Page 11

“Yes, sir,” he said as he took off again.

They controlled the scene. Only one car caught fire, and it was put out quickly. There was a smoker, but they doused it and cooled it down as well. Ambulance after ambulance hauled the injured away, and the coroner arrived to document the death of the young mother in the car.

Jack Parsons, the owner of the red truck that had caused the pileup, was found half a block away, passed out in someone’s yard. He was very much alive and after the cops got him checked out at the hospital, Jack would go to jail. Then eventually prison. There was no doubt he’d killed that woman and injured so many others.

The nurse haunted him. Her eyes had been a vibrant hazel, greener than brown, and she’d had a pissed off look on her face, like she was angry she was about to pass out. She’d still been beautiful, though, her face lean and lined by life. There had been character and pain, there, and he had a feeling she was an incredibly interesting woman.

Maybe when this was all done, he’d go check on her.

CHAPTER 2

Olivia woke to a more than normal level of pain. It raged through her body, making her gasp in agony and shift on the bed she was lying upon. Holy hell…

“I know it hurts,” a voice said from near her feet. “Can I get you more pain meds?”

Olivia blinked the room into focus and saw a nurse she didn’t recognize in a too-bright room. “Where am I?”

“You’re at the Caldwell County Hospital, Lockhart.”

Olivia grimaced, then gasped with pain as the skin on her head pulled. Lifting a hand, she felt the bandage taped to her head.

“You had to have some stitches put in, and you’ve got a pretty serious concussion, but you’ll be on your feet in no time.”

The young nurse blushed and glanced down at her clipboard. Olivia thought it was odd until she flicked her gaze down the bed. Ah. Someone had taken her prosthetic off. She glanced around the room. The leg was propped against the far wall. "Maybe you can move my leg closer so that I can do that."

The young nurse blushed again and retrieved her leg, setting it on the floor beside the bed. Olivia sat up, gritting through the pain, and waited for the world to stop spinning. There was a stitch in her side that was relentless.

"Oh, ma'am, you shouldn't get up. Not yet," the nurse said, moving in close, hands out.

Olivia looked up at her, scanning the ID card hanging around her neck. "What's your name? Grace? Listen, Grace, I have to pee. You did not catheterize me, so I assume the doctor wants me to get up and move at some point, which is convenient because I'm going to piss the bed if you don't get out of my way."

She didn't realize her voice had risen until the young woman’s eyes widened and she backed away. “I need to stay, if you’re getting up,” she argued, showing some spine.

“Then move out of the way,” Olivia sighed, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. It was taller than her own bed, so she had to shimmy to the edge of the mattress, then bend over to retrieve her leg. She was legit going to piss her pants if she didn’t get to a bathroom, and this leaning over shit was bad. She couldn’t breathe. Scraping her pant leg up, she held the fabric in her quaking fingers. Quickly, efficiently, she attached the prosthetic to her right lower leg, seating her stump into the cup as she stood, holding onto the side of the bed. Her head swam for a minute, then steadied, and she launched, heading to the corner where she assumed the bathroom to be.

The relief as she sat on the toilet was enough to make her tear up and make her think of another time she hadn’t been allowed the decency of a bathroom. The similarities ended there, though. She finished and pulled her pants up, then turned to stare at her wild self in the mirror.

The problem with hair as short and fine as her own was that it showed bedhead, really bad. But the advantage was that she could wet her whole head down and comb it out in seconds, so that’s what she did, avoiding the obnoxiously large bandage. The nurse handed her a washcloth, and Olivia tackled her dirty face. She had dried blood in her ears and down her neck, and it was flaking off uncomfortably. There was a shower, but she wasn’t staying here any longer than she had to.

“How are the rest of the crash victims?” she asked the hovering nurse.

“Um, according to staff policy, unless you’re a relative…”

Olivia chopped a hand in the air. “Never mind. God forbid you bend a fucking rule,” she sighed. “Why are you here?” she said pointedly, feeling steadier the longer she stood.

“I, I’m supposed to check your vitals,” the young woman sputtered.

Olivia snorted out a laugh. “Why don’t you go hover somewhere else for a while and leave me alone.”

“Am I interrupting?”

Olivia looked at the door, and the tall man standing there. That voice… It took her a moment to recognize him. She recognized his brilliant blue eyes first. It was the firefighter from the crash. Even when she’d been asleep, she’d dreamed of his eyes. What the hell was wrong with her? There were more important things going on than mooning over a man… “How is the little girl we found?”

A big grin split the man’s face, and she suddenly realized it wasn’t just his eyes that were so appealing. He had a friendly face, obviously used to smiling. “She’s doing really well. Considering. There’s a CPS rep on the way in. We haven’t been able to find a second parent, though.”

Damn. Olivia really hoped there was a second parent. A father. A second mother. Just someone so the little girl wouldn’t be adrift in the world.

“Thank you for telling me,” Olivia said, glancing at the young nurse. “I suggest you find whoever you need to to get me released. I’m walking out of here in three minutes.”