Committed

by Velvet Vaughn

  "Oof."

  Air whooshed from her body and she staggered backwards, losing her footing on the freshly waxed floors. Her butt hit the ground with a solid thud.

  "Ow."

  Two strong arms whipped out and effortlessly lifted her to her feet. Reaching back to rub the sting, she blinked and eyed the mountain in front of her wearing a tight white t-shirt that hugged an impressive chest and thickly muscled arms. Faded jeans lovingly caressed long legs and muscular thighs. Her gaze traveled up and up and up and she inhaled in alarm.

  The mountain was Ben, the security guard. And he didn’t look happy. Quickly concealing her surprise, she lapsed back into her role as Kellie Mead. She mumbled and tried to push past him. Unfortunately he proved to be as immovable as the mountain he resembled. His grip tightened on her shoulders.

  "Going somewhere, Miz Mead?"

  Head downcast, she continued to mumble incoherently while trying to break his hold to no avail. She would have had to morph into Houdini to break that grip.

  Something on the ground caught her eye. She bent to retrieve it, catching him off guard so that he released his grip. She picked up the item, turned it over and gasped.

  It was a candid snapshot of a very naked woman.

  Narrowing her eyes, she peered closer, her mouth gaping in disgust. The shockingly revealing picture was of Tia, the night nurse.

  Pursing her lips, she glared at the security guard. "My God, what are you, some kind of pervert?"

  Ben’s eyes widened with innocence. "It’s not what it looks like…she gave it to…hey! I don’t owe you any explanation."

  He swiped the picture from her startled grip and jammed it in his pocket. Then his gaze turned probing, assessing. A strong hand swept along her neck to cup her face. He tilted her head back and she inhaled in surprise. Oh no, he was just like Carl. He carried around pictures of naked women and now he was going to take advantage of her, with no witnesses around. Her eyes darted around the hall, looking for help.

  She refocused on the man in front of her expecting a predatory gleam in his eye. Instead he looked…perplexed?

  "What the hell?" he murmured.

  She fought the urge to cover her face with her hands. Was her mascara running, her lipstick smeared?

  Wait a minute…she wasn’t wearing makeup.

  "Your eyes were not two different colors yesterday."

  Said eyes widened in horror seconds before Rachel snapped them closed. One of the colored contacts must have knocked loose when she crashed into him.

  "What’s going on here, lady?"

  Thankfully the strident bleep of the walkie-talkie strapped to his belt saved her from answering…or so she thought. She cracked one lid but he continued to stare at her suspiciously.

  The radio pealed again and she eyed it with purpose. She needed a chance to escape the too-knowing stare of the devastatingly handsome man. When he still made no move to respond to the summons, she exhaled in frustration and slammed a hand on her hip. "Aren’t you going to answer that?"

  With a low muttered curse, he unclipped the walkie-talkie, never taking his attention off of her. She averted her eyes.

  "Smith."

  Static cracked through the line and then, "Yeah, Benny, uh, this is Dan. I, uh, seemed to have uh, locked myself in the, uh i-isolation room." Dan cleared his throat nervously. "You know, the padded room. Do you think you could let me out?"

  An amused grin tugged at Ben’s lips. "I’ll be right there."

  He re-clipped the device to his belt. "I have to go but we need to talk." He scanned the hall. "Not here though. The night nurse and security guard will be along soon."

  Rachel put two and two together, her brows lifting in humor. "You mean Dan wasn’t isolated in the isolation room?"

  Mr. Smith smiled, revealing a deep dimple in his right cheek. The world shifted under her feet. Good grief, this man affected her.

  His lips moved but she was so enchanted staring at him, she missed every word.

  "Miss Mead?"

  "Hum?"

  "Aren’t you forgetting something?"

  She shook her head questioningly.

  "The mumbling, the blank stares, the slow rocking?"

  She muttered a curse under her breath, yet another no-no for Bancroft women. She was definitely losing it.

