Alana gave me a half-smile. “Well, this town may seem like a dream come true to tourists, I’m sure, but it has its bad sides too.”
I jerk my chin at her. “When you say bad side, does it have something to with what happened to you?” I hadn’t asked her earlier about her appearance, I wasn’t really sure what to say.
She pursed her lips, thinking it over. “Yes. I was in a car accident.”
“Oh no,” I told her, hoping my shock was coming across as genuine. I at least knew my concern was. “What happened?”
She paused. “It was a hit and run. I got hit, he ran.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah it was shit.”
“Did they catch the guy?”
She nodded. “They found him.” But then her lips clamped together, signalling that the conversation was over. Interesting how she didn’t divulge any further. I wondered if she just didn’t want to get into it with a stranger – it wouldn’t be easy to talk about how the man who hit you ended up shot in the head – or if she just didn’t know. Both were possible.
“When are you out of the hospital?”
Luz fastened her eyes on me. “How did you know she was still in the hospital?”
Fuck.
I lifted one shoulder. “I just assumed. Her arm still has the tape from where the IV goes in.”
They all looked down at Alana’s arm. Sure enough on her vein in the crook of her elbow, the clear sticker remained.
“Playing hooky?” I asked, turning the question on them.
She blushed then coquettishly bit her lip. “Promise not to tell anyone?”
I made the sign of the cross over my heart. “Hope to die.”
Her brows furrowed for a half a second before she eased back into her sex kitten grin. I wondered what that was about. She cleared her throat. “They said any day now. It’s what they keep telling me.”
“Well, I’m no doctor, but if you’re well enough to be out at a bar, accepting drinks from strange Canadians, then you’re well enough to be out of the hospital.”
“I agree,” she said, raising her beer. “Let’s all cheer to that.”
We all raised our drinks and clinked again. I held eye contact with her the whole time, trying to read her while trying to tell her something. Mainly that I was a good guy. That I could be trusted.
Even though, at the heart of it, both of those were lies.
We sat there for another half an hour until it became apparent that the mention of hospital had taken the wind out of their sails. Dominga kept eyeing the clock on her phone and Luz monitored Alana’s alcohol intake. All the while, Alana was trying to talk with me, ask me question upon question. It was a good thing I came prepared and I knew my fake history as if it were my own. It was a lot easier that way. Some days I even lied to myself about what once was.
“Well I think we should get Alana back to the hospital before she gets in trouble,” Luz said as she and Dominga got to their feet.
I rose too, hoping to help Alana out of her chair. “If anyone gives you any trouble, you report them to me,” I told her with a wink.
“I will,” she said, then gave a resigned sigh as Luz darted over to her to help, beating me to it. Then the two of them started arguing in Spanish, Alana saying she wanted to stay and talk to me, Luz telling her there are other boys when she’s good and ready for them. For some reason, what Luz said rankled me and I had no idea why. Jealously was not my thing. Caring wasn’t either. Couldn’t have one without the other sometimes.
I walked with them as far as the door – walking them to their car seemed borderline stalkerish – but just as they were about to leave, Alana leaned into me and whispered in my ear, “So if someone does give me trouble, like a mean old nurse, how am I going to get a hold of you?”
This was unexpected. I knew Alana was flirty and forward from what I’d seen so far, but I didn’t think this would continue beyond this. I don’t know what I really thought would happen after but it wasn’t her basically asking for my number.
Little warning flags started going off. They weren’t as bold or urgent as the ones I’d gotten when dealing with her arranged assassination, but they were telling me my life would be a lot easier if I let Alana Bernal go and I went on with my sorry little life.
But I guess my sorry little life felt like it was missing something.
Stupidity, perhaps.
So I told Alana where I was staying and the room number. And when her friends helped her hobble away into the dark parking lot, she shot me a look over her shoulder that told me that I was in for it.
If only she knew.
CHAPTER FOUR
Alana
I could not get that man out of my head. For once, instead of thinking about pain and injustice, I was thinking about a 6’2” man with tree trunk arms, caveman shoulders and the most sculpted, masculine face I’d ever seen. His wide strong jaw, his straight nose, his slicing cheekbones and piercing blue eyes became my drug of choice to keep the aches at bay. He even had the perfect-shaped head.
But of course when I told Luz this, I was met with a scowl.
We were sitting in my apartment, having hot chocolate. I sprinkled a bit of hablano pepper onto mine, liking the burn more and more these days. Making hot chocolate – or any food, really – was about the extent of what I could do around the apartment. Luz had to come over and help me clean since I couldn’t move my body very well.
“Perfect-shaped head,” she repeated with a sound of disgust. “Will you listen to yourself?”
“Maybe he has the perfect-shaped dick too,” I teased her, though somehow I knew he did. Men like him had to.
“Alana, please get a hold of your hormones. Goodness, woman, you’ve been out of the hospital for three days now, you’d think you’d forget about it and get back to your life.”
I folded my arms across my chest even though I winced as I did so. “Maybe my life isn’t so fun anymore.”
She tried to give me a sympathetic look but failed at it. That little bit of Luz hardness shown through her dark eyes. “Look, it’s just temporary. All of this. Every day you’re getting better. The doctors told you so.”
“Every day is another day away from my job. Luz, you knew that was my life. Is my life.”
“Well, ever think that perhaps this accident was God’s way of showing you what’s important?”