“Did I what?” Bent said.
“Tell him about playing,” Ash continued.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, but Ryker and I were talking about him filling in for me for the rest of this tour.”
Ash glanced at Bash. A frown creased his forehead. “Um…”
Tia stepped up and explained, “Bent’s head injury is affecting his memory. Anything surrounding the crash and immediately post-op is gone.”
“Like gone,gone?” Ash asked.
“Hard to say,” she said. “Anesthesia can have an effect on short-term memory. It’s a nice benefit actually. That could be all this is.”
“Could be?” Noodles, who rarely spoke, came to the foot of the bed. “How serious is this shit?”
“Like I said, it’s too soon to tell.”
She’d read the scans. Bent had signs of a concussion but no other obvious injury to his brain. Still, she was concerned about his memory loss, but she didn’t want to upset the band. Not without more information.
“These things take time,” she said. “I wouldn’t be concerned about it just yet.”
Bent barked a laugh. “I’m not worried. My noggin hurts like hell, but it’s just a flesh wound.”
It was more than that, but she appreciated his Monty Python humor. “Right,” she said, “just a flesh wound.”
Normally, being surrounded by so many men wouldn’t have her feeling uncomfortable. She lived in a male-dominated world where women made up less than ten percent of those present, but it wasn’t the men of Angel Fire who had her nerves vibrating with nervous energy or her heart banging away like a kettledrum.
Her skin heated as Ryker shifted to stand beside her. He stepped close and broke the bubble of her personal space, making her breathing hitch in her chest. They’d worked in close quarters for months without her feeling a thing, but now, her entire being pulsed in Ryker’s presence. Across the room, Forest’s gaze hardened.
“Um,” she said, backing away, “I’m going to go check on something.”
Ryker gripped her wrist. “I’ll come with you.”
“No,” she said, tugging out of his grip, “I’m good.”
He spoke under his breath, “What’s wrong?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “What did you and Forest talk about?”
No way would Ryker ever tell Forest what had happened between them. She trusted Ryker implicitly but knew Forest and his powers of deduction. An odd bird, he operated on a whole other realm from the rest of humanity. Skye had told her how socially isolated Forest had been as a teen, but he’d learned tricks along the way. No one who didn’t know his past would believe his social handicap had once been crippling.
Ryker pulled her sleeve and backed her into a corner. Ash and the others gathered around Bent, joking about the accident, trying to make light of the seriousness of his injuries.
“He knows,” Ryker said with a whisper.
“How?”
“I don’t know. He went to find me earlier, and when I wasn’t in my barracks, he headed to yours. He found me leaving and inferred the rest.”
“Shit,” she said. Her stomach dropped, and the world spun. She clutched at Ryker for support. “This is bad. It’s really bad.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Set List
RYKER
Ryker usheredTia out of the room under the brooding presence of Forest, who watched their every move. He took her back to her quarters and soothed her fears as best he knew how.
