“Tess. Wake up, Tess.”
Tess pulled herself up out of the wet, clinging darkness and stretched to reach the voice calling to her. Everything hurt. Even her eyelashes hurt when she opened her eyes.
Ouch. She squinted a bit from the light overhead. Too bright. They were like phosphorous flares going off in her face. She closed her eyes again and then opened them slowly.
Still painful, but bearable.
A face appeared directly over her.
She smiled. Casper. Ken Casper. His battle-toughened face was deeply grooved with worry lines, deeper even than she remembered. He fumbled for her hand, wrapping a big, sandpapery hand around hers.
“Hey, ghost of mine,” she whispered.
“You’re in the hospital, sweetie. They’re going to have to operate soon, but the doc says you’re going to be fine.”
“Where’s Ryan?” The faintness of her voice scared her, sounding as if it came from somewhere outside of her.
“He’s on his way. I came in the ambulance with you and sent him in a car with some of my staff.”
She tried frowning and wasn’t sure it worked. “I thought you were a romantic, Casper. Don’t you know that you’re supposed to let the handsome hunk ride with the beautiful woman. The old guy takes the cab?”
He laughed. “I’ll remember that for next time, sweetheart.”
“The vice president?”
“He’s fine. Not a scratch on him.” He stroked the back of her hand. “He’s going to get some mileage out of this politically.”
“Still the same old cynical Casper,” she rasped, her throat dry and scratchy. “McCaffrey?”
A cloud shadowed Casper’s face. “He gave us the slip in the panic that ensued. But we’re pretty sure he was the one who got off the shots. He dropped the gun beside you, so we’ll run the ballistics and make sure. We’ll catch up to him at some point.”
“What about Flynn?”
“He’s in custody and singing like a bird, telling us all about the center and the Patriot’s Foundation of Family Values. We’ll be rounding up that crazy bunch for the next six months. But for now, the immediate threat is over.”
Tess nodded, and a great sense of peace settled over her. They’d won.
“We wouldn’t have figured it out without you, Tess.”
Casper rubbed her hand, and then leaned down to smooth her hair back off her forehead. His touch was warm, but Tess couldn’t help but wish the hand enclosing hers was Ryan’s. She desperately needed to feel the heat of his skin and the sound of his voice.
She started to drift, and she tightened her hold on Casper’s hand. Oh, God, she needed to hang on. She needed to be awake when Ryan arrived.
“It’s okay, Tess. He’ll be here soon,” Casper said, reading her mind.
She pulled on his hand, coaxing him closer. “Tell Ryan-” She sucked in another breath. “Tell him when he gets here that I need him.”
It didn’t matter anymore if he couldn’t say it back to her. Even if he was still stuck on the whole concept of her being his patient and he couldn’t love her the way she wanted. Nothing mattered to Tess except that she tell Ryan how much she needed him.
“You can tell him yourself. Just hang on, sweetie.”
But Tess couldn’t hang on. She fell over the edge and dropped into nothingness, spinning around and embracing the darkness. And as she slipped away, her hand falling from Casper’s, she thought, Please, God, let Ryan be here when I wake up, because I don’t think I can get through one more day without him by my side.
THEY TOOK OFF the handcuffs and pushed Ryan into a room on the second floor of the hospital. He didn’t know the name of the hospital but he knew it was only a short ride from the hotel. Apparently the head agent had made arrangements for his arrival, because when the car pulled up front, two other agents met them at the door and escorted him upstairs.
Ryan surveyed the room. Small with no windows. The furniture had a definite institutional flavor. He paced, unable to settle. The agent with him took a seat by the door, his attention on a magazine. He pointedly ignored Ryan’s questions.
By the time the door opened, Ryan was sure he’d worn a hole in the carpet. The senior agent walked in and nodded his head at the other agent, dismissing him.
He turned to Ryan. “I’m Supervising Special Agent Ken Casper of the United States Secret Service.”
Ryan ignored the introduction. “Where’s Tess? I demand to see her now.”
“You’re not in a position to demand anything, Doctor.” But then the man’s face softened. “Besides, she’s in surgery and no one can see her until she’s out.”
Ryan’s heart slammed against his chest. He’d figured the wound was serious, but he couldn’t deny he had hoped it was superficial. “How bad is it?”
“They couldn’t tell me anything. But her surgeon will notify us when he’s done.” Casper motioned to the couch. “Sit down. I know you have a lot of questions, and I’ll answer as many of them as I can.”
Still on guard, Ryan stayed on his feet. “How do you know Tess?”
Casper sank down onto the edge of one of the chairs, stretching his long legs out in front of him with a deep grunt.
“I’ve known Tess since she was a toddler. I was good friends with her dad.” The sadness Ryan had noted in the man’s face when he leaned over Tess flickered across the agent’s face again. “I was assigned to her father during his years as U.S. senator.”
Realization hit Ryan. “Casper! You’re the ghost that watches over her, aren’t you.”
