Anderson?”
Elizabeth turned, removing her fingers from his chest. It was as if his connection to the present had been unplugged. He felt the familiar disconnect start and fought it, concentrating fiercely on maintaining contact with her and what was happening.
Her mouth was moving, but for a few seconds he couldn’t make sense of the words. He concentrated on doing that, forcing his mind to remain focused on the here and now.
It was a struggle, given the stimuli provided by the sights and sounds around them. He couldn’t afford to think about those. Not about the heat of the fire or the smells of it or the sounds of the sirens.
He forced himself to think only about Elizabeth’s mouth until eventually the words she was saying to the man he’d identified as Magnolia Grove’s fire chief began to form a pattern. To make sense.
“…a friend of mine from out of town. He was naturally concerned for me.”
Because I’m the only one who knows what the hell is going on here.
“We just need to ask you a few more questions, ma’am. Then Tommy thinks you ought to ride on in to the hospital and get checked out. You could have a concussion.”
“I’m fine.”
“You can’t be too careful with a head injury.”
Head injury. She had a head injury?
Cautiously, Rafe allowed his gaze to leave Elizabeth’s mouth, focusing on her head. Her hair was full of ash, but there were no bruises visible under the strands that fell forward over her forehead.
“You hit your head?” he demanded, his voice more normal.
She turned her attention to him, drawing the chief’s there, too. “The blast knocked me flat on my back. I think I hit it on the pavement. I remember looking up at the smoke. Then things were just falling out of the sky…”
As explanations went, it was fairly disjointed. Reassuringly normal.
She’d been the one at the center of the firestorm this time. She was bound to be affected, emotionally if not physically. And there was always the possibility that there was some injury. A lot of head stuff didn’t show up until it was too late.
“How far’s the hospital?” he asked.
The chief answered, his eyes still evaluating him. “Thirty miles or so. Mostly interstate.”
“Okay,” he said.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Elizabeth protested.
Maybe it would be better just to put her in his car and take her somewhere. Anywhere. Any emergency room would do. After all, he couldn’t see any sign that she was concussed.
That meant zilch with a head injury. He’d seen men walking around one minute and keel over the next from the pressure of internal bleeding. Or go to sleep, believing they were perfectly fine, and never wake up.
It wasn’t a chance he was willing to take. Not with Elizabeth.
“You need a scan,” he said. “That way—”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” she said, raking her hair back with characteristic impatience. “Don’t you think I’d know if I were injured?”
“No,” he said. The word was unequivocal, as was the demand in its tone.
Her mouth tightened, but she didn’t argue. She turned back to the chief instead. “What else do you need to know?”
The fireman’s eyes met Rafe’s, holding on them briefly before he answered.
“Nothing we can’t get later,” he said. “The fire marshal will need to examine the scene after we get the blaze controlled and things cool down. That’ll take a couple of days. We can always get back to you if we have other questions then. You go on now and get that scan. Smartest thing you can do.”
“Come on,” Rafe said again.
It would have been easier to take her elbow and physically insist she get into the waiting ambulance, and it should have been okay by now to do that. He didn’t risk it. Not with the sounds and the smells associated with the fire still going on in the background.
He had successfully locked them out of his consciousness, but there was no guarantee that something wouldn’t happen that he wasn’t prepared for. Something that might trigger another flashback. That also was not a risk he was willing to take.
He debated asking the driver to wait until he could get his car so he could follow the ambulance. That way they could leave from the hospital without coming back here.
There were a couple of problems with that. He wasn’t willing to leave Elizabeth alone even for the time it would take for him to run back to the motel. And he doubted she’d be willing to leave town with only the clothes on her back. Especially if they were telling her that the explosion had been the result of a gas leak. Especially if she believed them.
He didn’t, not for one minute, but there wasn’t much point in arguing the theory with the chief. That was something the fire marshal could sort out when he arrived.
By the time he had, he and Elizabeth would be long gone.
Chapter Four
“I told you,” she said.
She still looked like warmed-over death, but according to the emergency room attending, the CT had revealed nothing troublesome. They’d been given the general precautions, but thank God, precautions were all they were.
“You never could resist saying ‘I told you so,’” he said, taking her elbow.
He didn’t even have to think about the wisdom of doing that now. It was strange, but a hospital, despite the time he’d spent in a couple of them after the bombing, had never been a trigger for the flashbacks.
“I didn’t get the opportunity nearly as often as I’d have liked,” she said.
“So no chance to develop any willpower.”
“This isn’t the way—” she began, pulling against his direction.
He put his hand against the small of her back, applying pressure. “It’s the way we’re going.”
“But the front is that way.”
“Exactly,” he said, steering her in the opposite direction.
He knew the scan had been a necessity, but it had also increased the risk that the terrorist would have time to zero in on their location and to make other plans. Of course, if he were typical, he would have been watching them from the first. Especially staying around to watch the fireworks. They could never resist that. Not even the best of them.
“You really think someone set off that explosion?” she asked, finally giving in and allowing him to guide her.
