Emergency Contact
Tess stood, the huge quilt draped around her like a tent. As she walked toward the archway leading to the kitchen, the quilt caught on the end of the couch, slid off her shoulders and fell to the floor. Seemingly unaware of her naked condition, Tess continued on toward the kitchen, her bare feet padding softly on the hardwood floor.
Ryan blinked and swallowed hard. Lord, give me strength, he muttered. A true goddess walked among them. A goddess with legs that went on forever and a body so magnificently flawless that his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.
He tried not to stare, but he had a perfect view of her firm buttocks as she walked away. Muscle dimpled one firm cheek as she moved, and Ryan forced himself to breathe.
She turned to glance at him and Ryan struggled to keep his mouth from falling open. Her breasts were high and firm, and as her hair swung forward, each strand reflected an almost blinding sheen of white in the faint light. The fall of white gold fell over her slender shoulders and onto her chest, brushing the dark, taut nipples that peeped through the silky strands.
The fact that she seemed totally unaware of her nakedness wasn’t lost on Ryan. It was an unusual reaction and one he tucked away for later consideration.
“Are you coming, Doctor?” she asked innocently before turning and continuing on into the kitchen.
Ryan stumbled, getting to his feet, raising a hand to stop her, but he couldn’t get any words out. Damn. He had expected beauty, but this went way beyond even that. Way beyond.
A shaft of heat shot through him and settled deep in the pit of his belly. Sweat dampened his hands. He sucked hot air.
“Oh, my,” Betty blurted out as Tess brushed past.
A string of startled curses and the sound of chairs scraping frantically across the linoleum told Ryan he wasn’t the only male getting an eyeful.
He bent down and picked up the quilt. “If I were you, Betty, I’d find Tess something a little more permanent than a blanket. Otherwise, none of us are going to be able to concentrate on your good cooking.”
Betty snatched the quilt out of his hand and marched through the archway into the kitchen. “Close your eyes, all of you!” she ordered in the crisp tones of a drill sergeant.
Ryan followed, concern replacing his amusement. Tess might be beautiful, but her confused mental state and the hesitation in her speech worried him. If she was from the center, it would be a relatively easy task to get her back there.
But he couldn’t deny the small tug of regret that pulled at him. He didn’t like the possibility of her being a patient at the center. Patients came to the center because they had a long history of not responding to the more traditional medications and treatments. Most of their families had given up hope of them ever living normal, productive lives, and the patients came because they were desperate to try some of the more experimental, riskier treatments.
The thought of Tess, a vibrant, beautiful young woman, being one of those desperate individuals, unresponsive to other treatments, saddened Ryan.
If there was anything he’d learned over years of practice, it was that the results of experimental treatments benefited future generations, not the people who subjected themselves to it in the here and now. Tess might be a pioneer, but if she was from the center, her prognosis was most likely poor.
Washington, D.C.
“CALL FOR YOU, General Flynn. Line two, sir.”
General Thomas Flynn swallowed his irritation at the interruption and swung his desk chair away from his office window. He reached out and stabbed the intercom key. “I’m busy, Lieutenant. Take a message please.”
“It’s a Dr. Sidney Bloom, sir,” Lieutenant Sanders said, her soft feminine tones drifting musically through the intercom. “He’s somewhat insistent that he speak with you immediately, sir.”
General Flynn ran an impatient hand through the close-cropped iron-gray hair. It never ceased to annoy him that someone in personnel had taken it upon himself to assign him a female aide.
Not that Flynn advertised his prejudice against women in the military. No siree. He wasn’t a fool. He knew what the twenty-first-century army was all about—a dumbing down of the troops and a lowering of standards.
“I’ll take the call, Lieutenant.” Flynn punched the button for line two and picked up the receiver. “Why are you calling me here?” He didn’t bother to keep the anger from seeping into his voice.
“You asked to be kept informed of anything having to do with the project. I didn’t want to wait any longer.” Dr. Sidney Bloom’s cool tones conveyed his lack of intimidation.
Flynn reached down and flicked a switch on the side of the phone, the one that scrambled anything and everything that came through the phone. “What’s the problem? I’d prefer to keep any specifics out of this conversation.”
