Page 63 of Tough Justice

His dog traced the edges of the property, sniffing the ground to pick up a scent trail. Somewhere in the darkness, branches crunched.

Thor set off at a dead run, and Deck followed. Rocks and broken branches gouged his bare feet, but he kept going. The road was barely a hundred feet away.

Over the sound of his own breathing, he heard a car start. By the time he got to the road, the car had driven off.

“Damn.” He leaned over, resting his hands on his thighs as he sucked in air. Thor watched him, waiting for the signal to keep giving chase. “Not today, buddy.”

Despite his precautionary driving, had T-Lo tracked him to Tori’s house? Doubtful, but how could he be sure?

Wincing as he stepped on more rocks and twigs, he and Thor made their way back to the house. Deck slid open the door to the kitchen to find Tori knotting the belt of a robe around her waist. When he flipped on the lights, her gaze dropped to the gun in his hand. Her expression was pinched, the look in her eyes so frightened it sent a wave of fury rolling over his head.

He cared about her too much to risk bringing a killer to her doorstep. T-Lo didn’t know who she was, and Deck intended to keep it that way.

His chest tightened more because the only way to accomplish that was to stay away from her. At least until he could nail the bastard and lock him up for good.

Chapter Twenty-One

“There you go, Jimmy. Good as new.” Tori finished wrapping the little boy’s leg in a gauze bandage then smiled wistfully. Not for the first time, she wondered if she’d ever have a child of her own to coddle after he or she had fallen and needed stitches.

“Thank you, Dr. Sampson.” The boy’s mother smiled gratefully.

“You’re welcome.” She patted Jimmy’s head of unruly red hair. “Take it easy on that bike from now on. Okay?”

Jimmy nodded. “Okay.”

“Nurse Torres will get you checked out.” She and Suzie exchanged knowing looks. These cases they didn’t mind so much.

As Tori entered something in the boy’s chart, Suzie strapped a BP cuff around the boy’s arm, and as she did, the diamond engagement ring on her left hand sparkled and twinkled more than Tori remembered it did. She looked at it more closely, realizing it wasn’t the same ring, not even close. The rock on this ring had to be three times the size of the one Suzie had shown her two months ago when Hector had proposed.

Suzie finished taking the boy’s blood pressure, which was normal, then followed Tori from the room.

She turned to her friend, pointing. “Is that a new engagement ring?”

Suzie nodded, smiling as she held up her hand for Tori to have a closer look. “What do you think?”

With all the wedding and honeymoon plans, Suzie had bemoaned how she and her fiancé were on a tight budget. The ring had to be crazy expensive. “It’s gorgeous. Not that your first ring wasn’t, but this one is just…wow!”

“The first ring was pretty,” Suzie agreed, still gazing at the giant, glittering rock, “but I always wanted something bigger, and this one is awesome. Hector’s been working a second job at night, and I fell into a little extra cash, so we bought a bigger diamond. I’ll probably have the other one reset for a necklace, although it is kind of small.”

Ohh-kay. Tori wasn’t a gemstone expert by any stretch, but Hector’s night job must pay really well, and whatever cash Suzie had fallen into must be pretty deep. As long as her friend was happy, that was all that mattered.

“It looks good on you.” It did, but she was a bit worried Suzie was stretching herself too thin, what with all the impending wedding expenses. “I’m meeting Wil for dinner. Do you want to join us?”

Suzie shook her head. “You go ahead. I’ll finish up this chart.”

Tori headed to the elevators. Given that they’d both been working different shifts lately, she hadn’t seen Wil in at least a week and was looking forward to it.

As she got into the elevator, her cell phone vibrated with an incoming text. She hoped it was Deck, but it wasn’t. Just thinking about him sent a shiver through her body. After making love up against the wall and then in her bedroom… All her previous sexual experiences had been tame, in comparison. She hadn’t seen or heard from Deck in the last week, and maybe that was okay. As great—no, make that as awesome—as it was being with him, she needed time to think.

When he and Thor had returned from chasing down the noise outside her bedroom window, all he said was that whoever had been out there had gotten away. But there had been someone out there. He’d been sure of it, which had only served to hack out a solid chunk from what was already her reluctant optimism.

Deck had one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Danger seemed to follow him everywhere. Since he’d left her house that night, he’d called her only once, saying he was working around the clock to track down the man who’d tried to kill him and who might have been the same person outside her house. But every day that she didn’t hear from him worried her more. What if Deck never caught T-Lo? Would he have a bullseye on his back for the rest of his life? Was she capable of withstanding the emotional torture of knowing that every time he went to work, he might never come home?

The issues looming between them could span the Grand Canyon. Losing someone she loved again would crush her.

Tori swallowed then gripped the phone tighter as she looked at the text from her sister, unable to focus on the words. She’d already started falling for Deck, and the consequences were frightening.

The elevator doors opened, and she headed down the hall. The cafeteria was filling up quickly with a mix of nurses, families of patients, and a few doctors, including Neil Shibowsky and Max Maynard at one table, and Wil at another. He’d already grabbed his food and was digging into a bowl of soup. She went through the line, ordered chicken marsala over egg noodles, then met Wil at the table.