The door opened, and a nurse padded in on rubber-soled, silent shoes. “Ah, good, you’re awake.”
Cody’s head shot up, and he scrubbed at his face. He yawned, and then turned an intense stare at her. “How do you feel?”
Stubble covered his cheeks and chin, and she reached up and trailed her palm over the bristly hairs. He leaned into her hand the way Arthur did when he needed a pet.
“How about you wait outside for a few minutes, Mr. Roberts, while I check on Miss Austin.”
“Dr. Austin,” Cody said.
“Actually, Riley works for me.” She waved her hand. “Go on.”
“I’ll be right outside.” He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss before leaving.
“Good-looking man,” the nurse said.
“He sure is. Why am I in the hospital?”
“You don’t know?”
“If I did I wouldn’t be asking, would I?” Riley sighed. “I’m sorry. My head’s killing me. It feels like someone took a baseball bat to it. What happened to me?” Was it an aneurysm, or dear God, a brain tumor?
“The doctor’s on his way and he’ll talk to you about your head. After that, there’s a police officer waiting to ask you some questions.”
“Why?” Had she done something wrong? She tried to remember when the headache had started, but her last memory was of locking her clinic doors, wanting to hurry home so she could get ready to see Cody.
“Mr. Roberts said you’re a doctor, but I’ve never seen you around,” the nurse said, not answering Riley’s question.
“I’m a veterinarian. I want someone to tell me what happened.”
“You have a nasty bump on your head,” a man wearing crisp, blue scrubs said, walking up to the bed. “Dr. Austin, I’m Dr. Garrett. Let’s take a look. Turn your head to the side, please.”
Riley did as requested. Although she was an animal doctor, she was still a doctor, and that was no mere bump on her head. At least it wasn’t a brain tumor. “It hurts.”
“I’m sure it does. You have a concussion and five stitches. We had to cut your hair around the wound, but you can easily hide the bald spot until it grows back out. We’re going to keep you under observation at least one more night. Depending on how you are tomorrow, we’ll talk about whether you can go home or not.”
“One more night? How long have I been here?” As for her missing hair, she’d deal with that when her head didn’t feel like it was going to explode.
“You came in yesterday evening.”
She’d lost a whole night? One she was supposed to have spent with Cody? That sucked. “Will someone please tell me what happened?” She was irritated that no one would explain anything to her.
“Officer Kilpatrick is here with a detective. They’ll explain everything. I’ll be back in the morning, and we’ll see how you’re doing.”
The doctor was all business, no real bedside manner, but all she cared about was seeing Cody and finding out why her head was split open. As soon as he left, Mike and a man she didn’t know came in, closely followed by Cody.
“You need to wait outside, Mr. Roberts,” the unknown man said.
Cody headed straight for her. “Not happening.”
“I want him here.” She needed him even though she was only now getting to know him, and why that was she’d think about later. After her head stopped hurting. He took her hand in his large one, and she gave him a squeeze in thanks.
“I’m Detective Margolis. I understand you already know Officer Kilpatrick?”
Riley nodded, immediately regretting it. “Hi, Mike.”
He glanced at her hand entwined in Cody’s. “Hey. How’s the head?”
“Feels like it’s twice the size it should be and hurts like crazy.”
“You scared us, Riley. What do you remember?”
“Not a thing. I still don’t know what happened.”
The detective put his little notepad back into his pocket. “We know very little. We found a rock not far from you that had blood on it. We’ve sent it to the lab to see if it’s yours, and fully expect that to be the case. It appears someone came up behind you and hit you on the head with it.”
“Why?”
“I understand someone’s poisoning pets under your care? We think it’s related to that. Who would want to harm you, Dr. Austin?”
She couldn’t think of a soul. “I don’t know.”
“Mr. Roberts mentioned while we were waiting to talk to you that there was an earlier incident. He believes someone tried to run you over.” The detective raised a brow as if asking why she hadn’t volunteered that information.