To Trust a Friend Read online

  She had enough medical experience to recognize the cold shudders she felt and the light-headedness that suddenly overwhelmed her. The heavy events of the day had her on the edge of shock. Fortunately the paramedic who had tried to convince her to go to the hospital must have suspected what would happen when she stood up, because he was only a step behind her.

  “We’ve still got room on the rig with your friend,” he told her, easing her back onto the gurney. “This time I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  Kyra was too busy listening to the ringing in her ears and willing herself not to pass out to argue with him. On the trip to the hospital she kept floating in and out of full consciousness, aware of the ambulance rocking slightly as it traveled at high speed. The crew member there in the cabin with her and Jasmine checked on her once in a while, but gave most of her attention to Jasmine. That was okay with Kyra because she’d seen the girl’s bleeding neck wound and knew she needed a lot more care. Once they got to the hospital she and Jasmine went separate ways. Kyra tried to stay alert enough to ask about how Jasmine was doing, but somewhere in the flurry of activity around her, with oxygen to help her breathe and an IV getting her fluid volume up, Kyra felt that floating sensation again, and this time she didn’t fight it.

  When she finally woke up feeling more clearheaded, Kyra was surprised to see Allie sitting by her bed. “Hey,” her assistant said with a slight smile. “Are you really back this time? You look a little different than you did the couple times you woke up during the night.”

  Kyra groaned. Somewhere along the line they’d traded the oxygen mask for a cannula, and the clip that held the tubing to her nose pinched slightly. She looked up and found the bag of Ringer’s solution she expected attached to an IV in her left hand. “Don’t try to talk if your throat hurts,” Allie told her. “The doctor said that after being in that place as long as you were with smoke and fumes you’ll probably hurt for a day or two.”

  “Jasmine? And Josh?” she rasped, wincing at the gravelly sound of her voice and the pain saying those few words caused.

  “They’re both okay,” Allie assured her. “Jasmine’s just down the hall, and I think later today you’ll probably be well enough to go and see her. Josh is all right, too, and he should be discharged today. Maybe after that the two of you can see each other.”

  Assuming he wants to see me, Kyra thought. He’d been so distant since he heard about Lissa Rose that she wasn’t sure that he would want to have much to do with her.

  “Do you want me to check with the nurses to see when you can go see Jasmine?”

  “Yes,” Kyra said, surprised at how much effort it took to stay alert and hold a conversation. Allie left the room and Kyra drifted off into a light doze again. Several times during the morning a nurse or doctor came in and most of her needles and other annoyances were removed.

  Her throat felt sore, but she no longer needed any supplemental oxygen. The IV was removed, and the doctor placed a large foam pitcher in front of her that contained ice water. “I’ll make this trade if you’ll be sure to drink plenty of water. If you don’t do that, then we’ll have to go back to the needles.”

  “I’ll do it,” Kyra told him, trying not to wince as she spoke to him, and swallowed some of the contents of her cup.

  “Good. If you keep doing things right we can let you go tomorrow,” he told Kyra. “Between now and then you need to start getting up and walking around the halls some. We’ll make sure you have a second gown so that you avoid any embarrassing situations. I understand you want to visit another patient, anyway. And she’s indicated she wants to see you, so there’s no problem there.”

  “Jasmine,” Kyra said. “How is she?”

  “An inch or two in the wrong direction and she wouldn’t have made it. We’re monitoring her to make sure she doesn’t show any signs of going into labor, but so far so good.”

  Kyra sagged back against the pillows in relief. “Good. Can I have that gown now?”

  “Soon,” he promised. “I’ll instruct your nurse to bring it to you as soon as she sees that you’ve had at least another pint of fluids. And maybe a late breakfast of something soft and easy to swallow, okay?”

