Page 27 of One Little Memory
Did she tell him? Did she dare? Maybe she was wrong. Things were all so jumbled up. Maybe she didn’t really hit that man with her car. “I—I’m not sure. More sounds. Something tinny and a scratching sound.”
His green eyes studied her, and she knew he didn’t believe she was telling him the truth. That was fair. She wasn’t. She needed time to process the memories to make sense of them.
“If you’re finished, we can go.”
She nodded as she stood up. “Were those men here about your investigation?”
“Yeah. One of the hazards of living in a small town. People come to my home when they want to know what’s going on.”
She put her food in the garbage can and rinsed the cutlery in the sink. Phoenix locked the sliding doors, and they made theirway out to his police vehicle. Twenty minutes later, they were pulling up to the site of the crash.
Phoenix parked the truck off to the side, away from the other SUV and the massive tow truck. “Stay here. I want to talk to the guys first.”
She nodded and watched him get out and walk over to the group of men standing at the side of the road. He was taller than most of them and better built. He was wearing a pair of faded jeans that hugged his butt and a short-sleeved black T-shirt that seemed to cut into his biceps. A badge clipped to his belt winked in the morning sunshine. He was sexy as hell, and his voice sent shivers down her spine. But the best part about Detective Phoenix Halston was his beautiful green eyes and his smile. Both of them made her insides turn to jelly. And yet, they also made her feel safe. She’d known him for less than forty-eight hours, and she trusted him with her life, which was why she did not want to tell him that she’d hit someone with her car. She just couldn’t give up that safe harbor. Not yet. Not until the rest of her memory came back. She needed Phoenix too much to risk losing him at this moment.
He must have sensed the weight of her stare because he looked in her direction and then beckoned her over. She got out of the SUV and joined the men.
“Jo, this is Jory, Aiden, and Judson.”
She nodded to the men absently. Being this close to the edge of the embankment was distracting. She needed to see the car. Her car. She moved closer and peered over the edge. Phoenix grabbed her arm.
“It’s not stable,” he warned.
She nodded. “I just need to see.”
He moved with her but kept holding on to her arm. She peered over the edge. It was a long way down. The stump of the tree that she’d originally been balanced against was about thirtyfeet down, and the car was another sixty or seventy feet beyond that. Her dark blue BMW. She stared. It wasn’t her car. It was a rental.
“A rental.”
“What?” Phoenix asked.
“That’s not my car. My car is white. That’s a rental.” Her gaze met his.
His eyes narrowed. “You sure?”
She nodded. It wasn’t a memory exactly, just something she knew.
Jory stood beside her and looked over the embankment. “I hope you took out insurance.”
She looked up at him and burst out laughing. They all started laughing along, and it was a few minutes before anyone could speak.
“So, are you guys going to bring it up?”
Aiden shook his head. “No. There’s been too much rain. The embankment is totally unstable.” He pointed to a couple of areas where she could see the ground had slid down the hill.
Disappointment raged through her. She thought she was going to get some answers, and now she was stuck again.
Jory took a phone call and then gave a thumbs up. Aiden smiled. “Chief Vickers just gave the okay to lower us down. We’ll go check out the car and see if we can find anything. The rig should be here in about twenty minutes.”
“That’s great. Thanks, guys. This is a big help,” Phoenix said.
The vise-like grip on Jo’s shoulders eased. Maybe she would get her answers after all.
An hour later, she watched as both Jory and Aiden were lowered down over the side of the embankment. They were wearing their fire gear minus the tanks. It took a while for them to get to the bottom, and Jo felt like she’d held her breath the whole time.
“See anything?” Phoenix asked into a walkie-talkie.
“Dude, give us a minute,” Jory responded. He waved, and then they got down on their hands and knees and looked inside the car. They dug around a bit but came out empty-handed. “No paperwork in the glove,” Jory said.
