Stoking the Embers (New Adult Romantic Suspense): The Complete Series

by Johnson, Leslie

  Gage is treating a broken leg, nothing life threatening. I look around. Looks like all the other victims are being taken care of. I stay with Gage.

  “You okay?” Gage asks, tipping his chin toward my leg.

  “I’ll need to get sewn up. Did you see what happened? One minute we were working the wreck and the next it’s all to hell.”

  “It was crazy,” Gage says, shaking his head, his mouth a thin line of disgust. “Big SUV comes slamming down the hill, totally out of control. It hits the beer truck and, man, it went straight for you. Bill pushed you out of the way and got run down. Both sets of driver’s side wheels got him. I can’t believe he’s still alive.”

  I shake my head. Bill pushed me out of the direct path of the SUV? Yes. I remember hurtling forward. But damn, Bill paid a huge price for saving me.

  When I can finally speak, I say, “I think his bullet proof vest may have saved his life. Damn tires hit him high.” I motion toward my abdomen and Gage nods. “Man, I hope they got him to surgery in time.”

  Gage stands as another set of paramedics take over and get his victim into their waiting ambulance. “Yes, but he took the brunt of the impact with his chest and hip. I don’t know. It looks pretty bad.” I think about my friend and how we always give each other such a hard time. “Shit. I guess I can’t take that penalty for unnecessary roughness against him this fall at the football game.”

  Gage barks out a quick laugh. “That’s right. And you’ll have to let him pretend to tackle you.”

  “Did they catch the SUV?”

  Gage shrugs. “Don’t know, been a little busy.”

  “True dat, my brother.” I stand and the burning in my leg takes on a life of its own.

  Gage shoulders me up, giving me something to lean on. About that time, Beth comes running up to us and Gage moves toward her so suddenly I teeter sideways and nearly fall on my ass. I don’t blame him. She looks good in her little shorts and a blouse that’s pulled down to show her shoulders. Sweat is pouring down her face and neck, trickling down her chest. Her cheeks are pink from excitement and exertion.

  “Oh my god, I can’t believe all that just happened.” She looks from me to Gage and her mouth drops open. “I remember you. You brought Steph home the other day. You’re…”

  “Gage.”

  She smiles and I’m sure Gage’s dick just fainted in his pants. “Yes. I’m Beth.”

  “Uh, hello. Injured person over here.” I can’t stop myself. I have to give them hell. Gage jumps back into reality and shoulders me up again.

  “Yeah,” he says to Beth. “Let’s get this old man to the hospital.”

  Chapter 9 – Steph

  “Steph! Steph!” I hear her before I see her. Beth’s running up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Shit. Now what?

  Bursting through the door, and out of breath, Beth face is bright red and her hair is glued to her face and neck from the sweat pouring off her. Her blouse, her favorite off-the-shoulder peasant one, is stained with blood.

  “Oh my god, Beth. What happened? Are you hurt?” I grab her hand and pull her after me into the kitchen, plunking her down in a chair. I grab paper towels and run them under cold water. I press them to her forehead and place another bunch around her neck. I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and make her drink.

  “Not mine.”

  I’m inspecting her for cuts when what she said registers. The blood isn’t hers? I pull up another chair and sit beside her.

  She holds up a finger and takes another long drink. I wait impatiently, my knee bouncing up and down in a frantic rhythm. She drains the bottle and I jump up to get her another one.

  “There was a big accident and–”

  “You?” I interrupt her.

  She shakes her head and takes a huge breath. By the time it’s out, her breathing is more normal. She begins again.

  “I was inside the QuickyMart when there was this terrible crash. I ran outside and a little car was smashed under a beer truck. I called 911 and tried to help the woman in the little car.” Beth shuddered and goosebumps raised on her arms. “Steph. She ended up dying before they could cut her out. I just held her hand through the window until help came.”

  I had a flashback of the accident scene I helped out with that fate filled day I met Ken. I got up and wet more paper towels and began cleaning the blood off her arms.

  “Stephanie.” Beth’s hands covered mine. “That’s not all. Sit down and listen.”