  Kyra nodded and found herself smiling. This was about the best possible outcome in an awful situation. She’d been praying nearly constantly, prayers of thanks and gratitude every time she thought of something else that could have gone terribly wrong, but didn’t. Now she settled in on the pillows and just praised God for all of it, the good and the bad, while the hospital noises hummed around her and she sipped her cool water. She was ready to go see Jasmine, and the sooner she followed all the doctor’s conditions, the sooner she’d get there.

  Josh sat at Jasmine’s bedside, marveling at how good she looked despite what she’d been through. “You can say otherwise all you want, but you saved my life, Mr. Richards. Mine and Miss Kyra’s and probably even…his.” Josh understood her reluctance to say Griffith’s name. “I’m not sure you should have done that for him. He was going to kill all of us.”

  “He might have,” Josh admitted. “But once I knew that Sarah was there I wasn’t about to hurt her father in front of her. Jasmine, I spent more than twenty years trying to get over my own dad’s death and prove he was a hero and not the loser everybody else said he was. It ate up my life, and I wasn’t about to give somebody else that kind of nightmare.”

  “Wow. It would be harder for her, too, because I don’t know if there’s that much good to prove about her dad, huh?” Once again Josh was struck with the insight this kid showed.

  “Have you thought any about what you’re going to do with your life, kid? Because you sound to me like somebody who’d make a good psychologist or detective. Sometimes there’s not that much difference between the two.”

  Jasmine shook her head. “Not me. My grades aren’t that good and now I’ll have a baby to look after. I figure that pretty much finishes my school career.”

  Josh reached out and took her hand. “It better not. Do you want your son or daughter to get the message that it’s okay to throw away your gifts because life gets hard?”

  “No. But how could I ever manage a baby and school? I’ll have to work to support us and find a place to live when I age out of the system.”

  “I expect there are people who would be willing to help, me included.” Josh didn’t even surprise himself with his statement. He’d been single for so long, with relatively simple needs that he had a decent amount of savings. “And there’s one other hard question that I suspect people have been asking you to consider.”

  He didn’t even have to spell things out. “Right. Whether or not I should keep this baby. One of the social workers has probably told me about two dozen times that I should give him or her up for adoption right away. That I owe the baby that much, to be raised in a stable two-parent home where they have plenty of money and all that.”

  “What do you think?” Josh watched her thin shoulders slump.

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I think she’s right. If I’d had all that I probably wouldn’t be in the system. But then I look at kids like Ashley. She started out in one of those ‘good homes’ with two parents and everything, but then her folks split up and her mom got in a car accident and she’s in the same mess I am.”

  “You don’t have to decide alone.” The raspy voice from the doorway made Josh and Jasmine both turn to see who was talking. It was Kyra, looking a little pale and leaning on the door frame for support. Her hair was wild and she wore two mismatched hospital gowns, one front to back, and hospital-issue slipper socks.

  Josh stood quickly and pointed her to the chair he’d just vacated. “Sit down before you fall down. You still look pretty peaked.”

  “Yeah, you can blame some of that on my English and Irish ancestors. Pale redheads look extra-pale when they’re sick.”

  “I think you probably make me look healthy,” Jasmine cracked, grinning slightly. “Mr. Richards is right, Miss Kyra. You look like y
ou might pass out again.”

  “Well, I don’t feel that bad,” she said, a little snappish. Josh noticed she sat down, anyway, and her coloring improved slightly once she settled into the chair. “In fact, they’re telling me that if I keep doing everything they tell me I’ll be out of here tomorrow. Looks like somebody else is ready to go now.”

  Josh felt like sitting down again to regain his balance when her green eyes surveyed him. “The doctor would have been happier if I’d stayed another day, but I hate these places. And I promised to do everything he said. Now that your part of the case is done, or at least in no more need of an investigator, it’s time for me to clear out.”

  “Is the bureau ready to take you back?”

  She always cut straight to the point. It was one of the things he liked most about Kyra. “I talked to my supervisor this morning and she said yes. I told her I’ve got a couple of personal things to wrap up and then I’d see her in Virginia.”

