Heroes (Hollywood Heartthrobs #1) by Kate Rivers Read Free Book Online Page B

out of the woman who had nearly been killed
saving something more precious to him than his own life, but it would do. He’d
swearing undying fealty to her right about now if she commanded it.
    “What’s
that?” he asked stupidly. Like the joy and fear, he felt at once completely
confident in her presence and terribly wrong-footed.
    “Can
you tell me how I got here?” The question was asked artlessly, in an almost
businesslike way, as if she was asking him advice on how to assemble a piece of
furniture.
    Oh
Jesus , Dean thought. She doesn’t remember the accident !
A small, terrible part of him cheered that he might escape the judgement he so
richly deserved for putting Alec in harm’s way.
    “You
mean, how you came to be in this hospital room? There was an accident, you were
hit by a car.”
    “Yes,
sorry, I got that from the clipboard,” she said, gesturing to the clipboard now
on the floor. “I mean, before that?”
    “Before
you were hit?” Dean asked, suddenly confused.
    She
took a breath in. “Before I was hit, before today, basically I could use some
help filling in the blanks of everything before I woke up in this room three
minutes ago.”
    “Wait,
you don’t remember the accident… or anything before it?”
    “Precisely,”
she said in that same businesslike fashion. Even the terrible part of Dean
stopped cheering. “My name is Jane Doe and I was in an accident earlier which
ended in a broken arm and a serious bump on the head. All I know is I woke up
in this room and read what’s on that clipboard I hit you with. Sorry again, by
the way. I was hoping you could tell me more.”
    Who
the hell is this woman? Dean thought. She dives in front
of buses to save children and can calmly state that she doesn’t know who she is
like it’s no big deal. He was speechless in front of such serene bravery.
    “I
should go get someone,” he answered after an awful pause. “Wait here.”
              “Okay, I’m
not going anywhere,” she said. Again, she lacked much of a frame of reference,
but something told her this was not normal behavior she was seeing from chair
guy. Apparently what he got in looks he lacked in brains. He hurried out of the
room and down the hall.
              Dean vaguely
recalled a nurses’ station at the end of the hallway near the elevators. He
caught a glimpse of a clock on the wall. It was a little after midnight. There
was no one at the nurses’ station, and Dean began to shout for help. Nurse
Freeman materialized as if by magic.
              “What is it?”
she asked imperiously. She was all business, and hers was a business of life
and death.
              “The woman,
from the accident. She’s awake!” Dean blurted out, already attempting to steer
the nurse down the hallway.
              “Good.” She
said, “I’ll be by to check on her in a bit, and I know the neurologist will
want to speak to her first thing in the morning.”
              “No.” Dean
said. “You don’t understand, you have to come now.”
              Nurse Freeman
was very good at her job, and she read the panic in Dean’s face. Something was
very wrong, and he couldn’t or wouldn’t explain what. That meant bad news for
any patient. “Alright then,” she said decisively. “We’ll go now.”
              Jane Doe was
sitting up as far as her arm would allow when Dean and the nurse came back into
the room.
              “Well, we’re
glad to have you with us, young lady. I’m Nurse Freeman.”
              “I’m Jane,”
she said, relieved to be conversing with someone who seemed to have her wits
about her.
              Nurse Freeman
smiled. “Well, that’s a funny thing. I’ve never had a Jane Doe actually turn
out to be a Jane before.”
              “Sorry?” Jane
asked.
              “Your name,
we had you down as a Jane Doe because we didn’t know who you were. It’s