Look, Cage. I know youre just trying to do your job. But those are my patients dying.
And its your reputation on the line, he said without thinking, and saw Ripleys eyes darken further, this time with anger.
No, Cagemy patients. I dont care about anything else right now.
He wished he could explain what he was feeling, but the barriers were still too thick, the walls too high. I know youre a good doctor, Ripley.
She cocked her head. Does this mean you want a truce?
Yes, he wanted a truce with her. He wanted a lifetime. But hed been a terrible husband once before. He knew better than to try again. So he nodded. Sure, a truce. Can we start with you giving me a lift home?
She turned to leave, and he followed her out to the street, gazing at her legs and feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle to attention, like there was someone watching.
Someone waiting.
Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,
August marks a special month at Harlequin Intrigue as we commemorate our twentieth anniversary! Over the past two decades weve satisfied our devoted readers diverse appetites with a vast smorgasbord of romantic suspense page-turners. Now, as we look forward to the future, we continue to stand by our promise to deliver thrilling mysteries penned by stellar authors.
As part of our celebration, our much-anticipated new promotion, ECLIPSE, takes flight. With one book planned per month, these stirring Gothic-inspired stories will sweep you into an entrancing landscape of danger, deceitand desire. Leona Karr sets the stage for mind-bending mystery with debut title, A Dangerous Inheritance.
A high-risk undercover assignment turns treacherous when smoldering seduction turns to forbidden love, in Bulletproof Billionaire by Mallory Kane, the second installment of NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL. Then, peril closes in on two torn-apart lovers, in Midnight Disclosures Rita Herrons latest book in her spine-tingling medical research series, NIGHTHAWK ISLAND.
Patricia Rosemoor proves that the fear of the unknown can be a real aphrodisiac in On the Listthe fourth installment of CLUB UNDERCOVER. Code blue! Patients are mysteriously dropping like flies in Boston General Hospital, and its a race against time to prevent the killer from striking again, in Intensive Care by Jessica Andersen.
To round off an unforgettable month, Jackie Manning returns to the lineup with Sudden Alliancea woman-in-jeopardy tale fraught with nonstop actionand a lethal attraction!
Join in on the festivities by checking out all our selections this month!
Sincerely,
Denise OSullivan
Harlequin Intrigue Senior Editor
Intensive Care
Jessica Andersen
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MILLS & BOON
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Though shes tried out professions ranging from cleaning sea lion cages to cloning glaucoma genes, from patent law to training horses, Jessica is happiest when shes combining all these interests with her first lovewriting romances. These days shes delighted to be writing full-time on a farm in rural Connecticut that she shares with a small menagerie of animals and a hero named Brian. She hopes youll visit her at www.JessicaAndersen.com for info on upcoming books, contests and to say Hi!
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Ripley DavisShe will do anything to keep her patients safe and her department open, even if it means teaming up with just the sort of man shes vowed to avoid.
Zachary CageHis mission is protecting patients from unscrupulous doctors like the ones that killed his wife. Will he learn to trust Ripley in time to save her from the serial killer at work in Boston General?
Leo GabneyThe head administrator will do anything to win the Hospital of the Year Award and its ten-million-dollar prize. Anything.
Howard DavisRipleys father once ran the hospital. Whose side is he on?
BelleThe hospital volunteer loves her patients, but is there a dark side to her angelic behavior?
WhistlerCages assistant has the training and the knowledge to murder the patients with injected radioactivity and adrenaline.
Tansy WhitmoreTheres something bothering Rileys friend and co-worker, but shed rather not talk about it.
George DixonCage has replaced him as head of Radiation Safety at the hospital, but Dixon may still be playing a role at the hospital. A sinister one.
To Melissa Jeglinski, for believing in my stories and helping me grow as a writer.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter One
Ripley Davis stiff-armed the swinging doors that separated Radiation Oncology from Boston Generals central atrium and frowned at the unexpected death report in her hand. Shed gone over the case ten times since the day before and it still didnt make any sense.
Ida Mae Harris shouldnt have died.
The failure weighed heavily as she jogged down the spiraling stairs to the lobby, but her schedule left little room for a quiet moment. She had barely enough time to grab a coffee before she was due at another emergency Radiation Safety meetingthe second one this month. Shed heard that the head Radiation Safety Nazi had been replaced, but she held little hope for improvement. Rumor had it that the new guy, Zachary Cage, hated doctors.
Great, that was just what Ripley needed.
She didnt have time for a meeting and she didnt have time for a Radiation Safety Officer with an attitude shutting her down for a snap inspection. She was struggling to keep the Radiation Oncology department open as it was, following the last round of budget cuts. But R-ONCpronounced Ronkwas her life. The patients were her family. The administration couldnt shut her down. They just couldnt.
The paperwork in her hand crinkled and Ripley knew they could shut her down unless she could defend Ida Maes death at the inquiry. The sixty-something grandmother had been scheduled for release. Shed been happy and fit following her treatment. She shouldnt have died.
What had gone wrong?
Ripley shook her head as she turned the corner and strode across the hospitals tiled atrium toward the café. The waterfall fountain burbled to itself, but she wasnt soothed by the sound. Even shorthanded, her departments survival rate was one of the best in the country. She was up to date with all the new methods and ran a ruthlessly tight ship. The trite explanation shed been forced to give Ida Maes husbandsometimes these things just happenwas baloney.
She didnt allow these things to happen to the patients she cared for, agonized over. She was determined to figure out why Ida Mae had died.
Ripley was halfway across the atrium when she heard running footsteps and her brain fired emergency! But before she could spin around to see what was wrong, a hot, sweaty body hit her from behind, and a man bellowed, You killed my wife!
