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The force of the explosion knocked them both to the ground. She felt dazed; she didn’t understand what had happened. Through the ringing in her ears, she heard screams, running footsteps, the roar of fire and then another, smaller explosion that shook the ground.
Then Eric was there, his strong arms supporting her as he helped her to her feet. “Are you all right?”
“I think so.” She glanced up and gasped when she saw the jagged gash on his cheek. She couldn’t look away from all the blood.
“You’re bleeding …” Swaying, she clutched at him.
“Easy. I think you’re going into shock,” he murmured.
“What exactly just happened?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
“Someone blew up my car. If we’d been inside when it started, we’d both be—”
“Dead.”
And then the seriousness of the situation slammed home. Someone was after her. Someone who, for whatever reason, wanted her dead. But why? Who was she?
***
Be sure to check out the next books in The Coltons of Oklahoma series.
The Coltons of Oklahoma Family secrets always find a way to resurface …
The Temptation
of Dr Colton
Karen Whiddon
KAREN WHIDDON started weaving fanciful tales for her younger brothers at eleven. Amid the Catskill Mountains, then the Rocky Mountains, she fueled her imagination with the natural beauty surrounding her. Karen lives in north Texas and shares her life with her hero of a husband and three doting dogs. You can e-mail Karen at KWhiddon1@aol.com or write to her at PO Box 820807, Fort Worth, TX 76182, USA. Fans can also check out her website, www.karenwhiddon.com.
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To all the wonderful and patient medical professionals who answered questions about trauma surgeons, especially Heather Rodriquez, thank you for your insight. I also learned a lot about Oklahoma cattle ranches from the website of Ree Drummond, AKA The Pioneer Woman. Any mistakes about either are my own.
Contents
Cover
Introduction
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Extract
Copyright
Chapter 1
Despite the steady, light rain, Dr. Eric Colton plowed forward, chin up, his stride brisk. After a long, hot Oklahoma summer, any rain in August was a cause for celebration, though the slate-gray sky matched his mood. Walking home had become his own form of therapy, a way to clear his head after another exhilarating, stress-filled day as a trauma surgeon at Tulsa General Hospital.
The sound of tires squealing on slick pavement made him look back. A black Lincoln Town Car came barreling around the corner, engine revving. The light had just changed and a woman carrying a purple umbrella stepped into the crosswalk. The vehicle never slowed.
With his heart in his throat, he shouted a warning. Too late. As if in slow motion, he watched the car hit the woman, sending her into the air, umbrella and all. The Town Car kept going, taillights flashing red as it disappeared into the distance.
Eric ran, pulling out his cell phone and dialing 911. The woman lay in a crumpled heap on the pavement. He knelt and checked her pulse. Good. Since he knew better than to move her, he grabbed her umbrella and held it over her while he waited with her. As a small crowd gathered, he motioned them back. The same eerie calm he always experienced when he was working had settled over him, though adrenaline still pumped through his veins. Mentally, he assessed her possible injuries, already thinking ahead to types of treatment.
Siren sounding, lights flashing, an ambulance arrived. Still holding the purple umbrella, Eric identified himself as a doctor and explained what he’d witnessed. He watched as the EMTs used the scoop stretcher to get the woman up and he informed them he would be going to the hospital with her.
Once she’d been safely secured inside the ambulance, he climbed in, too. Though careful to stay in the background and not interfere, he kept a sharp eye on them as they worked on the woman. A bruise had begun to form on one high, exotic cheekbone. Even banged up, he could tell she was pretty, maybe even beautiful.
A few minutes later, they pulled up at the ER. While the EMTs got everything ready to bring the patient in, Eric took her small, delicate hand. To his shock, she opened her eyes—they were a startling light blue.
“Walter?” she asked, her husky voice weak. Before he could respond, she drifted back into unconsciousness.
Eric strode ahead, barking out orders, as they brought the woman in. Though his shift was over and Dr. Gina Patel was now on call, he wanted to be kept fully apprised of this patient’s progress. He also figured the police would be around soon to question him, since he’d witnessed the entire thing, so he might as well hang around.
He stepped back and let the staff take care of the woman. When Dr. Patel came running around the corner, she stopped short at the sight of him.
“I thought you’d left.”
“I had. But I saw someone get run over, so I came back with her.”
Dr. Patel raised one brow. “I see. I imagine that’s the patient they’re paging me on.”
“It is.” He dragged his hand through his wet hair, surprised to see he still held the purple umbrella. “Please keep me apprised of her status.”
“Will do.” With a brusque nod, the other doctor hurried off.
As Eric had predicted, the police arrived shortly after. Since Eric’s brother Ryan was an officer for the Tulsa PD, they recognized Eric’s name. After Eric relayed everything he’d seen, which unfortunately didn’t include the license plate on the Town Car, they thanked him and left.
