by Alison Stone
“I should have never gotten involved with this.”
“You did the right thing. We both know that.” Zach glanced at his smart watch. No messages. “We both know Ashley didn’t leave that apartment because she wanted to, and I think you’re a smart woman.”
“You don’t know me.”
“No, I don’t. I do hope you’ll take my advice and find someplace else to stay until we know Ashley’s safe and her disappearance has nothing to do with your meeting with a DEA agent and the suspicious activities at the clinic.”
“Even if Dr. Ryan was improperly prescribing prescription drugs, he wouldn’t hurt Ashley.” Bridget’s tone had a faraway quality. “He has two children. The oldest is in college.”
“Do you think people who commit crimes don’t have families?” His eye twitched. Ashley wasn’t kidding when she mentioned Bridget was naive. However, he had to give her kudos for coming forward. Now he had to nudge her not to lose her nerve.
Before someone made the decision for her.
Alison Stone lives with her husband of more than twenty years and their four children in Western New York. Besides writing, Alison keeps busy volunteering at her children’s schools, driving her girls to dance and watching her boys race motocross. Alison loves to hear from her readers at [email protected]. For more information, please visit her website, alisonstone.com. She’s also chatty on Twitter, @alison_stone. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/alisonstoneauthor.
Books by Alison Stone
Love Inspired Suspense
Plain Pursuit
Critical Diagnosis
Silver Lake Secrets
Plain Peril
High-Risk Homecoming
Plain Threats
Plain Protector
Plain Cover-Up
Plain Sanctuary
Plain Jeopardy
Plain Outsider
Seeking Amish Shelter
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
Seeking Amish Shelter
Alison Stone
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
—1 Peter 5:7
To my wonderful family, including my adult children, who all came home to keep me company while I wrote this book during the spring of 2020. It was like old times, minus car pool. Love you guys, always and forever.
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 Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Excerpt from Alaska Secrets by Sarah Varland
ONE
The transit bus door whooshed open and dumped Bridget Miller off four stops short of home. The hum of traffic and pedestrians newly released from their downtown office jobs had become a familiar pulse these past five years that had generally energized her. Made her excited for the vast opportunity that lay ahead, especially on a Friday afternoon.
But lately, the vibe—so different from the farm she had grown up on—had a higher frequency, making her edgy and cautious. Ready to snap. And rightfully so, considering her life of school-eat-work-sleep-repeat had been upended when she stumbled upon something—possibly illegal—that made her feel uneasy at the health-care clinic where she worked while attending nursing school.
Today had been her last day of work before her scheduled vacation prior to starting her last year of nursing school ten days from now. She had saved enough money to get her through the final push. The only thing left was to report what she had witnessed.
Bridget plucked at her T-shirt, which was sticking to her on this hot August afternoon. The crowd of unfamiliar faces swirled and blended into one giant blob of humanity. Her throat went dry. Calm down. She drew in a deep breath through her nose and immediately wished she hadn’t. A putrid smell assaulted her. She’d never be able to identify all the city smells and, quite frankly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
She yanked open the door to a coffee shop, one unfamiliar to her. That had been intentional. She found a table for four near the back and took a seat facing the door. Her rule-following nature made her feel conspicuous taking up a table without buying a coffee. A sip of caffeine would snap her already jittery nerves. And she wasn’t exactly hungry. She dug her smartphone out of her backpack and swiped a finger across the screen to check the time. She had arrived on schedule. The others were late. Ashley Meadows, her coworker, had insisted they arrive separately so they wouldn’t draw attention. Besides, her friend had taken the day off, which was strange because she hadn’t mentioned it. The office manager had assured her that Ashley had texted in her vacation request this morning.
Bridget’s constant companions, self-doubt and indecision, twined in her stomach. Maybe she should go. But before she had a chance to bail, a man in jeans and a T-shirt strode into the coffee shop on a gust of wind that nearly took the door off its hinges, if the man hadn’t had quick enough reflexes to grab the handle and yank it shut.
His intense gaze scanned the dining area, not settling on anything or anyone in particular. He was handsome in the “my T-shirt fits snugly over my firm pecs and my five o’clock shadow darkens my square jaw” sort of way. He was the kind of guy Ashley would have called dibs on, as if the two college-aged women had control over such matters. Well, maybe Ashley did. Bridget chose to focus on more serious things, like school and work.
Bridget’s hand twitched. Should she wave him over? No, he seemed too casual to be with the DEA. Then again, what did she know about law enforcement? About any of this? If it hadn’t been for Ashley, who’d set up this meeting, Bridget would never have had occasion to meet with an agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Ugh. The nausea clawing at her throat made her wish she could rewind the clock and say no to this ridiculous plan.
Her conscience would never allow her to ignore what she suspected Dr. Seth Ryan, the clinic director, was doing at the clinic.
