For the first time, Tess realized the car hadn’t left the road and plowed into the field. The tracks they’d followed in had been made by a farm tractor, the farmer’s attempt to make it easier for the police to get to the site.
The car had crashed through the fence straight ahead. It had a huge gaping hole in it. Tess couldn’t help but wonder what all that lethal-looking metal fencing surrounded. Was it meant to keep something in or out?
Guards-private security guards from the looks of them-stood on the opposite side of the hole, watching the local cops conduct their investigation. One of them was speaking into a cell phone.
“Does the car look familiar?” Cole asked.
Tess shook her head. “No. But it’s a nice-looking car.” She glanced at the cop. “If you’re asking me if it’s mine- I have no idea.”
“Does anything about it look familiar?” Cole pressed.
“No.”
“Pretty convenient response,” Cole said, his expression sour.
“A fairly typical response for someone who has amnesia,” Donovan said. He glanced in Tess’s direction, and she could tell without him saying anything that he was assessing how she was holding up.
His concerned expression bothered her for some reason. She didn’t want him hovering over her, worried if she could handle things. She wasn’t some shrinking violet that needed a caretaker, especially not this sexy-as-sin doctor.
She turned away. She didn’t need him or anyone else. Trust was not something that came easy. Wait a minute. She paused and rewound what she’d just thought. Interesting. She wasn’t supposed to even know her name, yet suddenly she knew she was fiercely independent.
She smiled inwardly, savoring the knowledge.
“I want you to take a look at the body,” Cole said. “Tell me if it’s anyone you recognize.”
Tension gnawed at the pit of her stomach. “If I’m having trouble remembering my own name, what makes you think I’d remember some guy who is sitting in a car I’ve never seen before?”
“Humor me.” Cole pushed her up toward the driver’s side of the car.
The driver lay slumped over on his side, his head resting in a pool of blood, his eyes wide and staring. Tess’s fingers tightened into fists, her nails digging raggedly into the palms of her hands. Oh God, please don’t let me know this person, she prayed.
The coppery stench of blood seemed to fill the air trapped in the car and for a moment, she thought she might lose her breakfast. But she breathed shallowly, determined not to give Cole the reaction she knew he was looking for.
Cole reached around her and tipped the man’s face up so she could see better. Tess sucked in a relieved mouthful of air. The face didn’t strike any chord of recognition in her.
“Anything?” Donovan asked.
She shook her head. “Sorry. Nothing.”
“Any feelings of remorse? Guilt perhaps,” Cole drawled.
Tess met his gaze head-on. “I don’t feel anything, Chief. Zip. Zero. Nada.” She yawned. “Are we done yet?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she tried to gauge Donovan’s reaction to her staged attitude of callousness. She’d decided early on that it was better not to let any of them know what she was feeling. But with the exception of one dark eyebrow quirking upward, he didn’t appear anywhere near as appalled as she might have thought.
In fact, if she wasn’t mistaken, one corner of those magnificent lips twitched upward a touch, as if he knew she was doing her best to yank the persistent police chief’s pompous chain.
And for a brief moment, Tess found herself wondering what those lips would taste like, especially the full bottom one. The one with the small crease in the center that bowed out just a little, bordering on being almost too full. Too ripe. Not fitting with the overall toughness of the rest of his face.
She’d give anything for one small taste, and the thought almost made her burst out laughing. Whoever she was, amnesia obviously didn’t seem to put much of a damper on her libido.
“All right, I think we need to go down to the station and talk this out,” Cole said.
“She’s not going anywhere, Chief,” Donovan said. “We agreed to stop here on the way to the center. Your questions will have to wait until after I’m done conducting a few tests.”
Cole scowled. “Just make sure you don’t leave town before checking in with me.” He turned away, throwing one final threat over his shoulder. “I’ll have more to go on after the forensics people finish up with the evidence gathered from the car.”
Tess watched him walk off, unable to deny the tiny twist of fear that coiled in her belly. What if she really did have something to do with this accident? What if it wasn’t an accident but a murder? Would the Chief’s men find something to connect her to the man’s death?
“You can tie yourself in knots over this, Tess. Or you can let it go for now.” Ryan moved up to stand next to her. “Let the Chief and his men figure out what happened and then we’ll deal with whatever they find. Until then, let’s you and I focus on finding out more about you.”
“Sure, that sounds reasonable,” she agreed, deciding that agreeable was the tack to take at the moment. But she wasn’t foolish enough not to listen to the warning in her gut that no matter how honorable Ryan Donovan seemed at this moment, when things heated up, he would throw her to the wolves.
IMPATIENT, RYAN SHOVED the CT scan onto the view box and studied it. No big surprises. Her brain was uniform and the ventricles were normal, no sign of a bleed.
Not that he’d expected the scan to show anything significant, but he’d insisted Tess have the head CT anyway. He believed in covering all the bases.
He glanced at the screen showing a camera view of Tess lying on the table waiting for them to tell her she could get up. Her eyes were closed, her lips, pink and lush and lightly parted as if she were sleeping. There was no panic in her relaxed limbs.
The technician turned in his chair to check and make sure Ryan didn’t have any last-minute instructions before he told Tess that the examination was complete. Ryan shook his head and headed for the door leading to the examination room.
Inside, he hit the light switch and Tess turned her head.
“Everything looks good,” Ryan reassured her.
Tess nodded and jumped gracefully off the table. As she bent down to scoop up the striped cotton robe lying across the back of a chair, a section of her gown parted and allowed him to see the smooth glide of her skin and the line of her backbone. He’d never thought of a cotton hospital gown as particularly sexy, but somehow Tess had made it seem that way.
He jerked his thoughts off that particular track. Better to keep focused on Tess’s mind, not her body. Anything else would lead to trouble. The kind of trouble he didn’t need now or anytime in the future.
“So, no idea why I can’t remember anything?” she asked as she shrugged into her robe.
Ryan shook his head, trying to ignore the twinge of regret as she cinched the robe around her slender waist. “Not a clue. Sorry. But then I wasn’t really expecting to find one. I ordered the scan as a precaution only.”
“I take it that’s a good sign.”
“It is.” Ryan motioned toward the door. “Why don’t you go get dressed and have a seat in the waiting room. I’m going to go over the scan with the neurologist on call. At this point, I’m going with the diagnosis of a mild concussion. We’ll see what he has to say.”
Tess didn’t move. “Then why can’t I remember who I am? I’ve had a concussion before and didn’t lose my memory.”
“When was that exactly?” Ryan probed.
Tess tilted her head, those exquisitely clear eyes unfocusing slightly as she accessed the memory. “I was rock climbing and my rope slipped. I fell about ten feet and hit my head on the rock face. Got a nasty bump and a real shiner.” She stopped, and her green eyes cleared. She locked gazes with him. “How did you do that-get me to remember like that?”
Ryan smiled. “Your memories are still all intact. Something is just blocking you from getting to them.”
Her shoulders tensed, as if she was ready to rev up for some kind of unforeseen battle. “So how do I unblock
