Obsession (14 page)

Alex lay on his back, one arm thrown above his head, the other lying on his bare chest. She’d love to forget her deliveries and climb on top of him to give him a wake-up kiss he’d never forget. Unfortunately, she’d have some irate customers.

“Alex.” She shook his shoulder. Othello thumped his tail and rolled onto his side. “Alex.”

Alex sighed and brushed her hand away. She leaned down and kissed the corner of his mouth. His lips twitched. Unable to resist, she kissed them again.

“Mmmmm. C’mere.” He reached for her, but she backed up.

“Can’t. The van battery’s dead. I’m taking your truck to make my deliveries.”

He rolled over and with a deep sigh fell asleep again. Tess grabbed the truck keys off the nightstand, hoping he’d remember when he woke up, although she doubted it. She thought briefly of writing a note, but decided she didn’t have time. Besides, she’d be back soon and he’d probably still be asleep.

When she climbed into the cab, it smelled of apples, cinnamon and nutmeg. She started the engine and pulled away, tuning in her favorite radio station and singing along.

The weather in this part of the country was so unpredictable—especially in March. Two nights ago it had snowed. Yesterday had warmed enough to melt the snow and last night everything had frozen again. Taking her time, careful to watch for icy patches on the road, Tess turned the corner and headed down the hill. She fiddled with the heat because the still-warm pies, combined with her singing, had steamed the windows.

Noticing a large patch of ice up ahead, she tapped on the brake pedal. When the truck didn’t slow, she hit the pedal harder. Still no reaction. The brake pedal was like a sponge and the truck picked up speed. Panicked, she stomped on the brake and the pedal hit the floor.

Oh, God, the brakes are gone.

To her left, a guardrail and a fifty-foot drop. To her right, houses and trees. The truck raced for another patch of ice. Tess fought to remember all the advice she’d heard about ice and faulty brakes, but panic pushed rational thought aside.

Her sweating hands slipped on the steering wheel and the truck veered toward the guardrail.

The front bumper glanced off the rail, tossing the truck sideways into the hard steel. She jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction and downshifted. The engine whined. The pickup bucked and fishtailed. Rubber squealed. A pie slid off the passenger seat, hit the glove box and fell to the floor with a wet plop.

She tried the brakes again, but it was no use. She dropped it down another gear. The engine screamed in response, but the truck remained at an even speed.

“Oh, God.” Her gaze flew to the line of trees to her right. The trees, or the guardrail and a fifty-foot drop? She steered toward the trees. Maybe, if she hit it right she wouldn’t cause too much damage to Alex’s truck.

Or herself.

The speedometer remained at thirty-five but she felt like she was going faster than that.

The front tires hit another patch of ice and the truck began to slide sideways. She managed to straighten the vehicle and once again head for the trees.

She tensed. A horn sounded behind her. The tree loomed bigger and bigger until it filled her vision.

Nature and machine met in a sickening crunch of metal. Tess flew forward before the seatbelt jerked her back. A loud pop and the airbag exploded. The engine coughed, then died.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, didn’t even know if she’d lost consciousness. The airbag lay in her lap, looking like a deflated balloon, and white powder was everywhere—all over her, the pies, the inside of the truck. She blinked and her vision blurred. She swiped at her face and her hand came away bloody.

The driver’s side door opened and the cold air helped clear her mind.

“Hey, you okay?” A concerned-looking younger man poked his head in. “Jesus, you’re bleeding.”

She winced and touched the blood on her face.

“What the hell happened?” He looked around the cab at the apple pie filling dripping off the dashboard and the metal pans poking out of crumpled bakery boxes. Everything was covered in fine white dust. “What is that?”

“Apple pies.”

Sirens wailed from far off.

“I called the cops.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You sure you’re okay? You don’t look so hot.”

She didn’t feel so hot. And on top of her aches and pains, Alex’s truck had a tree nestled in a huge dent in the center of the grill. The hood was so buckled it almost touched the windshield.

She fumbled with the seatbelt, needing to get out because the scent of the ruined pies and leaking gas made her want to retch.

