Bound (40 page)

She yanked open the second drawer. Taxes, appraisal information on the house, medical journals he belonged to. The man even had a file with all his grades from college. He was OCD to the max.

But where were her files?

Impatience settled over her, a dismal feeling she didn’t want to acknowledge. She yanked open the third drawer, breathing out a sigh of relief when she saw medical folders for Jake, Reed, and herself.

Yes, it would be here. Someone had screwed up, billed the wrong person.

She drew her folder open on the desk, flipped through the stack of forms. A claim for stitches in her toe when she’d stepped on a piece of glass last month. A dental claim when she had to have a tooth repaired last spring. Medical updates from Dr. Reynolds, the neurosurgeon she’d been seeing since the accident. Forms and evaluations spanned the last year and a half of her life, then stopped.

No records on her pregnancy, none on Reed’s birth. Nothing from her stay at Baylor University Medical Center where she’d been treated after the accident.

They had to be in different folders. Something separate, marked “delivery” and “accident”. She closed the drawer, reached for the bottom one. It wouldn’t budge.

She pulled again, only to realize it was locked.

She fumbled through the drawers of his desk, searching for a key. An odd sense of urgency pushed her forward. She tried the few keys she found but none fit the lock. Swallowing the growing lump in her throat, she pawed through his shelves.

Still no key.

The blood rushed to her head, intensifying that dull ache around her scar.

She scrambled up to the bedroom they’d once shared and yanked open his dresser drawers, fumbling through socks and underwear and old T-shirts.

It had to be somewhere. He wouldn’t have locked the drawer and thrown away the key. Her fingers skimmed cotton and finally settled on cold metal.

Pressure settled on her chest as she pulled the key ring from the back of the drawer. Two keys glittered in the low light, one bigger than the other. On wobbly legs, she made her way back down to the office, kneeling on the floor in front of the file cabinet.

Don’t open it. Forget about the key. Forget about the drawer. Forget about that stupid bill. Nothing good can come from this. You’ve already been through enough today.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. Before she could change her mind, she turned the key in the lock. The drawer gave with a pop.

Inside, a long metal box rested on the bottom of the drawer. She set it carefully on the desk, then sat in his chair and rubbed damp palms along her slacks. The second key slid into the lockbox with ease.

Drawing in a deep breath, she opened the lid. Medical forms, evaluations, bills filled the box. She extracted each paper, scanned the dates and contents. All referenced the nursing home in San Francisco. All mentioned dates two to five years in the past.

According to the papers, she’d been in a coma for almost three years, not four days. Reed had been born by C-section when she’d been in that coma.

Her eyes slid shut. It couldn’t be. She’d had a long labor—over twenty-four hours. Jake had held her hand through the pain. She’d been wheeled into surgery when the labor had stopped progressing. Jake had been with her as her son was cut from her. He’d told her all about it. He’d relayed the story of Reed’s birth so many times, she could see it in her mind.

Tears pooled in her eyes. She looked at the papers again as her brain warred with what she’d been told and the facts in front of her.

There were no pictures. No pictures of her pregnancy. None anywhere in the house. Jake had told her it was because she’d hated being pregnant, that she didn’t want to remember what she’d looked like.

But there were none of her smiling in a hospital gown, either. None of her nursing her baby. She’d believed him when he’d said he’d forgotten the camera the day Reed was born.

She ran to the family room, yanked picture albums off the shelves, flipped through each page. Jake holding a newborn Reed. Jake giving him a bath. Jake feeding him his first solids. Oh, God. Jake smiling with him on his first birthday. In every picture, it was Jake. Not a single one of her and Reed until after his second birthday.

Panic washed over her. She’d always assumed she’d been the one taking the photos. She’d never even questioned it. Rubbing a hand over the pain in her chest, she tried to rationalize the moment. Couldn’t.

He was a doctor. He was her husband. She’d believed him. It had never even occurred to her not to. Why? Why would he lie?

No, no, no. This can’t be real.

On legs that threatened to give out, she made her way back into his office. Her eyes focused on an evaluation from a neurosurgeon she didn’t recognize.

D
AMAGE
TO
THE
LATERAL
CORTEX
OF
THE
ANTERIOR
TEMPORAL
LOBE
AS
A
RESULT
OF

SEVERE
TRAUMA
.

P
ROGNOSIS
:
MEMORY
LOSS
,
POSSIBLY
PERMANENT
AND
IRREVERSIBLE
.

Permanent memory loss. Coma. Three years
.

Choking back tears, she continued flipping through the forms. Her stomach pitched when she saw Jake’s signature on several of the papers. He’d been an attending physician.

Her attending physician.

No, no, no. Her husband never would have been allowed to oversee her recovery. Never. Not in a million years. She wasn’t a doctor, but she knew the rules.

