Enigma

Carla Cassidy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About the Author

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

Epilogue

Copyright

About the Author

CARLA CASSIDY is an award-winning author who has written more than fifty novels. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews.

Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

Chapter One

The hospital room was dimly lit and silent except for the faint voices coming from the television mounted on the wall opposite the bed.

Willa Tyler had insisted that the television be on day and night in the room despite the fact that the man in the bed had been in a coma for the past six months. She liked to believe that somewhere in the sleeping recesses of his mind he might hear the sound of laughter from a sitcom and want to join the fun.

Even though it was late and she was officially off duty, she always made his room her last stop before heading home.

She moved silently into the room and for a moment just stood and looked at him. He was something of a miracle patient. He’d been found on the side of the road, more dead than alive after having been hit by a drunk driver.

Nobody had expected him to live through that first night, but he’d hung on and over the past six months all his physical injuries had healed. But his mind remained asleep and Willa was beginning to wonder if he’d ever wake up again.

“I figured you’d be in here.”

Willa turned around and smiled at Nancy Baker, her supervisor. “I wanted to check his vitals one last time before I headed home.”

“Girl, you should be spending your time off getting to know some of the handsome bachelors that Grand Forks, North Dakota, has to offer instead of in here with a man who can’t even talk to you.”

Willa smiled. “Eventually maybe I’ll meet some of those bachelors, but in the meantime I’ve got a date tonight with a good mattress and it’s quite possible I’ll be there until noon tomorrow.”

Nancy smiled. “That sounds good, but you need a little fun in your life, Willa. You’re much too pretty and young to spend all your time here at the hospital or in your bed alone. Enjoy your time off and I’ll see you Monday morning.”

As she disappeared from the doorway Willa approached the man in the bed. He was a bit thin with black hair cut short. She knew that beneath his long-lashed lids, his eyes were a startling blue …but only because she’d been standing next to the doctor when he’d checked John Doe’s pupils on a number of occasions.

His features were sharply defined. He had a strong, straight nose, lips that looked as if they might be soft and a firm and slightly square chin. Definitely a handsome man. The doctor had guessed him to be in his late twenties or early thirties.

With a small sigh, Willa checked his vitals, pleased to find them all normal. Nancy had said she shouldn’t be spending her free time with a man who couldn’t talk to her, but whenever Willa was near John Doe she felt a strange connection to him.

There were moments she imagined she could hear his deep voice in her head, softly whispering her name. It was crazy and she assumed it was because she’d been his nurse for so long.

As a trauma nurse she rarely had long-term care of any patient, but from the moment John Doe had been brought in she’d fought to be part of the team working to keep him alive.

With his vital signs checked there was really nothing more for her to do, but still she lingered next to him. “I wish you’d wake up,” she said softly. “You’ve been sleeping for a very long time.”

She fought the impulse to run her hand across his jaw, to gently touch the lips that looked so soft. Instead she straightened the sheet that covered him. “I hope at least you’re having pleasant dreams,” she whispered close to his ear.

Thank you.

The two simple words burst into her head. Wistful thinking, she thought. She often imagined his voice in her head, thanking her for taking care of him, for talking and spending time with him.

Exhausted from the long day, knowing there was nothing more she could do for him, Willa left his room and headed for the hospital exit.

The warm April night air held a hint of the smell of newly budded flowers and sweet spring grass, a welcome change from the antiseptic scent of the hospital.

She’d only been in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for a year now. She’d moved here from Kansas City following the painful breakup with a man she thought she’d eventually marry.

Pulling her keys from her purse as she approached her car, she shoved thoughts of Paul out of her head. Water under the bridge, she told herself. She’d come here for a fresh start and so far she was pleased with the life she was carving out. She tried not to think about the loneliness that often haunted her.

It took her exactly five minutes to get to the small but cozy house she’d bought when she’d first moved here. Once inside she threw her keys on the kitchen table, pulled the ponytail holder from her shoulder-length blond hair and unbuttoned the top of her pink scrub.

A shower, then bed, she thought. Her feet ached and she was bone weary. She passed through the living room, with its warm earth-tone colors, and into her bedroom.

The double-size bed called to her, but she knew a nice hot shower would unkink tight muscles and make her sleep better. It was far too early on a Friday night to be going to bed, but after a week of long hours she had no desire to stay up.

Within minutes she was naked and standing in the shower beneath a hot spray of water. She loved her work, but there was no question that it could be tense and exhausting. Friday nights she was always ready for a couple of days off.

“The next two days are your own,” she muttered to herself as she stepped out of the shower and grabbed the awaiting fluffy towel.

Most of her days off since moving here had been spent working on the house. She’d painted walls, sanded woodwork and had even managed to install a new black sink to replace the old stained white one in the kitchen.

She slid her red silk nightgown over her head and left the bathroom, deciding to forbid herself to work on the house during the next two days. She’d find a park and take a walk, maybe go to the library for some new books to read.

She frowned. Nancy would disapprove of a solitary walk or curling up with a book as pastimes. But Nancy hadn’t had her heart broken by a snake named Paul.

Willa would love to have somebody special in her life, but the next time she’d expect more. She wouldn’t settle for a man who held tight to his own heart, who refused to share all the pieces of himself as she shared hers.

She’d make sure he was old enough to have sown all his wild oats and yet young enough, exciting enough, to make her heart beat fast.

Until the moment Paul had broken up with her she hadn’t realized that she’d been the one who had done all the giving in the relationship and he had done nothing but take. She hadn’t seen the relationship unraveling, hadn’t seen the end coming until it was upon her.

She turned on her bedside lamp, then turned off the overhead light and slid into bed, her tired bones melting into the comfortable mattress.

This was one of the loneliest times of the day for her, when she got home from work and had nobody to talk to, nobody to share the events of her day.

