Tess Gerritsen - Double Impact

In spite of the fact that Kathi had spoken to him, the man hadn’t taken his eyes off Ami. A strange feeling stirred in the pit of her stomach. She watched in morbid fascination as recognition flared in the newcomer’s eyes. She didn’t have time to react or to even think before a pallor slid over his face and a barely banked fury devoured all other emotion in his eyes.

“You!” he snarled.

Whatever he said next was in his native tongue and completely lost on Ami. He shouted something to the guards and they came running.

Kathi moved next to Ami at the end of the bed. “What the hell is going on?” she whispered.

Ami shook her head, her voice suddenly paralyzed by a terror she couldn’t quite name. The guards seized her, one on either side of her, forcing Kathi away. Only then did Ami’s brain register the imminent threat and issue an appropriate response.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Let her go!” Kathi shouted.

Ami struggled, but it was as if iron manacles had been clamped around her arms. She could hardly move, much less hope to break free. The man who’d issued the order was snarling at her in that foreign language again. What was he saying? Why were they doing this?

“I’m calling Security!” Kathi warned.

During the seemingly endless minutes it took Security to reach the room, everything lapsed into slow motion for Ami. All sound grew distorted, including the man’s voice as he continued to rail at her. She shook her head in denial of whatever he was charging. She tried again to break free, but the men holding her were too strong. She blinked, the effort taking what felt like forever. Some instinct deep inside her urged her to flee, but she could neither understand it nor act upon it. She could only stand there, stunned.

Hospital Security charged into the room, shattering the strange slow-motion scene. “What the hell is going on here?”

Ami thought she recognized that deep commanding voice and craned her neck to see if the security guard speaking was Jason Stanford. It was. Thank God. She’d been on shift when Jason had worked a few incidents in the ER. He would know how to handle this.

“They’ve lost their minds!” Kathi shouted. “That man started barking orders and they-” she pointed to the two guards “-grabbed Ami. They won’t turn her loose.”

Jason moved in toe-to-toe with the guard closest to him. “Step aside,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument. The Israeli man didn’t move. Hell, he probably didn’t even understand a word Jason said. Ami’s anxiety rocketed to a new level.

Jason turned back to the man in the richly tailored suit, the one who seemed to be in charge. “Sir, you will ask your men to release this woman. Her name is Ami Donovan. She’s a nurse at this hospital. I don’t know what you think is going on here, but whatever it is, you’re wrong.”

The man merely looked at Jason for several seconds, then shifted his attention back to Ami. “You are a nurse in this facility?”

Ami struggled to keep from trembling. Who did he think she was? She had the white uniform and the damned ID. Couldn’t he see that she was a member of the hospital staff? “Yes,” she said shakily. “Kathi and I came in to check Mr. Olment’s vitals.”

The man said something in that foreign language again and the two guards released her and returned to their posts outside the door. She exhaled the breath she hadn’t even been aware she’d been holding. This was beyond crazy. She rubbed her bruised arms and her knees almost buckled.

Jason bracketed a protective arm around her as if sensing her waning ability to stay vertical. “Would you like to explain what happened?” he asked the man who continued to stare suspiciously at Ami.

“I have obviously made a mistake,” the man said stiffly, his attention now focused on Jason. “You must excuse me.” He turned that unapologetic gaze back to Ami. “I won’t make the same mistake again.”

Fear sliced straight through her. Every instinct warned her that his words were more threat than apology. But how could that be? She didn’t know this man. Why would he threaten her?

Jason extended his free hand. “My name is Jason Stanford. I’m chief of hospital security.”

After a hesitation that lasted far too long for comfort, the man accepted Jason’s hand. “I am Amos Amin. I am head of Mr. Olment’s security,” he returned in a tone that sounded forced, clipped.

“If you have any problems, Mr. Amin, you should let me know first.” There was no question what Jason meant by his statement. He would not tolerate Amin or any member of his security crossing the line he’d just drawn. Jason squeezed Ami’s shoulders. “You ladies through in here?”

“Yes,” Kathi said, her voice sounding almost as shaky as Ami felt.

Ami nodded, dredging up a smile for Jason. As she left the room, she felt Amin’s gaze on her back like a dagger poised to thrust deep. Who the hell was this man? Who was Olment? And why in God’s name did they think they knew her?

Kathi and Ami exchanged unsteady goodbyes at the nurses’ station. She didn’t miss the strange looks the other two nurses stole in her direction. Ami forced herself to go on, immensely grateful that Jason walked with her to the elevator. Her mind reeled with conflicting emotions. She felt scared, angry, and extremely…anxious. Her entire being wanted to deny the episode that had just taken place.

“Do you have a clue what that was all about?” Jason asked as he depressed the call button.

She shook her head, her body literally humming with emotion and a kind of dread she couldn’t quite comprehend. It was as if she should know something that she didn’t. She folded her arms over her middle and tried to warm herself. She was cold. Cold and scared.

“I must remind them of someone they know,” she said finally, then choked out a humorless sound. “On a Wanted poster, obviously.”

Jason laughed at that. “It sure looks that way. Maybe you should avoid this floor until these guys are out of here. I’ll see what I can find out about them. I don’t know why I wasn’t informed of their presence in the first place. I swear, by the time the official word gets to me the guy will probably have been released.” The elevator doors slid open and Jason ushered her into the waiting car.

“I think you’re right,” Ami agreed without reservation. “I’ll just stay in the ER until they go back to their homeland.”

As the elevator bumped into downward motion, Ami closed her eyes and tried to gather her composure. Going to that room had been a huge error in judgment. What were the odds that two men from the same foreign country would think they knew her? She had a very bad feeling that she wouldn’t like the answer.

Ami and Jason parted ways on the first floor. She hurried to the ER, ten minutes late rather than ten minutes early. Had it only been twenty minutes? It felt like a lifetime since she’d gotten on that elevator headed for Olment’s room. And worst of all, she had more questions now than she’d had when she got out of bed this morning. Her little adventure hadn’t proven anything at all.

Well, maybe it had proven something…that she didn’t ever need to take a trip to the Middle East.

AN HOUR BEFORE her ER shift ended, Ami finally took a break. She hadn’t had a moment to worry about the past or the Israelis on the fourth floor, though, apparently word of the incident had spread like a plague through the hospital. Lunch had come and gone in a flash of sutures and EKGs. The day after the full moon was proving to be worse than the day before.

The one moment of quiet she’d had, she’d used to call home, only to get the machine. She told herself not to worry, that Mrs. Perry had probably taken Nicholas for a stroll. But it was raining outside. Ami then rationalized that just because it was raining downtown didn’t mean it was in her ’burb outside of town. Still feeling uneasy, she’d called Robert and was told that he would be out of the office all day. He never went to work without saying goodbye…and now he was unavailable. This was just too weird. The whole day had been the pits, starting with the incident on the fourth floor and going downhill from there.