“Who was the man that you said was here to see me?” I whispered quietly.
She cleaned my eyes with a warm wet rag, and I sighed in bliss as, for the first time since I’d woken up, my eyes were able to open slightly.
The first thing I saw when they were opened partially was the redheaded man across the room.
The same redheaded man that’d beaten the absolute piss out of me earlier.
I would’ve blanched had it been possible. As it was, my face likely already resembled a mass of bruises.
“Do you remember him, honey?” The nurse smiled wide at me. “He’s the man that saved your life.”
The door to the room opened, and my visitors returned.
At the front of the line, the sexy man that’d been the topic of my every thought since I’d seen him in the bar all those years ago.
My heart didn’t start racing upon seeing him, though.
My heart was racing for an altogether different reason.
“I don’t remember anything,” I lied, turning my gaze away from the man that’d lost the smile the moment that I’d said those words.
The nurse frowned. “What’s the last thing you can remember?”
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
I was not good at lying on the fly.
Even worse, with all the men in the room with me, one of them was bound to notice my blundering. Especially the one that knew me the best just a few short feet away with a coffee in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
The man in front of me, the redhead, looked at me with narrowed eyes, and I felt my heart start to leap against my rib cage.
Trick walked toward me. And that was when he finally saw the redhead that’d been partially covered by the curtain that the older woman was standing in front of shielding him from view.
“What do you remember?” Trick asked, setting the coffee on the bedside table next to me and then leaning his hip against my hospital bed.
I swallowed hard.
“I remember waking up in here,” I said, trying to use my sluggish brain. “I think that I could use another nap, though. Do you mind leaving me alone?”
Then, thinking that it just might work, I closed my eyes slowly as if I hadn’t actually wanted to do it purposefully, and pretended to be asleep.
“Is that common?” the chilling voice asked.
The one that would be a permanent inhabitant of my nightmares.
“Her falling asleep?” the nurse asked.
“No, the memory loss,” the bad guy asked.
I waited for her to answer while the nurse tugged something that was likely connected to my arm in some way.
“Oh, it’s very common with concussion patients for them to have memory loss.” The friendly nurse patted my man’s shoulder. I wanted to throat punch her.
“Is it permanent?” the redheaded asshole who’d put me in here asked.
“A patient with this severe of a concussion? Sometimes it’s a patient’s coping mechanism to forget. Other times it’s permanent. Only time will tell,” she said. “Now, only two visitors at a time. One of you will have to leave.”
“One of us doesn’t belong,” came Trick’s chilling voice. “What are you doing here, Sadler?”
There was a long silence.
Then, the redhead known as Sadler said, “I just wanted to see her. Make sure that she’s all right.”
I could practically feel his gaze burning a hole in me.
I opened my eyes just to see whether he was on his way out or not, and nearly flinched when I found his gaze directed upon mine.
Thank God that I couldn’t open my eyes all the way. If I could, I was sure that he would see the panic in my eyes.
“I’ll walk you out,” Trick said. “I have to go down to my bike and get a change of clothes anyway.”
Sadler continued to stare at me, as if he wanted to say something more, but chose not to.
He turned and left, and Trick took one last longing look my way before he, too, left the room.
My man escorted the asshole beater out of my room, and I was left with Zach only.
“You know,” Zach said softly. “Lying to your man about what you can and can’t remember isn’t very nice.”
If my head hadn’t hurt so bad, I would’ve panicked and turned my head toward Zach.
As it was, I could only roll it softly.
“That was the man that beat the holy hell out of me,” I found myself whispering.
Zach tensed. “You do remember that?”
I nodded, even though it pained me. “I know everything. That man’s voice was the one we heard on that phone.”
“You’re sure?” he sounded worried.
“I’m sure,” I croaked.
He stood up and walked toward the door.
“Why didn’t you want us to know right then and there?” he asked, his shoulders bunched in annoyance.
“Because I didn’t want him to shoot us,” I whispered. “He was willing to beat the shit out of me in front of a police station with cops coming out every couple of minutes. Why would I think him being in a hospital would be any different?”