Other than her coworkers at the hospital she hadn’t made new friends. Willa didn’t remember her father, who had walked out on her and her mother when she’d been four, and her mother had passed away five years ago after a long battle with cancer.

Sometimes she thought that the reason she’d stayed with Paul was simply because she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge just how alone she was in the world.

You’re not alone.

The deep voice whispered in her head and brought with it a measure of comfort. This time she didn’t question where the voice came from, only that occasionally it was there.

The first time she’d heard it, about four months ago, she’d thought maybe it was a memory of the voice of her father. Then she’d decided that it was the voice of her patient John Doe. In truth she figured it was probably nothing more than a crazy manifestation of her own loneliness.

She reached up and turned off her lamp, plunging the room into semidarkness as a sliver of illumination from the streetlamp outside drifted into the partially closed curtains. Sleep edged in quickly and she closed her eyes, giving in to it without a fight.

He came out of the darkness, first a tall, lean shadow in her room, then as the light found his face she recognized him as the man she knew as John Doe.

Somewhere in the strange world of slumber, she knew it was a dream, but it felt more real than anything she’d experienced in a very long time.

“You,” she whispered. He wore a pair of hospital pants, the pale blue cotton material hanging low on his lean hips. “John.”

It didn’t occur to her to be afraid as he moved closer. “Not John. My name is Jared,” he said. His voice was as deep and rich as she’d imagined it would be.

He sat at the bottom of the bed and reached beneath the blankets and captured one of her feet in his hand. “Your feet hurt,” he said and began to massage her with his warm hands. “You’ve been on them all day.”

“How did you know?” she asked as rivulets of warmth raced up her legs at his touch.

He smiled. “I know.” His smile was sexy and warmed the blue of his eyes and softened his bold features.

As he reached for her other foot, she thought of all the things she wanted to ask him, but as his hands moved up to her calves and he caressed with slow hot fingers, all her questions fled from her mind.

She didn’t want to talk, she just wanted to enjoy this dream of him with her, touching her. When he’d finished stroking her legs, he moved from the foot of the bed to stretch out beside her.

He rose up over her, his blue eyes flaming with desire as he took her lips with his in a kiss that stole her breath with its ravenous hunger.

She met his tongue with hers, loving the taste of him, the scent of him that filled the air. He didn’t smell like the hospital; rather he smelled like a fresh clean breeze and a hot, hungry male.

His hands were hot against her silk gown as he stroked down the length of her body. He cupped her breasts through the material and her body responded, arching up to him, wanting more …more.

It was crazy. It was wild, and within minutes he’d removed her nightgown and his mouth moved to capture one of her nipples.

He raised his head to look at her. “You are so beautiful. You’ve taken such good care of me. I want you, I want to give to you.”

His mouth captured hers once again and she was lost in him, in the dream that spun wildly out of control as they made love ….

She came awake with a sharp gasp and for a moment was shocked to find herself alone in the bed with her nightgown still on. Glancing around the room, she assured herself that no sexy man stood in the shadows.

“Wow,” she muttered aloud and reached to turn on her lamp. She sat up and looked around once again, half expecting John Doe to be sitting in the chair in the corner, or leaning against the wall next to her bed. It had been so real. She’d never had a dream that had felt so real.

A glance at her clock let her know it was just after midnight. Her heart still beat with a quickened rhythm. What a dream. She’d never experienced anything as erotic, as wonderful, before. She still felt the sweet sensations his caresses had evoked, still burned with the fire of desire.

She ran a hand though her hair and realized that falling back to sleep immediately wasn’t an option. Her heart still beat too fast and she definitely needed something cold to drink.

Drawing a deep breath, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, surprised that her body continued to tingle with the residual sensations of his touch.

It had felt so real and in that moment of abrupt awakeness she’d been disappointed to realize it had just been a crazy dream. Maybe Nancy was right and she did need a boyfriend, she thought.

She left her bedroom and walked through the living room to the kitchen, still reeling from the vision of John Doe in her bed. She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with cold water. She raised it to her lips.

Help me!

The voice thundered. With a startled gasp she dropped the glass. It hit the edge of the sink and shattered into pieces.

She whirled around from the sink and stared around the kitchen, but there was nobody there. She pressed her hands on either side of her head, wondering if she were losing her mind.

She drew a deep steadying breath and cleaned up the broken glass, careful not to cut herself as she removed the shards from the sink. First the dream and now the voice—his voice inside her head.

What was wrong with her? She leaned against the counter and an urgent tension built up inside her.

You must come to the hospital, Willa. I need you!

She reeled away from the counter as the voice resounded again. Danger. She heard it in the deep timbre of his voice, in the desperate command.

She had to go. She knew it was crazy, but as anxiety pressed tight against her chest she knew she’d never be able to go back to sleep without going to the hospital and checking in on John Doe.

Leaving the kitchen, she raced into her bedroom and pulled a pair of jeans from her dresser drawer. She tugged them on, then grabbed her bra and a light blue sweatshirt and pulled them on, as well.

She had seven hundred dollars tucked into a sock in her drawer. Her mother had always told her to keep a little mad money in the house in case of an emergency.

“Losing your mind is definitely an emergency,” Willa muttered as she pulled the bills from her sock and shoved them into the back pocket of her jeans.

As she grabbed her keys from the table and headed outside she wondered if he was dying. She’d heard of strange stories like this, people appearing to other people in visions or dreams just before they passed away. Of course, she’d never heard of one of those apparitions making wild, passionate love to somebody.

The only other explanation was that she really had truly lost her mind.

The night air was chilly and she was grateful for the warmth of the sweatshirt as she got into her car and started the engine.

Hurry! Please hurry.

“I’m doing the best I can,” she muttered as she backed out of the driveway. Maybe she should just hurry and check into a psych ward because if she told anybody about this they would definitely think she was nuts. At the moment she would probably agree with them.