“Dr. Colton, you should go home.” Dr. Patel again, leaving the woman’s room and stopping directly in front of him. “You look exhausted and clearly need some rest. You’ve done your civic duty. I think this patient is going to live. We’ll let you know her status once we finish running all the tests. I’ve asked the neurologist on call to stop by as well.”
Standard protocol. Nodding wearily, Eric exhaled. “Okay, thanks. Keep me posted.” He knew he sounded abrupt, but if anyone would understand, it’d be the ER doctor.
He turned and headed toward the front door. Suddenly the process of trudging home in the rain—even with the woman’s umbrella—seemed unbearable, so he hailed a cab instead.
Once he arrived at his town house—five blocks away from the hospital—he overtipped the cab driver and dashed inside. Once there, he eyed the purple umbrella and realized he would need to return it to her.
Leaning it against the wall in his foyer, he changed out of his drenched scrubs and toweled off his short brown hair. After pouring himself a scotch—neat—he grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Then he poured the scotch out and opted for water instead. He expected the hospital to call at any moment, telling him they were prepping the woman for surgery. He figured she probably had a traumatic brain injury, despite what Dr. Patel thought. After all, the other doctor hadn’t seen the woman get hit.
Too restless to sit, he paced in front of his floor-to-ceiling windows as dusk settled over the city.
That woman. He kept seeing the moment of impact over and over, like a video recording set on repeat that he couldn’t seem to turn off. While he dealt with traumatic injuries every day, from gunshot wounds and stabbings to car accidents, he was used to seeing the patient after.
Surely after being hit like that, she’d have some sort of issue. Hopefully not a brain injury, or something internal.
The physician in him itched to be the one to heal her. The man in him wanted to find out more about her. When she’d stepped out into the crosswalk, she’d moved with a jaunty stride, despite the rain. Her purple umbrella had white cupcakes printed all along the edge.
She’d had short brown hair with reddish highlights. Even soaking wet, it had still managed to retain its curl, framing her heart-shaped face nicely.
And her eyes... Something about them, maybe the unusual light blue color, intrigued him. Who was Walter? When she’d briefly regained consciousness, she’d managed to say his name, which meant he had to be someone important to her. A husband or lover?
Sipping the water, he rolled his neck and shoulders. Though his body felt exhausted, he couldn’t shut off his mind. He needed to unwind, somehow.
His building had a gym, but after being on his feet for the better part of twelve hours, the last thing he felt like doing was working out. Even though intellectually he knew it would be good for him, tonight he’d take a pass.
It was Friday night. He could call one of his brothers and see if they wanted to meet up to shoot some pool or drink a few beers, even though he’d have to stick with something nonalcoholic, just in case. But—no surprise here—he’d rather be alone.
Clicking the TV off, he turned on his Bose stereo, with his iPod set to play classical music—Bach, Beethoven, Mozart—and let the music wash over him. His taste in music had been the source of much amusement growing up on the family ranch, where everyone listened to Garth Brooks, George Strait, or Willie Nelson. One or two of his brothers had secretly listened to rock, but no one, not even his sister, Greta, understood Eric’s musical choices.
He didn’t care. The soaring notes and perfect melodies were the polar opposite of the often violent cases he saw each day.
Tonight though, even his favorite music couldn’t soothe him. He reached for his phone, tempted to call the ER and find out the mystery woman’s status. But he didn’t. After all, he was on call through the weekend and if anything happened with her, they’d page him. He expected this at any time. Sometimes, waiting really was the hardest part.
* * *
The woman opened her eyes, fighting back panic. Where was she? What had happened? Machines beeped, and she realized she had an IV in her arm. A hospital? She tried to remember. Had there been an accident? Had she been ill? Her head hurt. No, more than hurt. Throbbed. Pressing against her forehead with her hand, she wondered if she could make it stop.
As she struggled to sit up, she set off some kind of an alarm. A nurse came running. “You’re awake,” she said, as if being awake was something special.
The woman nodded, then winced. “My head hurts,” she said. “Actually, my entire body is in pain.”
“That’s to be expected. You were in a pretty serious accident, though you were lucky. Nothing is broken.”
Processing this, she squinted at the other woman. “Where am I?”
“Tulsa General.” The nurse bustled around her, silencing the screeching machine, checking various things. “How are you feeling?”
She had to think about that for a second. “I’m...not sure. Dizzy? Hungry? Thirsty, maybe?”
The nurse smiled. “We can fix that. But first, can you tell me your name? We couldn’t find any ID on you.”
Her name. She tried to recall, to think, battling through the pain, hating that her head felt so muzzy. Finally, with a grimace, she admitted defeat. “I don’t know. I can’t seem to remember. I just don’t remember anything.”
