CJ had been rather hoping that Nurse Becca would leave her with the boys and go back to work, but the woman insisted on wheeling her to the elevator and seeing her down to the emergency room exit. She then stood, chatting idly with Mac and Bricker while Decker went off to retrieve the car.
CJ sighed with relief when her car finally pulled up. She would have liked to drive. It was her car, after all, but she wasn’t given the choice. The moment Decker pulled up in front of them, Nurse Becca wheeled her to the front passenger door and held the wheelchair while Mac helped her up and into the front passenger seat. The nurse then wished her a cheery goodbye, admonished her once more to return immediately if she had any kind of symptoms at all, and then trundled off with the wheelchair.
While Decker had gone to collect her car, Mac was the one to get in the driver’s seat once she was settled. CJ watched him put on his seat belt and muttered, “I was surprised you guys waited around for me at the hospital. I was there for hours. You should have just gone back to the bed-and-breakfast. I could have taken a taxi once they finished all their tests.”
“Is that your way of saying thank you?” Mac asked with amusement as he shifted the car into gear and steered toward the road.
CJ felt herself blush with chagrin, and muttered, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said sincerely. “How is your head?”
“Sore,” she admitted and—reminded of the pills in her purse—asked, “One of you didn’t happen to grab my purse back at the— Oh, thank you,” she breathed when it suddenly appeared next to her head. Turning, she grabbed it and offered Bricker a smile when she saw that he was the one passing it up to her.
“Do you need water?” Mac asked, glancing her way with concern when she dug out the small bottle of aspirin. “We can probably get you a bottle of water when we stop for Chinese takeout.”
“No, I’m—Chinese takeout?” CJ asked with surprise.
“Well, I was not sure what time they would finish all their tests and release you.”
“Or even if they would release you,” Bricker put in. “They were talking about keeping you overnight when Decker and I got there, and right up until Nurse Becca wheeled you out.”
“Yes,” Mac said solemnly. “So I told Mrs. Vesper not to trouble herself about dinner for the two of us, that we would pick up Chinese or something else on the way back.”
“Oh,” CJ murmured with a frown. Before she’d realized the men were at the hospital waiting on her, she’d planned to go straight to the police station. She’d obviously missed her afternoon appointment with Jefferson and she needed to arrange a new one. She also needed to make a report on the pickup that had nearly run them down, or give a statement if the men had already reported the incident, she thought, and said, “Have you guys talked to the police yet?”
“No,” Mac said at once.
“But we probably should,” Decker put in, which made surprise flash over Mac’s face before the other man pointed out, “The hospital probably reported the incident to them . . . and CJ missed her afternoon appointment with Jefferson. I’m sure she’d like to reschedule that. Besides, I suspect if we do not stop with her, she’ll just head back on her own after we get to the house. I don’t really think she should be driving right now.”
“No,” Mac agreed.
Bricker immediately groaned. “I’m guessing that means a delay to eating.”
“You guess right,” Decker said dryly, and then shook his head. “Bricker, your relationship with food is really rather worrisome at times. You can’t possibly be hungry. You ate three times while we were waiting at the hospital.”
“Cafeteria food,” Bricker scoffed. “And we were at the hospital forever.”
“We were there for five hours,” Decker corrected. “It was just after one when we got back to the RV after dropping Mac and CJ off at the office. We dropped off Mac’s things, tended your wounds, and returned to the hospital at 3 p.m. It’s now eight o’clock. You ate three times in five hours, and that doesn’t include the lunch we’d just had before the incident with the truck. There is something wrong with you.”
“Maybe he has a tapeworm,” CJ suggested, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. Her skull was reverberating with pain and their squabbling was just aggravating it. She couldn’t decide if they sounded more like fractious siblings or a quarreling husband and wife, but they weren’t helping her headache any.
“We’ll be at the police station in a few minutes and you can get water there,” Mac said suddenly, his voice soothing but carrying an undertone of concern that told her she wasn’t hiding her pain well.
His words also reminded her that she was still clutching the pill bottle in her hand, but hadn’t done anything with it yet. Forcing her eyes open, she squinted down at the bottle, undid the lid, retrieved two pills, and dry-swallowed them. To hell with water, she needed pain relief now.
“How bad is your headache?” Mac asked with concern as she tucked the pill bottle back in her purse. “Maybe we should take you back to the hospital and—”
“Try it and I’ll be kicking you guys out of my car and driving off without you,” she growled, closing her eyes once more, but then snapped them open again as Decker’s words finally penetrated the pain clouding her brain. “Tended his wounds? Bricker was hurt too?”