Jared. In her dream he’d said his name was Jared. How had her imagination come up with that name? She’d never met anyone named Jared in her life.

She pulled in to the hospital parking lot and the urgency that she’d felt before screamed inside her. She parked and ran for the hospital entrance.

At this time of night the hallways were silent and dim. She hoped she didn’t run in to anyone. She didn’t want to try to explain what she was doing here.

With each step she took she felt more ridiculous. What was she doing? She was an intelligent, rational human being following a phantom voice in her head in the middle of the night.

Her footsteps slowed as the reality of what she was doing sank in. This was insane. John Doe was in a coma. He couldn’t be asking for her help. She’d had a dream and somehow her mind had gotten all scrambled.

Willa! Hurry!

Once again the voice exploded in her head. Urgent. Frantic. And Willa couldn’t ignore the sense of alarm that raced through her blood.

She ran to his room and stopped short in the doorway. He lay on the bed just as he had been when she’d left earlier. His eyes were closed, his breathing regular, and aside from feeling like a fool, she felt ridiculously disappointed.

She drew a deep breath to still the race of her heart and moved to his side. His eyes snapped open and she gasped as he grabbed her hand with a firm grip.

“Willa.” His deep voice whispered her name as his intense blue eyes bored into hers. “You have to get me out of here. They’re going to kill me if you don’t.”

Chapter Two

Willa’s face was as pale as the sheet that covered him and her eyes were wide and a curious blend of gray and green as she stared at him.

Jared Maddox knew he’d shocked her, first by the fact that he was conscious and second by his intense plea, but he didn’t have time to explain. He had to get out of here immediately.

He would have walked out on his own, but after six months in a hospital bed he knew he was as weak as a newborn and he desperately needed Willa’s help.

“Please,” he said as he tightened his fingers around her slender forearm. “You have to help me get out of here. There are people who are hunting me, men who want to destroy me, and they’re very near.”

He released his grip on her arm and sat up to swing his legs over the side of the bed. That simple movement half exhausted him.

Willa remained frozen at the side of the bed, her pretty features still radiating shock. “Willa, for God’s sake, please help me. It’s a matter of my life and death.”

As he said the words he began to rip out all the wires and tubes that had been connected to him.

“This is a bad idea,” she muttered, more to herself than to him. “You shouldn’t be leaving the hospital like this.”

“Willa, with or without your help, even if I have to crawl out of here, I have to go. Otherwise I’m a dead man.”

He wasn’t sure if it was his actions or the urgency in his voice that finally snapped her inertia. He was only grateful when she hurried to his side and helped him get the last of the wires unattached from his body.

They were getting closer—the hunters—and Jared knew if he and Willa didn’t get out of here immediately he’d be lost.

He got to his feet and would have fallen if she hadn’t supported him. His weakness shocked him. It was far worse than he’d anticipated.

“Take me anywhere,” he murmured, unmindful of the flap of the hospital gown at his back. “Just get me out of here as quickly as possible.” He threw his arm around her shoulder, hating that he had to depend on anyone, but knowing without her help he was definitely a dead man.

Even though he was focused on the danger of the moment, he couldn’t help but pick up her thoughts. They screamed in his head.

She was afraid, not so much of him but rather of what she was about to do in taking him out of the hospital. She had questions, too, about who he was and who might be after him. Was he telling the truth or was this some sort of a result of brain injury?

Now wasn’t the time for him to answer those questions and he wasn’t sure he’d ever tell her the whole truth. The last thing he wanted to do was bring danger to the woman who had been his emotional lifeline while he’d been comatose.

She didn’t say a word as she helped him to the hospital-room door. She peeked around the corner and then they left the room and entered the long, dimly lit hallway.

He could smell her, a faint floral scent that was as familiar to him as the sound of his own heartbeat. It was a scent he associated with compassion and tenderness, qualities that had been absent for all of his twenty-eight years except for the past six months.

Neither of them said a word as they slowly made their way toward the exit in the distance. Until the moment when she’d walked in to his hospital room minutes earlier, he’d had no idea what she looked like, but he knew her scent, the gentle touch of her hands, and he also knew many of her innermost thoughts.

Thankfully they encountered nobody else in the hallways. By the time they left the building Jared was beyond exhaustion. It was only sheer determination and desperation that drove him to put one foot in front of the other.

She led him to a car and helped him into the passenger seat and then he watched as she hurried around the front of the car to the other side.

He liked the way she looked. She was tall and slender with light blond hair she’d pulled back into a low ponytail. He suspected he would have thought her beautiful even if she’d been bald and weighed eight hundred pounds because he knew the beauty of her soul.

She slid behind the steering wheel and a cacophony of voices suddenly resounded in his head, the familiar voices of dangerous men. Close. They were so close and getting closer every minute.

“Please, we have to hurry,” he urged her. “We have to get away from here.”

“I must be out of my mind,” she murmured as she jammed the key into the ignition and started the engine. “Buckle up,” she demanded as she backed out of the parking space and then changed gears and raced for the hospital exit.

He fumbled with the seat belt and finally managed to get it secured around him as she wheeled out of the parking lot and onto a main road.

Within seconds the voices in his head had faded away and the urgency that had filled him since the moment he’d regained consciousness began to ebb.

He was left with an overwhelming exhaustion. It didn’t matter where she took him, at least for now he knew he was safe.

The men who hunted him would find his hospital bed empty and nobody would be able to tell them what had happened to him. If nothing else he’d bought himself some time.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked.

“My house,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “It’s only about five minutes from here. You can’t be by yourself right now. You shouldn’t even be out of the hospital.” There was more than a little censure in her voice.

