Page 42 of Written with You (The Regret Duet 2)
Or maybe she’d hoped I wouldn’t.
“Nooooo,” she moaned, swinging a glare at Ian. “What did you do? I don’t want to be in this box, Ian. I don’t want to be in this box.”
He shrugged. “A man puts his hands on you and I’m there to see it? I’d end up in a pine box if I didn’t tell him about it.”
I had no fucking clue what the two of them were talking about. Nor did I care. My only concern was making sure she was truly okay and my swirling mind wouldn’t still until I did a full inventory of her injuries. I rested a hand on her thigh, the other going to her hand holding the icepack as I squatted in front of her.
My throat was gravel as I ordered, “Let me see.”
She sighed. “I’m fine, Caven. Really.”
“Fantastic. Then let me see.”
She stared at me, her chin quivering and her green eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “Please don’t. I don’t want to be in this box.”
“What are you talking about? What box?”
She glanced over at the cops, who were congregating behind a cruiser, then whispered, “The one in your head where I’m the girl at the mall who you have to rush in and save all the time.”
“Babe, I have no idea what you are talking about right now. But I really need to see what’s going on beneath that ice because the shit in my head, seeing you surrounded by police and paramedics again, it’s not pretty. Okay?”
Her face got soft. “God, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that.”
As she moved her hand, revealing nothing but a quarter-size bruise on the apple of her cheek, I physically swayed with the movement of my world tipping back on its axis. All the garbage from the past crashed into place, hidden in the recesses of my mind where it belonged, but it left the most beautiful woman sitting in front of me. Despite everything that had happened between us over the last month, I didn’t think twice about kissing her forehead, allowing my lips to linger as my anxiety ebbed, leaving me lighter than I had been in weeks.
Nothing like an overdose of fear and adrenaline to put life into perspective.
“Caven,” she whispered, covering my hand at her thigh. “I’m okay. Really.”
And she was.
This time.
Using her wrist, I guided her hand with the ice back to her cheek and rose to my full height. “I’ll be right back, okay? Shout if you need anything.”
She nodded, and I felt her gaze track me as I walked to the front of her car with Ian on my heels.
Careful to keep my voice low, I rumbled, “What the hell happened here?”
His jaw got tight. “Some douchebag Hadley stole a flash drive from wants it back. Snatched her ID, roughed her up, then took off when he saw me.”
“He took her ID?”
“Gave her two days to find the flash drive. My guess is he plans to pick it up in person.”
Molten lava hit my bloodstream. “Fucking Hadley.”
“Basically.” He moved in close. “Look, we have to figure out this shit with her identity. After this crap, it’s not safe for her to be walking around as Hadley Banks. Who the hell knows who else that woman could have pissed off. She’s been dead for over eight months and this guy is just now coming back for something she took? For all we know, it’s going to be a never-ending parade of idiots wanting their shit back.”
A heavy weight settled in my stomach as I looked at her back through the windshield. “She told the cops she was Hadley, didn’t she?”
“Legally, that’s who she is now. The cops are pulling security footage of the attack, but Willow doesn’t know who he was and he took off on foot. I’m not holding out a lot of hope they are going to catch this guy. At least not in the next forty-eight hours. She can stay with me for a couple nights, but—”
My head snapped back to him. “The fuck she can. You’ve lost your damn mind if you think I’m letting her go home with you.”
The side of his mouth hitched. “Wow. Do I sense some jealousy there?”
“It’s not jealousy, you ass. The woman has just suffered a traumatic event. It would be cruel to let you bore her into a coma.”
His smile flashed full blown. “What are you going to tell Rosie about her staying the night?”
“You think she’s going to ask any questions when I tell her Willow’s coming for a sleepover? We’ll all be lucky if we escape with our eardrums intact. Besides, it’s not Rosalee I’m worried about convincing.”
As though she’d heard our conversation, she turned and looked at me through the car. Her gaze hit me like a tangible weight, but it was the anxiety carved in her face and the cop standing beside her that got my feet moving in her direction.