The guy reached over her and grabbed her hands. “Hey, what’re you doing?” He looked over her shoulder at a cruiser that was just turning the corner with its lights on. “Cops are here. I gotta go.”

“Wait.” Tess reached out to stop him. “What’s your name? I want to thank you—”

He shook his head and took a step back. “No need. Gotta go, Tess.” He turned on his heel and fled.

Tess’s stomach rolled. She managed to release the seatbelt and stumble out of the truck, landing on her hands and knees and losing her breakfast.

Shiny black shoes stepped in front of her and she looked up into a young officer’s face. He squatted down in front of her and she squinted to read his nametag. S. Harrison.

She’d heard Alex talk about Harrison.

“The ambulance is on the way, ma’am. Maybe you’d better sit back, lean against the truck.” He helped her to sit.

Tess clutched his arm with shaking hands. “Scott, right?”

His brows drew together. “Do I know you?”

“Tess Juran.”

His eyes widened.

“The brakes went out on Alex’s truck… Will you…call him?” She began to shiver so hard her teeth chattered. Harrison pried her fingers off his jacket, but she grabbed for him again. “No—”

“I’m going to get a blanket out of my cruiser, Mrs. Juran. I’ll be right back.”

She hugged herself. “Call Alex.”

Chapter Twenty

Othello barked and nudged Alex’s hand.

Alex cracked an eye open and glared at the dog. “Go ’way. Let yourself out.” Othello licked his fingers, trotted over to the closed bedroom door and whined.

Alex groaned. “The sun’s barely up. Can’t you hold it?”

O did a little prance and nosed the doorknob. Alex rolled out of bed, grabbing his discarded jeans along the way. He pulled them on and without zipping them followed Othello down the hall.

The scent of warm apple pie drifted from the kitchen. When he’d lived in his apartment, he’d missed waking to the smells of Tess’s baking.

He let O out the back door and headed for the coffee pot. God bless Tess. She hated coffee, but always had a pot going for him when he woke up. He glanced at the clock as he poured his first cup. He’d have enough time for a quick workout before she returned from her deliveries—then he had another workout in mind with her.

The doorbell rang. Alex carried his mug of steaming coffee into the living room and opened the door, not at all surprised to see Tony. They’d stopped by here for many a hot cup of coffee in the middle of a shift.

Alex held up his cup. “Coffee’s hot. Come on in.” Othello barked to be let in. Alex headed back toward the kitchen.

“I’m not here for coffee, AJ.”

Alex turned, recognizing the pinched, serious, I-don’t-want-to-be-here look on his partner’s face. They had delivered bad news to unsuspecting family members enough times for him to know that look. “What’s up?”

“Tess was in a crash.”

His gaze went to the open door and Tess’s van parked in the drive. He vaguely remembered her telling him she had to take the truck because the van wouldn’t start. “How bad?”

Tony shut the door behind him. “She’s conscious, that’s all I know. Harrison’s at the scene.”

“I—is she hurt?”

“All I know is she’s asking for you. Said the brakes on the truck went out. The ambulance is on the way.”

Ambulance? The word jolted him into motion and he raced for the bedroom.

“Call Harrison,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Find out what the hell’s going on and let the damn dog in.”

He dressed in record time and met Tony at the car.

“What’d Harrison say?” Alex jerked open the passenger door of the cruiser.

Tony climbed in on the driver’s side. “Not much. The EMTs are looking her over.”

Alex ran a hand through his hair. “The brakes went out?”

“That’s what she said.” Tony cleared the neighborhood and hit the lights and siren.

“That doesn’t make sense. I drove the truck yesterday and the brakes were fine.”

Tony took the corner too fast and they slid on a patch of ice. “Why would she be driving your truck?”

Alex grabbed the dash and shook his head as Tony righted the cruiser. “The van’s battery was dead. Where’s the wreck?”

“Webster Pike.”

On Webster Pike, Alex scanned the road in front of him, searching for his truck and the revolving lights of the ambulance. His gut coiled in a tight knot and his knuckles turned white on the dash. If anything happened to her…

He pulled his thoughts from that direction. Tony said she was conscious and answering questions. That was good. So what the hell happened? How’d the brakes go out on a truck not even two years old?

