Page 41 of No Escape

Chapter Fourteen

Sarah opened her eyes, surprised to find herself in the sterile environment of a hospital room. She felt the warmth of the sun on her arm and realized she was near a window. Slowly turning her head toward that warmth, she received her second surprise. Susan was sitting at her bedside.

A small smile formed on her mouth. “Susan?” She blinked several times to clear her vision.

Slumped in a chair, Susan raised her head from where it was resting on her crossed arms, her worried eyes meeting Sarah’s. Tears of joy and relief quickly filled her eyes. “Thank God.” She reached over, taking Sarah’s hand gently, a trembling smile on her pale face. “Oh, honey, I was so worried about you.”

“What happened?” Sarah asked weakly. The last thing she remembered was boarding the plane with Clint.

“The doctor said you had a severe allergic reaction to an insect bite. You were in bad shape when they brought you in an hour ago. Thank God Clint gave you a shot of epinephrine. The doctor said it saved your life.”

Only an hour ago? “I remember…” She glanced down at her bandaged hand, her brows drawing together in a frown. “Clint?” She stopped what she’d been about to say, a fog clouded her memories of him.

“My cousin from Montana. He owns a ranch there,” Susan supplied, when it appeared Sarah was drifting off. “He was the only one I could turn to for help.” She got up and poured Sarah a glass of water. “Here, have a drink, honey, it might help.” Susan was the motherly sort, and her cure all for everything was plenty of water. A weak smile spread across Sarah’s face when her friend automatically began taking care of her.

“When I went in to work that morning, there was a note on the floor just inside the door saying I’d been kidnapped and would be released safely once the jewels were returned. I tried to contact you, and when I couldn’t, realized they’d taken you by mistake. Clint and Mark used to be Navy Seals together. I knew they were in some kind of business venture together after that and thought he could help me.”

Sarah wasn’t about to inform her best friend what that business venture was. Susan wouldn’t believe her brother had been capable of living the life of a ruthless mercenary.

“Jewels? What jewels?” Sarah asked in a slow mumble, trying to digest Susan’s words. She didn’t know much about her cousin or the ranch in Montana, only that every year Susan sent her sons there to spend a few weeks of their summer vacation with her Aunt Lois.

“The jewels this Mr. Rodriguez thinks Mark gave me to keep for him. But I don’t know anything about them.”

“But I thought…I thought he was after some kind of statue.” Sarah was more confused than ever now.

“Yes, but apparently the jewels were being smuggled into the country in some cheap statue Mark bought for me, which I never received. It’s a long story, honey. We can talk more about it when you’re feeling better.”

Sarah met Susan’s gaze, trying to put the pieces together so that they made some sense. “Where’s Clint now?” she asked in a raspy tone.

“As soon as he knew you were going to be okay, he took off. Said there was something important he had to take care of. He…”

Yes, he had to return the statue with the jewels in it to Raul. She tried to follow Susan’s chatter, but the drugs in her system were too powerful, and she began drifting in and out. After a while, she gave up trying to keep her eyes open. They must have given her a sedative.

“Tired,” she mumbled.

“We’ll talk later. The doctor said he wants to keep you overnight for observation. I’ll be by for you in the morning and discuss Montana then.” She kissed Sarah on the forehead, skipping from the room before Sarah could ask what she meant.

After Susan left, Sarah slept again, her dreams filled with the haunting memories of a rugged face and battle-scarred body. Of piercing black eyes and a mouth that lifted her to heaven and back. In her dreams, she loved Clint, but when she woke later that night, she knew it wasn’t just in her dreams.

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A trip to Montana, so that was what Susan had on her mind. Sarah spared her friend a glance that all but said she knew what she was doing. They were lounging on her back porch, enjoying the sea breeze and salty air coming in off the ocean.

Susan reached for her glass of ice tea. “It will do you good to get away.”

“I just got back from getting away,” Sarah said with mild sarcasm, focusing her eyes on the surf and the screeching sea gulls as they flew overhead in search of a free meal.

She was resigned to the fact that once Susan got an idea in her head, nothing short of a miracle would change her mind. She was like a hungry dog with a bone, and she’d known Susan long enough to know any protest she made would go in one ear and out the other.

“I’ve already bought you a ticket. You’re flying out with the boys and me on Saturday,” Susan said firmly.

A laugh escaped Sarah because Susan had been trying to get her to go with them to Montana every year since they started going—since before the boys had come along and Susan’s husband Tom was still alive.

She’d always managed to come up with an excuse to stay home. “Me, on a ranch somewhere out in the wilds of Montana? Not a very good mix,” she warned her friend, in the same response she gave her every year.

“You’ve been through a lot lately.” Susan reached for an orange and started to peel it, bringing back a memory of another time when she’d reached for a banana, from a man with haunting midnight eyes.

How could she tell Susan she didn’t want to go there, especially now that she knew Clint would be there? The fact he’d just disappeared after dropping her off at the hospital revealed his lack of feelings for her, didn’t it? She wasn’t about to show up on his doorstep putting them both in an awkward situation.

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