Possessive? Like she was important to him? She knew in her heart it would’ve been a mistake to ask him who he was. The cop needed to think this was someone important to her, somebody she knew. If she expressed surprise or confusion, the stranger could be thrown out in an instant.
And whoever he was, he had come to her rescue. She felt more confident having him there, even if she didn’t know his name or who he was to her.
Before the cop had the chance to reply, his tall man with his deep, rumbling voice and lush, shoulder-length black hair snickered. “Did it ever occur to any of you to question the people who called in the accident?” he asked, folding his arms over that impossibly huge chest of his.
Her eyes widened. Was that who he was?
The cop cleared his throat, flipping through his notepad. “I, um, expected one of my colleagues to track you down—”
“No one has, and we’ve been waiting for two hours. It’s all really simple. We were going down the road, and we saw another car pursuing the car this girl was in. We saw them get run off the road. By the time we reached the spot, the second car was gone. We waited there until paramedics came and followed the ambulance to the hospital. She had nothing to do with the accident, and neither did her friend.”
It was enough to take her breath away. That was how it happened?
Poor Beth. Poor, scared Beth who’d probably been terrified, who’d probably tried so hard to keep them on the road, who hadn’t even screamed until the very end.
Everything got fuzzy again—and this time, darkness followed close behind.
Chapter Five
“How’s she doing?” Jace handed Sledge a much better cup of coffee than anything he’d had so far from a shop outside the hospital. It was like liquid gold, the difference staggering from the moment it touched his lips.
“I’m starting to wonder, to be honest with you,” Sledge muttered. “She passed out cold after I set that cop straight earlier. Now she’s sleeping in her room. I’m glad they’re taking such pains with her security, but this is ridiculous. They won’t even let me in.”
“If she’s sleeping, there’s no reason to be there,” Jace reasoned. They waited in a small lounge on Marnie’s floor, and except for the two of them, it was empty—a small miracle which Sledge was deeply grateful for. The last thing he needed after hours of worry was to overhear the worries of others.
“Just the same. If this is bigger than a random accident, which it seems like it is, anyone could find their way in there,” Sledge argued.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We don’t know the nature of the work the company was doing, and we won’t until either Marnie wakes up and decides to start talking or someone else from the company starts talking for her. Either way, we don’t know yet, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
It was never easy for Sledge to swallow back his frustration, especially when everyone around him seemed to be so dense, like they just didn’t get it at all. This girl needed them, and she needed them badly.
Jace must’ve felt the direction Sledge’s stormy thoughts had taken since he answered a question Sledge hadn’t voiced. “Listen. She’s going to fight this. She won’t want to accept that someone was trying to hurt her. You have to take your time.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I think it’s a lot different watching it happen from the outside and actually being in the middle of it. I know how this goes. When you care, when you truly care and the wolf truly cares, it’ll be torture knowing what’s best for her—at least, thinking you do—while she has her own truth that’s in direct opposition to yours.”
“There’s only one truth in this situation. Somebody deliberately ran her off the road and killed her friend. It just so happens that two other people they worked with have died very recently. I mean, what else is there?”
“You can’t make her see things through your eyes,” Jace murmured. “I know how frustrating this is when you see what you think is best for person and they can’t see it for themselves. It’s enough to make you want to strangle someone. I know. Have you met Kara?”
Sledge had to chuckle at this. It had almost been funny, the hoops she’d made Jace jump through when they were protecting her from an assassin who turned out to be her twin sister. She hadn’t been a fan of his, though at the heart of it was the fact that she simply didn’t want to admit she was in trouble and needed help. The girl had been terrified, even if she hadn’t wanted to believe her life was in danger.
“She’ll be afraid,” Sledge muttered before taking another pull from his coffee cup. It definitely helped him to think more clearly—well, that and the presence of his friend.
“Absolutely. No offense, but the fact that you barged in there and announced the circumstances around the accident… it couldn’t have been easy for her.”
He bristled. Jace made it sound like it was his fault. “That cop was badgering her.”
“No doubt, but still. It must’ve been shocking to hear that.”
Sledge grumbled mostly to himself since he didn’t exactly like to hear he’d made a mistake. And yes, it had been a mistake, even if it had seemed at the time like the only thing to do. His instincts had gotten in the way of his good sense. Of course, she would shut down after hearing she’d been run off the road.
Especially after losing two coworkers and the girl who’d been driving the car. Her car.
“Okay. I’ll be more careful from now on,” he grumbled. “I’ll try to be more gentle.”
Jace snickered. “Gentle? I don’t think that’s easy for any of us.”
“I never said I expected it to be easy,” Sledge chuckled, though there was little humor in it. How could he possibly be expected to make an actual joke right now?
The clock on the wall told him they were closing in on eight in the morning. Had he really been sitting here all these hours? He hadn’t even gone out to take a shower and change his clothes—mostly because his entire world had changed instead.