The man she was watching made directly for the counter and placed an order. It seemed he wasn’t the agent she had been waiting for. Her shoulders sagged at the momentary reprieve, and she returned her attention toward the front door again.
Come on, Ashley. Where are you?
Once Ashley got here, Bridget wouldn’t be forced to figure out what to say to the agent on her own. She checked her phone. The throbbing pang of uncertainty roared in her ears. Be in this world, not of this world. God had wanted her to be in the healing profession—she knew that with every fiber of her being. Had He wanted her to get involved with this? A health-care fraud investigation? Despite learning about fraud in her college classes, she had never thought she’d be part of something like this. Wasn’t that exactly why they discussed these topics in class? So that they’d be knowledgeable?
Bridget twisted her fingers in her lap. Reading about it in a textbook was one thing—meeting with a DEA agent was entirely another. She had never met someone in law enforcement in person. Her childhood had taught her to stay separate. God’s law above man’s law. Yet God wouldn’t want her to look the other way on this.
What if she was wrong?
What if innocent p
eople were hurt by her accusations?
Biting her lip, she stared at the blank phone screen. Still no message from Ashley. She couldn’t possibly have gotten cold feet. Or had she? Something about how all these events had unfolded had bothered Bridget from the beginning. When Bridget confided in Ashley, she was the one who’d initially suggested Bridget look the other way when it seemed Dr. Ryan had ordered a prescription for a controlled substance for a patient who had died the previous month from complications due to diabetes. After all, the middle-aged doctor had been good to his employees. He was beloved by his patients. He had run the clinic for longer than Bridget had been alive. He certainly wasn’t getting rich from running an inner-city clinic.
That was the first thing that niggled at the back of Bridget’s brain.
Her instinct was to go to the doctor—who had forgotten to log out of the computer—and tell him he had made a mistake, but she feared he might wonder why she was using his computer. She had slipped into his open-door office when the computer that the nurses shared had locked up. Then curiosity made her return a few times to see if it was a one-off.
It wasn’t.
When Bridget could no longer ignore her concerns, Ashley had warned her that the physician might not take kindly to the accusation, but she’d ultimately suggested they contact Agent Zachary Bryant, a childhood acquaintance, hoping he could look into it. According to Ashley, audits of controlled substances were standard practice, and this way no one would have to know they’d made a report.
It all seemed logical. Easy. Ashley had called Agent Bryant a few weeks ago, and because of work-related obligations, today was the first time he could meet. A heaviness weighed on Bridget’s chest, making her claustrophobic in the crowded café.
Where is Ashley?
“Bridget Miller?” A deep voice made her jump. The handsome man she had watched wrestle the door into submission was staring down at her, holding two coffees in his hands.
“Yes?” she responded hesitantly.
He slipped into the seat across from hers, and a ghost of a smile touched his lips. “Special Agent Zach Bryant.” He kept his voice hushed. “I thought you might like some coffee.” He slid one of the cups across the table and tipped his head toward a counter along the wall. “Cream and sugar are on the stand.”
Bridget placed her hand on the plastic lid and dragged the cup closer. “This is fine.” She was too polite to tell him otherwise. “Thank you.”
The DEA agent peeled off the lid of his coffee and dumped in three sugars and stirred the drink with a wooden stick. He took a sip and studied the room with sharp brown eyes. “Where’s Ashley?”
“I don’t know.” The plastic lid made a satisfying sound under Bridget’s fidgety fingers. “I’m hoping she’s just late. She hasn’t responded to my texts since last night.”
He seemed to regard her thoughtfully over the rim of his cup while he took another long sip. “Should we start without her?”
“Um, yeah, I guess.” She hated how timid she sounded. She had worked hard over the years to shed the submissive nature that had been bred in her since childhood. She squirmed in her seat before catching herself, squaring her shoulders and giving the agent a confident, “Yes, let’s start.” Reflexively, her gaze drifted to the door.
“Ashley told me you have concerns at your place of employment?” The agent shot a furtive glance over his shoulder toward the door, then around the café. Nearby patrons seemed too engrossed in their own business to be paying much attention to theirs.
“Yes.” Bridget’s heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest as she recounted how she’d first discovered prescriptions for deceased patients.
“How long ago was that?”
“Um...” Bridget swallowed hard. “Two months ago.”
“And you’re reporting it now?” The agent’s stern glare sent a sheen of sweat coursing across her skin.
She bit back another “um” and forced herself to return his steady gaze. “To be fair, you’ve been hard to reach. Ashley insisted we wait to talk to you.”
The agent seemed to settle back in his seat. “Tell me what you know.”
“About two months ago, I borrowed my boss’s computer. I saw a prescription for a deceased patient that caught my eye.” She pressed her lips together and considered how to frame this. “I hesitated to report this immediately because I was afraid it could have been a misunderstanding, and Dr.—” she stopped herself short since they were speaking in public “—and if I accused the doctor and I was wrong, I could cause him a lot of problems.” And, as selfish as it sounded, she didn’t want to lose her job over a false accusation.
