Page 13 of Dangerous Liaisons

Chapter Ten

Jesse stopped beside the window.

“I suppose I should have left you to bleed to death?” Cole demanded.

An unexpected hint of savagery laced his voice. She looked across the bed at him. His face was impassive, and Jesse decided she had misread what was probably fear.

“Leaving me would have been the wiser of the choices. How long has Rayburn been gone?”

“About fifteen minutes.”

Jesse carefully turned back a corner of the curtain and peered outside. Shrubs hid three quarters of the window from outside view. She looked past the shrubs and across an open expanse of manicured lawn to a two story, brick colonial with a sunroom.

“That’s Rayburn’s house?”

“Yes,” Cole replied.

Lancelot growled. Jesse looked at him, but he didn’t acknowledge her. His attention had shifted to the door opposite the window.

“What’s outside the door?” she asked.

“A hallway. There are two other examination rooms, a bathroom, then the waiting room.”

“How many doors leading into the building?”

“Two.”

“I assume the good doctor doesn’t believe in weapons?”

“Only those.” Cole motioned to the surgical instruments.

“Well, well.” She cast last glance at the seemingly deserted yard before releasing the curtain. “Those might come in handy.”

She crossed to the tray. Several pieces of unused gauze lay in a pile. Lancelot trotted to her side as she snatched a bit of gauze and quickly wiped blood from a wicked looking blade.

Jesse held up the instrument. “What is this?”

Cole shrugged. “Charlie used it to probe your shoulder for bullet fragments.”

She grimaced and dropped the dirty gauze on the tray. “Glad he’s on our side.” She set the knife down, then picked up a scalpel. This she’d used before.

“What’s going on?” Cole demanded.

Jesse paused and met his gaze. “Taking the Starfire was a bad idea, Cole.”

His mouth tightened. “Someone followed us.”

“It would seem so.”

“If there were others, why didn’t they stop me last night?”

“Who knows what makes those bastards tick?” Her gut tensed as she picked up the knife. She happened to be one of those bastards. What made her tick?

“Why not just kill us?” Cole asked.

“Me, they want alive,” Jesse replied, gripping the handle of the scalpel to judge its balance. “At least, for a while. It’s you that worries me.”

“What are you talking about?”