All My Tomorrows

by Karen D. Badger

  Jordan stopped and allowed the man to catch up. "How can I help you?" she asked.

  The man grabbed her arm and pulled a gun out of the pocket of his suit coat. "You can help me by not causing a scene," he said as he poked the barrel of the gun into her side.

  "What's this all about? Who are you?" Jordan asked.

  "Just cooperate and no one will get hurt," he said. "I'm going to let go of you, but the gun will remain pointed in your direction. We're going to walk very calmly toward the black car over there."

  "I'm not going anywhere with you. Now tell me what's going on," Jordan said.

  The man gave her a firm shove. "I said, get moving."

  "No. Who sent you?"

  He grabbed her arm. "If you don't do as you're told, there will be hell to pay."

  "I'll show you hell if you don't take your hands off me."

  The man motioned toward the car. A second later, another man exited the passenger side of the car. He grabbed Jordan's other arm and together, the two men dragged her toward their car where they quickly frisked her, taking her wallet and cell phone, then shoved her into the back seat.

  "What the fuck?" Jordan said as she tried to climb out of the car, only to have a chloroform-laced cloth held to her mouth and nose. Within seconds, she was unconscious.

  * * *

  Maggie paced back and forth on the front porch waiting for Jordan to come home. As dusk fell, Maggie became worried and called Chuck.

  "Chuck, is Jordan with you?" she asked.

  "No. She left the lab before noon after the kick-off meeting with the team. She's not home yet?" Chuck asked.

  "I haven't seen or heard from her since she left the house this morning."

  "Did she say anything to you about any stops she had to make on the way home?"

  "No. In fact, she said she'd be home earlier enough this afternoon to help our farm hand bring in the first cut of hay. She never came home."

  "I don't like the sound of this, Maggie," Chuck said. "Maybe you should call the police."

  "I really don't want to do that unless it's a last resort, Chuck. There's a lot at stake here for her and for you if the police start asking questions about her."

  "I hear what you're saying, Maggie, but I'd rather face the music with the police than to see anything bad happen to Jordan."

  "I'm going to call Gina and Sam. Maybe she stopped there on the way home for some reason.

  "Okay. Keep me posted."

  "I will. Thanks, Chuck. Bye."

  Maggie selected Gina's speed dial number and waited for her to answer the phone.

  "Hey, Mags, what's up?" Gina said.

  "Gina, is Jordan with you?"

  "No, she isn't. We haven't seen her since the weekend. I take it she's late getting home?"

  "Several hours late, in fact, and she isn't answering her phone. Chuck said she left the lab before noon and he hasn't seen her since. I'm worried about her, Gina. It's not like her to be late without calling me."

  "Call the police, Maggie."

  "I can't, Gina. Not unless I have real reason to fear she's in danger. The last thing we need is the police digging into her past and finding none."

  "Sam and I are on our way. We can at least wait with you until she comes home."

  "You don't need to do that, Gina."

  "Yes I do. It'll be a little tough kicking her ass from here for making you worry."

  "Okay, I'll see you in a bit then."

  * * *

  The man picked up a scalpel and cut a four-inch incision in Jordan's back. He then inserted an expander and opened the incision wider. After suctioning out the excess blood, he reached inside with a gloved hand and felt around.

  "Where is it?" he said out loud. "It's gone. Son of a bitch, it's gone!"

  * * *

  "Oh, my God, my head is killing me," Jordan moaned as she opened her eyes and quickly closed them again. She grabbed the sides of her head to stop the pounding. She pushed herself into a seated position and looked around through barely open eyes. She was on the ground, beside a dumpster that was hidden behind a stockade fence.

  "Where am I?" she whispered.

  She looked down at herself and realized someone had removed her jacket and her shoes. Curiously, her shirt tails were also un-tucked and the zipper on her slacks was down.

  What happened here? she asked herself.

  She took a mental inventory of how she was feeling. I hope to God nothing happened, she thought as fears of rape and violation crossed her mind.

