Page 2 of The Secret (Highlands' Lairds 1)

  The ambulance had just turned around to go in the direction the boys were pointing, but when the gunshots were fired, it changed course. Sirens on, the ambulance crossed over the curb and swerved to miss the hospital emergency entrance sign. It bounded across the park toward the gunshot victim, weaving in and out of the crowd that was scrambling toward the boulevard.

  Ellie jumped to her feet and ran after it. Her mind was racing. Who were the surgeons on call tonight? Edmonds and Walmer, she remembered, and she’d seen both of them in the hospital. Good.

  The target had been a good distance away from the shooter, but he’d taken a direct hit to the torso. Ellie had no idea how bad the wound was, but she thought, if she could stabilize him, he’d make it to the OR.

  The ambulance crossed the grassy area of the park in no time and stopped a few feet away from the downed man. Two paramedics leapt to the ground. Ellie recognized them: Mary Lynn Scott and Russell Probst. Russell opened the back doors and pulled out the gurney while Mary Lynn reached for the large, orange trauma bag and rushed forward, sliding to her knees beside the victim. By the time Ellie reached the scene, armed agents had surrounded him. One knelt on the ground talking to the man, trying to keep him calm, while two others stood over him.

  An agent, taller than the other two and much more muscular through the shoulders, blocked her view. He barely glanced at her as he brusquely ordered, “You don’t need to see this. Go back to your soccer game.”

  Go back to your game? Was he serious? Ellie was about to protest when one of the paramedics looked up, spotted her, and shouted, “Oh, thank God. Dr. Sullivan.”

  All three agents looked at her skeptically and then slowly stepped aside so that she could get past. Mary Lynn tossed her a pair of gloves, and Ellie pulled them on as she knelt down beside the man to assess the injury. Blood saturated the man’s shirt. She gently lifted the compress Mary Lynn had pressed to his shoulder, saw the damage, and immediately sought to stem the bleeding. While she gave orders to Russell and Mary Lynn, she kept her voice steady. The patient was conscious, and she didn’t want him to panic.

  “How bad is it?” he asked.

  She made it a point never to lie to a patient. That didn’t mean she had to be brutally honest, however. “It’s bad, but I’ve seen much worse, much worse.”

  Russell handed her a clamp, and she found the source of the bleeding. The bullet hadn’t gone through but had made quite an entrance.

  Once Mary Lynn had gotten the IV line in, Ellie nodded to her to begin the drip.

  “What’s your name?” she asked as she began packing the wound.

  “Sean . . . Sean . . . ah, hell, I can’t remember my last name.” His eyelids began to flutter as he struggled to stay conscious.

  The agent kneeling behind him said, “Goodman.”

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Sean said, his voice growing weaker.

  “Can you remember if you’re allergic to anything?” Mary Lynn asked.

  “Just bullets.” Sean stared at Ellie through half-closed eyes. “Are you a doctor?”

  “Yes,” she said, flashing a smile. She finished packing the wound and leaned back on her heels.

  “Dr. Sullivan’s a trauma surgeon,” Russell explained. “If you had to get shot, she’s the one you want operating on you. She’s the best there is.”

  “Okay, he’s stable. You can take him,” Ellie said as she peeled off her gloves and dropped them in the plastic container Mary Lynn opened for her.

  Sean suddenly grabbed her arm, his grip surprisingly strong. “Wait . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “I want to marry Sara. Am I going to see her again?”

  She leaned over him. “Yes, you will,” she said. “But first you’re going into the OR to get that bullet out. Now sleep. It’s all good. The surgeon will take care of you.”

  “Who’s on tonight?” Russell asked.

  “Edmonds and Walmer,” Mary Lynn answered.

  Sean tightened his hold on Ellie’s arm. “I want you.” He didn’t give her time to respond but held tight and forced himself to stay awake as he repeated, “He said you’re the best. I want you to operate.”

  She put her hand on top of his and nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  She stood and stepped back to get out of the way so that the paramedics could put Sean into the ambulance but was stopped by something solid. It felt as though she’d just backed into a slab of granite. The agent who had told her to go back to her soccer game was blocking her exit with his warm, hard chest. He put his hands on her shoulders to steady her, then let go. When he still didn’t get out of her way, she stood her ground pressed against him.

  “Dr. Sullivan, do you want to ride with us?” Russell called out.

  “No, go ahead. He’s stable now.”

  Russell swung the doors shut, jumped into the driver’s seat, and the ambulance was on its way.

