Decision made, she relaxed.
Max’s cell phone rang. Ben was on the line.
“I thought you were on your way back to the hotel,” Max said.
“I’m in the ER,” Ben said. “We’ve got a situation here. A police officer requested some help with a kid, and I suggested you. Mind stopping by?”
“Yeah, all right.”
As Ellie and Max cut through the emergency room area, they noticed how quiet it was compared with the earlier scene. The hallways were empty, and they didn’t have to zigzag around the gurneys.
Then they turned the corner and spotted Ben. He stood in front of a door with his arms folded, blocking access. A young policeman, a middle-aged man, and a hospital aide were standing in front of him arguing. The aide had a set of keys and wanted Ben to move so he could unlock the door. Ben wasn’t budging.
“Get out of the way and I’ll just shoot the lock,” the older man suggested. He pulled a small handgun from his pocket. “Move out of my way. I’ll-”
Ben reacted with lightning speed. Before the man could blink, he’d confiscated the gun. He handed it to the officer.
The policeman glared at the man. “How did you get in the hospital with that gun, Gorman? And what are you doing with it anyway? You’re a social worker-and a damned poor one at that. You should find another line of work.”
“I’ve got a permit to carry,” Gorman boasted. “I work in a bad part of town. I need protection. Now give me my gun back.”
“Security here sucks,” the officer muttered to Ben.
“I want to see your permit,” Ben demanded.
“It’s in my glove compartment.”
“What’s going on?’ Max asked.
Ben nodded to the social worker and said, “Things got out of hand.”
“Yeah? What’s the problem?”
Ellie knew all about Gorman. He was mean and liked to throw his weight around.
Gorman started to explain, but Max put his hand up, nodded to the officer, and said, “You tell me.”
“A boy was being dragged out of the ER by Gorman.”
“I’m a social worker. I have every right-” Gorman began. He quickly shut his mouth when he saw Max’s dark expression.
Max read the officer’s name and said, “Go on, Officer Lane.”
“The boy was screaming while Gorman dragged him,” he said again. “The aide,” he continued with a nod toward the young man holding the keys, “had the boy’s other arm. They were hurting him.”
“I was using necessary force,” Gorman defended.
“He told me to grab him,” the aide said.
“Anyway,” the officer said in a loud voice to get the others to be quiet, “the boy broke free. He ran through an open exam room where a doctor was sewing up a patient, and he got hold of a scalpel. He locked himself in this private exam room.”
“How old is this boy?”
“Nine or ten.”
Jeez. “And you want to pull a gun on him?” Max quietly asked the social worker.
Gorman shrank at the anger in Max’s eyes. He took a step back and decided to bluster his way through the situation.
“I’m putting this boy in lockup. Resisting and fighting me…”
Turning to the aide, Max said, “Unlock the door and don’t leave. You and I aren’t finished.”
The aide’s hands shook as he tried three keys before finally opening the door. He hastily stepped away.
“Officer Lane, escort these two men into the waiting room and wait for me,” Max ordered. He turned to Ellie. “I won’t be long.”
He entered the room and quietly shut the door behind him.
Ellie went to the nurse’s station to find out who the boy belonged to. She knew the nurse on duty. Her name was Mary, and she was a sweet older woman who was on a perpetual diet.
“What can you tell me about-”
“That sweet boy Gorman terrorized?”
Ellie nodded. Mary moved closer to the counter so she wouldn’t be overheard.
“I don’t know who called social services. The boy and his brother were in a car accident. The older brother just got out of surgery. Broken leg,” she explained. “The little guy has some cuts, but he checked out all right. He said his aunt is coming to get him, but she won’t be here until tomorrow. That’s all he would say. Then Gorman came charging in. I thought about calling security, but then Officer Lane came on duty and he helped.”
Ben joined Ellie at the counter. He could see she was becoming anxious. She kept glancing at the door.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Max knows what he’s doing. A nine-year-old with a scalpel won’t be a problem for him. He’s gone into much trickier situations.”
That news didn’t comfort her. “Why didn’t you or Officer Lane go in? Why did you ask Max?”
