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Even now, my lips tingled, their nerves altered from the memory.
The mattress crunched as I sat up, and I remembered I’d shoved Dr. Julia’s notes on Rachel underneath it when Calder left the tent again.
Should I have taken them?Should I continue to read them?
I reached for the papers but stopped when I heard footsteps approaching the tent.And that distinct whistled tune.
Crap.Where was Calder?
“Breakfast!” The yell had been preceded by what passed for knocking on the tent.
“Shit,” I muttered, rising and brushing the wrinkles from my scrubs. My eyes zipped from side to side as though I could’ve missed my extra-large fake boyfriend in the small space.Not possible.
Looked like I was going to have to face Ben on my own.
Heart pounding, I went and unzipped the front flap just enough to be able to reach for our food.
“Morning,” I said tightly, refusing to cower from the guard who’d gone on a small power trip last night, only to be thoroughly embarrassed by Calder.
His eyes turned squinty as I took the tray of food. “Where’s Calder?”
“Bathroom.” I tugged on the zipper to close the opening, only for his meaty hand to block its path.
“You know, breaking curfew is a serious violation ...” Ben said slowly, the creep of his eyes like slime as it wandered over me.
“Well, holding your pee can lead to serious kidney damage or kidney failure, so as a doctor, I can’t say I recommend doing it just to preserve some arbitrary curfew.”
His eyes narrowed to slits, and then he shoved his hand against the zipper, pulling it out of my fingers and forcibly open.
“I could have Calder kicked out of the retreat.”
“I was there, too.”
A twisted smirk appeared. “Only if I say you were.”
His tone . . . his meaning . . . I wanted to vomit.
“Well, I was. So it doesn’t really matter what you say. It’s not like I would stay without my boyfriend anyway,” I said with a tight smile. “Now, if you could let go of my tent, I’d like to eat and get ready for the workshop this morning.”
He didn’t let go. He didn’t even seem to have heard me, let alone care about what I’d said.
“I could give you plenty of reasons to stay.” He leaned into the tent and reached for me.
And my brain short-circuited.
Panic traded the tent for the emergency room. The rustle of the forest for the beeps of machines. And the look on Ben’s face for the desperate one on Ian’s. The nerves that had been fried by trauma still weren’t healed, sending me into paralysis rather than response.
He tried to grab my arm, and instinct jolted me into action. I stumbled back, everything on the tray shaking.
“I want you to leave,” I said in my best life-or-death doctor voice, still hearing it tremble.
Get it together, Dr. Crane. How will you ever be back in the ER if you can’t keep your cool?
“Now,” I added, clinging to the spike of strength in the syllable.
Ben wasn’t going to listen. I saw it in his face, in the stretch of his arm. “Are you sure—” He broke off with a cry.
A large hand locked on his wrist and twisted it at an unnatural, excruciating angle.
