It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,52

lunch break…”

I laughed my way out of my house, hoping that I did, indeed, have time for a lunch break.

Sadly, that didn’t happen.

Even more sadly, the reason that I wasn’t was because I was in the hospital.

***

At first, I hadn’t thought to call Piper at all.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted her there but because my head was hurting too badly to think about it.

Luckily, yesterday I’d changed all of my contact information at the PD. So, instead of my brother and sister being alerted that something had happened, Piper was instead.

My eyes were closed when I heard her worried voice break through the nausea that was rolling through my stomach.

“Room four, ma’am,” I heard a nurse reply to Piper’s frantic question.

Then I was opening my eyes in time to see Piper charging into the room like she owned the place and a worried expression that bordered on terrified pasted onto her beautiful face.

It didn’t suit her.

She shouldn’t be terrified.

Sadly, I’d just had an accident very similar to her father.

Another hit and run, actually.

Lucky for me, I’d skated by with a pounding headache, two stitches on my cheek thanks to some gravel being tossed up into my face, and what I thought might be road rash on my calf. Though, since my boots were singed and burned, they weren’t quite sure if it was a burn or what.

So I was going with road rash.

“Jonah!” she cried out. “Oh my God.”

I smiled at hearing her beautiful voice.

“I’m okay,” I promised. “I’m sorry I forgot to call you.”

She pressed a soft kiss to my hand that was now in both of hers.

“It’s okay,” she said. “You unfortunately had other things on your mind. But I can tell you that having a police officer come to our door when I was expecting you for lunch is definitely not something I want to repeat again.”

That sucked, too.

I’d been on my way home to eat lunch, had even called her to expect me, and hadn’t quite made it.

“What happened?” she whispered.

Before I could even open my mouth, Detective Rios, a veteran detective, walked into the room saying, “That’s what I want to know, too.”

I grumbled something unintelligible and Rios grinned.

Captain Morgan, my immediate supervisor, followed in on his tail.

“Get to talking, Crew,” Captain Morgan grumbled. “First day on the fuckin’ job, and you’re already getting hurt.”

I rolled my eyes.

Then I told them exactly what had happened.

“I was driving home for lunch. I’d called in that I was taking my break, and was swinging into Subway to grab my wife and me lunch. When I got it, I pulled out of the parking lot and headed south on Main Street. The light turned red, so I stopped. The person behind me didn’t stop. They hit me from behind. Pushed me right into oncoming traffic,” I said.

The memory of the accident still made my heart beat frantically in my chest, and the monitor that was connected to my chest by sticky pads and wires proved it.

“Eye witness accounts say that they were stopped well and truly behind you. It was only when that large trash truck was coming that they drove forward and hit your bike, pushing you out into oncoming traffic,” Rios said. “You weren’t rear-ended, you were pushed. Deliberately,” Rios said.

Piper gasped.

I squeezed her hand.

“I don’t know if that happened or not,” I admitted. “The trash truck was luckily able to avoid me, and for the most part, the bike was able to protect me.”

Thank God.

The bike had fallen almost the second that the person had hit me. I’d been tossed over the front of the handlebars, and from there I’d been pushed along with the bike. The gravel embedded in my uniform shirt and Kevlar vest proved it.

“You were right, though,” I found myself saying, eyes closing when a particular bad wave of pain rocked through my head. “That uniform saved my life.”

The tall fuckin’ stripper boots, paired with the reinforced tight pants, along with the reinforced, extra thick uniform shirt and the helmet? They saved my life.

I’d be in a much different place right now without those on.

“Good,” Captain Morgan said. “We’ll make sure to hang your uniform up as a reminder. You know, seeing as all of you bitched and moaned for so long yesterday when I handed out assignments.”

I grunted and opened my eyes when Rios again started asking questions.

“Is there anybody that you think might want to hurt you?” Rios pushed.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“Anybody that