SEALed With Love (DiCarlo Brides book 2) (The DiCarlo Brides) (18 page)

Joel tapped his fingers against his leg as he tried calling Sage’s cell phone again. Why wasn’t she picking up? He hung up and called the spa’s direct line. “Hello, is Sage around?” he asked when Wendy answered.

“No, she’s gone out to lunch.”

Joel’s worry increased. If she was at lunch she definitely should have answered the phone. “Oh? Do you know if she’s in the restaurant or café?”

“Actually, she and Jonquil were talking about going out somewhere. Just a second,” her voice became muffled for a moment and he heard a masculine voice respond in the background. “Damon said they mentioned something about shakes as they walked out, so they probably went to Wendell’s.”

“Okay, thanks.” He hung up and scrolled through his contact list to Jonquil’s number. Maybe Sage had left her phone in her office or the car. But the hair on the back of his neck stood up—the same feeling he’d gotten when they were in enemy territory, seconds before they took fire.

Joel waited while the phone rang several times, then went to voice mail. He left a message for Jonquil to have Sage call him. He hung up, staring down the hall. What was the chance that they both forgot their phones?

His bad feeling grew worse.

Sage turned to see Jonquil, who shifted her head and touched it with her hand. “I’m okay.” She sounded as dazed as Sage felt. “What happened?”

“The power steering went out and something’s not right with the brakes either. I couldn’t slow down fast enough.” All she could think was that they both could have been killed. The slope beside the road steep enough they would have rolled for sure. And the creek bed below wasn’t deep, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant. “Phone. We should call someone.” Her first thought was Joel—then she realized he wasn’t around and couldn’t come running.

A blue sedan pulled up behind them and a man got out, a phone to his ear. Sage’s heart rate, which had started to calm slightly, picked up again. Could this be her stalker? Had he disabled her car so he could grab or hurt her when she crashed?

Then she recognized him as one of the deputies who had come to their house a few weeks earlier. He wasn’t in uniform, but she knew his face. She rolled down her window. “Hey.”

He hung up the phone and slid it back in his pocket. “I’ve got an ambulance and rescue truck on the way. Sit tight. Can you tell me what happened?”

Sage felt electricity firing in her fingertips and thought she might faint. “The brakes went spongy, and the power steering went out. Both at once. I haven’t driven the car for weeks and they just stopped working. I couldn’t make it turn.” She looked back at Jonquil, who was growing pale. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Jonquil turned all of the way toward her for the first time and Sage saw the blood trickling down her right temple. “I’m fine. I’m feeling a little lightheaded.” She stared at them for a moment, looking dazed. “My leg hurts pretty bad.”

“I bet your head does, too.” Sage touched Jonquil’s temple lightly. “Come on, let’s get out.”

“How about if you wait for the ambulance,” the deputy said. “Sit as still as you can.” He reached in and took Sage’s pulse. “Still pretty worked up, huh? Your heart’s racing.”

“Tell me about it. Feels like it’s trying to pound out of my chest.” She put a hand over her heart and felt the beat with her fingers.

He smiled confidently. “Are you on any medications, seeing a doctor for anything?”

Sage answered his questions and Jonquil did the same. He called back in to dispatch and gave them more information, then continued talking to the girls.

The next hour was a blur. The ambulance crew arrived and strapped both of them to backboards, squeezed and prodded and started IVs. The trip down the mountain to the nearest ER was long and windy and Sage thought she might vomit before they reached the hospital in the next town. Through it all she wondered how her car could have two problems at the same time if it wasn’t her stalker, and why he suddenly decided he wanted her dead. Didn’t his last note say how much he loved her?

One of the EMTs called the hotel when they arrived at the hospital and reached Lana to tell her about the accident. Neither Sage nor Jonquil could talk on the phone with the big chunks of foam blocking their heads in place on the backboard—which was seriously uncomfortable.

Sage came out of x-ray and found Blake and Lana waiting when hospital staff rolled her bed back into the ER. “Hey, are you okay?” Lana asked.

“Fine. I’m going to be seriously stiff, but I’m okay right now. They won’t let me up until the x-ray comes back though. How is Jonquil?”

Blake squeezed her hand. “They’re still waiting for someone to read her x-ray. Then we’ll know. Her leg is starting to swell. Cami’s in with her now.”

Lana took the other side and picked up Sage’s left hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. “What happened?”

Sage gave them the rundown. When she finished, the doctor arrived and smiled at her. “You’re going to want some standard painkillers for a few days, but your x-ray looks clear, so you’re free to go. Well, as soon as that IV fluid is done dripping.”

“Do I really need it?” It was already most of the way gone.

“It won’t be long, and we need to process documents before you can leave anyway.”

