Page 11 of The Sunny Side (Rojo 2nd Generation: Rojo Police Department #3)

B RAWLEY

As I watched Max sprint the length of the park, eager to get the tennis ball I’d launched, I wondered when I’d finally be able to run again.

Right now, I was working my way up to a casual jog with Lana’s supervision.

Before surgery, my friends and I would compete on the treadmill to see who could reach our goal first - and that was usually three or four miles.

Currently, the thought of walking a mile made my entire body hurt.

I hadn’t noticed it before Lana pointed it out, but the rest of the body paid a price for having a bum knee.

A slight limp threw off the trajectory of everything else, leading to sore muscles and inflamed joints among other things.

Lana had been working with me to redirect my gait and correct the habit I’d made of limping to make up for my knee pain.

Now, rather than walking without thinking about it, I heard Lana’s voice reminding me to pay attention to my body.

If I was going to have a woman’s voice in my head, I’d much rather it be the sexy voice of a woman I hadn’t known my entire life.

But hers was the only one I could hear unfortunately, and every time she spoke, it was to tell me I was doing something wrong.

That made sense, though. Most of the women I’d grown up with, from Forresters to Tempests to Conners, were like sisters to me.

And since I had two sisters in my immediate family, Posie and Lotus, I knew just how good they were at telling people what to do and then nagging them to death when they didn’t do it.

Max sprinted back toward me with the ball in his mouth, and I ordered him to sit and stay after I took it from him.

Unless I forced him to, he wouldn't give himself a chance to catch his breath. I knew he wasn’t ready to be finished for the evening and how important it was to run off his excess energy, but it was also my job as his owner and partner to make sure he was healthy.

He didn’t care about any of that, though.

As he panted loudly, his eyes never left the ball in my hand.

His entire body vibrated as he watched me pop it into the end of the handheld launcher I’d bought to save my shoulder.

Just to tease him, I smiled and asked, “Are you ready?”

Even though Max had been with me for a while now and had learned dozens of new things, it was still shocking to see him nod in reply.

Without looking away from him, I lifted the launcher and shot the ball.

I watched his entire body stiffen as he waited for me to release him so he could go after it.

“Fetch!”

Max became a blur of motion as he sprinted toward the end of the park, and I looked up to find the ball flying through the air . . . aimed directly at a woman on the sidewalk who was walking a tiny furball of a dog.

By the time I yelled for her to watch out, the ball had already hit her in the side of the head and she was crumbling to the ground.

“Fuck!” I yelled as I hobbled across the uneven grass, cursing my fucking knee and hating it for how badly it had let me down.

By the time I got to her, Max had dropped his ball and was checking her out.

When I glanced over, I was shocked to see that he had the small dog’s leash between his teeth so it wouldn’t run off in the confusion.

Without thinking, I said, “Hold. Sit. Stay.”

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I muttered as I dropped down to my good knee with my other leg straight out to the side because of the brace I still wore.

I checked for a pulse and sighed with relief when I felt it beating strong and steady beneath my fingers.

I reached back and pulled my phone out of my pocket.

It only rang twice before the dispatcher answered.

“This is Dumont 8-1-9. I have an unconscious woman at the northwest corner of Alamo Park in Lonestar Terrace. Patient was hit in the head with a tennis ball and fell to the concrete.” I carefully felt around the back of the woman’s head, making sure not to jostle her in case of a neck injury.

“There’s swelling near her left temple and a small amount of blood on the back of her head. ”

“10-4. Stay on the line,” Esme Cardenas said, her professional voice much calmer than it ever was outside the station. I heard her calling out codes in the background as her fingers flew over the keyboard before she asked, “Do you need backup 8-1-9?”

“No suspects, no backup requested, just an ambulance. Unconscious woman in her twenties was walking her dog alone,” I said as I patted her front pockets and then slid my hand beneath her to feel for a wallet. “Initial search finds no identification. Identity is unknown at this time.”

“Did you witness the injury?”

“Yes.”

“Unit 391 en route for witness statement. Stand by.”

I glanced over at Max and saw that the small dog was asleep between his front paws, napping like she didn’t have a care in the world. Max was still holding her leash and watching me for more instructions.

