All of My Soul (26 page)

My heart sank in my chest. “You really think
so?”

She nodded. “Trust me. I’ve been dealing with
tabloid reporters for years. I know how they operate.”

I got lost in thought as I watched the Los
Angeles skyline. Someone close to me tipped them off? My family
knew I was seeing Dr. Raussman, but no one but Lincoln and Rebecca
knew when I had an appointment. Well, no one but them and Dr.
Raussman’s secretary who I had e-mailed to make the
appointment.

E-mail
.

I gasped and ran out of the room.

“Hey!” I heard Brit shout as I left her
alone.

“Jillian!” Brody shouted from behind me.

I ran as fast as I could to Lincoln’s room,
surprising him and Kotel in the middle of their conversation about
video games.

He held his side as he tried to sit up a
little. “Jillian, what’s wrong? Where’s Brody?”

“Lincoln, I figured it out!”

Kotel stood up from the chair next to
Lincoln’s bed. “Where’s Brit?!” His voice was laced with
concern.

I began to pace at the foot of his bed. “It’s
probably the same person who deleted my thesis and sent me the
virus. I bet anything!”

Brody burst into the room just then followed
by Brit and her bodyguards.

“What the hell was that?” she asked me, but
she didn’t sound pissed, just confused.

Lincoln glared at Brody.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t expect her to run.”

“Stop. Stop. Stop. Just listen to me,” I
begged Lincoln. I needed to explain my theory before I forgot any
of it. “I didn’t call Dr. Raussman’s office that day for an
appointment. I e-mailed his secretary. I thought it would be easier
to e-mail her if she was busy. Then she could get back to me when
she had time.”

“Oookay… ” Lincoln said, confused.

“What if whoever deleted my thesis and sent
me that virus managed to hack into my new laptop and saw the e-mail
with the time and date of my appointment and tipped off the
reporters?”

Lincoln was shaking his head before I even
finished my thought. “The laptop I bought to replace your old one
is state-of-the-art, Princess. Top-of-the-line security protection.
There’s no way someone hacked it.”

“Oh.” I deflated with disappointment. I was
sure I had figured this out.

“I still think they must have followed
us—”

“Sir,” Brody said, stepping forward. “I know
you think that’s the only way they could have found us, but I
assure you, no one followed us that day.”

Brit and Kotel hovered awkwardly around us as
my mind spun. It had to have been the e-mail.

“All right. All right. Let’s discuss this
another time whe—”

“What if I had been connected to the
university’s network when I sent it?” I blurted out, interrupting
Lincoln.

Silence filled the room while Brody and
Lincoln stared at each other, silently working through my idea.

Brody was the first to break the silence.
“The university would have ways of preventing that.”

“But it happened before. My e-mail to my
advisor disappeared a few days before my computer crashed.”

I could see in Brody and Lincoln’s eyes that
they saw my theory had credence.

“We need to talk to someone at the
university,” Brody said.

