Forgotten Memories (SWAT: Top Cops Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

thirty-minute ride back to the city. Being off duty for the next couple of days was good timing. He’d have a chance to keep a close eye on Gabby.
    “Come on, my car is parked out on the road,” Nate said as he turned away from the clearing.
    Gabby followed the deputy without saying a word, stumbling a bit as she walked. Shane slipped his arm around her waist, silently offering support.
    “Thank you,” she murmured, leaning against him. “Do you think we can go to my house to pick up some things before we go to the hospital? I really need a change of clothes.”
    “If it’s safe,” he hedged, wishing he could do what she wanted. But he wouldn’t sacrifice her safety for clothes.
    She swayed as she walked and he told himself that if she stumbled again, he’d lift her up into his arms and carry her, but they managed to make it out to Nate’s car without any trouble. He tucked Gabby in the backseat and slid in beside her.
    Nate lifted his eyebrow but didn’t comment as he went around to take the driver’s seat. Gabby fumbled with the seat belt, so he reached over to help her before clicking his own into place.
    Shane wasn’t surprised when Gabby curled into the corner between the seat and the door and closed her eyes, finally giving in to her exhaustion. He couldn’t imagine how she’d held herself together for these last few hours after finishing a grueling shift.
    “Is she out?” Nate asked, catching Shane’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
    “Yeah.” He scrubbed his hands over his face, wondering how in the world they’d find this guy, Creighton, before he found her. He didn’t buy her theory that she’d been grabbed by mistake. Although, with her eidetic memory, surely she’d remember an unusual name like Creighton.
    The more he thought about it, the more he realized that they were better off going straight to Trinity Medical. It could be that the hospital was the last place Creighton would look for her at least in the next day or so.
    Gabby shifted in her seat, turning to burrow against him instead of the hard door. He put his arm around her shoulders, holding her close.
    “Don’t get in over your head, Hawk,” Nate warned. “She might be a victim in all this, but we really don’t know for sure that she’s totally innocent. She might actually know Creighton.”
    “No way,” Shane protested, every instinct in his body refusing to believe the worst. “I saw how frightened she was, Nate. She stabbed the gunman with her scalpel to get away. If she knew Creighton, she would have said something.”
    “I get that’s what you
want
to believe,” Nate said bluntly. “But just remember to keep an open mind.”
    Shane didn’t answer, distracted by the citrusy scent lingering in Gabby’s hair. He inhaled deeply, letting the fragrance fill his mind.
    Yeah, he’d consider all possibilities, but at the same time, he knew he’d absolutely protect Gabby from harm.
    Sacrificing his own life, if necessary.
    * * *
    From the dim recesses of her mind, Gabby could hear someone calling her name.
    “Gabby? Come on, Gabby, you have to wake up, we’re here at the hospital.”
    “Sleep,” she whispered, pressing her face into the warmth of her pillow.
    “Gabby, please, I know how much you need to rest, but you need to show me where your call room is so I can take you there. Then you can sleep.”
    She heard the words, but it took a few minutes for them to register through the fog in her brain. As much as she wanted to go home, she forced herself to open her eyes and lift her head.
    At first she didn’t understand that she was still in the backseat of the car, but when she saw Shane so close, she was chagrined to realize his shoulder had been her pillow. “Sorry,” she muttered, rubbing her eyes against the burn of fatigue. “Okay, I’m up.”
    “Good, now just show me where your call room is located, okay?”
    Gabby focused on pulling herself together long enough to get out of the car. But the muscles