Chapter Four

3:12 p.m.

Dozer finished his brief report to his unit chief and gave the man a few seconds of silence so he could make some decisions. It only took three.

“I’m sending a couple of investigators to the hospital, and I’ll have our cyber bloodhounds look for any kind of digital footprint. This was too coordinated for just a couple of disgruntled guys.”

“And me. What do you want me to do?”

“Preferably, grab a cab and find a hotel for a few days until we find the bastards who tried to shoot, stick, and snipe you. You’re still on medical leave until I say otherwise.” Dozer sucked in a breath to argue, but his boss kept talking. “Don’t bother disagreeing with me or I’ll stick you in protective custody like Rodrigues keeps ordering me to.”

“I’ll go to a hotel like a good boy.”

“Good idea. Pay with cash. Keep in touch.”

“Yes, sir.”

Click.

Dozer looked at his cell phone, then dropped it into a pocket in disgust. Again, someone had tried to kill him. That was bad enough, but then the son of a bitch put his hands on Carmen and hurt her. That was unacceptable.

How the hell was he supposed to keep her safe if he was in a hotel room resting?

Carmen came out of the security office. “The guard is making a recording of all the security footage we’ve asked for. What did your boss say?”

“He’s sending an investigative team to find those fuckers.” He winced. Carmen didn’t use bad language much, almost never while working.

She didn’t seem to notice his less-than-savory choice of name for the two men who’d tried to kill him. “Come with me. You’re going to the ER.”

“I’m fine.”

“Do not start with me,” she said, low and slow. Her gaze slid to his side, where he had one hand on his ribs. Well, shit. He dropped his hand, but it was too late.

“I’m so angry with you right now,” she said, her hands clenched. “I could punch you myself.”

What the fuck? “What did I do?”

“Nothing.” She said the word like it was an accusation, then pointed to an indistinct position in front of her. “March.”

Following orders was the only thing he could do, so he did it.

As soon as they entered the ER, Carmen spoke to the staff and had him tucked away in a small exam room.

The ER doc took a look at his ribs and sent him for an X-ray of his chest and head.

“I don’t see any new issues,” the ER doc said. “Just some additional bruising around your ribs. Headache, dizziness, nausea?”

“No.” Dozer glanced at Carmen’s cold expression and decided to be forthcoming. “But my chest is sore.”

“All you can do is wrap your ribs or wear back support.”

“Does a tactical vest count?”

The doctor shrugged. “If it supports your core, sure.” He nodded at Carmen and left the room.

“Congratulations,” she said like she was giving him the news of a terminal condition. “You’re discharged.” Maybe she was.

Dozer grunted and said with distaste, “I’m supposed to hole up in a hotel room and rest.”

“You can’t go home. Your address is a matter of public record.” Her forehead furrowed. “Why don’t you want to go to a hotel?”

“I’ll go stir-crazy in less than a day if I don’t have something to do.”

“You aren’t known for your patience,” she said, her gaze on the floor.

He kept his mouth shut, only because this was a public place. They needed to have that talk about Afghanistan. Not only about what had happened between them nine years ago and why she had run from him, but why those fake agents confronted her at the airport.

And they needed to have that talk soon.

One of them could have been murdered today.

Her phone beeped. She pulled it out and looked at it.

“I have to go to a meeting with your boss and my boss,” she said with a slight sigh.

“Can you drop me off at my apartment?” he asked. A cab would give anyone hunting him too easy a trail to follow.

“Sure.” She looked at him, the frown still on her face. She tilted her head as if confused by something.

“Something wrong with my face?”

“No, you’re just a little too agreeable.”

Since when did following simple orders equate to being too compliant? “Just how big of an asshole do you think I am?”

She blinked. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

He smacked himself with one hand. “Would you rather I had a hissy fit and told my boss to go fuck himself?”

“I’d rather you acted like you normally do and not this stranger who meekly does as he’s told.”

Meek?

He smiled, bent closer to her, and lowered his voice. “That depends on who’s doing the telling and what they want me to do.”

That should have angered her or irritated her, but instead, she lost the concerned expression and relaxed her posture. “Thank you. That’s…well, it’s not good, but it is normal.”

