As the men left the room, Sarah knew she wasn’t going to sleep again. She was going to do what came naturally to her—run. Her instincts told her to get out of the hospital. She needed to find her daughter.
Swinging her legs to the side of the bed, she gently put her feet on the floor and tried to stand up. Dizziness hit her again like a huge ocean wave dragging her under, and the pain behind her left eye was stabbing and intense.
She took several deep breaths, waiting for the pain to subside. It didn’t, so she just ruthlessly pulled the IV needle out of her arm. Then she grabbed her clothes off the end of the bed and began to dress. It seemed to take forever, every movement painful. She had just finished tying her shoes when the door opened, and her heart sank.
“I knew you were going to run,” Jake said, meeting her gaze head-on.
“Where’s Deputy Manning?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“I realized as soon as I stepped out of the room that there was no way in hell I could leave you alone. I told the deputy I’d talk to him later. It’s just you and me, Sarah.” He shut the door behind him with a definite click. “Just you and me.”
Chapter Four
Sarah instinctively backed up until her legs hit the bed and there was nowhere else to go. Jake moved forward until he was inches away from her. He towered over her by at least half a foot. He was too big, too strong, and too male. She felt an overwhelming sense of fear, but she couldn’t let him see that she was afraid.
They were in a hospital, she reminded herself. There were doctors and nurses out in the hall. He couldn’t hurt her here.
“Why don’t you tell me where you’re going?” he said.
“To find my daughter.” She refused to be intimidated by this man. At the moment she didn’t know if what he’d said about her was true or false. Until she did know, she was going to follow her instincts. Right now her instincts told her not to show any weakness.
“I thought you didn’t know where Caitlyn was.”
“I don’t know where she is, but I can look. I can’t just lie here and do nothing.”
“Or maybe you’re going to get her, so you can take off again,” he suggested.
If she knew where her daughter was, maybe she would do that, because something was off between her and this man. She couldn’t imagine behaving the way he’d described—unless she’d been desperate to escape. However, she couldn’t help thinking that to remove all evidence of her existence before she left seemed more premeditated than desperate, more calculating than fearful. But she’d been afraid in her dream, and despite the bravado she was putting on now, she felt a sense of fear. There was danger somewhere—she just didn’t know where.
“Nothing to say?” Jake prodded. He took another step closer to her. His breath whispered against her cheek, drawing goose bumps across her arms. She could feel the power in his body standing so near hers, and the air sparked with tension between them.
She cleared her throat and forced herself to look at him. “I told you I just want to find my daughter.”
Jake didn’t reply for a long, tense moment, his gaze deep and hard, his eyes searching hers for the truth. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t give in to the temptation. He would only think she was trying to hide something.
Finally he gave a frustrated shake of his head. “I don’t know if you’re lying or not. I used to believe I was good at reading people, but you . . . you proved me wrong. I never suspected that you had so many secrets. I was completely taken in, fooled in every possible way.”
She was surprised he would admit to such a thing. He seemed like a proud, confident, arrogant man. Or was he playing his own game, trying to make himself look like a victim?
“I imagined seeing you a million times in the last seven months,” he continued. “I thought about what I would say to you—what you would say to me. I expected that you’d have a big story to tell me, some logical explanation for your departure. I never anticipated a sudden case of amnesia. It’s a good defense. You don’t have to answer any questions, because you don’t remember.”
The cutting anger in his voice drew her chin up. She couldn’t defend her actions before she’d woken up in the hospital, but she could stand up for her behavior in the past twelve hours. “I’m not faking the memory loss. I don’t recall anything before I woke up in this bed. You’re no more familiar to me than the deputy who was just here. I don’t know you. I don’t remember anything about our life together. You could be telling me a boatload of lies. I don’t trust you any more than you trust me.”