Chapter 4
Chapter Four
The dark place she’d been in started to recede, slowly lightening to shades of gray.
A kind of mist surrounded her. Then memories flashed, disjointed and disturbing.
She heard his voice saying something about wanting to see her.
Before the other visions overwhelmed her, she gasped for a breath and tried to run.
Something held her down. The freezing cold she remembered from those nights in the forest chilled her bones as she tried to fight off whatever, whoever tried to hurt her again.
Sharp pain lanced through her chest and shoulder as she grabbed someone’s wrist. That someone was saying something. It took her a second to really hear and comprehend it.
“You’re safe. It’s me. Hawk. You’re safe.”
Her eyes flew open and stared up into the most beautiful golden hazel eyes she’d ever seen, though they were filled with concern. “There you are. Welcome back,” he said with a smile.
Her fingers clutched his wrist, though he was so big and strong they didn’t make it all the way around. She immediately let go. “Sorry.” Her voice was barely a rasp.
“Here. Try to drink some of this.”
Her head snapped to the man on her other side. She glanced from one to the other, noting that the action made her stiff neck and shoulder hurt. “What are you two doing here?” She looked around the room. “What happened? Why am I in the hospital?” Her heart jackhammered in her chest. “What’s wrong?”
Hawk sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand. “Breathe, Lucky. Slow down. We’ll answer all your questions.”
Lincoln held the glass close to her face with the straw at her lips. “Take a sip of this, it will help you feel better.”
She obeyed, still eyeing both of them. “So this is heaven, right? Two gorgeous Gunn brothers. Here. With me.” Why did I say that out loud?
Lincoln smirked.
Hawk squeezed her hand to get her attention. “Not heaven. And we’re both more devils than angels.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lincoln teased his brother. “I can be wicked good.”
The door to her room opened and a nurse and doctor walked in—along with someone she’d hoped never to see again.
Corporal Jase Kent from the sheriff’s department. A guy she’d gone to more than a few times for help and gotten none. “Hello, Lucky. How are you feeling?”
“Confused,” she confessed. The last thing she remembered was talking to Lincoln at the bar.
Jase nodded. “Well, Doc Meyer wants to get a look at you, then we’ll talk and maybe together we can figure this out.”
She eyed him. “It happened again, right?”
He nodded, his gaze grave.
“What are you two talking about?” Hawk hadn’t let go of her hand, she realized.
It felt so good and strange at the same time that she just went with it, because his touch was the only thing grounding her at the moment. Inside, her emotions were all over the place even though she tried to hold it together as panic set in.
Jase didn’t exactly clear things up for Hawk. “Lucky and I have a complicated relationship.”
She didn’t want anyone in the room, especially Hawk, to think they had something personal going on. “Yes. I report a crime and you do nothing about it.” She sank back into the bed. “I don’t know why you’re even here.”
“Because despite my lack of progress on your cases, I care about you. I want to help. I’m trying to find the person doing this to you so I can stop them.”
Lincoln put his hand over her free one and she didn’t even feel like pulling it away. Like Hawk’s touch, it anchored her. “Has something like this happened before?”
Jase pressed his lips tight. “Not exactly like this, but other stuff. Weird things tend to happen around Lucky.”
“To me. Not around me. They happen to me.”
Jase acknowledged that with a nod, an apology in his eyes.
“Now will someone tell me what’s going on?” Lucky looked to the doctor for some answers.
“Miss Sinclair.”
“Lucky. Please.”
“I’m Dr. Meyer. A friend of Hawk’s. I usually work in the emergency department, but he asked me to watch over you.
He brought you in yesterday. You have a mild concussion.
As of this morning’s scan, it seems to be getting better.
You had surgery yesterday to remove a foreign object from a penetrating wound in your shoulder, just below your clavicle. ”
“What?”
Hawk leaned over her. “He took out a piece of a tree root that stabbed you.”
Surprise shot through her at the same time pain throbbed in her chest and back.
Dr. Meyer went on. “We were able to repair some of the muscle. You were lucky. It missed your lung, though it was pressed right up against it, so you have some bruising. We stitched up a large gash on your thigh and splinted your leg to support the sprained knee you suffered during your fall. You’ve got multiple contusions all over your body. What’s your pain level at the moment?”
She tried to absorb all the information. “Um. I’m sore. All over. I feel like I was hit by a truck.”
