Page 77 of Forbidden Kisses
Someone else’s voice answered instead. Followed by Abby’s voice.
“We need to tell Jack.”
Jack.
Grace willed her eyes to open. Needed to tell Jack what? She’d already told him her secrets. Or, really, he’d discovered what she was doing on his own and was mad at her now.
Beep.
The flippin’ beep was getting on her every last nerve. But it meant she was alive, right? Of course she was alive. Grace’s head throbbed as she remembered bashing it against the side of the boat. And going under.
Beep.
Beep.
“We’ll need to wait and see. She’s comfortable right now. Has the family been notified?”
“I’ll call her mom,” Krista said.
“I’ll call Jack,” Abby said.
Grace raged inside her very still body. They were wrong. She wasn’t resting comfortably right now. This was a living nightmare.
Beep.
—
Jack hammered the last board into place. He was twenty feet out in the water, soggy wet, and ready to get back to shore. Dry clothes and a hot coffee sounded good right about now. And he’d like to check his phone to see if Grace had called.
“Done,” Jack told Tristan.
The kid rewarded him with a smile.
“Let’s grab our stuff and go home.” Tristan had only been living with him for a day, so home was a figure of speech.
They got in the truck and Jack reached for his phone in the center console. Five missed calls. He tapped his code to unlock it, hoping at least one of those calls was from Grace.
The missed calls were all from Krista. Confusion slipped into worry. Jack tapped his voicemail and listened to the messages, slipping from worry to fear.
“First unplayed message,”the robotic voice of his voicemail said, talking annoyingly slow.
“Jack, this is Krista. You need to come to the hospital. It’s Grace.”
Jack started the engine and laid on the gas as he listened to the next message and the ones after that.
“Jack, where are you? Grace is in room 211. Just, uh, come when you can.”
There was no report as to why Grace was in room 211.
“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked.
Jack had forgotten for a moment that the kid was even there beside him. “I have to go to the hospital.”
“Everything all right?”
Jack shook his head. “I’m not sure. It’s my, uh…the girl I’ve been seeing.” He didn’t have time to swing by his house to drop Tristan off. “I’ll take you to the hospital and call you a cab when we get there.”
Tristan nodded. “Sure, man. Sorry your girlfriend is sick.”