I nodded with confidence. “I can help with
that.”

~~~~~~~~

Kotel and Brit stayed a little while longer.
Brit and I sat in the corner of the room while our men talked about
the politics of their careers. Who was being traded where. Who was
injured. What new rules were going into effect next season.

Brit showed me pictures on her phone of her
nieces and nephews, and I bragged about Tabitha. She asked me about
my schoolwork, and I rattled on for a while but she never acted
bored. It almost felt as if I were chatting with one of my sisters
or Kennedy.

“Smile!” she said as she held her phone out
at arm’s length. A bright flash of light momentarily blinded me and
splotched out my vision. “Oh, it’s cute! Look!”

The picture of us illuminated on her phone,
our heads pressed together, our faces curled up with smiles. It was
actually a good picture, and before I knew it she had posted it to
Instagram and instantly had thirty thousand likes.

Holy shit
, I thought.
So much for
privacy.

“
Lyubov
?” Kotel called to Brit. “You
ready to go?”

Brit shoved her phone in her purse before
slinging it over her shoulder as she stood. She hugged me tight.
“It was so nice to meet you,” she told me. “I’m sorry it had to be
in such bad circumstances. I know I don’t know you or Lincoln very
well, but the two of you seem to have something real here, and
believe me when I say that’s worth more than you can know.”

This was so surreal. I couldn’t believe Brit
was so nice. We exchanged phone numbers, and she told me she’d call
next time she was in Chicago. Surreal!

Shortly after Brit and Kotel left, Kennedy
came back. It felt like there was a revolving door in front of
Lincoln’s hospital room, but hopefully the three of us were alone
for the rest of the night. Well, alone except for Brody standing
guard outside the door.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Lincoln as I
adjusted his pillows. “Do you need to push your happy button?”

He was holding his side again, bracing
himself against any movement. I tried not to jostle him, but I also
wanted to make sure he was comfortable. His muscles were tight and
ridged, and he cringed when I tried to straighten his blanket.

I frowned and crinkled my eyebrows. “Is the
pain getting worse?”

Shit
, I thought.
Maybe I should get
his nurse.

His good hand grabbed mine as I reached for
the button to call his nurse.

“Don’t, Princess. I’m okay.”

“Lincoln, you’re not okay. You’re obviously
hurting. If your pain meds aren’t working anymore, we need to tell
the nurse.”

“No. They’re fine. I just—I haven’t pushed
the button in a while.” His jaw was clenched, his breathing
shallow.

Kennedy stood up and approached the other
side of his bed. “Why the hell not, Linc?” She was not happy.

He swallowed hard, and his eyes burned into
mine. “I don’t want to be loopy. I need to have it together.” For
the first time ever, his eyes looked fearful. “I can’t protect you
if I’m doped up.”

“Oh, Lincoln.” I leaned over and tried to
gently kiss him without bumping him.

“Lincoln, you’ve got a broken rib, a
punctured and collapsed lung, and a broken arm. What do you think
you’re going to be able to do?” Kennedy’s words were harsh, but it
was the truth.

“I don’t—I don’t know. Maybe if we think
about this logically, we can figure out something.”

I ran my hand over his cheekbone and down the
scruff of his jaw. “Kennedy, can you give us a minute alone,
please?” I didn’t look away from Lincoln’s worried eyes as I
asked.

“Yeah.” She grabbed her purse and walked out,
pausing in the doorway next to Brody. “Just take the damn drugs,
little bro.”

I smiled at her persistence. The tension
around Lincoln’s eyes faded a bit as I stared down at him, but he
still looked determined.

“Don’t try to talk me into taking the meds,
Jillian. I want to be focused. Prepared.”

I shook my head while smiling. “I love you,
baby, but I think it’s funny you think you have a choice here.”

His eyes widened as he realized what I meant.
He tried to grab for the remote with the button to control his pain
meds, but I was faster. I held it up just out of his reach, knowing
he couldn’t move without putting himself in a massive amount of
pain.

“Give me the button,” he demanded.

“No. You are exhausted and injured. You need
to relax in order to recover. And you can’t relax when you’re in
this much pain.”

“Please don’t, baby. I need—I need to protect
you.”

“Lincoln, what do you think is going to
happen tonight? You think someone is going to break into your
hospital room with Brody at the door and a butt load of security
guards downstairs? It’s fine. I’m protected. We’re all safe.”

“Something could be written about you. I need
to be able to stop it.”

Softly I sat on the edge of the bed and
leaned over his good side. He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply,
trying to cover the pain my simple movement caused him.

“Lincoln, look at me.” I waited until our
eyes connected so he could see my sincerity. “I love that you
protect me, but I’m not going to have you in pain at my expense.
