by Elle Kennedy
He still didn’t respond.
“I’ll check the airlines for cheap flights tonight.” She hesitated. “I know you said you want to go to L.A. with me, but—”
“But nothing,” he interrupted, an edge to his voice. “I’ll be sitting right beside you on that plane, sweetheart.”
Unease and joy warred inside her. As much as she wanted Derek by her side, she didn’t want to drag him into this mess. He had a life in Eden Falls. His practice, his family. It didn’t feel right asking him to drop everything just so he could hold her hand while she tried to exorcise Felix from her life.
But something she’d learned over the past few days was that Derek Colton was stubborn as a mule. Not to mention sweet, loving, funny.
Incredible in bed...
Flushing, she suddenly pictured Derek’s gorgeous face taut with passion while his muscular body moved over hers, and a shiver danced up her spine. She couldn’t get enough of Derek Colton, especially now that she’d discovered that beneath the calm, professional exterior was a man far more sensual than she’d ever imagined.
“We’ll talk about the details later,” he added as he drove into the visitor’s parking lot in front of the hospital entrance.
After Derek got a parking slip and tucked it on the dashboard, they headed into the modern gray building and walked toward the elevator. They were meeting the Danfords in the oncology wing, which made Chloe gulp. The word oncology sounded so ominous, a grim reminder that the mass in Rachel Danford’s breast could very well end up being malignant.
The Danfords seemed to be thinking along the same lines when Chloe and Derek entered the waiting room next to the nurses’ station; the young Amish couple looked so upset that Chloe made a beeline for Rachel.
Pasting an encouraging smile on her face, Chloe squeezed the young woman’s hand. “Everything is going to be fine,” she said softly.
Rachel bit on her plump bottom lip. “I hope so.” Noticing Derek, the woman frowned. “Dr. Colton? What are you doing here?” Her face paled. “Is there something wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong,” Derek said with a gentle smile. “I came by for moral support.”
The young woman looked genuinely touched, as did her husband, Jacob, who approached to shake hands with Derek.
“Did Dr. Greenleigh explain the procedure to you?” Derek asked as they all sat down.
The couple nodded.
“Did you have any questions or concerns that you wanted to talk about?”
Jacob hesitated. “Dr. Greenleigh did not say if we would know the results right away.”
“It depends,” Derek answered. “Sometimes the doctor can immediately diagnose the sample as benign. The samples are analyzed after their withdrawal and the doctor can determine if they came from a cyst or whatnot. In most cases, the tissue and fluid samples need to be analyzed in the lab by a pathologist.”
“Will it hurt?” Rachel whispered. She reached out and clutched Chloe’s hand.
“They’ll inject local anesthesia to make sure there’s no discomfort,” Derek assured her. “And there’ll only be a small nick where the needle will be inserted. It’ll be over before you know it, Rachel.”
Rachel tightened her grip on Chloe’s hand. “Thank you for being here,” she said. “Will you come into the room with me for the procedure?”
Jacob ran a frustrated hand over his long beard. “I want to be there with you,” he said stiffly.
Rachel’s voice was surprisingly firm. “No, my husband. I don’t want you there.” Her tone brooked no argument, and Chloe suspected that banishing her husband to the waiting room was more about protecting Jacob than any embarrassment on Rachel’s part.
Amish women were tough as nails, which was something Chloe had learned through her interaction with their Amish patients. The women of Paradise Ridge woke up at the crack of dawn to do their chores, raise their children, support their husbands—and they did it all without the benefit of technology. Most women these days couldn’t last a day without their cell phones or blow dryers or whatever technological luxuries they depended on, but women like Rachel Danford were of a different breed. Strong, resilient, awe-inspiring. Chloe knew Jacob’s instinct was to protect his wife, but from the calm expression in Rachel’s eyes, it was obvious she could weather anything, even a potentially malignant tumor.
