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Total Exposure
Tori Carrington
Fire chief Dan Egan pilots a helicopter with Dr. Natalie Giroux aboard to make an emergency airlift. A full-blown electrical storm hits. Lightning strikes the chopper. An emergency landing is their only hope….The forced landing strands Dan Egan and Natalie Giroux on a remote island in Courage Bay. Being isolated with Dan both frightens and excites Natalie. He's the kind of stubborn, fearless man she tries to avoid, yet she finds herself attracted. Maybe it's the brush with death…or the way Dan is struggling with his own desire for her. But she may as well admit it–when their helicopter went down, so did all of Natalie's defenses.
Attention: Courage Bay Emergency Services personnel
From: U.S. Coast Guard
This is to notify all emergency personnel that a helicopter has been reported missing over Courage Bay near S-hamala Island. The helicopter is piloted by Dan Egan, fire chief of Jefferson Avenue Firehouse. Also on board is Dr. Natalie Giroux, a staff member of Courage Bay Hospital. The two were returning to the local airport after a successful emergency airlift of a male heart-attack victim from the mudslide on Courage Bay mountain. Reports indicate the fire chief’s dog is also in the copter.
Final contact with air traffic control was made shortly after the helicopter took off from the hospital helipad late this afternoon. All reports indicate that the pilot changed course to avoid the approaching storm. Further attempts by air traffic control to contact Chief Egan have been unsuccessful, suggesting radio failure or a forced landing. Gale-force winds are reported in the bay area, along with twenty-foot swells. A large-and small-craft warning has been issued for the surrounding waters. All flights are grounded in and out of Courage Bay airport, and Coast Guard personnel were evacuated from S-hamala Island to the mainland earlier this afternoon. Given the current conditions, any search-and-rescue missions are on hold until further notice. Updates will be issued on an hourly basis.
About the Author
TORI CARRINGTON
Multi-award-winning, bestselling husband-and-wife duo Lori and Tony Karayianni are the power behind the pen name Tori Carrington. Their more than thirty-five titles include numerous Harlequin Blaze miniseries, as well as the ongoing Sofie Metropolis comedic mystery series with another publisher. Visit www.toricarrington.net and www.sofiemetro.com and www.myspace.com/toricarrington for more information on the couple and their titles.
Total Exposure
Tori Carrington
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Dear Reader,
As steadfast fans of Harlequin’s continuity series, we were thrilled when we were invited to contribute to the CODE RED series. Actually, contribute is the wrong word, because, as we quickly discovered, these series are team endeavors in which every member plays an important role—from editor down to the author of the last title—making for a unique reading and writing experience we’ll treasure always.
In Total Exposure, our hunky hero, Fire Chief Dan Egan, is every bit the alpha male with a chip on his shoulder that beautiful burn specialist Natalie Giroux only aggravates. Dan’s wounds run far deeper than the burn he suffered three months earlier in a warehouse explosion. But when he’s stranded with Natalie on a deserted island during one of the worst storms in Courage Bay’s history, does this man of action have the courage to let the lady doc heal all his wounds so the two of them might forge a future together?
We hope you enjoy Dan and Natalie’s rocky journey to happily-ever-after! We’d love to hear from you. Write us at P.O. Box 12271, Toledo, Ohio 43612 or e-mail us at toricarrington@aol.com. And make sure you visit our Web site at www.toricarrington.com for info on coming attractions and to enter our latest online drawings.
Here’s wishing you love, romance and heartfelt reading!
Lori and Tony Karayianni
aka Tori Carrington
We warmly dedicate this book to the extraordinary
Marsha Zinberg and her phenomenal support team,
including Alethea Spiridon, Sasha Bogin and
Margaret Learn, for helping us “expose” another facet of
ourselves as writers and human beings. Thank you!
