Amish Country Ambush. Dana R. Lynn

did have a great smile, with the slightest hint of dimples appearing in his cheeks. She hadn’t noticed that before.

      Oh, wait. She needed to answer him.

      “Been better. But I’m okay. Sergeant Parker—”

      He cut her off. “Ryan. Please. What’s on your mind?”

      “I want to know what’s happening. While you search, I mean. I don’t want to be kept out of the loop.” She held her breath. Would he brush her off? Tell her that police business was just that?

      “I understand,” he responded in his velvet voice. Her breath left her in a whoosh, she was so relieved. “I will give you all the details I can. In the meantime, I am going to leave for the night. First thing tomorrow morning, as soon as you are released, we have some planning to do.”

      “So no one will be looking for Mikey tonight?” She didn’t like the sound of that.

      “That’s not what I said. The Amber Alert has gone out, along with the sketch of your brother-in-law, and back at the station several people are still looking into it. Checking on leads. But I need to get some sleep if I want to be able to function, and so do you.” He turned to the door. “Good night. I will see you in the morning.”

      And he was gone.

      She couldn’t believe it. She was so worried she was ready to tear out her hair. And he’d just left! In all fairness, she didn’t know what else he could do. The man wasn’t a machine. He did say people were still searching. There really wasn’t anything more that she could ask him to do.

      Sighing, she lay against the pillows, trying to shift this way and that to find a comfortable position. She’d shut her eyes, then open them five minutes later. Her nerves started to get to her.

      Her door was shut, but every once in a while she thought she heard footsteps stop at her door.

      Was Hudson in the hall?

      She strained to listen, trying to separate the different sounds outside the door. Her doorknob seemed to rattle slightly. Then it stopped. Goose bumps formed on her arms. A scream crawled up and lodged in her throat.

      The footsteps moved away from the door.

      Her night nurse entered to check her vitals. The woman was coolly professional, her voice soothing as she checked the IV and the monitors and made notes on the chart attached to the clipboard.

      Feeling ridiculous for her fears, Elise forced herself to ask the woman the question that was screaming inside her mind. “Was there someone hanging around outside my door?”

      The pitying glance the nurse gave her made her want to shrink down inside the blankets and hide.

      “Honey, no one has been outside your door. You’re completely safe here.”

      Elise grimaced. Well, at least she knew.

      She thanked the woman and watched her leave.

      At some point, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep. She woke up at one point when she dreamed that she heard Mikey crying out for her. There were tears on her lashes when she lifted them. Her head jerked around when her door opened. A male nurse entered wheeling a medicine cart in front of him. She glanced at the clock. Two thirty in the morning. Sighing, she gave the man a tired smile.

      He didn’t smile back.

      Actually, he didn’t even make eye contact. Feeling uneasy, she watched him look at her chart. Maybe he was just shy. Or not a social person. Whatever. She was not impressed with the bedside manners of the staff in this hospital. Owning to herself that she was being ridiculous, she shut her eyes again, listening to the sound of him moving around her room.

      She opened one eye. He was watching her. The moment he caught her glance, he looked away and continued with his work.

      Now she was frustrated—and annoyed with herself for her own frustration. The man was just here to do a job. He wasn’t Hudson. Even with his changed appearance there was no way Hudson had shrunk five inches. She was starting to get paranoid.

      Pressing her lips together, she closed her eyes again, determined to sleep. She could hear nurses talking right outside her door and did her best to block them. Finally, the voices drifted away.

      A minute later, she felt the hairs on her arms stand on end. Her lids flew open.

      The nurse was standing directly in front of her, a pillow held in both hands. He smiled. A grim, ugly little smile that made her blood curdle.

      “Good night, lady. Nothing personal, you understand, but it appears someone doesn’t like you.”

      The last thing she saw before he pushed the pillow down over her face was his horrific smirk. Then she gasped as the white linen pillowcase pressed against her nose. Her gasp was cut off as the ability to suck in air left her. Thrusting her arms upward, she pushed and shoved at the man smothering her. A twinge in her arm...her IV had pulled free.

      She barely noticed the pain, instead focused on the screaming in her lungs as her last bit of air vanished in a silent scream. She was going to die.