Page 34 of His Forgotten Colton Fiancee
“I don’t. What do you know?” she challenged.
A shrug in that well-fitted gray suit. “Only what the gossips say. Theoffice was destroyed. Poor Tia. She’s dead. You were quite fortunate.”
“Maybe I’m more than fortunate. Maybe I saw something happening, and ducked out of the way, only I wasn’t quite quick enough.”
Inside, she groaned. Why did she bait him like that? But she watched his expression widen.
She’d surprised him. Startled him, in fact.
“Perhaps you did. Too bad you can’t seem to remember.”
“Maybe my memory is coming back. Or not.”
There.Want to play games?A flash of memory—laughing and clapping as she sat at a table with an older woman, playing a game called Monopoly. Her mother?
Feeling more confident, Quinn fiddled with the button.
Noel came closer to the bed, the overpowering scent of his cologne making her want to gag. After the hospital antiseptic smells andthe smells of medicine and machines, she didn’t need something else clogging her senses.
He picked up the IV line leading to the pole by her bed and studied it. “So many lines and needles. So much pain. Poor Quinn,” he murmured.
She was helpless, lying in bed, unable to defend herself. He could pick up a pillow and smother her and she’d be dead before anyone came.
Silly. Why woulda businessman want to kill her? Or cause her any harm? He was her landlord. A dead tenant couldn’t pay rent.
Unless there was something else he needed from her more than money.
Silence.
Screams wouldn’t attract anyone. In frantic alarm, she pressed the nurse call button as Noel started to touch the morphine bag...
Barely seconds later, not a nurse, but West Brand strode into theroom. Coffee in hand, he dropped the cup and rushed over to the man.
“What the hell are you doing here?” West got into Larson’s face. “And touching her drip?”
Noel Larson lifted his hands as if to say,I’m innocent. “Just checking to see the medication, if it needed changing. Wanted to be helpful. I’ve had relatives in the hospital and I know how it is, how it’s hard to get nurses to doanything.”
“Not this hospital,” Quinn cut in, needing West by her side and needing him to believe her.Don’t leave me alone here with that man. Forget the fact I owe him money. He scares me.
Noel’s sly gaze flicked over to her and then back to West. He shrugged. “Good to hear. I’m just a visitor. I heard what happened and brought her flowers. What’s wrong with that?”
“Two things.”West’s fingers played with the butt of the lethal-looking gun sticking out of a holster on his leather belt. “You’re. Here.”
Noel’s smile didn’t meet his eyes. “West Brand, the new FBI man in town. Man of few words.”
West scowled. “Here’s one more word.Leave.”
Noel nodded at her. “And so I leave. Goodbye, Quinn. Feel better.”
The man left as West glared at the door closing behindhim. West went outside, returned a minute later.
“From now on, there’s someone outside your door 24/7. No visitors except myself and your brothers. And anyone authorized by us.”
Her tummy did a funny flip-flop, partly from nerves about the odd encounter with Noel Larson, and partly from West’s nearness.
He sat in the chair by her bedside, his anxious gaze holding hers. “Did he do anythingto you?”
Scared me.“I’m fine. He seems slimy.” And yet Noel Larson hadn’t been the one to talk about investigating her. West had.