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
IN DR. NATALIE GIROUX’S experience, there were days that were great, others that were so-so and a handful of additional ones she’d prefer to erase from the record books altogether. Unfortunately, this cold, rainy Friday in November fell solidly into the last category. Not so much because of the threatening storm system that had been parked over Courage Bay, California, for the past couple of days. It was, after all, the rainy season, and, well, rain was to be expected. Her sluggishness didn’t stem from the long, hard week she’d just gone through as Courage Bay Hospital’s burn specialist, treating a wide variety of injuries she somehow never got quite used to seeing. Nor could her mood be blamed on nothing going according to plan, or the fact she’d been misplacing things all day.
No. The source of her melancholy was far more personal and went much deeper than such simple matters. And as a result, the dark monster was much more difficult to battle.
Natalie blinked her examining room back into focus, then gently tousled the head of a four-year-old burn patient in for a follow-up appointment.
“That’s it,” she said, helping the girl down from the table. “We’re all done. Now, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?”
She trailed the girl and her mother into the reception area. Little Jenny Barnard was recovering nicely. Natalie wished she could say that about all of her patients. She held up three different flavored suckers. Jenny took the yellow, lemon-flavored one.
“Now, do you remember everything I told you?” Natalie asked the four-year-old. “You’ve got to drink lots of juice and let your mom change your bandages when she says it’s time.” The superficial dermal burn on the right side of Jenny’s face was the result of an unfortunate accident involving a pot of boiling spaghetti, a cat and the young girl a week ago. But the injury was not what Natalie focused on now that the examination was over. All she saw was Jenny’s vibrant spirit.
“I will, Dr. Natalie.”
Natalie smiled and crossed her arms over the girl’s chart, hugging it to her, as she watched mother and daughter walk down the hall of the hospital. When they were out of sight, she glanced at her watch, trying to ignore the large numbers of the date at the left. She made a few notes on the chart, then slid it into the slot outside the examining room door for her assistant to pick up.
Today would have been her first wedding anniversary.
The thought snagged her attention, nearly causing the next chart she drew out to drop from her numb fingers.
She swallowed hard, seeking the solace she usually found in her work.
It wasn’t so much the fact that she and Charles would have celebrated their first year of marriage today. She’d been mentally preparing herself for that milestone over the past month. What made her heart ache was that the week before their wedding day, she’d lost Charles. Not to another woman. Not to a case of cold feet. No, the loss was even more decisive. Natalie had lost him to heart disease. Permanently.
She cleared her throat and flipped open the chart in her hands, grateful to be so busy. During the past year, the hospital and her patients were all that had stood between her and emotional collapse.
But nothing seemed capable of helping her through today.
Her gaze fell on the name at the top of the chart and she sighed, glancing around the waiting area without much hope of finding who she was looking for.
“He didn’t show,” her assistant, Manuela, said from her desk on the other side of the reception area. “Again.”
“What appointment is this?” Natalie asked. “His fourth?”
“Fifth.”
Natalie skimmed the contents of the chart. Fire Chief Dan Egan might be everything and more than his stellar reputation suggested when it came to his work, but keeping his appointments with her seemed to rank low on his list of priorities.
She leaned against the doorjamb, then turned the page of the file, although she really didn’t need to. She already knew what it would tell her. Namely that the fire chief had suffered a contact burn to his side in the warehouse explosion three months ago. The severe blistering and her inability to judge the depth of the wound had required a follow-up appointment for her to better evaluate the injury and make assessments for additional treatment. Only the handsome fire chief had canceled that appointment. And the next one he’d made for a week after that. Until she stood right where she was now—essentially without the information she needed in order to close the file.
“Should I call and reschedule?” Manuela asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Hmm? Oh.” She flipped the chart closed. “No.”
“Are you going to leave the file open?”
Natalie stared over the young woman’s shoulder to the wall and the seascapes hanging there. But she didn’t see the warm pastel colors depicting what was visible through any window looking over Courage Bay. Instead her mind conjured up an image of Charles right before his death. A staff psychologist with the hospital, Charles had refused to follow up on symptoms that in retrospect had foreshadowed the fatal heart attack that took his life.