  Ellie turned to the agent who had been kneeling with Sean. “Was anyone else hurt?”

  The granite wall behind her answered. “Not hurt, dead.” He was very matter-of-fact.

  “They weren’t ours,” another agent explained. “They were wanted men.”

  She turned around and came face to shoulders with the most intimidating man she’d ever seen, and that was saying something considering the monster chief of surgery she worked under. This man didn’t look anything like him, though. The agent was tall, dark, and scary, with thick black hair and penetrating, steely gray eyes. His firm square jaw was covered with at least one day’s growth of beard, maybe two. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in at least twenty-four hours, a look she knew all too well.

  Ellie’s heart skipped a beat. The man could scare the quills off a porcupine. But, oh God, was he sexy! Ellie gave herself a mental slap. An intimidating man who was built like a monument and could melt iron with his menacing glare—this was what she was attracted to?

  The agent who had been kneeling stepped forward and put out his hand. “I’m Agent Tom Bradley. Sean Goodman’s my partner.” He introduced her to the agent on his left and then to the man in front of her. “Agent Max Daniels.”

  She nodded. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get to the OR.” She didn’t wait for permission, but turned and ran back to the hospital.

  Thirty minutes later she was dropping the bullet she’d retrieved from Sean’s shoulder into a small metal pan. “Bag it and get it to one of the agents waiting outside. You know the drill.”

  Then the real work of repairing the damage began. Ellie had learned over the years that there was no such thing as a simple bullet wound. Bullets had a way of doing considerable damage before settling, but Agent Goodman was lucky. His bullet hadn’t penetrated any major organs or nerves.

  Once she’d closed, she followed the patient to recovery, wrote orders, and went to talk to the crowd gathered in the surgical waiting room. A dozen people with worried faces sat waiting for the news. Agent Daniels was standing, leaning against the wall with his arms across his chest. His gaze followed her as she entered the room, and her heart began to race. She knew she looked a mess. She pulled off her cap and threaded her fingers through her hair. Why in heaven’s name she wanted to look good for him was beyond her comprehension, and yet she did.

  “The surgeon’s here,” Daniels announced.

  A petite young woman jumped up and rushed forward, followed by Agent Bradley and a crowd of worried relatives.

  “The surgery went well,” she began and then explained some of what she had repaired, trying not to be too technical. “I expect him to make a full recovery.”

  Sara, his fiancée, was crying as she stammered her thank-you. She shook Ellie’s hand and held on to it.

  “You can see him in about an hour,” Ellie told her. “He’s heavily sedated and he’s not going to know you’re there,” she warned. “He’ll be in recovery for a while, then they’ll take him to ICU. Once the nurses in ICU have him settled, they’ll send someone to get you. Any

questions?”

  A frazzled-looking nurse appeared in the doorway. “Dr. Sullivan?”

  “Yes?”

  “Would you mind looking at Mrs. Klein for us? She’s Edmond’s patient, but he’s in surgery.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  She patted Sara’s hand and pulled free. “All right then. It’s all good.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Agent Daniels smile as she turned to leave. She walked down the corridor and had just turned the corner when he caught up with her.

  “Hey, Doctor.”

  She turned around. Her stupid heart went into overdrive again. “Yes?”

  “We’re going to need to talk to you about the shooting. You’ll have to give a statement.”

  “When?”

  “How about after you check on that patient?”

  She couldn’t resist. “Gee, I don’t know. I hate to miss soccer practice.”

  She was laughing as she pushed the doors aside and disappeared into ICU.

  Max Daniels stood there staring after her, a slight grin crossing his face.

  “Damn,” he whispered. “Damn.”

  Table of Contents

  Teaser chapter

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  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

  DUTTON

  Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.); Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England; Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd); Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd); Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India; Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd); Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

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  Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © 1992 by Julie Garwood

  All rights reserved

  eISBN : 978-1-101-53351-2

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Prologue

  England, 1181

  They became friends before they were old enough to understand they were supposed to hate each other.

  The two little girls met at the annual summer festival held on the border between Scotland and England. It was Lady Judith Hampton’s first experience attending the Scottish games, her first real outing away from her isolated home in the west of England as well, and she was so overwhelmed by the sheer adventure of it all, she could barely keep her eyes closed during her mandatory afternoon naps. There was so much to see and do, and for a curious four-year-old, a good deal of mischief to get into, too.

