Broken Bear (2 page)

Well, there was an explanation for it.

She was horny as hell.

Daniella
, Now is not the time for this!

She
had to focus.

Whatever it took, she had to divert her attention away from his deep dimples and caramel colored skin. She had to do everything in her power not to fondle his long, chocolate brown hair.
And
for God’s sake
, the way she glared at his perfect ass needed to stop. That was priority number one in a life or death rescue such as this.

She had to focus on something,
anything
else.

However, emergency response
wasn’t Daniella’s strong suit.

As if magnetized by it,
Daniella looked over at his motionless, muscular body once more. From head-to-toe, he was spectacular. Daniella felt a bit guilty as she ogled him. The poor guy was unconscious after all. Still, she found it impossible to resist and each time she would try to divert her gaze, her eyes would travel back to him before long.

Shirtless, his upper torso lay exposed to the elements. While she watched his breath rise and fall,
Daniella marveled at the deep crevices of muscle that glowed in the moonlight. They began at his upper back and ran the entire length of his body until they reached his sublime ass.

As she stared
at it, another thought popped into her consciousness.

Would anyone
know
if she touched him?

Her mind conjured up a rationalization with lightning-like quickness.

It was simple…

If anyone happened to notice her, she could just say that
she’d checked to see if he was alive… or injured… or whatever. No one would be suspicious if she touched him in a situation like that, right? After all, that was the responsible thing to do. It wasn’t a
caress
or something of that nature; it was a touch and a small one at that.

Daniella’s
brain called upon seldom-used synapses and neurons. They fired with rapid precision and provided more credence to the story. In a final stroke of brilliance, Daniella concluded that from a safety standpoint, it made
a lot
of sense to touch him.

In truth, she
wouldn’t touch him for the sake of it. No, it was more like she would stabilize him.

Yep, that was it.

She had to
stabilize
him before it was too late.

Daniella
swallowed hard and moved closer to him to begin the ‘stabilization process’. As she closed the gap between them, something caught her attention that she hadn’t noticed before - a tattoo that read, ‘Jett’, on his right shoulder.

With her right hand, she traced the letters and mouthed them in silence to herself. Her hand shook as she touched his skin.
She’d never been this way around a man in her life and he wasn’t even conscious!

“Jesus,
Daniella. Calm down, please.” She whispered to herself under her breath.

She never wanted to touch anyone the way she yearned to touch
him in that moment. The urge overpowered her and she was unable to explain it, or even form a thought about it. All that she knew was that she must do it now. Daniella could wait not a moment longer and hands, as if on instinct, moved down towards the motionless slab of muscle to claim their prize.

A few inches from the decisive moment, she could sense heat f
rom his exposed skin. The time was almost upon her. Daniella could feel her most primal instinct drive her on in unconscious lust for the mysterious hunk of man meat beneath her.

“
Daniella!” Tricia’s voice called out from overhead.

Shocked, she withdr
ew her hands and looked upwards. She saw her friend flanked on either side by police officers and medical personnel. Daniella balled her hands up in to tiny fists, exhaled and leaned away from him.

“I’m okay!” she called back.

“How did you get down there?” Tricia asked.

“I fell.” She replied. “Please help! He’s alive but I don’t know how badly he’s injured.”

The police officer that stood to Tricia’s right said, “Is anyone else nearby?”

“No,” she called back. “He’s the only one I’ve seen so far.”

“Okay, sit tight. We’ll be down to get you right away.”

“Alright!” she called back. She looked down at him and whispered, “No rush…”

***

As the rescuers worked on the victim, they also helped
Daniella back up to the area where she parked her car. Just then, a police cruiser pulled up and an officer jumped out.

“
Daniella,” Sergeant Billy Holder said. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“We were driving through and we saw the skid marks.” She replied. “Stopping was the right thing to do, so we did.”

Billy was an old friend of both women.

In fact, he and
Daniella had dated for a brief period once. But, as good of a cop as Billy was, he turned out to be a lousy boyfriend and much worse lover. Although it was long since ancient history, it always seemed to Daniella like Billy had never given up on her. Where possible, she avoided him but tonight it wasn’t an option.

When she was younger,
Daniella made many, many mistakes when it came to guys. It didn’t help matters that she was bigger than most of her friends and unfortunately, that fact drove most of her dating choices early in life. Billy had been one of those less-than-perfect decisions and one she came to regret almost right away.

People
always reminded her of how pretty she’d be if she ‘just lost a few pounds’. On the surface, it sounded like great advice so she tried any number of things over the years to live up to what everyone else thought she should be.

Everyone that is, except for her.

Deep down she wasn’t her authentic self. To make matters worse, that advice drove her straight into the arms of men who knew how to use it to their advantage. Over time, she’d compounded one toxic mistake after another until a couple of years ago. However, in spite of the promise it held that relationship ended and ever since, she’d been single.

In any case, right around the time Billy had arrived at the crash site, a heavy-duty tow truck showed up on the scene.
Daniella’s eyes widened as she watched the battered vehicle the stranger drove emerge from the trees.

“Oh my God,” She gasped.

Billy turned in the direction of the smashed car.

