Steel-colored flecks of anger flashed in Flynn’s eyes, but he hid them as quickly as they appeared. “Perhaps Tess forced Vaughn to crash through the fence when she realized she was about to be incarcerated in another facility.” He shrugged. “If she overpowered him with a gun, he wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“Where would she have gotten a gun?”
The angry flecks were back in Flynn’s eyes. “How should I know, Doctor? Like you, I wasn’t there. We can only make educated guesses at this point-until we’re able to talk to Tess, that is.”
“I find it interesting that you are all ready to pin this on Tess. Nothing you’ve said proves that she’s capable of killing a man in cold blood,” Ryan said.
Flynn threw up his hands. “Obviously nothing will convince you, Doctor, and I don’t have time for this nonsense. Where is my daughter? We’re leaving now.” He pushed back his chair and stood.
Ryan got to his feet, too, not backing down from the man’s hostile stare. “Last time I looked, General, this was still the United States. That gives Tess some rights. And one of those rights is to say where she goes and who she goes with.”
Bloom cleared his throat nervously and pulled a thick document out of the front of Tess’s file. “Uh, actually that isn’t quite true, Ryan. General Flynn has full guardianship over his daughter.” He opened the document and handed it to Ryan, adding, “It’s for her own protection. The courts have determined that she’s a danger to herself and others.”
Ryan glanced over the paperwork, acutely aware that they’d played their ace in the hole. The cold satisfaction on Flynn’s face told him that the man had been waiting for just this opportunity. He knew that Ryan understood only too well what such a court order meant-essentially, that Tess had no rights. She was a person without any decision-making ability in the eyes of the law.
“She’s not going anywhere until I’ve had the opportunity to talk to her,” he said firmly. “Let me talk to her alone and then she’ll come with you. At least until we get this straightened out.”
The general’s eyes darkened and the muscle in the center of his lean cheek jumped. “I want my daughter now, Donovan.”
“Well, we’re going to have to do things my way,” Ryan said, his voice soft and deadly. “Tess deserves some degree of dignity. And that means you wait outside while I talk to her.”
“I thought you said she wasn’t here.”
“I lied.”
A cold smile crossed the general’s face. For a moment Ryan thought he’d refuse, but finally he nodded and moved to the patio door. He paused before stepping outside. “You have exactly two minutes to convince her. But don’t ever try to cross me again, Doctor.”
Ryan closed the door, already trying to figure out how to get Tess to cooperate, at least until he was able to pull some strings and find out what was going on. He didn’t want her hurt and there was no question that Flynn was going to force the issue no matter how cooperative or uncooperative she was.
Ryan knew he needed more time. Time to investigate how legal and binding the court papers were. Time to see if Tess had any other options.
But he only had two minutes and something told him that Tess was just as stubborn and impatient as the man who was here to whisk her away.
Chapter Six
Tess seethed with outrage. Who the hell did Ryan Donovan think he was, making promises he couldn’t keep? He had no right to speak for her.
She hit the flat panel of the pantry door and it swung open in his face. She could barely contain her fury, and from the calm expression his face, she could tell he had anticipated just such a reaction from her. That in itself irritated the hell out of her.
He stepped aside as she blew past, his gaze coolly assessing, but Tess wasn’t in any mood to be reasoned with. Or worse yet, placated.
“Before you rip me a new one, hear me out,” he said softly.
Tess whirled around, anger tensing every muscle in her body. “How dare you promise them that I’d go with them. Are you totally nuts?”
“I gather you heard everything we discussed,” he said calmly.
Tess pulled a face. “I was less than three feet away. Of course I heard everything. And from the looks of things, you bought every outlandish lie he fed you.”
“Not entirely.”
“You could have fooled me.”
He leaned one broad shoulder against the doorframe and folded his arms. “I’m not left with a lot of choices, Tess. They have evidence to show that Flynn is your father. He has a pretty detailed psychiatric file on you and a court document giving him guardianship. If you can disprove any or all of this, I’ll stand by you to the end. But you need to give me something to work with.”
“So a lousy piece of paper is more important than what you feel in your gut?”
“Be reasonable, Tess. They-”
Her hand tightened into fist against his chest. She closed her eyes, trying desperately to regain control. If she lost it now and started screaming, she’d never prove anything. He’d believe Flynn.
“Easy, Tess.”
She sucked in a calming breath. “If you think, for even one minute, that I’m going anywhere with that man, you’re crazier than he says I am.”
“Look, you’re getting too worked up over this. We need to sit down and talk about this rationally.”
She dropped her hand, her shoulders slumping. “I’m as rational as I can be in the circumstances.”
“All I’m asking is that you go along with them until I have a chance to figure out what’s going on. Flynn is not going to hurt you. He thinks he’s rescuing you. Humor him.” He ran a hand through his hair, as if stalling while he tried to figure out how to convince her to do things his way. “Hell, if you can’t humor him, humor me. Give me a little time to track things down. Let me do a little investigating. I promise you, I’m not turning my back on you.”
“I’m not in a mood to humor
Although the morning sun reflected on the glass and probably blinded Flynn from seeing what was going on inside the house, he stood facing the door, his shoulders braced, his hands clasped behind him at parade rest. His gray eyes seemed to bore holes of white heat through the glass, and Tess stared back at him.
She could feel his impatience soaking into her body, tightening her stomach. She wasn’t sure how, but she knew that they’d been engaged in a similar mental standoff in the past. This had an all-too-familiar feel to it.
She swallowed against the fear rising in her chest. A fear so raw and intense that she knew that, in spite of not remembering Flynn, of not recognizing him, she couldn’t trust him under any circumstance. No matter what Ryan thought, cooperation was impossible. Dangerous even.
She turned and faced Ryan again.
“I promise you, I won’t walk away. I’ll stay with you,” he said. “I’ll dig until I find out what’s going on. I have contacts-people I can call to get information on Flynn. I can call the hospitals he says you were treated in. I can talk to the doctors who have worked with you over the years. But you need to give me more time, Tess. I can’t make it happen just like that.”
He snapped his fingers, and his eyes, those brilliant blue eyes pleaded with her to see things his way.
Tess sighed and shook her head. “For a shrink, you really don’t listen too well, do you? I don’t have time to waste waiting for you to figure out what’s going on. I