When Dr. Greenleigh entered the waiting room a few minutes later, both Rachel and Chloe stood up. Rachel did not kiss or embrace her husband, but she placed her palm on his chest, right over his heart. Chloe’s gaze unconsciously shifted to Derek, who was watching the couple with a tender expression.
Their eyes locked, and her pulse sped up. Why did he have to be so damn appealing? Each time he looked at her with those deep brown eyes, said something in his husky baritone voice, touched her with those big, capable hands, she utterly melted. Lord, she could so easily fall in love with this man if she let herself. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Her future was one big unknown, and she refused to drag Derek into the mess that her life would surely become once she returned to California.
“This way,” Dr. Greenleigh said, gesturing to the door. The oncologist was a tall, slender brunette with kind green eyes and an efficient manner. She led Rachel and Chloe into the exam room, then left while Rachel changed into a hospital gown.
The entire procedure was over in less than an hour. Rachel had put on a brave face, but Chloe knew the woman was still shaken up, especially when Dr. Greenleigh said it would take several days for the results to come in. After the nurse applied a compression dressing to Rachel’s incision area, she quickly got dressed. She and Chloe returned to the waiting room, where Jacob immediately clasped his wife’s hand as if he never wanted to let her out of his sight again.
Chloe and Derek quietly slipped out of the room. As they strode down the fluorescent-lit corridor, Derek surprised her by taking her hand.
“She did a good job,” Chloe told him. “She’s incredibly strong.”
He shot her a sidelong look. “So are you. I think you’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met.”
Pleasure flooded her womb. She wanted to tell him that she felt stronger when he was around, but that sounded too sappy. Instead, she laced her fingers through his and tried not to grin like a schoolgirl. Derek’s husky compliments were liable to give her an ego.
They reached the end of the hall, and just as they turned the corner, Chloe spotted a familiar face by the elevator.
All the air left her lungs in one dizzying swoop.
With a jolt of panic, she darted back around the corner, pressing her back against the white wall as her heart hammered into her ribs.
Derek appeared in front of her, looking bewildered. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.
She tried to control the unbridled gallop of her pulse. Inhaled deeply. Exhaled in a long rush. Ignoring Derek, she crept along the wall and chanced another peek around the corner.
Still there.
A hysterical laugh lodged in her throat. Not a figment of her imagination, then. No, just the star of nightmares.
Standing on the other end of the corridor, his seductive dark eyes twinkling as he flirted with a nurse and his broad shoulders filling his white coat to perfection, was none other than her husband.
Chapter 10
Derek had no idea what was going on. One second Chloe was holding his hand and smiling, the next she’d plastered herself against the wall, her face as white as a sheet.
“What’s going on?” he demanded, glancing around the corridor. He half expected a crazed killer to pop out of one of the doorways, covered in blood and wielding a chain saw. But the hallway was empty.
Chloe fisted the front of his sweater, clutching at the fabric. She looked eerily pale, and her voice sounded tinny as she said, “Felix.”
Derek’s brows knitted. “What are you talking about?”
“Felix,” she hissed again. “He’s here.” One finger pointed to the end of the hall, and th
en her arm dropped limply to her side. “He’s here.”
His frown deepened. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I was married to the man for twelve years,” she snapped. “I think I know what he looks like.”
Derek blinked in surprise. Chloe had never snapped at him like that before, which told him that she was seriously shaken up. Despite her shrill protest, he edged along the wall and snuck a peek around the corner. He immediately spotted the culprit responsible for putting that fearful expression in Chloe’s hazel eyes.
Six feet tall, with slicked-back black hair and dark good-looks, the man standing by the elevator looked like a Latin heartthrob. He wore a simple white coat, but his tailored pinstripe trousers and shiny black alligator loafers screamed of wealth. Charm oozed from his pores as he chatted with a petite, blond-haired nurse.
He stared at Felix Moreno in distaste, tempted to march down the hall and land an uppercut on the man’s square jaw. Battling the urge, Derek ducked out of sight and returned to Chloe. She still looked stricken, her eyes wide with despair as she met Derek’s gaze.