“Yeah, it was a bad one,” he said. “Guy’s lucky to be alive…”

“Yeah,” Daniella replied as she shook her head in disbelief.

“Were you able to find out anything about him?” Tricia asked.

“Well, there doesn’t appear to be any identification in the vehicle.” Billy replied. “Ordinarily, we’d run the tags or serial number for the car but…” he paused and turned his attention back towards it.

“But…”
Daniella said.

“Well, there aren’t any tags and the serial numbers have been filed off the vehicle.”

“Weird.” She said.

“Yeah, I’d say suspicious is more like it.” He replied.

“What do you mean?” Daniella asked.

“There’s very little question what happened here was not an accident.” He said. “Folks who are minding their own business don’t wind up in situations like this. Add to it he’s without any identification and well, let’s just say it’s got my curiosity piqued.”

“Do you think he’s still in danger?” Tricia asked.

“Hard to say,” he replied. “At this point, there’s so li
ttle evidence to go on anything is possible. He could be a victim or a perpetrator. If he’s the former, you have my word we’ll do all what we can to track down those responsible. If he’s the latter, well, then we will deal with that also.”

“Oh,”
Daniella said. “I had no idea this was such a serious situation.”

He nodded and said, “Yes, it has the potential for it but, I won’t be certain until I can speak with him myself and do a bit more investigating.”

Billy paused for a moment and scanned the scene of the accident once again. He bit his lower lip, shrugged and said, “Is there anything else you can tell me, Daniella, anything at all?”

The women looked at one another and shook their heads.

In the distance, they heard the sound of a helicopter on approach. The three of them watched as it landed in the middle of the highway about fifty yards away from the ambulance that held the victim.

“Oh my God,”
Daniella said. “Aren’t those used for critical injuries?”

“Yes,” Billy said. “Well, he did drive his car down a forty foot embankment at a high rate of speed. That qualifies in my book but we won’t know how severe the injuries are until we get him to the hospital.”

“Where are they taking him? Mission General?” Tricia asked.

“Yes.” He replied.

While they spoke, the emergency personnel rolled the man on a gurney from the ambulance to the waiting helicopter.

“Do you think we would be allowed in there?”
Daniella asked. “To see him, I mean…”

“Well,” he said. “I would guess under normal circumstances the hospital wouldn't let you in to see him but, in this case, they might make an exception.
I am going to drive there and see if I can get an opportunity to question him in the event he regains consciousness. If you like, you can follow me. The trip will be much quicker for you that way.”

“Okay,”
Daniella said. “It’s worth a shot. If nothing else, I’d at least like to find out if he’s alright.”

Billy nodded and said, “Alright then, let’s get going.”

The woman turned and began to walk back towards Daniella’s car.

“
Daniella…” Tricia whispered as they walked.

She turned towards her friend.

“What?” she said.

“Do you
really
think it’s a good idea? Going to the hospital…”

“I don’t know, why not?”

“You know damn well
why not
.”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Daniella said. “If you prefer, I can take you to pick up your car like we’d planned or you can come with me. Either way, I am going to the hospital.”

Tricia groaned.

“No,” she replied. “I’ll go with you. God, you are so stubborn sometimes.”

***

Daniella couldn’t
stand
the hospital.

Her last trip to Mission Ge
neral had been one that she wanted to forget but until tonight at least, she thought her prior visits here faded into her memory. Nothing against the people who worked there but she found the place to be cold, impersonal and soulless.

At least, that was how she remembered it.

The hospital admitted the stranger before the women arrived with Officer Holder. So when they got there, they waited in the seating area for about an hour or so when one of the emergency room doctors appeared from the operating room.

“Hello,” he said as he neared the group.

The man extended his hand towards them and said, “I am Dr. Andrew Wilson. Are you here for the car crash victim?”

“Hello, Dr. Wilson,”
Daniella replied. “Yes, we are. I’m Daniella Tanner and this is my friend, Tricia Collins.”

He nodded.

“Nice to meet you both,” he said.

Dr. Wilson turned his attention to Billy and said, “Officer Holder, good to see you again.”

“Dr. Wilson…” Billy said as he nodded.

“I understand that you ladies are the ones that discovered this man’s vehicle.”

“Yes.” Daniella said. “Is he going to be okay?”

“I think so. The crash banged him up pretty good.” Dr. Wilson replied. “He’s
got some broken ribs and a severe concussion. On a positive note, we haven’t been able to detect any internal bleeding or other life threatening injuries. Still, we’llrun more tests on him once we can get him stabilized
.
At that point, we’ll have a much better of idea of things.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Tricia said.

As she spoke, Billy’s radio erupted to life with emergency chatter.

“Excuse me for a second,” he said as he walked away to deal with the call.

After Billy left, Dr. Wilson turned to the women and said, “Do either of you happen to know this man?”

“No.”
Daniella said. “Why?”

“Well, it’s just not the normal policy here at the hospital to allow non-family visitors.” He said.

“Oh,” Daniella replied. “Well, do you suppose the hospital could make an exception in this case? I mean, he doesn’t have any identification at all. We may not be family but we’re all he’s got at this point.”