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He moved his hand away from the door and she opened it, slipping out into the hallway.
And she never looked back.
It started to rain about an hour outside of Ithaca.
Of course.
Grace leaned heavily on the steering wheel of the Toyota she’d rented. She was exhausted, she had eyestrain and the over four-hour drive had taken its toll.
So had the rain.
What had started out as a light sprinkle turned into a steady shower, then morphed into heavy sheets coming down steadily for the last thirty minutes. The windshield wipers were slapping back and forth at a frantic pace, and she peered out the windshield. Wishing yet again she’d taken Hunter’s offer of letting her borrow a car, she cursed herself.
Wishing even more that she’d taken up on his offer to drive her, accompany her. Give her the comfort she so desperately needed.
Weariness settled over her like a heavy wet blanket, and she wanted to close her eyes, she was so tired. She was such a fool.
But she couldn’t worry about that now. She was close, so close to the hospital. Hopefully her grandma would be awake when she finally got to her room. She should be. It was almost eight in the morning. Would the hospital staff care if she fell asleep in a chair in her grandma’s room? Wouldn’t it be handy if there was an empty bed next to her grandma’s and she could crash out for a few hours?
Yeah, in her dreams.
Blinking hard, she refocused her attention on the road. Traffic had picked up, but not too much. Thank goodness, since she grew closer to Ithaca and she wasn’t that good in heavy traffic. How she’d managed to get herself out of Manhattan with her limited driving experience, she still didn’t have a clue.
Her cell rang, but she ignored it. She wasn’t about to answer the phone in such terrible weather and an unfamiliar area. Besides, it was against the law. Maybe it was Hunter, checking up on her.
She sighed. Yeah, right. He was probably still mad at the way she treated him. Why couldn’t she open up her heart? Why couldn’t she be honest? His expectations weren’t high—they were perfectly normal, yet she still couldn’t meet them.
Grabbing the phone, she glanced at the screen, saw that it was indeed Hunter who had called. Smiling a little, she clicked onto the maps, bringing up her current location. She shouldn’t do this, punch in the hospital address while driving, but she didn’t want to stop. She knew she was so close…
Gracie glanced down for just a minute, her thumb flying as she entered the address. The location popped up, only a few miles from her destination, and she smiled with relief, her gaze returning to the road.
The horn startled her first, loud and insistent. She jerked on the steering wheel, shaking with fear when she realized she’d drifted into the other lane. Yanking on the wheel too hard, she sent the car into a spin and braked hard, but it was no use.
She slid off the wet road, down the embankment, the car flipping onto its side. She screamed, a loud popping noise sounded and the airbag deployed, smashing her in the face.
Knocking her unconscious.
Chapter Fourteen
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Hunter lifted his head, his vision blurry. He recognized Alex’s voice but he couldn’t quite focus on him. “What?” he croaked. He’d come into work because he was supposed to. He’d settled into his chair and sat staring at the top of his desk for the past hour.
Thinking of Gracie. Hoping like crazy she’d walk into the office like everything was normal.
But she hadn’t. Nothing was normal any longer.
Gracie was gone.
>
Alex shut Hunter’s office door. “You look like hell, man. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know where Gracie is.”
“What are you talking about?” Alex sat in the chair in front of Hunter’s desk. “She hasn’t come in yet?”
“You didn’t start her leave of absence early, did you?” It was the last thing he’d held on to, that one little kernel of hope that kept him going. He hadn’t called Alex on purpose, too fearful of the answer.