“Because he’s better at this sort of crisis than I am. He knows what’s going on inside that boy’s head. Max can help him, and pretty soon the boy will know he can trust him.” He went on, “There was this case about a year ago. An uncle was using his nephew as a punching bag, and one day the kid had had enough. He got hold of his uncle’s gun and was going to kill him. The two of them were locked in the boy’s bedroom. I remember the walls were green, and there were posters of superheroes all over.”
“What happened?”
“There was a standoff, and the boy held the uncle at gunpoint. It took some convincing for the boy to let Max come in. He found out that the uncle had tried to sexually assault the boy, and that was when the boy went for the gun. Max understood that the boy wanted his uncle to suffer, and so he described in detail what was going to happen to the uncle when he was sent to prison. It was pretty gross stuff, but it placated the boy, and he gave Max the gun.
“The uncle started screaming at the kid then, so Max walked over and coldcocked him. By the time I was there putting the cuffs on him, the pervert had come around and was blubbering. I guess what Max had told the kid scared him. The prick,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
“What if that boy had turned the gun on Max?” she asked.
“He was prepared for that. He knows how to handle these situations.”
Ellie kept watching the closed door. “Scalpels are sharp,” she said. “If the boy slashes an artery or-”
“Max won’t let him hurt him.”
And he was right. The door opened and Max walked out. He had one hand on the shoulder of the little boy, who was glued to his side, and he held the scalpel in his other hand.
The boy seemed too little to be nine or ten, Ellie thought, and he looked so scared. She wanted to find Gorman and sock him. As she walked toward them, the child’s eyes got big and he shuffled to get behind Max.
Max looked down and said, “It’s okay. She’s with me. Let’s let her look at your arms, okay? Then we’ll find you some food and a bed. You’re staying here tonight.”
The boy’s name was Kyle, and both of his arms had red streaks from being wrenched. Max lifted him onto an exam table.
When Kyle saw Ellie putting on gloves, he said, “No shots.”
“No shots,” she agreed. “I just want to examine you.”
She helped him remove his T-shirt.
“The other doctor said the seat belt saved me,” Kyle whispered. “See? There’s the bruise where it held me. I was in the backseat.”
Ellie was more interested in his left shoulder and his arms. The skin was red and inflamed from his wrist to his elbows, and the left wrist was sprained. The right arm wasn’t as bad.
“Where are your parents, Kyle?” Ellie asked.
“My mom died, and I don’t know my dad,” he answered.
“Any other family?”
“Just my brother. I live with him. My aunt lives in Chicago, and she said she’ll come tomorrow and get me.”
Ellie looked at Max. “I’m going to admit him,” she said.
“What does that mean?” Kyle asked with a frantic look in his eyes.
“It means you’re going to sleep here tonight.”
“With my brother?”
“When your brother gets out of recovery, I’ll make sure he’s on the same floor. All right?” Ellie asked.
“What about that man? He said he was going to put me in jail.”
“I’ll take care of him, like I promised,” Max said.
“I’m sorry I took that knife. I thought they’d leave me alone if I could scare them.”
Ellie went back to the nurse’s station to start the admission process. She called the office and explained that an aide employed by the hospital had inflicted some of the injury to the child and that there was a possibility of a lawsuit. Since she was the admitting physician, she would determine when the child could be released. By the time the paperwork was completed, Kyle was sound asleep.
“It’s a bad sprain in his wrist,” she told Max. “I’m surprised Gorman didn’t pull his arm out of the socket. He’ll need ice packs on the shoulder, too.”
She waited at the nurse’s station while Max and Ben went into the waiting room to talk to Gorman and the aide.
She heard Officer Lane say in a raised voice, “You have the right to remain silent…” She couldn’t hear the rest because Gorman was shouting.
A minute later Max returned to her. “You ready?”
She turned back to the nurse. “Thanks, Mary.”
“Don’t worry. I know the night crew on three. They’ll watch out for that boy,” Mary assured.
Nodding, Ellie followed Max out into the night air. Ben called good night as he headed to his car.
