Page 23 of Final Approach (Lake City Heroes #4)

ELEVEN

Kristine blinked and shifted on the chair.

She’d managed to fall asleep and her phone said she’d been out for three hours.

Wow. She needed it, sure, but hadn’t expected to basically pass out.

She was surprised the nurse had let her stay.

Then again, it wasn’t like she was tiring out the patient.

She stood and stretched out the kinks, grabbed her half-full water bottle, and chugged the rest of the contents.

Then returned to her seat to pull out her phone and check messages.

She had a long text from Andrew—obviously voice-texted—about meeting a young girl named Chey who had given them a little clue about Marcus Brown. She couldn’t wait to hear about that one and texted him that very thing.

She moved on to emails. Then paused. Her father hadn’t texted. Weird. Not that she really wanted him to, but still ... the silence was disconcerting. Should she text him?

She sighed and tapped the screen when a sound from the bed froze her.

Emily. Kristine walked to her sister’s side and gripped her hand in a gentle squeeze. Emily’s eyes stayed closed, but she squeezed back. “Hey, little sis, you want to wake up?”

Emily’s eyes fluttered a few times, then opened and connected with Kristine’s. She grunted, and Kristine wet a cloth in the sink and held it to Emily’s lips. A faint nod was her thanks. Then Emily cleared her throat. “What... ,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

“Your throat’s probably sore. They had to take you to surgery to remove your gallbladder, fix your broken leg, and put your left hand back together.”

Emily lifted her casted left hand, let out a low groan, and lowered it gently back to her side. “Dana? Tia?”

Oh boy. “What happened to the car? Why did you wreck?”

“Brakes,” she whispered.

“The brakes went out?”

“Yeah.” She winced. “Hurts.”

“Hang on, I’ll call someone.”

The nurse entered. “What can I do for you, hon?”

Kristine smiled at the endearment and racked her brain for the woman’s name, then shot a subtle glance at the whiteboard on the wall. Naomi. “She woke up a minute ago and said ‘hurts’ so I called you.”

Naomi looked at her computer and clicked a few keys. “I can up her morphine dose a bit and I’ll let the doctor know.” She patted Emily’s arm and her sister stirred and moaned. Naomi nodded. “Oh yes, we’ll take care of that right now.”

Once she was done, Kristine waited, but Emily didn’t stir again and Kristine wasn’t about to wake her back up. The longer she could put off telling her about Tia, the better.

Naomi left with the promise to be back shortly.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming call. Her supervisor. She walked over to the window and swiped the screen. “Hello?”

“Hi, Kristine, I thought I’d update you. How are you doing?”

“Well, concerned about the accusations, but honestly, that’s moved down the list of things to worry about right now. I’m at the hospital with my sister. She was in a car accident.”

“Oh no. I’m so sorry to hear that.”

She pressed her fingers to her eyelids. “Thank you.” She filled him in on the details, then asked, “What’s the update?”

“OPR is still investigating, trying to determine if any misconduct occurred.”

“Okay.”

“They’ll be ready to talk to you soon.”

“Just let me know. I’ll be at the hospital a lot, so they know where to find me. I can even come to the office if necessary.”

“It’s looking like you’re going to be in the clear, though.”

Relief swept through her. “Thank you, sir.”

She hung up, then tapped a text to Andrew.

What’s your next move?

Headed to see if we can track down the missing Jacob at the Lake City Library—the South Main branch. He likes to read according to his young friend here. How’s Emily?

She woke up briefly. Long enough to say the brakes failed on the car.

Uh oh. So sorry. She’s going to be okay, tho, right?

Looks like it, but they’re watching her closely. Keep me updated on if you find Jacob. I can’t believe he’s managed to stay hidden this long.

I’m starting to wonder if someone’s helping him. Trying not to imagine the worst.

Not imagining the worst was almost impossible. She sent him a heart emoji and then froze. What? Wait! Why had she sent that ? No, no, no. Now he would think ... what?

She let out an audible groan and lowered her head to her palm. Great. Why was she so awkward when it came to that kind of thing? Should she say she didn’t mean the heart emoji, that she’d hit the wrong one trying to send the thumbs-up?

No. Absolutely not. She certainly wasn’t going to stoop to lying . She’d just let it be and pray he ignored it too. No sense in bringing attention to it. Right?

Naomi popped back in and checked Emily’s vitals and IV bag. “Anything you need, Ms. Duncan?”