She staggered forward with a shriek as the focused response of a doctor fragmented to sheer feminine terror. She fell to her knees beneath her attackers weight and smelled old, sour whiskey and unwashed man. Her shock was instant and complete. Paralyzing.
You killed her!
Half sitting on the cold tiles, Ripley struggled to face him. Wait! Wait, I didnt kill anyone, I didnt She broke off when she recognized the rumpled, teary man towering above her.
It was Ida Mae Harriss husband. Hed brought flowers every day during visiting hours.
His mouth worked. Grief etched the deep grooves of his face. She was fine, you said. She was coming home today. He held out a glass rose, one of the many trinkets sold in the hospital gift store. Our fiftieth anniversary was next week. I bought her a flower.
A tear tracked across one wrinkled cheek as he snapped the glass rose in two with a vicious, violent motion. He pointed the stem toward Ripley. Light glinted off the wickedly pointed end and a manic rage sparked in his eyes. Alcohol fueled the flames to a blast that burned through her chest. Now Ida Mae is dead. You killed her!
Ripley struggled to her knees and held out both hands, barely aware of the gaping onlookers and the sound of the fountain behind her. Fear coiled hard and hot in her stomach. She saw the hands shake and was only dimly aware they belonged to her. No! she wanted to shout. I didnt kill her! My patients are my life. Theyre my family, dont you understand?
But he was beyond understanding. So she tried to soothe. Tried to defuse, saying, Mr. Harris. Losing your wife is a terrible, terrible thing, but this wont make it any better.
Hed seemed calm when she had called to break the news of Ida Maes death. But Ripley knew shockand angercould be delayed. And intense.
When another tear creased his cheek to join the first, Ripley thought she might be getting through. She rose to her feet and held out a trembling hand, palm up, and tried to steady the quiver in her voice. Tried to hold back her own scared tears when she said, Give me the piece of glass, Mr. Harris. Ida Mae wouldnt have wanted you to do this.
It was the wrong thing to say.
Ida Mae didnt want to die! the big man roared. He brought the makeshift knife up and leapt on Ripley with a snarl on his lips and fierce grief in his eyes.
The glass stem swept down in a glittering arc and chaos erupted.
A woman screamed. A nearby display of childrens watercolors crashed to the floor, overturned by the stranger whod hidden behind it. Ripley lurched away from Mr. Harris, twisted and fell to the ground as the stranger charged across the tiles, grabbed Harris, and hurled him into the fountain.
Water smacked onto the tile floor and the onlookers shrieked.
There was another enormous splash as Ripleys dark savior followed his combatant into the fountain. She struggled to her feet in time to see the man haul Harris up by his collar, punch him hard and drop the suddenly limp figure back into the water.
And the world stilled. Silenced. Even the fountain seemed muted. And Ripley stared as two pieces of information battled for control of her conscious mind.
She was safe. And the stranger was magnificent.
Breathing hard, six-foot-two inches of rugged male glared down into the roiling fountain with water sheeting down behind him. His long nose and heavy brow made his profile more fierce than handsome, and across the distance that separated them, she couldnt tell what color his eyes were. They just lookedblack.
The wet material of his cotton shirt and dress pants clung like a lover to the tight bulges of his biceps and the long muscles of his thighs and calves. Ripleys mouth dried to sand when he leaned down and hauled Harris out of the water with a filthy curse and those muscles bunched and strained.
Paying no attention to the gathering crowd, the stranger stepped out of the fountain and dumped the now-weeping man on the tiles, leaving him for the uniformed police officers who poured into the atrium with guns drawn, only to find the situation under control.
Then the stranger turned toward Ripley and their eyes locked. A click of connection arced between them like a live wire. She felt a tremble in her thighs and an ache in the empty place between them. It didnt feel like fear. Far from it. How could fear exist side by side with this sensation?
He walked toward her and Ripley was barely aware of the growing hum as the onlookers started talking in loud, excited tones about their own imagined bravery during the dangerous moments.
She saw only him. Dark, wet hair clung to his wide brow and the damp shirt hung from his chest like chain mail. He held out his hand. Glass sparkled on his palm.
Ill take that. The nasal Boston twang jolted Ripley out of her trance, and she looked blankly at the officer who had materialized beside her. When he pointed at the glass rose stem, she shook her head and slid it into the breast pocket of her lab coat, though she couldnt have said why.
The slight bump of a glass thorn pressed through the fabric to touch her skin, and she had to suppress a shiver. The imprint of Harriss hands stung her side and shoulder. She could feel him against her, hot and sweaty and mad with grief. The fine trembles that began in her stomach threatened to work their way out, but Ripley knew she couldnt let them take control.
She had to be a doctor now. She was Ripley Davis, MD. She couldnt be soft. Davises dont make public scenes, growled her fathers voice in the back of her mind, and the familiar anger helped her push the shakes aside.
She could be a frightened woman later. In private.
Gesturing toward the officers herding witnesses into the coffee shop, she said, Thats not necessary. I wont be pressing charges. She focused on hospital policy. Head Administrator Leo Gabneys policy. It was easier to think of policy than what might have happened if Harris had been a little quicker with the makeshift knife, the other man a little slower with his rescue.
The trembles in her stomach threatened to take over.
Why the hell not? The strangers voice was as dark and fierce as his face. It was steel and smoke and anger, with a hint of softness at the edges. In an insane flash, Ripley wondered what it sounded like first thing in the morning.
How it would sound calling her name.
And why in Gods name was she thinking about that? She didnt need a man. Didnt need sex. She was a doctor. She saved lives. She didnt need a man to make her feel whole. That was a weakness, just like love. Like the need for rescue.