didn’t comment; he merely grunted and lowered his head to peer at CJ. She was as still as death in his arms, her face much prettier in repose without her defenses tightening her features. But she was so pale.
“Did you see who was in the pickup?” Decker asked as he slid into the driver’s seat a moment later and started the engine.
“No,” Mac admitted grimly as the man steered them out of the parking lot. “You?”
“No. It all happened too fast,” Decker said unhappily. “Bricker shouted, I started to turn, and then you two were flying through the air and he was disappearing under the pickup, and then the pickup was gone.” He was silent for a minute and then added, “It was red. That’s all I saw.”
Mac hadn’t even seen that, so could hardly complain that Decker hadn’t got the license plate.
“I guess this means whoever set the fire knows you survived it.”
Mac glanced toward Decker with surprise. “You think that truck deliberately tried to hit us?”
“Well, it sure as hell was no accident,” Decker said grimly. “The guy came out of nowhere going eighty. No one goes eighty in a parking lot.”
“Right,” Mac said, thinking he must have sustained a little brain damage too if he hadn’t considered that for himself. Sighing, he turned his gaze back down to CJ. She’d only been hurt because she was with him. And the hell of it was, he had no idea who was trying to kill him.
“I’ll take care of Bricker and then bring back blood for you,” Decker said as he turned into the hospital parking lot moments later.
“Right,” Mac said, looking around impatiently as Decker drove them to the emergency entrance.
“Wait!” Decker barked, shifting into Park and jumping out of the car when Mac opened his door and got out with CJ in his arms.
“Put this on when you have the chance,” Decker said as he yanked his T-shirt off and draped it over Mac’s shoulders to hide his back. “It’ll save you having to wipe the minds of the entire emergency room.” He took a moment to tuck the top of the T-shirt into the back of the neckline of Mac’s own ruined T-shirt and then stepped back. “I’ll be back as quick as I can.”
“Thanks,” Mac said, and hurried toward the hospital’s emergency doors.
He had been prepared to take control of the first emergency room worker he spotted and make them help CJ, but it wasn’t necessary. The moment Mac strode into the busy waiting area with CJ in his arms, people came rushing to his side. It was the blood pouring from her forehead and her lack of consciousness that caused the stir, he supposed. Head wounds were a serious business and it apparently put her at the top of the queue for assistance.
“What happened?” the first woman to reach him asked, lifting CJ’s eyelids to peer at her eyes even as she ushered him quickly through the milling people waiting to be seen.
“Hit-and-run,” Mac said grimly as he was led through a pair of double doors to a hall that led off in three directions. A woman pushing a wheelchair rushed up, but he ignored the chair and gave the woman a mental push to make her leave him alone as the first woman led him to a tiny room with a gurney. Mac carefully laid CJ on it. It was only when he straightened and glanced around that he realized that others had joined them. There were now four people in the small room besides CJ and himself: a doctor and three nurses.
Mac watched with concern as they converged on her, sure someone would try to make him leave. He prepared himself to take control of their minds and prevent it if necessary. He wasn’t leaving CJ. She was his life mate. If worse came to worst and it looked like her life was in danger, he would turn her on the spot. Without her permission. That was something that was considered a no-no to his kind except in emergency situations, but if this head wound proved to be life-threatening, it would pass the emergency situation requirements. Actually, it would almost be a relief if he had to, Mac acknowledged. He would have to explain everything to her much more swiftly, of course, but once she was turned it would be easier to claim her as his life mate.
He’d barely had the thought when he heard the doctor say, “She’s regaining consciousness.”
“Understand, Ms.