“Kristine, please. You’re going to be seeing a lot of me until Em’s moved out of here.”

The pretty woman smiled. “Kristine. Sorry it has to be under these circumstances, but I’m pleased to meet you. You know your time here is up, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

“Okay then. She’s going to be sleeping for a while with the extra meds. Why don’t you go home, freshen up, and get some food? I’ll keep an eye on her and let you know if anything changes.”

Kristine nodded, then rose to write her and her father’s phone numbers on the whiteboard. “Just send a text to me first and I’ll get here as fast as I can. My dad and Em don’t get along very well, so I’m not sure...” She shrugged.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks, Naomi.”

“Of course.”

She slipped out and Kristine blew out a low breath. The nurse was right. She should go home and take a shower, change clothes, and grab some food.

And then check in with Andrew and Nathan again.

The elevator door opened and her father stepped out, met her gaze, then looked away. “How is she?”

“She’s sleeping. You should go home and get some sleep. Or go to my place and crash for a while. Use the key with my permission.”

“I should stay.”

“No, you really shouldn’t. Naomi’s keeping an eye on her. She just got some fresh meds, so Emily’s not waking up anytime soon. Go home.”

His eyes flashed, but he nodded. “Fine. You know, if she had just listened to me when I told her not to go, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Dad, please. Just stop. Emily is a grown woman. You’ve got to stop smothering her and trying to control her.”

He waved a hand, dismissing the topic. Because he didn’t want to hear it. She sighed. Why did she even try?

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Ethan’ll be here soon. I’ll be back when he gets here or Emily wakes up. For now, I’m heading home to take care of me so I can help take care of her.”

“We still need to talk about you joining my company, Kristine. I need you.”

She blinked. And stared. “I honestly don’t even know what to say to you right now.

I’ll be back.” She walked past the elevator and headed for the stairs, her mind whirling at her father’s behavior.

Emily was in the ICU and he was pressuring her to join his PI firm?

Was he that clueless or was it some kind of coping mechanism?

She hoped it was the latter, because it was bizarre and she didn’t have time to figure it out right now.

ANDREW STOOD OUTSIDE the Lake City Public Library and looked at the video Chey had shared with him.

He’d sent it to Nathan as well as the analyst, who was running it through facial recognition.

Unfortunately they didn’t have a hit yet.

And might not get one. The man Brown had met with had been seated in profile to Cheyenne but wore a shirt with some kind of logo on the left shoulder.

The analyst would be working on that as well.

His phone buzzed with a text from Kristine.

Emily is sedated for now and she has a great nurse who told me to get lost in a very nice way. So on the way home to grab a shower and change clothes, etc. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

Glad Emily’s doing okay. You should probably grab some more sleep while you can.

Might do that too. So nothing I can do right now?

Not at the moment.

Talk later then.

A pang of disappointment hit him. He should have made something up. Maybe he’d run by there before he went home. Just to make sure she was okay. And say what? I wanted to see you ? Hmm. Maybe not.

Andrew glanced at the parking lot looking for Nathan and spotted a black truck backed into the corner space in the rear of the lot. He only noticed it because he thought he remembered seeing it behind him on the way over. He looked closer, but the driver’s seat was empty. He was being paranoid.

Nathan chose that moment to turn into the parking lot.

Together they walked into the library. “I’ll go right, you go left,” Andrew said.

“Check the study rooms.”

“And the bathroom.”

It didn’t take long to cover the entire building open to the public, with no sign of Jacob. Andrew walked to the desk, and the young man behind it looked up. “Help you find something?”

He showed him Jacob’s picture. “You know him?”

“Sure. He’s in here all the time. Loves the science fiction section.”

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

“Before his dad hijacked the plane.”

Ouch. “Okay. Do you mind if we take a look in all the employees-only places?”

“Why?”

“We’re looking for Jacob and want to make sure he’s not hiding here.”

The guy frowned. “Huh. I doubt he would be there, but there are some good hiding spots in the back. Help yourself.”

“Thanks.”

Ten minutes later, Andrew and Nathan met at the front door. “He’s not here,” Nathan said.

“Nope.” Andrew scanned the parking lot. He couldn’t help it. The truck was gone.

He texted Tim Jackson, one of the agents guarding Hank.

How’s everything there?

Quiet.

Good. Thanks. Headed to the office. Let me know if you need anything.

Will do.