Her father stared down at her, disapproving. “Were you taking illegal substances?”
Melanie barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Of course, her father’s train of thought would lead there.
Her mother stifled a gasp. “Oh, Melanie.”
“That’s not it at all.” Rage simmered under the surface. “I just want to get out of here.” Who knew how long she’d been here. If it’d been for any length of time and the hospital took her blood, they’d know by now if anything was abnormal. Clearly no one had alerted her parents, and that had to count for something.
“Your release papers haven’t come yet,” her father’s voice rumbled.
She pushed the blankets off and noticed for the first time that she was in a hospital gown. “Where are my clothes?”
She spotted her personal items in a bag, the clothes inside sopping wet. She groaned. Maybe the gift shop would have some sweats she could buy.
Aunt Bernie went over to one of the chairs and pulled out some fresh clothes from a duffle. “I thought you might need these.” She held up a pair of hideous peach sweats. It wasn’t the most attractive clothing, looking to have come from the back of Aunt Bernie’s closet, but they were dry and warm.
Melanie smiled gratefully and took them. She quickly pulled the curtain around her bed, effectively forcing her family to take a few steps back and give her some space.
“Honestly, Melanie,” her mother huffed. “I don’t see what the big rush is. You were in a major accident; you need to remain here. Nathan is being taken care of, so I don’t understand what the hurry is all about.”
Her mother might not understand, but her father certainly did. “You aren’t going to find that Joel character,” he said in a stern voice.
Melanie heard her mother’s sharp inhalation. “You’re going to seek him out? Why? Who is this young man?”
There was no point lying now. “I want to make sure he’s okay.” She was getting antsy sitting here. She had to see him. She wanted to touch him, make sure he didn’t have any scrapes or bruises. She wanted to breathe him in and feel his arms around her. She wanted it with a burning passion. Maybe she had hit her head on something, what else could be the cause of wanting to see him so badly?
She recalled the accident … thinking she was going to die, calling out to him, hearing him respond—but that wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. He’d been pulled from the car, so how could she have heard him as clearly as she’d thought?
“He nearly got you killed,” her father’s voice boomed, interrupting her thoughts. “And you want to make sure he’s all right? You need to find him to get his insurance and lawyer information. You need to press charges for reckless driving. I want a restraining order on this man.”
Once she was dressed in her aunt’s peach-colored sweat suit, she shoved the curtain aside and shot her father a dark look. “For fuck’s sake, Pa, would you listen to me when I tell you it wasn’t his fault?”
Her parents stared at her as if she’d sprouted another head.
“What did you just say to your father?” Ma asked in a small voice.
Heat rushed to Melanie’s cheeks, but she vowed not to let them cow her. She was done being coddled. They were so worried something bad would happen to her after Nathan’s addiction, they’d done everything they could to keep her safe and protected. Then Alexander had happened and her parents had tightened that vise of protection. She hadn’t realized until that moment how suffocating it was.
“I’m sorry.” She apologized for her temper, but she wasn’t going to stay in the hospital room any longer. “But I know what happened, and having you guys put the blame on the wrong person is aggravating me, especially someone as nice as Joel. Now if you could wait here for my release papers while I get out of this stifling room, I’d really appreciate it.”
She turned from their startled faces and left before they could recover from their shock.
Now where did she even begin to look for Joel?
The hallway was filled with nurses, doctors, and families spilling out of patient rooms. A staff member gazed at her patient ID bracelet and gave her a long look, Melanie tried her best to appear like she wasn’t trying to flee.
Pretend you’re going to stretch your legs, or better yet, use the bathroom.
Her bathroom ploy was wrecked when she came upon the restroom but still hadn’t seen any sign of Joel. She continued down the hall, her heart picking up speed as she neared the end.
Had he left? Was he released well before she even woke up and didn’t want to stick around?
No.
He promised he wouldn’t leave, and she’d seen that determined glint in his eye. He was around. She could feel it.
But doubt niggled in the back of her mind. What if this heat in her chest was just some side effect from a drug they’d given her and she needed to get back to her room before she dropped dead?
A hand on her shoulder stopped her cold.
“Looking for someone?” That delicious voice traveled down her spine.
Melanie spun around.
Joel’s smiling face greeted her and instantly her hands went to her mouth.
“What happened to your face?”
Joel tenderly touched the black eye that was starting to spread along his cheekbone. “I punched the guy who pulled me from the car and in return got coldcocked. Apparently I was ‘hysterical’ when the Good Samaritan was trying to save me from the wreck.”
“So he punched you?”
Joel shrugged. “I guess I was causing more harm than good conscious, so he took me out.” He mimicked getting hit in the face.
Sympathy swelled in her chest, and at that moment she was so happy to see him she didn’t care that they were in the middle of the ER, or that her family was right down the hall, or that they had an audience. She pulled Joel to her and kissed him for everything she was worth.
The flame in her chest sparked, sending tendrils of heat down her entire body. Her nipples perked, her stomach flipped, and her sex clenched.
