Page 26 of Hotter than Wildfire

“All?”

“Me, my husband Sam—you met Sam at the office—our housekeeper Manuela and the third RBK partner, Mike. You haven’t met him yet.”

Nicole’s voice was as calm and smooth as if they were at a tea party and she were describing the guest list.

“We all said we’d be willing to stay with you. You developed a high fever the first night. Very high. Luckily antibiotics took care of that. You drifted in and out of consciousness. Harry stayed right here. Except for going to the bathroom—" Nicole pointed to a door in the corner. “He hasn’t budged from that chair in three days.”

There was no answer to that. Ellen was mulling that piece of information over in her dull, sluggish mind when Nicole’s face changed.

It was remarkable. Where before she’d just been this beautiful woman—okay, the most beautiful woman Ellen had ever seen up close and not on a screen—all of a sudden she smiled brightly and became even more gorgeous. She simply glowed.

Ellen had a limited field of vision. But the reason for Nicole’s blinding smile walked up to her, put a big arm around her waist and bent to kiss her.

For the first time, Ellen noticed something about the way Nicole moved, a heaviness around the belly. She was expecting. And by the way her husband kissed her, it was a happy occasion.

Ellen’s mom had had a couple of pregnancy scares while Ellen was growing up and it had been anything but an occasion for rejoicing. Usually because the man in question was already across the state line and Ellen’s mom didn’t know how to take care of herself and Ellen, let alone another kid.

But this guy looked like he was going to stay, and was really happy about the pregnancy.

Sam Reston. The man Kerry had trusted to get her away safely. The man who’d saved Kerry’s life. The man she said Ellen could trust.

A tiny lingering tension left Ellen’s body.

There was still a question mark against Harry Bolt, but Nicole and her husband Sam felt safe.

Reston’s head lifted and his eyes met his wife’s. He smiled, a secret smile just for the two of them. For an instant, they were encased in a cocoon of love, the outside world completely forgotten.

Oh, man. A pang of…what? Jealousy? Longing? Whatever the emotion, it hit Ellen squarely in the chest. She was really weak, that’s why tears pricked her eyes.

But still. She’d never loved anyone like that and no one had ever loved her like that. She’d never even seen that kind of relationship. Her mom had specialized in deadbeat boyfriends who were mainly out for a temporary bed-mate and often just a bed.

Must be nice to be loved like that, she thought.

Reston turned to her and smiled. It transformed his rough face and made it almost…handsome. She wondered if a smile would do that to Harry Bolt’s face, even though he looked as if he’d never smiled. Not once in his life. As if his face would crack if he smiled.

“Hi.” Reston bent over the bed so she could see him more clearly. “Welcome back. We were a little worried, even though Harry here is a really good medic. He took good care of you.”

Her eyes slid over to Harry Bolt. Maybe. Was she expected to say thank you?

“So…we’re okay here?” Ellen desperately tried to read Sam Reston’s eyes. They were dark and featureless, except when he looked at his wife. Then they burned. “Nobody can find me here?”

“Yeah, you’re safe,” he said.

“She needs a little more reassurance than that.” Nicole jabbed an elbow into her husband’s side. He looked as thickly muscular as Harry Bolt. He probably could barely feel the jab. “My husband here tends to be…protective of me. I don’t think he’d let me be here if he felt there was any danger.”

“Damn straight,” Reston growled. “There isn’t anything that can lead Gerald Montez to here and it’s going to stay that way.”

For how long? Was she just expected to stay here—wherever here was—forever?

It was too much. Her body didn’t have any energy left, not for speculation, not for hope, not even for fear. There was simply nothing left.

She closed her eyes, murmured, “S’all right,” and heard a rushing noise as the world went black.

SIX

She was just so fucking beautiful.

Harry knew Nicole and Sam and Mike thought he was being heroic or something, not leaving her side, but it wasn’t that. Bolt cutters and a crane couldn’t make him move.