Now nothing mattered as much as the girl in the hospital room, her safety, her security, her sense of well-being. Somebody had tried to kill her, and he intended to make sure they weren’t successful.
“Sir?” A nurse stepped out from the hallway. “I told her you’ve been waiting, and she says you can come in now.”
Sledge was out of his chair in a heartbeat, practically barreling past the nurse to get to Marnie’s room. The door was open, and he was glad to see her sitting up and looking more alert than he’d seen her since this whole thing began.
She was so alert, in fact, that it looked like she was doing something on her tablet. It was plugged into the wall, and beside it on the bed was her phone. That was also plugged in and charging.
She barely glanced his way when he entered the room. “Thanks for coming in to see me,” she murmured, and the first thought that came to his mind was that she was treating him like an employee, like someone who she expected to get rid of pretty quickly.
If that was the case, she had another thing coming, but he held his tongue in favor of waiting to see what she had to say.
And she didn’t make him wait long to find out, either. “Sorry, I’m just trying to get a little work done here. People are going to want to know what happened. I’m sure they probably heard about it on the news by now, and it isn’t fair to them if I don’t say anything.”
He nodded, still silent. What was she playing at? Was this her way of working through the trauma? Had she shut down in some way? If he were in her place, he might do the same thing, though that didn’t make watching her do this any less uncomfortable.
It was jarring, seeing her shut off this way. She’d been so vulnerable earlier, and now? Except for the hospital gown and the bed, she might’ve been sitting in an office or boardroom.
Finally, she lowered the tablet and looked at him straight on. Her eyes were the strangest shade of blue, almost unreal. And they had a way of looking through him—not like he didn’t exist o
r wasn’t important but like she could see inside him. She was very intelligent, with a genius IQ, and clearly had a probing mind.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue last night—both times, come to think of it. Out in the woods and downstairs in the ER. It means a lot. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, I want you to let me know. It seems so empty compared to what you’ve done, but I’m a little mixed up right now. Please, don’t hesitate. Whatever you want.”
It was like he’d stepped into some parallel universe. Nothing she was saying made sense. “What? Do you think I want a reward or something? Is that why you called me in here, to give me what you think I want?”
Thick, dark lashes fluttered. Spots of color bloomed on her cheeks, which were otherwise pale and creamy. “Oh. Um. I guess? I mean, why are you here otherwise? I don’t even know your name.”
It was all so surreal, he almost laughed. So that was what she thought. “For one thing, my name is Sledge. As in sledgehammer. Though my last name isn’t Hammer, if you were wondering.”
She actually cracked a smile, which he decided to take as a good sign even if the rest of this conversation was beyond bizarre. “Okay, Sledge. Why are you here? Why have you stuck around all this time?”
“Because I wanted to make sure you were safe. It’s not in me, the ability to walk away. I can’t do that. None of us can.”
“Us? Who is us?”
He might already have said too much. “I work for a private investigations firm. We just happened to be driving down the road after finishing a job when you had your accident.”
A look of understanding washed over her face—though, to his surprise and discomfort, her expression hardened somewhat. “I see,” she murmured in a way that told him she saw nothing. Only what she wanted to see.
“Wait a second,” he began, but she cut him off.
“So, what? You thought I would hire you after what happened last night? What are you guys? Ambulance chasers? You follow cars that run people off the road, hoping to score your next client? Because if that’s the case, I’m not interested.”
She really was painfully smart. Too smart for her own good. That intelligence probably served well when it came to pushing people away. “No, that’s not who we are. Sorry, but we saw an accident and decided to stop to make sure the people involved were okay because it was the decent thing to do. And I’ve been waiting around to see to it that you’re all right—especially since I haven’t noticed anyone else coming to visit.”
He hadn’t intended that as a hit on her, something to hurt her feelings. Not that it mattered because he had hurt her. It was obvious from the way she flinched and looked away, out the window. Her hands trembled, her fingers tapping against the case to her tablet.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, disappointed in himself. This was the last sort of thing she needed to hear right now, especially if he wanted her to trust him, to open up.
“What are you sorry for? You’re right. There’s no one to come look after me, nobody who’d even care about what happened. Beth would’ve cared, but she’s…” She lifted her hand and ran it under both eyes before letting out a shaky sigh.
“I’m sorry about your friend. I am. I wish there was something we could’ve done, but it was too late by the time we got there.”
“They say she probably died right away,” Marnie whispered. “I guess that’s a blessing, anyway. I couldn’t stand the thought of her suffering.”
“The two of you were close?” Yes, this was the way. Ask her questions, get her to trust. Once she opened up, he would offer his protection again.
Her head bobbed up and down, her eyes still turned toward the window. There was nothing to see out there, not from this angle, just the tops of trees and a cloudy sky. Still, she stared out there like there was a lifeline to be had.
“She was like a sister to me,” she murmured. “My big sister. She protected me from a lot of things—I can’t even begin to tell you.”
He latched onto this. “What? Something like this happened before?”