This is where the team part comes in. Let me be the strong one
tonight.”

He exhaled sharply again but didn’t argue
when I held up the button that supplied his pain meds and pushed it
several times.

Leaning in, I brushed my lips over his and
whispered against them. “I love you.”

“I love… too,” he mumbled.

“My stubborn man.” I cupped his cheek. The
crooked smile on his face and his half-closed, glazed-over eyes
told me he was feeling no pain again. I’d make sure he stayed that
way for as long as possible.

Chapter
Nineteen

Three days later, I sat in the backseat of
Lincoln’s FJ Cruiser holding Lincoln’s hand as Brody drove us
through downtown Chicago to the United Center. The Blackhawks staff
wanted to evaluate him and come up with a game plan for recovery.
It was a shame the season had ended this way, but at least he had
several months to recover without missing any games. After the
meetings here, we were going to have a conference with Detective
Murray and Isaac, my tech guru who saved my thesis paper a few
months ago, to speak to them about the university’s cyber security.
We were hoping Isaac could inform us if anyone had made any
subsequent hacking attempts on my computer. 

Lincoln grimaced and squeezed my hand every
time we hit a bump or dip in the road. The poor guy had to be in
such pain, but at least according to the chest x-rays they took
before discharging him from the hospital, his lung was healing on
its own.

Brody drove the SUV into the parking garage
under the arena, and after circling around a few times, he parked
in the space reserved for Lincoln.

I jumped out and ran around the vehicle to
help my man. In reality, he was huge and there was little I could
do other than offer a hand for him to hold, but I still wanted to
help.

When I opened his car door, I saw Lincoln’s
breathing had already quickened in preparation for the impending
pain. We had hoped riding in the SUV would be better for him than
the town car, but getting him into the vehicle had been a painful
process, and I was sure getting him out was going to be just as
difficult.

With slow, easy movements, I managed to
gently extract him from the vehicle as Brody stood guard. This
would have been a lot easier if Brody had helped me, but I knew
keeping watch was more important.

Once Lincoln could stand on his own two feet,
he leaned against the side of the car to steady himself while I
retrieved my purse from the backseat. He threw his good arm over my
shoulders and used me for support as we started walking toward the
private entrance that led to the Blackhawks’ locker rooms and
offices. Brody was a few paces ahead of us when I heard someone
behind us.

“Jillian?”

I turned and peeked over Lincoln’s arm. A
disheveled woman stood in the middle of the roadway. Her sweat
pants and long-sleeved T-shirt hung sloppily off her body, and her
dirty-blond hair was pulled up into a messy bun at the top of her
head. She was probably about my age, but her messy appearance made
her look older.

My mind instantly flipped back to a similar
situation in this very spot, only that time her hair, makeup, and
clothes were impeccable, and she had been prowling around Deacon,
waiting to sink her claws into him.

Before I was able to react, Brody ran past me
and tackled the woman. She screamed, but my bodyguard had no mercy
for her as they both crashed to the ground hard. Lincoln used his
good arm to pull me behind him, shielding me with his body, but I
was able to peek around him.

Brody knelt on the woman, pinning her to the
ground. One knee was directly in the middle of her back as he
produced a pair of handcuffs that had been hidden in his belt and
secured her wrists together.

The woman began crying as Brody patted her
down, and when I heard her defeated sobs, I couldn’t take it
anymore. “Wait,” I ordered as I stepped out from behind Lincoln.
Brody ignored me, but Lincoln tried to grab for me to stop me.

“Jillian! Dammit!” he cried as I ran away
from him.

I dropped to my knees and pushed back some
hair that had fallen out of her messy bun. “Are you all right?”

Her splotchy, tear-soaked face turned into my
hand and she pinched her eyes shut and nodded in reply.

“She’s clean. No weapons,” Brody said as he
stood.

My arm was pulled back, forcing me to stand,
and I looked up and saw it was Lincoln who had pulled me on to my
feet. He looked upset and angry.

“She doesn’t have a purse. No ID,” Brody
continued.

“Do you know who she is?” Lincoln asked
me.

I nodded. “Yes. And so do you, Lincoln. It’s
Daisy.”

His blank face told me he had no memory of
her.

“Daisy was Deacon’s date to the Brit Ambush
concert.”

Recognition sparked on his face. “She’s the
one you…?”

I nodded as Lincoln trailed off.

“Do you have a last name, Daisy?” Brody asked
as he nudged her hip hard with the toe of his boot.

“Stop!” I demanded. “She hasn’t done anything
wrong!”

Brody and Lincoln exchanged a look.

“Lurking in a parking garage, waiting in the
shadows for you, doesn’t make me think she wants to give you a box
of chocolates, Jillian.”