“Trust me, the hospital was the last place I needed to be.” He leaned back against the headrest and fought the weariness. What he needed more than anything at the moment was a chance to regain some strength and then he needed to try to contact his twin brother.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked as she turned down a tree-lined residential street. “How can you know somebody is after you? You’ve been in a coma for the past six months.”

He raised his head and looked at her, wondering how much he should tell her. As little as possible, he decided. “I just know,” he replied and couldn’t help the weary sigh that escaped him.

“You’re exhausted. You have no business being out of bed,” she exclaimed. “And I should have my head examined for having anything to do with all this.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your head,” he replied. “Willa, you just have to trust me.”

“How do you know my name?” She cast him a quick sideways glance and then focused back on the road.

“The same way you know mine. The same way I knew I was in danger. It’s complicated.”

She turned into the driveway of a neat ranch house and with a press of a button the garage door rose. She pulled in to the garage, then unbuckled her seat belt and turned to look at him, the only illumination the light from the garage-door opener in the ceiling of the garage.

“Are you crazy or am I?” she asked softly.

“You’re the most sane person I’ve ever known,” he replied. “Can we get inside?” He was irritated to realize he felt slightly faint.

“Of course.” She got out of the car and hurried around to his door to help him out. Once again he found himself leaning heavily against her as they walked through the door that led into a cheerful kitchen.

“On the sofa,” she commanded as they walked through the kitchen and into the living room. She guided him to the overstuffed navy sofa, where he collapsed.

“Lie down,” she said and went over to a desk where she grabbed a blood pressure cuff. “I want to check your vitals.”

“I’m fine. I just need to get my strength back.” He plucked at the gown he wore. “And I need to get some clothes.”

She said nothing as she took his blood pressure and then checked his pulse. As always he found her simplest of touches not only familiar and comforting, but also more than a little bit provocative.

He thought of what they’d shared hours earlier when he’d invaded her dreams. Hot. And wild. They’d moved together in perfect unison. It had only been a dream but it had been one of the best experiences of his life.

As she stepped back from him he noticed the faint pink of her cheeks, as if she, too, was remembering her dream. “Your vitals are all good.”

“I feel fine. I’m just incredibly tired.”

“I’ll get you a pillow and blanket. You need to rest and then in the morning you’re going to answer some questions.” As she left the living room and went down the hallway, he felt her fear, this time not just for him but of him.

She returned a moment later carrying a sheet, blanket and pillow. He stood as she efficiently made the sofa into a bed for him for the night. When she was finished he sat back down. “Willa, you don’t have to be afraid of me. I’d never hurt you. Your voice, your touch, was what pulled me through the darkness.”

Her eyes searched his as if she could find all the answers to her questions there. “We weren’t sure you’d make it back. When they first brought you in we didn’t think you’d last through the night. But I hoped …” She let her voice trail off and again her cheeks filled with color.

“I know, and it was your hope that made the difference.” He knew his words pleased her. He also knew that the connection she’d felt for him had been more than patient and nurse.

In a perfect world he would have loved to explore the crazy connection they shared. He would have loved to pursue a normal relationship with her, but this wasn’t a perfect world and he wasn’t a normal man.

“There’s a twenty-four-hour discount store two blocks from here. I’ll go now and pick up some clothes for you,” she said. “Will you be okay here alone for thirty minutes or so?”

“I’ll be fine, but shouldn’t you get some sleep?” he asked.

“Right now I’m too wound up to sleep,” she replied.

“I’ll get you some things you need and then we’ll figure everything else out in the morning.”

“Willa, thank you.”

For the first time since she’d walked into his hospital room she smiled and it was just as he’d imagined—warm and inviting and lovely. “Don’t thank me yet. I still think that sometime between the time I left work and the time I walked back into your room I went completely and totally crazy.”

She walked back into the kitchen and he heard her grab her purse from the counter, then a moment later the sound of the garage door opening and then closing.

Jared listened to the sounds of the house, so different than the noise in the hospital. Rest. He needed to rest and get his strength back as quickly as possible. The men who were after him wouldn’t just go away.

Somehow they’d figured out that the John Doe in the hospital in Grand Forks was the man they sought. They knew he was in the area and he wouldn’t be safe until he could get far away and even then safety was just a desirable fantasy. Why it had taken them so long to find him, he wasn’t sure. But now that they had, they wouldn’t give up.

Willa. Thoughts of her jumped back into his mind. He’d told her the truth when he’d said that she’d been what had brought him through the darkness of the coma. He’d not only looked forward to her gentle touch and the pleasant scent of her perfume, but also the sound of her voice as she spoke to him and her thoughts that were both exciting and interesting in their very normalcy.

He would have loved to pursue something with her, something deep and meaningful, something hot and wild and like nothing he’d ever experienced before, but he was afraid for her. He brought nothing but danger to her and he couldn’t forget that.

He closed his eyes and wondered if he would ever be safe, if he would ever know what normal felt like.

THREE O’clock in the morning and she was in a store getting clothes for a man who had just come out of a six-month coma and insisted bad men were after him. She had to be out of her mind.

Willa pushed the shopping cart toward the men’s jeans section and hoped she guessed his size right. She could have waited until morning to do this, but she’d needed to get away from him for a few minutes and besides, she hadn’t wanted to see him in the morning with that skimpy butt-baring hospital gown. “And what a fine butt it is,” she muttered as she grabbed two pair of jeans that she thought would fit him.

Was he really in some kind of danger or was he delusional? she wondered as she headed to the T-shirts. She tossed a packet of three T-shirts in different colors into her basket and then frowned as she thought about underwear.

Boxers or briefs?

Briefs.

A gasp escaped her. It was definitely his voice she heard in her head. It was as if he stood next to her in the store and whispered in her ear.

And it wasn’t the first time he’d been inside her head. She grabbed a packet of briefs off the shelf and then hurried toward the checkout.

She felt as if she’d stepped into the middle of some sort of science-fiction flick. The only problem was the movie was halfway over and nobody would explain to her what she’d missed.