Tony slowed on the icy road and Alex cringed, thinking of Tess trying to control a two-ton truck on ice with no brakes and a fifty-foot drop on one side. “Did Harrison say if she ran off the road?”

Tony remained silent, his lips a thin line. Alex’s stomach threatened to heave. Jesus Christ, what had happened?

A line of cruisers, fire trucks and an ambulance blocked the road. He found his truck. The front end was squashed against a tree, the hood crumpled and the driver’s door open with the airbag hanging out. Thank God she’d steered for the trees.

Tony drew up alongside a fire truck and Alex jumped out, pushing his way through the crowd of officers and firefighters. His gaze darted from the smashed truck to the ambulance.

Tony grabbed his arm and pointed at two EMTs pushing a stretcher. Tess’s bright red hair spilled over the side, the slight breeze and the movement of the gurney blowing it. She was strapped to a backboard, her head immobilized.
Oh, Jesus.

Tony fell into step beside him but it felt as if they were walking through sludge, like in those dreams where you were running but not getting anywhere. Harrison joined on the other side. Alex reached her and leaned over, pushing hair out of her eyes.

She was deathly pale, almost gray. Blood covered her face and dribbled down her temple. Her eyes opened, the irises a brilliant green.

His lips trembled, but he forced them into a semblance of a smile. “Hey, baby.”

“Alex.” A tear leaked out of the corner of one eye and mixed with the blood. “I’m so sorry about the truck.”

He touched her cheek, blinking back his own tears. “Don’t worry about the truck. How are you? What hurts?”

She grimaced. “Everything. My chest, my head, my back.”

His eyes flew to the EMT and she shook her head. “Probably from the seatbelt catching her. We’re taking her in just to be on the safe side. She was sitting by the truck when we got here.”

“Hold my hand, Alex. I can’t move my arm, they have me strapped.”

He grabbed her ice-cold fingers and tried to massage some warmth into them.

“You need to step back,” the EMT said to him. “Just while we load her in the ambulance.”

Reluctantly Alex let go of Tess’s fingers. She groaned at the jostling and he swore he felt her every ache and pain.

“I’m riding with her,” he told the EMT.

“In the front,” she shot over her shoulder.

He turned to Harrison and Tony. With a motion for them to follow, he made his way to the front of the ambulance. “How’d the call come in?” he asked Harrison.

“To the Comm Center as a 911,” Harrison said.

“Who made the call?”

Harrison shrugged. “Don’t know, but I’ll find out.”

“Do that.” He opened the passenger door and placed one foot up. “Blankenship, get the truck towed to Barnes. I want it thoroughly checked out. There’s no way the brakes were bad on my truck.”

Tony nodded, his look skeptical. “AJ, don’t go thinkin’—”

“No way, Tony. Those brakes were good last night.” Alex heaved himself into the ambulance. “I’ll be at the hospital.”

***

He stood in the shadows of the ER’s door and raised his cigarette to his mouth with a shaking hand. Blood pounded through his veins and his breath came in ragged gasps.

She never drove Juran’s pickup. Never. He closed his eyes.
Shit.
That had been the single worst moment of his life—other than seeing Juran destroy his career. Watching Tess drive away, knowing what was going to happen. He could do nothing but follow and witness the pickup gain speed and head first for the drop then the tree. Short of yanking her out of the truck—and betraying himself—what could he have done but follow?

The wail of an approaching siren had him straightening and tossing down his cigarette. He ground it out with the toe of his boot as he lurked in the shadows of the emergency room doors. People were coming and going, but no one looked his way.

The ambulance pulled up. The driver hopped out and opened the rear doors. Two EMTs lowered Tess’s stretcher. She was strapped to a backboard, her face bloody, and he felt the blood drain from his face. What had he done? Holy crap, what had he done?

Juran walked into his line of sight and he backed up, mingling with a crowd exiting the building. Jealousy and anger burned a hole through him. The bastard. If Juran had driven the pickup like he always did,
he
would be the one lying on the stretcher.

He clenched his hands until a veil of red tinged everything. It was all Juran’s fault that Tess had wrecked that truck.