She came alive when his lips were on hers.
What intentionally started out as an I’m-so-glad-you’re-all-right kiss quickly turned into an I-want-you-now kiss as Joel pulled her flush to his hot body. His tongue ravaged her mouth.
Someone cleared their throat.
They broke apart and Melanie found her father staring at them, his eyes dark with disapproval. Her mother was peeking around him, eyes wide. There was no sign of Aunt Bernie, who must’ve volunteered to stay behind for the release papers. Behind her parents, farther down the hallway but still in viewing range, were four men who looked suspiciously like Joel and a woman with lighter hair but the same midnight eyes.
Melanie blushed to the roots of her hair and quickly pushed away from Joel, who did nothing but grin down at her, not a care in the world that they’d pretty much made out in front of their families.
“The doctor wants to see you before you are released,” her father growled. He cast Joel a murderous look. Joel swallowed.
Melanie pushed her parents in front of her, trying to get them into her hospital room as quickly as possible. A few nurses and doctors caught her eye; some shook their heads at her public display of affection while others gave her blatant winks and knowing smiles.
“I’ll be out in a second,” she told Joel before shoving her parents completely into her room and shutting the door. She heard Joel chuckle, followed by a different muffled voice asking who she was and why Joel kept scoring all the blondes.
Chapter 15
It had taken all of Melanie’s finesse and patience to get away from her parents once she was released from the hospital and questioned by the police about the accident.
It was now nearly four o’clock in the morning and Melanie’s eyes were burning from lack of sleep. She sat in the passenger’s seat of a small sedan with Joel behind the wheel again. Apparently, his mother had left him their extra car. Joel bemoaned the loss of his truck as he started the rusted
piece of metal. The car shook violently when they idled at red lights, and the heater seemed to emit a strange smell, but Joel conceded it was better than nothing, and would get them from point A to point B safely.
Melanie questioned the safety part but figured Mrs. Kegler wouldn’t lend him a piece of crap after he’d just been in a car accident.
As for their destination, Melanie hadn’t thought that far ahead or what going home with Joel might imply. All she knew was that she didn’t want to go home with her family. She couldn’t deal with any more nagging about her poor choices in men. She could live without the angry stares and the head shakes of disappointment for at least a few hours.
“We’re here.” Joel’s voice jolted Melanie. The car was stopped and they were on the side of the road in a residential area.
She must’ve dozed off.
She rubbed her eyes and unbuckled her seat belt, glad that it actually released when it was supposed to. She stepped out and took in the small community of townhouses.
Joel was already heading up the steps of the one they’d parked in front of. Melanie followed after him. She would never have guessed that Joel lived somewhere like this. It was so … quaint.
The homes alternated in color schemes from pale blue to green to orange then yellow. Joel lucked out with a blue one. She wondered if that was on purpose. She stepped into the small entryway, where there was a little closet on the right and a few stairs leading to the first floor landing, which consisted of a living room and kitchen.
She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face when she ascended the stairs and got her first good look at Joel’s living room. An old Star Wars Episode IV poster was framed and hung on the wall, right next to a Tron Legacy poster. The TV was the biggest she’d ever seen and the entertainment cabinet was filled with every video game console she could think of. Next to the TV were two media shelves, one filled with DVDs, another with video games. Equipment for the game ‘Rock Band’ was shoved in a nearby corner.
On the coffee table was an upside down laptop, its guts looking as if they’d exploded all over the place.
Joel left her to bypass the living room and head to the kitchen. “You want anything?”
“Water, please,” she said over her shoulder as she marveled at the Samurai sword Joel had propped up in the corner with all the Rock Band guitars and drums.
“Here you are.”
She jumped. She hadn’t even heard him come up behind her. She took the water. “Thanks.” She nudged the Rock Band equipment. “I haven’t played this in years.”
Joel’s eyes widened. “You play?”
Melanie sipped her water and smiled at him. “Only the country edition, but yeah.”
Joel laughed. “I should have known. Country.” He gave a full body shake while making a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.
Melanie rolled her eyes and made her way over to the media shelf holding his video games. “Haven’t played this in a while either.” She took one of the games— this came with fond memories.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Joel came around her, snatching the game and shaking his head in disbelief. “There’s no way you played and liked CoD.”
“Cod?”
“Call of Duty,” Joel supplied helpfully, holding up the video game next to his face.
Melanie placed the hand not holding her water on her hip. “Why do you think I wouldn’t like it?”
Joel looked at her as if the answer were simple. “Because you like country. Country and shooting things don’t go together … ”
Melanie snatched the video game right back from him. “I’ll have you know, when my family and I used to live in Phelan we shot things almost every weekend. I was pretty good at it, too, for your information. I used to play this all the time with Nathan and his buddies.”
Joel stared.
Melanie dropped his gaze; suddenly uncomfortable, she busied herself with putting the DVD back in its proper place.
Her gaze snagged on a game about bridges.
