“Max. Please, call me Max.”
“Okay, Max. Believe me, if I could afford a car, I’d have one. It’s just not in the cards for me. Besides, my roommate has one, and I catch a ride from her whenever I can. She just happened to be out of town on the night of the attack.” I probably wouldn’t have called her anyway, but he didn’t have to know that.
I traced lazy circles on his upper thigh. If it weren’t for the seatbelt, I would’ve scooted closer. Instead, I continued stroking his leg. For a minute, I thought he was going to stop me, but he kept his hand on the steering wheel.
“You’re really sweet to be concerned though.”
“Just doing my job, ma’am.”
“Oh, I think it might be more than that.” I slid my hand further up his thigh and was rewarded with him sucking in his breath. This time he did take his hand away from the steering wheel. He didn’t move my hand away, but he did cover it with his own.
“It’s against policy to get involved with victims on a case.”
“But I’m not technically one of your cases, right?”
He squeezed my hand. “Not technically, no.”
We pulled into the parking lot of my apartment building, and I let out a frustrated sigh. My roommate’s little red coupe sat in her parking space. “Well, it looks like my friend is back in town.” I took my hand off his thigh and straightened up. So much for having some fun with the detective.
“Good. Now I will know there will be someone to watch over you for a few days until you’re healed.”
“You really are a sweetheart.” After I got out of the car, I leaned back in the window. “Thanks for the ride, Max. Don’t be a stranger.” I winked at him and strode to my apartment door. I gritted my teeth against the ache in my shoulder and back as I did my best sashay for the detective, swaying my hips from side to side.
Chapter Three
“You have the worst timing ever!” I slammed the door behind me and yelled at my roommate and best friend, Susie. She sat at the kitchen table going through the mail. Raising an eyebrow at my tirade, she put the mail down and glared at me.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“I was just about to put the moves on a gorgeous public servant, but then I saw your car in the parking lot.”
“Gee thanks for the warm welcome home.”
I lowered myself into the chair across from her. The sexy walk I’d done for Max’s benefit had caused more hurt than I thought it would.
“Speaking of home, where have you been? I’ve been calling and texting you with no reply for the past few days, and there’s more than a day’s worth of mail here.” Her chocolate eyes grew wide when I told her what happened. “Why didn’t you call me? Better yet, why didn’t you answer the damn phone and tell me what was going on?”
“Because my phone was destroyed in the attack. Besides, I didn’t want to bother you. There wasn’t anything you could do anyway.”
“Chloe! You’re my best friend!”
I cringed at the look of hurt on her face. “I know…but you’d been planning this trip for months, and I wasn’t about to get in the way of that.”
“Troy would’ve understood.”
“No, he wouldn’t have.” Troy was her boyfriend of a year, and a bone of contention between the two of us. Troy made the mistake of thinking he knew what kind of girl I was. Okay, so maybe I did sleep around. A lot. But I drew the line at messing around with my best friend’s guy. Even I didn’t stoop that low. I tried to tell Susie about it, but she wouldn’t listen. We finally just agreed to disagree. I didn’t constantly tell her what a douchebag her boyfriend was, and she kept her feelings about him to herself. Most of the time. I guessed she’d figure it out eventually. Either he would slip up around her sometime and show his true colors, or she would accidently stumble in on him one day while he entertained one of his side pieces. I was trying to help out with that. I just couldn’t seem to pin him down with one. Oh, I knew he had at least one. I just didn’t have enough time in the day to trail him constantly.
“Okay, so maybe he wouldn’t have, but he would’ve gotten over it.” I just shook my head at her. “Anyway, tell me about this gorgeous public servant.”
“He’s a police detective. Rather yummy if I do say so myself. The nurses think he’s sweet on me, and he just might be considering that it’s not a police case anymore, but he still keeps coming around. He brought me home from the hospital.”
“And even though you haven’t even really begun to heal from your injuries, you were still seriously thinking about sleeping with him?” Susie sighed in exasperation. “Why can’t you find a nice guy and settle down?”
“You know the reason for that.” I shot her a warning look. She was edging into dangerous territory, and she knew it.
“Chloe, you have to stop running from the past. Not all men are monsters.”
I jumped up from the table, and almost screamed at the pain that blazed a trail up my back and across my shoulder. Susie started to stand up, but I waved her off. “I don’t want to talk about this right now. I’m going to go try and take a nap. I haven’t slept much.”
I could feel her staring at me as I walked out of the room, but I wasn’t going to turn around and give her the satisfaction of me seeing the pity etched across her face.
Chapter Four
“I’m coming!” The pounding on the door continued relentlessly despite my shout. “I said, I’m coming!” I wrenched open the door and gasped in surprise. A sliver of fear shot through me as I looked up to see the Harley guy looming over me.
“Chloe Jackson?” The deep timber of his voice sent a different kind of thrill racing through me.
“Who’s asking?” I tried to keep the tremor out of my voice, but I didn’t think I succeeded. Why did he have this effect on me? One minute, I felt terrified, and the next minute, I wanted to slide my hands over his sculpted chest.
