And then a thought dawned on him. Red wasn’t in a bad relationship with Milton, her sister was. Maybe she was giving her sister time to get her bearings enough to leave the jerk. She might’ve been the one to deliver the message. A guy like Milton wouldn’t have taken news like that lying down. Had he gotten angry, found the nearest rock and bashed her in the head?
“What do you mean she just disappeared?” There was outright panic in Red’s voice now as she spoke quietly into the phone. “No. Don’t call anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Promise me you won’t look for her.”
Red’s shoulders slumped forward and tears rolled down her cheeks as she ended the call. She closed her eyes as if trying to shut out the world.
“Tell me what’s going on and we’ll figure something out.” Tyler’s fingers itched to hold her but making that move was a slippery slope. “Does he know who you really are?”
“No. And I have no idea what I’ve actually gotten myself into,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “My head hurts.”
“You can start by telling me what your sister’s relationship to James Milton is,” Tyler said.
The mention of Milton’s name got her eyes open in a hurry.
“We can’t talk here.” She glanced around. “Where are we anyway?”
Tyler didn’t like the idea of taking her out of the hospital without knowing exactly what kind of danger she was in and from whom, but he had no choice under the circumstances. Milton would be asking questions soon and wouldn’t be satisfied without an answer. Tyler needed to get her away from the building. He pulled out a bundle of clothing. “Here. Put these on.”
“Scrubs?” she asked, and when he nodded she turned to face the other way.
He took the cue to untie the back of her gown and had to force his gaze away from the silky skin of her shoulder as she slipped out of the cotton material. In addition to the surgical scrubs, Dr. McConnell had provided a bra and panties and shoes. He needed to call her in the morning to thank her for arranging everything on such short notice.
Luckily she’d believed the story about Red wanting out of the relationship. Since she’d planned to release her the next day, McConnell didn’t see the harm in giving Red an out tonight. She’d joked that it was already morning somewhere and made him promise to let her stop by his place after rounds to check on her patient. Lying to McConnell sat sourly in Tyler’s gut. He’d explain the situation when he could. His first order of business was getting Red away from Milton and to safety. Then, the two of them would have a conversation about delivering justice to Milton.
“What now?” Red said, turning around to face him.
“Put these on.” He handed her a surgical mask and hair covering. “And then meet me downstairs near the ER. If he sees me he’ll think something’s up. I want to give us as good of a head start as I can.”
She took a deep breath and he assumed it was to steel her nerves.
“Okay. Let’s do this,” she said.
“You go first. That way, if he’s wandering around and happens to see you, I won’t be far behind,” Tyler said. “Once you walk out the door, make a right toward the stairs. I don’t want you waiting around for an elevator. The ER is on the first floor so you’ll have to make it down eight flights of stairs on your own. Can you handle it?”
She nodded and all he could see were her eyes, the green stood out even more against the light-blue face mask.
“Okay, then. Once you’re down, I’ll meet you at the ER bay,” he said. “Don’t forget to take off the mask before you walk out of the stairwell.”
Red stood at the door for a long moment. She pressed her flat palm against it but stopped short of opening it.
Then she stole a last look at him before walking out and to her right.
Tyler figured he needed to wait a bit before he followed. It would take all his self-control not to hightail it to Red’s room and deliver his own brand of justice. Milton needed to see what it was like to fight with a man. But that would only alert the creep to the fact that Jessica was on the run. Since Tyler couldn’t be in two places at once, he waited a few minutes, then pushed the door open. If Milton saw him at all, it could be game over.
Besides, there was a lot more to this situation than met the eye and Tyler needed to get to the bottom of what was going on before he let his fists fly. He’d take Jessica to the ranch for tonight. There wasn’t a place around with better security than home.
Tyler made it down the hall and then to the elevator without incident. In the ER, Red was standing right where he’d told her to and a part of him sighed in relief. He couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t bolt as soon as she had the chance and he had all kinds of questions that needed answers.
Then again, she was in a strange town. Running from the one person helping her didn’t make a bit of sense.
So far, Red had told Tyler that she’d stepped in for a sister who was now missing. Twins. He shook his head as he walked toward her. Wouldn’t his little brothers Joshua and Ryder have a field day with this? Red and her sister’s trick would be right up their alley. Even though they weren’t actually identical, his youngest brothers looked enough alike that they got away with a few too many pranks, switching places to confuse people.
Tyler took Red’s arm and led her out to his waiting SUV.
“What has your sister gotten herself into?” he asked as soon as they were safe inside his vehicle. He turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking space.
As he meandered through the lot and onto the highway he expected her to speak. She didn’t.
“We can turn back and I’ll ask Milton, if that makes you feel better,” he threatened. No way would he go through with it but she needed a little motivation to get her talking.
“I told you before, she’s my twin sister. She’s in trouble.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Jessica said, staring out the front window.
“Then start with what you do know,” he said.
“I got a call from my sister three days ago asking if I could take time off work to help her out,” she said. “She needed me to step into her life and go on a trip with a friend of hers for a few days while she fixed a problem. She said go along with whatever he said, so I did. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to bail her out of a bad situation, so I agreed.”
“Is your sister involved in something illegal?”
“Before yesterday I would’ve been ready to fight if you asked that question about her. Now, I’m not sure what she’s gotten herself into,” Jessica said on a heavy sigh. “She’s not a bad person. I normally get called in for a relationship that has gone south and she doesn’t have the heart to break it off herself. I show up and help ease her out of it. At least that’s how it started five years ago. It kind of grew from there.”
“So you had no prior relationship with Milton?”
“We’re not engaged, if that’s what you’re asking, and neither was Jenn,” she said with an involuntary shiver. “I’d never seen the man before two days ago. My sister sent me with him. She said I could trust him and to go with him and pretend that I knew what he was talking about. We checked into the Bluff Motel and he started demanding that I tell him where something was. Some kind of box. I can’t remember clearly.” She touched the bandage on her forehead.
“Is that how you ended up on my property?”
“Yes.