Hawk brushed his fingers against her palm.
“Try a twenty-five foot drop down a hill, where it appears you simply tumbled down, hitting trees and rocks and bushes on your way to a flat boulder where you cracked your head and landed on a tree root that impaled you.” His light touch belied the intense fury in his gaze.
“Someone pushed me.” She shook her head.
“No. That’s not quite right. I wasn’t able to really stand.
They had their arms around me from behind, then they just let me go.
” Flashes shot through her mind so fast she couldn’t make any of them out.
“I remember thinking I couldn’t make anything work. I couldn’t try to catch myself.”
Hawk held up her hand and showed her the brace on her pinky finger. “You dislocated your finger and sustained a lot of other injuries on your way down. When I found you—”
Flashes of memory came back to her. “That’s right. You found me.” She scrunched her brow, trying to think clearly. “How did you find me?”
Hawk ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. “Fucking luck. I was out training when I took a lesser known trail. I heard you call out to me.”
“I saw something red flash through all the green. I knew I was dying. I called for you.”
“Yes. And it’s damn lucky I found you when I did, or you’d be dead.”
Her hand contracted in his. She knew that to be absolutely true. “Th-thank you.”
“I’m so damn glad I found you when I did. Another hour…” Hawk looked lost in the memory of finding her. The anguish on his face startled her. He really cared.
She squeezed his hand again. “I’m okay now, thanks to you. I really appreciate it.”
Hawk tugged a lock of her hair. “We’re going to talk about it later.” He glanced at their audience, then back to her.
“Um. Okay.” She had a feeling she was missing something important.
Dr. Meyer continued. “We’re going to keep you one more night at least. The stitches in your leg, breast, and shoulder can come out in about seven to ten days.
You’ll need to keep them clean and dry. No baths, but a shower is fine as long as you pat them dry afterward.
” The doctor glanced at Jase, then back to her.
“We’ve performed a series of tests. All of your bloodwork came back normal.
” He paused again. “Ah, because of the way you were found and that you’d indicated to Hawk that you’d been drugged…
” He seemed to have a hard time saying the rest.
She spit it out for him. “You performed a rape kit, I take it.”
“Yes. There were no signs of trauma,” he said matter-of-fact. “Also no semen.”
Jase added. “You were out there for several days. It’s inconclusive. The guy could have used a condom.” He winced after delivering that news.
She didn’t know what to say or feel at the moment. “Okay.” A flash of something…that voice rang in her head. “I was at the bar.” She looked up at Lincoln. “I was supposed to meet you at your place.”
Jase stepped toward Lincoln.
He held up both hands. “It wasn’t like that. She’s my brother’s girl. I just asked if she’d clean my house and maybe make me some of her yummy food once in a while.”
Jase backed off. “When was this?”
“Saturday night,” Hawk volunteered and held up a flash drive. “Linc brought me the surveillance footage. We haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.”
Lincoln nodded. “We’ve been here watching over Lucky like Hawk promised he would.”
Lucky remembered now. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“And I won’t.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead.
She blushed from her chest to the roots of her hair, but oh how she loved that sweet gesture. She wanted more. It had been so long since anyone had been affectionate with her.
Hawk eyed her. “You’re really pretty when you’re flustered.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, or make of this sudden development where Hawk was acting like they were more than housekeeper and client.
“Um, yeah, I don’t know what to do with that at the moment.
But you should know I think I remember someone standing over me at the bar.
I was lying down?” That didn’t make sense. Where would she lie down in a bar?
Lincoln’s eyes narrowed. “Lying down? Where?”
“I don’t know. But I could still hear the music.” She tried to pull the image into her mind but couldn’t seem to find it. “Everything sounded…muffled. The wood beams in the ceiling were…collapsing?”
The nurse beside her finished taking her blood pressure and fiddling with the IV bag and line.
“It had to be the drugs making you hallucinate or something,” Hawk supplied.
Dr. Meyer nodded for the nurse to go. “Do you have any questions or concerns?”
Lucky could barely take it all in. “Um, not at the moment. I’m still trying to wrap my head around waking up here.
” She glanced down at the hospital gown, her blanket covered legs, and Hawk sitting beside her.
“Yeah. This doesn’t seem real yet.” She corrected herself a bit. “Except for the pain. That feels real.”
“I can up your dose.”