Ben woke up when she brushed past him. Startled, he jumped to his feet, realized where he was, and stepped back so Ellie could get to Sean.
Yawning, he whispered, “Good night,” and quietly left the room.
Ellie had already changed back into street clothes. Since she was in his room, she decided to check Sean’s incision. She slipped on a pair of gloves and gently pulled the hospital gown down. Sean slept through her inspection. When she turned around, Max was waiting for her by the door. His hair was tousled, and she thought he looked incredibly sexy.
Can anyone be too tired for sex? She was dead on her feet, but she still wanted to jump his bones. Good thing he wasn’t a mind reader.
As they walked down the corridor, he commented, “It’s the middle of the night. How come you look so good?”
She had glanced at herself in the mirror when she was changing, and she knew she looked like hell. “You need glasses.”
He smiled. “No, I don’t.”
They took their time descending the stairs. Ellie was used to running everywhere, but she didn’t mind the slow pace. In fact, she fought the urge to lean into him.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
“I take you home,” he answered.
“I mean with the Landry case.”
“Tomorrow-or rather, today-after you’ve had some sleep, you’ll need to go to the police station and look at some photos. Agent Hughes will be there.”
“And you?”
“Ben and I will be doing some paperwork, and then we fly back to Honolulu.”
All thoughts of tearing his clothes off and having mind-blowing sex came to a screeching halt. It would have been an amazing night, she knew, but it would have been just one night. Recreational sex came with a price… especially for her. She wasn’t the sophisticated and experienced sort who could have sex with a man and forget about him the next morning. Max was leaving for good, and she would never see him again, so it would be best if they said their good-byes and went their separate ways.
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.