“You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “You’re not supposed to thank me for saying that shit. You should be mad at me. Accuse me of sexual harassment. A punch in the face would be justified.”

She snorted. “Hah. Like you’ve done anything sexual toward me. A nun would have gotten more attention from you than what you’ve given me.” She stopped abruptly, her gaze skidding away from his. “If you were to give anyone your attention, that is.”

Holy shit. This was the first time since he’d come to the CDC to work with her that she dropped her professional attitude toward him.

Was it because she was exhausted and possibly still in shock due to the attack and nearly killing a man?

He wouldn’t take advantage, but he also wasn’t going to throw away this opportunity to help her.

Her unguarded words made something else clear.

She still wanted him.

Relief dropped about a hundred pounds off his shoulders.

Don’t get cocky, asshole.

He cleared his throat. “Can we go?”

“Sure.” She headed toward the exit, her pace a little too fast.

He was going to have to break her habit of running away from him when things got hot between them. Maybe tag her with a small tracking device or use her cell phone to find her. No, using the phone was too obvious, too easy to leave behind or disable. He’d have to get creative with the placement of a tracking device.

He wasn’t going to let her run away from him again. Not unless she made it clear things between them were dead. The blushes giving her skin a sexy glow told him that wasn’t the case.

Dozer followed her out of the hospital and into a parking lot. Damn, but her ass looked good in those pants. She’d kept herself in shape, and he knew she went to the gym four times a week. He wasn’t a stalker, no sir.

Her hair was completely white now, with only a handful of brown strands mixed in. She still had a surprisingly young face under the older-looking hair.

The beep, beep of Carmen unlocking her vehicle pulled him out of his cataloguing of her finer features. He got into the passenger side, she got into the driver’s side, and they were off.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes.

He wasn’t inclined to break the silence—a smart investigator never did, and he needed to find out what was going on in her head.

“Targeting you in the hospital says desperate to me,” she said, breaking the tension. She cleared her throat and glanced at him. “The two men who attacked us, I mean.”

“It was risky,” he agreed. “I wonder if they could have a specific reason to want me gone.”

“If the FAFO was behind it, why would they be feeling desperate or want you out of the picture?”

“We could be too close to a lead or a source of information.”

“What lead? What source? We haven’t found anything new since we wrapped up the contaminated beer case.”

“It’s got to be connected to the storage unit that exploded.” He looked at her, watching as she expertly drove through busy city traffic. “What happened to it and all the stuff that was in it?”

“Your people removed every scrap, every last bit of debris. I think they have it in storage somewhere. I do have pictures of everything, as well as a list of each item collected.”

“They’re probably reconstructing the scene.”

“They have the space to do that?”

“Yeah. After an explosion, it’s a good way to make sure you find all the parts of the explosive. Which can tell you a lot about its creator.”

“Damn it. I should have been notified if something like that was being done.”

“Why?”

“So I could have sent in a tech or two to swab everything and see what grows.”

“You could still do that.”

“If any of the bacteria or viruses are fragile or susceptible to heat or oxygenated air, they’re dead already.”

Dozer studied her tightly pressed lips. “Do you want me to talk to my boss and get him to invite you in to any investigation that’s ongoing?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll contact him myself. I need to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t get overlooked next time.”

She had a point. She did need to develop her network of contacts and a reputation for getting the job done within the law-enforcement community. He had to keep his nose out of it. As much as he could, anyway.

Carmen pulled to a stop in front of his apartment building. He opened his door and was about to get out, but she put her hand on his arm.

“You’re going to a hotel, right?”

That idea appealed to him less and less, but if he didn’t give her the answer she wanted, she might do something drastic, like talk to his boss again and get him stuck in protective custody.

“Yeah. I don’t know which one yet. I need to pack a few things to do so I don’t lose my mind.”

She narrowed her eyes but only said, “Stay out of trouble.”

He responded with a sigh. “Yes, ma’am.” He wanted to invite her in, but it looked like she had a lot to do, and all of it yesterday. He smiled at her, waved, and went inside. It just about killed him to not watch her drive off.

