Page 22 of Embrace
Jasper coughed. “I’m well, Ash. I’m happy as hell to be talking to you too. It’s been too long. Let me ask you something, though.”
I sat up straight. “Shoot.”
“Are you ready to join us again? If not, it’s fine. But if you are, then we should get right down to business.”
I rubbed my jaw, then the back of my neck, until I realized why I was stalling—then I stopped.
I knew what getting down to business entailed. I would have to put Jake Sparrow to rest and become Asher Nathaniel Christmas again. Spencer was watching me closely, and Jasper’s curiosity hung in the air. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and did more on-the-spot soul-searching. Then, suddenly, I was struck by illumination.
Our father was dead. I recalled the last time my siblings and I were together. The bickering and lack of respect was excessive. I was part of it, and I’d hated my participation in it then, and I hated it now. The interesting part was that all of us, excluding Jasper, had to go off on our own and grow the fuck up. As usual, our older brother held down the fort. Now that I had some fucking tools to withstand the hard parts as well the easier parts of being a Christmas, it was time I pulled my weight.
So I took a deep breath, braced myself for all of what was to come next, and spoke my answer.
Chapter Seven
Penina Ross
On the way to the backyard, Greg Carroll softly took me by the arm and whispered, “Actually, I do want to talk to you about something.”
I assessed his expression. His gaze flitted around the space, checking out nearby faces.
“About what?” I asked, sensing I was supposed to keep my voice down.
“You’re a neurosurgeon.” He wasn’t asking. He already knew.
I nodded.
“I have a problem that I need to talk to a neurologist about—one not associated with my team or that is within my organization’s reach. Is that you, Dr. Penina Ross?”
Then my gaze flitted around Court’s overly designed room. “You want to talk privately?” I asked after my eyes landed back on him.
He nodded and led me in the opposite direction of where everyone else was going. Greg held the front door open for me to walk out onto the patio first. Then he checked behind him and stepped outside too. I folded my arms, feeling uneasy about all the secrecy. It was weird. But Greg wasn’t done being paranoid as he searched to the right of the house then the left of it.
“This way,” he said and started down the stairs, searching every dark space as he went.
I wondered what made him so distrustful. He was beginning to worry me, but I followed him until we stopped under a healthy tree with wiry branches that draped over the lawn enough to provide us some cover.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” I asked, frowning curiously and making sure to put enough distance between us that I could slip away from him if he tried to grab me. He hadn’t earned my full trust yet. As long as he was behaving as if we were in the middle of a drug deal, I had to be cautious.
“I was hit last year, hard,” he whispered. “When I slammed into the ground, I passed out, but nobody saw what happened. The cameras didn’t even capture the aftermath, and I was told not to mention it.”
I slapped at an insect that landed on my shoulder. “Okaaay…”
“I saw our doctor. They told me everything looked fine, but I don’t think it’s true.” He shook his head.
“Why not?” I asked, rubbing my arms, trying to keep another bug from landing on me.
“I’ve been forgetting shit and getting massive headaches.”
“Since last year?”
He frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I’ve had headaches ever since I started playing this fucking game. But for the past few weeks, I’ve been having bouts of memory lapse that I’ve never had before.”
“Well, if the impact was a year ago—”
“I don’t trust them. I know they’re not telling me the truth.”
I searched his eyes. He looked desperate for answers. If he was reporting symptoms now, it didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t related to what happened to him back then. Something buzzed past my ear, and I twisted a finger inside it. I really wanted to go back inside and cool off, but I had to put my doctor’s hat on, which meant listening to him intently. “Can you give me an example of what you have been forgetting?”