  “Any way I can help with those personal things?” Kyra asked. He wasn’t sure why she looked a little unhappy with what he said. Maybe she was afraid that he would stick her with all the paperwork for the case. Or maybe she wasn’t as resentful of him as Josh thought she’d be.

  He cleared his throat before he answered, Kyra’s painful-sounding voice making him aware of his own discomfort. “Not much,” he told her. “Most of it I’m still working out for myself.”

  “Okay. If you need somebody to bounce ideas off of, you know where to find me.” He reached down and took Jasmine’s hand again briefly and gave it a quick squeeze. The action allowed him to keep his face out of Kyra’s line of vision so she wouldn’t see the tears springing up in his eyes. He could have talked to the two of them for hours, but he knew that wasn’t what he needed to do.

  When he straightened back up, Kyra rose from the chair. “Thank you,” she said, putting her arms around him for a heartfelt hug. “I heard what Jasmine said earlier and she’s right. You probably saved both of our lives.”

  “I should have done more. I could have been quicker,” Josh blurted out. “I thought you’d be angry at me for not getting to you sooner once I found you.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. From the little distance between them, Josh saw golden flecks in the green. “You’re kidding. I thought you were wonderful. And you’ve been hiding some real talents as a negotiator.”

  He let go reluctantly of her warm body and stepped back, fighting the urge to kiss her instead for the gift her words gave him. “Maybe. And thank you. Just hearing the way you feel makes me feel better.” He straightened his shoulders, ready to leave the room while he still had the courage to do it. “Any messages you want me to deliver at work while I clear my stuff out?”

  She shook her head. “Tell them I’ll probably be in Friday for a little while, but not to expect much out of me.”

  “I guess not. Take care of yourself. And you, too, Jasmine.”

  “We will,” Kyra said softly. “And we’ll take care of each other.” The last sight Josh had of them was their hands meeting across the white sheet, fingers linking in comfort and love.

  “This is Pam Gorman. What did you do to my best agent?” Kyra didn’t automatically recognize the irritated voice on the other end of the phone, but she looked at the caller ID and saw a number she recognized as FBI from the area code and prefix.

  “What do you mean? Josh said he was going back to the bureau last week.”

  There was a harrumph from the phone. “He came back, all right. Just long enough to resign his position and clean out his desk. He told me he was taking a transfer to something that suited him better. What did you do, entice him over there permanently?”

  “Not at all. In fact, I was about ready to call there and see what he was up to,” Kyra admitted. She didn’t go on to tell Pam that Josh hadn’t called, e-mailed or written since he’d left Jasmine’s hospital room, and she was getting concerned. The less she said, the less likely it was that she’d betray the feelings Josh had stirred up in her.

  Pam sighed. “Well, why don’t we agree to contact each other if we hear from him, okay? I sent you a man one step from a spectacular burnout and got back an individual who looked calm and in control. Too bad he only stuck around a couple of hours.”

  “Yes,” Kyra agreed. “I’ll call you if I hear anything.”

  “The same goes here.” There was a short pause on Pam’s end of the phone. “You’re not set up to be a training school, are you? Because I’ve got a couple of other agents who could use some of what Josh apparently picked up.”

  Kyra stifled a short laugh. “Sorry, that was a one-shot deal. Have a good day, Ms. Gorman.”

  Kyra spent the rest of the morning wondering where Josh might have gotten to. Once she came back to work Friday his part of the office was neat and empty. The laptop sat closed on her desk and everything pertaining to his work on the case was typed up and placed in a file folder along with his notes and other information. Nothing about the office hinted that two people had shared it for a number of weeks. Even now it felt a bit empty.

  Kyra found herself absently running one fingertip around the corner of the laptop when she had an idea. She opened the laptop and turned it on, hoping that Josh hadn’t done his searching on a computer at home. She traced back through sites he’d visited and a few he’d even bookmarked. Half an hour later she had the information she wanted. She held the piece of paper with the phone number she’d printed out, wondering if she should make a call or not. If she was wrong, it might cause a bit of a problem for Josh. Even if she were right he might not want her to find him.

