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Thoroughly confused.
Not more than a half hour ago, she was fearing for her life, feeling her blood being drained from her neck by the heavily armed, black-clad stranger she'd found lying unconscious near the clinic's back door.
It had happened.
So how on earth could her skin show zero trace of the assault?
Tess's feet felt detached from her body as she walked back out of the examination room and toward the storeroom. Whatever he'd done to her, no matter how he managed to disguise the wounds he'd inflicted on her, Tess intended to see him arrested and charged.
She came around the open doorway of the back room and drew up short.
The puddle of river water and spilled blood her attacker had brought in with him swamped a large area of the linoleum floor. Tess's stomach gave a little turn at the sight of it, but there was something else that put a knot of ice-cold terror in her gut.
The storeroom was empty.
Her attacker was gone. A gorilla-size dose of anesthetic, yet he was somehow up and gone.
"Looking for me, angel?"
Tess spun around and screamed.
Chapter Five
Adrenaline poured through her, putting her feet into motion. Tess dodged past him and tore up the hallway, her thoughts racing a thousand miles an hour.
She had to get out of there.
She had to get her purse and her money and her cell phone and get the hell out.
"We need to talk."
There he was again--standing right in front of her, blocking her path into her office.
As though he'd simply vanished from where he'd been standing before and materialized in the doorway she needed to get through now.
With a yelp of alarm, Tess made a quick pivot and launched herself into the reception area. She grabbed the desk phone and punched one of the speed-dial numbers.
"This is not happening. This is not happening," she whispered under her breath, repeating the mantra as if she could make it all go away if she hoped for it hard enough.
The call began to ring on the other end.
Come on, come on, answer.
"Put the phone down, female."
Tess whirled around, shaking with fear. Her attacker moved slowly, with the deliberate grace of a skilled predator. He came closer. Bared his teeth in a harsh smile.
"Please. Put it down. Now."
Tess shook her head. "Go to hell!"
The receiver flew out of her grasp of its own free will. As it clattered onto the desk beside her, Tess heard Ben's voice come on the line. "Tess? Hello... that you, babe? Jesus, it's after three o'clock in the morning. What are you still doing at the--" There was a loud snap behind her, like the telephone wire had been yanked from the wall jack by invisible hands. Tess jumped at the noise, fear coiling in her stomach in the silence that followed.
"We have a serious problem. Tess."
Oh, God.
Now he was pissed off, and he knew her name.
