One Night

Chapter 17, One Night

"Are you sure?" Walker was in the emergency room, waiting just outside the curtained-off area.

Kruso was looking up at him, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders. "She's Ryder's ex-wife. I know, I can't believe it, either. Andrea Connelly broke into your house to kill Kate."

"Is she out of surgery yet?"

"Yeah, it was just a shoulder wound through and through. They cleaned it and stitched her up." She looked up at Walker. "Just in case you're wondering, I always hit where I aim."

He wondered, for a minute, whether she was referring to the fact that he'd missed. "I'm sure you do. Did they find Cindy?"

She nodded. "It's a shame. This whole thing didn't have to happen."

He didn't miss the moment he spotted Ryder racing to the nurses' station. He looked frantic and pretty rough, as if he'd just gotten out of bed and pulled on the first thing he could find. He was very upset, and although Walker couldn't make out what he was saying, he could hear enough. The man was beside himself.

"Look who just walked in," Kruso said. She looked over at the distraught man. "Cindy was tucked into Mrs. Connelly's trunk—stabbed, her throat slit."

The curtain popped open, and the doctor walked out. The young intern stopped and gestured behind himself. "She's good to go any time. We've got her papers signed," he said.

"Thank you," Walker said as he looked over at Kate, who was lying on the bed, a bandage over the cut on her neck, her wrist wrapped. Her chin was still scraped from earlier that night.

"Go be with your girl," Kruso said. "I'll handle the ex-husband."

"Hey, Kruso."

She stopped and turned. "Yeah?"

"Where did you learn to climb like that?"

She smiled slowly. She really had a nice smile. "Got five kids, honey. Someone had to teach them how to climb trees."

That, he hadn't expected.

She winked and then pointed to where Kate was lying in bed, watching him. She mouthed, "Go," then shooed him with her fingers.

"Is it morning yet?" Kate asked. She sounded groggy and tired.

Walker watched Kruso walk over to an irate Ryder. It looked as if she was trying to calm him down, and Walker was tempted for half a second to go out there and talk to Slick himself. But when he looked back at Kate, she was watching him with those deep hazel eyes. They were smoking hot for him, and there was something soft and vulnerable there too.

"Just..." He stepped up to the bed and brushed back her tangled hair.

She went to turn her head to him. "Ow," she said, and she winced and lifted her hand to touch her throat.

He leaned over her so she could look. "Don't move. What did the doctor say?"

"He cleaned the cut, gave me antibiotics for any infection. No stitches, but it hurts like hell."

He looked at the plastic brace around her wrist and went to touch it.

"It's just a bad sprain, the doctor said. He also said not to use it for a week, but how am I going to type in the computer? I have a job, and I've never missed a day. I can't just sit back—"

He leaned in and kissed her, stopping her before she could go on and on. She was so responsive. He pulled back, licking his lips. She tasted so good.

She was wearing one of his T-shirts and her gym shorts, still barefoot because he wouldn't let her get her shoes. He'd been worried she'd been hurt a lot worse than the bumps and bruises she had, so he'd lifted her up before the EMS arrived at his house and carried her to his car.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

She didn't say anything for a minute, but he could see the uncertainty in her eyes. "I am," she said. She started to sit up, so he slipped his hand behind and helped her up from the stretcher. "Is that Ryder?" she said as they started walking out, her hand going to the bandage covering her throat.

"Yeah," he said, watching as the doctor and Kruso spoke with him. Whatever they said had him tearing up and then covering his eyes with his hands. Kruso put her hand on his shoulder as if trying to console him.

"Did you ever find out why his wife broke into your house and tried to kill me?" Kate asked. Walker stopped just outside the emergency room and glanced over at Ryder, who spotted him and then Kate. He looked away as if he didn't know who she was.

"His ex-wife, you mean. Apparently she and Cindy became friends. Cindy was keeping tabs on Ryder for her, told her about every date Ryder had. Every time he connected with some woman on the dating site, she'd have her email and find out who she saw. It's still a big mess. We're going to have to sort through her computer, see if there's anything tied to them that was reported. But you...I don't know what it is about you." He squeezed her to him closer, and she was watching him and then Ryder.

"How's his wife?" she asked.

"Shoulder wound. They're just cleaning her up, and she'll be off to the prison hospital."

"That's horrible," Kate said. "He's got two little kids. How screwed up is that, all because he got bored and starting messing around? Oh my God, what about Cindy? She was in my apartment."

He squeezed her to him. "Stop, would you? Boy, can you get riled up quicker than a bunch of hornets."

"I do not," she challenged. "There's just something about you that makes me lose my head."

He couldn't help leaning in and kissing her again. "Just so you know, Cindy won't be bothering you again."

"Oh, good, so you got her? That's such a relief." She looked up and rolled her eyes, and he felt her relax against him.

He wasn't about to tell her that Cindy was dead, and they still didn't know why she'd broken into Kate's apartment and written what she had on the wall, whether that had been Ryder's ex-wife helping her or if she'd acted alone. They also had no idea why Cindy had driven her car through the front of the restaurant, but they were pretty sure it had been Andrea Connelly who'd trashed Ryder's house and slid her journal under his mattress. Walker almost thought she'd wanted to get caught. Sometimes you never got all the answers.

"Come on, let's go home," he said.

"Well, my home or your home? Where are you taking me? I mean, we haven't even had our first date," she said as he walked her out the door, and he smiled to himself, thinking he couldn't wait until then.