Blackout by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

Author:Linda Thomas-Sundstrom [Thomas-Sundstrom, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488026805
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

As Dana entered the precinct in the morning, all movement stopped with a suddenness that made her pause mid-stride. Unused to silence in a room where the city’s largest and most boisterous gathering of cops congregated, her heart pounded even harder—yet another hint of the panic she had been experiencing all night. Her heart hadn’t slowed one bit when, ten seconds later, the rustling, talking and shouting started up again, as if the hesitation had never happened. But it was a false return to a noisy norm. There was discomfort all around.

Uneasy, recapturing a feeling she hadn’t felt in years, not since she’d been the first female rookie to enter these holy orders, conspicuous and slightly vulnerable, and where all eyes had been trained on her then, as now, Dana walked as calmly as she could, given her taped right ankle, to her desk. Sat down in her chair. Made a concerted effort to appear preoccupied with the file folder she had in her hand.

She could feel the covert glances from the other guys in a way that made her skin crawl. She had worked alongside these guys for three years. They’d saved each others’ backsides time and time again. Yet she smelled the heady, unmistakable odor of fear in the room, hovering above them all like a cloud. Fear and anxiousness, stinking of tin foil, wafted just beyond stale tobacco and laundry starch.

“You okay, Delmonico?”

Starting, Dana glanced up and into Captain Seaver’s red-cheeked face. Damn. She wasn’t so sure she could pull off a straight face this morning for him. Not after a night like she’d had. Not when she had driven around and around, passing the hospital several times, afraid to go inside. Not when she was nervously wondering if anyone here might know. If these guys, so good at sniffing out things, might be able to tell that she had changed.

Why else would they be staring at their respective desks so diligently all of a sudden?

Cops didn’t keep mirrors in their desk drawers. Sissy stuff. But she wanted desperately to take another peek at herself. She’d taken extra care that morning to ensure that not one single hair on her head was out of place and that the scratches already scabbing on her arms were fully covered. She’d taken a half-hour shower to erase the sensation of having been naked with a…

Of becoming a…

Can’t finish that or go there. Not today.

She’d taken another shower right after the first.

One good thing in a shitload of crap? Her ankle wasn’t too bad. She’d been pretty sure she’d broken it last night, yet now she could walk on it without limping if she put her mind to it. A simple Ace bandage had done the trick to keep it supported and protected.

So, okay. She was experiencing miraculous powers of nearly spontaneous healing. She might have turned into a wolf. While on duty. Beneath the intensity of Seaver’s gaze, she winced.

“We thought you might have come in last night to file a report,” Seaver said to her.

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