Jordan Summers - [Dead World 01] (10 page)

She entered as the last group exited. The main
building seemed to consist of three wings lined with rooms. There were four
emergency treatment areas off to the side and a nurse's station. The facility
was large for a town this size.

It must treat the entire republic, not just Nuria. No
wonder it was the only thing noted by the Republic of Arizona.

Red walked up to the first nurse
she encountered, a
jovial woman with
short auburn hair and a round laugh-lined face, and asked to speak with the
doctor in charge.

"What is your emergency?" she asked, eyeing
Red from shoes to nose.

Red grinned. "I'd rather speak directly to the
doctor, if you don't mind."

"You and all the other women in this town,"
she said, her eyes glittering with speculation.

"What?" Red asked, confused by the woman's
statement.

"I'll page him," the nurse said, then
pressed her ear
and began to speak. Red hadn't noticed the corn-link
tucked there. It was all but hidden beneath her
shaggy hair. "You can wait here. Dr. Hunter will only be a moment."
She pointed to a row of uncomfortable-
looking seats.

"Thank you."

Thirty minutes later a dark-haired handsome man with
a
casual rolling gait approached. He was talking with
a
child whose arm was in a sling.
Tall and broad-shouldered with big hands, the man looked more suited
to hard labor than to caregiving.

Maybe his job was to cleanse this building.
Red thought.

"I better not see you back here again," he
said, mussing
the boy's brown curls.

"You won't. Doctor," the boy said, then
rushed past Red and out the front door.

The man stopped in front of her. Red stood so he
wouldn't tower over her. It didn't help. She craned her
neck
to look at
him.

"You asked for me." He smiled, giving her
clothing
a
cursory glance. His gaze hovered on her breasts a
little
longer
than needed, before moving onto her face.
 "You don't look injured."

"That's because I'm not." She stepped
forward. "You're Dr. Hunter?" Red asked, surprised that this man
was
a boundary town doctor. Most young medical
professionals
left for the cities the first chance they
got. It was impossible to make a decent living
other
wise. What was it about this town that made people want to stay?

He laughed. ''Not what you expected, eh?"

"I didn't say that."

His smile spread. "You didn't have to. It's
written all over your pretty face."

Red opened her mouth to contradict his assessment of
her. but he cut her off before she could utter a word.

"Please, call me Kane."

"I'm
Gina
Santiago," she said, extending her hand.

He shook it, lingering, his warm palm enveloping hers.
"Nice to meet you."

Red tried to pull back, but he
didn't release her un
til he was ready.
The brush of his fingertips sent a wave of awareness through her.

Kane grinned. "What can I do for you, Ms. Santiago?"

"I'm with the International Police Tactical Team.
I thought it best to check in."

His smile wavered, but did not
fall, much to his
credit. Most people didn't bother
to hide their distrust,
but Kane did. "I'm honored to have the IPTT stop by
our facility. Greta forgot to
mention that small detail." A different nurse approached Kane and asked
him to
sign a
comp-chart. He did so, but his gaze remained
unerringly on Red.

His overt attention was a little disconcerting and
Red fought the urge to step back. Her years of
training were the only thing that kept her in place. There prob
ably
weren't many eligible females living in Nuria. That could explain the undue
attention she'd received earlier from the townspeople and now from Kane. As a
single female tactical team member, Red was used
to
being an oddity. Some things were the same no matter where you went.

Red waited until the nurse left before she continued
to speak. "Actually, Dr. Hunter—"

"Kane," he corrected.

"Kane." Red acknowledged. "I'm here
alone—in
an unofficial capacity."

"Nuria is an odd choice, if you're trying to get
away from it all. It's not exactly a travel destination.  I mean it's quaint,
if you like deteriorated historical structures,
but—" He grinned.
"—otherwise nonde
script."

"Long story." She waved her hand
dismissively. "I won't bore you with it. Suffice it to say, whenever I
travel I like to meet the local doc in case I need patching
up."

"Patching up? Are you expecting trouble?"
His brow scrunched, then slowly lowered. "I can assure you
that
Nuria
is a law-abiding town. We get mostly farm-related
injuries."

"I have no doubt. No one is saying
otherwise." Red
hiked her bag higher onto her shoulder. "But I
like
to
be prepared. So here I am."

"I
suppose
you're right, anything can happen this close
to
the
boundary." Kane nodded. "If I can assist you
in
any way, let
me know."

"I
will, but
to be perfectly honest, I hope
I don't need
you."

He laughed. "Fair enough."

"No
offense," she added
quickly.

"None taken." Kane
winked.

Red turned to leave, but stopped short. "You
wouldn't happen to know of a good share space in town, would you? My navcom is
drawing a blank."

"Understandable, since we haven't been mapped.
The republic has been threatening to do it for years, but it hasn't happened
yet," Kane said. "Try Jesse Lindley's place. It's down a couple of
blocks. Turn right on Evergreen, and then hang a left on Spruce. She's not the
friendliest person you'll ever meet, but her share space is clean and well
kept—the best in town."

