Shelter from the Storm. RaeAnne Thayne

to admit that to her.

      “Fine,” he assured her. “Sorry I wasted your time on that. If I’d known I would have to make a trip down here to the city, I could have just had them fix me up here while I was waiting to interview our beating victim. But then, I doubt anybody on staff here can claim such nice handiwork.”

      She blinked at the compliment and he watched a light sprinkle of color wash over her cheekbones. “I…thank you,” she murmured.

      “You’re welcome.”

      They lapsed into silence again.

      “How’s Anna these days?” Lauren asked after an awkward moment. “I heard she was in the Northwest now.”

      Grateful for the conversation starter, he smiled at the thought of his baby sister. “She loves Oregon. She runs a little gift shop and gallery in Cannon Beach that seems to be doing well. I took a few days and drove up there last year and she seems happy.”

      “She’s not married?”

      Some of the tension between them seemed to ease as they talked and he wanted to prolong the moment indefinitely. “No. Marc’s the only one of us to bite the bullet so far. He and his wife live in Cache Valley. They have twin boys we all spoil like crazy.”

      “And Ren is still in Central America?”

      “Right. We can’t get him away from his sea turtles.”

      She opened her mouth to answer, but cut off the words as a hospital worker pushed a gurney around the corner.

      “Here’s Rosa,” she said.

      The beating victim looked even younger here in the harsh glare of the hospital lights and her bruises showed up in stark relief against the white linens. Daniel studied her features, trying hard to find any hint of familiarity, but he was certain he didn’t know her.

      He helped push the gurney through the door into the examination room, earning a censorious look from Lauren for the mild exertion. He returned it with a bland smile, though he had to fight down a spurt of warmth. He liked her worrying about him far too much.

      “How did it go, Riley?” she asked the kid, who looked young for an X-ray technician, as his hospital ID identified him.

      “Good. She fell asleep while I was waiting for the films and I didn’t have the heart to wake her. Poor thing.”

      “She’s been through a terrible ordeal. She must be exhausted.”

      Lauren took the films from him and slid the first of several into the light box hanging on the wall. She studied it, then exchanged it for another and finally a third, a frown of concentration on her lovely features.

      “Just as we suspected,” she said after a moment. “She’s got three broken ribs, a fractured ulna and a broken nose.”

      “Somebody did a real number on her.” He was angry all over again at the viciousness behind the attack. “How’s the baby?”

      Lauren studied tape spitting out from a machine that was attached to a belt around Rosa’s abdomen. “The contractions have stopped. That’s a good sign. We did an ultrasound earlier and the fetus seemed healthy. It’s a miracle. She’s a dozen different shades of black and blue on her abdomen. My guess is somebody kicked her hard at least two or three times in an effort to induce abortion.”

      Daniel had a feeling this was one of those cases that would grab on to him with rottweiler jaws and not let go until he solved it. “Can I talk to her?” he asked.

      Lauren pursed her lips. “My instincts say to let her sleep for a while, but I understand your urgency. You likely have to return to Moose Springs as soon as possible.”

      “I do. I’m sorry. We’re shorthanded tonight.” He paused and met Lauren’s gaze. “It’s not just that, though. I want her to tell me what happened. The quicker she identifies whoever did this to her, the quicker I can lock the bastard up.”

      Though he spoke with a hard determination that didn’t bode well for the perpetrator, Lauren didn’t feel so much as a twinge of sympathy for whoever had done this. They deserved to feel the full wrath of Daniel Galvez, a terrible thing indeed.

      “I’m right there with you on that sentiment,” she told him. “In fact, if you gave me half a chance, I’d like to be the one twisting the key in the lock.”

      “I’ve got to catch him first and I can’t do that until I talk to Rosa.”

      Lauren sighed. “All right. Why don’t you wait in the hall while I wake her, though. She might panic if you’re the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes.”

      He raised an eyebrow. “Am I really that scary?”

      She felt her face heat and regretted her fair coloring that showed every emotion to the world like a big neon billboard. “I meant your uniform,” she answered stiffly, though she had to admit, she found the man absolutely terrifying.

      Could he tell? she wondered, hoping it wasn’t as obvious as her blush. She wasn’t afraid he would physically hurt her, though he was big and powerful and all large men tended to make her uncomfortable on some instinctive level.

      With Daniel, though, she was more wary of her own reaction to him and all the feelings he sparked in her, emotions she would rather not be experiencing for someone with whom she had such a tangled, complicated relationship.

      To her relief, he let the matter drop. “Yell when it’s safe for me to come in, then,” he murmured, slipping out of the room with far more grace than a man his size should possess.

      The room immediately felt about three times bigger without his overwhelming presence filling it. Lauren let out the breath she always seemed to hold around him and moved to her patient’s bedside.

      “Rosa? Niña, I need you to wake up.”

      When she didn’t respond immediately, Lauren gently shook her shoulder. “Rosa?”

      The girl’s eyes blinked open and she looked around in wild confusion, panic blooming in her dark eyes. Her gaze shifted to Lauren and a light of recognition sparked there. “Doctora.” She covered her abdomen with her hands. “El bebé. Está bien?”

      “Sí. Sí. Está bien.” She smiled, wishing she had a little better command of Spanish. If things weren’t so tensely uncomfortable with Daniel, she might ask for private lessons. But of course, that was impossible, so for now she would have to muddle through.

      “Rosa, the sheriff is here to talk to you about who hurt you.”

      The panic returned to her features. “No. No policía.”

      Lauren sighed. The physician in her wanted to urge her patient to rest, to promise her she could have this difficult interview later when her body had a chance to begin the healing process.

      She couldn’t, though. Daniel had a job to do—a job she very much wanted to see him conclude with an arrest. She just had to trust that he would handle a frightened girl with both tact and compassion.

      “I’m sorry, Rosa,” she answered in Spanish. “But you must tell him what happened.”

      The girl shook her head, her hands clasped protectively around her abdomen as if she feared Daniel would snatch the child from her womb. Lauren gave her a reassuring pat. “It will all be all right. You’ll see. Sheriff Galvez only wants to help you.”

      Rosa said something in Spanish too rapid for Lauren to pick up on. She had a feeling she was better off not knowing.

      She went to the door and opened it for Daniel. “She’s upset and doesn’t want to talk to you,” she said in an undertone. “I honestly don’t know how much she’ll tell you. I’m sorry. I can give you a few moments but if I think you’re upsetting her too much, I’ll have to kick you out.”

      “All right.”