Then one had been at her sister’s house with the husband right there with her.He said he turned his back for a moment, and she was just gone.Nobody would tell him anything, either.He swore that she’d been looking at the new baby and had got it in her head that she wasn’t going to be around him anymore and just up and left him like she had a right to.
One had disappeared from the hospital.The Palmer case.She’d gone in complaining about her leg hurting her, and she’d been gone to get a scan and never returned.Larry swore that she’d been kidnapped by the staff there, but no one could tell him anything.More like they thought that he was off his meds if he’d ever been on them.She didn’t have the knowledge that something more was going on, but she’d bet anything that someone was helping these women so they could get out of abusive relationships.
And why they thought that Alaric was a part of it didn’t sit well with her either.They thought that because he’d been in on one of the cases, arresting the husband, that he had the wherewithal to know what was going on to make the women disappear.Like he was holding them hostage or something.Her boss even suggested that he was selling the women off for some kind of sex trade operations, but she knew better.There wasn’t a nicer man around than Alaric and his brothers, and they just didn’t strike her as the kidnapping sort of people.
Once she was at the hospital, she was moved around too much, and her ankle was hurting again.She tried her best not to snap at anyone, but it was getting increasingly more painful every time she was moved.And the x-ray nearly had her begging to be knocked out so that she’d not have to hurt anymore.But as soon as she got back to the room, she was given something more powerful, and she was out like a light.Just simply turned off, and she wasn’t aware of anything anymore.
“You’re a lightweight.”She tried to focus on the man who was talking to her.“It’s Doctor Reagan Dresden.My dad had to run home to be with our mom for dinner.It’s their anniversary today, and they’ve had these plans for weeks now.”
“What do you mean I’m a lightweight?”He explained to her that she’d been out for a good four hours and that was unusual for some people.“I guess it’s because I don’t even take anything for a headache.My body might well have decided, too, that since I was down, it would take full advantage of it and get some rest.I’ve not been sleeping all that well of late.”
“It’s fine.I have something more for you for pain when you need it.You might not have noticed, but we have your leg in a full cast to keep it from hurting you again.Your ankle had a previous breakin it, and that was what was causing you so much pain.My brother Aaron said you were hurting even before you tripped.”She said that the doctor told her it was just a sprain.“Not a sprain but a full break of the bones.”
“It’s fine, really.When can I get out on my own?”He said that he was going to keep her over the next couple of days so that she could get the good stuff when she needed it.And she’d be better off here rather than the B&B she’d been staying at.“I guess you know everything about me because it’s a small town.Everyone seems to know about you and your family a great deal.”
“They only think they know everything.But we have secrets too.As I’m sure you do as well.”She felt her face heat up in embarrassment and decided that she wasn’t going to talk to him anymore, other than about her injury.“I’ve ordered you a regular diet, and it should be coming up soon.However, if you were to call Aaron, I’m betting that he could bring you in a meatball sub from the corner shop.”
“Wow, what did you do, compare notes on what I said?”He said that they were brothers who talked a great deal.“I’d just as soon you didn’t talk about me.You don’t know me, and that’s just rude.”
“It’s not rude, but small town flavor.”He was just opening the door when a nurse brought her in a tray and put it on her little table.“Listen, don’t let the pain get away from you.If you do, then you’re going to hurt more.Just take the medication when it’s offered so that you can get out of here sooner.”
“All right.”She’d not even been given anything from her doctor when she sprained her ankle, and this guy was offering her the good drugs, too.“I’ll make sure to keep it still, too.I know that moving it around will hurt.”
“Yes, it will.”He checked with her chart and then said he was going.He did ask her if she needed anything else, and when she turned him down, he left her there with her tray of food.She’d been told that they were the nicest family around, and she had to wonder if her boss had a burr up his ass about one of the Dresdens and wanted to see them get their comeuppance for something.That wouldn’t surprise her.He was petty like that.
After finishing her meal, which was good too, she was asked if she needed anything for pain.When she told them that she wanted to wait a little while, she wasn’t hurting that much, they again cautioned her about waiting too long.She needed to call her boss and wanted to be fully awake when she did that.He was going to be pissed off enough when he found out that she had fallen and broken her ankle.
