Chapter Nine
I’d paced back and forth across my room the entire day trying to make sense of the mess I’d gotten myself into. It wasn’t until I’d come face to face with Hope, seeing her rounded belly, that it hit me. I wasn’t sick; I wasn’t coming down with the flu.
I was pregnant.
But I’d recognized Hope’s symptoms seconds later and the doctor in me had taken over, focusing on Hope to the exclusion of everything else.
I hadn’t had a spare moment to think about it again until I’d stopped in the waiting room on my way for coffee. And then, before I’d even had time to process my own feelings, Declan had made his clear.
He wasn’t cut out for parenting, and never intended to be.
After that, the decision had been simple, even if it wasn’t an easy one. Hell, it was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But I wouldn’t be the woman who trapped Declan in a life he’d never wanted, and since the only alternative was to send him packing long before he could find out, that’s what I did.
He hadn’t put up much of a fight, which confirmed it had been the right thing to do, but damn, I’d wished he had. And not just because I was suddenly facing motherhood all on my own, but because I’d fallen so much harder for him than I’d ever thought possible.
I’d darted out for a pregnancy test shortly after Declan had left—which only served to confirm my suspicions—so it was time to move on. I tried, thrusting Declan to the back of my mind as much as I could when I started my shift at the hospital the next morning, focusing on one patient after another and not letting my thoughts wander astray.
“Are you Dr. Sarah Wells?” a man asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere to the left of me. I mentally ran through the list of patients I’d cared for that day, trying to place who he might be inquiring after. He looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t think of any familial resemblance to any of my patients. I knew I’d seen the man before, but where?
The well-dressed gentleman from the parking lot—that’s who he was. But then, what did he want with me, and why were the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end?
“I am,” I answered belatedly.
“Well, you see, I’m in a bit of a predicament, Dr. Wells.”
“Oh? How can I help?” I offered, trying to ignore the prickle of unease.
“I need an attractive, young doctor to follow me out of the hospital,” he said lightly, taking an unobtrusive step closer.
I laughed uncomfortably, brushing off the unnerving sensation. If I understood him right, the man—a complete stranger—was trying to pick me up right there in the middle of my shift. “I’m flattered, sir, but I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“That’s really too bad. I was hoping to avoid having to kill anyone in your emergency room, Dr. Wells,” he said in the same light tone. He spoke so casually that at first, I thought I must have heard him wrong, but when I met his gaze, the threat in his eyes was clear. Panic welled in my chest. Who was he? What did he want?
“Do you see that gentleman standing in the corner across the room?” he asked and my gaze darted in that direction.
There was a man there, dressed in an expensive suit and holding something that glinted like steel, half-concealed in his hand. He wasn’t looking at me, but I followed his line of sight and gasped. The man was staring at the seven-year-old boy laying on a gurney in the treatment area. I’d just set his broken leg not twenty minutes prior.
“Do you see him, Dr. Wells?” the man next to me asked coolly.
My throat was suddenly too dry to talk, so I nodded instead.
“Good. And the other gentleman standing near the triage desk—can you see him?”
I didn’t want to look, but I did, and I shivered in fear, seeing him standing there in the same kind of expensive suit with the same glint of steel in his hand. Jennifer was sitting at the triage desk with her back to him. She had no idea there was a man with a gun standing right behind her.
“Yes,” I croaked, forcing the single syllable past my parched throat.
“Good. I’m sure you understand then that I really must insist you come with me. Once you do, those gentlemen will have no further business here, I assure you.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, fighting back tears. I wasn’t going to cry. I had no idea what the man wanted, but I certainly wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of tears.
“Don’t worry. You will soon,” he said, and then extended his arm, offering it like some old-fashioned gentleman.
“How do I know those men will leave if I go with you?”
“You don’t. But I guarantee that if you refuse to do what you’re told, there will be far fewer people who will require your services today, Doctor.”
My hands shook, but I took his arm, recoiling at the warmth of him through his suit jacket and the feeling of his skin as he placed his hand on top of mine.
“We’ll go out the back way. Through here,” he motioned down the hall with his head and started leading me away.
I tugged on his hold and started to walk faster. It was foolish of me, but I wasn’t going to let this man drag me around. I didn’t know what was going on, but surely it had to be some sort of mistake. Once we got outside and he told his men to leave the hospital, there had to be something I could do. And a moment later, he pushed open the door to the side parking lot.
Two steps out the door, I put on the brakes. “Now tell those men to leave,” I demanded, pulling against the vicelike grip in which he held my arm.
“Certainly, Sarah,” he replied in the same disconcertingly calm tone. He reached into his jacket pocket with his free hand and put the phone he withdrew to his ear. “Come join us at the car,” he spoke into the phone before slipping it back into his pocket.
There. He’d called off his lackeys. All I had to do was get free of his hold on me and I’d scream bloody murder. I waited a second, and then another, trying to focus on what I had to do. And then I did it. I stomped down on the man’s foot with my heel as hard as I could and yanked my arm from him at the same time.
It worked. I was free. I turned to run as I opened my mouth to scream, but all the air whooshed from my lungs as I ran right into a solid, suit-clad chest. The owner of the chest flung me around, catching me around my ribs with one, steel-like arm. I had no time to try to run, but I knew I had to do something. I jabbed at the solid wall of flesh behind me with my elbows and kicked back at the man’s shins. He didn’t budge, but I felt a cool, sharp edge against my throat seconds later, and I froze. I couldn’t see it, but I didn’t have to. I knew what it was.
“I thought we had an understanding, Sarah.”
“I did what you said. I followed you out of the hospital. Now let me go!” I started to struggle, but my own movements pressed the blade harder against my throat. I felt the sting seconds before something warm and wet trickled down my neck.
My own blood.
I stopped struggling but pressed my head back against the chest behind me to try to lessen the pressure of the knife while I seethed in frustration and fear.
“You are so much like your mother,” the man said, drawing my attention as he blotted the blood on my neck. I tried to recoil further, but there was nowhere else to go.
“You knew my mother?” If this man knew her, why was he doing this?
“Yes, I knew her. And I killed her.”
That wasn’t possible. “My mother died in a car accident.”
“No, my dear. That’s just what your father wanted you to believe. It was easier on you that way. Just like he thought it would be easier on you to keep everything else hidden from you, too.”
“You’re lying!”
He smiled coolly and a shiver raced down my spine. Whether this man was spouting lies or not, there was one thing for certain: he wasn’t going to let me go.
I’d been trying to keep some semblance of calm until that moment, but panic and terror overwhelmed me. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t move; the only thing I could do was scream. And so, I screamed.
And then the whole world went black.