“Nothing serious,” Decker assured her. “Just a bruise and a little road rash on his ass.”
She thought she heard an annoyed growl from Bricker, saw Mac’s lips twitch with amusement, but was scowling herself. “Why was I the only one to end up in the hospital? Bricker got off with just a little road rash, and you—” She glared at Mac. “What about your back?”
“My back?” he asked, his eyes going wide.
“Yes, I distinctly recall you skidding across the tarmac on your back with me on top of you after—” She stopped abruptly, a frown claiming her expression. CJ had been going to say after Bricker scooped them up and tossed them out of the way of the pickup, but that was impossible. That couldn’t have happened. Obviously, her memory was confused, or mixed up with maybe some dream she’d had. In which case, she didn’t want to say anything about her mixed-up memory. The men might see it as another reason to try to convince her to return to the hospital, so she closed her eyes again and muttered, “Never mind.”
Silence fell in the car then, but she ignored it and just concentrated on trying to breathe deeply as she waited for the pills to start working and her head to stop aching. She wasn’t going to admit it to the men, but she was a little concerned about her headache. Not a lot. Certainly not enough that she’d been willing to admit to the doctor and nurses to having one, or to the severity of it, and risk being forced to stay in the hospital for observation. CJ hated hospitals. She wasn’t keen on doctor visits either. Besides, her headache was probably a combination of hitting her head and dehydration. Maybe even a need to eat. She hadn’t had anything since lunch.
She’d grab a glass of water at the police station and see if that helped. Maybe they’d have snacks there too. Something to bring her sugar up. If eating and drinking didn’t help, and her headache persisted or got worse, she’d consider going back to the hospital. But she wouldn’t like it.
A combination of the vehicle slowing down and the clicking of the blinker being utilized made CJ open her eyes. Much to her surprise, they were pulling into the parking lot of a Tim Hortons coffee shop with a drive-through.
“We can get you a bottle of water here,” Mac said in explanation when she glanced his way.
“Thank you,” CJ breathed.
Mac nodded as he maneuvered into the short line of cars waiting to place an order, and then asked, “Did they feed you anything in the hospital?”
CJ started to shake her head, but immediately stopped as the action sent pain shooting through her skull. Resisting the urge to clasp her head in her hands until the pain eased, she simply closed her eyes again and said, “No.”
“You must be hungry, then. Do you want a sandwich or something?”
He didn’t have to ask twice. “A chicken wrap, honey cruller, mocha latte, and the bottle of water please,” CJ rattled off, her hand dipping blindly into her purse to pull her wallet out.
“Put that away,” Mac said with exasperation. “I’ve got this.”
CJ opened her eyes to scowl at him, but Mac ignored her and turned to the men in the back.
“Decker? Bricker? What do you guys want?”
“I’m good,” Decker said, but Justin Bricker rattled off a list of items that was three times longer than what CJ had asked for.
She was grinning with amusement by the time he finished, and not at all surprised when Mac said, “Yeah, well, open your window and you can repeat all that to the speaker when the server asks what we want, ’cause I’m not going to remember it.”
“Hell, Bricker, even you won’t remember all that,” Decker said with disgust.
“Will so,” Bricker responded at once.
“Will not,” Decker assured him.
“How much do you want to bet?” came Bricker’s challenge.
“Have those two been partners for long?” CJ asked Mac as the pair continued to bicker in the back seat.
“A couple of years now, I think,” Mac said, eyeing the two men in the rearview mirror.
“We aren’t partners,” Decker said, proving he had heard her question. “At least not all the time.”
“Are so,” Bricker countered.
“Not really,” Decker said with a frown in his voice.
“When is the last time you worked with someone else?” Bricker asked, and when Decker didn’t answer at once, said, “See? Partners.”
“Damn,” Decker muttered.
CJ smiled faintly and closed her eyes again. Keeping them closed seemed to ease her headache. Either that or the pills were kicking in. Although it seemed too soon for that to happen, so she kept her eyes closed and let the men’s conversation drift around her until they were through the ordering process and receiving the food at the window. She opened her eyes and sat up then to take the food and drinks from Mac as he got it from the cashier and passed it over. Neither Decker nor Mac had ordered anything, so CJ took what she’d ordered from the selection and passed the rest back to Bricker.