Intensive Care. Jessica Andersen
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“Look, Cage. I know you’re just trying to do your job. But those are my patients dying.”
“And it’s your reputation on the line,” he said without thinking, and saw Ripley’s eyes darken further, this time with anger.
“No, Cage—my patients. I don’t care about anything else right now.”
He wished he could explain what he was feeling, but the barriers were still too thick, the walls too high. “I know you’re a good doctor, Ripley.”
She cocked her head. “Does this mean you want a truce?”
Yes, he wanted a truce with her. He wanted a lifetime. But he’d been a terrible husband once before. He knew better than to try again. So he nodded. “Sure, a truce. Can we start with you giving me a lift home?”
She turned to leave, and he followed her out to the street, gazing at her legs and feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle to attention, like there was someone watching.
Someone waiting.
Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,
August marks a special month at Harlequin Intrigue as we commemorate our twentieth anniversary! Over the past two decades we’ve satisfied our devoted readers’ diverse appetites with a vast smorgasbord of romantic suspense page-turners. Now, as we look forward to the future, we continue to stand by our promise to deliver thrilling mysteries penned by stellar authors.
As part of our celebration, our much-anticipated new promotion, ECLIPSE, takes flight. With one book planned per month, these stirring Gothic-inspired stories will sweep you into an entrancing landscape of danger, deceit…and desire. Leona Karr sets the stage for mind-bending mystery with debut title, A Dangerous Inheritance.
A high-risk undercover assignment turns treacherous when smoldering seduction turns to forbidden love, in Bulletproof Billionaire by Mallory Kane, the second installment of NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL. Then, peril closes in on two torn-apart lovers, in Midnight Disclosures— Rita Herron’s latest book in her spine-tingling medical research series, NIGHTHAWK ISLAND.
Patricia Rosemoor proves that the fear of the unknown can be a real aphrodisiac in On the List—the fourth installment of CLUB UNDERCOVER. Code blue! Patients are mysteriously dropping like flies in Boston General Hospital, and it’s a race against time to prevent the killer from striking again, in Intensive Care by Jessica Andersen.
To round off an unforgettable month, Jackie Manning returns to the lineup with Sudden Alliance—a woman-in-jeopardy tale fraught with nonstop action…and a lethal attraction!
Join in on the festivities by checking out all our selections this month!
Sincerely,
Denise O’Sullivan
Harlequin Intrigue Senior Editor
Intensive Care
Jessica Andersen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Though she’s tried out professions ranging from cleaning sea lion cages to cloning glaucoma genes, from patent law to training horses, Jessica is happiest when she’s combining all these interests with her first love—writing romances. These days she’s delighted to be writing full-time on a farm in rural Connecticut that she shares with a small menagerie of animals and a hero named Brian. She hopes you’ll visit her at www.JessicaAndersen.com for info on upcoming books, contests and to say “Hi”!
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Ripley Davis—She will do anything to keep her patients safe and her department open, even if it means teaming up with just the sort of man she’s vowed to avoid.
Zachary Cage—His mission is protecting patients from unscrupulous doctors like the ones that killed his wife. Will he learn to trust Ripley in time to save her from the serial killer at work in Boston General?
Leo Gabney—The head administrator will do anything to win the Hospital of the Year Award and its ten-million-dollar prize. Anything.
Howard Davis—Ripley’s father once ran the hospital. Whose side is he on?
Belle—The hospital volunteer loves her patients, but is there a dark side to her angelic behavior?
Whistler—Cage’s assistant has the training and the knowledge to murder the patients with injected radioactivity and adrenaline.
Tansy Whitmore—There’s something bothering Riley’s friend and co-worker, but she’d rather not talk about it.
George Dixon—Cage has replaced him as head of Radiation Safety at the hospital, but Dixon may still be playing a role at the hospital. A sinister one.
To Melissa Jeglinski, for believing in my stories and helping me grow as a writer.
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 One
Ripley Davis stiff-armed the swinging doors that separated Radiation Oncology from Boston General’s central atrium and frowned at the unexpected death report in her hand. She’d gone over the case ten times since the day before and it still didn’t make any sense.
Ida Mae Harris shouldn’t have died.
The failure weighed heavily as she jogged down the spiraling stairs to the lobby, but her schedule left little room for a quiet moment. She had barely enough time to grab a coffee before she was due at another “emergency” Radiation Safety meeting—the second one this month. She’d heard that the head Radiation Safety Nazi had been replaced, but she held little hope for improvement. Rumor had it that the new guy, Zachary Cage, hated doctors.
Great, that was just what Ripley needed.
She didn’t have time for a meeting and she didn’t have time for a Radiation Safety Officer with an attitude shutting her down for a snap inspection. She was struggling to keep the Radiation Oncology department open as it was, following the last round of budget cuts. But R-ONC—pronounced Ronk—was her life. The patients were her family. The administration couldn’t shut her down. They just couldn’t.
The paperwork in her hand crinkled and Ripley knew they could shut her down unless she could defend Ida Mae’s death at the inquiry. The sixty-something grandmother had been scheduled for release. She’d been happy and fit following her treatment. She shouldn’t have died.
What had gone wrong?
Ripley shook her head as she turned the corner and strode across the hospital’s tiled atrium toward the café. The waterfall fountain burbled to itself, but she wasn’t soothed by the sound. Even shorthanded, her department’s survival rate was one of the best in the country. She was up to date with all the new methods and ran a ruthlessly