His apartment was plain, with the bare minimum furniture and no artwork or pictures on the walls. Hell, his hospital room had more personality than this place.

He was a fucking moron. He needed more than this sterile existence. He needed Carmen, but he had to convince her of that.

Fuck. He would convince her. He was tired, so damned tired of pretending and staying a polite distance away. Getting shot, then attacked, twice, in the hospital used up the last of his patience. She needed him as much as he needed her, and he was going to prove it to her. The best way to do that was to invade her space.

Dozer packed his larger duffel bag. Bigger than any of his go-bags, this one had enough room for several changes of clothing and a few extras besides. He fired up his laptop and checked his work email, the status of his open cases, and began compiling a list of everything he remembered seeing in the storage unit. Before he forgot, got blown up again, knifed, or shot.

A headache developed at his temples, and his eyes began to droop, but he kept at it. He wasn’t sure how much time he’d have for research or investigative work in the near future. There was a niggling voice in the back of his head pushing him to get things done, figure things out, and arrest anyone left.

Someone knocked on his door, surprising him so much he almost fell out of his lousy desk chair. Had he fallen asleep?

He got up and walked silently to the door to peek through the peephole.

Carmen stood outside, wearing the same outfit he’d last seen her in and a frown on her face.

He glanced at his watch. Eight thirty p.m. How had it gotten so late? He opened the door, and she came in, and just having her in his space gave him a boost of energy. He let it prop him up and support his flagging strength. By the time he closed it, he felt like he’d drank one of those energy drinks full of caffeine and B vitamins.

Carmen fixed him with a hard stare. “You look like shit.”

“Since I feel like shit, I’ll consider myself normal.”

“You’re about as normal as Superman wearing a Kryptonite ring.”

Superman? Was that a compliment?

“Have you eaten anything since getting home?” she demanded.

“No, but—”

“Of course not,” she interrupted. “You probably don’t have any food in this cardboard box.” She strode into the kitchen, opened the fridge, then looked inside grimly. “There isn’t enough food in here to feed a mouse, let alone a big man like you.”

“Big, huh?” he asked. Certain parts of him felt positively heroic.

She glared at him.

Shit. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud. He crossed his arms over his chest. He would rather pull her into a hug, but with the mood she was in, she might slug him or knee him in the balls. He settled with changing the subject.

“What do you need, Carmen?”

“Pack a bag. You’re coming home with me.”

He stuck a finger in his ear to check for something blocking it, because he could have sworn she ordered him to get his shit together and come home with her. He was careful to make his tone tentative when he asked, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” she said. “Get packing.” She looked at her watch. “You have ten minutes.” Her expression told him if he didn’t hurry up she was going to hogtie him and do it herself.

Dozer went into his bedroom, picked up his duffel, and deposited it next to his front door.

Carmen stared at the bag. “You already had that packed?”

“Yeah.”

“Where were you going to go?”

He could give her the easy answer—he was planning on going to a hotel—but that would be a lie, and he’d made her a promise. He was going to keep it. “Your place. I thought if I presented my arguments logically, I could convince you it was a good idea.”

She didn’t say anything for several seconds, just studied him. Finally, after glancing at his table, she asked, “Do you want to bring your computer?”

Thank fuck. He got it, then they were out the door, across the parking lot, and in her car. She drove in the opposite direction of her house.

“Carmen?”

“Your boss thinks we’ll be tailed by whoever was behind the attempt to harm, kidnap, or kill you at the hospital. We’re travelling an indirect path to CDC headquarters. There are Homeland agents stationed all along the route who will tail anyone following us.”

“Where are we really going?”

“An apartment in a building where a large number of my staff live. It’s close to headquarters, and the specific unit we’ll be staying in is a sublet, so it isn’t linked to me or anyone else at the CDC.”

He couldn’t see anything wrong with the plan. “Okay.” He rested his head against the back of the seat, the energy she’d loaned him draining away much too fast. “Do you mind if I nap?”

She glanced at him, concern tightening her face. “No. Go ahead. You’re supposed to be resting anyway.”

He was as safe as he could get while trying to shake lose any tails.

He closed his eyes and fell into darkness.