Once Touched Read Online Free

and tucked both pairs of binoculars into a carrying case.
    “Are you picking up a guest?” Ruth asked as they followed the dirt trail back to the sanctuary’s center.
    “Kind of. The Saunderses are family friends, but we haven’t seen Ethan, their son, in years. He’s a photojournalist. Apparently he’s been in the hospital after being on assignment in Afghanistan.”
    “The hospital? I hope he wasn’t seriously injured.”
    “No clue. Before I left, I tried to pry more information out of my folks, but they were acting very hush-hush. That he’d been in Afghanistan was all I managed to get out of them.” Her parents were being super-cagy. “My guess is either they don’t know what happened or they’re respecting his privacy. More likely the latter. They’re big on confidentiality.”
    “From what I’ve heard, that’s what makes Silver Creek Ranch such a great place. The VIPs get to enjoy the red-carpet treatment but aren’t hounded or harassed. So you’re to be your family friend’s chauffeur?”
    “That’s right. It’s the least I can do since I got the weekend off. And it’ll be nice to have company for the drive home.” Quinn lengthened her stride, her curiosity about Ethan Saunders rising to the fore. As someone who’d been around the world photographing everything under the sun, he’d have good stories to tell. And she did enjoy a good story. “I should probably have one of those cardboard signs with his name on it. Ethan and his parents left Acacia almost twenty years ago. I hope I recognize him.”

C LAMMY SWEAT COVERED Ethan Saunders’s body. It permeated his shirt, making the cotton fabric stick to his heaving chest and gluing his back to the plane’s narrow seat. The sling wrapped around his neck to immobilize his right arm and shoulder chafed the skin below his close-cropped head.
    He lifted his free arm and swiped his forehead again.
    The passenger next to him, who reeked of aftershave and wore a fucking ugly tie that reminded Ethan of the fuzzy blotches that had obscured his vision for days after he finally opened his eyes in Landstuhl, flinched and darted another nervous glance his way. It hadn’t taken his neighbor long to decide he wanted to be as far from Ethan as possible. He’d even relinquished territorial rights to the armrest. But there was only so far he could retreat. Hence the nervous glances.
    The guy made a comical picture. If Ethan could remember how to laugh, he might have been tempted. Were he a nicer person, he might even reassure the man that he wasn’t suffering from some highly contagious tropical disease.
    But his kindness had disappeared along with his sense of humor. Besides, he needed all his energy to focus on the metallic latch that fastened his seat’s tray. It was the only way to keep the nausea at bay.
    The captain’s confident drawl came over the PA system to announce the plane would soon be landing. Within minutes the attendants began their march down the twin aisles to verify that seats were upright and trays and possessions stowed. The plane dipped and angled as it began its descent. Fighting the vertigo, Ethan swallowed hard and jammed the back of his head against the seat. Clutching the armrest with his left hand, he squeezed the metal edge until his fingers were as numb as the ones on his right hand.
    The wheels of the plane touched the earth with a series of bumps that jarred his body and sent his brain knocking against his skull. He groaned heavily even as relief swept over him.
    The hell of the past six hours was over. Only now that he’d survived it did he acknowledge the idiocy of traveling in a damned airplane. Of traveling, period. But he’d needed to get away, far away from Walter Reed, where he’d been transferred after Landstuhl.
    His team of doctors, his parents, and even Erin Miller, his New York editor, who’d planned to publish his photographs, had done their best to convince him to remain or at least be transferred to