A woman from the hospital with an official badge stood at the front of the group. “We’d like to thank Rosetta for visiting. Everyone will get a chance to visit and speak with her.”

  “Will she sing?”

  Ericka answered. “If you like.”

  The girl fanned herself.

  “Do you have a favorite?”

  “Um, do you have something new?”

  “I just might. But you have to promise not to share with anyone until you hear it on the radio.”

  “Promise!” Everyone shouted in unison.

  “Excellent.”

  Ericka sang Reckless Sinner without music. Phones came out but Greg and Quinn stared the parents down and the phones went up.

  When Ericka finished there wasn’t a dry eye.

  One little girl rolled forward. Ericka kneeled before her and held out her hand. Greg noticed the hesitation introducing herself as Rosetta. Singing about sinning then lying about her identity couldn’t set well. He didn’t blame her.

  He squeezed her shoulder.

  She kept going. “How old are you, Annie?”

  “Ten. I’ll be eleven next month, if I live that long.”

  “May I pray with you?”

  Annie bowed her head. Greg listened as Ericka prayed a prayer for healing. When she finished, Ericka squeezed Annie’s hand, swiped away her tears, then moved to the next child. All the stories were sad. Some could have potentially good endings, others maybe not.

  After she’d made rounds and spoken to every child, she stepped from the room. She bent over and the waist and held herself. Greg and the others surrounded her to give her a moment of privacy.

  “I’m okay.” The words sounded strained, but at least she felt like moving.

  The officers parted and she straightened and walked with her shoulders back and her head held high along the hallway.

  Greg had his own feelings about the sick children. He had felt Ericka’s pain as she spoke with them, held their hands, and prayed with them. She took it all on herself. That was why she was such a good negotiator and officer.

  They made it almost to the end of the hall before the red lights on the wall began to flash and an alarm sounded. Quinn, Maggie, and Tim went into action. One went to the nurse’s station for information. The others stood in front of Greg and Ericka with guns held aloft and ready.

  “Boss, you might want to hide until we figure this out.”

  Greg saw an open door. He thrust Ericka inside, following behind her. Quinn nodded as Greg closed the door.

  ****

  The faint odor of chemicals teased Ericka’s nose as the door clicked closed and the room went dark. Greg squeezed into the tiny janitorial closet with her.

  “I should be out there.”

  Maybe he said that because of the tight squeeze, maybe he said that because of the weird smells, or maybe he said it because like her he thought he really should be in charge of any kind of emergency situation.

  He was wrong in this case.

  Ericka could feel the irony. “Hmm, nope. You’re the manager of the great Rosetta Vilo. You must stay protected to protect the interest of your client.”

  “You’re enjoying this.”

  “Just a little.”

  If she had to suffer, so did he. This hadn’t been her idea or his either, but he hadn’t said no.

  Besides, after the last two hours of meeting with sick kids she didn’t feel like enjoying much. Those children didn’t deserve to be sick. Benji hadn’t deserved to die. Rosetta didn’t deserve to worry for her life, where she currently was hiding out.

  The world wasn’t a fair place.

  “Why do you think the alarm is going off?”

  “A drill, I hope.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Why?”

  “Greg, doors were closing. Plus, there was no warning. And they had a special guest in the hospital. Personally, I think it is something else.” She wasn’t sure. She hoped it wasn’t crazed shooters coming after her. She’d be a sitting duck in the closet.

  Greg blocked all light from the door.

  “Could we turn on the light? Something is poking me in the ribcage.”

  “No. We can’t alert people we’re in here.”

  “Fine.” She wiggled and pulled out her phone. The flashlight showed a mop handle poking her.

  “Ericka!”

  “Greg!”

  She moved the bucket, but it put her even closer to him. When he rotated, she was practically in his arms. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel every inch of him.

  “I-I don’t know how they use this closet it is so tiny.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Almost reminds me of my old apartment.”

  “Uh-huh.” He smoothed a strand of her hair behind her ear. His rough knuckle brushed her cheek.

  How he could see that strand of hair was out of place was a mystery. Heat from his breath struck her cheek.

  She swallowed.

  Here they were in a dark closet while alarms blared and all she could think about was what it would be like to kiss him. And if they kissed what would that do to their relationship?

  The light in the room shifted. His head had changed position. Was he going to kiss her? Would it happen when she couldn’t see his face?

  Bright light blinded her, and she lifted her hand to her shield her eyes.

  Quinn stood at the open door. “Everything is good, boss. The fire alarm was pulled.”

  Greg took two steps backward and landed in the hallway. He held out his hand for her. She took it and entered the brightly lit area.

  The warmth of his hand ran along her arm and sent tingles along her spine. If his lips had touched hers, would they have tingled as well?

  Maggie and Quinn led the way to the car. While no one was looking Ericka touched her lips and imagined Greg’s. She’d kissed Tito. Maybe she shouldn’t have, but it had happened. Maybe fantasizing about kissing Greg was wrong. She had feelings for them both.

  Thinking about her feelings while in the middle of a case was going to make her crazy.