“I have to get out of here,” she whispered.
He gave a sharp nod. “Take the stairwell,” he ordered, gesturing to the doorway to their right. He reached into his pocket for his car keys and thrust them into her hand. “Wait in the car for me.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked in alarm.
“Find out what he’s doing here,” Derek said curtly.
“You can’t confront him,” she protested. “Please, Derek. This isn’t the time.”
He ignored the plea. “Go wait in the car, Chloe. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
After a second of visible reluctance, she dashed toward the stairwell door and disappeared. He heard the muffled sound of her footsteps as she hurried down the stairs.
Fighting the impulse to go after Moreno, Derek walked in the opposite direction toward the oncology wing. At the nurses’ station, he greeted the nurse at the desk, introduced himself and asked to use the phone. He quickly dialed the number of a colleague he’d once worked with when he’d done his residency in the hospital’s downstairs emergency room. Burt Winters had chosen to streamline into the plastic surgery field and now worked as the department head, and Derek was suddenly very grateful for that fact.
When he got Winters on the line, the surgeon barked out a curt hello, his tone warming when Derek greeted him.
“Colton!” Winters sounded delighted. “I haven’t spoken to you in ages. How’s small-town doctor life?” A note of mocking derision tinkled over the extension.
Derek rolled his eyes. His colleague always teased him mercilessly for giving up his resident position here in order to open his own practice in Eden Falls. Winters claimed Derek had taken a step down, but Derek didn’t view it that way. His practice allowed for a relationship with his patients that the emergency room had denied him. The E.R. was an endless stream of nameless, faceless people, with bedside manner thrown away in favor of swift efficiency and blink-of-the-eye decisions. Chaos was the norm, gratitude rarely given. Opening the clinic in Eden Falls had been the best decision Derek had ever made.
“It’s great. Busy, too. Who would’ve thought that small-town folks get as sick as city folks?” Derek answered good-naturedly.
Winters laughed. “What can I do for you, Colton?”
“I’m actually calling for some information about a surgeon who’s consulting on a case for you. I was told that—”
“Felix Moreno,” Winters interrupted, a tad smug. “Yes, Moreno is assisting me on a reconstruction case. We scrub in this evening, in fact.”
“What’s the case?” Derek asked casually.
“Did you hear about the accident on Route 30 last week?”
“The four teenagers who died when they were hit by the drunk driver? Yeah, I saw it on the news.”
“Three died,” Winters corrected. “One of the girls survived. She’s sixteen, and her face was crushed in the accident. It’s a messy one, Colton, real messy. I contacted Moreno, didn’t think I stood a chance in hell of getting him to agree to come—he’s got a waiting list a mile long for consultations. But the case intrigued him, so he flew in a few days ago. We couldn’t operate then because the patient came down with a secondary infection that needed to be treated first.”
“Sounds like a tough case,” Derek remarked.
“It is.” Winters paused. “So why the interest in Moreno?”
“I have a patient who’s considering rhinoplasty,” Derek lied. “She saw Moreno on that TV special he was featured in, the one on the medical cable channel. Anyway, she’s determined to do her surgery with him.”
Winters snorted. “Good luck with that. Moreno only takes high-profile patients—celebrities, athletes, politicians. Or cases that will get him written up in medical journals, like the one he’s consulting on for us.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured. But I promised her I’d try to contact him.”
“Well, come by this evening if you want. Moreno’ll probably spare a few minutes to talk to you. In the very least, he’ll give you a business card and tell you to contact his office.”
“I might do that,” he said. “Thanks, Burt.”
Five minutes later, Derek made his way across the parking lot toward his car. Through the windshield he could see that Chloe’s pretty face was as ashen as ever. She kept fiddling with her hands in her lap, barely glancing his way as he slid into the driver’s seat.
“Well?” she asked dully.
