We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek #11) - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,57

now.”

“How is that going to work? Don’t you have—oh, I don’t know—twenty-something surgeries scheduled for the next few weeks? A life to get back to? A girlfriend? A wife? Sixteen kids and a dog somewhere?” She was most definitely grumbling at him. The fear was gone from the big, dark pixie eyes.

She’d been so afraid when she’d first looked at him. Terrified. No wonder. She’d wakened in a place she definitely hadn’t fallen asleep in, with a man she didn’t really know all that well.

Something about her fear punched him right in the gut. Brought out every protective instinct he had. “Nikkie Jean has decided to put it around that Rafe asked me to take his place. Virat is going to run my department temporarily while I take this opportunity. Basically, I’m your cover. As for you, Nikkie Jean and Marshall concocted a nice little story of you being in a car accident because of the storm. You’re off on medical leave. Again.”

“Good thing I only used half my leave last time. This is getting insane.”

Allen stood there, pointing toward the passenger seat. Waiting. She’d have more to say.

He had a feeling Izzie would have definite opinions on just about everything.

He almost couldn’t wait. When she practically growled at him, Allen smiled.

He hadn’t felt this alive and actually useful for in a long time.

“I’m sorry they pulled you into this. They shouldn’t have.” Izzie wavered between anger and embarrassment. “I’d have been ok tucked into the hospital somewhere for a day or two while I slept off the effects of the concussion.”

Those effects had her fighting off a yawn. Yawning would weaken her position and she knew it.

“I don’t think you’d have been able to hide that long. Not at FCGH. Far too easy to find you out there.”

She was going to clobber Nikkie Jean—this whole thing had the earmarks of her best friend’s machinations. Not able to call out the governor like she’d wanted, of course Nikkie Jean would manage to find a way to whisk Izzie as far out of danger as she possibly could. With one of the few people on the planet Nikkie Jean actually trusted.

What Izzie didn’t understand was what he was going to get out of it.

“What else did Nikkie Jean say?”

“She wasn’t saying much at all,” he said in that same unhurriedly maddening tone. He kept dragging her toward the shiny silver van that probably cost more than Nikkie Jean—a pediatric surgeon—made in a year. The tires alone probably cost more than Izzie made in a month. “She was too scared. She loves you.”

That reminder had her going along with him. Nikkie Jean had had enough trouble lately. She didn’t need to be worrying about Izzie at the moment. Nikkie Jean still felt guilty for Izzie getting shot. She still blamed herself for not recognizing Wallace Henedy as her mother’s lover from Nikkie Jean’s childhood.

Guilt and pregnancy hormones had convinced Nikkie Jean she was responsible for Izzie. Completely.

If Izzie didn’t know where Nikkie Jean was coming from, it would have driven her crazy. Nikkie Jean was acting out of love. Izzie totally understood. She would have probably done the same thing for Nikkie Jean. “What did she do? Blackmail you into taking custody of me?”

“Something like that.” He unlocked the passenger door, and before Izzie could evade him, he wrapped strong hands around her waist and lifted her into the seat. Ok, so he was just as strong as he looked. Nothing wimpy about him. Ripcord lean and strong. His hands practically scorched her through the bulky sweatshirt she was engulfed in. “Stay, lady.”

“You need a dog, Allen. Something you can train to follow your every command.” But she stayed. She wasn’t afraid of him—not really—and she still hadn’t shaken off the sedative.

Maybe. She was getting a clearer head by the minute. Headache of doom was there—but she was starting to be able to think again.

No thought she had right now was a good one.

Allen, her new abductor, had taken charge and there was no denying that.

She was too loopy right now to fight him. When the sedative wore off, she’d be in too much pain to care what was going on or where she was. Or who she was with.

Izzie had had enough pain to last a lifetime.

Sobering thought.

She fingered the new cast on her left arm. She had an air splint on the right. Her right leg burned and ached every time she moved.

She couldn’t even drive herself anywhere right now.