Joss’s eyes glittered in the darkness. “As your friend, I want you to stay away from that woman until she’s taken into custody. Rafferty told me about Eddington’s interest in her and that Ambrose still hasn’t been notified. I’ll be taking care of that little chore as soon as I go back inside.”
He didn’t need this from Joss or anyone else. “Damn it, don’t coddle me. I said I’d handle contacting Ambrose, and I will. Rafferty asked me to hold off long enough for him to process the paperwork on Kat’s nieces. When the time comes, I’ll call Ambrose and oversee the transfer of the prisoner to his custody.”
Joss curled her hands into fists. “I wouldn’t think of coddling you, Conlan, but that woman almost killed you three years ago. If Ambrose hadn’t scrambled to call in every favor he could, you could’ve been executed in Kat’s place instead of serving just two years.”
Yeah, and he hated knowing that he’d put his friend in that position. “But I wasn’t, and furthermore—”
Joss stuck her hand in front of his face to shut him up. “I don’t want to hear it, Conlan. We almost lost you—period. We both know you were dying by inches in that cell. Right up until the day of your release, I wasn’t sure whether you’d walk out of that hellhole on your own or if they’d carry you out in a coffin.”
Damn it. Big, tough Joss O’Day was crying. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Joss, I survived. I won’t make the same mistakes again.”
Which wasn’t to say he wouldn’t make a whole bunch of new ones, given the chance.
His friend was definitely wound up tight. “I’m telling you, Conlan, I can’t watch you go through that again. As your employer, I’m ordering you to return to your headquarters and monitor the situation from a distance.”
She sighed heavily. “I’m guessing it will be a close race between Ambrose’s chancellors and Eddington’s men to see which group gets here first. At least this should all be over in the next twenty-four hours.”
She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. It was even tempting to take the out she was offering him, to go hide in his office on the periphery of the estate. However, while he might not be the same man he was three years ago, he’d like to believe that he wasn’t a coward, either. One way or another, he’d see this through to its resolution.
Time to lay it all on the line.
He dropped his arm back down to his side and stepped back. “Let me do my job, Joss, or accept my resignation. One or the other.”
He hated hurting her like this. The past had been hard on them both. When Conlan had been in prison, she’d come close to losing Rafferty, too, when he’d also been accused of a crime he hadn’t committed. No doubt this was all bringing back a flood of bad memories for her.
She swiped at the tearstains on her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Fine, tough guy. Have it your way, but go contact Ambrose now. Rafferty doesn’t trust whatever Eddington is up to, and neither do I.”
“I will.”
Joss headed back to the clinic, but then she stopped to look back at him. “I hate what this is doing to you, but dragging this out will only make it worse for everybody.”
There was nothing he could say to that. Instead, he waited long enough to finish his beer and then followed Joss back inside.
Chapter 5
Kat wasn’t sure how much longer she was going to be able to put up a brave front for her nieces. She’d managed to make room for both of the girls to snuggle beside her in the narrow hospital bed. It wasn’t comfortable, but right now she needed the close contact as much as they did. Maggie was busy sucking her thumb, a habit she’d only recently resumed. Being on the run and then shot at certainly hadn’t helped.
Rose, always on the solemn side, had grown even more withdrawn since arriving on Rafferty’s doorstep. Kat would give anything to wave a magic wand and whisk the two girls back in time to when they still had their mother and life was happier. God knows, Kat wanted that for herself, but the realist in her knew that wasn’t going to happen.
Maggie shifted so that her head landed right on Kat’s incision. Kat winced but did