Half Empty(31)
Bernie glanced at Trina before focusing on Avery.
“Bernie . . . Trina knows. You don’t have to pretend.”
Trina felt her heart skip a beat. “The nurse just gave her more pain medication. I think it’s working,” Trina told Bernie in hopes that he wouldn’t question what she knew and didn’t know.
“Oh, please, Trina.”
“No matter,” Bernie said. “I care, and I’m here if you need anything.”
Avery’s eyes started to close and stay that way. “I’m okay.”
Bernie huffed in disbelief. Before he could say another word, Avery’s mouth slacked open and her breathing evened out as she fell fast asleep.
Trina nodded toward the door and encouraged Bernie to follow. He did, but not before he kissed Avery’s exposed cheek.
Once they walked out of the room, Trina reached her hand out to shake his. “I’m Trina.”
“Bernie, Avery’s ex-husband.”
“It was sweet of you to stop by.”
He shifted from foot to foot. “I’m not sure what she told you about me, but—”
Trina interrupted him. “That you were both hasty in getting married and realized a long-lasting romantic love wasn’t going to work.”
Bernie looked relieved. “I would imagine that bump to her head has her saying strange things,” he offered.
“Nothing I haven’t expected.”
Bernie paused and nodded. “It’s probably best not to leave her alone with her parents until she’s less . . . medicated.”
“I agree,” Trina said. “Lori and I are taking turns.”
With those final words, Bernie’s understanding seemed to come into focus. Alliance had a strict code of silence, but their unstated conversation became perfectly clear to both of them.
He reached for Trina’s hands and squeezed them. “I do care deeply for her. Please keep me informed.”
“I will.”
Trina watched Bernie’s back as he walked out of the ICU. When the door opened, she saw one of the detectives from the previous night standing in the doorway.
The hair on her neck stood up. There wasn’t any way of knowing what Avery would say to the police in her drugged state. If word got out about Avery’s fake marriage to Bernie, and someone followed that bouncing ball, it stood to reason that the police would question her about Fedor.
She turned to Doug, the nurse who had been taking care of Avery since the early morning hours. “Excuse me.”
Doug looked up from the chart he was working on.
“I’m going to step out for a while.” She glanced behind her at the approaching detectives. “She’s really tired and could take a break from visitors,” she told the nurse.
Doug stood. “I’ll check on her.”
Trina headed Detective Gray off. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.”
“Mrs. Petrov.”
“We’d like a few words with Ms. Grant.”
“She’s exhausted.”
Armstrong looked over his shoulder toward the closed door to the ICU. “It appears she’s had plenty of visitors today.”
Maybe it was luck, or perhaps Doug caught on to Trina’s need, but the nurse left Avery’s room and stopped the men from entering.
“Trina?” Doug approached. “She’s finally sleeping. I’m going to ask that everyone leave her alone for a few hours.”
Gray removed a badge from his back pocket. “I’m Detective Gray, this is Detective Armstrong, we only have a few questions for Ms. Grant.”
“Those will have to wait.”
“We’ll be back later, then,” Armstrong said.
“I would suggest you call before returning. The neurologist has ordered a few tests . . .”
“We’ll wait.”
Doug stepped closer, lowered his voice. “How about tomorrow? Her family and friends visiting to tell her she’s loved is helpful. Questions about what put her here are traumatic at this stage.”
The detectives exchanged glances. “We’ll be back.”
Trina sighed her relief when they left. “Thank you, Doug.”
“Nothing I said wasn’t true.”
“I’ll step out for a while.”
He stopped her. “I heard Wade Thomas was with all of you.”
“He is.”
Doug tilted his head. “I’m a huge fan.”
“I’ll be sure and drag him back the next time Avery wakes up to say hello.”
“Really? That would be epic.”
If Wade’s name could keep the police away until Avery was alert, Trina would use it.
Chapter Twenty-One
“White on rice,” Wade said as if he was in the middle of a conversation instead of walking Trina outside the hospital doors and onto the wet streets of Manhattan.