He quickly told her what he’d discovered, but Chloe didn’t look appeased. “He’s not here to consult on a case!” she burst out. “He’s here because he knows I’m alive. He’s clearly using this patient as a cover.”
Derek chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I don’t know. Maybe his being in Philly is a coincidence.”
She laughed harshly. “He’s here for me, Derek.”
“Then why not come after you? Why break into your apartment and take you on this walk down memory lane? If he wanted to confront you, wouldn’t he have done it by now?”
Her chin jutted out stubbornly. “Felix loves to play games. It’s his MO—toy with someone, get them crazy with fear, make them sweat while they wonder when and how he’ll strike.” Her breathing went shallow. “That’s what he did the night of the charity benefit, when he made me think his anger had faded, only to attack me in his office with a scalpel!”
Derek reached out and touched her cheek. She didn’t flinch, but she didn’t seem comfortable as he ran his fingers over her skin. She’d covered the scar up with makeup again, but a part of him wished she hadn’t. These past three days she hadn’t bothered with the makeup, at least not when the two of them were alone. Maybe she was finally beginning to believe that the scar didn’t disgust him, which he’d repeatedly assured her since their encounter at the waterfall.
The waterfall... It still stunned him, how powerful their joining had been, how wild, frantic, all-consuming. He and Tess hadn’t been very spontaneous when it came to sex, and by the end of their marriage, they’d fallen into a sexual routine that had lacked passion and excitement. But with Chloe, the passion had been present from the very first second, and in the past three days, it had only grown stronger.
Working with her at the clinic had become pure agony—each time she smiled at him, each time her arm brushed his, he wanted to rip off her clothes and devour her. Which was completely out of character for him. The mild-mannered, composed and perfect Derek Colton didn’t ravish women. He didn’t lock up his clinic and spend his lunch hour making love in his office...yet, he’d done just that, hadn’t he? The memory of Chloe stretched out on his desk, her eyes smoky with desire as he drove into her, sent a rush of molten heat straight to his groin.
He quickly tamped it down. Now’s not the time, buddy. Nope, it sure wasn’t, seeing as the star of his naughty memories was on the verge of a panic attack at the moment.
Derek locked his
gaze with hers. “It might be a coincidence,” he said again. “But that’s not a chance I’m willing to take, okay? We have to assume Felix does know you’re alive and that he’s planning on coming after you.”
“So what do we do?”
He pursed his lips in thought. “I’m coming back here tonight to speak with him.”
Her jaw fell open. “What? No. You can’t do that. What if he—”
“What if he what?” Derek cut in. “Kills me, right here at the hospital, in front of hundreds of witnesses?”
“He sent that package to the ranch,” Chloe reminded him. “He knows who you are, Derek.”
“Which is why I want to see him, in a public place, where I can gauge his reaction. He might be a good liar, but I’ve got a great bullshit meter. If he knows who I am and my connection to you, I’ll know, Chloe.”
“What is talking to him going to achieve? What will you even say?”
“I won’t mention you, if that’s what you’re afraid of. I’ll keep it general, talk about the surgery or something. I just want to see how he reacts, see if he lets anything slip.” He set his jaw. “And if he does reveal that he knows you’re alive, I’ll make sure he understands he’s never coming anywhere near you again.”
Chloe’s expression softened. “You don’t have to play the part of protector with me, Derek. I can face Felix on my own.”
He chuckled ruefully. “I can’t not protect the people in my life. Ask my family—they’ll tell you it’s true.”
Chloe seemed unhappy with his answer, but she didn’t give him a chance to question her cloudy expression. “Let’s get out of here,” she said with a sigh.
With a nod, he started the engine, then glanced over at her. “Do you mind if we make a stop first? We still have some time before we reopen the clinic, and there’s something I need to do.”
“Sure.”
Putting the car in Drive, Derek pulled out of the lot and drove toward the main street, until the hospital was nothing but a gray dot in the rearview mirror.
