Officer in Pursuit by Ranae Rose Read Free Book Online Page A

But you have no idea how many
tacos I ate today in Wilmington after I went to that fancy dress
store.”
    “What?”
    “A lot. I ate a lot of tacos.” His
suntanned face had taken on an unnatural whitish-green tint that
made Kerry’s stomach churn.
    She unlocked her car and opened the
passenger-side door for him. “Get in. I think the instructor was
right – you might have a concussion.”
    He groaned. “God, I ate so many
tacos.”
    Finally, he sank into the
seat.
    Kerry closed and locked the door
before he could think twice and hurried around to the driver’s
side. As she turned the key in the ignition, the instructor that’d
sprayed down the mats appeared by her window.
    She rolled it down to talk to
him.
    “He all right?”
    “He’s feeling sick. I’m going to take
him to the hospital.”
    “Call me and let me know how he makes
out.”
    “Okay.”
    She left the academy – housed in a
former warehouse on the outskirts of Cypress – behind and drove for
the hospital. It didn’t take long to get there, but neither did
getting anywhere in such a small town.
    Once they were parked close to the
emergency room entrance, she walked inside with Grey. He was
uncharacteristically silent, and still looked a little
green.
    Probably not from the
tacos.
    Kerry filled out his paperwork for him
while he sat looking grim in one of the waiting room chairs. He was
still wearing the rash guard and board shorts he’d worn to
jiu-jitsu.
    While they waited, Kerry had plenty of
time to feel increasingly guilty. Sure, accidents and injuries
happened with contact sports. But most people who participated knew
that and chanced it because they loved the sport. Grey, on the
other hand, probably couldn’t have cared less about
jiu-jitsu.
    “Sorry about dragging you into this,”
she said.
    “Huh?”
    “Jiu-jitsu. If I hadn’t asked you to
come, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
    “I’m not mad. Don’t get all
guilt-ridden on me. I wanted to go.”
    She bit her tongue before she could
say something ridiculously egotistical-sounding, like: ‘Yeah, but
only because I’d be there’.
    “Do you want me to wait here or come
back with you?” she asked when a nurse announced that it was his
turn.
    “Up to you.”
    She went with him. With all the talk
about dresses and tacos, he seemed a little confused, and the
doctor would need to hear exactly what had happened.
    They made it about five steps down the
hall before Grey threw up all over the tile.
    From the looks of things, he hadn’t
been lying about the tacos.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “Things you’ll want to watch carefully
for include seizures, mood swings, confusion, slurred speech, a
worsening headache…” The ER doctor ran down a long list of
symptoms, and Kerry tried hard to commit them all to memory. “Keep
a sharp eye on him for the next 24 hours. Do you have work
tomorrow?”
    Kerry’s reply got stuck in her throat.
She struggled to clear it so she could squeak out an explanation.
She felt vaguely faint after watching Grey get four stitches – it’d
been the anesthetic needle that’d freaked her out, not the actual
suturing – and the implication that she and Grey were together
added to her nervousness. “Yes, and even if I didn’t, we don’t live
together. We’re just friends.”
    Something about saying the phrase
‘just friends’ made her feel juvenile, though it was the truth,
plain and simple.
    “Oh. I thought you were a couple.” The
doctor frowned. “Well, he should have a friend stay with him
overnight, or vice versa.”
    Kerry turned to Grey, who sat on an
exam table, towering over her and the doctor, who’d sunk down onto
a stool. “I could call Liam and Henry, see if either one of them is
available.”
    “I happen to know they’re both very
busy tonight,” Grey said, with an eye roll Kerry didn’t really
understand. “They’ve both got work tomorrow anyway. Don’t bother –
I’ll be fine.”
    “If you don’t have anyone who