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.”“And those are?”“Anything and everything goes,” Tony said.They arrived back in the emergency room.Dallas looked at the curtained-off area where Nikki waited.“You said the ambulance’s coming here?”“Yep,” Tony said.“And from what we know, she’s still alive.”Dallas took a step then stopped.“I hate delivering bad news.”Tony nudged him.“I’ll be right out here if you need me.”Dallas knew his brother was a coward.But when it came to dealing with emotionally distraught women, so was Dallas.He remembered the look in Nikki’s big blue eyes when she heard his brother suggest he might arrest her.As the investigating officer, Tony’s job practically mandated he be curt.Nikki Hunt would probably take the news better from him.Dallas slipped between the curtains to face the music.Only problem, there was no music to face.Nikki Hunt wasn’t there.The IV needle that had once been injected and taped to her wrist, now dangled downward and dripped onto the floor.A woman’s purse lay open on the hospital bed, some of its contents spilling over the mattress.He stepped out of the curtained space.Tony met his gaze.“Problems already?”“Yeah.” Dallas looked up and down the hall.“Just a little one.About five-five, blond, and… very soft.”CHAPTER SIX“SHE RAN?” TONY jerked the curtain back and stared at the empty hospital bed.“We don’t know that.” But damn it if Dallas’s mind wasn’t moving in that direction.Not that running made her guilty—he still hadn’t changed his mind about her being innocent.He personally knew how it felt to be accused of a crime you didn’t commit.Hell, running had crossed his mind once or twice, too.“Fuck it!” Tony snapped.“Let’s break up and search for her.”Tony stormed off and Dallas could hear him drilling the nurses about Nikki’s disappearance.That’s when Dallas’s eyes moved back to the purse and items on the bed.If the woman was running, wouldn’t she have taken her purse or at least her wallet?He picked up the red wallet and thumbed through it.Does flat broke mean anything to you? He recalled her earlier words.Good to her word, he found no cash, not even any loose change.But her debit and credit cards peeked out of the little pockets beside her driver’s license.He didn’t know a woman alive who would leave home without her credit cards.He studied the purse’s other contents: a tampon, a pen, a crossword puzzle book, a few receipts, a tube of lipstick and blush, a flash drive, a small can of Mace, and a pack of gum.He snagged a piece of cinnamon gum, and started dropping the items back into her purse.That’s when he realized the one thing that was missing.The thing most women kept as close as their credit cards.A cell phone.And that’s when he pretty much figured what happened.Turning around, he walked out of the ER and looked for the first exit sign.LeAnn O’Connor, on a much-needed short break, stepped outside of the hospital and walked to the small veranda where employees ate their packed lunches.The eight o’clock sun was gone, but its heat hung on, and the sky was still light.Half-afraid she’d launch into a stress-induced panic attack, she hoped the air outside would make breathing possible.Not that it was the inside air causing her lungs to fail.Nope.Her inability to breathe had nothing to do with air contaminants and everything to do with seeing her husband for the first time in nine months.She knew facing him was inevitable.She just hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.Or maybe she had.Maybe that’s why she’d been avoiding him.Her hands shook and the hole that existed where her heart used to be seemed emptier, bigger and more painful than ever.Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.Heaven help her, but he’d looked good.And when he’d leaned across the counter and invaded her space, he’d smelled good, too.He’d smelled like… home.And that’s what Tony had always been to her.Home.A sense of belonging, of believing she mattered, of having a special place in this big old world that hadn’t felt so lonely.Thanks to her sole parent, Colonel Becker, she’d seen a lot of that world.Texas, Florida, New York, California, even Germany and Japan.She’d moved a total of twenty-two times in her life
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