Now You See Me by Rachel Carrington Page B

his SUV. It didn’t ring at all. He sped through two red lights and had gained a police escort by the time he made it to his house.
    “Kate!” He burst through the front door with two uniformed officers right behind him. When she didn’t answer his summons, his heart dropped.
    Had Ramsey’s fake suicide attempt been a ruse to get him away from Kate? Had his protégé taken her? How in the hell could he have let this happen?
    “Jericho, there’s a note.” One cop waved a slip of paper he’d discovered on the trunk in the living room.
    Brad snatched it out of his hand and scanned the words and relief flowed through him. Aaron had picked her up. They’d gone for coffee. She hadn’t wanted to call him in the middle of a crisis.
    Damn. He sank down onto the arm of the sofa and waved the cops away, with his thanks. Shaking hands dragged through his hair and he forced himself to remember how to breathe.
    He didn’t know how Kate had gotten to be so important to him in such a short amount of time. Maybe it was just his protective instincts. He hadn’t been able to save Hannah, but he could save Kate.
    Yeah, that was it. He shut out the small voice in his head calling him a liar.
     
    Aaron dropped his phone onto the table next to his plate of eggs. “John Ramsey was just taken to the emergency room.”
    Kate’s hand stilled on her fork. “Why?” Was that the reason Brad had taken off so suddenly? He’d only told her there was a situation at the prison, asked one of the police officers to take her back to his house and surprised them both by kissing her goodbye.
    “I don’t know. My source at the hospital said he was taken straight to trauma. That’s all she could tell me.”
    Kate glanced at her coffee then at Aaron. “So what are we waiting for?”
    “You can’t go anywhere near him.” Aaron was already sliding out of the booth as he objected.
    “I won’t, but there’s nothing stopping me from talking to the nurses. This is front-page stuff, Aaron, and you don’t want to get scooped.” She led the way to the counter and offered her credit card to the cashier.
    “You really want to put yourself in this guy’s line of fire?”
    “I really want answers, and the only way I’m going to get them is to dig for them.”
    “What kind of answers do you need?” Aaron tried to snatch the ticket away, then grumbled when she blocked him. “You know why the guy is after you. He’s a nutcase.”
    “But I want to know who’s working for him, how he knows so much about me and what Ramsey’s partner is getting out of all of this.”
    Aaron surveyed her for a moment longer, then nodded. “I’ll pull the car up. You going to call your boyfriend and tell him where you’re going?”
    Kate glared at him. “He’s not my boyfriend, and no. He’s probably still at the prison.”
    “Okay.” Aaron gave her a look that clearly said he didn’t think it was okay.
    She patted her pocket for her cell. Finding it empty, she did a quick search of her purse. “I left it at his house anyway.”
    “Catch.” Aaron tossed her his BlackBerry on the way out the door.
    Kate considered making the call, but she hesitated, considered the possibility Brad might be in the middle of a catastrophe at the prison. He very well could be at the hospital. So she’d just run into him. She doubted he was even thinking about her with all hell breaking loose.
    Her decision made, she joined Aaron in his gleaming silver Jaguar and returned his phone. “I’ll just call him when we leave the hospital. Hopefully he’ll be home by then. Otherwise I can’t get back in.”
    “Like I told you before, we always have room for you.”
    Kate smiled. “Thanks.” She didn’t add that she felt safer with Brad—or anything else she felt. There were some things Aaron didn’t need to know.
    “You stay next to me when we get to the hospital. I don’t want you out of my sight.”
    “Yes, sir.” If it made Aaron feel better to keep her next to