The Bond That Heals Us Christine d’Abo.pdf

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

The Bond That Heals Us

ISBN 9781419915864

Edited by Briana St. James.

Photography and cover art by Les Byerley.

Electronic book Publication May 2008

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in

part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing,

Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal

punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/)

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales

is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

T HE B OND T HAT H EALS U S

Christine d’Abo

Chapter One

Sara Fergus raced through the door to the meeting room and practically threw

herself into the only empty seat at the conference table. The chair shifted, making a

scraping noise as it absorbed her moving body.

“Sorry I’m late. One of the engineers had a severe laceration on his leg after a

conduit exploded and sent metal flying. I had to rush him into surgery. Bloody mess

everywhere.” She muttered the last under her breath.

She blew a strand of hair away from her face before she finally looked up at the

people who were now all staring at her. Her best friend and chief of security, Haylie,

was sitting at the end of the table next to her husband Kamran, grinning like a fool. He

stared at her, trying to maintain an air of diplomatic professionalism, but Sara couldn’t

miss the twinkle in his eyes or the slight smirk on his face. Sara didn’t need to look

around at the rest of the participants to know what their expressions would be.

Dumb, stupid space cadet!

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause a disturbance,” she said and felt a blush heat her face.

“Not at all. We all appreciate how busy you are,” Kamran said, unable to contain

his smile anymore. “You are just in time to hear about our supply situation.”

Thank god her two friends were here to smooth things over. Sara had been an

unorganized mess most of her life. Haylie had been around for most of it and knew

how to keep her in line. Now that her friend had formed a mental bond with her

husband, Sara suddenly found herself with another powerful friend—and someone

who could help keep her out of trouble. Not that she intended to get into trouble, but it

always seemed to follow her.

Kamran looked down at Haylie and Sara watched as his smile changed. She knew

they were probably sharing some silent thought, a comment or private joke

communicated through their bond. Despite the close friendship the three of them

shared, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable around them sometimes. She didn’t

like that she’d lost some of the intimacy she’d shared with her best friend for years.

Hated that she couldn’t claim to know Haylie’s mind as well as her husband did.

Petty jealously, she supposed.

Sara gave her head a shake and tried to focus her attention on the portly man in the

brown suit who was now talking. A data pad was pushed in front of her and

automatically began to flick from report to report, detailing the state of the colony as the

man talked. She had to fight back a sudden wave of exhaustion and stifle a yawn when

he began droning on about regulations. She really didn’t have time for this crap.

The Bond That Heals Us

“Administrator Kamran, after taking a closer look at our supply reserves and

comparing that against how much profit we can earn from sales of silicate ore from our

mines, we will be running dangerously close to the wire for the next six months.” The

man leaned his fleshy arms across the table and pressed his belly firmly against the

edge. “We will need to increase production if we are to maintain the colony.”

“Why is this just coming to light now?” Kamran asked, his hands folded together in

front of him. “We should have had warning long before now.”

“Sir, we don’t have the luxury of trying to figure out how this happened. We need

to get matters resolved quickly before this colony is at risk. We need triple shifts.”

Was this guy for real?

“I don’t recommend that at all,” Sara cut in. She made sure all eyes were on her

before continuing. “I’ve already had five miners report to the med bay in the past week

from exhaustion-related injuries. They barely seem to know where they are or what

they are doing. I’ve had to take three of them off active duty and send them on

mandatory rest leave. They’re being pushed to their limits already.”

The man in brown snorted. “They’re simply taking advantage of your bleeding

heart, Doctor. I very much doubt things are as dire as you are leading us to believe. And

the triple shifts will let us—”

Somewhere in her head she registered the sudden sharp intake of breath as

Haylie’s, but she was far too pissed off to acknowledge it. Sara was on her feet, leaning

across the Briel who sat beside her, so she could glare at the odious man.

“What is your name?” she ground out.

“I don’t see what that—”

“What…is…your… name ?”

“Grant,” he squeaked.

“Well Grant , you may take issue with many things about me, but don’t you ever,

ever call into question the validity of any of my diagnoses. The health and wellbeing of

my patients are the most important thing to me and under no circumstance will I have

my ethics as a doctor disputed by a small-minded bureaucrat . Do I make myself clear,

little man?”

By the end of her speech, Sara’s voice was dangerously close to a yell and her body

was shaking. For his part, sitting wide mouthed and sputtering, Grant could only nod.

Sara flopped back into her chair, folded her hands across her lap and shot her gaze to a

blank spot on the wall. Her heart was pounding and it took all her concentration to

relax.

“Thank you for your recommendations, both your recommendations, on the

situation at the mines.” Kamran’s calm, steady voice filled the uncomfortable silence in

the room. “If the situation is as dire as we are led to believe, I’ll appoint a representative

from the colony to start a recruiting campaign to entice some additional personnel to

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: