Nowhere To Run (To Protect And Serve) (20 page)

He gave it to her
. Riley untangled her hands from his neck and held them above her head. She opened her eyes. She looked so vulnerable beneath him. He heard her whisper his name and then he begin to move once more, driving harder, deeper into her soft warmth. He felt her body tense once more, her muscles contracting around him as she succumbed to her passions once more.

The sight of her body moving against his was too much. Riley drove hard into her once more then captured her lips as he released inside of her.

C
hapter Fourteen

Somehow, Jordan must have slept. When she awoke, the sun was glaring through the thin curtains and she was alone in bed.

Oh God. She’d overslept. She glanced at the clock. She was already an hour late for work.

She showered and dressed in record time but still no Riley. Fear and adrenalin pumped through her body at the possibilities. Had Caesar showed up while she was sleeping? Had Riley tried to protect her by steering Caesar away from the cottage and Jordan?  

She could smell the fragrant scent of coffee. She hurried through the tiny cottage to the kitchen and breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted him, elbows propped against the worn kitchen table staring out the window.

“Hi.” Jordan figured they really couldn’t get much more intimate than it had last night – at least not for a while, so she might as well take the bull by the horn’s and face Riley again.

“Hi yourself.” He got to his feet and came to her
. Her breath lodged in her throat when he held out his coffee for her. She took it gratefully. “You were sleeping so peacefully I didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

Jordan swallowed hard then took a much-needed sip of the coffee. “I-I should go. Momma Lizbeth will be beside herself with worry by now.”

His only answer was the emergence of that wicked little smile that threatened to shatter her fragile self-control.

“Any news yet?” Jordan asked to cover her embarrassment.

“No, nothing yet, which has me concerned. I don’t like it. If I don’t hear something soon, we may have to take matters into our own hands.”  

Jordan expected to be bombarded with a dozen different questions from Momma Lizbeth when she and Riley walked in but the look of concern in the head nurse’s eyes had nothing to do with Jordan being late.

“Oh tha
nk goodness.” Mamma Lizbeth was standing at the nurse’s station, watching the door. It was obvious she’d been waiting for Jordan.

“I’m sorry. I overslept.” Jordan stammered
over the obvious. Her face had to be turning a dozen different shades of red.

Momma Lizbeth seemed distracted this morning. “I need you to come with me.” Her troubled eyes barely spared Riley a glance.

“What is it?” Jordan shot Riley a questioning look. She could almost read every single one of his concern
.

Momma Lizbeth started to say something more then thought better of it. “A little boy. His mamma brought him in with a fever ten minutes ago. Since that time, his fever’s spiked. We gave him something to bring it down. It seems to be working for the  moment.” Momma Lizbeth wagged her head and Jordan felt the uneasiness that begun with Riley’s appearance skyrocket. “But I have a bad feeling about this one, Doctor Jayne. I don’t mind telling you.”

Jordan frowned as she grabbed her coat
. She glanced Riley’s way once more, saw him nod and motion toward the waiting area.

She
headed for the room with the older woman in tow. The warmth of the island was a blessing when it came to colds and flu. There were very few extreme cases reported.

The minute Jordan opened the door and saw the boy’s condition had worsened
, she agreed with Momma Lizbeth. She had a bad feeling as well. The boy’s temp had begun to rapidly spike once more.

The nurse sitting with the mother and child seemed harried as she gave Jordan the run down. “I’ve been giving him ice chips to bring the temperature down
, but so far it’s not working. And now there’s this.”

The boy’s face appeared to be covered with a red rash.
The nurse lifted the boy’s shirt to expose the bright red bumps filled with fluids spreading across the child’s chest. The child’s symptoms screamed, “Small Pox”.

God, please no.

The last known outbreak of the deadly disease had been years ago.

After a quick glance at the boy’s medical history
, Jordan noticed he wasn’t current on all shots. The mother couldn’t remember if he’d had his Small Pox vaccination. As far as she knew, he wasn’t allergic to anything, and hadn’t been exposed to anything unusual in recent days.

Please let her be wrong
this time.

“Give him
plenty of fluids.” Both the nurse and Momma Lizbeth shot her a look. They both knew this was the standard treatment for Small Pox. There was no cure for the deadly virus. “Stay with him.” Jordan told the nurse then glanced Momma Lizbeth’s way. The woman followed her outside.

“Are there any more cases
?”

“Not that I’ve heard of. This is the first. You don’t think
…”

“Dear God, I hope not
, but the symptoms are classic. Call everyone on the staff and alert them. If it is Small Pox this won’t be an isolated case.”

“Should we alert
the CDC?”

If this was
Small Pox, Jordan knew time was of the essence, but once news spread of a possible outbreak, every news agency around the world would descend on the island bringing exposure Jordan couldn’t afford right now. Small Pox was a rapidly spreading disease and so far no other patients displaying the symptoms had been admitted, which was a good sign. This could be something totally unrelated mimicking the Small Pox symptoms.

God
help her if she was making the wrong decision right now because it could end up costing hundreds of lives.

“Let’s wait a few hours. See if this is an isolated case.
It could be anything. No need to scare anyone unnecessarily.”

While Momma Lizbeth nodded she wasn’t convinced. Her troubled gazed slipped to the hustle and bustle of activity along the marketplace.