“How did you get Kyle to calm down?” she asked.
“I didn’t say anything. I just let him talk. The poor kid was scared out of his mind. When he was ready to listen to me, I promised him no one was going to lock him up and that I would keep that social worker away from him.”
“He obviously believed you. You were good with him.”
They reached the car, and Max opened the door. “You’ll check on him in the morning?”
“Of course I will, and I’ll make sure someone stays with him until his aunt arrives. You don’t need to worry.”
“With you looking out for him, I won’t worry at all.”
Ellie slipped into the passenger seat, clipped on the seat belt, and closed her eyes. They hadn’t even pulled out of the parking lot before she was asleep. Had Max not been watching, he wouldn’t have believed it. Her deep, even breathing indicated she had drifted off into a sound slumber. As he drove, he thought about her. She was a woman who was used to being in control, and yet she felt comfortable with him. She wouldn’t have let herself sleep if she didn’t feel safe.
He remembered the route she had shown him, and it didn’t take any time at all to get her home. He parked the car in front of her building, turned the motor off, then unhooked his seat belt and hers.
“Come on, sweetheart. You need to get to bed.”
The second he touched her arm she was alert. “You don’t need to walk in with me.”
“Yes, I do.”
When he opened her car door, he took her hand.
Neither one of them said another word until they were inside her apartment. He did a quick check, pulled her phone out of his pocket, and handed it to her. Then he bent down and kissed her. She leaned into him and that was all the permission he needed. He wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss. She followed his lead and used her tongue to drive him as wild as he was driving her.
What was the harm in a few kisses… farewell kisses… she thought, as her arms curled around his neck.
Max pulled back, looked into her eyes, and with a low growl kissed her again. He loved the taste of her, like sugar and mint, and the feel of her soft, luscious body pressed against him. Most of all he loved the way she responded to him.
How could he resist her? The kiss was hot, wet, thoroughly arousing, and when Max realized it was getting out of control and he didn’t want to stop, he forced himself to end it. He couldn’t seem to let go of her, though. Holding her tight, he took a couple of deep, shaky breaths, trying to regain some semblance of control. He knew he shouldn’t have started this. He should let go of her and walk out the door. Yeah, that’s what he should do. Ellie wasn’t the one-night-only kind of girl. She wasn’t a hookup or a throwaway, as some of the guys in the office called their one-night stands.
Let go and walk out the door. He silently chanted the command and still didn’t move. How could he? Ellie was kissing the pulse at the base of his neck, making his heart rate accelerate. She kissed the side of his neck, then moved up to his ear. Her mouth was soft against his skin, and her tongue was driving him nuts.
He tightened his hold on her. “We need to stop this,” he began, realizing his words contradicted his actions, since he couldn’t make himself let go.
“I know,” she whispered, kissing him again.
“I’ve got to get back to Honolulu, and I don’t want to…” He was losing his train of thought, and all he could think about was kissing her.
“You don’t want to what?” she asked. Her fingers splayed into his hair as she leaned up to kiss his jaw.
He had to think about the question for several seconds, then said, “Hurt you. Yeah, that’s it. Sex tonight, gone tomorrow, I don’t think you could handle that.”
The truth was, he wasn’t sure he could handle it either. Ellie was going to be real hard to walk away from, almost impossible. He didn’t question why he felt that way, just knew it in his heart. She was so different from the other women he had known. She wouldn’t be forgettable.
“Ellie, it would be easy for me to get you into bed…,” he began.
Easy? She felt her spine stiffen. How egotistical! A couple of seconds passed before honesty kicked in. He was telling the truth. It would be easy for him, but it would be just as easy for her to get him into bed. And hadn’t she decided that was a bad idea?
Her lips brushed his jaw when she said, “And I’d end up getting hurt?”
“Yes.” His voice shook. “I think you would.”
Ellie pulled away. “You’re right,” she said with a sigh. “You need a more experienced woman, someone who knows what she’s doing.” God, he was arrogant, but oh was he sexy. It took all she had not to throw herself into his arms again, but instead, she opened the door. “Have a nice flight home.”