PROLOGUE
Lights flashed in Sarah’s eyes as unintelligible words floated around her.
There was so much darkness—too much. The world was full of a myriad of colors, so when you saw it in black and white, you knew something was wrong—very, very wrong.
“Let’s go code three.”
“Stay with us, Sarah,” she heard someone say. They sounded so far away. There was a face above her, but she couldn’t seem to focus on it. There were no eyes, no mouth, no nose. It was just a black-and-white blur above her with a halo of light behind it.
“Can you tell me your full name?”
She tried to answer, but she couldn’t seem to find her voice.
“Sarah, when is your birthday?”
Again she couldn’t answer.
“We have a twenty-six-year-old female who was the restrained passenger of an SUV traveling at approximately sixty-five miles per hour. Their car was hit on the passenger side at high speed, and airbags deployed. She had to be extricated from the vehicle. She has a distended abdomen, labored breathing, and decreased level of consciousness. Her blood pressure is eighty-three over forty-two with a pulse of one hundred and thirty; O2 sats are ninety-three percent and dropping. Possible internal bleeding.”
Sarah wanted to know who they were talking about, but she couldn’t find her voice. She heard a moan but wasn’t sure where it came from. Nothing felt real at the moment. Nothing felt right.
A bright light shone in her eyes, and she tried turning away, but she couldn’t move her head. Where was she? She tried to focus. There were sirens, but they sounded distant. She couldn’t move her body. Panic was beginning to set in. Where was Noah? She’d been driving with Noah. Suddenly he’d yelled, and then everything had gone dark.
“Do you know what month it is, Sarah?”
Why were they asking these questions?
“Can you tell us what happened?”
If she could speak, she’d tell him to give her a second to answer one question before he spouted off another, but there wasn’t a point, anyway. She couldn’t find her voice.
“Her pupils are equal and reactive,” the voice said. “Let’s get two IVs started wide open.”
Oh no. She hated needles. Those had better not be going into her.
“Stay with us, Sarah. Let’s keep those eyes open,” the voice said. She was growing more and more irritated. She needed a nap. She’d been working hard. It wasn’t a crime to take a little nap. She was in a dream right now, after all, so shutting her eyes was exactly what she needed to do.
“Her blood pressure is now seventy-eight over forty. Heart rate is still in the one hundred thirties. Oxygen has dropped to eighty-four percent, and her breathing is more labored. We are going to need to intubate en route. We’re ten minutes out.”
Where were they ten minutes out from? That face above her was growing blurrier by the second, and she didn’t want to keep her eyes open anymore. They shut, and she felt darkness enveloping her.
“We’re losing her.”
Sarah wasn’t sure what that meant, but it didn’t matter. The darkness that had been slowly seeping in washed over her like a cool breeze and took away all her confusion. She sighed as the voices faded away into nothingness.
Noah looked in at the black-and-blue body of Sarah, and for the first time in at least ten years, he felt a stinging in his eyes. He’d been the one driving. No, he knew he wasn’t responsible for the drunk driver who had smashed into them, but he felt responsible for not reacting faster. He’d walked away from the crash with a few bruises, and Sarah had nearly lost her life.
For months she’d been telling him they weren’t right for each other. Maybe she was correct. Maybe he was too dangerous. Maybe his need for excitement and adventure would eventually kill her.
He’d never been so scared as when she’d been loaded into that ambulance. And now the evidence of his recklessness was right there in front of him. She was unconscious in the bed after a long surgery.
He needed to let her go—it was what she wanted. He knew it would be better for her. He just wasn’t sure he’d be able to do that.
“Sir, you’re not supposed to be back here,” a woman said softly as she gently placed a hand on his arm.
“I know. Please, just give me a minute. I won’t go in. I won’t disturb her,” he pleaded. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d begged for anything from anyone.
“I’m going to grab some charts. I’ll be walking past here again in about two minutes, and I know this doorway will be empty,” she said with a sympathetic smile.
He nodded, too choked up to say anything more. The nurse walked away, and his eyes caressed Sarah’s battered body. He stood there for another minute and fifty-five seconds; then he silently turned and walked away.
He was as clueless then as he had been from the moment he’d met this beautiful, frustrating, stubborn, amazing woman. He knew what should be done—he’d just never been good at taking the easiest or right path.
CHAPTER ONE
If a smile could break your face, then Sarah was sure hers was going to crack at any minute. The smile wasn’t real, but she could sell it—was great at selling it. She’d learned early on in life that you faked it till you made it. Those who said that method didn’t work weren’t trying hard enough.
She was going to pull out of this project. Joseph Anderson had spoken to her about being a part of this massive veterans center a few months ago, but no contracts had been signed, and she wasn’t sure what he’d been thinking, anyway. She’d only graduated school a few months earlier, and yes, she had faith in herself, but getting a project like this one was huge—it was for people like Noah.
She didn’t want to work with Noah any longer. She’d been confused from the beginning with this man, and she’d tried her hardest to make it work. But sometimes it took a stronger person to know when to quit versus trying to stick it out. She was smart enough to walk away. She’d nearly lost her life a few months earlier. The accident had caused complications, and she’d been truly scared for probably the first time in her life. That had woken her up. She’d been too carefree in life, had been taking too many chances. Now it was time to get her priorities straight.
She was walking into the huge Anderson Corporation. Her head was held high, and that smile that was killing her to maintain was firmly in place. She was going to be professional . . . and firm. The best thing for the center was for her to walk away.
It felt like an hour in the elevator to the top of the building. Joseph’s oldest son, Lucas, now ran the massive Anderson empire, but Sarah was very aware of who the head of the family truly was. Joseph’s idea of retiring just meant he didn’t sit in the offices for ten hours a day. He now had much more time to mess with people’s lives—his current obsession. She just had no idea what he saw in her.
She entered the huge lobby on the top floor, and her stomach tightened as she looked around at the beautiful sitting areas and the plants that reached the three-story-tall ceilings. She couldn’t even imagine how much it cost to maintain this place. She didn’t want to think about it. She wondered how many people actually told Joseph no. She’d bet all she had it didn’t happen often.