Recalled (Death Escorts #1)(36)
Author: Cambria Hebert

But now wasn’t the time for those kind of thoughts.

“He’s not my boyfriend. And the only person with the attitude around here is you.” I snapped, glancing down at Dex. He was still out.

Apparently Emilio’s burned hand was momentarily forgotten because he launched himself at me. His eyes were wild and he reached out with his good hand and grabbed me around the arm, just beneath my elbow, and yanked. I planted my foot into the ground and tried to jerk my arm free, but he didn’t let go. So I kicked him. The heel of my boot caught him in the knee and finally he let go, howling.

Mary pushed him backwards and he fell onto his butt. There was a bucket nearby, half filled with ice, and she reached in and grabbed a handful and threw it on the downed cook. “Sit there and cool off until help arrives.”

My chest was heaving when he glared at me. I wanted to kick him again, but I didn’t. The customers in the diner had seen enough. I could only imagine what the owner was going to say. I prayed I didn’t get fired.

I leaned down beside Dex again and shook his shoulder, brushing the hair back from his forehead. He began to stir and then he was blinking open his eyes and looking up at me. His glasses were slightly askew and I reached out to adjust them.

“We keep meeting like this,” he said, his eyes still kind of unfocused.

Memories assaulted me of sitting in the street with snow falling all around. The chaos from that night suddenly mirrored the chaos of tonight. It was just him and I sitting in a bubble, the two of us a part of the room, yet somehow separate. Activity hummed around us, but the air that encircled us was still. Just him looking up at me.

Except this was Dex.

This wasn’t the man who died.

Right?

Sitting here now, in the middle of the diner, I felt a connection… some sort of familiarity between us.

I reminded myself that this wasn’t the night of the accident. Dex was hurt and needed medical attention.

“Dex, how do you feel?”

“I’m fine. How’s the other guy?” he replied groggily.

“Burned and pissed off,” I said, watching his eyes, checking for any sign of a concussion.

He grunted in response and I wondered if that meant he didn’t feel well enough to speak or only that he didn’t really care about Emilio. Most likely the latter.

The chaos of the room was breaking into the bubble I imagined surrounding us, and I was grateful Mary was trying to calm everyone down.

“Come on, you need a doctor,” I told Dex, reaching down and grabbing his arm to help him up.

I shouldn’t have touched him.

Maybe it was the way I was feeling. Maybe it was the memories flooding back to me or what Dex said only moments before, but the vision came over me and it was exactly as it always was.

The man from the accident, the one with the serious eyes and knit hat, flooded my head. All I could see was him. He wasn’t wearing a hat and he had almost black hair. Hair that was either slightly curly or just really messy fell onto his forehead. He was smiling, a beautiful smile, and I imagined it was me he looked at.

And then it was gone as fast as it came.

For some reason I felt bereft. Robbed of a certain warmth.

Why? Why of all days did I have to have this vision today?

“Piper? Are you okay?” I heard Dex ask and then I felt his hand on my arm.

I pulled my arm away from his touch, not wanting a replay. “Yeah,” I replied. “Give me your car keys.”

He needed a doctor and suddenly this room seemed way, way too small.

“You want to drive my Roadster?” he asked me like I suggested he run down the street naked.

“Well, you aren’t driving it.” I retorted. I was still unsure if he had a concussion or not.

He fished the keys out of his pocket and handed them to me. I took them, hoping he didn’t notice how hard I tried not to touch him. I wanted to run from the place, but I couldn’t. I had responsibilities.

I turned toward Mary who was refilling the customers’ coffee and working to calm everyone down.

“He needs a doctor, stitches, I think,” I told her when she came close enough so I didn’t have to yell.

Behind us Emilio was still crying about his hand and how no one was even worried about him.

“Just go,” Mary said. “The EMTs are on their way to help him. I’ll call for another waitress and a cook in a sec. I can handle things. It’s still early, and the crowd is small. Better to get him outta here anyway.”

“I owe you one, Mary,” I replied.

“No. It was payment enough watching this guy get what was coming to him. I’ll do my best to cover for you, but I can’t promise anything.”

“Thank you,” I told her again and headed toward the door, hoping Dex would follow. He did and soon we were outside on the sidewalk in the wintry air. As we headed to the Roadster, I did my best not to look at the spot where the accident happened. Instead, I looked toward Dex.

Blood ran down the left side of his face. It caught in his eyebrow, the thick hair diverting it around his eye where it then continued its dark trail.

See? I told myself. He’s completely different from the guy in your vision.

I knew this was true. It was obvious they were two different people.

So why did something inside me keep whispering they were the same?

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Suture – thread of catgut or silk or wire used by surgeons to stitch tissues together.”

Dex

I didn’t really start to notice everything around me until I was sitting in the passenger side of the Roadster. The cold air outside acted like a wakeup call and really brought some clarity back into my head. I must have been completely out of it to agree to let her drive my car. I was about to tell her that I was the one who would be driving when she started yelling at me.

“What were you thinking?” Piper demanded as she put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb.

I calculated the odds I had of getting her to pull over and let me drive. I didn’t think they were very good and besides, I was comfortable.

“I didn’t like that guy’s attitude,” I said in response to her question. And my answer was actually true. Sure, I needed a reason to get her out of the diner, and sure, this would buy me some points for what I had planned, but when I saw him shove her, anger slammed through me.

“Well, I’m probably going to get fired,” she said, flat. “And you’re bleeding all over yourself and this car.”

I was such a hypocrite. Beating on a guy with a bad attitude directed at Piper when all the while I plotted her death. I didn’t have a right to be angry at anyone for what they did to her… yet I felt strangely territorial when it came to her. No one was allowed to hurt Piper. No one but me.