Sweat beaded on her neck, trickled down her back. There had to be an explanation. Something. Anything!

She lifted each paper out of the box in an urgent need to find the truth. Questions continued to swirl in her mind, memories she wasn’t sure were real or contrived. When she drew out the last paper, the floor moved under her feet.

Her legs buckled, and she dropped into the chair. In the bottom of the box rested a photo. Her breath clogged in her throat. With shaking fingers, she extracted the picture, just as a stabbing pain cut right through her heart.

It was a photo of a young girl, roughly five years of age. She was sitting on a boat. Water sparkled behind her. Trees glinted off in the distance. A young girl with a disturbingly familiar face, a curly mop of brown hair, and the greenest eyes Kate had ever seen.

Kate’s eyes. The same shape, size, color…the same exact eyes Kate stared at everyday in the mirror.

Oh, God. Oh, God.

The air clogged in her lungs. And a place deep inside told her this girl couldn’t possibly be anything other than her daughter.

Learn more about WAIT FOR ME at
http://www.ElisabethNaughton.com

PRAISE FOR

ENSLAVED

"Another winning installment in the Eternal Guardians series will leave you eager for more as the action is unbelievably thrilling and the emotional conflicts are involving throughout. 4 ½ Stars" —
RT Book Reviews

"Elisabeth Naughton has done it again!! "
Enslaved
" is filled with action from the very beginning." —
Enchantress of Books

ENRAPTURED

“Filled with sizzling romance, heartbreaking drama, and a cast of multifaceted characters, this powerful and unusual retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story is Naughton’s best book yet. Starred Review”—
Publishers Weekly
, starred review

“Creative worldbuilding and ever-present danger pull the reader into this mesmerizing tale. 4 1/2 Stars”—
RT Book Reviews

TEMPTED

“Endlessly twisting plots within plots, a cast of complex and eminently likeable characters, and a romance as hot as it is complicated.”—
Publisher’s Weekly
, starred review

“Dark, dangerous, and absolutely addicting.”—
NY Times
bestselling author Christina Dodd

“Ms. Naughton has taken the Greek Argonaut myth, turned it on its head, and OWNED it!”—
Bitten By Paranormal Romance

ENTWINED

“An action-packed creative wonder guaranteed to snag your attention from page one.”—
Fresh Fiction

“Do NOT miss this series!”—
NY Times
bestselling author Larissa Ione

MARKED

“Naughton has tremendous skill with steamy passion, dynamic characterization and thrilling action.”—
Publisher’s Weekly

“Elisabeth Naughton’s MARKED gives an incredibly fresh spin on Greek Mythology that is full of humor, action, passion and a storyline that keeps you from putting down the book.”—
Fresh Fiction

STOLEN SEDUCTION

“This third book in the Stolen series is full of intrigue, secrets and undeniable love with characters you can’t get enough of…an awesome read!”—
Fresh Fiction

“An adventurous story of twists and turns, this story will keep you guessing until the very end. And the chemistry between Hailey and Shane is sizzling hot. Naughton combines passion and danger in one fast-paced story.”—
News and Sentinel

STOLEN HEAT

“This book has got it all: an adventure that keeps you turning the pages, an irresistible hero, and a smoking romance.”—
All About Romance

“Stolen Heat is an awesome combination of deadly suspense, edgy action and a wonderful romance with characters that you’ll laugh, cry and yell with.”—
Night Owl Romance

STOLEN FURY

“A rock solid debut…Naughton’s intelligent adventure plot is intensified by the blazing heat that builds from Lisa and Rafe’s first erotic encounter.”—
Publisher’s Weekly

“Naughton deftly distills deadly intrigue, high adrenaline action, and scorchingly hot passion into a perfectly constructed novel of romantic suspense.”—
Chicago Tribune

WAIT FOR ME

“This book blew me out of the water.”—
Cocktails and Books

“Wait For Me more than met my expectations, it was downright delightfully angsty with a great big dose of scorching hot scenes between two characters who could not have been more made for each other. The unraveling mystery is compelling all on it’s own but the chemistry between Kate and Ryan will keep you truly captivated.”—
Paperback Dolls

About the Author

Bestselling Author Elisabeth Naughton writes full time from her home in western Oregon where she lives with her husband and three children. Her books have appeared on every major bestsellers list, including the
New York Times
, the
USA Today
, the
Wall Street Journal
,
Digital Book World
and
IndieReader
, and have been nominated for numerous awards such as the prestigious RITA® awards by Romance Writers of America, the Australian Romance Reader Awards, The Golden Leaf and the Golden Heart. When not writing, Elisabeth can be found running, hanging out at the ballpark or dreaming up new and exciting adventures. Visit her website at
http://www.ElisabethNaughton.com
to learn more about her books.