“That’s okay,” the nurse soothed. “Don’t worry about that right now. I’m sure it will come to you. Meanwhile, how about I see what I can do for you in the food department.”
As it turned out, not much. The attending doctor had ordered a liquid-only diet until all the test results were in. She was given some tasteless broth, and unsweetened tea. Which turned out to be okay, since an attempt to drink the broth had her gagging.
What on earth had happened to her, and why couldn’t she remember even her own name? After racking her brain, the woman closed her eyes and went to sleep.
* * *
Despite Eric’s certainty, a call didn’t come that night. He fought the urge to phone the hospital himself, well aware that he needed to force himself to have a little separation from work. His colleagues had been telling him that for months now. Heck, even the nursing staff had taken to asking him when he’d take a vacation.
Time off. Such a concept was for other people, not him. He’d worked too hard to perform his life’s work just to chuck it for a week or two. There probably existed a healthy balance between work and personal life, but for him such a thing was an abstract concept. A couple of guys he knew from back when they’d done their residencies had all complained about the eighty-and ninety-hour workweeks, but Eric never had. The more time he worked, the more he thrived.
Being a trauma surgeon was all he’d ever wanted to do. If not for his siblings’ insistence that he spend the occasional time hanging out with them, he figured he’d probably devote every waking hour to the hospital.
His three brothers, one sister and one half brother had made it their mission to ensure he saw his family. Even if Eric never found time to visit the Lucky C—the Colton family ranch—they all drove in to Tulsa to spend time with him. He appreciated this more than they knew. He valued his family connection and loved his siblings.
Their closeness helped Eric live with his parents’ distance. His mother and father never came to see him. Despite Eric’s oldest brother, Jack’s, dedication to the family business, Big J—as they called their father, John—had never gotten over his second son’s defection to another line of work. At least the man had an excuse, unlike Abra, his mother.
All through his youth, Eric’s mother had always been too self-involved, too busy with her travel and her shopping to care about her children. Only once her friends had begun commenting on how fortunate she was to have a doctor in the family did she begin to make noises of approval about his career. By then, it had been too little, too late.
Eric told himself he’d gotten used to the fact that neither of his parents had even seen his town house. He even wondered what it said about him that his parents’ lack of interest in his life rarely bothered him anymore.
And then the unthinkable had happened. A few months ago someone had attacked Abra and she’d been transferred to Tulsa General. Eric had been on call, and seeing his mother’s beaten, comatose body had made him realize how foolish their stubborn feud had been.
Her condition had been stabilized and there’d been nothing to do but wait. The neurologist had said in cases like hers, there was a fifty-fifty chance.
Months had gone by and Abra remained in a coma. Big J had hired a private nursing firm and had her moved to the Lucky C. Though the waiting seemed agonizing, Eric knew only time could heal her. She’d wake when she was ready, or not at all.
He hoped she woke. The two of them had a few fences to mend. Never again would he let his hurt pride get in the way of what mattered.
Thinking about his family finally lulled him to sleep.
* * *
The next morning, even though it was a Saturday, he woke at five, his usual time. Once he slugged back a glass of water, he dressed and hurried downstairs to the building’s gym. He pounded out ten minutes of cardio, worked his upper body with free weights and then did another ten on the treadmill.
Satisfied and sweaty, he returned to his town house, downed a protein shake and showered. He’d promised to meet his sister, Greta, for lunch later since she was in town, but he still had enough time to run up to the hospital and check on the mystery woman. Surely by now they’d moved her to a regular room.
When he arrived, the nurse on call, an older woman who always seemed disgruntled, frowned at him. “Dr. Colton? Are you doing rounds today, too? I show you’re off for the weekend.”
With a shrug, he slipped behind the counter and checked the computer. “I witnessed a woman hit by a car and brought her into the ER last night. What’s her status? Sorry, I don’t know her name.”
“Jane Doe?”
“That’s her name?” He crossed his arms. “Or is that what you’re calling her until you learn her real name?”
“The latter. She’s been admitted for observation.”
“Observation?” Which explained why he hadn’t gotten a phone call.
“Yes.” She handed him the chart. “Take a look yourself.”
Flipping through the pages, he barely noticed when the nurse bustled off. Unbelievably, all Jane Doe appeared to have suffered was a concussion and some bruised ribs. No broken bones or internal injuries. Wow. As far as he could tell, she was the luckiest woman in Tulsa.
He might as well take a look at her while he was here. Chart in hand, he hurried down the hall toward her room.
After tapping briskly twice, he pushed open the door and called out a quiet “Good morning.” Apparently, he’d woken her. She blinked groggily up at him, her amazing pale blue eyes slow to focus on him. He couldn’t help but notice her long and thick lashes.
“Doctor?” Pushing herself up on her elbows, she shoved her light brown curls away from her face. “You look so familiar.”
