Bitter Sweets

blue eyes, and realized they weren’t as cold as she had once thought... as she wished they were.

    Under the circumstances, she didn’t want to like, admire, or respect this man. It clouded her judgment, made it difficult to be objective.

    Was it her duty to turn him in? Of course it was. He was a killer, plain and simple.

    But it wasn’t so plain. And it certainly wasn’t simple.

    Either way, Savannah had to make up her mind. Because, from where she sat, she could see out the front window, and a very determined-looking Dirk was coming up the walk.

    CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

    Dirk wasn’t overly concerned as he strolled up the sidewalk toward the colonel’s front door. So what if Savannah was a little overdue? What else was new?

    It wasn’t until he heard her yelling that he kicked into high gear.

    “Dirk! Dirk, Dir-r-r-rk!” She sounded serious. Very serious.

    He bolted to the door and tried the knob. Of course, it was locked. Dirk always expected the worst, because that’s what he usually got.

    “Dirk!”

    She had gone from serious to desperate.

    A hundred images flashed across his mind. Most of them having to do with her struggling with a seventy-year-old man.

    And, judging from the sound of her voice...losing. With her black belt in karate, it didn’t seem likely, but...

    He mentally cringed, waiting for the sound of a gunshot.

    “Savannah! Savannah! What the hell’s goin’ on in there?” He tried to force the door, but it was one of those big, solid, reinforced types. And his lineman’s shoulder had seen better days, better years.

    “Get in here!” she yelled, sounding breathless. “Back door!”

    He sprinted around the side of the house, slipping on some freshly dug dirt in a flower bed. His knee wrenched. Pain shot up to his hip, but he only barely noticed.

    He grabbed the back doorknob, twisted and threw it open with so much force that it bounced off the wall and hit him squarely on the forehead.

    Even through his own groans of pain, he could hear the dog barking and Savannah panting as she struggled.

    “In here!” she cried between strangled gasps.

    He ran into the living room, then nearly skidded to a stop, trying to figure out what his eyes were seeing.

    The colonel lay sprawled in the middle of the floor on his back. Savannah was kneeling beside him. It looked like she was beating the living crap out of him. There were no weapons in sight, except for a pistol in a fancy box, lying several feet away beside the sofa.

    “Don’t just stand there!” she shouted. “Help me!”

    “Looks to me like you’ve got everything under control,” he said dryly. “You’re the one on top.”

    Now that he could see she was all right, he was relieved and a little pissed for all the effort he had gone through. Besides, his knee was starting to throb.

    “Damn it, Dirk. He had a heart attack. Make yourself useful and call an ambulance. Then help me with the CPR, before I have one myself.”

    Suddenly, everything made sense, and Dirk felt like a fool.

    Oh, well, it wasn’t the first time, he thought as he yanked his cell phone out of his pocket and punched out 911. And knowing him, it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

    “Is he going to make it?” Savannah asked the army hospital doctor who looked too young to be anyone’s physician.

    Funny, the older she got, the younger they seemed to be making doctors, lawyers, and politicians. The kids were running the world these days.

    “Are you friends or family?” he asked, holding his clipboard tightly to his chest beneath crossed arms.

    Savannah looked at Dirk, who was standing next to her in the hall outside of the Intensive Care Unit, looking as impatient as she felt. She saw him start to reach for his badge, and she grabbed his hand.

    “Friends. Close friends...” she said, “.. . of the family.”

    Dr. Kid didn’t appear to completely believe her, but he looked bored and eager to be finished with this interview. “Your friend is stable,” he said. “That’s about all I can tell you right now until we get the results of some tests. From my preliminary examination, I’d say it was a fairly serious heart attack. While we don’t know what damage was done, I would caution you to prepare yourself.”

    She gulped. “For what?”

    “Is he gonna croak or not?” Dirk wasn’t one to mince words.

    And he had never minded alienating people. In fact, he seemed to take a morbid pride in his talent to do so.

    Dr. Kid