U. S. Marshall: Night's Landing Part 28

"No. And I didn't see the news reports on him, or didn't remember them if I did." She set the kettle on the stove, her movements tense, jerky. "Given the number of people my parents know, it's probably to be expected one's turned out to be a fugitive."

"Your mother's attractive?"

His question took Sarah by surprise, but she tried not to be defensive. "Yes, I think so. Other people do, as well. What's that got to do with anything?"

He eased onto a stool, those blue eyes never leaving her. "Probably nothing."

"Anyway, you've seen pictures of her. There are some on the mantel and there's one in your room."

"Three. As far as I can see, she's downright beautiful. Collins will get a sketch together of the men who attacked Juliet. They must be close to completing something on the guy you saw in the park. We'll see what happens."

"Do you have any idea what's going on?"

He shook his head. "Any of those fried pies left?"

"One."

"We can split it."

"d.a.m.n right, Deputy. I don't get fried apricot pies that often."

He got to his feet and came around to her at the stove, caught her by the elbow. "Your parents will be all right. So will Rob. So will you."

"You can't know that."

He smiled, the incisive eyes not so hard now. "Why the h.e.l.l not?" He kissed her softly, reminded her of their lovemaking yesterday before dinner. "Good thing I'm off duty."

"There's no such thing as an off-duty fed. Rob says that all the time."

"Think he already knows about us? The twin thing."

She liked the way he said "us," as if yesterday, the night before, had meant something to him. She got two mugs out of the cupboard. "If he knows, he'd have checked himself out of the hospital bed by now. He'd drag his IV down here with him if he had to. He's never wanted to introduce me to his marshal buddies."

"Now you can understand why."

"Nate-" She broke off, setting the mugs on the counter. "I've learned to take things one step at a time with my parents. They've always got a pot boiling. Nicholas Janssen could be a red herring."

"Joe Collins will want to know what he and your mother talked about."

"They talked for two seconds at a public museum. It's not as if she can be accused of harboring a fugitive." Sarah lifted the lid off a canister and dug out a couple of tea bags. "Conroy probably discovered the connection between Janssen and my mother and figures he can tie it back to the president." She stopped still, sighing. "That weasel. That has to be what he's up to."

"Didn't President Poe go to Vanderbilt with your mother?"

"They were in the came cla.s.s."

"Does your mother have a college yearbook around here?"

Sarah hesitated, then nodded. She abandoned the tea bags and retreated to the living room, pulling all four of her mother's college yearbooks off a high, dusty shelf in the living room. She dumped them onto the coffee table and sat on the couch, Nate beside her, and flipped through the pages of the one from her mother's freshman year.

About halfway through, she found one small candid shot from a philosophy cla.s.s with all of them together: Betsy Quinlan, John Wesley Poe and Nicholas Janssen.

Sarah scanned each of the other three yearbooks, but there were no pictures of Janssen in any of them, including the one from what should have been his senior year.

"He must have dropped out," Sarah said.

But Nate was already dialing Joe Collins's number in New York.

Twenty-Eight.

J uliet hurt all over when she coughed, but she managed to extricate herself from the E.R. and bypa.s.s any medical types on her way to Rob's room. She still had on her running clothes, the hem of her shorts bloodied from her short skid across the road. The guys guarding Rob eyed her but didn't say a word. Smart. She felt like punching someone. Not that she could muster up the strength to really nail anyone. But she was in the mood.

Rob was on his feet, off all his IVs and looking like he wanted to escape out the nearest window.

"Watch out," Juliet told him. "Collins is getting cranky about deputy marshals who get out of line."

He gave her a ragged look. "I need to get out of here."

"Not without an armed guard. You're still not fit to protect yourself, and, d.a.m.n, you need protecting. I'm thinking you've got a big-a.s.sed target painted on your back."

His gray eyes seemed to focus on her for the first time since she'd entered his room. "What the h.e.l.l happened to you? Juliet-"

"I got shoved into a car at gunpoint by a couple of thugs. One got in a few smacks before I jumped out into oncoming traffic. They wanted to know about the investigation into the shooting." She grinned and limped to his bed. "I think they picked me because I'm blond."

He swept a narrowed gaze over her, presumably taking in her swollen lip, the visible portion of her bloodied upper thigh and the obvious pain she was in. "They picked you because you're a creature of habit and run at the same time every morning." He sat on his vinyl-covered hospital chair. "And you're my former girlfriend."

"There. I've always said you'd make a great investigator." It was weird talking with a swollen lip. The doctor had sent her off with an ice pack, which she'd used on the way up to Rob's room but wouldn't use in front of him and his guards. "I swear, I'd rather get shot than have to jump out of a moving vehicle. You should see the rest of this road rash."

"Done. I'll trade you my bullet wound for your road rash."

"You'd get my right thigh with the deal. You might not like that."

"I like your right thigh just fine."

His comment was that of a friend who'd once been a lover, a man who was facing a long recovery, who hadn't had a chance to fight his own attacker. Juliet sat on the edge of his bed, a hospital no-no, careful to avoid touching anything to her road rash. "It could have been a couple of mad reporters for all I know."

"That's not what you think."

No. She thought it was the guy his sister had seen in Central Park. She tried to grin, but it hurt. "You don't look so good today, Dunnemore."

"You should see yourself, Longstreet."

