Page 4 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Grace

Hospitals were the worst. I cranked up the back of the bed while I waited for the ER doctor to return with my CAT scan results.

They would be negative. I knew because I’d been through this before, and I felt fine.

Okay, not fine, but relatively good, considering I’d been attacked on the street and beaten up.

“You’ve done your duty,” I told Terry over the incessant beeping of the heart monitor attached to my chest.

The tyrant stood at the foot of my bed in the little curtained-off section of the emergency room, looking all broody.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “You can leave now.”

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. Despicable was 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?”

“None.” It seemed we were going to go through the entire concussion test.

After finishing with the list of symptoms and confirming my age, when and where I was born, and today’s date, he asked for the months in reverse order .

“December…” I’d had to do this several times, so I knew the drill. I went through them quickly and ended with, “February, January.”

“You skipped August,” the doctor informed me.

Before I could argue, Terry agreed. “You did.”

The doctor didn’t look pleased. “I’m going to categorize this as a minor concussion.” He checked his computer screen again. “You’re in luck. Dr. Chen is on the floor tonight. You’ve seen him before.”

I nodded. “Yes.” He was the neurologist I’d seen after my last fainting spell.

Terry was silent as we waited for Dr. Chen, who arrived about ten minutes later.

“Ah, Grace. I hear you’ve been a naughty girl again and hit your head.” He shook my hand.

I shrugged. “I couldn’t avoid it.”

He turned to Terry and offered his hand.

“Terry Goodwin, concerned friend.”

I couldn’t remember Terry referring to himself as my friend before.

“So tell me what happened,” Dr. Chen said.

“I was mugged,” I explained. “There was a lot of blood, and I forgot my tension exercise.”

“And?” he prodded.

“I forgot to close my eyes.”

“What about your desensitization exercises?”

I felt like curling into a ball of shame. “I didn’t get to them.” Not having time was an excuse. In reality, I was afraid of them.

“Well, young lady, I suggest you get serious about the desensitization kit. You do understand that the effects of these concussive incidents can be cumulative. At your current rate, you run the risk of serious damage.”

Terry’s face showed true concern. “Will the desensitization stop her fainting?”

I had the same question. Last time the doc had only said, “ You should do this. ” And I’d responded the same way I did to most demands—I’d rebelled. Not such a good idea in retrospect.

The doctor nodded. “The best approach would be to come to my office for sessions, but failing that, she can do sessions at home, and I believe they will help.”

“She’ll do them,” Terry said, like it was in order.

Vintage Terry to insist on making decisions for me—again.

His eyes shifted my way. “Won’t you?”

Trapped. “Sure. If it will help.”

“Do you still have the kit? ”

I nodded. I hadn’t even opened it.

Dr. Chen typed on the keyboard. “I am also prescribing that you not be alone for the next twenty-four hours.”

I nodded. That was pretty standard after a concussion.

“I’ll be with her,” Terry confirmed.

Gritting my teeth, I decided against creating a scene.

Terry

I’d known Grace fainted at the sight of blood, but until today, I’d never realized how dangerous that could be.

My insides had been tied in knots since the moment I saw her head hit the concrete.

She could have been badly hurt and not known it.

I’d seen car-accident cases where the victim suffered a hit to the head, declined a trip to the hospital, and dropped dead within a week from an undetected brain bleed.

It was an immense relief to have the CAT scan come back clean.

When Jordy arrived, I joined him in the lobby.

“The call came from a burner,” Jordy said, handing me back Grace’s phone. “I’ll watch to see if it turns on again, but the odds aren’t great. How is she?”

I shrugged. “Okay, considering. A concussion, and the CAT scan was clear. But she shouldn’t have put herself in that position in the first place. She should have told me about the call. I would have gone with her.”

Jordy laughed. “The way you treat her, I think she’d drink sewer water before she’d ask you for help.” He pulled a bag from his pocket. “Jelly Belly?” The guy was hooked on jelly beans.

I shook my head, and when he left, I returned to Grace’s exam space, and I had to face the fact that he might be right. Had my efforts to keep her at a distance contributed to tonight by making her hate me?

It took another hour after Dr. Chen’s desensitization lecture for the release paperwork to come through. I stepped out of the curtained area as Grace redressed. This episode was over, and I was damned relieved that she hadn’t been hurt.

I’d promised Pete I’d keep her safe. Safe from bad guys like what had happened tonight had been half his meaning.

The other half had been not letting her date anyone with a dangerous profession—not after what had happened with their aunt and uncle.

That responsibility fell to me while Pete was deployed, and I could be very persuasive.

Grace didn’t need to know that the young firefighter she’d taken a liking to only ghosted her after a threatening visit. Nor did she need to know I’d also chased off the cop from Glendale in the time since Pete had been gone.

After going missing on a mission four years ago, Pete had been declared KIA based on the claims of the terrorist group that captured him, but that didn’t relieve me of the obligation to follow through on my promise.

It also put me in charge of Grace’s finances, since Pete had put his life insurance into a trust I was tasked with managing for her. Those first months had been hard.

Then, Lucas had informed me that through his Omega contacts, he’d learned that Pete was still alive, being held somewhere despite what the DOD said. He’d warned me that only six people in the country knew this, with me it was seven.

Not only could Grace not know, because the circle couldn’t grow to eight, but after seeing her destroyed once, I couldn’t give her hope and then crush it a second time.

So, all I could do was wait for Omega to get a window to extract him. It sucked to be helplessly silent, but that was the nature of a hostage-rescue operation. And our code meant I had the added task of keeping Grace safe from me and my desires.

Grace was goodness and light. She needed to be shielded from the darkness I carried around with me, from the monster I hid from the world.

“I’m decent,” she announced.

When I reentered the curtain, she had turned away, gathering up her papers. But that killer dress she had on this evening showed me an acre of bare back—almost to her ass—and my cock instantly noticed. This was why I tried not to be in the same room as her when I could help it.

She turned around. “I’m ready to go home.”

“You’re coming to my place,” I insisted. I never sugarcoated things with her. Expectations needed to be clear. It was the way of the world. “Doctor’s orders—you can’t be alone.”

Her pale-blue eyes flared.

I could get lost in those eyes for days, which is why I made such an effort to avoid her.

“Stop being a jerk and ordering me around.” There was her argumentative side again. “I want to go home.”

“Wildcat, have you forgotten what happened tonight? I’m sure they know where you live. Going back to your apartment is the stupidest thing we could do.”

Her face contorted into the angry Grace I knew too well. “Now you’re calling me stupid.”