Page 20 of Luck Be a Genie

That’s right, this girl.

Chapter 8

Lucky & Nick

Our next stop was unfortunately the hospital.

Nick was standing next to me like a grumpy bodyguard while the doctor shone a piercingly bright light in my eyes. I winced, scrunching them closed while my skull screamed at me.

“Ow.”

“I’m so sorry, Lucks.”

I blindly reached out for him, still not willing to open my eyes and risk the wrath of my brain yet, when Nick gently took my hand.

“Hmm,” the doctor pursed her lips, making me attempt to focus on her past my squint. “It looks like you might have a mild concussion.” She chuckled at the face I made at her words. “I’ll have to get you a CT scan as well, but I promise it’ll be quick, and then we can go from there.”

I sighed in resignation. “Thanks, doc.”

She laughed delightedly. “No, thank you! I’ve never seen someone actually take someone else down by a flying tackle before. And to think, if I had taken lunch ten minutes later I would have missed it!” She was at the door when she turned back to me. “Did you get your purse back?” she asked curiously.

I grinned, feeling proud of myself, then winced when my head throbbed viciously in response to my grin. Pride, it goeth before the fall. “I did!”

Nick grumbled at me under his breath as the doctor left chuckling.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” he growled once she was gone. “That was incredibly dangerous.”

I lay back on the hospital bed and closed my eyes. Nick, being a sweetie, even though he was mad at me, closed the curtain. It instantly made the room a thousand times more bearable, so I was able to squint at him again.

His expression was pained as he pulled up a chair close to my bed and took my hand again.

“I would have taken care of it for you,” he said softly.

“You were busy.”

The craziness had happened inside the home goods store, of all places. Nick had left to pay for his purchases, and the thief must have been waiting for him to leave, because as soon as Nick was out of sight, they knocked me down and stole my purse. I’d had to scramble up and chase him out of the store and down the block before I was able to catch up to him.

It turned out that flying tackles were both painful and dangerous. And not just to the person being tackled.

Can confirm.

But I had gotten my purse back! Shortly after taking the thief down, Nick had caught up to me, grumpy as all get out, and had held the man until the police could come and take my statement.

By that time, I wasn’t feeling all that great, and the doctor who had seen everything, the one who had just treated me, came over to examine me. Then she’d basically kidnapped me and took me to the nearest hospital.

The upside of getting kidnapped was that we had gotten right in.

The downside was that I was in a hospital.

Again.

“Besides, I’ve had most of the same training as you have. And don’t tell me it’s more dangerous for me because I’m a woman!”

Nick actually growled before he sat back and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I’m not gonna go battle of the sexes on you, no. Despite the fact that it’s statistically more dangerous out there for female cops than male cops. That’s not the point. The point is that I am a two-hundred and forty pound male genie, and you weigh, what? One-forty? You took him down, and that’s great, Lucks. I’m so proud of you, really. But it was insanely dangerous and you know it. You could have been more seriously injured. He could have killed you.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not capable, Nick,” I said quietly. “We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if this had happened with one of your old male partners.”