She eyed him. “It happened again, right?”
He nodded, his gaze grave.
“What are you two talking about?” Hawk hadn’t let go of her hand, she realized.
It felt so good and strange at the same time that she just went with it, because his touch was the only thing grounding her at the moment. Inside, her emotions were all over the place even though she tried to hold it together as panic set in.
Jase didn’t exactly clear things up for Hawk. “Lucky and I have a complicated relationship.”
She didn’t want anyone in the room, especially Hawk, to think they had something personal going on. “Yes. I report a crime and you do nothing about it.” She sank back into the bed. “I don’t know why you’re even here.”
“Because despite my lack of progress on your cases, I care about you. I want to help. I’m trying to find the person doing this to you so I can stop them.”
Lincoln put his hand over her free one and she didn’t even feel like pulling it away. Like Hawk’s touch, it anchored her. “Has something like this happened before?”
Jase pressed his lips tight. “Not exactly like this, but other stuff. Weird things tend to happen around Lucky.”
“To me. Not around me. They happentome.”
Jase acknowledged that with a nod, an apology in his eyes.
“Now will someone tell me what’s going on?” Lucky looked to the doctor for some answers.
“Miss Sinclair.”
“Lucky. Please.”
“I’m Dr. Meyer. A friend of Hawk’s. I usually work in the emergency department, but he asked me to watch over you. He brought you in yesterday. You have a mild concussion. As of this morning’s scan, it seems to be getting better. You had surgery yesterday to remove a foreign object from a penetrating wound in your shoulder, just below your clavicle.”
“What?”
Hawk leaned over her. “He took out a piece of a tree root that stabbed you.”
Surprise shot through her at the same time pain throbbed in her chest and back.
Dr. Meyer went on. “We were able to repair some of the muscle. You were lucky. It missed your lung, though it was pressed right up against it, so you have some bruising. We stitched up a large gash on your thigh and splinted your leg to support the sprained knee you suffered during your fall. You’ve got multiple contusions all over your body. What’s your pain level at the moment?”
She tried to absorb all the information. “Um. I’m sore. All over. I feel like I was hit by a truck.”
Hawk brushed his fingers against her palm. “Try a twenty-five foot drop down a hill, where it appears you simply tumbled down, hitting trees and rocks and bushes on your way to a flat boulder where you cracked your head and landed on a tree root that impaled you.” His light touch belied the intense fury in his gaze.
“Someone pushed me.” She shook her head. “No. That’s not quite right. I wasn’t able to really stand. They had their arms around me from behind, then they just let me go.” Flashes shot through her mind so fast she couldn’t make any of them out. “I remember thinking I couldn’t make anything work. I couldn’t try to catch myself.”
Hawk held up her hand and showed her the brace on her pinky finger. “You dislocated your finger and sustained a lot of other injuries on your way down. When I found you—”
Flashes of memory came back to her. “That’s right. You found me.” She scrunched her brow, trying to think clearly. “How didyoufind me?”
Hawk ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. “Fucking luck. I was out training when I took a lesser known trail. I heard you call out to me.”
“I saw something red flash through all the green. I knew I was dying. I called for you.”
“Yes. And it’s damn lucky I found you when I did, or you’d be dead.”
Her hand contracted in his. She knew that to be absolutely true. “Th-thank you.”
“I’m so damn glad I found you when I did. Another hour…” Hawk looked lost in the memory of finding her. The anguish on his face startled her. He really cared.
She squeezed his hand again. “I’m okay now, thanks to you. I really appreciate it.”