She laughed. "Collins asked me a bunch of pointed questions. I think he's suspicious of me. Thinks I might have faked my own kidnapping. For all I know, he's got it in his head that I shot you and Nate."

"FBI's suspicious of everyone. Collins is no exception."

"I'm suspicious of everyone, but he's carrying it too far. He barged in on me in the E.R. I practically had my a.s.s hanging out-"

"Juliet. Jesus Christ."

"Sorry. I grew up as one of the boys. I can be-"

"I wasn't talking about your language. Collins. He doesn't really suspect you. You got a description of the guys who grabbed you?"

She nodded. "I'm not supposed to discuss the details with anyone."

"Understood."

"You want to get back in bed? You look like you're fading. My G.o.d, Rob. I can't believe..." But she stopped herself, knowing it wouldn't do him any good to dwell on how close he'd come to being dead. "Maybe I'll just tell Collins I fell while I was on my run and made up the kidnapping just to cover for my embarra.s.sment."

"This thing, whatever's going on-it's not a marshal's deal. Nate knows about you?"

Although he was up, Rob looked more haggard this morning, with dark circles under his eyes. Maybe the doctors and nurses were pushing him too hard. "Collins called him after he got through grilling me."

Rob sank his head back against his chair and exhaled at the ceiling, his chest bandage peeking out of his hospital gown.

Juliet eased back to her feet. "It's hard to look macho in a hospital gown, isn't it?"

"Hard to look macho with a big G.o.dd.a.m.n bullet hole in you." She'd tried to make him smile, but failed. He had to know she was holding back on him. "You did great, Longstreet. Getting away. I'm glad you had a chance."

"I should have gotten the plate number. Collins would be happier with me if I had."

"f.u.c.k Collins."

She smiled. "No way. He's got a wife and kids, not to mention that gut-"

That drew something of a smile. "You are going straight to h.e.l.l, you know that, don't you?"

"Just trying to cheer up a fellow deputy. Think the FBI's got me under surveillance? And Nate-I wonder-"

"You and Nate'd sniff out a G-man within a thousand yards of you."

"They can monitor my calls and e-mails all they want-I don't care. I just don't like the idea of someone tailing me."

"You're unnerved, Longstreet. That's not a good place to be."

"How would you know? You've never been unnerved in your life."

"I'm there now. My parents turning up missing yesterday, Sarah and this anonymous note." He shook his head, his distress at his immobility palpable. "And there's not a d.a.m.n thing I can do about it."

He shifted in his chair, giving an involuntary moan of pain. Juliet remembered laying her hand on his chest, but all the pa.s.sion and the romance they'd had for each other was gone now, replaced by a steady, resilient friendship that surprised her. For the most part when men were done with her, they ran like h.e.l.l.

"Come on, Juliet. Quit beating yourself up."

"I should have gotten more out of these guys before I jumped."

"If the car had picked up speed and you jumped, you'd have broken bones instead of bruises."

Or she'd be dead. "They realized they hadn't locked the doors about the time I did. But still-I could have done better."

"You're too hard on yourself."

"Collins is interviewing witnesses himself. He really must think I staged the whole thing." She blinked back infuriating tears. "G.o.d, listen to me. You're the one who almost died."

Rob didn't respond.

Juliet sniffled and pulled herself together. What the h.e.l.l had the doctor given her to make her so pathetic? "I've decided to fly down to Tennessee and talk to Nate, maybe talk to your sister. Don't worry, I'm not going to step on FBI toes."

"Going to ask their permission?"

"No. I don't answer to them. And it's my d.a.m.n day off. I can do what I want. Rivera tried to put a security detail on me, but I'm still armed and able to take care of myself."

Rob grinned at her, a spark of his former self shining through his pain and weakness. "Tough as nails Deputy Longstreet." But his humor ebbed quickly, and he tightened a fist, staring at his pale skin. "I really need to get out of this G.o.dd.a.m.n hospital."

"You will." She kissed him on the top of the head. "I'll call you from Tennessee and let you know if Nate's been behaving himself."

"Juliet-"

"Your sister's really pretty. You know that, right? And her and Nate-whoa, when she followed him-"

Rob made a face. "Sarah's always thought she'd fall for some mild-mannered academic, but, watch, it'll be some hard-a.s.s like Nate."

"Think he could fall for her, or will you kill him if he does?"

"You've seen her. You've seen them together. What do you think?"

Juliet pretended to think a moment, but she didn't have to-she had a fair idea of what Winter and Rob's twin sister were like together. "I think the wolf's guarding the proverbial henhouse."

"Sarah can be tough on men," Rob said. "She's had too many go after her just because of her looks. She's got herself convinced now that she wants someone *safe.'"

Juliet laughed. "That's what we all think when we see Nate, isn't it? Here's a safe guy. Hang in there, okay? They're both adults. Worse thing that can happen is your sister gets pregnant and has a little Nate-or little Nate twins, since they run in the family."

"I wish I had the strength to throw something at you." Rob settled his gray eyes on her, a reminder that beneath the southern charm and easygoing facade was a serious, experienced federal law enforcement officer. "Be careful."

"Of course."

"Think of me languishing up here while you're eating prune cake and drinking sweet tea punch on the porch."

"Trust me," she said, "I'm not eating anything called prune cake."

"You already have. I made it to celebrate my a.s.signment up here."

"You said it was spice cake with caramel frosting."