Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      A wild-goose chase.

      Kevin Cartwright feared that’s exactly what he was indulging in when he entered the automatic doors of the Kansas City Memorial Hospital.

      After three years of false leads and dashed hopes, he really didn’t expect this new development to pan out. But the moment he’d seen her on television, he’d known he had to check her out.

      “I’m here for an appointment with Dr. Phoebe Jones,” he said to the lobby receptionist.

      “Her office is on the fourth floor,” the elderly woman explained. “Take the elevator up then ask at the nurses’ station and they’ll direct you to Dr. Jones’s office.”

      A moment later Kevin stood in the elevator and stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. It was only noon, but he’d already been on a plane for five hours. Apparently the good doctor only took appointments during her lunch hour and so he’d had to take a redeye flight to get from Southern California to Kansas City before noon.

      He tried to ignore the antiseptic smell that permeated the building, the “hospital” scent evoking in him memories of intense pain and crippling fear.

      Don’t think about it, he told himself. Just don’t think about it. There was no way he wanted to fall back into memories of that time so long ago.

      He found the nurses’ station on the fourth floor with no problem and was taken to Dr. Jones’s office by one of the nurses.

      The office was small, furnished simply with a desk, two chairs, and a wall of bookcases behind the desk. The bookcases held nothing but medical tombs, the desk, a computer, and an appointment book.

      There were no personal artifacts, no photos, no vase of flowers…nothing to indicate anything about the woman who belonged to the office.

      Even in here, the hospital smell lingered and Kevin felt the unwelcome memories once again trying to intrude. It had been five years ago that he’d last been in a hospital and it vaguely surprised him that the memories were so strong that it felt as if it had only been yesterday.

      He consciously shoved them away and focused on the task at hand. She’s got to be the right one, he thought as he sat in the chair opposite the desk.

      Adrenaline pumped through him as he anticipated that after three long years, it was possible he’d finally found one of the four people he’d been hired to find.

      “Good afternoon.” The soft, feminine voice drifted from the doorway and a second later she stepped into his sight.

      “Hello,” he returned, half rising from his seat. His pulse accelerated slightly as he gazed at her.

      He told himself it had nothing to do with the fact that she was one sexy-looking woman, but rather because it was possible he was finally going to be successful in partially wrapping up one of his most difficult cases.

      Still, she was certainly easy on the eyes.

      She waved him back down as she eased into the chair behind her desk. “I’m Dr. Jones and you must be Kevin Cartwright.”

      “Yes, that’s right.” He couldn’t see the necklace. Beneath the smock she wore, she had on a green turtleneck that did dazzling things to her green eyes, but hid the necklace that had brought him to her in the first place.

      “What can I do for you, Mr. Cartwright?” She opened up an appointment book and stared down. “According to my secretary, you were quite insistent on meeting me today, but you were vague about the purpose for this meeting.”

      She tucked a strand of honey-colored hair behind her ear, then looked at him once again. In her eyes he saw a no-nonsense directness. “If you’re from a drug company, I can tell you right now that I don’t do the ordering and so we’d be wasting each other’s time.”

      “No, I’m not from any company. I saw the news story about the little boy who lost his arm in a mowing accident. You and your team of doctors made national news with the successful surgery to reattach the limb.”

      She nodded. “Michael is a good kid and we were very happy with the success of the operation.”

      “It sounds as if Michael is a little fighter.” For the first time since he’d walked into the office, she smiled and Kevin felt the force of that gorgeous smile in the pit of his stomach.

      “He certainly is,” she agreed.

      “The television screen didn’t do you justice.” He hadn’t meant to say it, but it was what had been going around in his head.

      She was thinner than she’d looked on television, although she certainly had curves in all the right places. And there was no way the television screen had been able to capture the intense green of her eyes or the soft golden glow of her shoulder-length hair.

      The smile that had momentarily lifted the corners of her lush lips disappeared abruptly at his words. “What is it you want, Mr. Cartwright?” She glanced at the delicate silver watch on her wrist. “I have another surgery scheduled in exactly fifteen minutes.”

      “I think you’re the woman I’ve been looking