
He couldn’t say ‘he’d ever met’ because they hadn’t exactly been properly introduced. A fact he
intended to remedy, post-haste. Part of him wondered what he was doing, chasing a stranger around
hospital hallways in the wee hours of the morning. Another part of him urged him torun faster .
He caught sight of her just before she darted around a corner and forced himself to put on speed.Come
on, Dean, you wimp , he thought contemptuously.You’ve got to be a head taller at least—certainly
your legs are longer. Catch up! And, on the heels of that:Where the hell is Security? For that
matter, where the hell is anybody?
Speaking of dead ends, he just about had her cornered in one; she’d zigged when she should have
zagged and there was no door at the end of this hallway, just a window, too far above her head to climb
out. She was facing him, trapped with her back against the wall, when he jogged around the corner.
“There you are,” he panted, slowing his pace. “Are you okay? Did that guy hurt you? Before you hurt
him, I mean?”
Her eyes, which had been narrowed to blue slits studying him, now widened in surprise. He was
hopelessly dazzled and gave in to the feeling—he was a long way between girlfriends and she really was
spectacular. Had he thought her eyes were an ordinary blue? Coming closer, he could see they were the
color of the sky on a cloudless day, pure and perfect.
“If you’re hurt,” he said, trying not to wheeze, “I’d be glad to take a look at it for you. It’s the least I can
do, since you got me out of finishing my chart work…dull stuff, believe me.”
He heard himself babbling and told himself to shut up. She said nothing, just kept studying him. He
noticed she wasn’t even out of breath.Kicking ass must keep her cardiovascular system in top form ,
he thought.
“Seriously,” he said. “Areyou okay? Is there anything I can do? If you’re in some kind of trouble, I can
call a shelter, find you a safe place to stay.”
Still she said nothing, but her lips twitched, as if fighting a smile. He wasn’t sure what the joke was, but
took a cautious step forward. “Everything’s all right,” he soothed, as if calming a wild doe, “now if I can
just get you to come with me, I mean without rearranging my kidneys first, we’ll find an exam room,
make sure you’re okay and then we can talk about the trouble you’re in. Whatever it is, I bet we can fix
it if we put our heads together.”
She opened her mouth and he waited eagerly, then they both heard the noise of pounding feet.Well, well
, he thought tiredly,what do you know—Security finally woke up from ye olde one a.m. snoozefest.
Whatever she had been about to say was forgotten as she reached up, just barely catching the bottom
edge of the window. The hospital’s windows were old—no wire mesh—and deep-set. He watched with
utter astonishment as she grabbed hold of the ledge and flipped her legs up and over her head, her boots
smashing through the glass and the rest of her following through.
He figured it was a good thing they were in the lowest level of the hospital, because he had the feeling
she would have gone through that window even if they’d been ten stories up. He wondered if the boots
she wore had protected her from lacerations. Given the woman’s incredible speed and luck, he assumed
they had.
“Well, it was nice meeting you,” he said numbly and was nearly run over as two security guards came