Read Online Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann - Free Book Online Page B

have their own kitchen and bathroom, rather than having to share with a bunch of strangers.
    Although, if Anna didn’t get a real job soon, they’d have to move into that kind of a rented-room arrangement. Assuming, that is, she was going to get Nika back. Her throat tightened.
    “They’re not looking for ransom,” Bach told her somberly, in his Golden-Hollywood-era voice. “If I’m right about who they are, sometime in the next few hours—if they haven’t done it already—they’re going to decide that they want to keep Nika. Badly. At which point, they’re also going to realize that they’ll have to get rid of you.”
    What? “Get
rid
of …?”
    “Kill,” he said, nodding. “You. Although first they might try taking you, too. If Nika’s as talented as I think she is.”
    “Talented …?” Now he was really freaking her out. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would they want to kill me and keep her?” Anna asked. “If the whole point of kidnapping is to make money from ransom? And don’t say
it’s complicated
.”
    He smiled rather ruefully as he took a set of keys from his pocket. “But I’m afraid it is.” He pushed a button and a little carthat was parked right there at the curb flashed and the doors unlocked with a click. “Why don’t you come with me to the Obermeyer Institute, and I’ll do my best to explain.”
    Anna took a solid step back. “Why don’t you just
do your best to explain
right here and now?”
    He sighed. Almost imperceptibly. “I know that the idea that you’re in danger isn’t easy to process, and that you have no real reason to trust me.”
    “Why
should
I trust you? Why should I believe
anything
you tell me?”
    This time he didn’t hesitate. “Because I can get Nika back—I
will
get her back. I’m one of the good guys, Miss Taylor.”
    And time seemed to hang as she gazed into Dr. Joseph Bach’s dark brown eyes. He exuded such absolute confidence, and she found herself wanting to believe him. It would be so easy, in fact, to believe him—to just throw herself into his extremely attractive arms and beg him to rescue both her and her sister, to let him take care of them, forever.
    Instead, Anna took another step back, away from him, and drew in a deep breath. Exhaled hard. And asked, “What kind of doctor are you, exactly …?”
    He took his time answering. “I’m a surgeon,” he finally said.
    She laughed her disbelief. “I’m sorry, but it’s just … 
Before
you lie? You really need to do your research. My mother was a doctor and … Seriously? You’re just too young. Next time try
intern. Intern over at Mass General
might work a little better for you.”
    He smiled. “I’m not as young as I look. And I usually
do
hide what I do, but … I didn’t want to lie to you. I’m actually a
brain
surgeon, Miss Taylor, although that’s even harder for some people to swallow. I have a variety of other degrees, too. Internal medicine. Psychiatry.”
    “What, no rocket science?”
    His smile broadened, revealing charming creases—too elegant to be called dimples—along the sides of his mouth. “Actually, yes. But I tend to leave that off the list. It makes people take me less seriously.”
    “As opposed to that degree you got from clown college …?”
    He laughed. “I haven’t done
that
yet,” he admitted. “But I wrote the book—the Western one, anyway—on neural integration.”
    This was a little crazy, because part of her actually
wanted
to believe him, particularly when he let his amusement shine in his eyes.
    “And that brings us back to your sister,” he said, sobering and instantly serious again. “Did you know that she’s twenty percent integrated? Has she had any outside training or …” He trailed off, no doubt because he could tell just from looking that he’d completely lost her.
    Twenty percent
what
? “What does this have to do with finding Nika?” she asked him.
    “Everything,” he told her. “It’s the reason