Silent Surrender

AN HOUR LATER, Sarah collapsed with exhaustion, praying the detective would find his sister and that she wouldn’t hear the voices again. She couldn’t stand the pain in the woman’s cries.

Then again, if she didn’t hear the woman’s voice, she wouldn’t be able to help her. And she had never backed down from anything in her life. She couldn’t let her fears keep her a prisoner.

She stared at the card the detective had left on the table with his phone number. Without even knowing Adam Black, he pulled at feelings so dormant she thought they’d died completely after her disastrous relationship with her old boyfriend, Kevin.

Maybe she was afraid, she admitted silently, but she didn’t want to see Detective Black again. His eyes and body blazed with anger and attitude, the kind of cold, harsh facade that would hold any woman at arm’s length. He was in control and would want to control everyone around him, especially someone he considered weaker. Someone with a handicap.

But he obviously loved his sister.

She hoped he found her before it was too late.

Determined to banish him from her mind, she turned her thoughts to her normal life. To the school for the deaf where she’d been teaching. Pulling out her plan book, she checked the plans she’d penciled in for the substitute teacher. Her class would take a hike tomorrow to collect items for a nature collage. Then they’d watch a film about the seasons and the rebirth spring promised. Just as she thought she’d have a rebirth when she’d regained her hearing. She’d taken a six-week leave of absence following her surgery to recover and acclimate herself to living in a hearing world.

Now, for some odd reason, she found herself wanting to return to the safety of the silent world she’d always lived in. Back to her teaching job at the school, to her co-workers, who communicated the way she did—with sign language. Back to the safety of knowing she didn’t have to interact with dangerous, sexy men like Adam Black.

Men who made her want to be whole again.

Chapter Four

Adam spent a restless night trying to forget the magnetic pull between him and Sarah Cutter. He couldn’t pinpoint it, but something about the woman unleashed his baser instincts. She was troubled, confused and just about the most needy woman he’d ever met.

Yet, he was the one who felt needy in her presence. As if he might shrivel up if he didn’t touch her. He didn’t like the feeling. Adam Black was a loner. He took care of himself and his sister; he didn’t need anyone else.

Hell, when had he last woken up in a sweat from wanting a woman? A long damn time.

Because he’d learned the hard way. The last time he had gotten involved with a woman, a witness, named Pamela, the end had been disastrous. He’d been too distracted by her to focus on his job, and it had cost her her life.

Now his job, staying in control, was everything— it had to be.

Determined to squash the emotions churning through him, he took a cold shower and dressed. When he’d arrived home the night before, he’d tried to contact Denise’s research assistant, but supposedly the man’s grandmother had died and he’d flown to Los Angeles for the funeral. Adam had stayed up half the night researching hearing implants on the Internet, looking at the latest developments in technology. But he found nothing on a device that might allow a person to hear through walls or serve as a transmitter.

Clayton met him at the station. “Uh-oh, Black, you’re not going to like this.”

Adam stared in shock at the headliner on a local tabloid, his mind reeling as he read the article.

Hearing Things?

Cold War spy’s daughter who has been deaf for twenty years claims to have heard evidence of a kidnapping, possible murder!

Sarah Cutter ended twenty years of silence four days ago when she received surgically implanted hearing aids by doctors at the research center on Catcall Island, the new facility which has been linked with the government-owned buildings on Nighthawk Island.

Late Thursday afternoon, she rushed to the police claiming that while she was in the hospital she overheard a woman being abducted….

The article continued to describe what Sarah had told him, then launched into an account of how she’d lost her hearing.

Twenty years ago, five-year-old Sarah lost her hearing in the explosion that killed both her parents. Her father, Dr. Charles Cutter, a scientist and former Navy lieutenant, had been working on a secret project for the government developing a listening device to be used in the Cold War. Cutter’s technology died with his death. Evidence later verified that Cutter had made a deal to sell the device to the Russians. Reports confirmed that Cutter’s own wife discovered his intentions and had planned to turn him over to the government. When Cutter realized his wife’s plans, he set fire to their house, but was accidentally caught in the explosion and killed as well. Some speculate he might have killed himself to avoid facing a court-martial and prison sentence. A close friend and one of Cutter’s co-workers, Sol Santenelli, arrived just in time to rescue the five-year-old child from the burning home. Dr. Santenelli is now the director of the CIRP, Coastal Island Research Park.

Although Sarah underwent stringent psychological evaluations, as well as several surgeries which were unsuccessful in repairing her hearing loss, she never spoke afterward. Cutter was buried with a dishonorable discharge.

Adam scrubbed his hand across his face.

Why hadn’t Sarah told him about her past? Did she know exactly what her father had been working on? Of course, the CIA and FBI had sophisticated listening devices now, but twenty years ago the technology would have been cutting edge and worth a small fortune.

Clayton whistled. “Pretty interesting, huh?”

“Yeah. But why the hell did Sarah Cutter go to the tabloids with the story?”

“Maybe she wanted the attention. She might have made up the whole story just to get her name in the paper.”

Clayton might be right. The story didn’t exactly paint a picture of a healthy emotional female.

Then again, he’d seen the fear on her face when she’d described the kidnapping. Growing up with a handicap, she had to have faced ridicule before. Yet, she’d come to them with the bizarre story knowing they would laugh at her. Either she was lying or she had a great deal of courage.

He knew that kind of courage. And he had to admire it.

He had to talk to her again. Crazy or not, attraction or not, she might be the key to finding his sister.

But if there was any truth to Sarah’s story, printing her name in the papers had put her in danger.

SARAH HUGGED each of the children in her class, grateful to spend the afternoon with some sense of normalcy.

“Is it fun to be able to hear?” five-year-old Jason signed.

“What does music sound like?” curly-haired Claire asked.

Betty Ann clapped her hands. “And the choo-choo train? I always wanted to hear a train whistle!”

Sarah waved for them all to pay attention and signed, “My hearing isn’t perfect yet, so I don’t understand all the sounds around me. I feel like a kindergartner again, having to recognize certain sounds and name them.”

The kids giggled.

“Some sounds are lovely, but some are harsh and loud, like the horns honking and bulldozers. The fire engine and ambulance siren is loud and screechy and sends a chill up my back.”

The children’s eyes widened in awe as she elaborated, many of them unable to imagine what the word sound truly meant. They had been taught that vibrations produced sound, but learning about them and experiencing them were two different things, especially for the children born totally deaf or with a profound hearing loss.

“I can’t distinguish tones yet so I still haven’t been able to enjoy music, but the doctors say my hearing should improve daily.”

“Will you come back?” Jason asked.

“Yes, soon.” Sarah hugged each of them again, then turned to the director of the center, Adrianne Waters. “I miss everyone so much.”

“Are you adapting to life in the hearing world?” Adrianne asked.

Sarah forced a stiff smile and signed, “Yes. Take care of my babies here.”

Adrianne laughed, the first beautiful sound Sarah had heard. Adrianne had suffered her hearing loss when she was a teen, so her language skills were advanced. Maybe she could help Sarah with her speech.

When she was ready.