“Are you all right, Natalie?” Manuela asked quietly.
Natalie’s chest felt cramped and congested. Only she wasn’t coming down with a virus. At least not one that could be treated. Rather, it was raw emotion that choked off her breath and made her feel sick to her stomach.
Nothing she had said had made a difference with Charles. And there was no reason to believe that she’d have any more pull when it came to Dan Egan.
She shook her head. “It’s been three months since the warehouse incident. I’m going to close the file.”
The phone on Manuela’s desk rang as Natalie glanced at her watch again. Three-thirty. Since her last appointment for the day was a no-show, she had some unexpected time on her hands.
The last thing she wanted.
“Natalie?”
She looked at Manuela.
“It’s Debra Egan for you. Shall I take a message?”
Debra Egan. Dan Egan’s daughter. Natalie often forgot that little detail because her connection to them took different forms. While Dan was her no-show patient, Debra led an exercise class at a local gym. A class Natalie took whenever she could fit it into her busy schedule.
Maybe she could go over there now. Work off some of the energy burning her from the inside out.
She motioned down the corridor. “I’ll take the call in my office. Thanks, Manuela.”
Leaving her door open, she put Dan’s chart on her narrow desk, sat down and plucked up the telephone receiver.
She’d barely said hello before Debra asked, “Is he there?”
Natalie reached for the pile of folders in her in box. “If you’re referring to your father, no. Unless he’s running late, he stood me up again.” She shuffled through the files until she located the one she was looking for, on a grease-fire patient.
“So Nate lied to me…again.” Debra sighed. “I just called the station and he told me Dad was at the hospital.”
“Maybe he is here somewhere, just not with me.”
Silence reigned as Natalie reviewed the details on a patient who needed her help much more than the city’s stubborn fire chief. After a few moments, she realized Debra had still not replied. “Is everything all right, Deb?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to zone out on you, Natalie. It’s just that…well, I’ve been taking on double classes here. And when I’m not working—heck, even when I am—I’m worrying about Dad. Just the other day I caught him wincing when he reached to pick up something. That burn is bothering him, but he won’t own up to it.”
“I can’t do anything about it if he won’t let me,” Natalie said quietly.
“I know. I was just thinking, you know, if you wouldn’t mind too much, you could go over to the station yourself to check him out.”
Natalie briefly closed her eyes. While she didn’t mind making the occasional house call, the thought of chasing Dan Egan around, trying to get a look at him without his shirt on, struck her as ridiculous.
“I mean, you were scheduled to see him right now, anyway, weren’t you? The fire station is only a couple blocks away from the hospital….”
Natalie propped her elbow on her desk. “Deb, I…”
“Please, Natalie. I’m really worried. I mean, after what happened with Mom…”
There was a plaintive tone in the nineteen-year-old’s voice. Sometimes Natalie found it hard to remember that Debra was almost twenty years younger than she was. But at times like these, when she was reminded that Dan Egan’s wife had died of breast cancer only two short years ago, she realized how young and still hurt Debra was.
“I’ll throw in a couple free exercise sessions,” the young woman said, her voice overly bright.
Natalie took a deep breath and told herself if she did this, she wouldn’t be doing it for Dan Egan, but as a favor to his daughter.
“Okay,” she said, smiling at the enormous sigh of relief filling her ear. “I’ll go to the station. But I can’t promise anything, Deb. I mean, if he doesn’t want me to examine him, I can’t exactly cut his shirt off him.”
The idea of peeling away Dan Egan’s shirt to reveal his muscular torso sent a mild shiver running through her—one unfamiliar and ultimately unwelcome.
“Oh, thank you, Natalie! You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“I think I do, Deb,” she said softly. “That’s why I’m doing it.”
“I’m going to call the station right now and tell him you’re coming.”
