Shelter from the Storm

“What is it? What happened?” the first one asked. “Are you okay?”

Lauren was shaking, she realized, and her head throbbed like it had been crushed by a wrecking ball. “No. I’m not okay. A man just attacked my patient. Call security. Have them block all the exits and entrances. They need to look for a Latino male in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a maintenance worker’s uniform but it was too short for him so I’m guessing it wasn’t real.”

“You’re bleeding!” the nurse exclaimed.

“Forget about me,” she said harshly. “Just call security!”

The nurse rushed out and Rosa gave a strangled whimper. Lauren saw she was inches away from hysteria. She slid onto the bed and gathered the girl to her, as much to comfort her as to find a safe place to sit for a moment before her legs gave out.

“You’re okay. You’re safe now.”

“Mi bebé. Mi bebé.”

“Okay, okay. We’ll check everything out but I’m sure your baby is all right.”

As the adrenaline spike crested, Lauren had to fight to hold on to her meager breakfast. It wasn’t easy.

She had been physically attacked only once before in her life and finding herself in this situation again brought back all those long-dormant feelings of shock and invasion she thought she had worked through years ago.

She didn’t know what was stronger, the urge to vomit or the urge to crawl into a corner and sob.

“Rosa. Is that the same man who hurt you?”

The girl hesitated, though Lauren could tell she understood her fractured Spanish.

“The only way you can be safe is to report what happened so he can be arrested.”

The gross hypocrisy of her words struck her, but she couldn’t worry about that now. Not when her patient’s life was at stake.

“Rosa, you’re going to have to tell someone what happened. You have no choice anymore. Will you talk to Sheriff Galvez?”

Rosa let out a sob and curved both hands over her abdomen. After a moment, she gave a long, slow nod.

He was bone-tired, so tired all he wanted to do was pull over somewhere, put his hat over his face and doze off for a few decades.

A smart man would be home in bed right about now dreaming soft, pleasant dreams that had nothing to do with crimes or accident reports or people in need.

He, on the other hand, had decided on a wild hair to drive into the big city after his shift ended to check on their assault victim. He could only hope a night in the hospital had changed her mind about talking to him about what had happened to her.

He worked out the kinks in his neck as he parked his SUV and headed for the front entrance of the hospital. Four security guards and a Salt Lake City police officer stood just inside, a pretty heavy security force. Maybe they had beefed up security for some kind of high-profile patient. His guess was that some kind of A-list movie star from the film festival had broken a leg on the slopes or something.

He recognized the city cop as Eddie Marin, an old friend from police training. “Hey, Eddie. What’s going on?”

The officer greeted him with familiar back-slapping. “Galvez, long time no see.”

“What’s with all the uniforms?”

“Incident up on the medical unit. Some dude tried to off a patient. We’ve sealed off the entrances but the guy seems to be in the wind. We can’t find any trace of him.” He gave Daniel a considering look. “Not saying we don’t appreciate all the help we can get, but isn’t this one a little far out of your jurisdiction?”

“I’m off duty, just following up on an assault victim dumped in my neck of the woods. What does your suspect look like? I’ll keep an eye out for him on my way up.”

“We had an eyewitness who caught him in the attack and was hurt trying to fight him off. She was pretty shaken up but Dr. Maxwell described a Latino male in a janitor uniform, five feet eleven inches, one hundred ninety pounds, half his left eyebrow missing from a scar. Only problem is, we can’t find the bastard anywhere in the hospital.”

Daniel registered none of the description, too caught up in the words preceding it. “Did you say Dr. Maxwell? Lauren Maxwell?”

“I think that’s her name. You know her?”

“She was injured?”

Eddie blinked at his urgent tone. “Perp punched her and knocked her to the floor. She’s pretty banged up and needs a couple stitches but she won’t leave her patient.”

“What room?”

Eddie gave him a careful look. “You okay, man?”

“What the hell room are they in?”

The officer told him and Daniel didn’t bother waiting for the elevator, he just raced for the stairs, his heart pounding.

He wouldn’t say he was intimately familiar with the sprawling hospital but he had been here many times on other cases. He knew his way enough to find the room Eddie had indicated, and in moments he reached the medical wing.

Even if the officer hadn’t given him the room number, he would have known it instantly by the crowd of people milling around. His own uniform seemed to smooth the way as he fought his way through until he made it to the room.

He found Lauren just outside the doorway, gesturing to another Salt Lake police officer he didn’t recognize.

She was holding a blood-soaked bandage to her cheek and her face was pale and drawn. Rage burned through him at whatever bastard might have hurt her and he wanted to fold her against him and keep her safe from the world.

She cut off her words the moment she saw him.

“Daniel!” she exclaimed, shock and relief mingling in her voice. Before he quite knew how it happened, she seemed to slide into his arms, pressing her uninjured cheek against the fabric of his uniform and holding on tight.

She felt delicate and fragile against him and despite the layers of his coat, he could feel the tiny shudders that shook her frame.

She sagged against him for only a moment, just long enough for him to want to tighten his arms and hold on forever. After entirely too short a time, she pulled away, a rosy flush replacing the pale, washed-out look she had worn when he first saw her.

He wanted to pull her back into his arms but he knew they didn’t have that kind of relationship. The only reason she had turned to him in the first place was likely because he represented a familiar face, comfort and security amid her trauma.

Already, he could see her replacing the defenses between them and once more becoming the cool, controlled physician who could handle anything.

“What happened?” he asked.

She let out a breath. “It was terrible. Absolutely awful. I walked into the room to check on Rosa about half an hour ago and found a janitor with his hands around her neck, choking the life out of her. Only he obviously wasn’t really a janitor. She says he was the same one who attacked her.”

“How is she?”

Her eyes softened and he had the impression that had been exactly the right thing to say, though he wasn’t quite sure why.

“Petrified and shocked. She keeps saying mi bebé over and over. Physically, I don’t think she was injured by the latest attack but she’s severely traumatized by it.”

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