Page 76 of Always Knew It Was You

“Yup. He’s in Room 5 down the hall. Someone kicked his ass and practically left him for dead right on a park bench. It must have happened sometime during the night too, because Officer Jensen only found him while doing his morning patrols.”

“Jesus,” Carly whispers in horror and Gracie nods her sympathy. Then she shifts her attention to me, her eyes flaring with that familiar gleam I see in many women’s faces.

I wink in return. “How’s it going?”

“Well, hello, handsome,” she croons. “I think I’ve seen you around here before. The night of the shooting. You brought Declan and Emma to the hospital, right?”

“Yeah, I was there,” I say. I remember plenty of things about that day. Driving into town to look for Declan and hearing that he’d gone alone to save his daughter from pearl smuggling kidnappers. He wasn’t back yet and Emma was nearly in a panic, so I went with her to rescue him.

We got there in enough time to find Amelia making her way out of the forest herself. While Emma and Monty, the bodyguard, went off to find Declan, I carried Amelia back to the car, protecting her.

And then the gunfire started.

After that, the details get a little foggy. The adrenaline kicked in and all I remember is flashes of images: Declan getting dragged out by Monty and Emma, sporting a nasty gunshot wound, trying to get him to the hospital along with his daughter crying in the back seat and Declan threatening to lose consciousness.

Everything after that and until Declan was declared stable was a fog. I was just operating on autopilot at that point. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone close to death since my brother. The trauma of that night doesn’t necessarily haunt me anymore, but I’ve been less enthusiastic about going to hospitals since then.

So it’s very likely that I did meet this woman that night and just don’t remember her. Of course, I’ll never tell a lady that though.

So I wink at her and say, “You know, I felt we had met before too, but I thought it was only in my dreams.”

It has the desired effect. The woman snorts and says, “Boy, stop blowing smoke up my ass.”

Carly cringes a little and then rolls her eyes before heading away to hospital room five.

“We’ll talk,” I tell the nurse, and she chortles as I follow Carly.

“You really can’t help yourself, can you?” Carly mutters.

“Nope,” I say and she shakes her head. “And you have to admit that was a good one to come up with on the fly.”

“No, it wasn’t.” But I can almost see the hint of a smile at the corner of her lips.

Oh yeah, I’m getting her to smile again. We’re getting there.

And then she draws the curtains open and the smile disappears entirely.

There are four people in the room, all looking at Carly. Well three of them are. The one in the bed, Carly’s dad, is currently unconscious, with tubes going in and out of his mouth, a bruised cheek, and swollen eyes.

A dark-haired woman who looks like a thinner, more severe-faced version of Carly is sitting beside him holding his hand. Opposite them is another shorter woman and then a man who appears more annoyed than concerned.

“Took you long enough.” The sitting woman talks to Carly first. “I told you your father was in the hospital and it took you almost an hour to get here.”

“Sorry, Mom. I was all the way at the Pink Hotel across town.” She approaches the bed tentatively. “How is he? Gracie said he got beat up by someone.”

“Yeah. Probably borrowed money from the wrong person for booze and didn’t pay back,” the man grouched.

Carly’s mother nods.

“Stupid fucker. I told him drinking would be the death of him.”

“And it’s gonna be the death of me too! How on earth am I going to pay that hospital bill? Your bastard brother should have just stayed home like I told him to and none of this would have happened.”

As they spoke the other woman had her eyes trained on me. Unlike with Gracie, I feel zero inclination to joke around with this lady or even smile at her. So I just blankly stare back at her.

“Who are you?” she finally asks.

Carly turns and gestures to me. “This is Micah,” she says. “My—”

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