Breaking Point by Suzanne Brockmann Read Free Book Online Page A

said, but she’d gone over to the door.
    “Diana! Diana, he’s awake!” She was crying, she was so happy.
    It sure beat her crying because she was unhappy, the way she had in his car . . . When? Christ, was it just last night? Gina had been terribly upset, and he’d made the mistake of going with her into her motel room. To talk. Just to talk. Only, after she’d stopped crying, she’d kissed him, and he’d kissed her and . . .
    Jesus H. Christ.
    What had he gone and done?
    Max had fallen asleep after they’d made love—first time in years that he’d gotten a good night’s rest. He remembered that.
    Only there he was when he woke up—in Gina’s bed. The one place he swore he’d never go. He remembered that all too clearly, too.
    Still, he’d wanted to stay right there. Forever.
    So of course he’d run away. As hard and as fast as humanly possible. And he’d hurt her badly in the process and—
    Wait a sec.
    He may have been woozy and viewing the world through a considerable amount of blear and that still relentless pain, but there were coffee cups and soda cans scattered around this hospital room. A couple of floral arrangements that were looking somewhat worse for wear sat on the few available surfaces. Along with a pile of books and magazines. Not to mention the fact that Gina apparently knew the nursing staff by name . . .
    Woozy or not, it didn’t take Max’s extensive training and years of experience with the FBI to know that he’d been lying in this bed for more than just a day or two.
    “How long . . . ?” he asked as Gina smoothed his hair back from his face, her fingers cool against his forehead.
    She knew what he meant. “Weeks,” she said. “I’m sorry, I can’t give you anything to drink until the nurse comes in.”
    “Weeks?” No way.
    “You were doing so well when you first came out of surgery,” she told him, lacing his fingers with hers. “But then, a few days later your tempera-ture spiked and . . . God, Max, you were so sick. The doctors actually gave me the prepare-yourself-for-the-worst talk.”
    Weeks. She’d stayed with him for weeks. “Thought you were,” he labored to say, “going to . . . Kenya.”
    “I called AAI,” she told him, “and postponed my trip again.”
    Postponed wasn’t as good as cancelled. The thought of Gina going to Kenya made him crazy. Of course so did the thought of her going anywhere more dangerous than Iceland, where the locals still didn’t lock their doors at night. “Til when?”
    “Indefinitely.” She kissed his hand, pressed it against her cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay as long as you need me.”
    “Need you,” he said, before he could stop himself. They were the two most honest words he’d ever said to her—pushed out of him perhaps because of the drugs or the pain or the humanizing news that he’d cheated death—again. Or maybe Gina’s glow of happiness had a hypnotizing effect, rather like a truth serum.
    But luck was on his side, because the nurse chose that exact moment to come into the room, and the woman was energy incarnate, drowning him out with her cheerful hello. Gina had turned away to greet her, but now turned back. “I’m sorry, Max—what was that?”
    He may have been temporarily too human, or woozy from drugs and pain, but he hadn’t gotten to where he was in his career, in his life, by making the same mistake twice.
    “Need water,” he said, and with the nurse’s permission, Gina helped him take a cool drink.
    K ENYA , A FRICA
F EBRUARY 18, 2005
F OUR M ONTHS A GO
    There
was
one incredible hottie among the crew that descended from the bus.
    He had blond hair, a cute German accent, and really terrific knees, but as Gina got closer, she realized that he was the leader of the Temporaries—the volunteers who would only be staying for a few short days.
    Which meant that his name was Father Dieter.
    And
that
meant her chances of him falling in love with her at first sight were slim to none, with