“Excuse me?”
He draped his arm over her shoulders and tucked her close to his side. “I’ve never played bodyguard before. I think I’m going to like it.” He’d heard Reed bring Trina up to date on the lack of fingerprints found in the office. She seemed less concerned with that than everyone else involved.
“What does role-playing a bodyguard have to do with rice?”
He chuckled and leaned close to her ear. “Your bulky friends said I needed to be white on rice with you. I like potatoes more than rice, but I’ll give it a shot,” he teased.
They walked toward the hotel.
Trina stiffened and slowed her pace. “I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into all this. Please don’t feel obligated to—”
“Oh, no . . . don’t start that. I don’t feel obligated, nor do I have some kind of hero complex that you’re scratching. I might not prefer how we are spending time together, but I thoroughly enjoy the company and wouldn’t dream of leaving.”
“You have a love for hospital waiting rooms?”
A crowd of people huddled around them as they waited for traffic to clear to cross the street.
“I have a deep regard for right over wrong and being a friend in more than a Christmas card fashion.”
They joined the masses and jaywalked to the other side of the street.
“If you need to get home, I completely understand.”
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, causing a dam for the people rushing by. Wade pulled her to the side of a building and stood in front of her.
“Okay, darlin’. I’m going to say this once.” He placed both hands on the sides of her face and stared her in the eye.
She opened her mouth, and he brought one finger over her lips to stop her. “Nobody needs me at home more than you need me here. I’m taking the charge of white on rice and I don’t plan on leaving until the police find out what’s going on. If they don’t, then I’ll just have to follow you back to Texas, where it appears you belong. So no more guilt about keeping me here or dragging me into anything. Got it?”
Trina tried to smile. “You’re pretty demanding,” she said quietly.
“Oh, darlin’, I’m one hundred percent demanding, which is probably why I’m still single. I’m also determined to get that half-empty look out of your eyes and replace it with sparkling lights.”
There her smile was. Seeing it warmed his heart.
“Now we’re talkin’.”
“Are you always this charming?”
He shook his head. “No. I saved it for you.”
Trina snickered. “That’s a line,” she called him out.
“Guilty. But this time I mean it.”
She narrowed her eyes.
He brushed his thumb over her jaw and gave in to the desire to kiss her.
The more often he brushed his lips against hers, the more he wanted to make her his next addiction. Even the busy streets of New York City couldn’t keep his heartbeat out of his head as he tasted her.
When she opened her lips, he ended their public display and promised to deepen that kiss as soon as they were alone.
“Hey, Wade!”
The sound of someone calling him from several feet away, followed by a flash of lights, ruined the disco ball spinning in his head.
Sure enough, the paparazzi had found him. Instead of causing a scene, Wade pulled Trina alongside him and started toward the hotel.
“Who’s your friend?” The flash of a camera followed the stranger’s question.
People started turning to watch.
The man backed into people as he moved in front of them to get the image he wanted.
New Yorkers weren’t all that friendly when being plowed into by a distracted pedestrian.
Wade tried moving around the man. “We’re in a hurry. If you don’t mind.”
“Just one smile,” he asked, the camera up to his eye.
Wade didn’t oblige. Instead he pushed around the man, careful not to touch him, and doubled his pace to get away.
Trina kept up as if she’d done the paparazzi dance before.
When they approached the hotel, the man at the door sensed their plight, opened the door, and then cut off Mr. Camera Happy.
Wade took a deep breath when the elevator doors closed.
Trina twisted to stand in front of him, placed her hands on his chest, and pushed him against the wall. Without words, she pressed her body against his and demanded his lips.
It took him two seconds to catch on before his eyes closed and his body gave in to hers. Her lips were open, hungry, and not like any kiss he’d had from her before. He hardened in an instant.
The elevator dinged loud enough for Wade to put a tiny distance between the two of them when the doors opened.