Page 109 of Bravo

I groan, pain shooting through me.

“I’m Ruth Hunt,” she says. “What is your name?”

“I—” I trail off. What is my name? Panic pushes through the pain. Why can’t I remember? Why don’t I know? “I don’t know my name.” My heart begins to pound. “Why can’t I remember? Who am I?”

“Easy,” the stranger says, reaching up to rest his hand on my forehead. I stare up at him. How can he calm the storm so easily? Who is he?

“Hey! Is dinner—what happened?” Another woman pushes through the crowd, and the man pulls away.

I want to call him back. My heart begins to hammer again, and I try to steady my breathing, but the panic is too much. It’s all too much.

The woman kneels at my side, her nearly black hair braided back. “My bag is in my car. Grab it, please.”

“On it,” an older man replies as he leaves the room.

The woman’s face is serious as she lifts my shirt and checks the wound. “Is there an exit wound?” she asks.

“I didn’t check,” the man who’d brought me here says from somewhere out of view. “Bradyn called an ambulance.”

“Good.” The woman reaches into her pocket and withdraws a light then holds open my eyelids and shines it in. The brightness has me seeing spots. “What is your name?”

“She said she doesn’t know it,” Ruth answers.

The other woman nods. “She’s likely in shock. My name is Lani. We called an ambulance, but I’m a doctor, okay?”

“O-okay.” I want to ask where the beautiful man went. I want him back here at my side.

“Do you have any idea what happened to you?” Lani questions.

“No.” I suck in a breath as a fresh wave of pain shoots through me.

“I found her in the creek. She was draped over a fallen branch.”

There he is.Come back.His face swims into view, and my heart stops racing so fast. Do I know him? Is that why I feel so calm in his presence? But I immediately brush that thoughtaside. If I knew him, he would know me. Which means he’d know my name.

Unless—did he do this to me?

But I disregard that thought the moment our gazes hold.“Who did this to you?”Would he really ask that if it were him? Would he have tried to save me if he’d been the one to put me in that creek?

My vision blurs, and I close my eyes. I’m so tired.

“I need you to stay with me, okay?” Lani says.

I try to open my eyes, but they’re heavy. Everything hurts. I just want it to stop hurting.

The voices begin to fade, and a numbness settles over me. If I can just linger here long enough, I feel like I’ll be okay. Like everything will be back to normal. If only I can remain in this place of peace.

I come awake slowly. My brain is foggy, my vision a bit blurry. I rapidly blink to clear it and find myself lying in a hospital room full of beeping machines.

How did I get here?

I try to sit up. “Easy, you need rest, honey.” A woman comes into view and gently presses me back onto the bed.

“Ruth?” I choke out. That was her name, right?

She smiles softly. “Yes, honey. That’s right. Do you happen to remember your name?”

I shake my head and lie back down. A tube of oxygen blows cold air up my nose, and whatever drugs they have me on have taken the pain. I glance down at my belly. I’m covered by a blanket, so I slowly push it down and gently touch the outside of the gown. “I was shot.”

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