Harley guy reached behind him and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He flipped it open to reveal a license. “My name is Gabriel Denton. I’m a private investigator. Can I have a word with you, please?”
“A private investigator?” What would a PI want with me?
“Yes ma’am, now if we could please step inside? I just have a few questions.”
His politeness felt forced. His blue eyes bore into me, and something animalistic seemed to ripple underneath his skin, ready to pounce on his prey at a moment’s notice.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
He frowned and took a deep breath. “Mrs. Jackson, I really need to speak with you.”
“Then speak, but ask your questions from here.” Normally, I’d be all over a guy like him. He was pure sex on legs. But something about him made me uneasy. I could tell by the grimace of his mouth that he wasn’t happy with my response, but he didn’t try to push it.
“Can you tell me about the night you were attacked?”
I don’t know what I expected him to ask, but this wasn’t it. Why would a PI be interested in an animal attack?
“It happened in the park. I told the Animal Control officers that it was a wolf, but they told me that was impossible.”
His frown deepened. “A wolf? Are you sure that’s what it was?”
I was really getting tired of people acting like I couldn’t possibly have seen what I know I saw. “Yes! I’m sure. I know what a wolf looks like!”
“Can you describe it? Could you tell what color it was? How big it was?”
“It was huge…about twice the size of a normal wolf. I don’t know for sure the exact color because it was dark, but it could be black or brown. The eyes glowed yellow.”
“Yellow?” His eyebrows quirked up like that was an unusual color for a wolf’s eyes in the dark.
“Yes, yellow.”
“Were you bitten or just scratched?”
“Why is a PI so interested in an animal attack?”
“My client takes special notice of big game attacks in
the area. He’s a skilled hunter. Now, can you answer the question, please?”
“I was both bitten and scratched.” The look that came across his face at my response confused me. How could someone look both sad and excited at the same time? And why would the fact that I’d been hurt excite him anyway?
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Jackson. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon.”
With that mysterious statement, Harley guy spun around and strode away. I almost called him back, my body fixating on the way his jeans molded around his ass, but I didn’t. Some still voice inside me warned he might just be more trouble than I wanted.
Chapter Five
I sat on the examination table waiting for the doctor to come in and check out my injuries. I hadn’t looked at them in the two days since I’d left the hospital. I probably should’ve gotten Susie to help me take the bandages off and clean and medicate them, but things had been tense between us since our last conversation, and she’d spent much of her time away from the apartment. Besides, they hadn’t really bothered me much after the first night at home. They’d itched more than anything. I still suspected I’d get a lecture from the doctor about proper wound care and danger of infection.
A knock rapped against the door, and the doctor strode in, his eyes scanning the chart he held in his hands. “Good afternoon, Ms. Jackson. How are you feeling today?”
“Much better actually. The itching was really intense yesterday, but the pain pretty much disappeared.”
The doctor’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? That’s odd. With injuries as severe as yours, it’s normal to feel pain for a few weeks. The itching is a sign of healing, but you should not be at that stage yet. Have you cleaned and medicated them since your discharge?”
Here comes the lecture. “No, I live alone.” Okay, so I lied, but he didn’t have to know that. I’d more likely garner sympathy and less of a lecture if he thought cleaning them would be difficult for me.
“You really should wash the cuts, scratches, and the bite out and disinfect them every night. Is there not anyone you could call to come help you? A friend or family member?”
“There might be someone I could get to help me.”
He nodded. “Good. Proper wound care is very important to combat infection.” He set the folder on the counter and pulled a pair of latex gloves from the box on the wall. “Let’s see how things look.” He pushed the disposable gown away from my back and gently peeled off the first bandage.
The doctor made a startled sound and dropped the bandage, which fell to the tiled floor.
“What? Is something wrong?”
Without answering, he proceeded to pull off the rest of the bandages, while muttering under his breath, “This is not possible.”
“Doctor?”
“Don’t be alarmed. Nothing’s wrong, Ms. Jackson. In fact, nothing’s wrong. You’re injuries have completely healed. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Really? I mean, like I said, they haven’t really hurt much the past couple of days, but I just thought it was because they were getting better.”
“They were. All of the way better in fact. I can’t explain it. From the extent of your injuries, it should have taken you weeks to heal completely. Not only have you healed, but the stitches have already been totally absorbed.”
“Well, I guess that means I can be on my way then.”
The doctor frowned and picked up my chart. He pulled a pen from his lab coat and used it to note something in my file. Once he finished writing, he tapped his pen against the corner of his mouth. “Not so fast. I would like to draw some blood and test it. Maybe some abnormality will show up that will explain why you healed so quickly. It’s important we find out why this happened. There may be another issue we need to take care of. I will send the lab technician in shortly to do the draw.”
As soon as the doctor left the room, I jumped up and quickly changed back into my shirt. There was no way I was going to hang around and be used as a pincushion so the doctor could study me like a science experiment. Sure, I was a little curious as to how and why I healed so quickly, but it wasn’t worth being poked and prodded to find out. Besides, if there was something different in my blood…I didn’t want to know. Hell, I didn’t want them to know. Who wanted to spend their days locked up while doctors ran test after test on you?