He nodded. “When she was little, she called me Casper the Friendly Ghost.” He shifted in the chair, trying to get more comfortable. “I got close with the family. When her dad died in the crash years later, I tried to help, but times changed and her mom needed to get on with her life. We kind of drifted apart. The last time I saw her was at her mother’s funeral. That is, until-”
His voice drifted off and for a long moment the man stared into space, his gaze turned haunted, as if he was seeing their last meeting play out in front of his eyes and what he saw shot him through with terrible guilt.
“Until what?” Ryan prompted.
Casper’s eyes flickered back into the present and he hunched over, his elbows coming to rest on his thighs. “Until she came to me a little over eight months ago to tell me that she thought her stepfather was up to his eyeballs in some kind of plot to hurt the vice president.”
“Which it turns out he was,” Ryan said dryly. “So, you decided to use her to learn more.”
“She insisted. And as much as I didn’t want to, we knew that she was the only one who could get close. She wasn’t supposed to go deep. We just wanted as much superficial information as she could gather-preliminary stuff that my own agents could use to infiltrate the foundation. We have a file yea thick-” he spread his hands a foot apart “-on that damn organization. But no one could get a handle on them. Mainly because infiltrating it was next to impossible.”
“But not for Tess?”
“No, unfortunately not for Tess.” He had rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt and, for a minute, he fiddled with a button on the cuff. He lifted his head. “I think her stepfather took a certain delight in using her. In subjecting her to his brainwashing techniques. It would have been his ultimate revenge against her father. Flynn despised Senator Ross, saw him as the epitome of everything he hated. Blamed him for the weakening of the American military.”
“Why would he take a chance using Tess?” Ryan asked.
“A maniac’s ego perhaps. Who knows?” Casper shrugged. “Flynn knew how close Tess was to the vice president. He knew that of all the people he had to choose from, Tess was the one person who would never be questioned. Never be denied access to him. She was above reproach.”
“So why put her life at such risk?”
Casper sighed. “Because we never thought he’d go this far. Tess had explicit instructions to stay on the periphery of the organization. To just get a feel for things and then report back to us. We never thought he was going to recruit her like he did.”
“So when she disappeared, why didn’t you go in after her? Get her out before they messed with her head?”
“We tried.” He sat back, his massive arms lifting up to drape over the back edge of the couch. “But we weren’t sure where he had her stashed. He’s a cagey old bird-no one in Washington plays poker with Thomas Flynn without a few extra cards tucked up their sleeve.”
“Sounds like you ended up playing without any extras up your sleeve.”
Casper nodded.
Ryan glanced up at the clock. Forty-five minutes and still no word.
“She’s going to be fine, son.” Casper fished around in his pocket for some change and then walked over to the soda machine. He stuck the coins in the slot and they jingled merrily on their way down to the collection box. He pressed one of the panels and a cola dropped into the bin below. “Want one?”
Ryan shook his head.
The tab on the can popped under Casper’s thumb and the carbonation hissed in the quiet room. “When I finally discovered where they had her stashed, I sent in one of my best agents. He was killed by one of their operatives when he and Tess drove through the fencing at the center. She managed to slip away.” His eyes met Ryan’s. “She was lucky when she met up with you. I’m positive that she survived because Flynn was too spooked to just yank her away from you. He was determined to convince you that she was insane and belonged in an institution. He was too invested in her programming at that point to allow her to get away from him.”
“Why didn’t you just go in and shut the whole operation down? This is America-torture and brainwashing experimentation aren’t supposed to happen here.”
“Don’t be naive, Ryan. None of that experimentation was ever sanctioned by the United States government. And I wanted her out of there alive. Once she was with you and the two of you were on the run, we were able to swoop in and shut the center down. But Flynn was smart. He covered his tracks. We had no idea what he had planned.”
“What about the brainwashing she’s been through? Do your experts have any thoughts on that?”
Casper sighed. “I have a team of doctors in the wings willing to help her through this.” He glanced up at Ryan. “Although the head of the team mentioned that you’ve obviously already made headway in that department. Said you’ve somehow managed to interrupt the programming that Bloom implanted.”
The door to the waiting room opened and a young man in green scrubs stepped inside. “Which of you is Ms. Ross’s husband?”
Before Casper could speak, Ryan stepped forward. “I am. How is she.”
The surgeon stepped forward and shook his hand. “I’m Michael Keely, I worked on Tess.”
“Ryan Donovan.”
The surgeon’s gaze swung over to Casper, his question unspoken.
Ryan quickly introduced Casper. “Ken Casper. An old family friend. How is she?”
“She’s doing well. She’s currently resting in I.C.U. She’s kind of groggy, but that’s to be expected.” He rubbed the back of his neck and moved his head from side to side, as if releasing tension from his shoulders. “I had to remove her spleen, and I had to do some minor repairs in the surrounding area. But other than that she’s recovering nicely.”
