Enigma - Carla Cassidy

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as he looked by everything that was happening.

      “I need to use it and try to contact my brother.”

      “Your brother?” She looked at him in surprise. Everyone in the hospital had speculated about the family members of their John Doe. They’d all wondered why nobody had reported him missing, why nobody had shown up to claim him.

      He nodded. “My twin brother. He probably thinks I’m dead and I hope he’s still alive. If he is, it’s important that I contact him immediately.”

      She walked over to the cabinet, pulled out a cup and then poured herself a cup of coffee and joined him at the table. “Before we even talk about that, I need some answers.”

      He’d been attractive when he’d been comatose, but alive and animated he was devastatingly handsome. His intense blue eyes held hers in a gaze that made it impossible for her to look away.

      “There are some things I can’t share with you,” he began. “Knowing too much could put you in real danger.”

      “I’m already in danger of losing my job if anyone finds out what I’ve done,” she replied. And her job was all that she had, she thought. There was nobody in her life who cared about her except the coworkers who respected and liked her. “I think I deserve to know what’s going on.”

      He leaned back in the chair and cast his gaze out her window, where spring flowers bloomed in lush colors. Although too thin and still pale from his convalescence, there was a simmering energy about him that caused a similar energy inside her.

      He turned back to look at her. You know part of what you need to know about me. The words were as clear in her head as if he’d spoken, but his lips hadn’t moved.

      “How do you do that?” she asked.

      “It’s a gift …or a curse, depending on how you look at it. Mental telepathy.”

      “So you can read my mind?” The idea was both intriguing and appalling.

      He smiled and nodded. “Your thoughts are what got me through the past six months. Your desire for me to live became my own.”

      She stared at him and tried to remember every thought that had entered her head during the past six months. Most of them had probably been boring, but some of them had been intensely personal and not intended for anyone else to know.

      “Are you doing it now?” she asked warily. She began a mental litany of the presidents of the United States, something she’d learned in sixth grade and somehow had never forgotten. Washington. Adams. Jefferson. Madison. Monroe.

      He laughed and the sound of it was so deep and so sexy that a wave of heat swept through her. “That’s an effective way to block me. I promise I won’t get into your head anymore without your permission unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

      The promise gave her a little comfort. “Who are the men who are after you?”

      Her question instantly doused the light of the smile that had lit his features. “Men who want to hurt me. That’s all you need to know about them.”

      She could tell by the shuttered darkness of his eyes that he would tell her no more about the men who were looking for him. “Before we do anything you need something to eat,” she said and got up from the table. “I’ll fix you a scrambled egg and a dry piece of toast. You have to go easy because you aren’t used to solid foods.”

      It took her only minutes to fix the breakfast. He was silent as she worked, his gaze once again out the window. She wished she could read his mind, be privy to his innermost thoughts as he’d been with hers.

      What was his plan? Where was he going from here and where was he from? He really hadn’t answered any of her questions to her satisfaction.

      She was shocked by the sadness that filled her as she realized it was possible within hours he could be gone from her home, from her life.

      He’d been her life for the past six months. He’d been the first thing she’d thought of when waking in the morning and the last thing she’d thought of before she closed her eyes to sleep at night. He’d helped the loneliness that had plagued her since she’d moved to Grand Forks.

      She wanted him well, she told herself as she placed the plate with the scrambled egg and the piece of toast in front of him. She wanted him well and on his way back to his life. But she’d hoped for a little time to get to know him before she sent him on his way.

      She realized that in the past six months she’d done the unthinkable for a nurse, she’d become personally involved with a patient.

      “Won’t your parents be worried about you?” she asked as he ate.

      He shook his head. “They died when my brother and I were five.”

      “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.

      He gave her a quick smile. “Yeah, me, too.” He finished the last of the toast and then pushed his plate aside. “Could I use your computer now?” Once again there was an intensity in his eyes, a thrum of energy in the air that felt urgent and desperate.

      She had no idea if the danger he spoke of was real or imagined, but it was obvious he believed it was real and far too close for his comfort, and suddenly she was more than just a little bit afraid.

      She led him down the hallway to a bedroom he knew wasn’t where she slept, but rather a guest room where a computer was set up on a small desk in a corner.

      Jared had known fear when he’d come out of the coma and realized he needed to get out of the hospital, needed to get away before the men came for him. But, it was nothing compared to the terror he felt now as he eyed the computer.

      He and his twin brother, Jack, had never gone so long without communication. Throughout the hell that they had both suffered for so many years, the mental telepathy they’d shared had kept them strong, had kept them alive and sharing the hope that someday their lives would be different.

      But he could pick up nothing now, had not been able to communicate with his brother at all since the moment he’d come out of the coma.

      Of course their telepathy power had never been tested by physical distance and Jared didn’t have any idea where Jack might be at the moment. He also didn’t know how the weakness in his body might have weakened his ability to reach out mentally.

      What if Jack was dead? What if he hadn’t managed to escape on that November night six months ago? The last time Jared had seen his brother was when the two of them had managed to escape from the place that had been their home—their prison—for fifteen long years.

      They had burst out into the cold winter night and silently agreed that they should split up in order to better their odds of getting away.

      He now closed his eyes and thought of that final moment with his brother. The night air had been bracing, but welcome after the years of stale forced air through decrepit ventilation systems.

      He and Jack had gripped hands in a shake they both knew might be the last time they touched, the last time they ever saw each other, and then Jack had turned and run in one direction and Jared had taken off in the other.

      “Jared? Are you okay? Do you need to lie down?”

      Willa’s concerned voice pulled him from his memories and he opened his eyes and shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” He gestured her to the chair in front of the computer and as she sat he stood just behind her.

      They waited, not speaking as she powered up the computer. Once it was up and running she turned and looked at him expectantly. “Your brother? What’s his name?”

      He shook his head. “We won’t be able to find him using his name. We need to look for a Web site

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