  Jordan rolled to her side and onto her knees, a motion that shot searing pain through her back, causing her to sit back on her heels. She reached behind to rub the source of the pain. When she pulled her hand back, there was blood on it.

  "What the hell?" she said out loud as she lifted her shirt tails and felt under the fabric. Her fingers encountered gauze — wet gauze. "What the hell happened here?" she said.

  Despite the pain, she forced herself to stand, thanking the heavens that she still had control of her legs. As she moved, she realized the pain she was feeling was coming from her skin rather than her spine. She looked at the ground where she had been lying and saw her jacket and shoes has been haphazardly thrown beside her. She also saw a large blood stain on the pavement.

  I've got to do something about this before an infection sets in, she thought.

  Jordan slipped her feet into her shoes and picked up her jacket. She immediately checked the pockets and found that her cell phone and wallet were still there. Well, I guess that rules out robbery, she thought.

  Jordan pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket and looked at the screen. "Tuesday, 7:45 am. Tuesday?" There were also seventeen missed calls from Maggie. Jordan immediately dialed Maggie's number.

  "Jordan, where the hell are you?" From the tone of Maggie's voice, Jordan could tell she was out of her mind with worry.

  "Maggie. I… I'm not sure where I am. I was abducted in the parking lot of the lab after the meeting yesterday and I just woke up beside a dumpster."

  "Someone abducted you?" Maggie was crying. "Baby, are you all right?"

  "Actually, no. Someone is after the implant, Maggie. I came to this morning with blood all over the back of my shirt. Someone cut me."

  "What the hell do you mean, someone cut you?"

  "Someone cut my back open, right over the spot where the implant would still be if Julie hadn't removed it. It's obviously been bleeding on and off for a while. The back of my shirt and slacks are covered in blood, and there was blood on the ground as well."

  "Where are you, Jordan?"

  "I don't know. Hold on and let me look around a bit." Jordan slipped her jacket on and walked out from behind the stockade fence. Luckily there was no one in sight. "It looks like I'm near some sort of medical facility. I see a sign. Let me get a little closer so I can read it." Jordan began walking toward the sign.

  "Damn that hurts," she commented as every movement caused a jolt of pain in her back.

  "Jordan, hang up and call 911 right now," Maggie said.

  "I can't do that, Maggie. What if they ask questions I can't answer? "Okay, I'm close enough to read the sign. It says, Northwest Medical Center."

  "Northwest Medical Center? Jordan, that's in St. Albans. Sweetie, is the Medical Center right there?"

  "Yes."

  "I want you to go to the emergency room, right now."

  "I can't Maggie."

  "God damn it, Jordan. Will you stop being so fucking stubborn? I don't need you bleeding out by the side of the road."

  "I'm not bleeding that badly. Look, call Chuck and ask him to come after me and to bring Julie with him. The lab is about twenty-five miles south of here. With the morning rush hour traffic, he'll be here in about forty minutes."

  "I'm on my way as well," Maggie said.

  "Maggie, I would rather you bring a change of clothing to the lab. We'll meet you there."

  "Okay. I love you, Jordan."

  "Love you too, Mags."


  Less than five minutes later, Jordan's phone rang. The name on the screen displayed Chuck's name.

  "Hello," Jordan said.

  "Jesus Christ, Jordan. What the hell happened? Julie and I are on the way," Chuck said.

  "I wish I could tell you, Chuck. After I left you in the lobby, a well-dressed man came up to me in the parking lot. He knew my name. The next thing I knew, he and another guy shoved me into the backseat of their car and chloroformed me. My next memory is of waking up this morning on the ground beside a dumpster with blood all over my clothes. I didn't tell Maggie this, but I was partially unclothed."

  "God damn it," Chuck swore. "Hold on, Jordan, Julie wants to talk to you."

  "Jordan, tell me about the blood," Julie said.

  "Hi Julie. The blood is coming from my back. Whoever did this is after the implant."

  "How bad is it?"

  "Bad enough to leave a good sized spot on the ground where I was lying. The gauze that's on it is pretty saturated. Hurts like hell too."

