The Forever Assignment. Jennifer Taylor
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mean I won’t be able to wear my Gucci loafers and Chanel suits while we’re in Mwuranda?’ She gasped in feigned horror. ‘Heavens above! How will I cope?’
‘Not very well with that attitude.’ His smile disappeared in a trice. ‘This isn’t a game. There’s been civil war in the country for the past two years and conditions there are about as bad as they can get. The people we will be treating have nothing left apart from their dignity and they certainly don’t need you making jokes at their expense.’
‘And you really think I need you to tell me that?’ She took a step towards him, incensed by his patronising manner. ‘I’m fully aware how bad the conditions are going to be, Adam. I’ve read the reports and I know what we’ll be dealing with.’
‘Do you really?’ He laughed softly, scorn lacing his deep voice so that she winced inwardly. ‘You may think you know what it’s like to work in a country where the whole infrastructure has broken down but until you experience the reality for yourself, you can’t possibly understand. It’s going to be tough—really tough—and I’m not sure you’re up to it.’
‘Then we shall just have to wait and see who’s right, won’t we?’ she said lightly. Maybe she didn’t have any experience of working under such extreme conditions but she’d cope. She had to because the alternative to letting him think she was beaten wasn’t an option. No matter how bad it was, she was going to complete this mission and show Adam bloody Chandler that he was wrong about her!
‘I’m sure Kasey understands it won’t be a picnic,’ Shiloh said soothingly. ‘Although, you’re quite right to worry, Adam, because it’s your job to ensure the safety and welfare of your team. However, let’s not get sidetracked at the moment. I’m afraid we have another problem to sort out. Your flights are all arranged but there’s been a bit of a hitch with the cargo.’
Kasey excused herself as the two men started to confer. She glanced around the room, wondering if she should introduce herself to the other members of the team. Shiloh had explained that they’d decided to hold a last-minute meeting to discuss any concerns the group might have and it might be an idea to let them know who she was. She made her way over to the corner where a group of women was standing and smiled at them.
‘Hi! I’m Kasey Harris. I’m stepping in as a last-minute replacement for one of your anaesthetists.’
‘Welcome aboard, Kasey.’ One of the women immediately drew her into the group. ‘I’m June Morris, one of the nurses. I keep saying I’m never going on another of these little jaunts but here I am again!’
Kasey laughed. ‘You must enjoy it.’
‘Enjoy being bitten by mozzies and sucked dry by leeches?’ June rolled her eyes. ‘Only a masochist would enjoy what we do, eh, girls?’
The other women laughed as Kasey grinned at them. ‘OK, so why do you do it? Is it the excitement of working in a new place, or the buzz of being able to make a difference to people’s lives?’
‘Probably a mixture of both,’ one of the women replied. She held out her hand. ‘I’m Katie Dexter, by the way, another of June’s little flock.’
‘Nice to meet you.’ Kasey shook hands. ‘So that’s two nurses so far. How many more of you are there?’
‘Just Lorraine and Mary.’ June explained, introducing the other two women. ‘We could have done with a couple more, to be honest, but Adam has been very choosy. He only wanted people with experience of working in the field along on this trip.’
Kasey grimaced. ‘Mmm, so I gathered.’
‘He didn’t seem too happy about you coming along,’ Katie put in hesitantly, and June laughed.
‘That’s an understatement if ever I heard one! I never thought I’d see the day when Adam Chandler lost his cool. He’s the proverbial ice-man but he hit the roof when Shiloh told him you were going to be on the team. Do I sense a juicy story?’
‘Not really.’ Kasey shrugged, trying to make light of what had gone on because she’d never told anyone what had happened between her and Adam. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of what she’d done but she wasn’t exactly proud of it either.
She sighed because it had all seemed so simple in the beginning, too. Her sole aim had been to show Adam that he couldn’t go around playing god with people’s lives the way he’d done with her brother. She’d decided to teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget. She’d known about Adam’s reputation for being aloof, of course. Several of her friends had worked with him and they’d told her that he never mixed socially with his staff, but she hadn’t let that deter her. Someone had needed to show him how it felt to have your whole life torn apart. So she’d got herself a job at the hospital where he’d worked with the express intention of trying to foster a relationship between them and, in the event, it had been surprisingly easy to do.
Kasey shivered. Even now she could recall the shock of their first meeting, still remember the way her skin had tingled when he’d shaken her hand and how her body had responded to the gravelly sound of his voice. That Adam had been equally affected hadn’t been in any doubt, and it had scared her because it had been the last thing she’d expected, yet there had been no way that she could have backed out at that point. So she’d gone ahead with her plan—accepted his invitation to dinner the following night—even though she’d had qualms about what she’d been doing.
She’d been right to have doubts, too, she thought wryly, because it had soon become apparent that the situation was getting out of hand. Within the space of a few weeks, she realised that their feelings for one another were far deeper than she’d expected them to be and decided to call a halt. After all, she’d achieved her objective, so there was no reason to carry on, yet telling Adam the truth that night had been the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.
His reaction had been everything she had expected yet it had hurt far more than she’d imagined it would to hear him call her a ‘devious little liar’ and a ‘cold-hearted bitch’, and know that she’d deserved it. She had set out to deceive him. She had deliberately led him on, although, in her own defence, she’d simply wanted to teach him a lesson, not break his heart, and the thought was so painful all of a sudden that she rushed on.
‘We just had a difference of opinion once upon a time and he hasn’t forgiven me for it.’
‘Funny. It’s not like him to bear a grudge.’ June frowned as she glanced over to where Adam was standing. ‘Oh, he’s a real tartar when it comes to work and won’t accept anything less than a hundred and ten percent effort from his staff, but I’ve always found him very fair, I have to say.’
Kasey didn’t say anything. There was no point trying to correct June when it would only lead to more questions. However, Adam certainly hadn’t behaved fairly towards her brother. He’d made Keiran’s life hell with his constant criticisms when her brother had worked for him. It had been so bad, in fact, that Keiran had given up medicine in the end and it had been the start of a downward spiral from which he was only now recovering.
‘Kasey’s an unusual name. How do you spell it? With a K or a C?’
Kasey was relieved to turn her thoughts to less stressful topics when Lorraine spoke to her. ‘With a K. My name is actually Kathleen Christine but it caused no end of confusion when I was a child. My gran was called Kathleen, you see, and each of her sons wanted to name their first daughter after her.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘It wouldn’t have been a problem if all four of them hadn’t had a girl. At family get-togethers Gran used to shout ‘Kathleen’ and we’d all come running. In the end she decided it was easier to call us by the initial letters of our names so I ended up as Kasey and it just sort of stuck.’
June laughed. ‘You should fit right in, then. We’re really big on nicknames. You’ll find a lot of the folk who work for Worlds Together have them.’
‘Really? So what’s Adam’s nickname?’ she asked, grinning.