Savage Redemption - By Alexis Morgan Page 0,26
complicated? It would be easy enough to bandage her ankles, but he wasn’t about to go there. Right now he needed to put some distance between himself and temptation, even if that distance was just down the hall to Seamus’s office.
“Stay put.”
For once she didn’t argue, but she still had to have the last word. “It was just a kiss, Conlan, nothing more.”
He might have even believed it if her eyes weren’t suspiciously bright. Rather than respond to either her words or her tears, he walked out and didn’t look back.
* * *
Down the hall Conlan was surprised to hear Rafferty’s voice. Why was the vampire still hanging around the clinic? Didn’t he have a houseful of company he was supposed to be entertaining?
Conlan paused to knock on the door frame before waltzing into Seamus’s office.
Rafferty was just getting up. “What’s up? Did you need me for some reason?”
He sounded like a man desperate for an excuse to linger. Conlan decided to give him one. “I was actually looking for Seamus, but since you’re here, I should bring you up to speed on what Ambrose had to say.”
Rafferty immediately sat back down and reached for the bottle of scotch on the desk. He poured himself a stiff shot and a second one that he pushed across the desk toward Conlan.
Seamus was already slipping his lab coat back on. “Is something wrong with Kat?”
“When I unfastened her restraints to help her to the bathroom, I noticed the skin around her ankles has been rubbed raw. I thought you might want to do something about that before we put the straps back in place.”
Rafferty set his drink down hard enough to splash the amber liquid over the side. “You left her alone in there without restraints?”
“Where’s she going to go? The woman can barely walk, much less run.” Conlan injected far more calm into his words than he actually felt. He couldn’t very well tell his boss that he’d been the one who’d needed to bolt out of the room, not Kat.
The doctor started for the door. “I’ll go check on her. I was about to see if she needed anything.”
After Seamus took off down the hallway, Conlan sat down and sipped his scotch, letting the slow burn erase Kat’s taste from his mouth. Too bad it couldn’t cleanse his memory as easily.
“So what did Ambrose have to say?”
Conlan allowed himself a small smile. “He was not happy that someone sent mercenaries after a fugitive instead of reporting her location to him. He’s mobilizing a squad of his chancellors to bring Kat in.” He hesitated. “It’ll be a day, maybe two, before he can make the arrangements. Normally he’d send one man after her. But under the circumstances, he thought the additional firepower might be necessary.”
Rafferty tossed back his scotch. “Takes a real bastard to go after a woman and two children like that. Makes you wonder what Kat has on whoever was behind the attack. Maybe she’s been supporting herself with a little bit of blackmail these past three years.”
Even though the same thought had crossed Conlan’s mind, he didn’t much like hearing it from Rafferty. It also infuriated him that he felt the need to defend Kat on any grounds.
“Maybe, but maybe Eddington is tied in with what went down at the Institute’s lab three years ago.” Conlan poked and prodded that idea a bit. “I was still trying to get to the bottom of what really happened there when Kat took off. I never got a chance to finish my investigation.”
“But you obviously thought there was something to her story or you would’ve never taken her out of prison in the first place. I know Joss took one hell of a chance when she did the same for me.”
Rafferty finished off his drink. “But then, I stuck around until she cleared my name. I would’ve never left her to take the fall for me.”
Then he stood up. “Speaking of Joss, I’ve got to get back home. If I leave her alone to entertain my aunts by herself much longer, there’ll be hell to pay.”
As he passed by, he paused to look down at Conlan. “I have a feeling this is going to get pretty damn ugly before it gets better. Do me a favor and watch your back. Don’t let that woman drag you under again. You’re too good a security officer for me to want to lose you.”
Then he walked out, leaving Conlan staring at the empty doorway