  Looking down at the number again, she decided to pray about it for the rest of the day and listen to see if God’s answer for her got any clearer. Right now what she thought about doing sounded as much her idea as it might be God’s. If the balance tipped a little in God’s favor, she’d make the phone call.

  Wednesday morning, Ranger sat on one of the chair cushions in the kitchen, watching Kyra pace across the room. She must have been irritating him with her constant movement, because he took a swipe at the edge of her sweater the next time she got close to him. “I know, kitty. I should sit down, but I can’t right now.” She’d picked up one of the cordless phones three times now, punched in part of a number in Iowa and put it back down.

  She looked at the clock again. Nine-fifteen, which meant that in Davenport it must be eight-fifteen. “That’s not too early for somebody with grade-school-aged kids, is it?” she mused, laughing when the cat talked back with a sound that surely sounded like a “no.”

  “I’ll take your advice,” she told him, finally punching in the entire number and sitting down at the table, holding her breath while the phone rang. Before she could hang up, a woman answered with a soft “Hello?”

  “Hi. May I speak to Chrissie?”

  “This is Chris. Nobody calls me Chrissie except—” she faltered “—except my brother. Are you looking for him?”

  “I am. My name is Kyra Elliott and—”

  “You don’t have to say anything else. I’ve heard a lot about you in the past three days. I keep telling Josh he’s crazy not to call you, but he’s as stubborn as he was when he was twelve. He’s not here yet so I can say that out loud.” The woman gave a short laugh. “Once he gets back from taking the girls to school I’ll have to be quieter, won’t I?”

  “Probably not. I don’t plan to talk all that long. I was just anxious to see if he’d found you, and if the two of you had gotten together.”

  “We have, and I think I should thank you for that. I’ve never seen my brother act the way he has the past three days. Of course, there was a long time when I didn’t see him at all. I’m glad we’re talking again. My kids don’t have any other aunts or uncles, and it was beginning to feel wrong not to have any contact with the one they do have. And once I didn’t talk to Josh after he sent me all the stuff on our father, I never expected he’d make the first move to get in touch.”

 
“Has he said anything about quitting his job?” Kyra knew it probably wasn’t any of her business, but she wanted to know if Josh would ever be coming back here close enough that they might develop a relationship.

  “He said he didn’t quit exactly, he’s transferring to another job. But first he has to take this course in negotiations and conflict. He says he’s already signed up for the next one they’re giving at Quantico.”

  All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for Kyra then and she had to fight tears. “Wow. He really did take my advice.”

  “Was that your advice, too? Now I really think he should get back there and start courting you.”

  Kyra could hear all kinds of noise in the background on Chrissie Morgan’s end of the phone; doors opening and closing and a small voice talking excitedly about doughnut holes and the high-pitched yap of a dog barking. “Josh, I hope you didn’t get him the chocolate kind. If he drops one it will make Gizmo sick. Okay, good. Here, talk to your girlfriend while I get Timothy some milk to go with those.”

  Before Kyra could protest or hang up, she could hear the phone change hands and the background noise grow fainter. “I didn’t tell anybody I was your girlfriend,” she protested. “Chrissie decided that on her own.”

  “My kid sister’s good at that. But I have to admit that she’s grown up into a very astute woman. She’s been telling me all week that I ought to make sure you are my girlfriend. What do you think?”

  “I think it sounds like a great idea, provided you’re coming back. I don’t do long distance very well.”

  “I don’t think I would, either, Kyra. Which is why I took a big leap of faith and applied for the bureau’s resident agency in Baltimore.”

  “As a hostage negotiator?”

  “We’re called crisis negotiators, thank you. And I won’t be official until I go through the course the first two weeks of June. After that, assuming I pass—”