Page 74 of Silent Threat
Kelly stepped up to the bed to squeeze Annie’s hand. “You can come home with me. I brought you clean clothes, in case you needed some. Comfortable, in case you’re sore. Sweatshirt, sweatpants.”
Cole stepped forward. “I’ll take you back to Hope Hill.”
Kelly shot him an annoyed look that asked why he was even there.
“You have to work tomorrow,” Annie told her. “Hope Hill will be fine. Half the staff there has one kind of medical training or another. If anything comes up, help will be at hand.”
Some of Cole’s tension relaxed.
Kelly wasn’t as happy. “Are you sure? Having you over would be no trouble. I swear. I can take time off from work.”
“I have a bunch of my stuff at Hope Hill already. Maybe the hot tub will help me get rid of some of the aching.”
Kelly hesitated, but after a moment, she nodded. “I’m going to call you and check on you in between each showing. I only have half a dozen appointments scheduled.”
“You’ll have to let me know if you have any weird clients.” Annie made a valiant attempt to grin, but as she shifted on the bed, the grin turned into a grimace that said she was hurting. She pushed the covers back anyway as she looked at Kelly. “Could you please help me get dressed? I’m ready to get out of here.”
Cole took that as his cue to step outside again.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in the car. Since Annie sat in the passenger seat, the seat belt touched her neck on the right side. The strap didn’t rub the abrasion on her left that had turned yellow once a nurse swabbed the wound with iodine.
Cole put the key in the ignition but didn’t turn it. Instead, he looked over at her, the bright parking-lot lights illuminating her face through the windshield. “Are you hurt more than you let on?”
“Sore.” She sighed. “How did you know I had an accident?”
“I was with Finnegan when his radio went off. He hasn’t discovered anything new in your case, so he’s circling back. He had more questions about how the two of us became such close friends so fast. He wanted to know why am I going to midnight feedings with you. He tried to pin down whether I’m obsessed with you in a stalkerish, want-to-put-you-in-the-trunk-of-my-car kind of way.”
“You don’t have a trunk. You drive a pickup.”
“Exactly what I told him.”
“I should text him to let him know I’m heading to Hope Hill.” She dug through her purse, then pecked out a message. “He was going to come to the hospital after he finished recording the scene of the accident.”
“Care to tell me what happened?” Cole’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
She gave a tired nod, then began with leaving her house. By the time she was finished with the story, the plastic was creaking from the pressure of Cole’s grip.
She finished with, “It wasn’t an accident.”
The war drum started up inside him again, but all he said was, “You know you can call me at any time, right? Day or night.”
She watched him, her gaze growing even more troubled. “I appreciate that, Cole. But—” She glanced away, then back. “I probably shouldn’t even have accepted this ride. I should have had Kelly drive me.”
If she had, Cole would have followed right behind them. He couldn’t leave her unprotected. Yet he was aware that Annie hadn’t asked him for protection.
“I’m worried that you’re about to tell me to get lost.” He made a point to relax his hands on the steering wheel, ease his shoulders and his tight expression, so he wouldn’t look like a maniac. “I need to make sure that you’re all right. OK? Until Finnegan catches the guy.” He stared straight through the windshield as he asked, but then stole a glance at her to catch her answer.
“Why?”
“I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt. You’re like one of those mythical woodland creatures that protect the forest. I feel like if anything happened to you, something important would be lost from the world.”
“A mythical woodland creature? Like an elf?” She huffed out what he knew had to be a laugh because the corners of her mouth turned up before her lips slightly parted, and her eyes crinkled. “I think elves are lanky and willowy. Definitely taller and skinnier than me. Also, pointy-eared.”
“A shorter nature-related mythical creature, then, with round ears.”
“A gnome? Are you seriously calling me a garden gnome right now?” Her eyes crinkled again.
A rare sense of contentment filled him. Air rushed into his lungs, as if he’d just come up from a deep dive.