“My sentiments exactly, General.”
Flynn could hear the bristle of indignation in Bloom’s voice. From his dealings with him, Flynn knew that the doctor wasn’t used to being treated as a flunky. It brought a smile to Flynn’s lips. He couldn’t deny that he took a certain amount of pleasure in doing exactly that. He waited for the doctor to continue.
“Our subject took off last night. She knocked out a guard and escaped the grounds.” Before Flynn could react, Bloom rushed to add, “But we were able to locate her fairly quickly. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get her back here to the center.”
Flynn’s hand tightened so hard on the receiver that his fingers ached. “What do you mean she took off? I thought you had a handle on things down there. She’s supposed to begin her assignment in a week.”
“I realize that, General. Why do you think I insisted on talking to you instead of being put off by your trained seal in the front office.”
Flynn didn’t mind his own bias against his aide, but he didn’t appreciate anyone else making comments. “Lieutenant Sanders was only following my instructions. Why isn’t the subject back at the facility? Has she spoken to anyone?”
“Slow down, General. One question at a time,” Bloom said softly.
Flynn shifted the phone to his other ear and took a deep breath. “Don’t ever tell me what to do, Bloom. We’re paying the bills for your little research facility out there in God’s country. Without us, you’re just another egghead looking for funding.” He paused for a moment to savor the shocked silence on the other end of the phone. Nothing worked better than threatening a greedy research scientist with cutting off his funding. “Now that we’ve got that straight, why don’t you tell me what happened and keep it short.”
“Apparently her accomplice had a car waiting for them. When my men gave chase, they crashed through the perimeter fence.”
“Let me guess—you’re calling because your men screwed things up?”
Silence hummed on the line, but Flynn waited, his impatience building.
“My men were concerned they’d get away,” Bloom said, his voice rising a bit as he tried to explain. “They were forced to shoot the accomplice.”
“He’s dead?”
“Yes.”
Flynn sighed. “I hope you’re calling to tell me that they were able to take our subject back into custody.”
Bloom sucked air. “Unfortunately not. She took off across the field, and in the dark my men were unable to find her.”
“Then at least reassure me that your men were able to sanitize the crash scene before the local authorities arrived.”
Another long pause.
“Well, they had time to wipe the car down,” Bloom said. “But a local farmer must have heard the commotion and came to investigate. They were forced to leave before removing the body.”
A searing heat churned in Flynn’s stomach. “Wonderful. And where is the test subject? Has she been found yet?”
“We know where she is, we just haven’t been able to take her back into custody yet. My men tell me that she’s inside the farmer’s house. Uh, the chief of police is there, too.”
“How cozy. Do we know if she’s been connected to the body or the car?”
“Not yet.” Bloom paused again. “We do, however, have a more serious problem.”
Flynn closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Of course there was a more serious problem. He couldn’t expect anything less. “Please, enlighten me.”
“Reports indicate that the subject doesn’t remember who she is.”
Flynn came up out of his seat, his fist hitting the center of his thick green desk blotter. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He glanced toward the door, concerned his roar might have drifted out through the steel door into the outer office. There was no knock on the door.
“She has amnesia—no memory of who she is or why she’s there. My man says that she has a small cut on her forehead. She might have fallen or hit the dashboard of the car. It’s possible the recent drugs and programming have added to make the injury a little more than a mild concussion.”
“It’s possible? What the hell am I paying you for if it’s not to give me answers, Doctor?” Flynn forced himself to take a deep, cleansing breath. Anger ripped through his veins, heating his face and neck. If he didn’t calm down, he’d have a coronary right here in the office and never live to see the changes he’d worked so hard to bring about.
“Are you still there, General?”
“Of course I’m still here, you idiot,” Flynn snapped. “Where is she now?”
“One of my new doctors—someone not connected to the project—is out at the farmhouse talking to her right now.”
“Are you insane?”
Silence met Flynn’s question.
“Get the unauthorized physician off the case immediately. Tell him you’re taking over. And while we’re on the subject, why the hell do you have someone not connected to the project working at the facility?”