  She looks so serious that I do as she says, the fingers of dread tracing a path up my spine.

  “While all the men were working the accident, a huge SUV came barreling through the crowd, hitting everyone in its path. Steph, he’s okay, just a little hurt, but Ken was one of the people hit.”

  I keep breathing. She said only a little hurt. I almost laugh because he’s such a baby when it comes to pain. The time I spanked him, he whined like a puppy.

  “But he’s okay?” I need to hear her say it again.

  She nods and takes another sip of water. “He’s so lucky, Steph. I witnessed the entire thing. I was back on the curb by then, but there were people everywhere. The SUV comes roaring through—like he still had his foot pressed all the way on the gas. It hits the beer truck and then just keeps going. Ken had been talking to a policeman and was walking away. The policeman saw the SUV and pushed Ken out of the way.” Beth’s face crumbles at the memory. “Steph, that SUV ran that policeman down. I heard it and saw it. Then it hit a few more people and kept going. Just kept going…” she trails off.

  “Where did this blood come from?”

  She looks down at herself. “A mixture. The woman smashed beneath the beer truck and a little old lady who was grazed by the SUV. She had a cut on her arm and I used my scarf to bandage it.”

  “But you’re not hurt?”

  “No, I’m fine. Just a little shaky.”

  I hesitate just a moment before asking. “Where’s Ken?”

  “Probably still in the ER. They put him in an ambulance. He’ll need stitches for sure on his leg. Might have a fracture.” Beth smiled at me. “You know how we’ve laughed about him being a big baby? He wasn’t today. He got hit by that SUV, jumped up and started helping the police officer. Then he limped over to me, brought bandages and stuff and helped me help her. Then he limped around helping everyone else who needed help. Blood pouring down his leg and he didn’t stop until everyone was taken care of.”

  Pride swells in me. Ken is the most wonderful man I’ve ever met. The sexiest. The most beautiful. The strongest. Most caring. Driven. Funny.

  “Do you think he still wants me?” I whisper to Beth, my heart pounding so hard I can feel the pulse of it in my ears.

  Beth stands. “Give me five minutes to take a shower and get these clothes off, then we’ll find out. We’re going to the hospital, sister.”

  I stand with her. Yes, by damn we are going to the hospital. I’m tired of being afraid and I’m very tired of not asking for what I want. I’m going to the man I love and beg for forgiveness for being stupid and scared. If he will have me, I will hold onto him with both hands. If he doesn’t, I can live my life knowing I tried.

  “Yes. Yes, shower up. I’ll drive.”

  “You girls look lost.” I turn around and see Gage holding a couple cups of coffee and a bag of chips.

  “Gage…” I say, relieved to see someone familiar. He’s tall and lanky, built like a swimmer with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He’s also stronger than he looks. I remember him carrying me up my apartment steps after the amber alert hell.

  “Good thing the ER doesn’t have visiting hours. Security here is very tight.” His eyes drift to Beth, who blushes and looks at the floor.

  I stare at her. I’ve never seen Beth blush before, or look so nervous. She’s always gorgeous; even with wet hair tied on top of her head in a messy bun, she’s gorgeous. But right now, she has a glow about her I haven’t seen before.

  Focus. I’ll play matchmake
r later. Right now I want to see my match.

  “Gage, I have to go see Ken.”

  His eyes jump back to me and he grins. “Sure thing. Let’s see if I can sneak you by the nurse’s station. The RN there is putting up with us, but she’s not too happy that we kind of took over her ER.”

  “How’s Ken doing, by the way?” Beth says, eyes fixed straight ahead, as if she’s afraid to look at Gage. Beth afraid? Interesting. I look at the two of them. Beth is tiny beside him, a full foot shorter. But their dark hair is almost a perfect match, their eyes nearly the same color.

  “The doctor says he just needs some stitches, but he should be fine. Nothing was broken except his pride and that thick head of his. He has a good cut on his Achilles tendon and the doctor wants to make sure it isn’t severed. He should be out in a bit, but this place is packed as you can tell. His injuries aren’t that bad, but they have to take care of the more seriously injured first. At least they gave him a private room.”

