His feet itched to move. To go with her. Because how the hell was he supposed to wait here? How was he supposed to justhopethat she was okay when he’d almost lost her?
16
Aticking sound tugged at Polly’s consciousness. It was steady and rhythmic, pulling her from her sleep. There were other sounds too. The clicking of footsteps against a hard floor. The echo of voices. They sounded far away, whereas the ticking was close.
A clock? She didn’t have a clock that ticked in her house.
Someone squeezed her hand. The fingers were cool, almost cold, and small. It wasn’t a man’s hand.
She scrunched her eyelids, then slowly opened them.
The brightness blinded her.
She blinked at least four times…and slowly, a figure beside her came into view. “Maggie?”
Her best friend straightened. “Polly! You’re awake!Thank God.”
“What…what happened?” She felt groggy and heavy, and her mouth was so dry her tongue threatened to stick to the roof.
“You rolled your car,” Maggie said quietly. “You don’t remember?”
The flash of headlights in her memory made her blink. Then the beeping. God, it was so loud she could still hear it. “Someone was behind me.”
“Yeah.”
“They ran me off the road.”
Maggie leaned closer, her fingers tight around Polly’s hand. “The guys are going to look into it, okay? They’re going to find the person responsible.”
A shudder crept down her spine. The person responsible…because someone had followed her. Targeted her. Wanted to hurt her.
“Who found me?” she whispered.
“Joel.”
The second Maggie said his name, Polly heard him. The door was closed, but his voice filtered through from the other side. He was angry and yelling at someone.
Suddenly, that same door flew open and Ward stepped in. “See? She’s awake.”
Deputy Cox cringed behind Ward. Then Joel stepped in, closely followed by Ethan.
The second her gaze fell on Joel, everything before the crash came back to her. Bronte. The ring. The call from him in the car.
His focus was intense as he took her in, studying her face, her eyes, her body. He looked powerful and lethal and angry all at the same time.
Ward cleared his throat. “Polly. It’s good to see you’re doing okay.”
Okayhardly felt like the right word.
“I understand you believe someone ran you off the road?” he asked.
She frowned at his wording. “Ibelievesomeone ran me off the road because they did. They hit my car.”
“We’ll have that confirmed by the mechanic.”
Because he didn’t believe her?
“They were also flashing their brights and beeping their horn at me.”