“That’s because I rode with you in the ambulance last night.”
“Ambulance?” She tilted her head, giving him an uncertain smile. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.”
Amnesia? He frowned. “How much do you remember?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Her husky voice broke and her full lips quivered, just the slightest bit. “Not even my name or what happened to me.”
He took a seat in the chair next to the bed, suppressing the urge to take her hand. “Give it time. You’ve suffered a traumatic accident. I’m quite confident you’ll start to remember bits and pieces as time goes on.”
“I hope so.” Her sleepy smile transformed her face, lighting her up, changing her from pretty to absolutely gorgeous.
Unbelievably, he felt his body stir in response. Shocked, he nearly pushed to his feet. This kind of thing had never happened to him, ever. He’d learned to maintain a professional detachment.
Yet something about this woman was different. She seemed more...helpless, or something. And cute. Despite her bruises and the road rash on her cheek and neck, she reminded him of a flower, delicate and fresh.
Again, not appropriate. But, he reminded himself, he was not her doctor. He’d only witnessed her accident after his shift.
When he went silent, her long, silky lashes swept down over her eyes, making him wonder if she’d fallen back asleep. But then she sighed, and raised her gaze to give him a long look. “The nurse said I was in an accident and then you mentioned an ambulance.”
“Yes.” He decided not to elaborate, feeling it would be better if she remembered on her own.
“Was I in a car crash?”
“Sort of.” Eyeing her, he remembered something else. “When you were hurt, you called out for Walter. Do you remember who that might be?”
“Walter?” she said, overenunciating, almost as if trying to sound out a word in a foreign language. “Walter.”
“Husband?” He didn’t like that idea, but it was a possibility. “Friend? Brother? Coworker?”
“Stop. I honestly have no idea.” She held up her hand, turning it to study her ring finger on her left hand. “I don’t see a wedding band, so I don’t think I’m married.”
The rush of gladness he felt at her words shocked him at first. “I wouldn’t think so,” he agreed.
“Me either.” A faint hint of hysteria had crept into her voice. “Hopefully I couldn’t forget my own husband.”
Now he did give in to temptation and touch her, lightly squeezing her shoulder, overly aware of the smoothness of her skin under the thin hospital gown. “Don’t stress. Believe me, you’ll remember in time.”
When she exhaled, she seemed deflated. “Thank you, Doctor.” The slight shine in her cornflower eyes told him she was fighting back tears.
This made his chest tighten. Immediately, he stood, slightly confused at the tangle of emotion she invoked in him. “You’ll be fine,” he repeated. “I’m sure Dr. Patel will be by to check on you soon.”
“Dr. Patel? You’re not my doctor?”
Unbelievably, she sounded...hurt. Even more unbelievable, he had to hide a grin.
“No, I’m not. I’m sorry.” On the way to the door, he turned back to glance at her. First mistake.
Her light brown curls looked windblown, and the perfect bow of her lush mouth made him want to kiss her. The stab of desire hit him low in his gut, completely unexpected and unwelcome.
He dragged his hand across his face, aware he needed to go but unable to pull himself away.
“Even though I can’t recall anything about what happened to me, for some reason I recognize you,” she mused. “How is that possible? Why would I remember one thing and not the others? What happened to me, exactly?”
“Probably because your memory is coming back in bits and pieces,” he told her, aware he hadn’t answered her question. But he didn’t want to reveal to her how she’d been injured; he’d rather give her the chance to remember on her own.
She blinked, her gaze both sleepy and seductive. His instinctive response to this slammed into him, so powerful he took a step back.
Dangerous.
Clearly, he’d lost his mind. He had to get out of there immediately, before he did something he’d regret. “Feel better soon. Take care,” he said, dipping his chin in a quick nod before he left her room.
He didn’t slow down until he reached the nurse’s station, which mercifully was empty at the moment. Taking a seat, he tried to calm his racing heart. Since work usually absorbed him, he took another look at Jane Doe’s chart.
Everything confirmed what he’d been told. Mild concussion and some bruising. Which meant, under any other circumstances, she’d be released to go home soon.
But she didn’t know where home was. So what were they going to do with her?
His cell phone vibrated. His brother Ryan. Since Ryan worked for the Tulsa PD, maybe he could help find out who the mystery woman was, and who exactly Walter might be. He really needed to know if Walter was her husband, for reasons he didn’t even want to consider right now.
Stepping into the hallway, Eric answered.
“I heard you got involved in a hit-and-run last night,” Ryan said by way of greeting.
“Yes, as a witness. As a matter of fact, I just left the victim’s room. I’m hoping you can help me.” Briefly, he outlined what little he knew. “I’ve already told most of this to the guys who came out to investigate last night. Though I know they’re busy.”
“Like I’m not?” Ryan laughed, taking the sting off his words. “How about we discuss it over lunch?”