The possibility of something else being wrong with me didn’t even enter my mind. How could a disease or disorder cause an injury to heal with lightning speed?
* * *
I called in to work that afternoon to let my boss know I could pick up a shift that night if she needed me now that I was healed up from the attack. After a couple of minutes of me assuring her I was okay, Mrs. Potts told me to come in for the supper rush. Stephanie had called in sick earlier, so she was short a hostess.
I took a luxurious shower and marveled at how freely I could move my arms without any pain whatsoever. I hadn’t really noticed just how quickly the pain had disappeared before because I had limited my movements. A twinge or two popped up here or there if I moved too quickly, and I’d had a day of really intense itching, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the injuries hadn’t really hurt much at all after my first night at home. Which made absolutely no sense.
Part of me wanted to go back to the doctor’s office and let them take that blood to run the tests because I’d gotten more curious on just how I had healed so quickly. However, the part of me that didn’t want to become a medical test subject won out. I would just have to be satisfied with not knowing. Really, what did it matter? I had healed.
When I got out of the shower, I heard banging around in Susie’s room. She stood in the middle of the room staring at a huge pile of crap laying on the bed. “You okay, Suz?” She turned towards me, and I saw big fat drops of tears sliding down her face. Oh crap.
“I…we…”
“Broke up?” I tried to keep the hopefulness out of my voice.
She nodded in assent. I went to my friend and let her cry on my shoulder. That’s what friends were for, right? Even if we always hated the boyfriend, we still stuck by our girl.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked her after the crying had calmed down.
She straightened up, wiped the tears from her face, and shook her head. “No, not now. Maybe later.”
“Are you sure?” She took a deep breath, and I saw her go from upset to pissed off in about two seconds flat. Her face turned from teary to rock hard, and fury blazed in her eyes. If she could hold onto her mad for a bit and not sink back down into the sadness, she might get over the bastard much quicker. And quicker would be better. Much better.
“Yes, I’m sure. I will tell you all about it later. Right now, I’ve got some shit to burn.” Did I mention Susie turned into a firebug after she broke up with someone? Well, not a general firebug, just a specific one. Anything ever given to her by the guy? Burned to ashes. Every single time. Who am I to question what she needed to get through a break up?
“Okay then. I’m going to work. Talk to you when I get home?”
She stopped mid-stride to the bed and stared at me. “Work? Chloe, you just got out of the hospital the other day. You shouldn’t be working!”
“Hey, calm down. I got the okay from the doctor!” I didn’t, but it wasn’t important. I was healed. What problem could there be with going back to work?
She continued to stare at me, her brown eyes clouded with doubt.
“Really, it’s no big deal. I’m fine. Besides, I’m going to be at the hostess stand tonight, so I won’t be toting around trays.” I don’t know why I didn’t tell Susie that my injuries were totally healed. I usually told her everything. I guess I just didn’t want my best friend to look at me like I was some kind of freak.
“Just take it easy, ok?”
“I will. I promise.” I left Susie to her burning and headed to my room to get changed for work.
Chapter Six
I stood at th
e hostess stand and tried to keep from drooling at the scent of food wafting from the kitchen. I’d eaten before leaving for work, but for some reason, I’d felt ravenous from the moment I stepped through the doors and smelled the food cooking. Apparently, my system had not yet recovered from lack of good food while I lay in the hospital.
A weird tingling shot through me, and I looked up to see Harley guy and some leggy blonde stride through the restaurant doors. Oh lucky me. I still couldn’t figure out my reaction to him. Part of me wanted to run straight into his arms and beg him to take me…in every way imaginable, but the rest of me wanted to run as far away from him as I could get. Normally, with a guy like it him, it was all about the begging. From the looks of him, it would have been a wild ride.
His dark eyebrows shot up when he spied me standing there. “Ms. Jackson. I didn’t expect to see you soon.”
“I work here.” Well duh. Score one for Captain Obvious. I was not normally a bumbling fool in front of men, but something about this guy threw me off my game.
“I know. I just meant I didn’t expect you to be up and about so soon after your accident.” He shared a worried look with his date. Like they knew something I didn’t.
“Have you found out anything?”
“Nothing concrete, though I think I’m getting closer to understanding what happened.”
“Well, be sure to let me know when you do. Now, if you will follow me, I will show you to your table.” I let my hips swing as I guided them to their seat. Hell, part of me couldn’t deny the attraction I felt for him.
When I made it back to the hostess stand, another familiar face awaited me. “Detective Andrews…I mean, Max, how wonderful to see you.” I reached out and covered his hand that was resting on the edge of the stand with my own. Heat seeped from my palm into the top of his hand. “Just you or are you expecting someone to join you?”
Max shook his head as if to clear it, and I once again saw desire smoldering in his eyes before the wall slammed into place. “Just me.” I let my eyes mirror what his had shown me, and I smiled at him.
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