Page 4 of Two Risks I'd Never Take Again

He moaned.

“Good. Anyway, the game. I’ll say the alphabet slowly. You let me know when I get to the first letter of your name.” I turned off the wipers and eased back onto the road, keeping to a steady speed and avoiding bumps and potholes as best I could. I didn’t want to torture the man. “A... B... C... D …”

The alphabet seemed much longer when a dying man occupied the passenger seat. Maybe he wasn’t dying. I hoped he wasn’t dying.

“E... F... G...” I continued through the alphabet, and when I hit the letter T, I wondered if maybe he’d missed the point of the game. “U... V... W... X—”

He grabbed my arm.

“What?” I slammed on the brakes, and he moaned again but louder than the last time. Stopped in the middle of the road, I flipped on the overhead light. “Is something wrong?”

His mouth moved like he was trying to speak. But even the small movement sparked fresh tears in his eyes. The whole time, his hand stayed on my arm. Then he tapped twice.

“Two for no, right? Okay. So, nothing is wrong. Wait. Were you trying to signal me?”

He tapped once.

“Okay. Sorry. I’m a little on edge. Your name starts with X.” I started driving again. “Okay, hmmm. Xavier?” I shot him a side glance.

He tapped twice on my arm.

“Not Xavier. Xander?”

I felt two more taps.

“I don’t know of any other X names.” I was out of ideas. “I guess the game wasn’t a great idea.”

After several silent minutes, the hospital came into view. I’d never been so relieved. I was also pleased that we weren’t in the same county where my cousin worked. He was less likely to find out that I’d picked up a stranger on the side of the road. Again. Unless I told him, which I had no plans to do. But that also meant not telling my best friend who was engaged to my cousin.

I wasn’t great at lying, but I could keep a secret. Probably. “We’re almost there.”

My passenger squeezed my arm.

I turned in and pulled up to the emergency entrance. “I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t let go of me.

Under the bright lights at the entrance, I could see just how badly he’d been hurt. The way he looked at me stoked the spark of familiarity and transformed it into a raging fire, but my thoughts were too scattered to remember how I knew him or where I’d seen him.

I rested my hand on his. “I’m going inside to get help. But if you want me to stay for a little while, I can do that.”

He tapped once before pulling his hand away. Not only was his face messed up, but his hand was also. And that was his good hand. I was afraid to find out what was wrong with his other arm.

Why had I promised to stay? At this rate, I wouldn’t get any sleep before it was time to make the doughnuts.

Chapter 2

The mystery man almost whimpered as hospital staff loaded him onto a gurney. They called out visible injuries, but my brain couldn’t absorb what they were saying. I felt horrible for this injured man. What did he look like when he wasn’t impersonating a punching bag? Who was out there wondering where he was? Surely someone missed him. It was Thanksgiving night.

Why was he so familiar?

“Don’t touch his right arm. That hurts him. A lot.” I hovered close, worried about the poor stranger.

When he reached out his hand, I moved in closer. “They’re going to help you, okay?”

He clasped my hand, and I was careful not to touch what looked like road rash on the back of his knuckles.

I ran along side, keeping up as they pushed through the double doors.

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