She turned to him with a look of utter disgust, and he found himself wishing she’d kept looking out the window instead. “No. Nothing like this. She took care of me when we were in college together. I was so young, so green. Everybody treated me like a joke because I was so much younger, and then there were guys who didn’t treat me like a joke. They wanted to take advantage of me.”
Though years had passed since that time, there was no fighting the urge to rip the heads off those bastards, one by one. It was bad enough imagining her in danger now. Thinking of her at the age of fifteen at the mercy of young men five and even six years older than her made him absolutely livid.
“Anyway, Beth’s been my sister for years. My best friend. Probably my only real friend. It’s all been about business ever since school for both of us. Our whole lives, every day.”
This meant she probably didn’t have anyone in her life in a meaningful way. He told himself it was wrong to be glad about this, but he couldn’t help it. The wolf had an agenda of his own, one that tended to leak into Sledge’s consciousness at the worst possible times.
He pushed aside the impulse to dig deeper into her romantic history. “Marnie, please know that when I say this, I’m not trying to scare you. I’m not trying to influence you, either, so don’t accuse me of that. The facts are the facts. I know two other people from your company have died recently. Beth is the third in two weeks. Don’t you think there’s something strange about that? Doesn’t it make you wonder?”
“Wonder what?” she asked, shrugging slightly. “I mean, I have no idea why anyone would want to run us off the road, but I was asleep for most of the ride. Beth could’ve cut somebody off while I was sleeping. I don’t know.”
And she was supposed to be a genius. All the faith he might’ve put in her intelligence dissolved like cotton candy under a drop of water. “You can’t mean that.”
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t mean,” she warned. “I know what I’m talking about.”
“Marnie, what sort of things is your business involved in? Your company, what do you do? Who do you work with?”
If looks could kill, he had the feeling that even his wolf wouldn’t have been able to recover from it. “I’m not answering your questions. Who are you? Who are you really? Do you work for somebody else? A competitor, maybe? Are you a private investigator?”
He willed himself against reeling back from the utter bitterness in her voice. “No, it’s none of those things. I’m here because I want to help you, and I already told you what I do for a living. But I need a little honesty if I’m going to get you through this.”
“I never said I wanted any help! You’ve inserted yourself into my life, and now you’re asking personal questions. I don’t know the first thing about you or your private investigations firm.” The way she said, it sounded like a curse. Something dirty or vile.
“When are you going to wake up and realize somebody wants you dead?”
He shouldn’t have said it. He knew it even as it came out of his mouth—no, even earlier than that. He knew it before the words came out, when his brain formed them. He knew it even as his tongue moved that this was the wrong thing to say.
But he’d said it anyway, and what was his reward? A look of utter shock and disgust. He deserved it. He deserved much more than that.
“Get out.” She thrust her pointer finger toward the door. “Out. I want you gone.”
“Marnie—”
“And I never gave you permission to call me by my first name. My name is Miss Harris to you. Get out of here.” There was a core of steel in her center, and it showed itself in her voice as she ordered him out. This was a woman accustomed to having her way. When she spoke, people listened.
He wasn’t about to fight, especially when she could call in a nurse—or worse, security—at any time. He left the room, stalking down the hall and back out to the lounge area where Jace waited.
One loo
k at what had to be Sledge’s furious expression must’ve explained quite a lot since Jace grimaced. “It went that well?” he asked, his voice heavy with sympathy.
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t sound like you were laughing at me.”
“I’m not laughing. Believe me. I don’t see anything funny about this. Yes, I know what it means to deal with a willful woman who refuses to see reason.”
“Yeah, that’s her. She refuses to see reason.” An idea occurred to him, and he turned to Jace. “Maybe she has a brain injury?”
“Her scans are all clear. Don’t worry. Hawk already found a way into the system.” He cleared his throat with a knowing look. Naturally, their resident hacker was all over this.
“I never thought I would be disappointed to find out somebody didn’t have an injury,” he admitted, snickering at himself.
“Keep in mind she’s in turmoil. I know I don’t need to tell you this, but it bears reminding. She’s been through so much already. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to find out somebody wants them dead, for any reason. This is going to take a little bit of time and a lot of patience. Are you sure you have the patience to do this?”
“No, I’m not,” Sledge admitted. “Something tells me it doesn’t matter because I’m stuck. There’s no getting away.”
“I’m afraid you’re probably right,” Jace agreed.
Chapter Six
The second a doctor stepped through the door, Marnie practically jumped down his throat. “When can I get out of here?” she asked in the sweetest voice she could possibly manage—which, under the circumstances, she knew wasn’t very sweet at all. Then again, she wasn’t in a very sweet mood, and acting had never been her strong suit.
Ever since that idiot came in and tried to sell her his security services, she’d been in a foul mood. The nerve of some people. Taking advantage of somebody in a situation like hers all in the name of stirring up business. She had half a mind to file a complaint with… whoever was in charge of things like that.
Wolf Shield Investigations: Boxset Page 53