She’d never really believed in psychic abilities like mental telepathy and precognition. She never looked up in the sky for UFOs or worried about seven years of bad luck if she broke a mirror.

She was rooted in reality, with no flights of fancy, and yet she knew with an unsettling certainty that somehow he was able to communicate with her inside her head.

Had the dream been real? Had he somehow really been with her in her bedroom, made love to her through some sort of spirit world?

Her cheeks burned with her blush as she paid for her purchases. Funny, she didn’t even consider paying with a credit card because she knew charge card transactions could be traced. She’d already half bought in to his assertion that somebody evil was after him.

She had just gotten into her car and started the engine when her cell phone rang. She jumped and grabbed it from her purse and looked at the caller ID. It was the hospital.

Play dumb. Please, don’t tell. The words thundered in her head.

She shut off the car engine and drew a deep breath. “Don’t worry,” she said dryly. There was no way she could say anything about what happened. Jared would potentially be put in danger, but she’d definitely lose her job and be locked up in a mental ward.

She answered the phone, trying to make her hello sound groggy, as if she’d been asleep for hours.

“Willa, it’s Casey.” Casey Durham was the night supervisor on the floor. “Where are you?”

“Where do you think I am? At home, in bed.” The lie tasted badly on her tongue. She wasn’t used to lying to anyone.

“Sorry to wake you, but I thought you’d like to know.”

“Know what?”

“You’re never going to believe what’s happened. A man came in and said he thought our John Doe might be a relative of his. I took him to John Doe’s room and he was gone.”

“Who was gone?” Willa asked, as if confused.

“John Doe. His bed was empty and he was nowhere to be found.”

“What?” Willa tried to inject shock into her voice. “How is that possible? He was in a coma! What do you think happened?”

“I have no idea. The doctors are speculating that maybe he came out of his coma and didn’t know where he was and somehow stumbled outside the building. Security is checking the immediate area. I just knew you’d want to know what’s happened.”

“Wow, I’m just stunned. Thanks for calling me. Oh, what about the man who said he thought he knew John Doe. What happened to him?”

“I don’t know. I guess he took off. Too bad we don’t have security cameras. Anyway, things should be calmed down by the time you come in on Monday morning. Maybe by that time we’ll have located our John Doe. The good news is it looks like he woke up. I know that’s what you’d hoped for.”

“Thanks again, Casey.” Willa shut her phone and dropped it back in her purse. A faint chill walked up her spine.

Jared had told her somebody was coming for him and somebody had shown up. He’d known her name before she’d told it to him and she’d known his from a dream.

Was he truly in danger? Who was the man who had shown up to ask about him and what did that man have to do with him?

She started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. Maybe she was still asleep. Maybe this was just an intensely vivid dream. Perhaps there was no man on her sofa and she was still in her own bed and not driving through the middle of the night checking her rearview mirror to see if she were being followed.

“Are you there?” she asked softly and waited for the voice in her head to respond. There was no answering reply.

She gripped the steering wheel more tightly in her hands and once again wondered if she’d had some sort of psychotic snap with reality.

Within minutes she was once again parked in her garage. She carried her purchases into the house and set the bag on the table.

He was on the sofa, sleeping so soundly he didn’t stir when she drew close. Real. He was as real as the beat of her heart, as the ticking of the clock on the fireplace mantel.

He was so still that if it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of his chest she might have thought him dead. Questions whirled around in her head but she knew that none of them would be answered tonight.

As the adrenaline that had pumped through her since the moment she’d awakened from her erotic dream began to leave her, she realized she was exhausted.

She went into her bedroom and changed back into her nightgown and then got into bed. There was a stranger in her house and yet she wasn’t afraid. She believed him when he said he wouldn’t harm her. Not only did he have no reason to want to hurt her, but he also wasn’t strong enough to do much of anything.

The truth was she wasn’t afraid of him because as crazy as it seemed, as wild as the night had been, she trusted him like she’d never trusted anyone else in her life.

She fell asleep wondering what the morning would bring and awakened just after seven to the sound of birds singing outside her window.

As she remembered all that had transpired the night before, she jumped out of bed and ran into the living room, her heart pounding when she saw the empty sofa.

It was only when she smelled the scent of fresh-brewed coffee that filled the air that she realized her patient was already up.

She hurried into the kitchen and found him showered and dressed in one of the pairs of jeans and a navy T-shirt she’d bought. He had his long fingers wrapped around a mug of coffee and he looked stronger, more vital than he had the night before.

His amazing blue eyes lit with pleasure at the sight of her and she remembered she was clad only in her skimpy nightgown. “Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” she replied. “I’m just going to take a quick shower and dress and I’ll be right back.”

As she hurried down the hallway her cheeks burned. She hadn’t missed the way his gaze had slid down the length of her, not just with a heady heat, but with a sweet familiarity. It was disconcerting.

It was oddly exciting.

Answers. That was what she needed more than anything today, and she was going to get them from him or she was going to drive him straight back to the hospital and ask for a psychiatric evaluation for him and maybe one for herself, as well.

Dressed in a pair of jeans and a bright yellow T-shirt, she finally left the bathroom and returned to the kitchen. He sat in the same place where he’d been when she’d left.

“Do you have a computer with Internet access?” he asked, then frowned in obvious confusion. “I don’t know anything about computers, but something is telling me I need one.”

“I have one,” she replied, as confused as he looked by everything that was happening.

“I need to use it and try to contact my brother.”

“Your brother?” She looked at him in surprise. Everyone in the hospital had speculated about the family members of their John Doe. They’d all wondered why nobody had reported him missing, why nobody had shown up to claim him.

He nodded. “My twin brother. He probably thinks I’m dead and I hope he’s still alive. If he is, it’s important that I contact him immediately.”