“You see that moon last night, Doctor Jayne?” The woman’s body shook with the weight of her shudder. The fear in her dark eyes had Jordan’s full attention. “My grandmamma used to call it a blood moon. It’s a bad sign, Doctor Jayne. Never fails. Blood moon means death is on its way.”

With nothing to offer in way of comfort, Jordan forced herself to walk away from Momma Lizbeth. She needed to find Riley.

The minute he spotted
Jordan heading his way, he got to his feet and rushed toward her.

“What is it?” H
is gaze scrutinized her expression. “Has someone showed up—“

“No.
This has nothing to do with Caesar.” She noticed several people milling around the waiting area watching their exchange curiously. “Let’s talk over here.”

She led him to a quiet corner away from anyone listening in. “One of the local women brought a little boy in this morning before we arrived.” She took a breath.

“Is it bad?”

She nodded. “
It could be. “ She took a deep breath. “It could be real bad. Riley, it looks like Small Pox. If it is, it’s highly contagious.”

He closed his eyes. “
Dammit. How soon before you can confirm?”

“
Soon. A few hours. But Riley, if this is Small Pox, I’ll have no choice but to notify the authorities, which means--”

“Anyone searching for you won’t have far to look.” He supplied
for her. “We’ll have to leave before it comes to that. You know that don’t you?”

“Riley
…”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“I know. Let’s hope it doesn’t.”

“Let’s hope.
” He reached for her hand and held it. The warmth in his eyes helped to focus her.

“Doctor
Jayne!” Momma Lizbeth headed toward Jordan and Riley at an unusually fast pace. The expression on her face made Jordan forget all of her concerns for her own safety. “Come quick!”

“What is it?” Jordan knew it was bad.

“There’s two more children come in. Same symptoms.”

“Oh God.”
She turned to Riley. “I have to go.”

H
is eyes still held onto hers. “Go. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Jordan was ready to refuse when
Momma Lizbeth interrupted. Reaching for his arm, she tugged him along with her. “There sure is, boy. You can help me get this waiting area set up for patients. I have a feeling we’re going to need all the space we can get pretty soon.”

He turned
back to Jordan who nodded. “She’s right. We can use your help.”

“You’ve got it. Go. I’ll be okay.” Jordan hurried away realizing that she had no idea what Riley found out about her case.

***

Four hours later, the waiting room looked like a triage unit.

Dozens of children were streaming in with the reported symptoms mimicking that of Small Pox.

The first adult case arrived mid-morning
.

Riley’d
barely spoken more than a handful of words to Jordan during that time, but he knew she would have reported the outbreak to the proper authorities which meant their window of escape was shrinking with every passing minute.

He
needed somewhere quiet and away from the drama unfolding in the hospital to warn David Enfield of this new development.

Riley settled for a deserted
space along the hallway and discovered there were three voicemail messages on his phone. The noise coming from the waiting room had made it almost impossible to hear.

Before he could place the call, t
he phone in his hand vibrated to life. ”Hello.”

“Riley Donovan?” He’d only spoke
n to David Enfield a handful of times in the past, but he recognized the man’s voice. The caller ID troubled him though. It had been deliberately blocked.

“Yes.” Why did it suddenly feel as if a noose was closing in around him and Jordan
?

“
Good. Riley, this is David Enfield -- your father’s friend. Sorry for all the cloak and dagger, but you can’t be too careful.” The warmth in the man’s tone helped to dispel some of Riley’s misgivings.

“Yes, I remember you, David.
” After a moment of silence, Riley got straight to the point. “My father thinks you can help us.”

“I can.
But I’m going to need a little more time.”

Riley glanced around at the growing number of patients
filling the hospital. “That could be difficult. Time isn’t really something we have a lot of right now.”

The older man
drug out a sigh. “I understand. But I need you to stay put until you hear from me.”

“David, I’m not sure
you do understand. Staying put is going to be impossible. We have a situation here that’s threatening.”

“You
’re in danger?”

“No. Not in so many words.” Riley wondered how to
even begin explaining this new development.

“Then what’s the problem
?” He could hear the growing impatience in Enfield’s tone.

“
There’s been an outbreak here on the island. Highly contagious. Small Pox.” Riley had been careful not to tell his father too much. Now he’d just given away a huge clue concerning their whereabouts.

“Good God.
Are you—“

“
We’re okay. We’re not worried about contracting the fever. But we are in danger. We’re about to be surrounded by medical authorities from all over the world. Not to mention the press.”

“Man, this is
so not what I need to hear right now.” David paused for a moment. “Okay, let me find out what the word is here in the states. I’ll see if I can keep a lid on the CDC. As soon as I can figure out how to get the two of you out of there without alerting anyone’s suspicions I’ll be in touch.”

Riley closed the phone. Not exactly what he’d hoped to hear
, but at least it was something.

He found Jordan treating the parent of one of the children brought in earlier. He managed to catch her eye and motioned to her. She finished examining the woman, gave the nurse treatment instructions then grabbed a syringe and walked out of the room still wearing the mask.

“Roll up your sleeve. I need to give you a booster.”

He did as she
asked. “What about you? Ouch! Dammit that hurt!” Riley winced as the tiny pronged fork scraped the skin numerous times.

“
Don’t be a baby. I gave myself the same shot when we confirmed the diagnosis. Where’ve you been? You should have had this hours ago. I hope—“

“I’ll be fine. I’m as strong as a horse.” He watched her place the bandage over the mark as
she’d done a dozen times today. “I spoke to David Enfield.”