But, as long as he lived true to himself, everything else wasn’t his problem. As he looked down at Gizella, he had to wonder. What had she done for the last five years? Had she gone on to do whatever it was that she had planned to do, and he couldn’t even remember what that was. How bad was that? The thing is, the longer he spent in her company, he remembered a lot of the other things in life. Feelings, the emotions she’d evoked, that sense of freedom and companionship. They were all pretty special.
Sure, she’d been hot as hell too. But that hadn’t been what he’d been looking for at the time. He couldn’t even remember why at first, but then he realized that he was just coming out of a relationship back then. He nodded at that. He also wasn’t somebody who jumped from one to the other. Maybe it just hadn’t been the right time back then.
As he looked at her now, he wondered at the forces of nature that brought them together again. He wasn’t superstitious, and he certainly didn’t spend much time thinking about that kind of stuff, but it often made him wonder if the universe had a plan that he didn’t know about. A map that he followed instinctively without ever consciously seeing the road signs and the turning points in his life. Because this would definitely be one of them.
He sagged back and waited for Mason to get hold of him.
When he did, he said, “The father will pull through. The bullet went high and missed anything major.” Mason sighed. “The mother, on the other hand, she’s conscious, but just sitting there. She’s refusing to be checked over, saying that she’s just fine.”
“Which presumably isn’t true,” Baylor said.
“We’re checking with her doctor back home,” Mason added, “but, as long as she’s refusing to be examined, not a whole lot we can do here for her.”
“I suspect there’s nothing we can do at all,” Baylor said. “I’m afraid this wasn’t supposed to be a goodbye voyage in terms of celebrating the end of chemo. It would be a goodbye voyage period.”
“That’s kind of depressing too,” Mason said, “and I hope you’re wrong.”
“I hope so too.”
“How is Gizella doing?”
“She seems fine and is sleeping right now,” he said. “They say sleeping will help her a lot.”
“Okay, as soon as she’s awake, get her out of there. Take her back to the safe house and keep her there. We don’t even know if the guy who gave her the drugs is one of the ones we took down.”
“Yeah, and I guess, if he went to the lengths he did, we can’t trust that he’ll just walk away now.”
“Nope, we can’t at all. We also don’t know who is behind this whole kidnapping scheme. Our sources are telling us it was a higher-up job.”
“It’s got to be,” Baylor said. “Too much manpower and money has been involved in this kidnapping otherwise.”
“Agreed,” Mason said. “We need to find out who’s pulling the strings.”
“That’s what we don’t know. She did confirm that the man she sketched was on the yacht.”
“Well, that’s good,” Mason said, “and that also gives us the Russian tie-in.”
“Exactly. But she also says she didn’t see him on the riverboat cruise.”
“No? Well, I guess that would make sense too. He was there to capture them. Why would he need to be there afterward, if she’s just under guard at that point in time?”
“Exactly.
“Okay, I’ll check in later,” Mason said. “We’re still running intel on our end.”
“Well, I’m sitting here, babysitting,” he joked.
“Sounds like it’s where you need to be,” Mason said in all seriousness.
After they hung up, Baylor turned back to the bed to see bright blue eyes staring at him. “Hello there,” he said gently. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” she whispered. Then she yawned unexpectedly, and a grin peeked out. “Actually I’m feeling better than I have in a while.”
Chapter 5
Gizella’s smiled brightened even more when she realized that she really would leave the hospital now. With Baylor’s assistance she made her way onto her feet and slowly walked to the bathroom. “See? I’m feeling much better.”
“Liar,” he said, not pulling any punches.
She glared at him. “You could at least leave me to my delusions.”
“It doesn’t do any of us any good,” he said. “We’ll get you back to the safe house, and hopefully you’ll be feeling better soon for real.”
“I’d like to go back to sleep,” she admitted. “I don’t sleep well here.”
“Not everybody does,” he admitted. “Hospitals aren’t for everyone.”
“Honestly I don’t know why they’d be for anyone,” she said. “People die here, you know?”
He snorted at that. “People die everywhere.”
“Sure, but they all congregate in one place called hospitals.” At that, he burst out laughing. She tossed him a grin. “See? I’m feeling much better.”
“If you say so.”
Forty minutes later they’d already done the paperwork and were walking out the front door. “I’m also hungry,” she announced.
“Good,” he said. “We’ll have food for you when we get back.”
“Good,” she murmured. Outside in the fresh air, she stopped and took several long, deep, slow breaths.
“Have you ever spent a long time in the hospital?” he asked curiously.
She looked up at him, her expression shadowed. “Not me,” she said, “but a girlfriend of mine. She was anorexic and ended up dying,” she said. “We had several really bad sessions when she had to be hospitalized. It looked like she had turned the corner, and then, well, she hadn’t. And then there’s my mom.”
“I’m sorry,” he said in surprise. “We don’t tend to think of anorexia
