EVERYTHING HURT.
I tried to take a breath, but it was as if my lungs decided to stop working.
“She’s waking up.”
Something warm stroked across my forehead.
“Elyssia.”
I blinked my eyes open to the interior of Ben’s Jeep.
Holding a cell phone in one hand, Ben cupped my cheek with the other. “Can you hear me?”
I opened my mouth but only a whisper of sound came out. “Hard to breathe.”
A voice came through the phone’s speaker. “What’s her pulse doin’?”
Ben moved his hand and put two fingers on the inside of my wrist. “I don’t know. I need to take her into the ER.”
“No,” I tried to yell, but I only sounded slightly more audible than my last words. “No ER.” Too many questions, too much money. “No.” I pushed up slightly in the passenger seat.
“All right, all right.” The voice came through the phone again. “I’m almost there. Can she hear me?”
“Yes,” Ben answered.
“Hey darlin’, I’m gonna ask you a few questions. You with me?” The Southern-accented voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
“Yeah,” I breathed out.
“Tell me what’s goin’ on.”
“Hard to breathe, can’t take a deep breath.”
“When did this start?” the familiar voice asked.
“In the studio.” Last night, now, today, I didn’t remember.
“I’m not followin’, darlin’.”
“She means karate class earlier tonight,” Ben answered for me.
“All right. I’m pullin’ in. Where you parked?”
“East lot, right by the ER entrance. You know my car.”
“Gotcha.” The line went dead.
Ben pocketed his phone as tight lines drew his eyebrows together. “I want to take you into the ER.”
“I can’t afford it.” Marcus had VA benefits, but I didn’t have health insurance, and an ER bill right now would send Marcus over the edge. “I’m okay.”
Ben’s chest heaved as his jaw went rigid. “You are not—”
The passenger door swung opened and six feet of blond-haired, green-eyed, muscled surfer filled the frame.
“Hey, darlin’.” Talon grinned.
I groaned. “Talon.”
“The one and only.” He winked. “We gotta stop meetin’ like this.”
Talon was the last person I wanted to see. He’d been the resident manwhore at the club where I worked, except I hadn’t seen him in a while. But worse than that, he was good friends with Myles and Neil, and I didn’t want anyone else to know about this. “What are you doing here?” I should’ve recognized his voice on the phone.
“Savin’ your boyfriend from havin’ a heart attack.” He reached across me and lowered my seat back, then picked up my wrist and looked at his watch. “You still havin’ trouble breathin’? What were you doin’ when you passed out?”
“Nothing. And he’s not my boyfriend.”
Ben narrowed his eyes at me. “She was running.”
I turned away from him and looked at Talon. “What are you, some kind of doctor?”
“Nothin’ that fancy. Wonderboy here says you took a beatin’.”
Embarrassment edging out the pain in my chest, I looked accusingly at Ben. “I’m fine.”
Ben didn’t look the least bit sorry. “Talon was a medic in the Marines. It was either call him or take you into the ER.”
I glanced at Talon. “I thought you moved out of Ocala.”
“Never lived here,” Talon vaguely answered as he gently rolled me to my side. “So don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” He lifted the hem of my shirt.
My reflexes kicked in.
I swung back and down, aiming for his forearm, as pain shot up my back. Before I could make contact, Talon caught my elbow and immobilized me.
Humiliation swept across my cheeks as I fought for a breath. “Don’t touch me.”
“You’re gonna have to be quicker’n that, sweetheart.” Still holding my arm, Talon shoved my shirt up.
Cold air hit my back and I let out a sound that was half cry, half protest, and all defeat.
Ben cupped my face. “Let him look.”
Stupid tears welled in my eyes.
“It’s okay.” Ben’s thumb stroked my cheek.
Rough fingers probed at my back.
I arched away in pain and squeezed my eyes shut as a tear slid down my face.
“Careful,” Ben barked. “You’re hurting her.”
“Sorry, darlin’, nothin’ doin’,” Talon said absently as he tapped his fingers on my back. “When did this happen?”
I didn’t answer. I was so far in over my head, I didn’t know how much longer I could hold it together.
Talon pulled my shirt down and rolled me back as Ben released my face. Talon’s fingers tapped on my chest, then he put two fingers to my wrist again. Neither pushed me to answer Talon’s question, and when Talon placed my hand back in my lap, I crossed my arms.
“Do you feel pain here?” Talon gently pushed on the right side of my chest.
I nodded.
“I know you’re hurtin’, but is the pain worse when you try to take a deep breath?”
