“We need help in here!” Joel’s voice boomed as he surged for the bed. His hand flew to Kelly’s neck, and he gave a grim shake of his head right before his hands went to her chest.
Nurses rushed into the room. A doctor. They swarmed the bed even as questions tumbled from them.
Cedric had plenty of his own questions as he watched Joel try to help the woman—as Joel tried to bring her back…from the fucking dead.
I was gone maybe ten minutes. Tops. He’d hit the cafeteria before going outside because he’d skipped breakfast and lunch that morning. Kelly had still been hooked up to the machines when he left her. She’d still been breathing.
She was gone now. It was obvious. The medical personnel were swarming, but she wasn’t responding. And Cedric had seen the dead enough times to realize the truth.
But Cedric didn’t get it—shouldn’t the nurse’s station have gotten an alarm when her machines went off-line? Hell, they should have known she was flatlining. They should have helped her. Someone had made certain no alarms were sent.
This wasn’t some random-died-from-her-injuries situation. There were too many red flags flying hard and high. He whirled and saw the uniform in the doorway. The kid’s eyes were huge. Cedric stormed toward him. “Where in the hell were you?”
“I-I was right here!” The young cop looked like he might piss himself. He should look that way.
“No, you weren’t,” Cedric snapped back. “I just walked right in and you weren’t here.”
“At the station! I was just down at the station, less than fifteen feet away—”
“With your damn back turned,” he snarled from between clenched teeth. “You couldn’t see this room at all, could you?” You couldn’t see what happened.
He couldn’t see…
And now…Kelly Addams was dead.
***
Even as she ran down the tiled hospital hallway, Chloe knew it was too late. She could see the cluster of people gathered around the doorway of a room up ahead. She’d gotten the room number for Kelly Addams. She knew this was the right place.
Just as she knew…
Kelly is gone.
Hospital security personnel were standing at attention. There was a miserable-looking younger cop slouched near a wall. She didn’t see Cedric, but she could hear his voice booming from inside the room that had been assigned to Kelly Addams.
“What the hell happened to her?” Cedric blasted.
The security personnel noticed Chloe and Kingston. They stepped forward with their hands up, all authoritative-like. “Stop. No one is allowed to enter this area.”
The security guards were in her way. “Cedric!” Chloe called out. Her voice was clear. Strong.
The guards frowned.
“She’s a personal friend of the detective in there,” Kingston told them conspiratorially as he leaned forward. “I would not try to block her from getting to him. You do stuff like that, and you’ll wind up on the man’s shit list.”
Cedric appeared—Chloe figured he’d stepped from the hospital room just in time to learn that he had a shit list. Probably good information for Cedric to know.
His gaze locked on her. “Too late,” he said.
Her heart sank. She’d expected that response when she saw the guards but—
Cedric’s attention whipped to her right. To Kingston. “Cops have been looking for you since last night.”
“Well…here I am. Look no more.”
She could feel the tension between them, and she would have addressed it—if Joel hadn’t walked from Kelly’s hospital room at that exact moment. He stepped out and his gaze met hers.
She saw a flood of emotions fly across his face and burn in his eyes. Need. Pain. Hunger. Anger. And—
She turned away. “Call a lawyer,” she informed Kingston. “We have enough evidence that should clear you, but get the lawyer ready. If you don’t have one, I would recommend Ella Grace Mitchell.”
“Chloe.”
Joel’s voice sent a pang through her. A pang that she wasn’t prepared to handle. For the first time in her life, Chloe walked away from what she was ninety-nine percent sure had to be a crime scene. She put one foot in front of the other and headed down that gleaming hallway.
“Chloe, wait!” Joel’s voice rang out.
She felt fingers brush over her shoulder. An electric charge that came from him. He’d always done that. Touched her and caused an instant, physical response.
Her steps quickened.
“I don’t think she’s waiting,” Kingston declared blandly. “Now if you don’t mind, my partner and I have things to—”
Oh, no. Wrong thing to say. Chloe whirled around just in time to see Joel lunge for Kingston.
Chapter Eleven
“Stop,” Chloe said and her voice was smooth and clipped and slightly more British than normal. Her accent always became a little more pronounced when she was angry.
Joel had no doubt that she was highly furious at that particular moment.
He stood less than a foot away from King, and the jerk had the nerve to smirk at him.
“Not going to let her tell you what to do, are you?” King taunted. “Go ahead, take that swing.” His words were low. Barely carrying to Joel’s ears. “But be aware that I swing back, hard.”
Cedric pushed between them. “This is a hospital. Get your control in place.” He glared at Joel. “I do not need this from you right now.” Then his head turned to King. “Though I expect nothing more from you.”
“Low expectations. The story of my life,” King tossed back carelessly.
“I have higher expectations,” Chloe informed him as she came back toward their group. Joel couldn’t help it. He drank her in even though her focus seemed entirely on King. “So how about you play nicely and cooperate with the cops?” Chloe asked/advised him. “Go down to the station like we talked about on the ride here. Get clear. Give them your alibi. Though I am sure the mayor will have plenty to say about it.”
Wait…what? The mayor?
“I wasn’t involved in the bombing. I was…involved with someone else at the time,” he said smoothly.
“The mayor’s wife? Are you trying to hint you were involved with Jolene?” Cedric squeezed his eyes shut. “Does everything have to be a clusterfuck with you?”
“Kingston is the one who found us evidence tying Kelly Addams to the crime,” Chloe informed them crisply. “Kelly Addams—”
“Is dead,” Joel finished. He wanted Chloe to look at him. Why wouldn’t she look at him? “I strongly suspect that when an autopsy is performed, we’ll find out that she was suffocated. So Cedric, make sure your team is bagging and tagging all the pillows and sheets in that room.”
Cedric swore.
“You’ll want to make sure Ruben takes a look at her eyes.” That was what had tipped him off when he’d been with her. He’d taken a moment to lift up one eyelid to see the tell-tale red and purplish splotches that had already appeared on her eye. “It would have been easy enough for someone in scrubs and a face mask to just waltz right into her room and get the job done.” The words felt so cold. “She was on morphine so she was probably knocked out the whole time. Wouldn’t have put up any fight.”