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With their charge in the shower, Vince let himself relax for a fraction of a second. “Yeah. Maybe.” He paused. “I don’t know, to be honest.” He tapped a reply to his mother’s text.
I’m not sure. I’ll have to let you know.
“This have anything to do with the flight paramedic?” Charlie asked.
“Raina.”
“Mm-hmm. Raina.”
“It does.”
His partner studied him with narrowed eyes. “This is the first woman you’ve been interested in since we became partners.”
Vince shrugged. “She’s not like any woman I’ve ever met before.”
“How so?”
“I don’t even know where to begin.”
“It’s going to sound cliché, but...”
“The beginning?”
“Yeah.”
It seemed like a good time to check the doors and windows again while he figured out what he was going to say. Once that was done—much too quickly—he leaned against the wall near the bedroom door, listening to the shower. The guy did like longones. How many showers a day did one person need? Maybe it was a symbolic thing. Like he felt the need to try and wash off the filth of the life he’d chosen. Who knew? At least if he was in the shower, he was easy to keep up with and no one had to talk to him.
Charlie waited patiently.
Finally, Vince sighed. “You know the history. I met Raina the same week I started with the marshals. She’s a friend of a friend. Anyway, I just noticed right away she had depth ... and mystery.” And a deep pain that emerged in her eyes when she thought no one was looking. Just like his sister.
“Ah,” Charlie said, pointing an index finger at Vince, “and there it is. You have a mystery to solve. Once you do that, the real question is ... will you still be interested?”
Vince chuckled. “I have a feeling Raina is kind of like an onion. The more you peel, the more layers you find. In other words, I’m not sure the mystery is solvable.” And surprisingly, he was okay with that.
Charlie raised a brow at him. “Let’s just hope she doesn’t make you cry.”
“Aw, stop it. I’m just saying I find her interesting and ... courageous.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I like her. Yeah.” And the shower was still running. He frowned. “I’m going to check on our guy. He takes long showers, but this is going on longer than usual.”
Charlie nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Vince twisted the knob and found it unlocked. He pushed open the bedroom door and stepped inside. The room was neat as a pin. Clothes folded, bed made. “Fedorov?” No answer, but the shower was still running, so maybe the man just couldn’t hear him. Vince went to the bathroom door and rapped on it. “Fedorov! You okay?”
When there was still no answer, Vince looked at Charlie and tried the bathroom knob. The door swung inward. Fedorov layon the floor, towel wrapped around his waist, his upper body still wet and his face a pasty gray.
Vince dropped beside the man. “Call an ambulance!”
Charlie was already dialing while Vince checked his pulse and started CPR. “Don’t you dare die on us, Fedorov, you hear me? Don’t you die!”
CHAPTER
FOUR
Raina could see the smoke from the wreck, illuminated by the streetlights, before the scene came into view. “Oh boy,” she whispered into the headset. “This is a bad one.”
“Drunk driver,” Holly said, clenching her fingers into fists.
The familiar wave of rage washed over Raina, and just like every other occasion with a wreck caused by a DUI, she shoved it down. She’d take care of any victims, her father’s face on each one. Her goal, to make sure no one lost a mom or a dad—and that the driver lived to face the consequences. She watched the ground grow closer. Emergency vehicles clogged the area and the first responders worked together like a well-oiled machine. “Gonna be a tight fit, Pen. Only place I see is between that fire truck and the two police cars.”
