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“What about me?”
“Who are your enemies?” He estimated another two minutes to the hospital and held out hope she’d give him something more substantial than this. He wondered if it would help or hurt his cause if he mentioned the Morcos family.
“That list grows after every assignment,” she said with a weary attempt at a smile. “I’ve been accused of being pushy and abrasive.”
“Come on, Eva.” He couldn’t hide his disappointment. Avoidance wouldn’t help either of them. “If that sniper was aiming for you, who do you think sent him?”
“Why don’t you believe he was after Bart?”
“My job at this point is to explore all the options and I’m talking to you right now. Who might be after you?”
She sighed. “No idea.” She patted her laptop bag. “But I intend to find out.”
He was forced to drop the subject as they pulled up to the emergency room entrance, where the sheriff was chatting with a nurse waiting with another patient in a wheelchair. The sheriff opened Eva’s door, then leaned in for a second. “I’ll take her inside, get her cleaned up, and settled. You need to get an update on Bart and if he’s able, I want some answers.”
“Sure thing.”
With the ER staff bustling around him, Carson made a few notes for the report he knew Ross would demand at the first opportunity. When he was allowed a few minutes in the ER bay with the patient known officially as Karl Bartholomew, the man proved as evasive as Eva had been and Carson knew it wasn’t just the pain meds blurring his memory.
“Why did you close the blinds?”
Bart scowled at him, though his face was almost as pale as the pillow under his head. “It was too bright. I had a headache.”
Carson hooked a foot around a rolling stool and sat down, putting himself nearly nose to nose with Bart. “I have a job to do here. You strike me as a man who understands that concept. If you led a sniper into this town, I need to know about it.”
“So that’s how it is, huh?” Bart laughed, wincing from the pain it caused. “Men fall for her wherever she goes. You’re not her type.”
Carson had a sudden urge to add ‘broken nose’ to the man’s medical chart. Keeping his fists on his knees, he played a hunch. “Why did you take a bullet meant for her?”
“You wouldn’t?”
Carson battled back his immediate affirmative reply and stared Bart down.
“Better me than her,” Bart continued. “If anyone can find the bastard who ordered that sniper to take the shot, it’s Eva.”
The curtain slid back and Mrs. O’Kelly, a nurse who worked with his mom, smiled at him. “The sheriff’s asking for you, J.C.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 3
Carsonreturnedtothewaiting area to find Sheriff Cochran pacing back and forth in front of the receptionist’s tall desk. “They’re waiting for us in the office. What’s the prognosis on the big guy?”
He wondered who ‘they’ meant, but figured he’d find out soon enough. “Good prognosis, I guess. Mrs. O’Kelly says he’s stable and no one seems too worried about him.” Except Eva.
“I called in some help from Florence PD for a protective detail.”
Carson nodded, following the sheriff away from the noise of the ER and into the quiet of one of the admin offices. Ross, Eva’s boss, glanced up as they walked in, but Eva’s gaze remained locked on her computer screen.
“How’s Bart?”
“Stable enough to answer a few questions,” Carson replied, pleased when his answer caught Eva’s attention.
“What did he tell you?” She caught her lower lip with her teeth while she waited for his answer.
Carson was tired of the information flowing only one way—away from him. “Did he complain of a headache when he arrived?”
Ross and Eva exchanged a surprised look. “Bart never has headaches.”
