Kieran’s blue eyes glittered intensely. “Not surprising considering the shape you were in when I found you on the street.”
“You found me on the street?”
“Last night. About a block over. You passed out in my arms.”
The shadows sighed. “How romantic.”
“Go home,” Kieran snapped.
“Some days, I really do think you don’t like me.”
My midsection ached when I leaned to look around Kieran again. Hissing, I pressed my arm to my side.
Kieran stood and slid his arm around me while using the other to push me back. “What hurts?”
“Everything,” I murmured.
“You have cuts all over you.” Kieran’s face twisted like he was smelling a fart. “Your hand reopened and had to be stitched this time. That asinine doctor at the hospital thought glue would hold together a little hazard like you,” he grumped. “The stitches in your head were uncovered and starting to get infected. The gash in your knee needed stitches too.”
“Oooh,” I said, remembering everything now.
“What’soooh?” the man across the room asked.
“Who are you?” I wondered.
“Don’t worry about him. He’s leaving,” Kieran replied. Then, “You will finish that IV because you’re dehydrated. Again. And you’re also now on antibiotics and got a tetanus shot.”
“I crawled through my window. All the glass was broken.”
Kieran’s face darkened. “And your knee?”
“Fell on a spring from my couch.”
“Aren’t those supposed to be on the inside?” asked the man I was supposed to ignore.
“They trashed my apartment before trying to kill me,” I explained. Then I wondered why I was explaining anything to someone I didn’t even know. “It’s pretty rude you’re asking all these questions and I haven’t even seen your face,” I snapped.
Laughing, the man stirred from the shadows and walked toward the bed. He wasn’t what I expected, not that I really expected anything. Maybe I assumed he would be like Kieran, abroody grump with control issues. But the wide smile stretching across the lower half of his face obliterated those assumptions. I wasn’t even sure Kieran could smile that big.
He was maybe around six feet tall with muscular shoulders that tapered into a narrow waist. His inky hair fell over his ears but was pushed off his forehead. His deep-brown almond-shaped eyes glittered with amusement when Kieran stopped him from coming too close with a hand pressed to his chest.
Chuckling, he tucked his hands into the black leather pants he wore. “I’d shake your hand, but I’d like to keep mine.”
“You got me a doctor?” I asked.
“He wouldn’t answer for me,” Kieran grumbled.
“Because he’s scared of you,” the man heckled. “It pays to have friends.”
“You are friends?” I asked, looking between the two.
“No,” Kieran said at the same time the other said, “Besties.”
Kieran sighed. “Haz, this is Ghost. Ghost, this is Haz.”
“Your name is Ghost?”
“That’s me,” he confirmed. “Silent, stealthy, and can be in and out of a place before you even know I was there.”