“But you’re convinced now?” The hint of doubt in his question made her stomach bottom out.
Bridget’s gaze moved over his shoulder toward the door. “How much did Ashley tell you? Does she think I’m wrong?” The slow sting of betrayal worked its way up her spine. Had Ashley purposely left her to respond to this agent’s inquiry on her own? Was Ashley leaving her to take the fall in case she was totally wrong about the doctor’s activities?
No, no, Ashley had been a loyal friend.
And Bridget wasn’t wrong.
“I don’t want to get into specifics in a public venue. Ashley told me about your concerns after you used your employer’s computer. Tell me your thought process on this.”
“People make honest mistakes. I really wanted to believe that was the case. The doctor works hard. He seems tired.” Bridget rubbed the bridge of her nose, and her eyes burned. The agent sat silently, apparently waiting for her to continue. “However, a patient of mine—an older woman—told me last month that her son overdosed on drugs that are readily prescribed by physicians. I know sometimes these same drugs are prescribed fraudulently because there’s a lot of money to be made.” Bridget pushed the coffee toward the center of the table. The thought of it made her stomach flip. “I couldn’t look the other way. If the doctor at the clinic is involved with anything unethical, he needs to be stopped.”
The agent seemed to consider this for a moment. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of this going on. Do you know if the doctor has had any money trouble?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay.” The agent took the last sip of his coffee and stuffed the wrappers from the sugar packets inside the cup.
Bridget looked around at the unfamiliar faces and kept her voice low. “I understand the DEA audits clinics for compliance. That perhaps I wouldn’t have to get involved.”
The agent seemed to regard her a moment. Then he pulled out his cell phone and tapped out something with his thumbs.
The reality of what Bridget was doing hit her. Dots danced in the periphery of her vision. “The doctor seems like such a good-hearted person. He helps low-income patients. He’s waived their co-pays. Recently, he’s been caring for the homeless.” She knew how naive she sounded. People weren’t always what they seemed.
How did I get involved in this mess?
The agent looked up from his cell phone. “Have you noticed any other unusual activity?”
“After my patient told me about her son’s overdose, I did some searching on the internet about how—” she threaded her fingers, then twisted her hands “—about how people get drugs.” She shook her head, realizing she probably sounded ridiculous. She plowed forward anyway. “We seem to have a lot of repeat patients, and we do have a pharmacy on site.” Shrugging, she felt her face growing red. “I could be seeing what I want to see. Since I didn’t want to do anything unethical in case I was wrong, I confided in Ashley, and she told me she knew someone who investigated these types of things.” Stop rambling. She checked her phone again. Still no Ashley. “Will you look into it?” Hope made her voice squeak.
“I’ll take the information to my office and see when we last audited the location. The DEA is very stringent on the requirements t
o make sure there are no violations of the Controlled Substances Act.” The agent stood and picked up his cup. He obviously had better things to do. “I’m currently on...” He seemed to be about to say something, but then changed his mind. “I’m on vacation now. I just came off a rough case. I’ll hand off your complaint.”
“Hand it off?” The band around her chest that had been easing grew tighter. She’d have to explain herself again?
The agent lifted a shoulder as if to say, Whatcha gonna do? He ran a hand over his short brown hair. “Does anyone other than you and Ashley Meadows know about this?”
“No one.” Bridget pushed to her feet, and her chair bumped into the half wall behind her.
“Keep it that way.” His solemn note made her shudder. He handed her his business card. “I’ll inform my supervisor. She’ll be in touch.”
“Okay.” Bridget would be lying if she didn’t admit to herself that she was upset that Ashley’s handsome friend was passing the case off.
“If there is fraudulent activity, the perpetrators aren’t going to be happy to be shut down. There are a lot of violent people involved in drug trafficking.”
“Drug trafficking. That’s not...”
The agent lifted his eyebrow. “Just because a person has an MD after his name doesn’t mean he’s any less guilty of trafficking drugs than the gangs and cartels.”
* * *
“Can I drop you off somewhere?” They stepped outside the coffee shop, and Zach turned to Bridget The late-afternoon sun cut across his line of vision, and he slowed to slide his sunglasses on. He had a bad feeling about this young woman’s report, and he was rarely wrong. Bridget was obviously a bright woman who would recognize inconsistencies in prescriptions, but he feared her naivety would make her a prime target. He let out a long breath. And Ashley Meadows being a no-show nagged at him. He had confirmed their appointment yesterday afternoon after having the worst day in his career.
“No, thanks. I don’t live far.” She smiled up at him, a weary look on her face he had seen on a number of innocent bystanders who had gotten wrapped up in something they never in a million years thought they would. “I could use the fresh air.” She flicked her hand in a wave and started toward the intersection.