I nodded again.
Ben looked nervously at Talon. “What is it?”
“Could be a partial collapsed lung.”
Ben inhaled sharply. “You sure?”
Talon gave Ben a look.
Ben pulled his keys out of the ignition and threw his door open. “I’m taking her in.”
“Wait.” I reached for Ben’s arm in a panic, more fearful of what Marcus would do if he found out than an ER bill. “There’s nothing they can do for me, right?” I asked Talon.
Talon’s usual flirty-ness disappeared and a cold, calculated stare washed over his features. “Who did this?”
A hundred excuses had rolled off my tongue every other time someone had noticed a bruise or a flinch or a limp. I had the routine down pat. I knew how to evade, I knew how to distract, and I knew how to answer questions without giving any answers. I’d become such an expert at it over the past couple of months, it should’ve scared me. But right then, trapped between an angry Marine and a determined Ben, I had nothing.
“They won’t do anything, right? If I go inside?” I’d been injured like this before, not as bad, but bad enough to have me doing research online.
“X-ray to determine diagnosis, oxygen, overnight observation.” Talon rattled off what would happen as if reading a grocery list.
“Then they’d just send me home, right?”
Talon’s hands went to his hips. “You seem to have experience with this, you tell me.” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “How many times has this happened?” It wasn’t a question, it was an accusation.
“Never.” And then I said something really stupid. “My brother competes, MMA, I hear about their injuries.”
Talon’s shoulders tensed, and his face went completely blank as his voice went eerily quiet. “He do this to you?”
I was shaking my head before I got the words out. “He’s my brother.”
“He’d be on a rampage right now if he knew,” Ben piped in.
Talon’s shrewd green eyes narrowed infinitesimally. “He has a temper?”
Ben answered before I could come up with an excuse. “He’s overprotective.”
“Please,” I begged. “I don’t need to be admitted. I can’t afford it, and I’m already feeling better.”
Talon stared at me a moment longer. Then he dropped his gaze and picked up my wrist again. “When did this happen?”
“Last night.” I dared to hope they were going to let this go.
Talon looked back up at me. “Did you black out?”
I wondered how much was too much to tell. “No,” I lied.
“Is your breathing getting worse?” Talon’s accent had all but disappeared.
I tried to think rationally, but fear was licking up my spine like a hot flame. “In class, running, that’s when it was worse. Right now, it’s okay.” I could deal with short breaths. I’d dealt with a lot worse pain.
Talon dropped my hand and looked at Ben. “She needs an X-ray, and she needs to be watched. Oxygen for twenty-four hours, bed rest for at least forty-eight.”
A vise grip tightened around my heart. “X-rays are too expensive.”
“I’ll watch her.” Ben nodded at Talon, then looked at me. “Don’t worry about the cost. I’ll cover it.” He glanced at Talon, and Talon tipped his chin.
“Decision’s made, darlin’.” Talon slid his arms under my legs and back in a half-second flat.
I panicked. “No!” I could find the right balance to let Marcus know I was hurt enough to have to stay in bed but not enough where he would do himself more harm than usual. He would drink himself into a stupor, but he’d stay away from me for a few days. That was all I needed. “I’ll rest at home. I don’t need to go into the ER.” Explaining an ER visit to Marcus would be hell.
“You need an X-ray.” Ben got out and slammed his door shut.
My panic turned into full-blown anxiety. “Stop.”
Talon didn’t even pause. Striding toward the entrance to the ER, he carried me as if it were effortless. “We’ll get you in and out as soon as possible, darlin’.” His accent came back in full force, as if he was using it to calm me down. “But a collapsed lung ain’t nothin’ to mess with.”
I could’ve struggled to get down. I could’ve screamed, I could’ve done half a dozen things to stop what was happening, but everything hurt, and I was losing the energy to fight.
I made one last plea. “Ben, please. You know I’m fine.”
The line back between his eyebrows, Ben matched his pace to Talon’s. “I don’t know that. That’s why you’re getting an X-ray. We’ll take it from there.”
Before I could say anything else, we were in the lobby of the ER and Talon was rattling off information to the admitting clerk like he was a doctor. Within minutes, I was put in a wheelchair and Talon, Ben and I were in a small room while a nurse took my pulse, temperature, blood pressure and put a thing on my finger to check oxygen levels. She reassured Talon the doctor would be in shortly, then we were left alone.
Ben took my hand. “You need anything?”
I pulled away. “To go home.” I hated hospitals. They brought back the awful memories of my mother’s last days, and I didn’t want to go there right now, especially not in front of Ben or Talon.