  Little pinpricks of relief came alive after Gage’s confirmation that Ken would be okay. “I’m so glad. Beth told me about the accident. She witnessed everything. How’s everyone else that was hit? The policeman who pushed Ken out of the way?”

  Worry washed Gage’s smile away. “Bill. He was the first on the scene. He and Ken were roommates when Ken first came out to Vegas; they gave each other hell but were tight, you know? It’s bad.”

  “Bad? For Bill?”

  “Yeah, he’s in surgery. Damn SUV ran over him like a dog in the road. He took both front and back wheels. Lost a lot of blood, has internal injuries they were having difficulty controlling and his leg.” Gage blew out a breath. “Well, he might lose a leg below the knee. It’s pretty fucked up.”

  I can’t imagine it. My face mirrors Gage’s and Beth’s. We might not know Bill, but it’s always horrible when someone trying to do good gets hurt in the line of duty so badly. “Does Ken know?”

  “Not yet; he knows he’s alive, but that’s all we told him.”

  Gage heads to a set of double doors and looks through the glass. “Come on. I think the coast is clear.” He pushes the door open with his butt, the coffees still in hand.

  “Here, let me help.” Beth takes a cup from him and the bag of chips. Gage is smiling down at her. I hold my breath, praying she doesn’t drop the hot drink on him. It’s something that would happen in the world of us.

  Gage avoids getting scalded and leads us to Ken’s treatment room. My nerves begin dancing a jig in my stomach and I stuff my hands in my pockets so they won’t shake. Gage goes in first and I hear Ken say, “About damn time. Thought I’d have to chase down my caffeine myself.” I hear laughter and then Beth steps inside. Ken says, “Look, it’s the nurse of the hour. Great job out there, Beth.”

  Blowing out a breath, I step in and the laughter stops. Stops dead. Every human in the room grows quiet and stares at me. Beth takes my hand and gives it an encouraging squeeze. In my rush to see Ken, I forgot that nearly all of Las Vegas had seen me naked, had seen me having sex in every way imaginable. My face grows hot and I feel the familiar panic rise in my chest. I swallow it down, refusing to give in to it. This isn’t about me. This is about Ken.

  “Hi.” It isn’t a powerful word, but it’s the one that comes out of my mouth, again.

  He looks gorgeous sitting on the hospital gurney in his white and blue striped hospital gown. His hair is in twenty different directions and there are streaks of dirt on his face. His feet are bare, white beneath the tan lines of his socks. I remember tracing those lines with my tongue before licking up his calves and thighs and taking his hard…

  “Hi.” His one word breaks me from the erotic memories and I focus on the bandage wrapped around his leg.

  “I…” I love you, is what I want to say, but I swallow it down. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  He pats the bed beside him. His eyes are so warm, the little smile on his lips so soft. I’m drawn to him as surely as a magnet is drawn to metal. Everyone else in the room scatters and we’re alone.

  “So, is this just a mercy call? Concerned nurse checking up on a patient?” His voice has grown a bit chilled and a blank mask is on his face. He’s unsure of me and I don’t blame him. I’m the one who made him leave.

  I have a choice. I can let the scared little girl inside me win or I can transcend into the woman I know I can be. I realize there’s really no choice to make.

  I pick up his hand and trace my finger along the lines of his palm. His fingers close around mine and we sit there, gazing at each other for a moment.

  I sniff back the tears that want to overtake me. “Over the past couple days, I realized something. I don’t want to live in the dark anymore.”

  His Adam’s apple sinks down and back up again, an audible click accompanying his swallow. He remains quiet otherwise. Waiting.

  “So I figured, if you weren’t going to live in the dark. And I’m not going to live in the dark. Do you think, maybe, we could be in the light… together?”

  He unclasps my hand and lifts his hand to my face and then into my hair, palming the back of my head. He pulls me to him, until our lips are only an inch apart. His pupils threaten to overtake the dark chocolate of his beautiful eyes, leaving only a sliver of the brown I love surrounding them.

