Page 10 of Guarding Grace

He shook his head. “I’ll believe that when I hear it from a doctor.”

“Really? Don’t you have a date with that blonde? Janice?”

“No. I’m driving you home, if they let you out.”

“You don’t have to. Just go give Janice a call. I saw her slip you her number.” This was my best play to get rid of him.

Terry didn’t move. “Not interested.”

As I stewed, I replayed the events of tonight in my head and came to an awful realization. I hadn’t thanked Terry for saving me, and that made me a terrible human being.Despicablewas more like it. “Terry.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Thank you for being there for me tonight.”

He merely nodded.

“I mean that. You saved me.”

His gray eyes softened. “You’re very welcome, Grace.”

It hurt to realize this was our first noncombative exchange in forever. Plus, he’d called me by my name instead of Hellcat or the like.

My head still hurt from being banged against the stupid car window. Feeling the back of my skull, I found the bump I expected. My hair would hide that, but I didn’t need a mirror to know it would take heavy-duty makeup tomorrow to deal with my face.

Terry moved closer and lowered his voice. “I know they lured you out with a fake ransom call, and I heard them ask where Elliot was. Why?”

“I don’t know.” In the moment, I’d thought they’d been a pair of asshole muggers, but now everything fell together—the ransom call that didn’t make sense and the guys staked out by my car. They wanted me in order to get to Elliot.

Terry stared at me, waiting for more.

“Really, I don’t know.”

Dr. Nelson breezed in. “Let’s see if radiology has given us an update.” He tapped on the computer terminal, scanned the screen, and turned to me. “The report says your scan is clean.”

I knew it would be. “I need to get home,” I said as I sat up.

The doctor placed a hand on my arm. “Not so fast, Ms. Brennan. Being as you are a repeat customer, you know we’re not done yet.”

Terry’s brows drew together.

I knew what was coming. “Where would you like to start?”

“Symptoms. Headache?”

I nodded. “Yes, but that’s because when the guy hit me, he slammed my head against the car window.”

The doctor shook his head. “Nausea?”

“No.”

“Balance issues?”

“None.”

“Loss of consciousness?”

With Terry here, I couldn’t fake this one. “Yes, but not from hitting my head. I fainted.”

“And then hit her head pretty hard on the concrete,” Terry added.

“Vision issues?”