Calling him got her the answering service, for which she was grateful.After explaining about what had happened, leaving out the part about it being a Dresden that she’d fallen on top of, she told him that she was going to be in the hospital for the next two to three days until she healed a bit more.Hanging up when the sound told her that there was no more room on the message, she laid her phone on the little table and glared at it.Why couldn’t it have been broken when she’d fallen?Then she wouldn’t have had to make the call.
After waiting for another half hour to see if he’d call her back, she asked for the pain medication and was out again.Even if he were to call her back now, she knew that she’d be in no condition to talk to him about anything important.And to her, this job was the least important job she’d ever had.Just before she fell asleep again, she turned her phone off so that it wouldn’t wake her up.She had enough to worry about right now, and she wasn’t going to be messing with her boss.
~*~
Aaron tried his best to think of anything but the woman who had fallen on him.He needed to talk to his grandda and ask him if he’d paid for her to fall in his lap.It would be just like him to play a joke on him after telling him that he thought he was too old to be climbing on large pieces of equipment.
But there was something about her.Other than her being hurt, that drew him in.Her scent was something that he thought of as spring flowers, and—he stopped moving down the street he was on to think about what he was saying to himself.There was no way that she could be his mate.Grandda had something to do with this, and he was never going to forgive him if he did this to him.
Deciding to go to his home right now, he made his way to the station house to tell them he needed an hour.He thought maybe he could clear it up in less time than that, his grandda telling himthat it was all a joke that he needed to get out more or something along those lines.Once he had his time off, he was going to march right into his house and demand that he tell him what he’d done.
Driving to his grandparents’ home, he convinced himself that he’d been wrong about Mackenzie.She was just a stranger in town who just happened to fall into his lap.And she smelled like flowers because that was the kind of scent that she wore.That was all it was.He was nearly convinced that was the issue as soon as he pulled up in front of the house.Then he saw his grandda.
There was no way he’d do that to someone.Grandda was a jokester and a funny man when he wanted to be, but there was no way that he’d be that cruel about mates.Never.Getting out of the car, he was about to go to the man when he noticed him.Giving him a great bear hug, he knew in his heart that he’d just fucked up royally.Grandda asked him what he was doing there on a workday.
“I’ve found my mate.”Grandda looked shocked for a moment or two, then eyed him hard.“She fell into my lap, that’s why I came here to see if you paid her to do that.But the closer I got here, I realized that you’d not do that to me.Or anyone.You’d not be so cruel as to fake something like that.So I guess I found my mate.”
“You don’t seem too happy about the deal.”He said to him he wasn’t sure what he should think.“I guess I can see that.I’m almost afraid to tell you congratulations.That you might be thinking me being cruel again.I’m not, by the way.”
“I know that.You’d never do that.Would you?”Grandda shook his head.“I didn’t think you would, but I swear to you I didn’t know what to think about it.She literally fell into my lap.Of course, her ankle is broken, and I—I didn’t do it.It was already broken when she fell.I guess her other doctor told her that it was only sprained and that—” Grandda said his name.
“What’s wrong with you?”He said that he honestly didn’t know.“I can see that.You’re babbling like a toddler about something.What do you mean she’s got a broken ankle?You said you didn’t do it, but what happened to her?”
“She fell before coming here, and her doctor there said it was only a sprain.But Dad took one look at it and said that it was broken.He sent her to the hospital.I think that Reagan is taking care of her now, as Dad and Mom had that date to go out tonight.They were going to—” This time, grandda put his hand over his mouth.
“I’m assuming that your daddy and mom know about now that you have a mate?”Aaron told his grandda that he was the first to know.“Well by golly, I’m the first?You came all the way out here to tell me?But I have to ask you, son, why are you here and not with her?What’s her name anyway?”
“Mackenzie.I don’t know her last name.And I only just figured it out that she might be my mate.How do I tell?”He asked about her scent and then asked him if he’d smelled her throat.That was a sure sign.“I can’t do that to a stranger, Grandda.I’ll be arrested.Even if she is my mate, doing something like that can be bad news for a man to go around sniffing a woman.They teach us that in detective classes.It’s called sexual harassment.I don’t need charges like that when I’m trying to convince her that she’s my everything.”
“I think we should go have a seat in the kitchen.Have a little talk with your grannie.I’m fearful of you going off the deep end here.”Grandda didn’t even wait for him but walked to the house.
