“We’re heading to a clinic to check everyone out before driving to another safe location. One of the doctors we’ve worked with before is opening the clinic just for us.” Ilene turned left. “We should arrive in ten minutes.”
“Has it been checked out?” Mac questioned.
Ilene nodded. “A pair of agents are clearing it now, and it will be secure before we arrive.”
Luc rested his head against the seat, tired, dirty, but thankful to be alive. Since meeting up with Priscilla again, life had been anything but dull. As they drove down the street, Luc recalled that the burning house they’d just left had been cleared by marshals too.
SEVEN
The nurse in dark green scrubs with small red holiday wreaths, whose name Priscilla had already forgotten, reentered the curtained-off exam room. “I need to draw some blood to check your red blood cell count.”
Priscilla nodded and leaned back against the raised examining bed. She breathed in oxygen through a mask the nurse had placed on her earlier. The diminutive woman’s youthful appearance belied her competent manner. The nurse placed a squishy ball in Priscilla’s left hand, then fastened rubber tubing around her upper arm.
“Just a small prick now.”
Despite the fact that the nurse had hit the blood vessel spot-on, Priscilla winced as the needle entered her vein. Not wanting to see her blood being drawn, she closed her eyes.
Although her lungs were much better from the extra oxygen, her head still ached. She wanted to sleep for a full day, but that would be a long time coming. Once she, Mac and Luc had been checked out at the clinic, the marshals would take her and Luc to a new safe house.
“All done.” The nurse undid the tubing and removed the ball.
Priscilla opened her eyes, even though fatigue pulled at her eyelids and the drums in her head began a more up-tempo number.
“If you’ll hold this in place?” The nurse put a small piece of gauze over the needle.
“Sure.” Priscilla put her fingers over the gauze as the nurse slid the needle out.
“Okay, let me check.” The woman assessed the clotting, then replaced the gauze with a fresh square before wrapping it in place with green bandage tape. She made a notation on a clipboard and patted Priscilla’s hand. “You rest for a minute. The doctor’s taking a look at your friend’s arm. Then he’ll be in to see you.”
She nodded, but allowed her eyes to close as the nurse left the area. Maybe she could catch a few minutes’ sleep, despite the pounding in her head. But while her body sagged after the adrenaline rush of escaping a burning house, her mind raced with thoughts about being married to Luc. How could she be married to a man she didn’t remember meeting? They must have met and wed within a four-or five-hour time period. She had never been that impulsive in her life. Luc hadn’t said anything about love at first sight either. Why had he married a complete stranger?
Granted, strange things happened in Vegas. She’d grown up an only child in a close suburb with a stay-at-home mother and a father who brought back tales of the city’s seedier side from his observations as a beat cop. Priscilla had worked in the casinos since she turned eighteen—the best-paid job she could find with a high school diploma—and she had seen firsthand what alcohol, gambling and an atmosphere of “anything goes” could produce. Even though Mac hadn’t confirmed the marriage, Priscilla didn’t think Luc had been lying. What their being married meant, she couldn’t contemplate. Not when she was running for her life.
The sound of the curtain being pulled back penetrated her consciousness, and Priscilla pried open her eyes. A baby-faced man with curly dark hair and rimless glasses stepped in, a stethoscope looped around his neck.
As he tugged the curtain back in place, he said, “Hi, I’m Doctor Collins. How are you feeling?”
Priscilla removed the oxygen mask. “Better, but my throat hurts, my eyes are itchy, and my head aches a lot.”
“Smoke inhalation will do that to a person. Let’s have a listen to your lungs and heart.” Dr. Collins put his stethoscope against her chest. “Take slow breaths, not too deep.”