“Ryan Donovan is an old student of mine. A brilliant researcher and clinician. He finally took me up on my offer to leave Boston and come help me with some of my research.”
“I don’t care if he’s the Albert Einstein of medical research. It’s too risky having him involved.”
“But Donovan has done some interesting research that dovetails perfectly with mine. There are no plans for him to be directly involved in the project. He’ll continue his research without any knowledge of what we’re doing.”
Flynn rubbed the side of his jaw, unable to quiet the rumblings of concern from shooting acid into his already aching stomach. “I don’t like this, Bloom. I don’t like it one bit. Get her back under lock and key, and then call me. I don’t plan on losing this window of opportunity because you can’t arrange for the proper amount of security.”
“I’ll get back to you in an hour or so. Everything is under control.”
Flynn snorted his disbelief. “If everything was under control she’d be in her room, and you’d be finishing up the final touches on her programming.” He slammed the phone down.
Less than a week to go before the test subject was scheduled to perform her duty and she’d taken off like a jackrabbit on speed.
Flynn sighed and got to his feet. Walking over to the window, he stared down at the river and clasped his hands behind his back. Things were starting to unravel.
Perhaps he needed to make a trip to Half Moon. To really check on his investment and see if there was still time to carry out his plans. After all, the decision to control the destiny of United States politics demanded one’s full and undivided attention.
Chapter Two
Tess lifted her fork and bit into the syrup-soaked pancake. Sweetness burst across her tongue, and she sat back to savor it. She hadn’t realized until that moment how truly hungry she was.
As she chewed, she tried hard to remember the last time she’d eaten. Nothing came. No memory of food or any other interesting tidbit about her life floated to the surface. What she felt was a total void.
She shifted slightly on the hardwood chair, thankful that Betty had found some clothes for her. Strange, but until the moment Betty had put an arm around her and ushered her into the tiny laundry room off the kitchen, Tess had no idea she was naked. It was if her mind had lost its ability to register anything about herself. As if she’d suddenly become this clean slate, aware of nothing.
The jeans Betty had given her were too big, and none of the belts Betty offered had fit her small waist. So, she’d been reduced to using a piece of clothesline to keep them from falling down around her knees.
The T-shirt, one with a logo of a giant combine and Mid-State Farm Equipment lettered across the pocket was long enough and boxy enough to serve as a dress. One side kept sliding down, baring one shoulder, and she had to keep hitching it up. But the clothes were soft, smelled freshly laundered and rested smooth as silk against her skin.
She took another bite and then glanced around, surprised to find everyone’s attention focused directly on her. Four pairs of eyes held the same questioning look, but Tess knew she didn’t have any of the answers.
Heck, she couldn’t even answer her own questions, and things didn’t get much scarier than that. She was totally lost. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember anything other than her first name.
And even then, she wasn’t sure that was her name. It was simply the one that had popped into her head when Donovan had asked her for a name. But that sure didn’t mean it was the right one. She’d realized fairly quickly that no amount of trying to force the memories was going to help.
Even now, as she tried to pull something—anything—out of the confusion swirling around in her brain, a stab of pain shot through the center of her head. The harder she tried, the more it hurt. It was as if someone had done a nasty root canal on her without the required Novocain.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Tess, are you all right?”
She recognized the voice immediately. Ryan Donovan. The handsome doctor’s voice. She cringed inwardly. She’d barely met him and already she was thinking of him in terms of looks.
But what bothered her even more was the fact that he seemed to hold some kind of power over her—at least his voice seemed to possess that kind of power. The sound of it soothed her jitteriness. She wasn’t sure why but it unsettled her.
She kept her eyes shut, determined not to respond to those deep raspy tones with the velvet undertone to it. Something told her that if she looked at him, she’d be giving in, submitting to him in some way. And as crazy as that sounded, Tess wasn’t about to let it happen.
But as soon as the thought flashed into her consciousness, she questioned it. Why in God’s name would she think that a doctor, a man who insisted he only wanted to help her, was out to hurt her? He was a healer, held to a higher oath. Dedicated to helping people. Wasn’t he?