She walked over to the cabinet, pulled out a cup and then poured herself a cup of coffee and joined him at the table. “Before we even talk about that, I need some answers.”

He’d been attractive when he’d been comatose, but alive and animated he was devastatingly handsome. His intense blue eyes held hers in a gaze that made it impossible for her to look away.

“There are some things I can’t share with you,” he began. “Knowing too much could put you in real danger.”

“I’m already in danger of losing my job if anyone finds out what I’ve done,” she replied. And her job was all that she had, she thought. There was nobody in her life who cared about her except the coworkers who respected and liked her. “I think I deserve to know what’s going on.”

He leaned back in the chair and cast his gaze out her window, where spring flowers bloomed in lush colors. Although too thin and still pale from his convalescence, there was a simmering energy about him that caused a similar energy inside her.

He turned back to look at her. You know part of what you need to know about me. The words were as clear in her head as if he’d spoken, but his lips hadn’t moved.

“How do you do that?” she asked.

“It’s a gift …or a curse, depending on how you look at it. Mental telepathy.”

“So you can read my mind?” The idea was both intriguing and appalling.

He smiled and nodded. “Your thoughts are what got me through the past six months. Your desire for me to live became my own.”

She stared at him and tried to remember every thought that had entered her head during the past six months. Most of them had probably been boring, but some of them had been intensely personal and not intended for anyone else to know.

“Are you doing it now?” she asked warily. She began a mental litany of the presidents of the United States, something she’d learned in sixth grade and somehow had never forgotten. Washington. Adams. Jefferson. Madison. Monroe.

He laughed and the sound of it was so deep and so sexy that a wave of heat swept through her. “That’s an effective way to block me. I promise I won’t get into your head anymore without your permission unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

The promise gave her a little comfort. “Who are the men who are after you?”

Her question instantly doused the light of the smile that had lit his features. “Men who want to hurt me. That’s all you need to know about them.”

She could tell by the shuttered darkness of his eyes that he would tell her no more about the men who were looking for him. “Before we do anything you need something to eat,” she said and got up from the table. “I’ll fix you a scrambled egg and a dry piece of toast. You have to go easy because you aren’t used to solid foods.”

It took her only minutes to fix the breakfast. He was silent as she worked, his gaze once again out the window. She wished she could read his mind, be privy to his innermost thoughts as he’d been with hers.

What was his plan? Where was he going from here and where was he from? He really hadn’t answered any of her questions to her satisfaction.

She was shocked by the sadness that filled her as she realized it was possible within hours he could be gone from her home, from her life.

He’d been her life for the past six months. He’d been the first thing she’d thought of when waking in the morning and the last thing she’d thought of before she closed her eyes to sleep at night. He’d helped the loneliness that had plagued her since she’d moved to Grand Forks.

She wanted him well, she told herself as she placed the plate with the scrambled egg and the piece of toast in front of him. She wanted him well and on his way back to his life. But she’d hoped for a little time to get to know him before she sent him on his way.

She realized that in the past six months she’d done the unthinkable for a nurse, she’d become personally involved with a patient.

“Won’t your parents be worried about you?” she asked as he ate.

He shook his head. “They died when my brother and I were five.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.

He gave her a quick smile. “Yeah, me, too.” He finished the last of the toast and then pushed his plate aside. “Could I use your computer now?” Once again there was an intensity in his eyes, a thrum of energy in the air that felt urgent and desperate.

She had no idea if the danger he spoke of was real or imagined, but it was obvious he believed it was real and far too close for his comfort, and suddenly she was more than just a little bit afraid.

Chapter Three

She led him down the hallway to a bedroom he knew wasn’t where she slept, but rather a guest room where a computer was set up on a small desk in a corner.

Jared had known fear when he’d come out of the coma and realized he needed to get out of the hospital, needed to get away before the men came for him. But, it was nothing compared to the terror he felt now as he eyed the computer.

He and his twin brother, Jack, had never gone so long without communication. Throughout the hell that they had both suffered for so many years, the mental telepathy they’d shared had kept them strong, had kept them alive and sharing the hope that someday their lives would be different.

But he could pick up nothing now, had not been able to communicate with his brother at all since the moment he’d come out of the coma.

Of course their telepathy power had never been tested by physical distance and Jared didn’t have any idea where Jack might be at the moment. He also didn’t know how the weakness in his body might have weakened his ability to reach out mentally.

What if Jack was dead? What if he hadn’t managed to escape on that November night six months ago? The last time Jared had seen his brother was when the two of them had managed to escape from the place that had been their home—their prison—for fifteen long years.

They had burst out into the cold winter night and silently agreed that they should split up in order to better their odds of getting away.

He now closed his eyes and thought of that final moment with his brother. The night air had been bracing, but welcome after the years of stale forced air through decrepit ventilation systems.

He and Jack had gripped hands in a shake they both knew might be the last time they touched, the last time they ever saw each other, and then Jack had turned and run in one direction and Jared had taken off in the other.

“Jared? Are you okay? Do you need to lie down?”

Willa’s concerned voice pulled him from his memories and he opened his eyes and shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” He gestured her to the chair in front of the computer and as she sat he stood just behind her.

They waited, not speaking as she powered up the computer. Once it was up and running she turned and looked at him expectantly. “Your brother? What’s his name?”

He shook his head. “We won’t be able to find him using his name. We need to look for a Web site with an eight-point star.” He had no idea how he knew this, the information was just a thunder in his veins, a compulsion that had to be followed.

She frowned. “That’s pretty vague. You don’t have anything more specific?”

“If he’s alive, then we’ll find what I’m looking for,” he replied. Tension rippled through him as she typed in the words eight-point star and then hit Search.

Immediately results began to fill the screen. How to make an origami star, how to quilt a star pattern, what do stars mean—all of them results that had nothing to do with what he somehow knew he sought.