As if reading my thoughts, Ben gently squeezed my shoulder. “I know this isn’t your favorite place. We won’t be long.” He looked up at Talon. “Will we?”
Arms crossed, ankles crossed, Talon stared at me as he leaned against the exam table. “Why don’t you like hospitals?”
“Who does?”
“Anyone who needs one,” Talon clipped.
“Drop it,” Ben warned Talon.
Talon sighed and pulled his phone out.
Ben squatted next to my chair and lowered his voice. “I know you’re mad, but consider this a favor, for me.”
I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have to. A female doctor walked in and glanced at Talon. “Mr. Talerco, what a surprise,” she said dryly before glancing at Ben as he stood. “And I hear we have a celebrity as well.” She looked at me. “But I’m guessing we’re here for you.” She smiled, then nodded at the door as she looked back at Ben. “You can wait in the hall, sir.”
Ben squeezed my shoulder again. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
“I’m stayin’,” Talon announced.
The pretty brunette doctor held her hand out to me. “I’m Dr. McDean. I’m going to ask you some uncomfortable questions. Would you like Mr. Talerco to leave as well?”
Part of me wanted him gone, but the other part knew he could be my ticket to escape if they tried to admit me. I shook my head.
She smiled. “I see you had to think about that. Yes, I feel the same way about him as well.”
“Ah, come on, Doc. To know me is to love me,” Talon flirted shamelessly.
“So they say,” she replied without an ounce of humor. She held her hand out to me again. “Let’s get you up on the exam table. Can you stand?”
I nodded, and Talon moved in front of me.
Grasping my waist as the doctor moved out of the way, Talon lifted me to the table. “Lie back, darlin’.”
The doctor raised the back of the table as I lay back and Talon started in with the medical speak again. Something about contusions and pneumothorax as the doctor put a stethoscope under my blouse and told me to inhale.
After moving the stethoscope around a few places, she pulled back. “Can you roll to your side, Ms. Maher?”
“Yes.” With effort, I rolled.
She lifted my shirt and the cold metal of the device hit my back. I sucked in a breath.
“You must be in a lot of pain.” The doctor gently moved the stethoscope. “Did you tell Mr. Talerco who did this to you?”
Talon surprised me by speaking up. “We’re handling it.”
The doctor merely nodded as she pulled my shirt back down. “You need an X-ray, Ms. Maher. Are there any other injuries?”
I rolled to my back and glanced between her and Talon. “I’m fine.”
The doctor eyed me, and before she could turn to look at Talon, he was already heading for the door.
“I hear ya, Doc. Loud and clear.” Talon winked at me, but he didn’t smile. “I’ll be outside with Wonderboy, darlin’. Holler if you need me.”
The second he walked out, the doctor sat on a rolling stool. “Okay, what really happened, Elyssia? Do you need a rape kit?”
My gaze dropped, and I shook my head. “No, nothing like that happened.”
“There’s no shame in it. This wasn’t your fault.”
I looked her in the eye. “I wasn’t raped.”
“Okay.” She studied me a moment. “I know your brother.”
I must’ve looked surprised. She was too classy to know my brother.
“Marcus, right?” She smiled. “I’m a few years older than him, but I knew him in high school.” She paused. “I also served.”
“Marines?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Navy. That’s how I know Talon. Is your brother deployed?”
“Um, no.” I straightened my shirt. “He’s home now. I thought Talon was in the Marines.”
“The Marines don’t have their own corpsmen. Navy-trained combat medical technicians deploy with Marine units and essentially become Marines,” she explained.
“Oh.”
She smiled. “Tell your brother Danny McDean said hello. Do you want to show me where else you’re injured?”
“My legs, but it’s okay.”
Her smiled softened. “Why don’t I be the judge of that?”
Inhaling what little breath I could, I sat up and undid my jeans. Embarrassed, uncomfortable, I peeled them down with some effort, and she quickly examined the bruising on the outside of my thigh and lower leg. Less than two minutes later I was dressed, and she was typing something on a computer terminal in the room.
“I’m ordering an X-ray. I don’t think you have a collapsed lung or any broken ribs, but let’s be sure. Then if all checks out, I can give you something for the pain and swelling, and we’ll get you out of here. But you need to take it easy for a week.” She eyed me. “No running.”
“I do karate,” I blurted, thinking of the classes I didn’t want to miss.