  Quinn, Maggie, and Tim kept her surrounded as she entered the back seat of the car. Once everyone was inside the mutterings about the alarm began.

  Admittedly, the alarm being pulled while she was in the building was curious. It could have been a kid that wanted to see her, or it could have been someone else.

  Quinn sat next to her.

  “We need the hospital security footage on who pulled that alarm.”

  “We can’t currently request that.”

  “Then have another team or local law enforcement do it.” Her voice rose.

  “Calm down. I get you’re worried, but they’ll do their jobs and I’ll find a way to stay in the loop.”

  Ericka tried to stay calm, but she couldn’t shake the feeling they’d missed something very important. That alarm didn’t just happen. It had put her in an unusual spot, but the worst part was it took her out of the spot before she could complete her mission with Greg.

  That she definitely wasn’t happy about.

  ****

  Charles had pulled the alarm on one side of the building then escorted Rosetta inside elsewhere. She’d yet to wake up at least completely. Her eyes were opened, she looked around, but she didn’t speak. He knew she had to have a concussion, but it was clearly more.

  While the alarms blared, he grabbed a lab coat and hospital badge. He found a chart on the end of a bed in the hallway and a wheelchair. He settled Rosetta in the chair and rolled her to radiology. She wasn’t a child, and the CT tech would know that so Charles had to think of a different reason for her presence. For now, he had to keep her alive.

  Rosetta being alive kept Ericka safe.

  And while her death would come it would be after they found her family together. And he would be the only one allowed to do it.

  That pleasure belonged to him.

  She would be his magnum opus.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Greg ordered them right back to the hotel. As a pop star, Ericka believed she should be hitting the town. Besides, they needed to go out so they could lure out her attackers. At least that’s what she thought.

  Short of burning down the hotel they couldn’t currently reach her. She hoped no one had thought of that.

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Please, just one fancy restaurant. I think it’s fitting. Otherwise, they’ll call Rosetta unfun and say she didn’t like the city.”

  “They’ll call her smart because people keep trying to kill her.”

  “I agree with Greg on this one.”

  Maggie wanted to stay still so she could text Tristan. Ericka needed a distraction. Every time she stopped moving, she remembered all the things in life she couldn’t control.

  Those sick kids.

  Her feelings for Greg.

  Her growing feelings for Tito.

  She needed this dinner.

  She went to the window. The curtain billowed out as the heater blew air underneath it. Snowflakes descended from a light blue sky.

  She’d remembered playing in the snow. She’d returned inside Mrs. Drust’s house with snow on her boots. She’d tried to knock it all off, but it wasn’t humanly possible.

  The floor was slick and wet. The unexpected backhand sent her against the door. She’d held the place she was whacked. She’d thought her skull had cracked open. Her ears rang for days. The small cut to her head only bled for a day. In the small hallway bathroom she had dressed the wound herself.

  Her mother’s desire to have her in a better place had backfired. If she’d been with biological mother, she could have protected her or maybe not. At least she might have wanted to protector.

  She felt the back of her head. She could still feel the upraised scar through a part in her hair.

  “Ericka?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Where do you want to go?” Greg’s voice sounded as if he’d given in.

  “We can go?”

  He nodded.

  “What changed your mind?” Ericka faced him.

  “Just the feeling we all need it. So…”

  “You’ve lived here a while. What do you recommend?”

  “I’ve never been, but Nobu seems to be a place someone of your caliber might be spotted.”

  “Food is…”

  “Japanese.”

  “Sounds delicious.”

  ****

  Charles paced the hallway back and forth until he got dizzy. Where was a stupid tech!

  Maybe pulling the fire alarm hadn’t been a good idea. Most of the people in the building who were able had been escorted outside while the signal was tracked down. It hadn’t taken long for it to go off and most of the people to start returning.

  Except for the one person he needed. That person didn’t seem capable of cooperating.

  The heavy door opened.

  “Finally, we’ve been waiting for over an hour.”

  “What?”

  “I have an order for a CT on this patient.”

  The tech placed his glasses on the tip of his nose and read over the paper. Charles forced himself to breathe.

  “Kind of old to be here, huh?”

  “She is younger than she looks.”

  He shrugged. “No skin off my teeth. You have an order.”

  Charles stayed in the same stance until the tech disappeared into the CT room. He assisted Rosetta into the machine. Once he returned to the room and conducted the three-minute test, he stated his spill.

  “You’ll get the results in a couple days. Then her doctor will go over them with her.”

  Charles stopped him. “No. The order says stat and I need the results now.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know how long you’ve worked here but things don’t work like that. Stat means we do the test, not necessarily that you get the results. Sorry about that.”

  “Listen, the doctor is leaving for vacation, and he told me to bring back the results now. I cannot afford to get in trouble again. I’ll lose my job.”

  The tech looked down the long hallway. He moved from his chair. “Fine. Let me go see.”

  He stepped outside. Charles went inside with Rosetta. He assisted her back into the wheelchair then left her and went to the cracked door the tech had escaped through.

