She’d been abducted. Could’ve died if it hadn’t been for Harvey. Between learning of the pregnancy, coming to terms with Harvey’s self-imposed banishment in hers and the baby’s lives and getting knocked unconscious by the man who obviously had no qualms when it came to killing a woman, she could only shove the terror she’d felt—and still felt—down deep where it would never see the light of day again.
“You and me both.” Her gear and clothing had been confiscated as evidence by Zion’s law enforcement rangers. She’d been offered a set of scrubs by one of the nurses who’d learned she used to be an ER physician, and it’d taken much longer than it should have to change. Every major muscle in her body burned in protest of movement until she’d given up trying to do anything herself and finally asked the nurse to help get some pants on. The seafoam green did nothing to hide the purple and blue blotches around her wrists and along one side of her face. Exhaustion had been trying to pull her under since Harvey had carried her out of the backcountry and down the trail as she’d clung to him like a koala bear, but she wouldn’t givein. Not until she knew the baby was okay. “Tell me I don’t look like a piece of bruised fruit.”
“I’m not comfortable lying to patients.” Cassidy took a seat on that rolling stool and got up close and personal with a penlight aimed directly at Drennan’s face. “You know the drill.”
Pain arched through her face and deep into her brain at the sudden brightness. Drennan followed the penlight as best she could.
Cassidy watched her pupils for the automatic response to light stimulant, but didn’t give anything away in her expression. “Headache?”
“Yes.” There was no way she could deny it at this point. Every change in sound or light had punctured her brain as thoroughly as an ice pick to the skull. It’d been a miracle the hit she’d taken to the back of the head hadn’t killed her. Drennan didn’t let herself touch the soft swell pulsing in time to her heartbeat. The stitches were fresh, and, if she was being honest, she wasn’t up for another round of searing agony.
“Blurry vision?” Her friend clicked the light off—thank goodness—and made a quick note in the chart with the other end of her pen. Dry, cracked skin told of countless rounds of hand washing, disinfectant and latex gloves while Cassidy’s sunken cheeks testified to long hours, late nights and very little sleep. Was that why their conversation felt so forced?
It took more energy than Drennan had to spare not to demand her friend look at her like a person and not just another patient. To see her. “Not at the moment.”
“Hallucinations?” Cassidy ticked off another box on the head trauma questionnaire while everything inside of Drennan went cold.
Her exhale sounded overly loud in the small space, considering the ER was currently packed to the brim with patients, darting nurses and overworked techs. “Yes. I thoughtmy friend walked in here, but it turns out she’s been replaced by a pod person.”
Cassidy raised a perfectly arched brow. Another second passed before the ice melted from her expression and a soft smile curled at one corner of her mouth. This was the woman who’d jumped to help at the first sign Drennan wasn’t okay. The one who’d gone out of her way to recommend her for a job without question, to give her that push she needed to escape Ohio and finally take control of her life. “This is serious, Drennan. You were abducted. You…you could’ve died out there. I know you’re used to having to take care of everyone else over yourself, but I need you to put yourself first for once. For the people who care about you.”
Thickness coated the sides of Drennan’s throat. She didn’t want to acknowledge how much those words meant to her—that someone cared about her—because doing so meant acknowledging how much all the other words hurt. The ones that said her own mother had wished Drennan had been the one to die instead of her father in that accident, that having children had been a mistake or that she was responsible for all the misery in her mom’s life. “Where is Harvey?”
“Your ranger was about to bring down the entire building pacing the ER, so I sent him to the cafeteria to get you something to eat for when you woke up. I have a feeling holding still isn’t in his repertoire.” Cassidy set the clipboard, the pen and the concussion questionnaire aside, that serious look back in her eyes. “You were unconscious for about three hours after he brought you in. The blunt force to the back of your head resulted in a concussion. Any harder, and you wouldn’t be here.”
She’d known that. How close she’d come, but her abductor had wanted her incapacitated to get what he wanted. Not dead. Though she wouldn’t be thanking him anytime soon.
