Page 2 of Hush Money

My spinning thoughts veer off in a new direction. I should hide, shouldn’t I? Better yet, I should get dressed, grab my little suitcase and leave. The last thing this poor woman needs after her ordeal is to emerge from her shock, look around and realize that her husband’s new lover has installed herself in her house.

Yes. That’s it. I should leave. I’ll grab my stuff and call an Uber to take me to—hell if I know. Anywhere but here. Some local hotel for the night, I suppose. I’ll figure the rest out tomorrow. Good. I have a plan. Galvanized, I turn to disappear into the shadows and dart back down the hallway?—

“Her teeth are chattering,” Lucien says. “Run and get another blanket, Daniel.”

“You got it,” Daniel says, getting up.

“No, wait,” Lucien says before Daniel can go anywhere. “Tell me again. Where did you find her?”

Curiosity immediately gets the best of me and glues my feet to the spot.

Daniel clears his throat. Hesitates. “Like I said, she was down by the seawall. I found her when I went down to the dock to make sure the boats were secure.”

Lucien doesn’t bother hiding his impatience. “But what was she doing?”

Helpless shrug from Daniel. “She wasn’t really doing anything. She was just, I don’t know, drifting.”

“Drifting?” Lucien says.

“Drifting. Wandering. Roaming. Whatever you want to call it.” Daniel roughly swipes his blond hair back and uses a sleeve to wipe his wet face. “I ran straight to her. I could tell she wasn’t right. I called her name. She didn’t answer.”

“And then?” Lucien demands.

Daniel frowns, his gaze drifting out of focus. “And then…she just sort of sagged. I picked her up as best I could and brought her to the house. You know the rest.”

Lucien grunts something indistinct.

Daniel looks stricken as a new thought hits him. “I hope I didn’t make things worse. I couldn’t take a chance of her wandering off again.”

“It’s okay.” Lucien reaches across Ravenna to give Daniel a squeeze on the shoulder. “You did the right thing. I’m grateful. And she already had the gash on her head?”

Daniel nods.

“But how did she hurt her head?” Lucien says.

Another helpless shrug from Daniel. “No idea. If I had to guess, I’d say she slipped on the rocks.”

Lucien winces. “Yeah, that makes sense. But how did she get here? You didn’t see a car or?—”

Ravenna moans, the sound jarring all of us. Her head lolls. The next thing I know, she sags against Lucien and starts to tumble off the bench.

Luckily, Lucien’s reflexes are quick. He catches her and eases her the rest of the way to the floor, concern etched in every hard line of his face. “She’s hurt. This is no time for me to debrief anything. She probably has a concussion.”

This reminder of a pressing medical issue finally kicks me into gear.

What am I doing? There’s an injured woman down there, one with every sign of shock, possible hypothermia and a bleeding head injury. I am an RN, which makes me the most qualified person on the premises. True, I’m newly minted, having graduated and passed my boards just a few weeks ago. But I’ve done all my rotations in the ER and the ICU, and I’m not going to stand here lurking in the shadows while a woman needs my help. Even if that woman is my lover’s wife, who probably wouldn’t appreciate the fact that I’ve been fucking her husband with abandon for the last couple of weeks. Hell, the fact that she’s Lucien’s wife should make me more eager to help her. If I care about Lucien—and I do—then I need to realize that none of this is about me.

It’s about him being reunited with the love of his life. Which is a good thing.

I lean over the railing and call down to them, startling the men and myself with my sudden air of authority. “We need to call 911. Do you have your phone, Daniel?”

Daniel quickly produces his phone from his back pocket. “I do,” he says, but frowns when he punches the button. “Shit. There’s no service. The storm must have knocked it out. But we’ve got the house phone.” He hurries to the nearest side table, but scowls when he listens to the receiver. “Nothing,” he says, setting it down again.

“It’s okay,” I say. “I’ve got my first-aid kit in my luggage. That’ll get us started. And I’ll grab another blanket to see if we can warm her up. I’ll be right back.”

I take off for the master bedroom at a dead run and quickly find my limited medical supplies. I also throw on jeans, a sweater and my shoes and grab my phone. I decide that Lucien also needs his clothes and shoes, so I find them. Then I snatch the fluffy cashmere throw from the end of Lucien’s bed and race downstairs.

By now, Lucien’s got Ravenna stretched out on the floor and is dabbing her forehead with a washcloth. I crouch down beside him, covering her with a blanket and thrusting his clothes and shoes at him.

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