her?"

"Because she knows more than I do."

"Where can I find her?"

"She used to live in Littleton. A little efficiency apartment off of Bowles. I don't know if she's still there. She never kept in touch."

Fifteen minutes later, Buzz and Jake were back on the road, heading toward the suburb of Littleton.

"What do you think?" Jake asked, after telling him everything the nurse had told him.