***

Alex stepped out of the way while the ER nurses and doctor worked on Tess. They wiped the blood from her face, took her blood pressure and checked her pupils while the doctor asked her questions. The cadence of her strong voice calmed his fears but he’d yet to see her move.

The doctor turned to Alex and held out his hand. “Mr. Juran? I’m Dr. Stapleton.” Alex shook with a trembling hand. “You can talk to her now. We’re finished for the time being.”

Alex stepped forward. Because she was still strapped to the backboard, she could move nothing but her eyes, which swung to him.

“I want to go home,” she said in a broken whisper.

The doctor approached her other side, his fingers searching for the pulse on her other wrist. “All in good time, Mrs. Juran. We need to take some x-rays first.”

Tess glared at Alex and he smiled at the mutinous expression on her face.

After the nurses took her away, Alex sat on the rolling stool, scooting backward until his head rested against the wall.

“Juran?” Harrison poked his head through the closed curtains. “Oh, good, I found you. You don’t know how many rooms I poked my head into.” He shuddered. “You don’t even want to
know
the things I’ve seen.”

“What’d you find out?” Alex asked.

Harrison pulled his notebook out of his front shirt pocket and flipped it open. “Call came from a cell phone belonging to a Bertrand Smith. When I called the cell number, I didn’t get an answer so I called Mr. Smith at home. Found out Mr. Smith’s cell phone and wallet were stolen out of his car last night.” Harrison flipped his notebook shut. “I checked the reports from last night. Sure as shit there’s a report. Man left his wallet and cell phone in his unlocked car. Makes sense.”

Alex rolled his head toward Harrison. “What makes sense?”

“The witness at the scene this morning disappeared as soon as I got there.”

“Disappeared?”

Harrison nodded. “He was standing at the door of the truck, talking to Tess. When I pulled up, he hightailed it out of there.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, it does make sense. If he’s a criminal, he wouldn’t want to stick around and give us a witness report. Damn, I’d hoped he could tell us if anyone else had been around or if he’d seen anything suspicious.”

Harrison stuffed his notebook in his pocket. “A criminal with enough conscience to call 911?”

Alex shrugged. “It’s one thing to steal from someone stupid enough to leave his wallet in an unlocked car. Something else to see someone hurt and not do anything. Especially a woman.”

Harrison nodded. “I’d like to ask Tess if she got his name. Maybe I could at least nail him for the thefts. Plus I need her statement for the crash report.”

Alex closed his eyes again, exhaustion tugging at him. “Sure. But I have to warn you, she’s not in the best mood.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She hurts.”

“We’re back.” A nurse wheeled Tess into the room. He was relieved to see they’d taken off the backboard and neck brace and propped her up on pillows, because that meant there wasn’t too much damage. She was still a little pale and a large bruise was forming on her forehead, but she looked like the old Tess.

The doctor stepped in after them. “Everything looks good, Mrs. Juran. No major injuries. You’ll be sore for a while, mainly your back and chest and that bump on your head. Ibuprofen should do the trick. We need to get that gash stitched up, then you’re free to go.”

Harrison stepped forward after the nurse and doctor left. “It’s good to see you’re all right, Mrs. Juran,” he said.

Tess looked at Harrison and smiled. “Thanks, Scott.”

“Tess, tell us about the man who showed up after the crash,” Alex said.

She looked confused, then her face cleared. “Oh, him. He said he called the police. He was really nice, sat with me until Scott arrived.”

“What did he look like?” Harrison asked.

Tess frowned and stared at the wall. “I don’t really remember. Everything happened so fast and I felt so sick.” She closed her eyes. “The car smelled like apple pies and motor oil.” She grimaced. “He had to duck to look in the cab of the truck. He had brown hair? Dark blond? Something like that.”

“Did he say his name?” Alex asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. He acted strange though when Scott showed up. Said he had to go.”

“Anything else? Can you remember exactly what he said?”

“Why? What’s going on?”

Alex told her about the stolen cell phone and Harrison trying to track down the witness to question him about it.

“He said, ‘Gotta go, Tess,’ and that was it.”

Alex sat up. “He said your name? Did you tell him your name?”

She rubbed her temples. “I must have, because he knew it.”