Risky Return. Virginia Vaughan

she’d been stronger and more committed. If only she hadn’t lost the baby.

      Nausea rolled through her. Her body wanted to give in to the drug, but her mind continued to fight. She didn’t want to die. Her right hand at last slipped through one of the restraints and she was able to sit up a bit to loosen the other. But the call button on the floor was unplugged and useless. She loosened the restraints on her feet and forced her legs to move. They did, slipping over the side of the bed, but when she tried to stand, they wouldn’t support her and she fell, hitting the floor with a thud. Pain shot through her. She cried out but even she knew her cries were weak and would never reach past the closed doorway.

      She was going to die right here in this room and no one would know.

      God, where are You? Why had He left her and allowed so many terrible things to happen to her?

      And where was Collin when she needed him?

      She couldn’t even voice those questions as the darkness pulled her away.

      * * *

      Leaving Rebecca’s side had been difficult, but the decision to remain at the hospital was a no-brainer. Collin planted himself in the waiting room. He had a direct view of her room and he wasn’t leaving the hospital until he knew she was safe. His cell phone rang and he answered it and heard Kent’s voice.

      “Are you at the hospital? How is Rebecca?”

      “Aside from a concussion, the nurse said she would be fine. I’m going to hang around for a while to make sure she’s okay.”

      “She’s definitely crossed some dangerous people and if today’s attacks prove anything, it’s that they mean business. I’ll swing by there as soon as I’m finished at her house.”

      “I’ll be here,” Collin told him.

      Deciding to check on Rebecca again, he pushed open the door to her room and poked his head inside but didn’t see her. She was supposed to be resting, but the bed was empty. He was about to go find the nurse when he spotted something on the floor by the bed. He stepped back inside. It was a foot poking out from beneath the bed.

      His heart dropped and he ran around the bed. Rebecca was on the floor unconscious. The nurse’s call button was on the floor beside her, useless. He ran to the door and swung it open. “I need help in here!” he hollered toward the nurses’ station then ran back to Rebecca.

      He kneeled beside her and felt for a pulse, his heart hammering against his chest. This couldn’t be happening. Not again.

      A nurse hurried into the room and felt for a pulse, then reached over the bed and pressed an emergency button. Moments later, a team of people rushed in.

      Collin was pushed aside as they lifted her to the bed and began working on her. Panic filled him. She looked so still and lifeless. He’d seen death, been around it, even caused it before, but seeing Rebecca this way staggered him.

      “I need you to go wait in the family waiting area,” the nurse who’d arrived first instructed him. “We’ll find you when we know what’s happening.”

      He didn’t want to go, didn’t want to leave her, but the nurse nudged him from the room and closed the door. He stood there a few moments then stumbled to the waiting area and fell into a chair. He put his head in his hands.

      His instinct was to pray, but he didn’t even remember how. All he could do was cry out in his heart to God not to allow death to take her. It wasn’t fair that he’d bumped into Rebecca today, gotten to see her again, only to have her snatched away.

      After what seemed like an eternity, the nurse appeared in the doorway. Two security guards followed her.

      “How is she?” Collin asked.

      “She’s stable for now but I need you to remain here. These guards will stay with you. The police will be coming to question you soon.”

      “The police? Why?” He could see her hesitancy to tell him anything. “Please, what’s happening?” He mentally kicked himself. Why had he left her tonight?

      “Miss Mason regained consciousness long enough to tell us a woman was in her room and injected something into her IV. We’re treating her and the police have been contacted. They’re on their way.”

      Collin shuddered. Another attack? That made three in one day. She should have been safe here in the hospital, just as she should have been safe at her home, but someone was determined to keep her silent about whatever it was she knew about the missing girl.

      Only minutes later, Kent arrived looking as tired and rattled as Collin felt. “What happened here?” he asked. “I was on my way when I got the call about a possible poisoning?”

      “I don’t know the details. All I know is I entered her room to see her and she was on the floor unconscious. The nurse said she’d been injected with something. Rebecca told her a woman was in her room.”

      “These people aren’t messing around. I’m having those threatening notes sent to the lab for prints. Hopefully we can pull some off them.”

      The same nurse that had given him the brush-off approached Kent and relayed what had happened. “She was apparently injected with some kind of drug but it’s not charted and no one is admitting to going into her room or giving her anything. In fact, the doctor had ordered a CT scan and we were waiting for them to come take her. She shouldn’t have been receiving any medication until that was complete. We gave her a drug that counteracts most narcotics and she’s stable now.” She glanced at Collin. “If you hadn’t found her when you did, she probably would have died.”

      Earlier, this nurse had treated him like a suspect. He felt vindicated but couldn’t dwell on that. She didn’t know him and had been right to be suspicious of everyone, yet saving Rebecca’s life seemed to have garnered him less suspicion by this nurse. Plus, Rebecca had said a woman attacked her. Collin turned to Kent. “Three attempts on her life in one day. Are you sure your boss can’t authorize a guard by her door?”

      Kent rubbed his face. “I’ll check into it.”

      The nurse continued. “In the meantime, hospital security will be placed at her door. No one will go in or out of that room without permission from me and that includes any service personnel or housekeeping.”

      “Thank you,” Collin stated, grateful for her diligence. “May I see her now?”

      She nodded. “Sure. She’s out of danger but she’s sleeping. I’d say she’s just plain worn out from the day’s events.”

      As Collin headed for Rebecca’s hospital room, he heard Kent tell the nurse he wanted to see all her records and wanted a list of all people who’d been in and out of her room. Good. He hoped Kent’s investigation would lead to something concrete, something that would identify the person or people trying to hurt Rebecca.

      He stepped inside her room and his heart broke as he saw her lying so frail on the bed. He shuddered, remembering those letters and the way he’d found her sprawled on the floor. But at least she was breathing okay now. He slid into a chair and watched her, listening to her steady breathing. He wasn’t leaving her side again, at least not until he knew what was going on and why someone was trying to kill her.

      * * *

      Rebecca awoke in a panic and tried to sit up. Pain ripped through her back and she gasped, causing Collin, who was sitting beside her bed, to jump up.

      She grabbed his arm. “That woman! She held me down! She—she—”

      “I know, I know. She’s gone now.”

      Sobs racked her and she fell into his embrace. As he held her, she noticed the bruises darkening on her wrists and recalled the horror of being restrained by that monster who’d attacked her.

      “You captured her?”

      She saw by the grim expression on his face that they hadn’t. “Kent is reviewing camera