The Doctor's Mission. Lyn Stone

she would come out of this whole. She would do anything, go to any lengths, to make that happen.

      For now, she was determined to enjoy the moment. Or rather the hours it would take to reach Florence. She had traveled very little in Europe when she hadn’t been in a hurry to get where she was going. She decided to stay awake as Nick drove over the Simplon Pass from Switzerland into Italy. When traveling by train or air there was little to see but the insides of enormously long tunnels or the topside of clouds. So this scenery was new to her and distracting, thank goodness.

      The snow-capped peaks were nothing new, but the sight of them, up close or at a distance, always filled her with awe. Even the memory of being trapped beneath all that snow so recently didn’t cause the view to pale. “I love it over here,” she muttered. “So beautiful.”

      “You should be sleeping,” Nick replied. “Are the curves getting to you? I figured this would be better than the tunnel.”

      “Claustrophobic, are we?” she asked with a grin.

      “No, actually it’s the lack of lines on the road that separate the traffic going in opposite directions. A little unnerving.” He paused. “You feeling okay?”

      “Not as bad as you’d think. And I don’t want to miss all this.” She fluttered her fingers against the car window. “Fantastic.”

      The faint threat of nausea and the constant blurring bothered her, but she found she could take brief looks, close her eyes for a while and then open them to something totally new.

      There were gorgeous waterfalls, some even channeled over the road by special concrete structures that also lent protection against avalanches. She shivered at the very thought of avalanches. But what were the chances of being caught in two within the month? She quickly dismissed the thought.

      Chalets had sprung up in places where it seemed no human should or could live. Real Heidi country, she thought with a smile, recalling the poignant story from her childhood. “Look! There are some sheep!”

      “Goats,” he argued, correcting her with a laugh.

      “Okay, so I don’t see all the details. I will. And I’ll come back here soon and ski that slope,” she promised herself out loud. She noticed the look on Nick’s face as she said it. He didn’t think she’d be able to face it, or maybe didn’t think she ought to try.

      “Hey, you get thrown, you get up and get back on the horse,” she explained.

      “Not if the outlaws are shooting at you,” he reminded her. “Then you scramble for cover, which is precisely what you’re doing.”

      “You’re a cautious man, Nicky,” she said with a chuckle. “You always were.”

      “Is that your Latin for coward?” he asked with a smile.

      “No, of course not,” she assured him. “It’s just that you spend too much time looking and never, ever leap.”

      He inclined his head in agreement. “Maybe that’s why I’m not the one running for my life.”

      Chapter 3

      Even though it extended travel time, Nick had opted for the less-congested autostrada instead of taking the A1 main artery leading to the city. That made it easier to determine whether anyone had followed them. No one had, he was certain.

      They arrived late in the day, just as the sun was throwing its golden glow over the city. He didn’t wake Cate to see it. As eager as he was to share the beauty of Florence with her, that would have to wait. Brunelleschi’s beautiful, striped dome shone in the distance like a beacon leading him to the area that was his temporary home.

      He loved Italy and especially old world Firenze, even though the Sandro family originally hailed from Rome. When he’d first arrived, he had considered making the move permanent. He had even been offered a position on staff where he was attending the seminars. But his plans were already made for the fellowship and he hadn’t liked the idea of taking the easy way out. Besides, he was admittedly addicted to fast-lane living and rather spoiled when it came to amenities not available anywhere else but the States.

      When they reached his building, Nick parked in front, half on the cobbled sidewalk, as everyone did. He woke Cate, helped her from the car and ushered her inside to the lift that would take them to his second-floor apartment.

      His bedroom was the larger of the two, but fronted the street, so he guided her to the guest room. It looked rather spartan, but he figured she was too tired to notice anyway. Tomorrow he would see about fixing it up for her. She collapsed immediately without so much as a good-night.

      Too wired to go to bed so early in the evening, he went to the kitchen, heated a can of soup and made himself a ham sandwich.

      The two agents Mercier had contacted in Florence came by after darkness fell, supplying the proper password so that Nick could identify them as being who they claimed to be.

      One was a portly little guy in his early thirties, sporting a neat moustache and wearing an expensively tailored suit. The other looked slightly older, tall, built like a wrestler and dressed more casually. Both were Italian, probably former military, judging by their bearing.

      Their English was fairly fluent, but out of politeness, since this was their country, Nick switched easily to the Italian his grandmother had required that he learn.

      Tosseli and Giacomo reassured him they would remain on watch from the rooms they pointed out in the building across the street. Anytime Nick and Cate went out, he was supposed to ring them up and let them know. The telltale bulges beneath Tosseli’s coat and Giacomo’s loose-tailed shirt assured Nick they were loaded for bear.

      Despite Nick’s aversion to firearms, these he didn’t mind. If someone did come after Cate, he wanted all the backup he could get.

      After their watchdogs left, Nick went to bed. He fought with dreams of Cate all night long, the same dreams he had battled when he had left her to go away to school. Hot dreams. Then there were the nightmares about there being no one to save her from herself. But the hot dreams dominated.

      He knew he couldn’t keep dwelling on the past this way or he’d go nuts. Cate had made it perfectly clear she just wanted to be friends now, nothing else. She had even felt easy enough with him to tease him about those early years.

      How could they be anything else but friends? He was in no frame of mind to embark on a relationship. He had lost his livelihood and whether he would succeed in his next position was anybody’s guess. There was the fellowship coming up, more training. Analysis. Setting up practice, if that’s what he decided to do in the new specialty. What if he found he hated psychiatry? Yet another field? More training? For the first time in his life, his future was uncertain.

      And even if he were already settled into something career-wise, what about Cate? She had some huge life changes down the road whether she accepted that fact or not. He wasn’t sure he could help her much past the immediate recovery phase.

      It seemed he needed to work on acceptance as badly as she did because he still wanted her, so badly that he might settle for something as temporary as a one-night stand.

      He made up his mind to retreat into doctor mode for the duration. He would not let this get out of hand. It could only hurt both of them.

      By morning, he had his resolve firmly in place.

      

      “Breakfast,” Nick announced, placing a tray on the table next to her bed.

      Last night she had insisted on using the walker for balance to get herself to the bathroom and back. He knew that changing her clothes must have been difficult, but her determination had won out. The T-shirt she wore to sleep in was on inside out, he noted. Either she hadn’t noticed or hadn’t had the energy left to fix it.

      She pushed up in bed, closing her eyes momentarily and swaying a little. He watched her swallow hard several times and take a deep, shuddering breath. It took her nearly