Discovering You. Brenda Novak

favored his left leg and figured he had a few injuries of his own, in addition to the scraped knuckles and busted lip.

      “You could use some medical attention yourself,” she said when he opened the passenger door.

      “I’m all right,” he responded as he climbed in.

      “But your leg—”

      He stretched it out through the open door to have a look. “When he hit my bike, I came down on it pretty hard.” He lifted his torn jeans away from the scrapes. “Skinned it up is all,” he said, as if that wasn’t anything to worry about.

      “Are you sure you didn’t break it?”

      Shifting gingerly, he managed to bend his hurt leg far enough to get it in the car. “I wouldn’t be able to walk if I had.”

      She gave him a skeptical glance. “That’s not necessarily true. It would depend on the kind of break. You should have it x-rayed.” She felt confident that was what her husband would’ve said, and he had been a doctor—on his way to becoming a world-class heart surgeon.

      Rod closed the door. “There’s no need.”

      Having him in the same confined space made her slightly claustrophobic. Or maybe he made her uncomfortable for other reasons. Like the fact that he reminded her of Sam, the boy she’d married straight out of high school only weeks after her mother’s death. Unlike Charlie, Sam had been a terrible husband. He’d possessed no more life skills than she had at that age, so the marriage didn’t last a year. But being with him had had its high points, including a certain giddy I-can’t-keep-my-hands-off-this-man attraction.

      She felt some of that attraction now, just as she had the other day, when Rod had carried her potter’s wheel from the back of her Prius. She also felt wary—more wary than anything else. But she couldn’t complain about the way he smelled, like warm male and fecund earth. She saw some leaves sticking to his shirt and hair and assumed he’d taken a tumble when he fell from his bike. Maybe the fight had even turned into a wrestling match. Most fights went that way, at least the ones she’d witnessed.

      Pushing her silver bangles up her arm, she pressed the gas pedal.

      They rolled carefully around the next bend, but she didn’t see any sign of a bike, a car or another person.

      “It’s farther down,” Rod said before she could ask.

      Apparently, he’d walked a greater distance on that leg than she’d expected.

      The road took several more twists and she still saw no sign of where the incident might’ve occurred. “Where were you going?” she asked in confusion.

      He looked over at her. “When he hit me? I was on my way home.”

      “No. When I saw you. You were walking away from town. You do realize that?”

      “Of course. I’ve lived in Whiskey Creek all my life. It’s not likely I’d get turned around. I was heading back to the bar so I could use a phone or get help.”

      She’d driven past a saloon-style tavern, one with a big neon sign out front. That had to be the place he was talking about. “Are your brothers there?” She’d gotten the impression the three men were close, that they did a lot together.

      “They were until they got tired and left.”

      “They must be wondering where you are.”

      He was too focused on the road to look at her again. “Doubt it. I’m sure they’re asleep.” He pointed ahead. “There it is.”

      She hunched over the steering wheel until she saw a flash of shiny chrome reflecting the moonlight. “So this guy knocked you off your bike, and then he came back to...what? Fight?”

      “I think he was planning to taunt me, to celebrate what he’d done. Or kick me while I was down. The way I fell...he had to believe I’d be more hurt than I was.”

      “He must’ve been surprised when that wasn’t the case.”

      “Yeah, he would’ve been smarter to keep going, although I would’ve caught up with him eventually.”

      That last bit sounded ominous, but at least the other guy seemed to have been the aggressor.

      “Do you have any idea why he’d run you down?” she asked.

      “I guess he didn’t like what I had to say to him at Sexy Sadie’s.”

      They’d reached his Harley, which was black and lying on its side. She parked on the shoulder between it and a white compact car that was still running. The car had its back end in the road, as if the driver had slammed on his brakes and hopped out. The door was open, and the cabin light cast an eerie triangle on the blacktop.

      India wanted to ask Rod what he’d said at Sexy Sadie’s that might’ve incited the driver of that car to violence, but she didn’t get the chance. He got out right away and, despite his injured leg, strode confidently over to a dark shape lying off in the bushes.

      She hurried behind him, even though she wasn’t sure she could stomach what she was about to see. It used to be that the sight of blood didn’t bother her. But, like the rest of her life, that’d changed eleven months ago. Now she had nightmares in which she was drowning in blood.

      And it wasn’t just anyone’s blood...

      Shoving that memory from her mind, she focused on the gravel crunching beneath her high heels until they reached the inert form of the guy Rod had fought. There were no streetlights, but the moon was full. The man seemed to be about thirty-five and was dressed in a polo shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. A dark streak suggested the brawl had taken place in the middle of the road and someone—Rod, no doubt—had pulled him to the side when it was over so he wouldn’t be struck by a car.

      It was a point in her neighbor’s favor that he’d had the presence of mind to take that precaution. But, as he’d mentioned, his opponent wasn’t conscious. India guessed the blood on the road had come from the man’s head, since that was where he was bleeding the most.

      Was he even alive?

      Holding up her dress, she crouched to find his carotid artery. Then she backed slowly away. He had a pulse, thank goodness. She didn’t want to touch him beyond ascertaining that. She was already having flashbacks, could hear her own voice screaming Charlie’s name...

      Instinctively, she covered her ears—then lowered her hands when Rod gave her a funny look. “Do you know him?” he asked.

      She shook her head and was relieved when he didn’t press her.

      After throwing the man a disgruntled glance, he began to pace back and forth across the road.

      “Shouldn’t we search for your phone?” she asked. “I could call it, if you give me your number.”

      “I put it on silent. I hate it when you go out with someone whose phone is always ringing.”

      “It’d light up, at least,” she said.

      They gave it a try. They even used her flashlight app to comb both sides of the road—all to no avail.

      “I’ll come back in the morning, when it’s light,” he said and returned to pacing.

      India held three fingers to her forehead as she watched from the shoulder. “Can you please get out of the street?” she asked when he didn’t move to a safer place.

      His gaze swept over her as if he was wondering why she was so dressed up. But he didn’t ask. Neither did he comply with her request. He continued to prowl while she stared in the direction of Whiskey Creek, wishing the police and the ambulance would arrive.

      “Can you stop?” she finally muttered. “You’re making me nervous.”

      “Don’t worry about it,” he grumbled.

      Obviously, they were both agitated.