Wrapping a hand around her knee, he squeezed. “You okay?”
“Yes. That was a close call.” Luckily, he hadn’t been driving recklessly or speeding. If he had, he might have lost it and the two of them could’ve been badly injured. Never once had he driven his sled like an asshole while she had been on the back. He acted as if he was hauling around precious cargo.
Maybe to him, he considered her just that.
Was that another sign? Was she stressing out about this decision more than she should be? Maybe her answer sat right in front of her nose.
“No shit,” her answer muttered.
Speaking of shit, Tessa would be checking her panties once she got home.
“Maybe we should head back,” he suggested. “Christ, I think I lost a few years of my life in those few seconds.”
It was probably that time, anyway. She could also use a couple of hours of sleep before she needed to get Dyna up for the day. These late nights had her dragging so much she was surprised she didn’t have brush burn on her ass.
“You ready to go back?” He had his head turned enough so she could catch his question before the wind stole that, too.
“Sure, I—”
She gasped as the bike swerved sharply again.
To their right, the rest of Bambi’s family leaped off the bank and onto the roadway, some scrambling to keep their footing on the pavement as they bolted.
Easy did his best to keep from striking any of them. Unfortunately his best wasn’t good enough. The back wheel began to slide sideways as he locked up the brakes to avoid plowing into one of the deer, now no longer running, but staring at them while caught in the bike’s headlight.
She screamed as something slammed into them from the side.
The Harley began to fall and so did they.
Tessa blinked.
“Don’t fuckin’ move, Tess. Don’t fuckin’ move! Jesus fuckin’ Christ!”
Even over the ringing in her ears, she heard a crunching under moving feet.
Where was she?
How did she get there?
Why did every damn inch of her body hurt? Why had she been sleeping in such an awkward position in the first place, causing sharp pains to shoot up her arm?
When Easy came out of the dark to stand over her, she realized what had happened.
She was not in her bed. She hadn’t slept wrong. Fuck no. They had wrecked.
The deer had caused it.
Those damn deer!
Holy fuck!
Easy squatted next to her. She blinked her eyes to clear the blurriness but it didn’t help much. Blurry or not, she could see blood on his face. His jeans were torn. The skin on his right arm bloody and raw, maybe even chunks of flesh missing.
Road rash.
She’d only heard about it and had never seen it.
Until now.
She hoped she never saw it again.
“You okay?” she managed to ask once she could replenish the oxygen in her depleted lungs.
“Don’t matter. What hurts?” He looked panicked. Even scared.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“Everything,” she admitted truthfully. She mentally examined her body from head to toe, trying to figure out what hurt the most. “My arm is killing me… My head’s pounding… The list is too long.” Was she slurring her words, too?
“I called 911. Ambulance is on its way. Just don’t fuckin’ move.”
She swallowed. “You shouldn’t have called. Everyone will find out—”
“Don’t give a fuck if they do, Tess! You’re hurt. You need a goddamn ambulance.”
“Your bike.”
“Fuck my bike.”
“The deer.”
“Fuck the deer. ‘Specially the one that plowed right into us and knocked us over. Thank fuck you got tossed far enough to land where you did and not on the fuckin’ pavement.”
Where was she if she wasn’t on the road?
She blinked and tried to lift her head.
“Don’t move,” he ordered.
“You moved.”
“‘Cause I wanted to check on you.”
Waves of dizziness overcame her and she quickly put her head back on the ground. Yes, ground. She now realized she landed in dirt or brush or leaves or something. Possibly a ditch.
“You’re more important than the deer or my sled.”
Was him admitting that another sign?
“Think your arm’s fuckin’ broken. It looks… wrong. Fuck!” His hair was now hanging loose around his face and she could see the whites of his eyes even in the dark. He yanked the bandana he wore over his mouth when he rode free from around his neck and pressed it gently to her temple. “Goddamn it.”
She wiggled her toes in her boots. “I can move my toes… and my fingers.” At least on the hand attached to the arm not in extreme pain. If it truly was broken, she hoped it wasn’t shattered and was a clean break.
“Don’t move anything!” he shouted.
She winced. “Okay, don’t shout… That makes my head hurt worse.”
“Yeah, you got a huge fuckin’ knot on the side of it.”
“Where did you land?”
“In the middle of the road, but I rolled as best I could. Thank fuck I had slowed down before impact. We should butcher that goddamn motherfuckin’ deer.”