Page 24 of Loyally, Luke
Well, that was likely the reason he’d fallen into her eyes. A head wound. Plain and simple.
He slid his fingers gently against his head, then cheek, as he stepped across the small space. At least he didn’t feel the sticky warmth of blood. One bonus. Of course, part of his cheekbone was numb, so he may not have felt it anyway.
“There’s a good chance that if it didn’t run away from the noise you made moving the board, it’s not alive.”
She whimpered in response.
His guess was that it wasn’t a sad whimper.
But instead of a dead animal smell, all that filled his lungs were oranges and flowers. He pinched his eyes closed, then winced at the slight sting in the wounded side, and turned her phone so the light shone toward the hole. The board still partially covered the spot, so Luke gave the board a poke with his foot.
“What do you see?” Ellie peeked around his shoulder, keeping him as a shield from the dangerous something.
His lips twitched again, but he wrangled them into submission. “Not sure.” He began to lower to his knees to peer down into the hole, but she caught his arm.
“What are you doing?”
He turned just enough to see her in his periphery. “Believe me, Ellie, I’ve seen a whole lot worse than what’s down there, so just stay behind me and we’ll figure this out.”
And she did as she was told. Which almost brought a smile to hisface, if the motion hadn’t hurt his cheek so much. He kneeled. She followed along with him.
The pain might have been worth that grin.
As he shone the light down into the space, Ellie gasped, her hands tightening their hold around his arm. And for some reason, he felt like he could take on an entire alligator if it jumped out of that hole just to show her how strong those arms were.
He coughed to hide his laugh. He was crazy. And might have a teensy bit of a concussion.
Or at least he could blame all these ridiculous thoughts on the hammer. Which made him feel a whole lot better than blaming them on any alternative reason.
The light hit something brown and misshapen. But it didn’t look like an animal.
He reached his hand down into the hole.
Ellie’s fingers dug into his arm as he touched something soft and clothlike with a firm center. The grin started to emerge again, along with a rascally thought. He fisted the cloth in his hand and, despite the voice in his head sending off warning shouts, released a pained cry.
Ellie screamed in response. “Oh no! Did it bite you? Give me my phone. I’ll call emergency. Luke!”
He lost control of his grin, despite the pain, and started laughing, holding whatever he brought up with him at his side.
In the faint light, Ellie’s features transformed from terror to confusion and then... hardened into pure fury.
“How... how dare you!” She slapped his shoulder.
“Just getting even.”
“Getting even?” Those eyes now narrowed to blue slits. “What on earth do you mean?”
He gestured with her phone to his face. “You nearly took out my eye with that hammer.”
Her expression slowly unraveled. “I... what?” And with only a slight hesitation, she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the light of the kitchen.
He blinked and his left eye didn’t open quite as quickly as it should.
Yep. Swollen.
“Oh my word.” She studied his face, her bottom lip dropping into a pout. “I’m so sorry, Luke. I had no idea.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been hurt on the job.” He tried to grin again.
