Goodman shook his head. “What’s the use? She works two jobs just to pay to keep him here. Making her feel guilty when she’s already trying to do her best for him wouldn’t do her any good.”
“It’s about her understanding that he does remember her. Not the way we would like, but the memory is somewhere inside him. She needs to know that.” Giovanni felt his heart clench in his chest when Sandlin suddenly pushed the book to one side and waited for his sister to look down at him. His smile was beautiful, reminding Giovanni of an innocent child’s. “He’s still very intelligent, isn’t he?”
Goodman nodded. “Very much so. It’s strange what brain injuries can do. It’s wiped his memory so we had to teach him to walk and talk again, yet he can solve incredible math problems. He can read at any level, but he doesn’t always remember that he read a book the night before.”
“Is he good with the nurses?”
“That’s the other remarkable thing. We had to teach him to talk. He doesn’t know his sister, but he never fails to remember manners. The brain is still such a mystery.”
Giovanni held out his hand. “Thank you, Mr. Goodman. You have my number if you should need it. I’ll be checking in regularly, as will my people.”
“I’m very sorry that Tammy, at the front desk, allowed a total stranger through.” He turned back, looking toward the front of the building, anger building all over again. “She won’t be very long in her job.” He clearly planned to fire her right away.
Giovanni had to agree with the administrator’s decision. All the patients or clients in the facility were vulnerable. It was Tammy’s duty to guard them, not just wave people through. “Make certain you get a full description of the intruder from her if at all possible.” He suspected that wouldn’t happen. Watching the tape several times had him believing Tammy was more interested in doing drugs and talking on the phone to her friends than doing her job. He’d been a rider too long not to recognize all the signs.
He crossed the room to stand behind the couch, one hand sliding into the thick silky curls tumbling down Sasha’s back. “It’s past visitors’ time, honey. They want Sandlin in his room.”
She closed the book reluctantly. “I was thinking maybe he should come home with me just for a few days so I know he’s safe.”
Sandlin sat up, a frown on his face as he took his book from his sister’s hands.
Giovanni smiled to reassure him. “It’s under control, Sasha. This is home to him and he’s comfortable here. He’s gotten to know the staff and the routine. Moving him would only make it difficult for him. Easier for you, but much more difficult for him and you don’t want that.”
Sandlin’s fingers bit down on Sasha’s arm hard enough to hurt her. He could see the whiteness in the knuckles. “His shadow tells me things.”
Giovanni knew that others would think Sandlin was lost in his mind if he spoke of shadows, but nevertheless, it made him uneasy. He couldn’t talk to Sasha about his work, not until she had committed. Breaking with a shadow rider had long-reaching consequences once his or her shadow tangled together with a chosen partner’s. Already, he could feel Sasha mixed with himself. It was oddly potent, adding to the emotional high he got just from being with her. It also added, evidently, to the intensity of sexual attraction. He’d never been so physically attuned to a woman. It was all he could do to keep his mind from straying to thoughts of her.
“I know, sweetheart,” Sasha said gently. “We’re good at reading shadows.”
“What does it tell you?” Giovanni asked.
Sandlin leapt up, snatched the book from Sasha’s hands and hurried out of the room. Sasha stared after him, getting to her feet much more slowly. Tears swam in her eyes, and Giovanni immediately pulled her into his arms. She hadn’t cried for herself, but this—this with her brother—was threatening to crush her. He felt the weight of her sorrow. Goodman might not think she knew her brother’s prognosis, but she did.
“He’ll be safe,” he said. “I’ve already put in a call to a security company we use sometimes. They’re all former soldiers, good men, very well trained. Sandlin will have round the clock protection. Goodman has agreed to use them. The woman at the front desk is supposed to have every single visitor logged in, but she hasn’t been doing her job. She’ll be fired. She’s a terrible liability for them. Patients might have wandered off, and if this intruder was looking to harm Sandlin, he could have hurt not only your brother, but any of the other patients as well.”
He walked her from the room, down the hall toward the front door, shielding her as best he could with his body when some of the night staff came out of rooms to gawk at them. Really, he knew, at him, but she wouldn’t want to be seen crying. She stuck her chin out and kept walking, not looking at anyone as they made their way outside.
Emilio and Enzo were waiting. He lifted his eyebrow, but Emilio shook his head. They hadn’t found him. Giovanni was fairly certain they wouldn’t. Whoever was stalking Sasha was very clever, a cockroach, Giovanni thought him. One that disappeared into cracks and came out when no one noticed. Emilio walked ahead of him, Enzo just behind. They made a show of it, wanting whoever it was, if he was observing, to know that Sasha wasn’t alone anymore.
“Has anyone ever made you uneasy?” Giovanni asked as they walked through the parking garage toward his car. “Anyone at all. In a grocery store. A clerk. Bumping into someone at a bank or perhaps a teller. In the club, someone fixating on you.”
She looked up at him and, to his astonishment, those sapphire eyes held amusement and a hint of mischief. “Only you.”
He felt the smile start somewhere around the vicinity of his heart. “I guess I had that coming. I did fixate on you, didn’t I? Someone other than me.”
The amusement faded and she shook her head. “No, but then, I’ve been so busy the last couple of months. I set up my brother in the facility and found my apartment. I was lucky, the former tenant moved right before I applied. Pietro said she wanted to go to Salt Lake to be with her grandson and his wife. I got the job at the club and then the deli. I wouldn’t have noticed someone fixating on me if they came up and bit me.”
He glanced over his shoulder as if he could still see the Hendrick Center. “What about when you visit your brother? When you first brought him there, you had to be very aware of anyone who came near him.” He paused by the car, reaching for the passenger door.
“I wanted to investigate everyone,” she agreed, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
It was the only real sign of nerves she’d given. He opened the door, glanced into the car as he stepped back to allow her entry and froze. The bomb was sitting right out in the open, on the driver’s seat. There were wires looped all through the steering wheel and going across to the passenger seat.
“Wait.” He caught her arm and pulled her back behind him, away from the car. He’d practically thrown her, using more force than he intended.
“Damn it. He got into my car. You can’t just break that easily into these types of cars. Emilio. Enzo. Move back. Fast.” Even walking, he was already sending a mass text to his family. “We can’t stay here,” he said, hurrying her back toward the elevator. “If he has a remote detonator, he could kill everyone.” The bodyguards closed around them, taking them to the outermost section of the garage.
“This is getting out of hand, Emilio. I want her somewhere safe where this psycho can’t get to her.”