  "Give me ten minutes," he finished. Ten minutes for what, she had no idea and she didn’t plan on finding out. She nodded dumbly and bent down to search for her lost contact. With a triumphant smile, she snatched it off the ground, spun around and rushed to the safety of her room.

  There would be no searching for Molly tonight.

  #

  Ben hurried down the hall, casting one last look over his shoulder. It took quite a few minutes more than ten to disengage himself first from Dan’s embarrassed chattiness at having being caught and then Tia’s clutches.

  He stopped in front of Kellie Mead’s door and knocked lightly. No answer. He tried again, louder this time. Nothing.

  Scanning the hall, he twisted the handle but it was pitch black inside. "Miss Mead," he whispered in the crack. No response.

  He could wake her, but he'd wait until tomorrow. The lovely woman was not who she wanted everyone to believe. For some reason, she concealed the true color of her amazing sea-green eyes behind muddy contact lenses.

  What was her story? She puzzled him and he loved solving puzzles.

  One thing was certain…Kellie Mead definitely had something to hide.

  #

  Planning on the best method to gather information on Molly kept Rachel up most the night. She formulated several ideas on how she could sneak off by herself and do some digging. She’d worried about security but after discovering only one guard patrolled the entire floor, her odds improved. Granted, the one guard happened to be the distractingly handsome Ben Smith and he seemed to be everywhere, larger than life.

  She heard him calling her name last night as he ducked his head in the room. She feigned sleep and thankfully, he didn’t wake her. She didn’t want to talk to him. He suspected her of something, she could tell. He had a way of making her forget everything but his incredible blue eyes and that sexy body.

  The door swung wide and the overhead light snapped on as Nurse Helen entered behind a cart laden with medications. April woke a few minutes earlier, groggy and lethargic. She had yet to speak this morning and Rachel couldn’t blame her. She was still mad at herself.

  The nurse approached April and handed her two small plastic cups, one filled with medication and the other water. Rachel watched in fascination again as April pretended to swallow the pills. She gulped the water and when Helen made a notation on her chart, she stealthily slid the pills under her pillow.

  "Your therapy session is in one hour," Helen reminded her. She wheeled the cart to Rachel while April scooped the pills into the empty cup and deposited it on her nightstand.

  "Your case worker will be in to meet with you before your examinations," the nurse said. "But first, I’ll be taking you to the showers. Do you want to walk or would you prefer a wheelchair?"

  "Walk," she mumbled quietly.

  "Very well, follow me."

  The nurse left the cart in the room and led her a few doors away. Individual stalls lined one wall and a large, open shower with several showerheads took up the back wall.

  Another nurse washed an elderly woman in the open stall with brisk efficiency. She used a removable showerhead to rinse the soap and then toweled the woman dry and tugged on a clean outfit.

  Rachel really did not think this through at all. She never realized she would have to let someone else bathe her. It never even crossed her mind when she planned this ridiculous expedition. She hated being naked and vulnerable.

  Helen led the older patient back to her room while the other nurse approached her.

  "Do you need assistance?" the attendant asked.

  "No."

  "Okay, you can use that one." The woman indicated an open stall.


  Breathing a relieved sigh, she grabbed a towel from a stack on the counter and proceeded to the shower. Another patient wandered in and began disrobing. She averted her eyes but heard the water kick on in the stall next to hers.

  Disrobing quickly, she kept her back to the opening. Twisting on the hot water, she pushed the dispenser marked shampoo and vigorously scrubbed her scalp. Her hair was used to expensive shampoo and conditioner but then, she didn’t really care what her hair looked like here. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She had the irrational desire to look her best for Ben.

  Pushing that thought from her mind, she squirted soap into her hands and hurriedly lathered her body. After rinsing the foam, she dried off and pulled on a clean blue gown the attendant had laid out for her.

  Nurse Helen returned to escort her back to her room. She was glad to find April was still there. The nurse reminded her of her case worker’s visit, followed by examinations. She propped the door open and left.

  Rachel crossed to April, needing to gain the confidence of her skittish roommate. She wanted the younger woman to trust her so she could ask about Molly. They started to bond yesterday and she needed to build on that connection.

