My tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth when the cobwebs finally started to clear again. I scanned my surroundings and found them not to be overly unpleasant, which I took as a good sign. Boxes of medical supplies filled the shelves surrounding me, which led me to believe we'd be conducting our unfinished business in a supply closet. Not terribly clever nor all that secure, but it was definitely a step up from the other places I'd been in recently.
My new friend, "Nurse" Kate, was sitting across from me, watching the door while slipping a discreet look at her watch every few minutes.
"We on a time crunch or something?" I slurred, readjusting my posture while stretching out some kinks in my muscles.
Her eyes suddenly locked on mine. "Only if your little boy toy gets twitchy and ruins everything. Which I have a feeling he might very well do when he realizes you're not in your room anymore. No offense, but that guy's got issues."
She had no idea…
I gave her a lopsided grin. "He's just not a fan of the whole Houdini act. Thinks it's dangerous. Especially when I'm involved. And let's be fair here, he might be right."
A slow smile worked its way across her face. "I knew I liked you. Good sense of humor. Way better than that cop lady anyway."
I fought back a smirk. It probably wasn't all that hard to bypass Izzy in the humor department.
"Wish I could say the same for you, but you're not exactly giving off Bobo the Clown vibes at the moment." I glanced down at my wrists that were handcuffed together. "You know, especially with the whole abduction bit. It's not really helping your case here, I'm afraid."
Kate made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat as she stood. "You think I wanted to do all that? That I'd willingly choose this life if I had it to do all over again? That I enjoy sneaking around in the shadows, manipulating every damn detail just to stay one hair's breadth ahead of all this shit?" She laughed. "Lady, I'm tired. So unbelievably tired, you have no idea. But I'm nowhere near out of the woods yet."
Right. Couldn't say that didn't make sense. "But how exactly does all of this involve me?" I asked.
Kate stared at me for a long minute before breaking into a grin. "You must be one helluva poker player. That face you've got on makes you look completely clueless."
Yeah…except it wasn't exactly a face. I literally had no idea what she was talking about. "Let's say hypothetically I'm terrible at poker. Mind spelling this all out for me? Maybe in nice clear, simple terms." I shrugged my shoulders and flashed her a smile. "Just for fun."
Kate gave me another one of her pointed stares before continuing. "It's like that lady in that Greek wedding movie said. You know, about men thinking they're in charge and all, but really it's the women that have the power and sway."
Damn. Whatever drugs she'd slipped me earlier were obviously messing with my higher brain functions. "I'm afraid I don't follow."
"You're cute, you know that?" Kate straddled a box on the floor. "Your boyfriend's got a fancy street name, right? Ranger?"
"I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it fancy," Or that he would be classified as my boyfriend-I replied. "But yeah, he goes by that name fairly frequently. Why?"
"The one thing I know really well is men, sweetheart. And I know for a fact that man's got resources."
Well, she had a point there. Ranger had access to all sorts of networks and financial institutions that probably ran a bit more "gray side of law" than I ever wanted to admit. He could literally snap his fingers and things happened. Kate had apparently done her homework.
"Why not have a little chat with him then if you think he's got what you want?"
She stared at me. I stared at her. There was lots of drawn-out, uncomfortable staring. Then the synapses finally stopped stalling or misfiring or whatever they were doing, and the proverbial lightbulb finally came on. "You want me to persuade him to help you," I stated.
"Honey, with the way that man looks at you, there won't be a whole lot of persuading involved. You just gotta give him a sweet, little kiss and ask nicely."
Wait. "What?"
Kate pulled a small sheet of paper from her pants pocket and tucked it neatly under my bra strap. "I've made sure the demands aren't complicated. Well, not for someone like him anyway. And since I'm supposed to be dead and all, I'd appreciate a little discretion."
She glanced down at her watch again. "Looks like we're just about out of time." She pulled a cigarette from her other pocket and lit it with the finesse of a Hollywood actress from days gone by. Took a few puffs and held it up to the sprinkler in the ceiling. The alarm kicked in moments later.
Kate slipped out of the closet like the ghost she was—or wasn't, and seconds later, Ranger slipped in. "What part of stay in your room and recover don't you understand?" he asked, popping the cuffs off my wrist like they were something you'd find in a joke shop. It was kind of sexy.
I tossed my shoulders in a shrug and flashed him my best innocent expression. "It wasn't my fault."
"Never is."
"Someone wanted to send you a message," I continued.
Ranger pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and tapped it on my knee. "Pretty sure this thing works just fine. Why all the theatrics with you?"
"Apparently because I've got a good sense of humor."
His mouth twitched. "So what's the message then?"
I glanced down. "I think it's tucked in my shirt somewhere."
Ranger's eyes dilated from brown to black as he followed my gaze. "If this is some ploy to have me feel you up in a medical supply closet, I'm all for it. In fact, I wouldn't mind taking it a step further either."
Oh boy.
I tried to temper the warm, gooey feeling now coursing through my veins as I fumbled around my bra to search for Kate's request list. Ranger frowned when I finally handed it over. "Damn. You were serious."
"Of course I was serious."
He flashed me a look that made me wish I'd taken advantage of his previous offer. "Too bad."
We made our way out of the closet and followed the masses towards the fire exits. I'm not sure what possessed me to do it, but I suddenly had the urge to play with a completely different kind of fire.
"Maybe next time I'll let you be the one to find the secret message," I smirked, moving ahead of Ranger on the stairwell.
He caught me by the shoulder and pulled me back to whisper against my ear. "Or maybe next time I'll let you find my secret message."
My knees went a little weak then, and I practically burst into flames on the spot.