Finally, Tess looked up, steeling herself to meet his gaze, and she immediately found herself drowning in a sea of Caribbean blue. She bit her bottom lip, trying to keep her focus. His eyes were so stunningly blue that she found it hard to breathe. Hard to look away. He smiled at her and she felt as though she might melt.
It wasn’t a particularly beautiful face. Rather, it was a tough face, one that was in direct contrast to the velvety tones of his hypnotic voice. A face shadowed with lines of fatigue beneath beautiful light-colored eyes. A face with interesting angles and deep grooves in lean cheeks. The grooves deepened with his smile, telling her that things hadn’t always been easy for Ryan Donovan.
He leaned forward, his muscular arms coming to rest on the table, and his broad shoulders shifted effortlessly beneath the somber-colored cloth of his suit. His movements were graceful for such a big man.
His hair was black, thick and meticulously styled. An expensive haircut. One that spoke of a man who took care of himself and liked looking good. But in spite of the precision cut, several strands had escaped and fanned out over his forehead, giving him a slightly unruly appearance. A few shots of gray highlighted the sides. Not much, but enough to make things interesting.
Tess wanted to respond to the smile but she didn’t. Couldn’t. She recognized Ryan Donovan for what he was—danger. Someone to be avoided. The sooner she got herself outside his range of charm and potent masculinity, the better off she’d be.
She broke eye contact and rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to concentrate, trying to understand why her mind was screaming for her to back off. To be cautious.
“Are you in pain, Tess?”
Apparently Donovan wasn’t in the mood to back off, because instead of picking up on her unwillingness to engage in any type of verbal exchange, he was going to use that deep, whiskey-smooth voice until she couldn’t ignore him for one more minute.
She looked up again, and her chest tightened. She forced a smile. “I’ve got a slight headache, that’s all.”
“We need to get—”
Before he could finish, the phone rang. Betty reached over and picked up the receiver, cradling it between her shoulder and ear as she flipped the remaining cakes on the grill. “Hello?”
“Just a moment, please.” She turned and extended the phone toward Chief Cole. “It’s for you, Chief.”
The big man grunted and stood up, pulling the napkin out of the neck of his shirt. He grabbed the phone. “Cole here.”
Tess shifted restlessly, trying not to stare. For some reason, the beefy cop made her nervous, created an anxious flutter in the pit of her stomach. Whenever he moved, the gold bars on his collar glittered, sending off a blinding flash of light. She squinted, trying to hear what he was saying on the phone.
But she couldn’t make it out. The Chief talked low, darting covert glances in her direction every few seconds. Suddenly he straightened up, his dark eyes meeting hers across the length of the room.
He nodded. “All right. We’ll be right there. Don’t let anyone touch anything.” He hung up the phone hard, the receiver rattling in its cradle. He hit her with his best cop stare.
“What?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
Tess swallowed against the lump of pancake that caught in the back of her throat. She fumbled for the glass of orange juice, trying to wash it down. It tasted like grit.
“Something wrong, Chief?” Donovan asked, his coffee cup halfway to his lips.
Chief Cole’s gaze moved over to Donovan. “Seems that this was a night for strange happenings. There’s been an accident out on the Plank Road. A car plowed into Bill Johnson’s cornfield—the one that borders Bud’s and is backed up against the research center’s fence.” He moistened his thick upper lip with the tip of his tongue. “The driver’s dead.”
From beneath lowered lashes, Tess watched Donovan stand up, towering over the table. Damn, he was tall and powerfully built. Concern etched deeper lines around those magnificent eyes. “Anyone else hurt?”
The Chief folded his arms, the leather of his holster creaking loudly. “No.” He turned, his cop stare back on her. “No one else in the car. Just the driver.” He moved over to stand next to Tess, his frame seeming to loom over her, his bloated belly inches from her face. “You wouldn’t know anything about that car in the cornfield, now would you, miss?”
Tess shook her head and took another bite of pancake. She didn’t know anything about the car, but her stomach was clenched up tighter than a fist. It took all her concentration to get the small bite down.
“I think it’s time you told us your full name,” Cole said, pulling a notebook out of his hip pocket.
“I—I’d love to.” Tess laid her fork alongside her plate. “Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten it.”