The bridge … that chip.
Melanie had almost forgotten about it because of the accident.
Suddenly she wasn’t so sure it was an accident anymore.
Could it be possible she was wrong about Joel? Could he have done something so horrible that someone wanted him dead?
She put her glass of water down. She spun around, arms crossed, and narrowed her eyes at him. “Who’s trying to kill you?”
• • •
Joel hadn’t expected the question. One second he was staring at Melanie in awe and the next her whole demeanor shifted to nothing but business. There was no denying it any longer. Melanie was his Mirror Mate. He’d tried to push it from his thoughts as best he could, but what happened on that bridge lined up with everything Felix and Sydney had told them about the bonding process. The problem now was that he hadn’t even been willing to admit she was his Mirror Mate and suddenly they were bonded. That was like going from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. He didn’t know what to do with a Mirror Mate—not to mention a fully bonded Mirror Mate.
How the hell his life got so complicated, he’d never know.
But he had something more important than sorting out what to do about their bonded relationship status without involving an emotional investment, because right now Melanie’s expression was no longer open. Her eyes were closed off, her stance hostile as she demanded to know who’d attacked them.
He tried to buy himself more time. “What?”
She raised her brows in expectation. “Our accident wasn’t an accident. At least I don’t think it was. Who’s after you? And why? What’d you do?”
“What makes you think I did anything?” he asked in mock outrage. He didn’t like where this questioning was leading, specifically because it was leading him away from the conversation he knew they really needed to be having. The one about how they’d bonded during the accident and Melanie needed to understand that whatever was happening between them aside, her powers were no longer what they were before.
He also didn’t want to alarm her with the fact that the man who had shown up at her work that first night they’d met and who had shown up again at the community center had been at the wreck. Melanie had enough to worry about with one stalker ex-boyfriend—she didn’t need the added stress of knowing Man in the Suit, as Joel was starting to refer to him now, was following her.
Or, more likely, following him.
It was possible they weren’t after Melanie at all. What if they were just after Joel and the guild? At every instance when he’d seen the man, Melanie was present, sure, but Man in the Suit was also there when she wasn’t. Like the time the guild had spotted him outside Syd’s clinic. Merrick had called a halt to the group’s plan to follow him, calling the situation “fishy.” “No one stands there waiting to be captured,” Merrick had said. “This feels like a set up.”
Set up or not, the man hadn’t waited around long, and with one final smirk in their direction he’d sauntered off, as if his only mission was to let the guild know that he was watching them. If Joel had to fathom a guess, he’d say that Man in the Suit had been toying with them, getting them riled up so that their nerves would eventually fray from being on end too long.
Joel’s mind went back a few hours to the accident and the man who’d pulled him from the car. He could have sworn it was the same guy, minus the suit.
That had also been partially why Joel had punched him.
“Are you all right?” She reached out and cupped his face.
He winced despite Melanie’s care with his eye. She released him instantly. “I’m going to get you some ice for that.”
He stared at her peach sweat suit body as she moved into the kitchen, unsure how the hell he’d avoided that whole conversation without even trying.
And Mom told me spacing out on conversations with women would never get me anywhere.
He gave himself a firm shake and took a seat at the small table in the kitchen.
“Was it safe for you to have been driving?” Melanie asked as she took one of his ice packs and wrapped it in a towel.
“I was fine to drive.” He took the compress and held it to his eye. “I didn’t have a concussion or anything. It was a punch to the face, and I’ve had lots of those.”
Melanie frowned.
“I’m not really looking forward to tomorrow though, I’m probably going to have severe whiplash.” With his free hand he felt the back of his neck; it was a little tight, but it’d be a million times worse after he slept.
Melanie cautiously reached up and felt her own neck.
“How’s it feeling?” he asked.
“A little sore.”
He smiled. “That’s not what I meant.” Then in a more serious voice, “I meant did you have any problems at the hospital, you know, any flare ups?”
Understanding dawned. “I was fine,” she said curtly.
Joel gently put down his ice pack. “Melanie, we need to talk about what happened between us in that bay.”
Her expression grew weary. “I don’t really feel like talking about it.”
He drew back in surprise. “Then why did you come home with me? I thought you would want to discuss everything that’s happened, all the changes.”
He could see her cheeks begin to flush in the profile view. “I wanted to get away from my family. I—”
He walked up to her and gingerly turned her to face him. He had to tread carefully; he could sense the flight or fight response warring within her. He knew she wanted to be here, but if he pushed too hard, she’d leave, and there was no way he was going to let that happen.
“You … ?” he prompted.
She tilted her head up to look him right in the eye and his breath caught. The burning inside his chest intensified and his whole body tensed with want.
“I wanted to be near you,” she said softly.
He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger near the side of her face, teasing her skin. Did she already suspect what had happened between them on the bridge?
She shivered visibly, and through the heavy material of the sweatshirt he could make out her stiffened nipples.
Locked Out of Love Page 10