Iwoke up in an ambulance, my head aching and my vision fuzzy. Then I went in and out until finally awakening completely in a comfortable bed, hooked up to hospital monitors. Santa Clause stood next to me. “Santa?” I whispered.
Santa smiled and looked closer into my eyes as he set a tablet aside. “No. I’m Dr. Springfield.” He was in his mid-sixties with short white hair and a white beard. “You were in a car accident, young lady. I’m going to ask you some questions, and I need you to relax and answer them. What’s your name?”
I answered all of his questions while taking inventory of my body. Nothing was broken, but everything was sore. Even my right knee protested. What had I hit with my knee? I couldn’t remember the accident after the truck hit us.
Finally, he finished making notes on the tablet. “You have a slight concussion but I’m not horribly worried about it. You also have bruising along your ribcage, but nothing is broken. We’ll keep you here for a couple of hours, but I think you’ll be able to go home tonight with some directions.” His smile really was Santa-like. “Is there anybody we can call for you?”
“Yeah.” I gave him Tessa’s number since she lived closest to the hospital. I’d rather deal with the rest of my family on my home turf and not in the hospital.
The doctor left just as Kelsey Walker rushed in, her eyes wild. “Anna? Are you all right?” She hurried to my bedside and grabbed my hand. A little bit of blood dotted her skirt.
I coughed. “Just a slight concussion and bruised ribs. How are you? Are you okay?”
A bandage covered the skin above her right eye and a few bruises stood out along her clavicle. “I’m fine and didn’t even need to ride in the ambulance. There’s a slight cut over my eye, but I didn’t need stitches. It was crazy. Tell me you’re okay.” Her eyes filled with tears. “You’ve been through so much. Do you remember what happened?”
I frowned and tried to remember everything. “We were rammed by a truck.” It didn’t make sense. “Why did they want to hurt us? Where are they now? Are they here in the hospital?” I tried to push the covers off me.
She pushed them right back and pressed a hand to my shoulder. “Stay still and relax. I don’t know where they are, and they’re definitely not here in the hospital. They drove off after hitting us, but I managed to get their license plate and gave it to the police officers. There were two women in the truck, and I described them the best I could.”
Man. Static filled my brain along with fog. “Are you sure you’re not injured?” I asked.
“Yes.” She looked at my face and then her shoulders relaxed. “I thought you were really hurt. At the scene, I tried to wake you up, but you were out cold. It was terrifying. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Um, excuse me?” A blond man stood in the doorway with bruises across the right side of his face and his left arm in a sling. He was about six foot, slender, and maybe in his late twenties? His eyes were a dark brown, and right now they were tinged with pain.
Kelsey moved more toward my head. “Oh. Hi. I tried to check in on you, but the nurse wouldn’t let me. Said they were looking you over.”
I pushed a button on the nearby control panel, and the bed sat me up. There was something familiar about the guy, and it took me a second to recognize him as the driver of the blue car in the accident. I gasped. Thank goodness he wasn’t dead. We’d crashed right into the side of his car—on the driver’s door. “You were in the other car. Are you okay? I’m so sorry about this.” Yeah, as a lawyer, I should’ve never said those words. Right now, I didn’t care. My car had been forced into his, and it wasn’t either of our fault.
He limped inside, his jeans slightly bloody, and pain lines deepening on either side of his mouth. “Yeah. I’m okay. Just a bunch of bruises and a dislocated shoulder. I wanted to make sure you’re all right.”
Kelsey held out a hand. “I’m Kelsey and this is Anna.” She blushed a light pink.
I thought she had a boyfriend? Must not be serious. Or maybe my slight concussion was just making life confusing right now.
He took her hand with his good one. “Teddy Thompson. Wrong place at the wrong time. As usual.”
Kelsey drew out one of the two guest chairs. “You should probably sit down.”
Teddy smiled at her and then sat. “You’re a godsend.”
She preened. I swear, she preened. But he seemed like a decent guy so far, and it’d be nice to see her flirt with somebody kind. Wow. Maybe I had inherited Nonna’s matchmaking gene. “You should sit as well, Kelsey. We were all injured.”
Kelsey sat next to Teddy, her worried gaze still on me. “Are you sure your brain is working? I’ve never seen somebody stay out for that long. Your head has to hurt.”
“It does but not as much as I’d expect.” I set the blanket more securely over my legs. Where were my clothes?
Teddy’s eyes now sparkled through the pain. “The cops want to talk to us, but I wanted to make sure you both were okay first.”
I finally started to think like a lawyer. This guy may sue me. So could Kelsey, for that matter. Although anybody seeing the wreck would know that it wasn’t my fault. I’d been waiting at the red light, and the truck had deliberately plowed into me. One of us could’ve been killed. Anger filtered through the fog in my head.
A uniformed officer walked into the room, and I relaxed when I saw it was Bud Orlov. Bud had deep black eyes set into a hardened face. His hair was a short buzz, and he had more muscles than I could count. He’d been assigned to protect me earlier in the summer, and I’d accidentally gotten him shot once. I think he’d considered dating Donna but had changed his mind because of me and the dangerous situations that seemed to ensue. “Hi, Bud.”
He walked closer. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Bruised and concussed. Nothing new.” Unfortunately a true statement. “It wasn’t my fault.”
Teddy leaned back in his chair. “Her car was hit by a Ford truck and pushed into the intersection, where we collided. She’d been parked at the light, and I had a green light, so I was proceeding through the intersection when she was hit from behind.”