  "Maggie said you were right outside the Northwest Medical Center. Maybe you should go to the emergency room and we'll meet you there."

  "I'd rather not do that, Julie. I don't need anyone asking questions about the implant site."

  "I have some medical supplies with me, but you might need sutures, in which case, we'll need to go to my clinic."

  "You can look at it when you get here. I'm hoping it's not as bad as it looks. Oh, and Julie, like I told Chuck, I was partially unclothed when I woke up. I'll need you to…"

  "I'll check it out, Jordan. Let's hope for the best."

  "Thanks, Julie."

  A half hour later, Chuck's SUV came to a screeching halt in the parking lot next to a bench Jordan was sitting on while she waited. She was bent over with her hands wrapped around her middle. Chuck and Julie immediately jumped out of the car and ran toward Jordan.

  "Come on, Jordan," Julie said. "We've got the seats down in the back of the car. I want you to lie on your stomach so I can check you out while Chuck drives us to my clinic."

  Jordan walked haltingly to the SUV and painfully climbed into the back. Julie grabbed her medical bag from the front seat and crawled in beside her. She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves.

  "Okay, Chuck, we're in. Let's go," she said as she helped Jordan out of her jacket. "Jordan, can you unbuckle and unzip your pants for me so I can gain access to the wound? Thanks. Damn, you weren't kidding when you said there was a lot of blood."

  Julie pushed the waistband of Jordan's slacks below the injury site then lifted her shirt above it. "I'm going to take the bandage off, Jordan. This might hurt a bit."

  Jordan gritted her teeth as Julie peeled the blood-soaked bandage back. "I'm going to clean this up a bit so I can tell what I'm looking at. This will sting,"

  Jordan's whole body tensed while Julie wiped away the blood seeping from the wound.

  "Well that answers one question — it was sutured, although I personally would have used twice as many. There are also several bruise marks on both sides of the incision, indicating clamps or maybe an expander was used to open the wound. That's probably where most of the pain is coming from. When we get to the clinic, I want to do another series of x-rays to see if there is any damage beyond the obvious skin lesion caused by whoever did this to you. I will also put you on an antibiotic, as the incision site is pretty inflamed. For now, I'll put a new dressing on it to hold us until we get to the clinic."

  "They must have been pissed when they realized the implant was already removed," Jordan said.

  "You may be right."

  "Julie, could you grab my phone out of my jacket? I need to tell Maggie to meet us at your clinic instead of the lab. She's bringing me a change of clothes."

  * * *

  Chuck met Maggie at the door of the clinic when she arrived. Maggie immediately went into his arms. "You're shaking," Chuck said.

  "How is she?"

  "She's fine. Julie looked at the wound. It's a little inflamed, but nothing a good antibiotic won't take care of. She's doing x-rays now to see if any damage was done at the site."

  "Why would someone do this to her?" Maggie asked, the frustration clearly in her voice.

  "I've been trying to figure out the very same thing. Jordan thinks someone was after the implant. If that's true, it was obviously someone who isn't aware that it's already been removed."

  "Well, now that they know, maybe they'll leave her alone."

  "I'm not so sure about that. What this tells me is that we need to beef up security at the lab, and for our key personnel. I mean, if for some reason they manage to get their hands on the implant, they will still need Jordan, or maybe another team member to help them operate or program it."

  "Chuck, this scares me. I didn't sign on for this. Jordan was supposed to help develop the new implant then life would go on. We would have a couple of babies, start the handicapped riding school at the farm and grow old together. Instead we have kidnapping and industrial espionage."

  "I will do everything in my power to protect her from this point on, Maggie. That is my promise to you."

  "I know you will, and I know this is something Jordan has to do, but it still scares the shit out of me knowing that there's someone out there with the power, and the opportunity to do something like this to her."

  "After today, the opportunity will no longer be there. I promise you, Maggie, we will get to the bottom of this."

  Just then, the door to the waiting room opened and Dr. Hoffman entered the room. "Maggie, you can see Jordan now."