  Frances Catherine Kirkcaldy had already gotten herself into mischief. Her papa had given her a good swat on her backside to make her sorry she’d misbehaved, then carried her over his shoulder like a sack of feed all the way across the wide field. He made her sit on a smooth-topped rock, far away from the singing and the dancing, and ordered her to stay put until he was good and ready to come back and fetch her. She would use the quiet time alone, he commanded, to contemplate her sins.

  Since Frances Catherine didn’t have the faintest idea what the word “contemplate” meant, she decided she didn’t have to obey that order. It was just as well, for her mind was already completely full, worrying about the fat, stinging bee buzzing circles around her head.

  Judith had seen the father punish his daughter. She felt sorry for the funny-looking, freckle-faced little girl. She knew she surely would have cried if her uncle Herbert had smacked her bottom, but the redheaded girl hadn’t even grimaced when her papa smacked her.

  She decided to talk to the girl. She waited until her father had quit wagging his finger at his daughter and had strutted back across the field, then picked up the hem of her skirt and ran the long way around to sneak up on the rock from behind.

  “My papa never would have smacked me,” Judith boasted by way of introduction.

  Frances Catherine didn’t turn her head to see who was talking to her. She didn’t dare take her gaze away from the bee now lingering on the rock next to her left knee.

  Judith wasn’t daunted by her silence. “My papa’s dead,” she announced. “Since before I was even borned.”

  “Then how would you be knowing if he would smack you or not?”

  Judith lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I just know he wouldn’t,” she answered. “You talk funny, like you’ve got something trapped in your throat. Do you?”

  “No,” Frances Catherine answered. “You talk funny, too.”

  “Why won’t you look at me?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why can’t you?” Judith asked. She twisted the hem of her pink gown into a wrinkle while she waited for an answer.

  “I have to watch the bee,” Frances Catherine answered. “It wants to sting me. I have to be ready to swat it away.”

  Judith leaned closer. She spotted the bee flittering around the girl’s left foot. “Why don’t you swat it away now?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I’m afraid to,” Frances Catherine answered. “I might miss. Then it would get me for certain.”

  Judith frowned over that dilemma a long minute. “Do you want me to swat it for you?”

  “Would you want to?”

  “Maybe I would,” she answered. “What’s your name?” she asked then, stalling for time while she gathered her courage to go after the bee.

  “Frances Catherine. What’s yours?”

  “Judith. How come you have two full names? I’ve never heard of anyone having more than one.”

  “Everybody always asks me that,” Frances Catherine said. She let out a dramatic sigh. “Frances was my mama’s name. She died birthing me. Catherine’s my grandmama’s name, and she died just the same way. They couldn’t be buried in the sacred ground ’cause the Church said they weren’t clean. Papa’s hoping I’ll start in behaving and then I’ll get to Heaven, and when God hears my two names, he’ll remember Mama and Grandma.”

  “Why did the Church say they weren’t clean?”

  “’Cause they were birthing when they died,” Frances Catherine explained. “Don’t you know anything, girl?”

  “I know some things.”

  “I know just about every

thing,” Frances Catherine boasted. “Leastways, papa says I surely think I do. I even know how babies get into the mamas’ stomachs. Want to hear?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Once they get married, the papa spits into his goblet of wine and then he makes the mama take a big drink. As soon as she swallows, she’s got a baby in her stomach.”

  Judith made a grimace over that thrillingly disgusting information. She was going to beg her friend to tell her more when Frances Catherine suddenly let out a loud whimper. Judith leaned closer. Then she let out a whimper, too. The bee had settled on the tip of her friend’s shoe. The longer Judith stared at it, the bigger it seemed to grow.

  The talk about birthing was immediately put aside. “Are you going to swat it away?” Frances Catherine asked.

  “I’m getting ready to.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  “No,” Judith lied. “I’m not afraid of anything. I didn’t think you were, either.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because you didn’t cry when your papa smacked you,” Judith explained.

  “That’s because he didn’t smack me hard,” Frances Catherine explained. “Papa never does. It pains him more than me, too. Leastways, that’s what Gavin and Kevin say. Papa’s got his hands full with me, they say, and ruining me good for some pitiful man I got to marry when I’m all grown up because papa pampers me.”

  “Who are Gavin and Kevin?”

  “Half my brothers,” Frances Catherine explained. “Papa’s their papa, too, but they had a different mama. She died.”

  “Did she die birthing them?”

  “No.”

  “Then why’d she die?”

  “She just got tuckered out,” Frances Catherine explained. “Papa told me so. I’m closing my eyes real tight now if you want to swat the bee.”