“Can I see her now?”
Keely nodded but held up five fingers. “Five minutes. No more. She needs her rest and you look like you could use a shower and a few hours of sleep, too.”
Ryan indicated he would agree to the conditions with a quick nod of his head. He’d have agreed to anything as long as it meant he’d get to see her, to hold her again. He glanced at Casper, checking to make sure he was free to go to Tess.
Casper waved him out of the room.
RYAN HAD BEEN in enough Intensive Care Units in his lifetime to know what every beep, bell and flashing light meant. And like most physicians, an I.C.U. held no great mystery. He recognized them as places were life and death struggles were played out, no different than the ones played out on psychiatric units.
But no amount of training could have prepared him for the dread of knowing that someone he loved was on the other side of those familiar doors. Suddenly it wasn’t just any I.C.U. It was the place entrusted to care for the most important person in his life.
Tess’s room was the last one on the end of the huge horseshoe-shaped hall. The sliding-glass door leading to her private room was open, but the curtain was pulled. The low, steady beep of the heart monitor filtered out to him, and the simple act of hearing her heart beat with life sent relief through him.
He pushed aside the curtain and stepped inside. The sight of Tess on the bed was like an emotional punch to his midsection. She lay with her eyes closed, her lashes an inky fringe across pale cheeks. Her lips and skin were the color of ivory, almost blending with the starched whiteness of the sheets. Someone had pulled her hair back from her face, making her appear even younger and more defenseless. Seeing her that way tugged at his heart and made him feel even more protective.
A nurse stood on the other side of the bed, adjusting the IV. She glanced up and then reached down to lightly touch Tess’s shoulder. “You have a visitor,” she said.
Tess’s eyes fluttered open and she turned her head. The breath he’d been taking stalled in the back of his throat, stunned into submission by the startling clarity in her eyes. And at that moment, Ryan knew it would always be like this. For the rest of their lives, he’d walk into a room and find himself brought to his knees by her incredible beauty.
He swallowed hard. What would he have done if she hadn’t made it? If he’d been left behind, never to see or touch her again? He knew deep inside what would have happened. He would have died a little each day he was alone.
“It’s about time you got here. I’d about given up on you.” Her lips stretched into a slow, teasing smile, but he didn’t miss the fatigue, the pain in her eyes.
“Hey, there, beautiful, you’re the one who ditched me. Last time I saw you, you were leaving the reception with two E.M.T. flunkies.”
Her grin widened slightly and she reached out a hand. “Do I detect a touch of medical snobbery in your voice, Doctor?”
Ryan laced his fingers through hers, soaking in the coolness of her skin and willing his own body’s warmth to seep into hers. Her grip was weak, but he hung on, sure he’d never be able to let go again. “No, not snobbery. Just plain old-fashioned jealousy.”
“I didn’t think they were going to let you in.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, hoping that the kiss would disguise the trembling in his voice. “Wild horses couldn’t have kept me out.” He leaned closer and whispered in her ear. “Besides, I lied and told them that I was your husband.” He pulled back and grinned at her.
Her smile, so sweet and poignant that it made Ryan’s heart ache with need, widened, and she reached up to touch his cheek. “That’s a pretty big commitment. Sure you can handle it?”
He covered her hand with his own. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.” He turned his head and kissed the center of her palm. “Besides, I don’t plan on ever letting you out of my sight.”
Her smile faltered and her lids drifted closed for a brief second. Ryan pulled back, worried he was tiring her too much. But she hung on, tightening her grasp.
She reopened her eyes. “Did you know that it was your voice that rescued me? That kept me from shooting?”
“I hoped that was the case, but I wasn’t sure.”
“I heard you through all that noise and yelling and hung on. I cleared everything out of my head until all I could hear was your voice and your words.”
He stroked several strands of hair back from her face, loving the soft feel of her skin beneath his fingers. Had he ever loved anyone as much as he loved her? Ryan didn’t think it was possible.
Tess pulled his hand closer and rested her cheek against it. “Remember that day we met, and I told you I didn’t need you? That I didn’t need a doctor?”
He nodded.
“Well, I was wrong. I need you. And I won’t ever make that mistake again.”
Ryan’s chest tightened, and he sat on the edge of her bed, slipping an arm beneath her and gently lifting her to him. Tess pressed her ear to Ryan’s chest and felt the reassuring beat of his strong heart.
“I love you, Tess,” he said. “And I want to marry you.”
Tess blinked, seeing his face through a shimmer of tears. “I love you, too, Ryan Donovan.”
It didn’t matter that they were surrounded by hospital white and beeping monitors. For Tess it was more romantic than candlelight and soft music. He loved her. He wanted to marry her.
“And yes, I’ll marry you,” she whispered over the lump in her throat.
The nurse tiptoed to the door, shut off the light and let the curtain fall into place, leaving them alone and in each other’s arms.