  Maggie picked the overnight bag up and followed Dr. Hoffman into the clinic. Jordan was sitting on the edge of the examining table wearing a hospital gown. She immediately went to Jordan and wrapped her arms around her. Tears rolled down her cheeks. "When you didn't come home last night, I was so scared. I nearly called the police."

  "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, love." Jordan kissed her on the temple.

  "What about you? What did they do to you, Jordan?" Maggie leaned to the side and looked at Jordan's back.

  "Julie added a few more stitches and put a fresh dressing on it. It hurts like hell, but I'll be okay."

  Maggie held Jordan's face between her hands. "They didn't do anything else to you, did they?" The fear on Maggie's face spoke volumes to Jordan.

  "No, they didn't. I specifically asked Julie to check for that. These weren't your everyday thugs and rapists. It was the implant they were after."

  Maggie closed her eyes and released a deep sigh. "Thank God."

  She picked up the bag on the floor by her feet. "I brought you some clean clothes. Let me help your get dressed, then I'm taking you home. The lab can wait until tomorrow."

  Jordan grinned. "Yes boss," she joked.

  CHAPTER 35

  Jordan woke up the next morning very stiff and barely able to move. "Oh, my God, I feel like I've been dragged behind a car this morning."

  "Maybe you should stay home from the lab for one more day," Maggie suggested.

  "No, I really need to get this project kicked off. Give me a hand sitting up, will you?" She reached her hand forward.

  Maggie helped her to sit on the edge of the bed. "Sit here for a few minutes while I get dressed, then I'll help you stand."

  "What's on your agenda today?" Jordan asked.

  "The saddler is coming over this morning to discuss ideas I have for the handicap saddle design, then at one this afternoon, I have a meeting scheduled with the permit board to go over the required changes we need to make to open the riding school."

  "I wish I could be there with you for that meeting, but I really do need to get this project off the ground."

  Maggie bent down and kissed Jordan on the lips. "I understand, love. You also need to remember our appointment with the fertility doctor on Friday."

  "Friday? What time?"

  "Two o’clock. The appointment is in Burlington. Near the hospital, in fact."

  "Okay. Text
the address to me and I'll meet you there. While we're in town, I'd also like to stop at the apartment before heading home to pick up the food and clothes I have there and to return the key. Chuck outfitted one room at the lab with cots so if anyone on the team needs to work late into the evening we can just crash there."

  "Okay. Are you ready to stand?"

  Jordan nodded, then raised her arms and placed her hands on Maggie's shoulders.

  "Easy does it," Maggie said as Jordan painfully stood.

  "Damn, that hurts. It feels like my back is on fire."

  "Turn around and let me take a look at it."

  Maggie gasped when she saw Jordan's back. "My God, love. You are black and blue from your waist to the middle of your butt cheeks. No wonder it hurts. There's also some seepage through the dressing. I'll need to change that before you get dressed. Where did you put the bag of supplies Julie gave you?"

  "On the table in the kitchen."

  "Okay. I'll be right back."

  Moments later, Maggie had a fresh bandage on Jordan's incision.

  "How does it look?" Jordan asked as she looked over her shoulder at Maggie, who was kneeling on the floor behind her.

  "Sore, but at least it's no longer hot. Yesterday, I could feel the heat coming right through the bandage."

  Maggie gently kissed the area around the wound, causing Jordan to moan.

  "Jesus, honey. You can turn me on even while in pain," she said.

  "Well there won't be any of that going on for a few days, so save it up until later, okay? Do you need help getting dressed?"

  "No, I think I can manage."

  "Okay then, I'll get your antibiotic and a couple of pain killers for you, along with a coffee, while you do that."

  "Coffee! You're a lifesaver, Mags."

  Maggie kissed her on the nose. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

  * * *

  Chuck was waiting for Jordan in the parking lot of the lab when she arrived that morning. "Good morning, Jordan. How are you feeling today?" he asked.

  "Sore as hell, but I'll survive. Is the team here?" Jordan asked as she walked gingerly toward the building with Chuck.

  "They are. I hope you don't mind, but Julie and I filled them in on what happened yesterday. They're all pretty upset, but even more determined now to make this work."