Donovan moved to the other side of her, and he reached out to lightly touch her shoulder in a protective gesture. She could almost feel his concern, his compassion, radiate down through his long, masculine fingers. Welcome warmth saturated her shoulder. She shot him a grateful look.
“Don’t push so hard, Cole,” Donovan warned.
The Chief snorted. “Look, you two, I ain’t playing games here. I want her name, address and an explanation of what the hell she’s doing here in Half Moon.”
“You seem to think I’m trying to be uncooperative.” Tess paused, pressing the tips of her fingers to her forehead. Her head ached. “But I—I can’t tell you anything that I have no memory of.”
Ryan held up his other hand. “Back off, Chief. She isn’t yanking your chain. She really doesn’t remember.”
“Yeah, right. And I’m the freakin’ Pope. Give me a break, Doc. She’s playing you—playing all of us. That little nudie show was to keep us all interested.”
Anger surged through her, and Tess stood up, pushing her chair back so quickly it crashed to the floor. “I don’t have to take any of this.”
She started for the door, but Cole stepped in front of her, grabbing her upper arm. Tess struggled, but he had a good grip on her.
“You aren’t going anywhere, missy,” he said. “I want answers and I want them now.”
Tess stopped struggling and stepped in close. So close she could smell the heavy stench of old coffee and bacon on his thick breath. Her stomach recoiled in protest.
But she didn’t back down. “I don’t need this kind of harassment from you or anyone else.”
Cole matched her toe-to-toe. “Don’t sass me, little lady, I’ll—”
Donovan stepped between them. “That’s enough,” he ordered. “You,” he said to Tess, “sit back down.” When she hesitated, he gently spun her around and pointed to the chair. “Now.”
He waited until she was actually seated before turning back to the police chief. “And you need to back off. You’re not going to get anywhere with that tone of voice. If Tess knew her name, she’d tell you. She isn’t trying to hide anything, and you trying to force her to answer questions obviously isn’t working.”
Tess watched as skepticism fought for dominance on the cop’s ruddy features. No big surprise there, she thought. All cops and military types held that take-no-prisoners attitude. It was second nature to them.
She paused, her fingers tightening on the arm of the chair. There it was again, another thought that seemed to trigger a value statement out of nowhere. Did it mean that she normally distrusted cops and other people of authority?
“Maybe if she comes with me and takes a look at the crash site, she’ll remember something.” Cole grabbed his cap off the sideboard and slapped it on his head. “Let’s go, miss. We’ll take a drive out to Plank Road and see if you experience a sudden memory flash.” The last sentence dripped with sarcasm.
Donovan shook his head, signaling she shouldn’t get up. “She’s not going anywhere. She needs medical attention, Cole. Not the third degree.”
“I wasn’t about to whip out the rubber hose, Doc.” Irritation flickered across the Chief’s face. “You have to go by the crash site to get to Doc Reed’s. You can come along for the ride. That way you can make sure I don’t abuse the little lady.”
“I’m taking her out to the center. The facilities are better there,” Donovan stated.
Cole threw up his big hands. “Take her wherever the hell you want. But first let her see the car. It might jog her memory. Okay?”
Donovan finally relented and Cole stomped out the door.
Tess stood up, carefully setting her napkin next to her unfinished breakfast. She smiled at the Carsons. “Thanks for the clothes and the delicious meal. It was very gracious of you.”
Betty clucked her tongue and glanced out the window. Her glare of disapproval directed at the Chief’s back spoke volumes. “Ted Cole can be a bully sometimes. Don’t you let him push you around.” She shifted her attention to Donovan. “You make sure to watch out for her, Ryan.”
Donovan nodded and then stepped aside to let Tess go first. A pang of regret shot through Tess. She missed the feel of his hand on her shoulder, the warmth and comfort of those long fingers against her skin. Somehow his touch seemed to reach down and fill a cold, empty place deep in her chest.
And that spot seemed to get bigger and wider with each passing moment, especially when she imagined seeing a car in the middle of a cornfield. A car with a dead man inside it. She hid a shudder as she climbed into the police chief’s cruiser. Something told her she didn’t want to go anywhere near that car.