If he couldn’t contact Jack then he didn’t know what he would do, where he would go. The only thing he knew with certainty was that he would not be able to remain here with Willa.

Sooner or later somebody would remember how involved she had been with John Doe. Sooner or later somebody might realize he couldn’t have left the hospital under his own steam and might put two and two together.

“It has to be here,” he said in desperation. “There!” he exclaimed and pointed to the search result that simply said eight-pointed star. “Click on that and let’s see what it is.”

She clicked on it and the page filled the screen. “It’s nothing,” she said. “It’s just a picture of a star.”

“If it’s what I hope it is, then it’s proof that my brother got out alive,” he replied.

She looked up at him, her eyes radiating with more questions. “Got out of where alive?”

He ignored her question and pointed to a small icon in the corner of the page. “Look, there’s a place to e-mail a message. Type in ‘birthday parties at the beach are the very best’ and leave your cell phone number.”

For a long moment she held his gaze. “Please,” he said softly. “Just type it in and send it.”

She returned her attention to the screen and did as he asked and then whirled around in the chair to face him once again. “Now what?”

“We wait,” he replied. He had no idea if the Web site belonged to Jack, didn’t know how frequently it was monitored. He wasn’t even sure how he had known to look for it. He only knew that if it was Jack’s site and if his brother read the e-mail, then he would know by the message that it was Jared attempting to get in touch with him.

There was no soft, warm light in Willa’s eyes as she gazed at him. Instead her eyes shone with a determination that was slightly daunting. “Fine, then while we wait you’re going to tell me what’s going on.” She rose from the chair and gestured him out of the room.

As he followed her to the living room he knew he was going to have to tell her something. He couldn’t afford to alienate her until Jack contacted him and yet he had to be wary of telling her so much that she wound up in danger.

A slippery slope, he thought as he sat on the sofa and she eased into the chair across from him, an expectant look on her beautiful face. She looked hot in the yellow T-shirt that clung to her full breasts and he wished he could just sit and appreciate looking at her instead of having the discussion they were about to have.

“You have to understand, if I tell you too much it could be dangerous for you,” he began.

“I don’t care. You owe me some explanations,” she replied. “I’ve not only put my job on the line, but also my sense of what’s right. You owe me something. Were you born with the mental telepathy? I’ve heard that twins sometimes share that kind of awareness with each other.”

“No, we weren’t born with the ability. As twins we were close, but normal. The ability came later.” He’d promised he wouldn’t get into her thoughts without her permission but as her eyes narrowed he wished he could see exactly what she was thinking.

“You aren’t going to tell me the truth, are you?” she finally asked.

“Everything I’ve told you is the truth.”

“But it’s not the whole truth.”

“I can’t tell you everything.” A deep weariness washed over him and reminded him that he was still not himself, still physically and mentally weak. “Willa, for the past six months you’ve been the most important person in my life. It was your spirit, your optimism and care, that got me through the darkness. Hopefully very soon my brother will contact me and I’ll be out of your life. The last thing I want to do is give you information that, if somehow these men find you, will put you at risk. I care about you too much to do that.”

Her gaze softened. “It’s hard to argue with you when you use that kind of logic.”

“Then don’t,” he replied.

“You’re tired. Your color isn’t good,” she said briskly and stood. “Why don’t you take a little nap while we wait for your brother to contact you?”

He nodded, too exhausted to argue with her. He stretched out against the sofa cushions. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I’m going to contact the hospital and see if anyone knows anything about your whereabouts. It will seem suspicious if I don’t. Everyone there knew you were a special project of mine.” She blushed at the words and then disappeared into the kitchen.

He closed his eyes. She wasn’t the only one who had considered him a special project. Despite his weariness every muscle in his body tightened as he thought of the man who had destroyed his life.

Uncle Ken, that was what he’d had the two orphaned twins call him when he’d taken custody of them after their parents’ deaths in a car accident. He’d taken the grieving boys from the only home they’d known to a small house in a remote area. For the next eight years the boys were isolated from everyone except Uncle Ken, who gave them weekly injections and educated and tested them.

His muscles began to relax as he heard Willa on the phone in the next room. He shoved away those dark memories of the past and instead focused on the familiar, comforting sound of her voice.

Within minutes he was asleep and dreaming, and in his dream he stood in the dark, cold forest with his brother, free for the first time in fifteen years.

Despite the danger he knew they were in, his senses exploded, alive with sensations. The cold tickle of grass beneath his bare feet, the rustling sound of the wind through the last of the autumn leaves, the clean, sharp scent of the air, all combined to give him a heady rush.

The moment of exhilaration was shattered as the alarm of impending danger thrummed through his veins and rang in his head. Run. Jared didn’t know if it was his own thought or Jack’s, but he followed the command.

He ran with no thought to where he was going, only the need to get away. Both he and his brother were in perfect physical condition and Jared ran like a marathon man, his only desire to put as many miles as possible between himself and the place where he’d been held.

In his dream his heart pumped and his legs worked to carry him farther and farther away. Freedom sang through him with each mile he traveled.

They were going to do it. They were finally going to get away, to be free. Success filled him as his legs continued to pump.

And then he was crossing a highway and headlights appeared from nowhere and he saw the car and knew he was about to be hit. Then pain—excruciating pain.

“Jared, it’s okay. You’re having a nightmare.” Willa’s voice cut through the intense pain, her slender hand cool on his forehead as he jerked awake.

With a ragged breath he sat up. “Sorry,” he said as she stepped away from the sofa.

“No need to apologize. Want to talk about it?”

He smiled, as always touched by her concern for him. “It was just a bad dream.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I remember a man gave me a ride in a big truck for a while and then I got out and was walking along the side of the road. I was hit by a car. Do you know who hit me?” he asked.