"Sounds good, thanks." Red walked toward the
front entrance. The doors slid open as she
approached.

"Maybe I'll see you around," he called out
after her, hope filling Kane's voice.

"I'm sure," she said with a shrug.
"It's a small town."

He coughed. "That wasn't exactly what I
meant."

Red glanced over her shoulder and grinned. "I
know." She left the emergency care center to go find
I
the share space. As handsome as Dr. Kane Hunter was,
I
Red still found her thoughts drifting to the brooding
image of Morgan Hunter.

Hunter? Hunter? She wondered if Kane was any re
lation to Sheriff Morgan Hunter. There was
nothing in 
the file about it, but the boundary town files, as she
knew, were woefully incomplete. Not that it
mattered. She doubted the sheriff would be near as welcoming.

Red purchased a protein pack from the automated food
dispenser she'd located earlier to still her growling stomach, and then headed
to Jesse Lindley's place.

Jesse was a stocky cantankerous woman who ran a
water
trader business along with the share space. She
looked to be in her mid- to late fifties with gray
hair, a
deceptively open expression, and an eye patch.
Red
didn't
bother asking how
she got the latter. The fact
that she had an eye patch and looked like a
pirate out of
the history e-books was all Red needed to know.

Jesse agreed to give her a room for fifty credits a
week—a steep price, but well worth it. Red didn't bother
to haggle for two reasons: one. the woman appear
ed to desperately need the credits; and two, a room
above a water exchange was the best place to b
e
to catch local gossip. Eventually everyone in town
would come to get
their water supplies.

Red climbed the stairs two at a time. The hall that
led
to
her room was swathed from floor to ceiling in
yellow
and pale pink flowers. They'd been painted or st
enciled on the walls.
She couldn't tell which.
 

Several thick animal hide throws
buffered the floors, silencing
footsteps.
She stared at the fur a second, but
couldn't
identify the species. Red resisted the urge to
touch
them and kept walking. The place
was not quite what
she'd been expecting after
meeting Jesse. Some
how
t
he
words
soft
and
feminine
didn't quite capture
her
true essence.

She arrived at her door a moment later and placed her
palm against
the scanner. It hummed as it ran her IPTT
identity through the Republic of
Arizona's register system. A beep sounded when it finished. The door in front
of her opened a second later.

Red entered the large square room with its cheery
bright yellow walls and dropped her black duffel
bag on
the rest pad in the far corner. She sat beside the bag
and bounced,
testing the rest pad's firmness. It was hard. Not her preference, but it would
do for a night or two.

She glanced around the space, shocked to realize
her entire housing unit could easily fit inside
this place
with room to spare.

Another area jutted off from the
main living space.
Red walked to the
doorway and ran her hand over a panel in the wall. A light came on. She could
hardly believe it. Jesse had attached a cleansing unit to the room. This gave
her an unusual amount of privacy for a public house. Water rationing had all
but done away with old-world ideas of modesty.

Murmuring voices from below reached her sensitive
ears. Several patrons had been gathering on the first floor when she checked
in, making small talk
while they waited at
the chest-high bar for Jesse to fill
their supplies. Red left her room
and made her way
down the stairs, hoping to
catch them before they left.

She glanced around at the growing crowd, recognizing
a few of the people she'd passed on the street earlier. Suddenly jumping into
the fray and firing oil questions, didn't seem like such a good plan.

Contrary to what she wished, this was not a sanctioned
investigation, only a fishing expedition. At least she had six weeks of
leave—not that she'd need them, but it meant there was no reason to hurry.

Direct questions wouldn't work
here. One thing all
boundary
towns had in common was their tight-lipped
mentality. Nuria may be friendly on the surface, but
they didn't need or want help from the outside. What ever happened here stayed
here. That included wild
animal
troubles—and murder.

chapter
six

Morgan Hunter smelled her long before he laid eyes on
her
. Like a cool breeze that alleviates
intense heat, she blew into the gray dissecting
unit, dispersing the odor of
disinfectant and
death,
leaving  the scent of lush, moist woman in her wake.
All he could do was stand there and stare, what he was about to tell Jim
Thornton completely forgotten.

The tension in the air thickened
as his gaze locked with
hers. Her
eyes shined an unusual color—greenish gold
. How long had it been since an unattached female entered
h
is town, his territory? Morgan couldn't re
member. He inhaled, closing his eyes a second as
he reached out to her with his senses. There was some
thing
tantalizingly familiar about her. He nearly moaned.

Her gaze caressed him, starting at his boots and
leisurely
traveling up his legs and over his chest before
settling
back on his face. She might as well have raked
him
with her claws. His cock hardened
instantly.

Beside him, Jim Thornton
laughed, quickly muffling
the
sound
with a cough.

Morgan stiffened. For a moment, her lush scent
and dark beauty had distracted him from the fact
that she was a tactical team member, but that moment had
now passed.

He approached her, his long legs and casual gait
eating up the distance between them. She made no
at
tempt to acknowledge his position in the community
by bowing her head or lowering her gaze. Strange
and
intriguingly alpha.