Page 21 of Dangers of Love

“Yes, I imagine that would be inevitable when two hard objects collide at a high rate of speed,” Aline said dryly.

I lifted a shoulder. “At least it was the window that broke.”

“Well, clearly, your brain didn’t come out entirely unscathed.” Aline’s mouth turned down in a frown that tugged at my heart.

“I’m okay,” I said, lifting our hands so I could kiss the back of hers. “You’ll see.”

She nodded but didn’t stop frowning.

“What were we talking about?” I asked after nearly a minute of silence.

She blinked, clearly startled by my question. “What?”

“You said that I’d texted you about the job, but then that we were talking on the phone when the accident happened. Was something wrong?”

Before she could answer, the doctor returned. “The CT scan is clear. No bleeding. But you do have a concussion, and I’d like to keep you overnight for observation.”

That wasn’t about to happen, but I said it more politely since she was just doing her job. “I’d rather not be admitted. I…don’t like hospitals.”

The doctor’s gaze flicked up to my scar, and then she met my eyes again. “All right, let’s make a deal. If you have someone to stay with you for at least the next twelve hours, I’ll release you.”

I looked over at Aline. “I’d like for you to stay with me, but I can get one of the guys or someone from my family to do it.”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll do it.”

“I’ll get started on the paperwork then.” The doctor was gone as quickly as she had appeared.

When Aline didn’t bring the conversation back to my recent question, I considered asking it again, but thought better of it. I didn’t know when the doctor would be back, and I didn’t want us to be interrupted again if something actually had been wrong.

I really hoped I hadn’t done something stupid again.

Besides, there were a couple other things I needed to take care of now that I had an official medical report.

“Apparently, my phone is broken,” I said. “Could I use yours to call my parents? I don’t know how much attention the crash is getting in the news or if any of our names are out there. The last thing Da and Mom need is to see something on the news about me being in an accident. Especially after everything else I’ve put them through.”

“Of course.” Aline fished her phone out of her purse and held it out to me. “Do you know their numbers?”

That was an odd question. “Um, yes? Why wouldn’t I?”

Aline’s light green eyes sparkled with humor. “You do realize that most people anymore don’t actually know phone numbers because we use a contact list rather than putting in the numbers from memory.”

“Yes, I do know that.” I laughed. “But my parents insisted that all of us kids had at least a couple phone numbers memorized so that if we didn’t have service or the battery died or whatever, we could use any other phone to make a call home. And ‘insisted’ meant we didn’t get a cell phone until we could recite both of our parents’ cell numbers and at least two of our siblings’ numbers.”

“Smart,” she said. “I’d probably be in trouble. The only number I have memorized is the landline my parents kept ‘just in case.’”

“‘Just in case’ of what?” I asked.

Aline shrugged. “EMP. Zombie apocalypse. They never really specified.”

I chuckled as I dialed Da’s number, glad for the humor before making this call. Me sounding positive would go a long way to convincing them that I was okay. Aside from the memory glitch, I was.

Yeah, I was going to have some pretty nasty bruises, but I’d gotten worse doing stupid shit growing up. If all I had to deal with asking a couple people to fill in what’d happened between late last night and when Cain had woken me up in the SUV after the accident, I’d consider it a good day.

* * *

Less than forty minutes later,Aline and I walked into the hotel lobby. I’d spent most of the ride from the hospital to the hotel on the phone with Cain, discussing what was going on with the job I didn’t remember us taking. He’d filled me in on what I’d forgotten, and then said that he’d spoken to Edwin Moss – our client – and explained about the accident, including the aftermath.

The biggest two points of which were that the SUV was totaled and that all of our weapons had been confiscated by the police until we were able to prove ownership and permits. Cain had felt that it’d be best if the client hired another company.

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