  “Bring on the spotlight, baby.”

  I hear a ‘yes’ and cheers coming from the hallway, then a bunch of ‘ssshhh’s’. I smile as Ken pulls me closer to his mouth, his middle finger pointing to the peanut gallery in the hallway. His lips smile against mine. Then we melt together, opening to each other, giving and accepting. I lift my hand to his powerful chest and feel the beating of his heart against my palm.

  He kisses me until a nurse comes in and clears her throat. I try to pull away but his fingers tighten in my hair. “Stay with me,” he says and kisses me again. I stay until the nurse clears her throat again.

  “Excuse me,” the nurse says behind me, her voice filled with amusement. “I know this is a room, but it’s not that kind of room.”

  We laugh and he lets me pull away this time. I turn and see Janice, one of the RNs I trained under during clinicals. Her eyes widen as she recognizes me too. She leans forward and hugs me, whispering loudly my ear, “You just went and broke all the hearts of the nurses in this hospital. I thought there were going to be fist fights over which one of us got to stitch this sexy man up.”

  I laugh. “How did you win? Don’t tell me you swung the hardest.”

  Janice gives me a ‘you have to be kidding’ look. “Girl, you know I don’t swing that way. Give me a nice smooth girl leg anytime over these big old hairy ones.” She smacks a hand on Ken’s thigh and he winces. Janice laughs. “Wuss.” I laugh and Ken narrows his eyes.

  Janice pulls a tray closer to the bed and holds up a syringe and points it at Ken. “Now that I know you are cozy with my friend Steph, you better treat her right. Do I have your solemn promise?”

  Ken looks at the needle, then at Janice and then at me. His face softens. Beside us, Janice puts the syringe back on the tray and says, “You don’t have to say a word, that look just said it all.”

  It really did. He looked at me with such tenderness I felt it in my bones.

  “Hop up, Steph, and you can help me. Consider this to be off-clinical training. Ken, roll to your side please, so I can get to your injury better.”

  I stand and reach for a pair of latex gloves. She slaps my hand. “Not that kind of training. Today, I’m going to teach you the art of distracting a patient while you sew him up. Now hop back up on that bed and start distracting.”

  She begins to take off the bandage and Ken scoots over and gives me room to lie next to him. Soon, I’m in his arms. He doesn’t even flinch as the needle goes in.

  “Hey babe, fancy meeting you here.”

  Disgust. Fright. Anger. A trifecta of emotions make my skin crawl as I look up and see Jerome standing in front of me. The walls of the hospital hallway close in and I
feel off balance. I reach out to steady myself against a sterile white wall.

  “How the f—”

  “Aw, come on,” he cuts in. “Is that any way to greet an old friend?”

  “Jerome, I told you before, leave me alone.” I try to step around him, but he cuts me off. I was heading to the vending machine to get a couple of cold drinks. The coins jingle in my pocket as I step from one side to the other, trying to get past him.

  “You ran into me, remember? Walking and texting makes you a bad girl.” He clicks his tongue at me and takes a step closer. “Of course, I like it when you’re a bad girl.”

  I stick my hand out and push him out of my space. My palm feels dirty from touching his chest and I wipe it on my pants. “What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?”

  All innocence, he looks down at me, “Doing what? This is public property, right? I have as much right to be here as you do.”

  “You’re following me.”

  “Now why would I want to do that? You must be paranoid. Of course, I would be too if I knew every human being in Vegas had seen me sucking dick.”

  I try to push past him again, but he grabs me by the arm. I yank away. “Don’t touch me.”

  He holds up his hands, surrender style. “You look stressed,” he says and I nearly snarl at him. “How’s your little fireman, by the way. Heard he got himself into a bit of an accident. Are you being a good nurse and fucking him back to health?”

  Since I can’t get past him, I turn around and walk in the other direction. He quickly catches up to me, like he’s on a casual stroll. “You know, since you’re now a video smut queen, you could make some bucks out of it. You’re a natural.”

  I stop. “Fuck you, Jerome. Leave me alone.”