  Institute policy required that the door to the rooms be left open during the day so she would have to be careful her questions couldn’t be overheard. But before she asked anything, she had some serious apologizing to do.

  "April?"

  April paused as she dug through her dresser and glanced over her shoulder, her eyebrows raised in question.

  "I am so sorry I got you drugged last night."

  April dropped a bundle of clothes in the open drawer and spun around. "It wasn’t your fault, Kellie."

  Rachel clasped the other girl’s hands. "I kept asking questions after you told me to act asleep. Definitely my fault. I am so sorry."

  "Really, it was mine," April insisted. "If I hadn’t been so upset after my mother’s visit, I would have thought sooner to warn you."

  "So you aren’t mad at me?"

  "No, of course not," April said. "I want us to be friends."

  "I want that, too."

  Rachel hugged her and then cocked her head to the side. "So, can you tell me what the examinations are like? I’m pretty nervous." Not a lie. If she could figure a way out of them, she would in a heartbeat.

  April shrugged sadly. "I wish I could tell you, but I just don’t remember. I was totally out of it," she admitted.

  Rachel opened her mouth to ask more questions when a flash of movement appeared at the door. A man in blue coveralls pushed a cleaning cart into the room. He met her gaze briefly and she couldn’t stop the shock that sprang to her face.

  His disappointed smile made her feel two inches tall.

  "Good morning April," he said giving the girl a quick grin before dropping his gaze to his feet.

  "Hi Peter," April replied, blushing furiously.

  The custodian dumped the contents of the wastebasket into his cart and then pulled a mop from a bucket. He moved over to the nightstand and zeroed in on the cup holding April’s pills.

  April would be busted.

  Rachel’s brain raced, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. She did not want her roommate to get in trouble. Before she had a chance to think up an excuse, the custodian maneuvered his body to block the view from the hall and glanced out the window, making small talk about the weather. She started to follow his gaze but instead watched fascinated as he scooped up the cup and dumped the pills in his pocket. If she hadn’t been focused on him, she would never have noticed. He tossed the cup into his cart and finished mopping. Uttering a hasty goodbye to April, he nodded at Rachel and departed.

  Well, damn. April already had a protector, someone to watch out for her. And judging by the look of longing on April’s face as she followed the retreating custodian, the feelings were mutual.

  #

  April watched Peter leave, an overwhelming wave of sadness washing over her. She had the same feeling each time he walked away. Her thoughts were irrational, she knew. After all, technically, Peter was just a friend. But to her, he was so much more. He was her savior, her knight in shining armor, the only person in the world who cared about her.

  If it wasn’t for him, she would still be drugged out of her mind with no hope of recovery. Thanks to his efforts, the fog cleared in her head. She was getting stronger, both mentally and physically. Bits and pieces of her old life started to come back. Soon, she would remember what happened the night she arrived at Bexley…the night her stepfather had her committed.

  Chapter Six

  "Knock, knock."

  Leather briefcase in hand, a woman marched confidently into the room, her chestnut hair styled in a trendy bob that brushed the top of her shoulders. Wearing a charcoal jacket and matching skirt, her wedge-heeled black boots tapped aggressively across the floor as she deposited her case on the bed and approached April with outstretched arms.

  "How are you, April?" She engulfed her in a warm embrace. April hugged her back with genuine fondness.

  "I’m okay," April answered.

  "You look great, sweetie," the woman responded with affection. They spoke briefly but the animation vanished from April’s movements. Gone was the bright, sane woman Rachel witnessed earlier. In her place stood the meek, troubled girl April morphed into around the nurses and staff at Bexley.

  The woman addressed Rachel with a warm smile. "You must be Kellie Mead." Crossing the room, she extended a hand. "My name is Jennifer Palmer, but you can call me Jen. I’ll be your case worker."

  She lightly grasped the woman’s hand and followed April’s lead, dropping back into her role of sad and silent Kellie.

  "April, I need to speak to Ms. Mead alone before her examinations, if you don’t mind."

