LOGINCHAPTER SIXTY ONECassie stepped out when a police officer approached her around the corner. She’d been cooped up in that sterile room all night, caught in a restless loop of holding his hand until her fingers went numb, then pacing the cramped floor until the walls felt like they were closing in. Now, her whole body ached with a deep, heavy exhaustion from being trapped in that small space for so long. She’d honestly tried to sleep. She'd leaned her head back and begged her brain to switch off but every time she closed her eyes, the darkness just played the same horrific tape. She saw the headlights of the car coming toward them and Dom's face in that split second before impact. The officer had been waiting by the waiting room entrance. She could tell by the way he looked that he had been there for quite sometime. He was probably a good man who went home to a family and told them about his day, accident victims and grieving families, and then he probably tried to forget about them
CHAPTER SIXTY Cassie wanted to tell him he was being paranoid and that bad things just happened randomly and there was no pattern and no purpose. But there was a surety in his face that told her he wasn't going to back down on this, and honestly, the idea of someone deliberately hitting them was almost less frightening than the idea that the universe was just this randomly cruel."Okay," she said finally. "Look into it. But Leo, if you're right and someone actually did this on purpose, then we need to figure out who. And why… right?."" And we will.”He'd been checking his phone every few minutes, and Cassie could see the tension building in his shoulders. He was a good friend, but he was also a businessman with responsibilities, and the world didn't stop moving just because someone got hit by a car. "I have to head back to the office," he said around five, already standing and collecting his jacket. "The early investors are pushing for updates on the third location and I can't put
CHAPTER FIFTY NINEThey finally let her see him around four. A nurse named Patricia with kind eyes led her down a quiet corridor to the private ward they had moved him too. The room was too white and machines were beeping nonstop but and there, on a bed that was half the size of his real bed, Dom was propped slightly on the hospital bed. His left leg was elevated and wrapped in heavy white bandaging. A monitor was attached to his head, small wires disappearing into his dark hair and his face looked badly bruised, purple and yellow blooming across his skin. The gash on his forehead had been cleaned but it was stitched tightly and the sight of it made her skin crawl. He looked smaller than she remembered and she stood in the doorway for a moment, just looking at him. She tried to reconcile the man in the bed with the man she knew but they looked completely different and guilt tore I her chest again.Taking a deep breath, Cassie walked across the room to his bed side and sat down bes
FIFTY EIGHT Gregory was still there.She knew he would be but still, she had had a faint and naive hope that by the time they got back he would have left. But no….He was standing at the far end of the waiting room near the windows, he and Dr Osei. And whatever they were discussing, Gregory was asking the questions and Dr. Osei was answering them with the patience of someone who had to deal with men like Gregory every other day. Elena stood a few feet away from them, not quite part of the conversation but not separate from it either. Cassie took one look at her face and thought, without being entirely sure, that what she was looking at was someone who was frightened and had run out of the energy it took to hide it completely.The room had fewer people now. Nobody looked up as they came in, and Cassie had just enough time to catch a breath before grasping everything he was saying. "What's the long-term implications of this kind of injury," Gregory was saying. "I want to understand t
FIFTY-SEVEN Leo let a few minutes pass, which she appreciated more than she could have said, before he spoke."Have you actually had yourself checked?" He finally said. He said it casually as if nothing major had just happened here minutes ago. "The paramedics cleared me at the scene.""That's not what I asked."She turned her head to look at him and he was looking back at her with the same steadiness he seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of."Leo…""The impact was hard and we can't be too sure," he said. "Internal bleeding doesn't announce itself and injuries don't always hurt right away, sometimes they don't hurt at all until you've totally forgotten and by then you've lost a window. I'm not trying to make you panic or anything but I am just trying to be practical and I know you're someone who responds well to logic.""What I respond well to," Cassie said, "is people listening when I tell them I'm fine.""And what I respond well to," Leo said, "is verification. I'm a facts pe
FIFTY-SIXGregory's eyes found Cassie in under three seconds and the hardness in it made her want to crawl away. She got up on her feet unsure why exactly. Maybe it was the instinct about not being caught sitting down in front of this man or the awareness that whatever was about to happen she needed to be upright for it. The hospital blanket slid from her shoulders and she let it fall on the chair because there wasn't time to think about the blanket. Gregory Hale was crossing the room toward her and whatever was to come was the only thing that mattered.He stopped at her front, close enough that she had to make a conscious effort not to take a step back."Why," he said, "didn't you call us?"Cassie opened her mouth. She had a reasonable answer ready, several of them actually. She'd been assembling them in the back of her mind since the paramedics had first loaded Dom into the ambulance and she'd stood on the shoulder of that highway knowing at some point she was going to have to ma
Cassie's heart was pounding. "Dom—""I know it's too much.” He looked at her, vulnerable and fierce all at once. "But I can't pretend I'm okay with sharing you. Even in the smallest way."Cassie crossed to him and took his face in her hands. "I don't want anyone else. Not Julian, not anyone. Just y
Margaret hesitated, glancing at Dom, then back to Cassie. "She said something about proof that Richard had been lying to protect him." Margaret's voice dropped. "She said Richard knew something but he was convering it up.”The world seemed to dance around Cassie's eyes. She looked at Dom and saw th
Cassie pressed her hands over her face. He was right. God, he was so right and she hated it."I can't do this," she whispered."Can't do what? Can't feel something real or can't let yourself be happy, which one?""I can't lose myself in you!" Cassie's voice rose. "I can't become one of those women
Cassie wanted to argue, suggest the other room maybe, but she was too tired. "Okay," she whispered.She climbed into Dom's bed, and he pulled the covers up around her. He went into his closet and came back wearing fresh clothes, then to her surprise, he started to leave."Where are you going?" Cass







