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Why did her body hurt? Did they drive over an I.E.D.? Dela reached up to take off her helmet, but she wasn’t wearing one. Her head and neck hurt. Slowly, she opened one eye and then the other. The hay field and paved road weren’t in Iraq. This wasn’t a Humvee that was crumpled around her.
Then the last four years came streaming back to her. She’d lost a lower leg and was sent to rehab, then home. She had a job with the casino.
Dela huffed out a breath, to release the helplessness she felt. White powder swirled on the dashboard and into the air causing her to cough. Which made her neck and sides hurt. She clawed at the seatbelt holding her phone hostage in her pants pocket. With shaky hands, she released the seatbelt and pulled the phone out.
Heath’s number came up first. She dialed that. It went to voicemail. “Hey, I’m somewhere between home and the casino. Some asshole T-boned my car. Please come.” She dropped the phone and the world went black.
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
A familiar voice pulled Dela out of the dark cocoon she remembered when her leg was blown off. There hadn’t been a familiar voice or a hand holding hers when she’d awoken in the hospital in Germany. She fought her heavy eyelids, slowly raising them. A blurry face was near hers.
“There you are. I told your mom you’d wake up soon.”
Heath. She tried to smile but her lips felt funny. Like they were fatter than she remembered.
“That was some fight you put up with the other car,” Heath said.
Car. Gradually the night filtered into her conscience. Kenny walked her to her car. The firecrackers, his joke about a diaper. Driving home and the lights.
She licked her lips. “They were waiting for me.”
Heath waved to someone. She tried to move her head but something kept it forward.
“Good to see you’re okay,” Jacob said, giving her a smile.
“It’s hard to kill me. I’m like a cat,” she said, to put him and Heath at ease, but she felt Heath’s grip on her hand tighten a bit.
“How do you know someone was waiting for you?” Heath asked.
“Was there another car there when you found me?” she countered.
“No.”
She tried to nod but again something held her head. Dela reached up and felt a neck brace. She wiggled her toes to make sure she wasn’t paralyzed. The toes of her left foot scraped the sheet. “I didn’t see the lights until they flicked on and came at me. It was so fast I couldn’t react.” She tried to push up to sit but her ribs, neck, and head retaliated with sharp shards of pain.
“Stay still. You need to heal and you can’t do that if you keep using muscles that need to rest,” Heath placed his free hand on her shoulder.
“You need to see where Gus Sanders was at two-forty.” She thought about how the firecrackers had scared her and Kenny. She should have been looking for trouble instead of blowing it off.
“I sent a request to the Sheriff’s Office to find and question Sanders.” Heath sat on the chair that was next to the bed. “Did you see anything that will help us pin this on him?”
Dela started to shake her head and said, “No. But who else would have wanted to hurt me?”
“Alex didn’t have very many good things to say about you. How you turned his daughter against him. You keep sticking your nose in his life.” Heath studied her. “I let him go home at midnight. He wasn’t being cooperative and all we had to hold him was the fact he had his wife’s cell phone. It obviously wasn’t hidden if Harper found it.”
“Didn’t you do a search of the house? Why wasn’t it found then?” Dela asked.
“The warrant we had was to find the names of the blackmail victims and look for traces of blood. We found neither. There wasn’t anything on the warrant about a phone.” Heath stared into her eyes. “I don’t remember if there was a phone found with the body in the car.” He glanced over his shoulder to Jacob. “Go read the evidence report and see what all they found in the car and on the body.”
“I will. Do you want me to let Mrs. Bolden know she can come in?” Jacob asked.
“Yes. We’ve kept her out of here long enough.” Heath raised up and kissed Dela’s forehead. “I have to say you gave me a scare. That message. I couldn’t drive fast enough to find you.”
She read the fear and worry in his eyes. “Sorry I couldn’t stay awake long enough to see you be my shining knight.”
“Dela, oh honey, I have been pacing the hallway waiting to see you.” Mom came to the other side of the bed and picked up her hand with the IV.
Dela could make out the dampness around her eyes. “I hope you called Lance to keep you company while you waited.”
Her mom smiled weakly. “He picked me up and brought me here.”
“Good.” Dela was glad her mom had someone to lean on. She wondered if her mom had also leaned on the man when Dela was wounded and going through rehab.
“How did this happen?” Mom asked.
“Some idiot came racing down a side road and rammed into my car on my way home from work,” Dela said, holding Heath’s gaze. She didn’t want him to say anything that would make her mom worry even more.
“Probably some drunk. Really as head of security, I would think you could work better hours, Dela.” Mom had the look that meant she was going to talk to someone.
“Mom, I choose my hours. I prefer to be at the casino to help when it’s the busiest. And tonight we were several employees short.” She tried to sit up again. Pain shot through her.
Heath eased her down. “You can’t keep irritating your injuries.”
“We are short-handed and now we’ll be even more short-handed tomorrow night. Remind me to call Kenny tomorrow and let him know he needs to call in more help.” She grasped Heath’s hand. He knew how important this job was to her. She wouldn’t leave her guards understaffed.