Her professional smile, the one she used on Ben and Talon, came back. “Not this week, you don’t. You need to heal before resuming any physical activity.” She stood. “You were lucky this time, Elyssia, but word of advice?” She didn’t wait for me to answer. “Whoever he is, he isn’t worth it.” She patted my knee and walked out.
Ben strode back in. “You okay?”
I wanted to be mad at him, but I was so relieved the doctor hadn’t pushed the issue, I didn’t give him a hard time. “I’m fine.”
His frown deepened. “You keep saying that.”
Talon walked in, followed by another woman who identified herself as an admin and asked for my insurance.
Ben whipped out a credit card. “She doesn’t have insurance.”
The hospital admin took my information and Ben’s, then she left with his card.
“Ben—”
He held his hand up. “We’re not discussing it.”
Talon slapped Ben on the back and smiled. “Come on, darlin’. Let Wonderboy throw his money around.”
A technician came in to take me for an X-ray. Twenty minutes later, he wheeled me back into the room where Ben and Talon were talking in hushed whispers. Talon smiled, but Ben looked pissed.
“What’s wrong?” I barely got the question out when Dr. McDean came back into the room.
“Good news.” She smiled. “No broken bones, no collapsed lung, but you do have considerable pulmonary contusions.”
Fear that I’d have to stay sank in. “What’s that?”
“Your lungs are bruised, darlin’.” Talon looked at the doctor. “We’ll look out for her. How bad’s the swellin’? She need oxygen?”
The doctor glanced at Talon. “Her breathing is labored and her oxygen levels are lower than I’d like. If she isn’t staying overnight, I’d recommend oxygen.”
“I don’t need to stay,” I blurted.
Talon nodded at the doctor. “I’ll handle the oxygen. She needs a script for pain meds though.”
The doctor handed me a prescription she’d already written. “Take the pain medication, use ice packs to help with the swelling, and Mr. Talerco will help you with oxygen. If your symptoms get worse, come back in immediately.”
“Okay.” I took the prescription, and Ben broke his silence.
“Will she have any permanent damage?”
The doctor leveled Ben with a look. “She should be fine, but she needs time to heal before resuming any physical activity.”
My cheeks flamed at her insinuation.
Ben only nodded. “Understood.”
“Take care of yourself, Ms. Maher.” The doctor patted my shoulder. “Once you sign the release paperwork, you can go home and rest.”
Relief settled in, and I was able to take almost a full breath. “Thank you.”
Ten minutes later, Talon and I were waiting at the ER entrance for Ben to pull his car up. I’d refused to be carried and Ben wouldn’t let me walk back to the car, so here I was.
Talon eyed me. “Anythin’ you wanna tell me before Wonderboy pulls up?”
I ignored his attempt to get information out of me. “Why do you call him Wonderboy?”
Talon smiled a smile that got him a lot of attention. “The fact that you’re askin’ that tells me you haven’t seen him in action.”
My stomach flipped. “What action?”
Talon cocked his head. “Drummin’.” Then he laughed. “Get your mind outta the gutter, darlin’.”
I blushed. “I wasn’t….” I trailed off as Ben pulled up.
“Sure you weren’t.” Talon smirked before opening the passenger door and helping me in. He started to tick off a list of things for Ben to watch for overnight when he took me back to his place, but I didn’t hear any of it. I started to freak out all over again. Besides the fact that Marcus would lose his shit if I stayed at Ben’s, I wasn’t going to cross that line with Ben. “I’m going home,” I panted, my heart rate kicking up.
Two pairs of eyes turned on me. Talon spoke first.
“You feelin’ worse, or somethin’ wrong with the sleepin’ arrangements?”
“I can go home.” I didn’t look at Ben.
Talon glanced at Ben, then he inclined his head and looked back at me. “Two choices. Wonderboy’s place for the next two days, or I carry you back into the hospital myself and stay till you’re admitted.”
I took as much of a breath as I could mange and turned to Ben. “I’ll be fine at home.”
Ben’s intense blue gaze was unwavering. “Are you going to tell Marcus?”
I swallowed.
Ben looked across me to Talon. “Where do I get the oxygen?”
Talon glanced at his watch. “I’ll handle it. Meet you at your place in thirty.” Talon looked at me. “Give me your script, darlin’. I’ll fill it for you.”
Embarrassed, pissed, defeated, not knowing if I should offer Talon money, I pulled the written prescription out of my pocket and silently handed it to him. I wanted to cry.
Ben nodded at Talon. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Talon reached across me and fastened my seat belt like I was a child, then he shut my door.
Ben pulled out of the hospital’s parking lot.