Sage held in her sigh, but was grateful when the doctor and a nurse pulled off all of the straps that kept her attached to the backboard. Relieved, she rested back against a soft mattress—or maybe it just felt soft in comparison. “How about Jonquil? Is she okay?”

“Nothing serious. She’ll have to take it easy for a while, though.” The doctor patted her knees and left the curtained area.

“She’s going to be mad.” Sage worried. “She was saying what a long day she had ahead of her to get everything done for tomorrow’s wedding.” She felt horrible, it was all her fault. If it wasn’t the stalker, did she miss a maintenance check on the car? Maybe she shouldn’t have been driving so fast, but it hadn’t felt fast and it had been nice to be behind the wheel again.

“Don’t go blaming yourself,” Blake said, then frowned, looking at the cell phone in his hand. “I have to call Joel.”

Now that her brain was working again, that was the last thing she wanted. “Oh, but—”

“No buts, he’s already going to be ticked I waited until we heard from the doctor before I called him. He called me just a little while before I heard about the accident. He was worried that he couldn’t reach you. I’m going to step outside.” He headed for the ER doors.

“Blake,” she was relieved when he stopped and turned back to her. “Tell him he doesn’t have to hurry back. I’m fine. I’ll be careful. He should stay as long as he needs to.”

Blake’s brows lifted. “I’ll tell him. I doubt it’ll do any good.”

Sage felt dread fill her chest and it got harder to breathe as she thought about Joel’s response, knowing he’d blame himself for her accident, because he wasn’t there to protect her.

When the caller ID showed Blake’s number, Joel knew something had to be wrong, but at least he would finally get some answers. “This is Joel.”

“Hey, I wanted to let you know that Sage’s car had a malfunction. She’s fine, just going to be a little sore and Jonquil’s injuries aren’t serious.”

“Malfuntion? She was in an accident? What the hell happened? I thought you guys were supposed to be keeping an eye on her.” Joel saw his SEAL buddies’ heads swivel in his direction and he bit back another curse. He turned away so no one could see his face.

“Her power steering and her brakes malfunctioned almost at the same time. She was coming around a curve and hit a tree,” Blake explained.

Joel’s gut clenched. “That sounds like sabotage.” He hadn’t been there for Sage. He’d promised to watch out for her and he hadn’t been there. Instead he’d been here—but how could he have ignored Wade when he was hurt?

“I was thinking sabotage too. I’ll make sure the officers look at that possibility. Then we’ll have to figure out where and when he got to her car. Maybe we’ll get a lead on this guy.”

“I’m coming home tonight. As soon as I can get a flight out.” Joel should have convinced Sage to come with him. Then she would have been safe. What had he been thinking leaving her at a time like this?

“Sage said not to worry about her and to stay another night if you need to,” Blake said, though his tone wasn’t the least convincing.

“Right, because I’m really gonna do that. Some psycho tried to kill her today and she thinks I’m gonna stay here. I’ll be home tonight.” Joel let out a long breath as he thought of Wade. He hadn’t been into the room yet that day, but expected another turn any minute. Word from those who’d seen him was he was doing well. “I need to talk to Sage.”

“Yeah. Just a minute.”

Joel paced the room a couple times while he waited for her to come to the phone. He wasn’t going to think about what might have happened. He promised himself no regrets as long as she was okay—and though he couldn’t remember the last time he’d prayed, he shot one into the great void, in case someone was listening. Once he got home, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight again until it was safe.

“Joel? How are things going with Wade?”

Just hearing her voice allowed Joel’s muscles to unclench a little. “Fine. Better. How about you? Where are you hurt, baby?”

“My hip hit the console and I have a seatbelt burn on my side from the chest strap, but we actually hit the back end of the car into a tree while we, um, skidded, most of the momentum was against my seat. I’m fine. I’ll be stiff, but that’s it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Of course.”

Catching a curious glance from one of the guys, he walked out into the hall, unwilling to let everyone else hear his business. For a minute he’d forgotten they were there. And he’d forgotten himself and called her baby again, but he hadn’t been thinking, was having a hard time thinking straight when she was hurt. “I can’t believe this happened the first time I let you be more than five minutes away from me. My heart nearly stopped when Blake said you were in an accident. And I’ve been trying to reach you for nearly an hour.”

“I’m sorry, I lost the phone somewhere in the car during the accident. I’ll send someone to get it for me. And you know you couldn’t have stopped the accident if you’d been here. I had to drive my car again sometime.”

“No, I may not have stopped you from getting hurt, but I wouldn’t have been halfway across the country.” He reminded himself that regret was wasted energy.

“Hey, it’s not your fault.” Sage’s voice was soft and soothing, reaching right into his gut.