Page 50 of Tell Me Your Desires

Chapter Twenty-Six

Anya stared at Jaime, whose chest rose and fell steadily with the attached machines.

Even with the beeping and humming from the medical equipment surrounding Jaime, it was a far better situation than when she was in the ambulance.

She had coded twice. Once they’d finally made it to the hospital, Jaime was rushed into surgery that lasted four hours.

Despite Anya’s quick actions at the scene, Jaime had lost too much blood.

She had experienced hypovolemic shock during surgery, which then led to a cardiac arrest. The doctors had managed to bring her back, but now, here Jaime lay in a coma.

“Dr. Grant?”

Anya blinked for the first time in what felt like hours, her eyes burning with sheer tiredness. It took a moment for the nurse’s face to come into focus. “Yes?”

“Can I get you anything else?”

Anya smiled kindly. The young nurse had been a blessing.

Once the chaos of doctors, police, and paramedics had quietened around her, Anya had been left alone with Jaime’s blood on her clothes and hands.

She didn’t know how long she had been standing frozen in the spot where she’d last seen Jaime.

It was only when a nurse gently pulled her out of her haze of shock that she started to regain her senses.

The nurse had helped Anya clean up and change into a pair of scrubs.

And since then, Nurse Zoe has been just as attentive to Anya’s needs as she was to Jaime’s.

“No, thank you, Zoe.”

“Okay. Well, my shift is ending, but I left a note at the nurses’ desk to check in on you.” Zoe checked Jaime’s vitals, monitors, and IV as she spoke. “If you need anything, just let them know.”

“You’ve been through this yourself,” Anya guessed.

Zoe’s attention and care for both Jaime and Anya spoke of a shared experience.

“My husband is a patrol cop. He’s crossed paths with Detective Baros a few times, and she’s always treated him with respect. When he was shot on the job, Detective Baros was the one who caught his shooter.” Zoe pulled up a chair next to Anya, sat down, and took her hand. “We look out for our own.”

That definitely explained the special treatment. Zoe thought Anya was Jaime’s. Anya’s gaze shifted to Jaime’s pale face. The way her heart ached right now at seeing Jaime this way? She thought of herself as Jaime’s, too.

“Thank you, Zoe.” Speaking of the cops… Anya shifted in her seat. “Do you know why no one has come to take my statement yet? Or where Jaime’s partner is?”

Zoe’s demeanor noticeably changed at Anya’s questions, but she quickly smiled. “They know where you are. I’m sure they’re just giving you time to process. And Detective Fraser is probably out there doing what Detective Baros would be doing if the tables were turned.”

The explanation sounded more like a mother placating her child, but Anya merely nodded.

She knew from her years in law enforcement that cops didn’t wait for witnesses to ‘process’ information.

They wanted that information to be fresh.

Something was going on. But that wasn’t Anya’s problem anymore.

Her priority was lying in the hospital bed in front of her.

“Right, of course.” Anya focused her attention back on Jaime, concentrating on the rise and fall of her chest.

“Well, if you change your mind about having a cot brought in so you can get some sleep, just let Jaya know. She’ll be assigned to Detective Baros during the next shift.”

“Thank you again.” Anya squeezed the hand still holding hers. “And, please, call me Anya.”

“Goodnight, Anya.”

Max placed a cup of coffee on the tray next to Anya. “I, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Thought you could use a pick-me-up.”

Anya ignored him and the cup of coffee despite the enticing aroma of caffeine.

Although she wasn’t typically a coffee drinker and preferred tea, being awake for over twenty-four hours was a valid reason to make an exception.

Unfortunately, she was too angry and petty to accept Max’s peace offering.

Perhaps if he’d brought a bagel as well…

“You can’t hate me any more than I hate myself,” Max responded to Anya’s silence. He walked to Jaime’s bedside and touched her hand gently as though she would shatter with one wrong move. “Any change?”

“You’d know if you’d bothered to visit before now,” Anya answered coldly.

Jaime had been in the hospital for twelve hours, and this was the first time Max had set foot inside the room.

“You think I didn’t want to be here?” Max lowered his head. He muttered something Anya couldn’t quite make out, and then he turned to her. “Believe me, I came here the second I was able to.” He looked down, evidently noticing the scrubs for the first time. “You’ve been here all night.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

The emotion behind Max’s words was so sincere that Anya felt her anger begin to fade.

