Page 10 of Aaron (Dresden Pride #1)

Her ankle was killing her. As soon as she got back home, she was going to see a doctor who could give her some answers.

Mac was sick of hurting every time she took a few steps out of her room.

Just as she was getting up to speed again, she turned her ankle and fell.

If not for the man who was coming out of the police station when she’d been going by, she surely would have busted her face all up in addition to hurting the rest of her body.

“There you go.” She couldn’t move with the man half on top of her and half off. She was struggling to get up when he finally told her to stop. She froze so quickly that she smacked him in the face when her hand was suddenly free of his. “I’m going to help you up, then I’ll get up. All right?”

“What were you doing coming out of the building so fast without looking anyway?” He said he didn’t expect a train to run him down. “I’m not that big that I’m able to replicate a train moving across the tracks.”

“Just let me get you up.” He sort of half shoved her off him and rolled her to her feet at the same time.

That was the exact moment that her ankle, which had been giving her fits all morning, decided that it wasn’t going to bear any weight anymore.

She screamed out in pain and fell back in his lap.

“Hold on. I know you’re hurting, so let me see what happened. Can I call an ambulance for you?”

“I think it’s broken.” He nodded and asked someone to call for an ambulance for them. “I thought I broke it before, but the stupid quack said it was only sprained. That was nearly a year ago, and it’s not getting any better.”

“My father is a doctor, and I can give him a call to meet us at the hospital.” She was in so much pain right then that she would have agreed to meet anyone at the hospital if they’d only take away the pain she was in.

“All right then, I’ll give him a call. My brother Reagan is a doctor as well.

Whichever one of them gets there first should be all right, okay? ”

“Yes, please help me.” He said he would, and she only then realized that she was still sitting on his lap.

“I’m usually not so clumsy, but I’ve been trying to walk off the extra pounds I know I’m putting on from the pizza place down the street.

They have the best pasta dishes I’ve ever eaten, and don’t get me started on their meatball sub.

I could eat a whole one every day and not feel the least bit bad about it. ”

“Their chef’s salad is good too. My brother and I usually get it with double the meat. You should try that sometime.” She nodded, nearly cross-eyed with pain. “Look, that’s my dad now, and he has his bag. Just let him examine you before the medics get here, and you’ll feel much better.”

After he examined her ankle, he deemed that it was indeed broken.

He teased his son about knocking women around to get a date, and then he asked her if she needed something for pain.

It was just then that the ambulance pulled up and two of the littlest women she’d ever seen popped out to help her.

As soon as the doctor gave her something for the pain, she felt so much better than before.

She knew who she had knocked down. There was no way a person could be in this town without having one or all of the Dresden boys—men, really—pointed out to her.

She knew who they were from the files that she had on them, but to see them up close and personal was something entirely different.

They were so much more…that’s it, just so much more than they were in a picture to see them up close.

Aaron introduced her to his father first, then to himself.

She smiled and said she’d have to be a nun in this town to not have it pointed out who each of the men were.

“Yeah, because we’re all single, that’s all.

” She asked him what that meant when she was being loaded onto the gurney.

“People think that we should be married and are forever trying to set us up. I’m sorry, but I like the old-fashioned way of meeting someone, and that’s to be knocked down and have them sitting in my lap. ”

“Oh, I see. You’re supposed to be funny.” She was feeling the medication more now that she was in the ambulance. She thought it was because she’d been given just a bit more, but her head was spinning around so much that she thought that she might be sick from it. “I don’t feel so good right now.”

“Take it easy, Ms. Troff, and I’ll make sure you’re going to be all right.

” There was a little bit of a tussle when she was told that someone should ride with her, and she wanted Aaron with her, but the doctor said he could get her treated faster if he went.

She was disappointed but didn’t say anything as she was embarrassed enough to be in the situation in the first place. “Is there anyone we can call for you?”

“No, I’ll call my boss later on to tell him what has happened.” That wasn’t a call she wanted to make anyway. He’d be pissed off that she’d been hurt first of all, then he’d be madder still when he found out how she’d been introduced to the Dresden family. “He’ll be understanding.”

No, he wouldn’t. He’d be the exact opposite.

He might even call her off the case, and she’d be happy about that.

It was a stupid reason for her to be here in the first place.

No one was kidnapping the women, and while she couldn’t prove it, she’d met two of the men who had been left without a wife when they’d disappeared one night.

She thought about the things that she’d found out.

None of the women had been taken in the same way.

One had been let go out of the shed she’d been locked in.

Yes, locked in a shed. He didn’t think that there was anything wrong with that either when asked why he’d have her locked in the shed.

He said it was to keep her from running, and she did anyway.

Then one had been at her sister’s house with the husband right there with her.

He said he turned his back for a moment, and she was just gone.

Nobody would tell him anything, either. He swore that she’d been looking at the new baby and had got it in her head that she wasn’t going to be around him anymore and just up and left him like she had a right to.

One had disappeared from the hospital. The Palmer case.

She’d gone in complaining about her leg hurting her, and she’d been gone to get a scan and never returned.

Larry swore that she’d been kidnapped by the staff there, but no one could tell him anything.

More like they thought that he was off his meds if he’d ever been on them.

She didn’t have the knowledge that something more was going on, but she’d bet anything that someone was helping these women so they could get out of abusive relationships.

And why they thought that Alaric was a part of it didn’t sit well with her either.

They thought that because he’d been in on one of the cases, arresting the husband, that he had the wherewithal to know what was going on to make the women disappear.

Like he was holding them hostage or something.

Her boss even suggested that he was selling the women off for some kind of sex trade operations, but she knew better.

There wasn’t a nicer man around than Alaric and his brothers, and they just didn’t strike her as the kidnapping sort of people.

Once she was at the hospital, she was moved around too much, and her ankle was hurting again.

She tried her best not to snap at anyone, but it was getting increasingly more painful every time she was moved.

And the x-ray nearly had her begging to be knocked out so that she’d not have to hurt anymore.

But as soon as she got back to the room, she was given something more powerful, and she was out like a light.

Just simply turned off, and she wasn’t aware of anything anymore.

“You’re a lightweight.” She tried to focus on the man who was talking to her. “It’s Doctor Reagan Dresden. My dad had to run home to be with our mom for dinner. It’s their anniversary today, and they’ve had these plans for weeks now.”

“What do you mean I’m a lightweight?” He explained to her that she’d been out for a good four hours and that was unusual for some people.

“I guess it’s because I don’t even take anything for a headache.

My body might well have decided, too, that since I was down, it would take full advantage of it and get some rest. I’ve not been sleeping all that well of late. ”

“It’s fine. I have something more for you for pain when you need it.

You might not have noticed, but we have your leg in a full cast to keep it from hurting you again.

Your ankle had a previous break in it, and that was what was causing you so much pain.

My brother Aaron said you were hurting even before you tripped.

” She said that the doctor told her it was just a sprain.

“Not a sprain but a full break of the bones.”

“It’s fine, really. When can I get out on my own?

” He said that he was going to keep her over the next couple of days so that she could get the good stuff when she needed it.

And she’d be better off here rather than the B&B she’d been staying at.

“I guess you know everything about me because it’s a small town.

Everyone seems to know about you and your family a great deal. ”

“They only think they know everything. But we have secrets too. As I’m sure you do as well.

” She felt her face heat up in embarrassment and decided that she wasn’t going to talk to him anymore, other than about her injury.

“I’ve ordered you a regular diet, and it should be coming up soon.

However, if you were to call Aaron, I’m betting that he could bring you in a meatball sub from the corner shop. ”