“He’s not my ranger.” Another burst of pain speared through her head. Dragging one hand across her forehead, she dug her thumb into her eye to relieve the pressure.
“Really? Because you were pretty out of it, but it took two of us to pry you off of him.” Cassidy’s smile widened. “I think you tore his shirt.”
“Must’ve been the trauma.” Because she sure as hell wouldn’t cling to Harvey Knight for any other reason. He’d made his intentions with her and the baby clear, and she was nothing if not a champion for boundary setting. No matter how much she wanted things to be different between them, she couldn’t live in another one-sided relationship. Getting out of the last one had nearly destroyed her. “I take it you’ve already done a CT scan to discount any brain bleeds, or I wouldn’t be recovering in the ER.” Her fingers ached as though she’d been clenching something for days rather than the past few minutes of keeping her hands busy with the seams of the sheets. “I’d like an ultrasound to check on the baby.”
“Already ordered. The ob-gyn should be down in a few minutes to take a look.” The stool gave a high-pitched squeak as Cassidy shoved back. “Do you remember if you suffered any trauma to your torso or belly?”
Drennan smoothed her hands down her front, resting them against her lower half as if she could add some semblance of protection. Which was ridiculous. She’d only just found out she was pregnant yesterday. She shouldn’t have this level of…attachment yet, but the small bundle of cells had become her entire world overnight. She’d do anything to keep it. “Uh, no. I’m not sore or bruised that I can tell. I don’t think he… I don’t think things got that far.”
But they could have. Her attempt to protect Dr. Yarrow and Harvey had nearly gotten her killed. It’d been reckless and achoice she would probably make a second time, but she couldn’t just think about herself anymore.
A shiver danced across her shoulders as a man-shaped outline materialized at the foot of her bed. Carrying a tray of food. Her breath crushed from her chest at the sight of his wrinkled uniform shirt and slacks. Dark hair had escaped its normal styling, an equally frantic look in his gaze.
“Hi.” Her voice barely carried through the small, private section the curtain provided in the bustling ER, but Harvey seemed to straighten at the sound. Images of the last time she’d talked with him flashed in rapid succession—her admission to wanting more between them, him revealing the truth about his father, declining his financial support for the baby. She’d left him standing in the middle of his living room, determined to do this on her own. But she would’ve died if it hadn’t been for him. She knew that now. That her abductor had wanted her for a very specific reason and that when he was finished with her, she most likely would’ve ended up face down in a pool of water just like his last victim.
“Hey.” That single word sounded as though it’d been pulled over hot coals. Lifting the tray of food, he cut his attention to Cassidy and back. “Figured you’d be hungry when you woke up.”
“You mean your trip to the cafeteria didn’t have anything to do with the fact Cassidy was going to call security on you if you didn’t stop pacing like a caged animal?” She had just enough energy to smile, and Harvey seemed to go completely still.
His mouth turned up at the corners, sucking the oxygen from her chest. He had a dimple. To the right of his mouth, barely visible through the layers of beard growth, but it was there. She’d seen it. “That might’ve had something to do with it.”
“Thank you.” Drennan tried to sit higher in bed.
“I’ll let your ob-gyn know you’re awake and check back on you soon.” Cassidy made herself scarce by dipping out anotheropening in the curtain, and the room suddenly felt so much smaller than a moment ago.
Harvey rounded the bed, taking up position on the stool her friend had vacated. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a little bit of everything.”
“I’ll take chocolate-covered ants at this point, I’m so hungry.” She grabbed both edges of the tray and settled it across her lap. He’d brought her a hamburger, some pasta, what looked like a tuna fish sandwich and a big fat slice of cheesecake. Her mouth watered at the sight of all those plump cherries in syrup he’d added. Yeah. She went for the cheesecake, almost willing to forgo manners and shove the entire thing in her mouth.
His laugh rumbled through the small space and notched her heart rate up higher, which registered on the stupid echocardiogram machine to her right. Great. She wasn’t just splayed across this damn hospital bed—in one of the most vulnerable positions—but now her body’s reactions would be loud enough for all to hear. “The cheesecake was actually for me.”