  "I have therapy," April said, picking up her clothes. She hugged Jen, nodded reassuringly to Rachel behind Jen’s back and left. Jennifer closed the door and pulled out the desk chair, arranging it so they faced each other.

  "How are you doing, Kellie?"

  Rachel hitched a shoulder, avoiding eye contact. Jen grabbed her hand. "I know you have had it rough, things happened that upset you greatly. Now you find yourself in a strange place with rules and restrictions. Life is very hard sometimes, Kellie, but we can all get through it and be stronger for struggles we have endured. I know that is hard to believe right now, but it’s true.

  "You know what makes it easier?" It wasn’t a question that required an answer so she kept quiet. "A friend. A friend makes the struggle easier…someone to talk to, to share your feelings with, someone you trust implicitly. I want to be your friend, Kellie. Can I do that? Can I be your friend?"

  She chanced a look at the woman and found nothing but sincerity in her steady gaze. Her warm brown eyes were filled with care and concern. She had the overwhelming urge to confess everything to the woman and ask for help. Maybe she knew Molly, or what happened to her. But as much as she wanted to find her friend, she just met Jen. She couldn’t afford to show her hand just yet…for Molly’s sake.

  Her conflicting emotions must have been visible on her face because Jen didn’t push for a response. She glanced at her watch, gathered her briefcase and stood. "We have about an hour before your exams. Why don’t we take a walk around the facility, tour the gardens?"

  Fresh air sounded like heaven. She followed Jen to the nurse’s station and stood to the side while she spoke to Helen and then signed a clipboard. Helen grasped her hand and detached the electronic bracelet with a device that reminded Rachel of the ones salesclerks used to remove security tags from merchandise.

  They took the elevator to the lower level and used a back door to exit the facility. She’d scrolled through pictures of the botanical gardens online but they didn’t do justice to the display gloriously stretched out in front of her. Meticulously landscaped with flowering plants and trees, fish-filled ponds, meandering bark covered paths and large, stately trees, the gardens provided privacy and s
eclusion. It was an oasis of beauty as birds chirped happily overhead and a lazy river gurgled and flowed over rocky waterfalls. They crossed an arched bridge to a wooden bench nestled among the trees. She felt completely at peace, one with nature. Jen’s easy company provided extra comfort.

  Sticking to her script, she remained in character and spouted the lies she concocted on her past and the events that led to her admittance to Bexley. Jen didn’t judge or condemn, she just listened and provided support.

  Rachel felt like a complete and total fraud.

  An easy silence developed as they enjoyed the sights and sounds of the outdoors. A few patients wandered the paths, most with attendants at their side. Some of the nearly-cured patients were allowed to sign themselves out and visit the gardens at their leisure. If she wasn’t mistaken, reading a book on a bench by the creek was an A-list actress who starred in the latest blockbuster before excessive partying landed her at the Bexley Institute.

  Enveloped in a cocoon of peace and tranquility, it was hard to imagine anything bad could have happened to Molly here. Had her friend wandered the same path, watched the same squirrel scavenge for acorns? Rachel had already been at the facility for two days and she wasn’t any closer to finding her friend than when she entered.

  "We better get back," Jen said, interrupting her thoughts. "It’s time for your exams."

  Her stomach rolled. She was going to have to go through a physical so drugs could be prescribed.

  "Don’t be nervous," Jen said, reading her mind. "I’ll stay with you throughout both if you want."

  Relief swamped her at Jen’s generous offer. She didn’t realize how frightened, overwhelmed, she would feel. Having Jen by her side would be a tremendous comfort.

  She really wanted to be able to trust this woman.

  They passed Ben on the way to the exam room. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Jen’s double-take. Apparently she wasn’t alone. He affected all women the same way.

  Hands planted on lean hips, he chatted casually with a well-dressed man. He looked up and their gazes collided. Her pulse spiked. He nodded at something the man said but his eyes never left hers. His head inclined slightly as if in reassurance and she smiled, feeling eminently better knowing he would be near.