I was gonna look into it, but she only told me yesterday, and then I got distracted.”
“And you reckon the crash is connected? That she had help leaving the road?”
“Maybe.” Nick punched the seat beside him and would have done it again if Emmy hadn’t grabbed his hand. “Fuck. I thought she’d be safe in my house.”
“Well, she would have been if she’d stayed in it. Why’d she leave?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Emmy gave his hand a squeeze, which fucking hurt. “I’m gonna make some calls. Don’t hit anything else, yeah? I don’t want to deal with any more injuries tonight.”
Nick tried to blank everything out as he waited, but all he could think of was last night with Lara. One night. One fucking night was all he got. Heaven help the man who pulled Lara out of the car if he’d had something to do with this, because Nick wasn’t about to let him walk away.
Emmy came back half an hour later and curled into his side in a silent show of support.
“Things are happening,” she whispered.
“Good.”
Seconds turned into minutes, and almost an hour passed before a doctor pushed through the double doors leading to the ER. Nick tried to read the expression on his face but got nothing.
“Family of Lara Reynolds?”
“That’s me.” He struggled to his feet. “How is she?”
“Not as bad as we first feared. We’ve scanned her brain, X-rayed her, and stitched up a couple of cuts, but the worst damage appears to be a broken finger.”
“Is she awake?”
“She came round briefly, but now she’s asleep again. Best that she rests.”
“Thank goodness.” Nick sagged back in the chair, relief spreading through him like a new dawn. “Can I see her?”
The doctor gave a small smile. “Just one of you.”
Emmy pushed Nick forward. “I’ll wait here.”
Lara lay in a private room, sleeping. Apart from the cut on her temple and the constant beeping of the machines, she could almost have been resting peacefully after a long day. Nick dragged a chair to her bedside and held her good hand as he explained just how pointless his life would be without her in it. Could she hear him as he poured his heart out?
If not, he’d just have to tell her again later, wouldn’t he?
The sun had risen by the time Emmy meandered in with a fresh cup of coffee for him. He grabbed the foul-tasting brew and slugged half of it back.
“How’d you get in here?”
She shrugged. “Got lost on the way to the bathroom. You okay?”
“I’m better than I was a few hours ago.”
“I’ll be in the corridor if you need anything.”
Nick only needed one thing—for Lara to wake up. And an hour later, he got his wish. The beeping from the heart monitor quickened, and her eyelids fluttered open.
“Baby, I missed you.”
Her eyes struggled to focus, but he saw the moment they did. And heard it.
“Get out!”
“Huh?”
“Get out! Get away from me!” She snatched her hand from his and wriggled to the other side of the bed. “I never want to see you again.”
“What?”
Lara’s heart may have been racing, but Nick’s had frozen. Why wouldn’t she look at him? He tried to reach out for her as she broke down in tears, but she slapped at his hand.
“I hate you.”
A nurse ran in, no doubt alerted by the ear-splitting chorus from the monitors. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. She just woke up and started yelling at me.”
“Please make him go,” Lara begged the nurse.
“Baby, don’t do this.”
The nurse parked herself in front of him. “I think you need to go.”
Nick tried to reason with the woman. “She’s my girlfriend. I need to make sure she’s all right.”
“At the moment, you seem to be the reason she isn’t all right. I have to ask you to leave.”
“But—”
“Now, sir.”
With one last look at a sobbing Lara, Nick shuffled out of the room. But he left his heart behind, torn from his chest and clasped in her hands. What had happened in there?
Emmy looked up at him with big violet eyes from her seat in the hallway. “What was all the shouting?”
“I have no idea. The only thing I know is that she doesn’t want me there.”
“But when you left her at home earlier, I thought everything was going fine?”
“It was better than fine. We were finally where I’ve wanted to be for months. I’d even begun to think I might have a chance with her.”
“Maybe it was the bang on the head. Trauma like that