She shook her head. “According to the police officer who accompanied you into the hospital it was a hit-and-run. A couple from another car saw it happen and thought the driver might be drunk. They called for help and stayed with you until the ambulance and police arrived. Is that what you were dreaming about?”

“Yeah, the accident. How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour. I made you some soup if you feel like you could eat.”

“Yeah, I am hungry.” He got up from the sofa and stretched to unkink his muscles, aware of her gaze sliding across the width of his shoulders, down the length of his legs, before she quickly looked away.

“Jared, last night before I went to the hospital …” She broke off but he knew exactly what she was talking about. “I had a crazy dream.” She met his gaze and he didn’t have to read her mind to know what she was asking of him.

“It was a beautiful dream,” he said.

Her eyes widened. “Was it real?”

“As real as a dream can be,” he replied. A wave of sadness swept through him as he realized the dream of Willa was all he’d have to take away from his time with her.

WILLA SET THE BOWL of soup in front of him and then sat in the chair opposite him at the table. She still wasn’t sure what to think about him, but she believed he was in some kind of trouble. She didn’t understand it, found his most simple explanation cryptic and even questioned the reality of a twin brother.

She had no idea what kind of brain damage he might have suffered because of the accident that had put him in her hospital, had no idea if what was going on now was a result of his brain not functioning on all cylinders.

There was no question that he could read her thoughts, that somehow he was able to communicate with her in her mind.

“I didn’t realize how hungry I was,” he said, breaking in to her thoughts.

“An appetite is a good sign.” She got up to get the saucepan to refill his bowl. As she stood close to him she caught the scent of him, a clean male coupled with a hint of something wild. She focused her attention on filling the bowl and tried not to think about the hot dream they had shared.

“Tell me about Paul,” he said.

She nearly dropped the saucepan in his lap. “How do you know about him?” she asked as she carried the pan back to the stove burner.

His electric-blue eyes held her gaze. “All I really know is that you thought about him a lot over the past six months and when you did, you were sad.”

She returned to her chair. “It definitely isn’t fair, this gift of yours,” she exclaimed. “You know way too much about me and I don’t know anything about you.”

“Paul was your lover?” he asked, obviously ignoring her comments. He placed his spoon down on the table and looked at her with a single-minded intent.

She leaned back and worried a hand through her hair. “Paul Callahan was my high-school sweetheart, the only man I really dated and the one I thought I was going to marry. About eighteen months ago he broke up with me. He told me he wanted to see what was out there, date other women and explore new experiences.”

“He hurt you,” Jared said.

She sighed. “For months after it happened, I was devastated. He’d given me no warning signs, no clue that he was unhappy, that he wanted anything different than me. The breakup was particularly hard because we shared the same friends, hung out in the same places. I finally decided I needed a fresh start in another city, a place to make new friends and build a new life, so I moved here from Kansas City.”

“Your Paul was a fool,” he said with conviction.

She laughed, surprised to discover that thoughts of Paul no longer hurt. “I like to think so,” she agreed. “Actually, I suppose I should be grateful to him that he decided he wanted out before we got married. A breakup is definitely easier than a divorce. What about you, any old lovers running around in your past?”

The spark of light in his eyes was instantly doused and he picked up his spoon once again. “No, nothing like that,” he replied.

She was twenty-six years old and she guessed him to be at least her age, perhaps a year or two older. She wanted to press him on the subject. Surely there had been some woman in his life who had meant something special to him, but there was a darkness in his eyes, a knotted muscle in his jaw, that let her know the subject was closed.

“I called the hospital while you were asleep. The consensus is that you awoke from the coma and were disoriented and wandered off. They’ve contacted the local authorities, hoping that somebody will find you and return you to the hospital.”

“Did they mention if anyone else had been by to see me?”

“I asked,” she replied. “And the answer was no, nobody else has made any inquiries about you.”

“That’s because they already know I’m gone.” He frowned and stared down into his soup bowl. “I hope nobody saw us leaving together last night.”

“I think if anyone would have seen us, we’d already know by now.” Despite the fact that she had no idea who was after him and what they might want, a small chill stole through her.

He finished the soup and she carried the bowl to the sink, where she rinsed it and placed it in the dishwasher. “You have no family?” he asked.

“My mother died five years ago after a long battle with cancer.” She leaned with her back against the cabinet, reluctant to return to the table where the scent of him made her remember the wild and wonderful dream they’d shared.

“It was during her illness that I decided I wanted to become a nurse,” she continued. “My father walked out on the two of us when I was four years old. I really don’t have any memories of him. So, no, I don’t have any family.” She’d once believed that Paul would be her family, that together they would have children and build a life filled with love and laughter.

Jared got up from the table and approached where she stood. “One of the strongest emotions I felt from you, one of the thoughts that was uppermost in your mind, was your loneliness.”

He stopped just in front of her, so close she only had to lean forward a little bit to touch him. Her mouth went ridiculously dry at his nearness. “I just haven’t taken the time to make too many friends here.” A nervous laugh escaped her. “You must never get lonely. I mean, anytime you feel that way you can just jump into somebody’s mind.”

“You’d be surprised at how unpleasant being in somebody else’s mind can be,” he replied. “But I never found it unpleasant to be in yours.”

He reached out and touched a strand of her hair that had escaped from the ponytail holder at the nape of her neck. Her breath caught in her throat. “So soft,” he murmured more to himself than to her. “I knew it would feel that way.”

Her heart slammed a quickened rhythm in her chest as he took a step closer to her, his fingers still entwined in her lock of hair.

At that moment her cell phone rang. She jumped away from him and he dropped his hand to his side. “Maybe that’s Jack,” he said, hope or some other emotion she was afraid to identify thick in his voice.

She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and answered, but it wasn’t Jack. It was Nancy from the hospital calling to chat about the gossip making the rounds with John Doe’s disappearance.