Indestructible. Cassie Miles

of her arm at the vein and made an educated guess. “I’d say you’ve lost some blood.”

      “I need a doctor.”

      “Come with me.” He needed to get her away from here before they came back.

      Leaning heavily against him, she stumbled into her living room. “What happened in here? Was I robbed?”

      Explanations were going to take a while—time they didn’t have. He lifted her off her feet and carried her toward the door, where he came face-to-face with a uniformed policeman holding a gun.

      “Freeze,” the officer ordered.

      Standing behind him was Melinda’s neighbor from across the hall—a gray-haired woman who taught anthropology at Augustana. “It’s all right,” she said to the policeman. “He lives in the building.”

      “Put her down on the sofa.” The cop’s gun didn’t waver. “Do it now.”

      Though Drew knew he was capable of disarming the cop, he did as ordered. It was never wise to assault an officer.

      The professor rushed to Melinda’s side. “Are you okay?”

      She nodded slowly.

      The neighbor smoothed Melinda’s hair off her forehead. “I heard crashing and peeked into the hall. Your door was partly open, and I saw a man inside. I called the police.”

      “Can you describe the man?” Drew asked.

      “I didn’t get a good look.” The professor’s cheeks were flushed. Beneath her gray bangs, her forehead furrowed. “He was Caucasian. Definitely mesomorphic.”

      “What’s that?” the cop asked.

      “Large, muscular body structure,” she said. “And he had a shaved head.”

      Any doubt Drew might have had about the identity of the intruder vanished. Melinda’s attacker was the same man who had been after him in Italy.

      LESS THAN AN HOUR later, Melinda walked through the door of the health services clinic at the college with Drew at her side. He’d insisted on driving and now hovered close to her.

      “Are you sure you want to go here?” he asked.

      “I hate hospital emergency rooms.” The shock of being attacked in her own home made her want to seek the safe and familiar. “I know the people here.”

      Physically, she didn’t feel too terribly bad. Her injuries had been far worse after a Rollerblade accident. But the memory loss was worrisome. It didn’t seem like her head had been injured. What else could cause a blackout?

      Holding her arm, he directed her into the room. Slate-blue chairs lined the walls in the small waiting area, and two students huddled in the corner. Both were coughing and sniffling. The woman in pink scrubs who sat behind the counter looked up from the book she was reading. Melinda recognized her; she was a frequent patron of the library.

      “Melinda,” the nurse said. “What happened?”

      Drew answered for her. “She was assaulted. We need to see the doctor right away.”

      His intensity must have impressed the nurse because she quickly escorted them to a small room with an examination table and the typical medical paraphernalia arrayed on a countertop beside a sink. She turned to Drew and said, “You can wait outside.”

      “I’m staying here.”

      The nurse helped Melinda onto the table. “You’re in luck, hon. Dr. Lynn is on duty tonight until nine, and she’s the best.”

      “Thanks, Ruth.” Her recall of the nurse’s name was somewhat reassuring. Her long-term memory seemed to be unaffected by the assault. Only the few moments after the flash remained blank. “You didn’t really have to rush us in here. It looks like other people were waiting.”

      “No problem.” She patted Melinda’s hand. “You sit tight, hon. You’re going to be okay.”

      When she left, Drew came closer again. “Do you want to lie down? Should I get you some water?”

      “Give me some space, okay?”

      He backed off one pace. “How’s this?”

      “That extra eight inches is really swell.” He didn’t take his eyes off her for a second. She couldn’t help but comment on his change in attitude. “I thought you were in a big hurry to leave town.”

      “Not anymore,” he said. “I’m staying with you.”

      “What if I don’t want you around?”

      “You’ll get used to having a bodyguard.”

      A bit overprotective, but she liked being taken care of. The attack upset her. That kind of violence wasn’t supposed to happen to people like her. She’d always lived a very quiet, very safe, very average life.

      Doctor Bethany Lynn entered. In spite of her horn-rimmed glasses and blond hair pulled back in a severe bun, she looked like a teenager. Melinda knew that Doctor Lynn was in her late twenties and she liked to read Jane Austen.

      After the doctor introduced herself to Drew and shook his hand, she focused on Melinda. “Tell me what happened.”

      “I wish I could. I was alone in my apartment. I opened the door and got hit by a bright flash of light. After that my mind is blank until Drew came into the bathroom and found me lying on the floor.”

      The doctor shot a vaguely suspicious glance toward Drew. “Why did you go to her apartment?”

      “I’m Melinda’s upstairs neighbor. I heard crashing.”

      “And the woman who lives across the hall from me also heard the noises and called the police. She saw a strange man inside my apartment.”

      “Was it a burglary?” the doctor asked. “Was anything taken?”

      “Not even my purse,” Melinda said. “The police think Drew scared him off before he could take anything.”

      “Take off your sweatshirt, and I’ll get started.” Dr. Lynn continued to ask simple questions while she examined Melinda’s bruises, paying particular attention to the wound on the inside of her arm. “This is on the vein. Was there a lot of blood?”

      “Just a few smears,” Melinda said.

      She wrapped a cuff around the uninjured arm to test blood pressure. “Any vomiting?”

      “No.”

      “Ringing in the ears? Dizziness?”

      “I’m really tired. Kind of weak in the knees.”

      The doctor ran through a couple more tests. “Your blood pressure is a little low, and you’re slightly anemic. The bruising appears to be superficial. Mostly defensive.”

      “What does that mean?”

      “Your arm was grabbed with force, and you were dragged. While you were trying to fight off your attacker, you bumped into things, which caused the crashing noises.” The doctor gave her a reassuring smile. “I’d like to ask some personal questions. It might be best if we were alone.”

      “I’m not leaving,” Drew said. When he folded his arms across his chest, it looked like they’d need a bulldozer to remove him from the examination room.

      “It’s okay with me if he stays,” Melinda said.

      Dr. Lynn didn’t look pleased, but she continued, “Were you sexually molested?”

      “Golly, no.” If she’d been raped, Melinda would have felt it. “I still had my pants on.”

      “I was downstairs pretty quickly,” Drew said. “Five or six minutes after I heard the first crash.”

      Ignoring him, the doctor examined