  “He needs the results now.”

  “Why is he more special than anyone else?”

  “The doctor is going on vacation or something.”

  “Fine.”

  The radiologist was quiet for a few minutes. “Ah, this isn’t great news. She has a concussion, but there appears to be damage to the memory center. I believe she could have amnesia. She needs to be admitted to the hospital for further testing.”

  “The lady can’t be questioned; she is just staring straight and not even talking.”

  “Well, that is my recommendation. Admitted for further testing. A CT cannot definitively show amnesia.”

  “I’ll tell him.”

  Charles rolled Rosetta from the room. The tech gave the results and said a paper report would be forthcoming.

  “She needs to be admitted to the hospital.”

  “Okay, how do I get to admitting?”

  The tech described the route and Charles nodded his head as if listening. “Thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  Charles walked toward the elevator but quickly changed directions when the tech wasn’t looking. There was a set of doors on the bottom floor that led outside. No warnings suggested against not opening the doors, so he pushed the metal bar and exited the hospital. Outside, he stowed Rosetta in the back seat of a truck he’d stolen earlier.

  He climbed behind the wheel. “Don’t you worry, sugar. Charles is going to take good care of you.”

  ****

  The Nobu Downtown restaurant was packed. Several celebrities were in attendance. Ericka was given a private corner table. Several offered congratulations on her survival. It was hard to know how to take that comment, so she just nodded and thanked them.

  When the waitress arrived, she was beaming from ear to ear.

  “Hello.” Ericka smiled as she spoke.

  “Oh, I have tickets to your concert tomorrow night! I’m so excited.”

  Ericka held a glass to her lips but lowered it quickly when her hand began to shake. “That’s wonderful.”

  “My name is Joanne.”

  “Nice to meet you, Joanne.” Ericka put out her hand.

  Joanne squealed then quickly calmed herself. “Sorry.”

  Ericka laughed. “You’re surrounded by celebrities, why fan girl over me?” she’d thickened her accent for the exchange.

  “They’ve never said hello.”

  “Oh.”

  “Now, what can I get you and your party?”

  Everyone ordered from the menu. When it came back to Ericka she paused.

  “Do you need more time?”

  “Why don’t you give me what you like to eat?”

  “Really?”

  “Really. Everything looks so good, I can’t choose.”

  “I promise to pick you something you’ll like.”

  Ericka nodded.

  As the waitress walked back to the kitchen one of Ericka’s guards followed. In light of the current situation probably for the best.

  “I can’t believe you let the waitress chose your food.”

  “Why not? She probably knows what is best to eat here.”

  “Maybe we should all have done that.” Quinn leaned back and pulled his jacket free.

  Tim and the food returned. The conversation had been light. Expected weather, sports scores, when all Ericka wanted to talk about was this upcoming concert.

  “I hope you like it.” Joanne folded her hands together and waited for Ericka to taste the first bite.

  Ericka complied. It was delicious and she rolled her eyes and moaned with delight.

  The waitress turned and gave a thumbs up to the kitchen staff peeking through the cracked swinging door.

  Ericka waved.

  The staff smiled.

  The waitress practically skipped away.

  “You made her day.” Finally, Greg added to the conversation.

  “Yeah.” She paused. Maybe now wasn’t the time but time was running out. “About tomorrow…”

  “Er…Rosetta.”

  She leaned into his side. “I can’t!”

  “I don’t know if we have a choice.”

  “Benji!”

  “Rosetta.”

  She stared at the plate and tapped down her anger and worry. Rosetta was nowhere to be found. Ericka was running around town pretending to be a popular singer. Greg was her manager and her friend, and he seemed unconcerned while she was having a cow on the inside.

  If Tito and Beta team would find who threatened Rosetta’s life, then maybe Ericka could get back to her real life and stop pretending she knew what she was doing.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Tito entered Alexi’s apartment, his real apartment, under the pretense of needing milk. While inside he planted a new micro camera.

  “I guess your neighbor told how I had to borrow sugar. I need to make a more complete grocery list and stick to it. My mother always said so.”

  “Hmm.”

  Alexi pulled the jug from the fridge and filled a cup that Tito had brought. When the cup passed hands, Alexi said, “It is always good to be prepared.”

  His eyes seemed to try and relay some kind of message, but Tito didn’t understand.

  Tito lifted the jar to the air. “Thanks for the milk.”

  Back in the company apartment he passed the television with the video feed from the new camera. He narrowed his eyes and studied the screen. He’d seen a painting that should have shown, but it wasn’t there.

  “That isn’t the right room.”

  “But you just put that camera there.” Nick’s voice sounded incredulous.

  Tito understood. He put the milk in the fridge and began to pace. He tapped his finger to his chin. “Does the camera work on a certain frequency?”

  “Yeah, but the receiver should be tuned to it.” Nick adjusted a dial.

  A new feed came up with Alexi. He was sitting on his couch and watching television.

  Tito sucked in a swift breath. “Someone else in this building is being surveilled.”