Still the One

Wyatt paused. “Hang on a sec.”

AJ could hear him giving directions on how to catch something coming out of a birth canal. Clearly the guy was hands deep, literally, at Belle Haven.

Then he was back. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know,” AJ said. “Probably nothing. You know where she is?”

“She isn’t there?”

“She left. Said she was sick.”

“What am I missing?” Wyatt asked.

“I wish I knew.”

Another pause. “Is this thing going to end badly?” Wyatt finally asked, sounding pained. “And before you answer, you should know, you’re like a brother to me, but if this goes south and she gets hurt, I’m going to kick your ass into next week.”

“Okay, great, thanks for the help,” AJ said and disconnected. Ignoring Trent’s long, impatient sigh, he tried Zoe. He got no answer, which meant she was probably in the air. Just as well. Wyatt had just threatened to beat the shit out of him but Zoe wouldn’t give him any warning at all; she’d cut off his nuts, feed them to the squirrels, and then let him bleed out slowly.

He stared at his phone.

“What now?” Ariana asked.

AJ accessed his contacts and scrolled down to the X’s.

Ariana blew out a breath. “Maybe I should clear your schedule for an hour.”

“I’m on his schedule,” Trent said. “And I came all the way from Boise for this. I thought you were serious about my offer, AJ.”

“I am,” AJ said. “But not as serious as I am about making sure Darcy is okay. If you’ve got a problem with that, you’re free to go. I understand the consequences but I have to do this.”

Ariana sucked in a breath.

Temper lit in Trent’s eyes. Clearly he wasn’t a man used to waiting on others. “If I leave, that’s it,” he said. “I won’t be kept waiting.”

“Then it’s best if you leave,” AJ said without hesitation.

Trent met his gaze, swore, and then turned on his heel and headed back down the hallway, presumably to get Summer.

“Oh, AJ,” Ariana whispered as he hit Xander’s contact.

“What the fuck do you want?” Xander said in lieu of greeting. “I’m in the middle of a tat.”

“You with her?” AJ asked, watching as Trent led Summer out the front door and out of his life without looking back.

“You mean Darcy?” Xander asked.

“No, the fucking Tooth Fairy.”

There was a beat of dead air. “Huh,” Xander said slowly. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?”

“My Find My Friends app says she’s out on Highway 64, fifteen miles from town. Shit. She must be heading to Johnny’s for another dog. Wait— No, her dot is still. She’s not moving. Why is she on the highway not moving?”

Any answer AJ could come up with made his gut hurt like hell. He disconnected from Xander and strode out of the wellness center. On a good day with no traffic the trip would’ve taken him twenty minutes.

He made it in ten.

She’d driven into a ditch, and at the sight of her piece-of-shit car leaning at an angle with its two right wheels buried into the edge of the muddy ditch, his heart just about stopped.

He threw his truck into park and ran toward the car, having to drop to his knees to peek into the passenger window. The driver-side airbag had deployed. It had mostly deflated but the blood spatter had his heart kicking back into gear. “Darcy!”

“Here.”

Still on his knees in the mud, he whipped around and found her sitting on a rock about ten yards away. Pale as a ghost, a gash over her left eye, she was as still as the stone beneath her, as if it hurt to move even a single inch.

At her side in an instant, he crouched and ran his hands carefully down her arms and legs, searching for broken bones.

“I’m not hurt,” she said.

Since she had blood running down one side of her face, he ignored her assessment, until with a sound of annoyance she pushed his hands away. Conceding the body search, he checked her pulse, not liking how fast she was breathing.

“I’m fine,” she gasped, not looking anywhere even in the vicinity of fine.

“You’re starting to hyperventilate and your pulse is way too high,” he said. “It’s a miracle you’re even conscious.”

She smiled grimly. “I’m a very determined individual when I want to be.”

“Gee, that’s brand-new information about you.” He pulled out his phone.

“No!” she said. “No ambulance.”

“Darcy—”

Her eyes flashed. “I mean it, AJ.”

“I’ve got to at least call Kel and have your car taken care of.”

She tried to stare him down, but she clearly had a hell of a headache because she reached up to hold on to her head like she was trying to keep it on her shoulders. “I want you to go away,” she said.

Yeah, he was getting that loud and clear.

“Actually,” she said. “I want to tell you where to go. Which is straight to hell.”

He was getting that, too. What he wasn’t getting was why. Maybe Xander hurting her had made her decide to hate all men? Which, with Darcy, was entirely likely. He called Kel while she glared at him, and then he reached out to brush the hair from her face, wanting to better see her injury.