“I don’t hate you, Max. I’m angry. With you, with myself…

with Jaime. None of this should have happened.

I could have insisted on waiting until I had more time to familiarize myself with the cases.

But once again, I allowed my emotions to override my judgment. ”

“We all did,” Max conceded. “Jaime was afraid you were the next target. And I was scared that if something happened to you, there would be no coming back from that for Jaime. It was the perfect storm, Anya, and we stepped right into the middle of it.” He gestured to the chair next to Anya, and she nodded.

“Why did he shoot her?” He asked as he settled in beside her.

“None of those damn files mentioned a gun. We didn’t prepare for a gun. ”

That wasn’t Max asking Anya as a friend. He was asking Dr. Grant to profile the person who had tried to kill his partner. “You’re asking me to guess, Max.”

“Yeah, I am. Because I have nothing else to go on!”

“Bring me the files!” Anya countered with exasperation. “I have nothing but time now, Max. If you want a thorough profile, bring me everything you have, and I’ll give you one.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Why?”

Max sighed as he slumped down in his chair and rubbed his stubbled face. “I’ve been put on administrative leave pending investigation into my part in how Jaime got shot. The fucking feds took all the files. The case is theirs now. I’m out.”

Shit. Problem number one was that Anya and the FBI obviously had a troubled past, so getting information from them wouldn’t be easy.

Problem number two was that Anya had spent years hiding from her past, only to have it thrust back in her face in the worst way.

Especially if the FBI gained access to the videos her stalker supposedly had of her.

Unless I solve it first. She nearly scoffed at her lofty goals due to the lack of evidence, and now she had no one with authority to work the case alongside her.

“You were waiting for me to leave the club, right?” Anya asked Max suddenly.

Max frowned. “Yeah.”

“Did you see anyone come out behind me?”

Max sat up, his elbows on his knees, and gave Anya his full attention. He knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew his mind was going right back to every detail of last night.

“No,” he said. “And I waited and watched because I knew Baros was up ahead waiting to tail you.”

“Okay, so if they didn’t follow me out of the parking lot, do you think they put a tracker on my car? Or Jaime’s?”

Max shook his head. “They checked for trackers.” He managed a small smile when Anya gave him a questioning look. “I may be on leave, but I still have friends inside. So does Jaime. No trackers on the cars. But you’ve been at the club for a few years. It could be that they figured out your routes.”

“Maybe,” Anya said, unconvinced. “If that were the case, Jaime would’ve been attacked much sooner than last night.”

Max’s eyebrows rose. “You’re saying this thing between you and Jaime has been going on for some time?”

“We’re both adults, Max. Let’s not play that game.”

“Jaime told me.” Max smiled. “Okay, let’s assume for now that they didn’t know. Logically, that means someone had to follow us, right? Who did you speak to at the club?”

“Besides Jaime?” Anya thought back to the night before.

She’d had one client. Jaime. The rest of the night, she’d avoided being around anyone else as much as possible.

But there had been some people she couldn’t avoid.

Or people who didn’t avoid her. “Frank, Sapphyre, and Sonny. None of the other girls spoke to me last night. Though that seems to be par for the course since Maisie was killed. I think they’re afraid of me. ”

“I wouldn’t take it personally, Anya. Cases like this are hard for everyone.” Max took out his notepad and wrote down the names. “Do you recall seeing any of them before you left?”

Again, Anya took the time to retrace her steps from the night before.

“Yes. Frank was talking to a group of young men. The way they were buying drinks, I think he was occupied for a while.” Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember if she had seen Sapphyre before she left.

“I believe I saw the light above Sapphyre’s room, which meant she was in session. And Sonny walked me out as usual.”

“Doesn’t help much, does it?” Max scribbled his notes down, then slammed his pen down. “Goddammit! Jaime is going to blow a gasket when she finds out we’ve been kicked from the case.”

“How much trouble is she in?” Anya asked carefully. Did the entire Reno Police Department know that Jaime had gone undercover for a case? Literally.

“None if I can help it. I kept the details of what went on at the club to a minimum. What I told them was that I had approved an unauthorized operation that ultimately went wrong, and I took full responsibility for it. Jaime was simply following my orders.”

“She’s not going to let you take the fall, Max.”

“Yeah, she will. That was the deal.” He looked at Jaime, the pain evident in his eyes. “I owe her that much.”

“Max—”