Page 78 of Ice Cold Christmas
“Hell.”
“I’ve never seen a hit like that. You could hear the bones crunching. His scream kept echoing. And there was so much blood.” And all Victor had thought was…
It was like this for Melody? This is what she went through? Hunter had already gotten her medical records emailed to Victor. A bit of not-necessarily-legal probing without a medical release. But he’d scanned those reports while they’d been at the station.
Medically induced coma. She’d been in a medically induced coma because there had been so much swelling in her brain.
Was it any wonder she didn’t have a memory?
Brutal truth, he didn’t care if her memory ever came back fully. He would take her any way he could get her. Fuck the past. They’d build a better future together. Maybe he wouldn’t screw up and make all of the same mistakes that he’d made with her before. Maybe this time, he could do things better.
“I know what it’s like when the screams won’t stop.” Hard words from Hunter. “Be prepared for that shit to chase you into your dreams.”
Victor knew Hunter’s past was twisted. He’d glimpsed the scars the other man carried but had never asked specifically about them because Victor hadn’t wanted to cross lines. A person’s pain was private. You didn’t dig it up and show it to the world.
“Your lady okay?” Hunter wanted to know. “Seeing that accident had to be like getting an up-close view of her own hell.”
His exact worry. “She’s resting.”
“Is she?”
Fuck. He feared she wasn’t. He feared she was replaying the scene in her head over and over again. Wasn’t he doing that?
“I’ll check in tomorrow,” Hunter promised. “Until then, try not to get hauled to the station or attacked, okay? Sure would appreciate that.”
Victor hung up the phone. Shoved it in his pocket. He whirled and rushed toward the stairs, but…
Stopped.
His backpack had been tossed near the entranceway table. He remembered dropping it there earlier. His gaze lingered on the backpack before he looked up, following those winding stairs to the next level of the house. Maybe Hunter is wrong. Maybe Melody is asleep. Or maybe…maybe she just doesn’t want me around her right now.
Again, a person’s pain was private. You didn’t dig that shit up, not without an invitation. And yet…
Unease slithered through him. His stare shifted to the backpack once more. Things weren’t adding up for him. One of the things bugging him? Why the hell had Sebastian held onto the old sheriff’s file for so long? And was a teenage joy ride really worth blackmail money?
He opened the backpack. Took out the manila file. Began to thumb through it and read it in more depth and—sonofabitch. His breath left him in a whoosh.
Sebastian had been sitting on this? He’d kept this news secret for years? Victor yanked out his phone once more. He had Hunter back on the line in about three seconds.
“Missing me already?” Hunter wanted to know by way of a greeting. “I get it. I’m cool. But, still?—”
“Brant McKee,” he gritted out the name.
“Brant McKee,” Hunter repeated. “Brant McKee…why in the hell is that name familiar to me? Wait, wait, he’s the guy running for attorney general in Maryland, isn’t he? Gonna be the next big gun there.”
“I need you to look into him. Hard.”
“Uh, dude, I think you misunderstand my role with the Ice Breakers. I was supposed to help you find your lady. She strolled back herself, so I didn’t exactly hold up my end of the deal there, but as far as helping you with any weird vendettas that you might have against politicians, you’re gonna need to count me out.”
“When he was seventeen, Brant beat up Melody so badly that she had three broken ribs.” Rage nearly blinded him.
“What?”
“She broke up with him after she found out that he stole a ride. The prick attacked her in response.” He wanted to find the bastard and rip him apart. He would be destroying Brant McKee. Only a matter of time. “Hatterson found them.” That had been in the file.
“Wait, her dad’s guard? Or butler? Or whatever the hell the dude is?”
Hatterson was all of the above. “He pulled Brant off her. Called the sheriff.” A man who’d died…last Thanksgiving. In a hunting accident.