I reiterated my earlier command to remind him. “Hold. Stay.”

I looked back down at the woman’s face and studied her as I felt for her pulse again. It was still steady but beating at a calmer pace now. It worried me that she was still unconscious and there were no signs of movement.

I gently took her glasses off since they were askew and hooked them on the neckline of my shirt before I looked down again and wondered why the woman looked familiar.

Obviously, she lived in the area since she was walking her dog at the park, but I knew she must be new to the neighborhood.

I remembered hearing someone mention that there were three sisters who had just moved in, and I wondered if this might be one of them.

Esme’s voice came over the phone again, and she sounded a lot less professional when she said, “I texted the elder Forresters, and Heath answered first. He’s on his way to the park now to help identify the victim with an ETA of two minutes.”

“Thanks, Esme. What’s the ETA on the rig?

” I asked. I could hear a siren, but it was another police unit, so I knew we still had some time before the ambulance arrived.

That was one of the drawbacks to living on the outskirts of town but something the neighborhood usually didn’t worry about since many of its residents were medical professionals and law enforcement officers.

There was almost always one of us available if needed.

“Four minutes out. One minute for 3-9-1.”

“Thanks, Es. I’ll let you go now.”

“10-4,” Esme said before she ended the call.

I heard a car and glanced up to see Marley Forrester, an officer with the RPD that I had known for years, pull up to the curb. She spoke into her mic as she hurried toward me and then dropped down on the woman’s other side and felt for her pulse.

“What happened?” Marley asked.

I didn’t even have to think about it, even though I was the one at fault and about to admit to it on record. “I was using the launcher to throw the ball for Max, and I managed to hit her right in the temple.”

Marley winced before she said, “That had to hurt. No ID?”

“Nothing. She looks familiar, but I can’t place her.”

Marley studied the woman’s face and said, “I’ve never seen her before, so she didn’t grow up around here and doesn’t run with anyone I know.”

“I’m sure I know her from somewhere,” I whispered as I leaned over to study the woman’s face again.

Suddenly, she moaned, and then her eyes fluttered open, giving me a glimpse of gorgeous brown eyes that I instantly recognized.

“Clarisse?” I asked in shock.

“Do I know you?” Clarisse whispered before she squeezed her eyes shut.

“You do.”

“What happened?”

“You got hit in the head,” Marley explained.

“In the wreck?”

“No, you’re at the park,” I explained.

“I’m not sure what’s going on right now, but I have the sudden urge to ask you to kiss me.

” I glanced up at Marley and found her staring at Clarisse in confusion, but I didn’t have time to explain before she grabbed my wrist. In a pained hiss, Clarisse ordered, “I don’t want to die. Promise you won’t leave me.”

“I won’t leave you,” I promised. “You didn’t die then, and you’re not gonna die now, Clarisse. I can hear the sirens, so the ambulance is really close.”

“My leg doesn’t hurt anymore,” Clarisse remarked. She slipped her hand beneath her head before she said, “My head is killing me, though.”

She winced and then pulled her hand up in front of her face before she gasped and yelled, “I’m bleeding!”

“Shit,” I muttered as the ambulance cut its sirens off at the corner of the park and then stopped behind Marley’s cruiser.

“The ambulance is here now,” Marley said to reassure her as she got up to make room for the paramedics.

“Will you help me find my glasses?” Clarisse begged urgently. Suddenly, she tried to sit up as she yelled, “Cupcake!”

“I’ve got your glasses. Is that your dog’s name?” I asked, not quite able to hide the disdain in my voice as I handed her glasses over. “She’s fine.”

“Where is she?” Clarisse asked as she winced and touched the back of her head again.

“Max is holding her.”

“Oh, good,” Clarisse said as she looked at the paramedic on his knees beside her. She looked back at me before she asked, “Are you Max?”

I ignored her question and addressed the second paramedic who nudged me aside so he could kneel where I had been.

“She was hit in the temple with a tennis ball, and it was flying ,” I told him. “She dropped like a ton of bricks, and the back of her head bounced on the sidewalk.”

“She’s been talking nonsense,” Marley announced. “Something about a wreck and an injured leg. She even asked Dumont to kiss her.”