Page 44 of The Voices are Back

I was also piecing everything together that’d happened before that.

My memory had big, gaping holes in it.

Such as, I’m not sure how I got over there once I’d left the gas station’s front door.

I also wasn’t aware of why I’d gotten attacked.

I just knew that I had.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t identify the man that’d been doing the attacking if my life depended on it—and frankly, it just might.

“It’s here,” Aodhan said, bringing me out of my contemplation of the night.

My throat hurt.

As in, really, really hurt.

I had no clue how badly getting strangled could hurt.

But talking was getting easier.

The heat from Aodhan’s body was also making me sleepy.

I yawned as he set me down on my feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked, bringing his arm up to my side and latching on to my upper bicep when I started to sway.

“Fine,” I whispered, finding that it was easier to whisper than to do anything with some effort behind it. “Tired. Hit a wall.”

Having episodes always made me hit a wall.

Being strangled and having an episode? That was a recipe for a nap.

Aodhan’s body heat, his spicy scent, plus those other two things? That was a cocktail of perfect napping.

But, Folsom needed help.

And she wouldn’t have told us to come had she not needed it.

Though, I’m sure that she needed it from Aodhan and not me. I wasn’t of much use, I was sorry to say.

Aodhan mounted the bike, then held his hand out like he always did when I was mounting behind him.

Though, what was different this time than all the previous times, was that he was reluctant to let it go.

How did I know he was reluctant?

He held on like his life depended on it, his gaze staring down at my hand.

Was he wondering about all that we’d lost out on, too?

All because of him?

Not to sound bitter or anything, but had he not forced me out of his life, going as far as to block me even, he would’ve known that life wasn’t what he wanted it to be for me.

He would’ve gotten the text that I sent him to tell him that I couldn’t stay in medical school.

He would’ve known that I was back in town.

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