“I’ll make sure you call. You need to relax and rest. I’m not going anywhere.” Heath smoothed her hair back.
“You have to find a murderer,” Dela said.
“You have to find out who did this to my daughter,” her mom said.
Heath smiled at both of them. “We will be working on the homicide and the hit and run, I guarantee you both.”
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Waking up, Dela moaned. Her body ached all over, but especially her neck and back.
“The nurse said I could give you this pain med when you woke up.”
She looked to her right and found Heath pouring water into a plastic cup. “What time is it?” She could hear people talking, carts being wheeled, and the sound of cars outside the window.
“It’s seven.” He placed the pill in her mouth and then a bent straw.
She sucked on the straw and water washed the foul-tasting pill down. She spit out the straw and studied Heath. “Have you been here all night? Don’t you need to go to work?”
He grinned. “I said I wasn’t leaving you. The doctor said if you didn’t show evidence of a concussion, you could go home today. I’ll go to work after I take you to your mom’s.”
She tried to shake her head but the dull thud in her head and the neck brace didn’t allow it to happen. “No. You aren’t taking me to my mom’s. If she wants to take care of me, she has to come to my house. I want to get well with my animals and my things.” By things she meant her handicapped bars in her bathroom. She’d lived in her mom’s home for almost a year without any of the shiny silver bars she had installed in her home. She liked not having to figure out how to get in her mom’s tub shower or getting on and off the toilet when she wasn’t wearing the prosthesis.
“Okay, I’ll take you home and let your mom know she has to come to our home to pamper you.” Heath leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’m going to the cafeteria to get breakfast. I’ll bring it back here, you want anything?”
“Just grab a couple things you know I like.”
He nodded and left the room.
Great. Not only was she not going to be able to go to work but she’d have her mom hovering around all day. But she would also have her mom to drive her around.
That started Dela wondering how bad her car had been damaged.
Mom pushed through the door, followed by Lance. Her mom’s fiancé had his cowboy hat in his hands. She knew her face must be hideous when Lance quickly looked away. Only people who truly loved her wouldn’t turn their heads.
“Dela, where is Heath? He said he would stay with you.” Mom hurried over to the bed and sat in the chair, grasping her hand.
“He—”
“Went for breakfast,” Heath cut her off as he carried a tray of food into the room.
“Oh! I figured they would have fed you by now,” Mom said, rising and standing by Lance.
“They came by when Dela was still sleeping. I told them to let her sleep.” Heath set the tray on the table by the bed and then swung it over the top of Dela.
“Has the doctor been in?” Mom asked.
This answer Dela didn’t know. She watched Heath.
“Not since last night. He should be around in another hour. When we spoke, he said as long as Dela doesn’t have any symptoms of a concussion or internal bleeding she can go home. But she can’t go to work for a week.” As he said the last sentence Heath peered into her eyes.
“No one said anything to me last night about internal bleeding.” Mom had her mother lion face on. “How could she escape that bomb in Iraq and come home to us only to have a drunk driver possibly take her away.”
“Hey! I’m laying here and I’m not going anywhere. I told Heath, I have the nine lives of a cat.” Dela glared at her mom for even thinking she would let a thing like a car accident take her life.
“I’m sorry. It’s just you’ve gone through so much already. I just want your life to be easy and smooth.” Tears welled in her mom’s eyes.
“What would be the fun in that?” Dela asked, joking.
Heath faced her mom. “Why don’t you go on to Dela’s and feed the animals and get things ready for when I bring her home?”
“Oh, yes. I can do that. I’ll make some cookies.” She stopped at the door. “You do have ingredients at your house for that, don’t you?”
Heath laughed. “Yes. Since I moved in the cupboards are being kept stocked.”
“Good. See you at your house,” Mom said to Dela. Lance had headed out the door as soon as Heath had mentioned Mom taking care of things.
“Thanks, I think?” Dela said, picking up a piece of cold toast and spreading jam on it.
“Did you want her to keep on chattering here?” Heath asked, sitting on the edge of the bed so he could cut up a piece of sausage.
“No. I’m not sure I want to listen to her chatter all day at my house either.” Dela stopped the piece just before her mouth as she remembered the photos. “What about the photos I left on the table of Dory Thunder?”
“I put them in the drawer of your bedside table, where you keep the mugshot, last night.” Heath slipped the sausage in his mouth and made a face. “I think this is made out of a plant.” He swallowed and picked up his cup of coffee and drank.
Dela chuckled. “What did you expect in a hospital?” Another thought struck. “Did you call Jacob away from Rae’s place last night?”
“No. He was there when Alex was released, giving Rae support when Alex arrived to pick up Harper. Then he stayed an hour and went home.” Heath scooped up egg onto his fork.
“Jacob had gone home when I was hit. So he wouldn’t know if Alex went back out or not.” She wondered if the person who hit her was the angry father or the man being divorced.