Asking For Trouble (17 page)

"I will...you be careful...those guys aren't
playing, Carlos," Beau told him seriously.

Carlos snorted, then said, "Obviously...I'll
watch my back. You watch out for my sister." With an intense look
for Beau, Carlos turned then stalked out of the waiting room.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jazzie opened her eyes when someone walked
into the room. When she saw it was Beau, she heaved a sigh of
relief. His beautiful green eyes were filled with concern when they
met hers and he gave her a soft smile.

"Hi, beautiful...how're you feeling?" he
asked in that dark honey-smooth voice that sent thrills dancing
down her spine, before he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Tingles spread from his point of contact,
across her cheeks and down her throat to settle near her heart. She
sighed then told him, "Hi yourself, handsome..." then put her hand
on his cheek and chuckled, "How could I not feel great with all the
pain meds I'm hopped up on?"

"Whatever they're giving you, I'm
glad...you've been through a lot today and probably need it," he
said with concern.

"Thank you for saving my life...again," she
told him and rubbed her palm on his cheek.

Beau tilted his head into the caress, then
kissed her wrist, before he said, "I was just

doing--"

Jazzie cringed, because she knew what he was
about to say and her heart cracked a little more. When he stopped
mid-sentence, then evidently rethought what he was going to say,
her eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Um, I was worried about you, sugar...seeing
that guy taking you off that boat scared the living shit out of
me."

"Nothing scares you," she said in a
trembling voice and felt the sting of tears behind her eyes.

"Everything about you scares me...but the
thought of losing you scares me the most...that could've happened
today." Beau punctuated his words by leaning down and pressing a
gentle kiss to her lips.

Someone behind Beau cleared their throat and
he stepped back away from the bed and Jazzie's hand dropped to her
side. He turned and faced the young blond doctor who'd examined her
earlier, who was standing there with a chart in her hand. She
smiled tightly at Beau then walked over to the bed.

"Miss Ramos, I have good news for you," she
told Jazzie, then shot a heated look at Beau and her face
flushed.

"I could use some good news, Doctor
Anderson..." Jazzie told her with a snort, then glanced at Beau,
who had a strange look on his face, almost angry, as he stared at
the beautiful doctor.

Dr. Anderson cleared her throat then said,
"Your CAT scan didn't show any bleeding, or fractures, so we're
going to let you go..."

"I didn't know you worked here, Jenny..."
Beau said suddenly and Jazzie studied his face noticing his tight
jaw and the edge in his tone. His eyes glittered with anger? hurt?
She couldn't quite name the emotion that she saw there, but
whatever it was, it was intense.

"I've been here a year, I transferred here
from Amarillo to finish my residency...and was offered a staff
position," she told him firmly, then pulled a small light out of
her pocket and held Jazzie's eyes open then flashed it inside and
studied her pupil.

There was some strange tension going on
between Beau and Dr. Anderson. Jazzie wanted to know what it was
all about. "You know Beau?" she asked the doctor, as she flashed
the light into her other eye.

The doctor glanced up at him and there was
some silent communication that went on, before she huffed out a
breath and said, "Yes, we know each other..." then she stood up and
wrote something in the chart, before slamming it shut.

Jazzie studied the doctor's face to see if
she could figure out what was going on here, but it was an
emotionless mask, as she told her, "You should take it easy for a
couple of days, Miss Ramos, you do have a mild concussion, you may
experience nausea, have headaches, blurred vision, or confusion, if
that becomes severe come back to the ER.

You may have latent effects from the
tasering, including cardiac arrhythmia, irregular heartbeats, if
that happens, be sure to come back in as well. As for the burns on
your back, I'm giving you some cream to put on them, and some pain
medication to take home with you. They're not severe, so you
shouldn't have any scarring, hopefully. Do you have any questions?"
she lifted a brow and asked.

"Just one, how do you know Beau?" Jazzie
asked her pointedly and stared intently into the woman's beautiful
teal-colored eyes. They weren't blue, they weren't green, they were
the color the water had been in Tahiti...beautiful, but nowhere
near as serene.

She ignored Jazzie's question, and said
instead, "I know you came into the ER in a swimsuit. I'll have the
nurse bring you some scrubs you can change into to go home. I'm
sure you don't want to wear that hospital gown out of here." With
one final long look at Beau, she left the room.

Jazzie noticed Beau's fists working at his
sides and he looked ready to blow a gasket. "What the hell was that
about? How do you know her?" Jazzie demanded and her heart rate
picked up a few notches, fearing what he was going to tell her.
There was something deep, dark and emotional that passed between
him and that doctor, definitely not casual.

Beau swallowed a couple of times as if he
were trying to corral his emotions, then looked down and told her,
"I used to be engaged to her." His gorgeous green eyes were
darkened with a swirl of emotions, she couldn't decipher.

Jazzie's fists clutched the sheet as fear
and jealousy gnawed at her insides. "Engaged?" she asked in a
breathless whisper. "What happened?" Jazzie was sure he didn't let
that smart, beautiful woman leave his life without a damned good
reason.

His eyes closed off and his jaw clenched,
then he replied, "I don't want to talk about it...let's get you the
hell out of here."

A nurse knocked on the doorframe, then
walked inside with green scrubs in her hand. She set them on the
bed, then went about unhooking Jazzie from all the machines and
tubes they had attached to her when she got to the emergency
room.

"Looks like you're blowing this popsicle
stand..." she told Jazzie with a grin, while she worked.

"Yes, thank goodness..." Jazzie replied, but
she didn't take her eyes off of Beau.

"I have some prescriptions for you that Dr.
Anderson wrote, you can either get them filled at the pharmacy
downstairs on your way out, or stop on your way home. I also have
the doctor's aftercare instructions, and she said you should see
your family doctor in a couple of weeks for a check up."

"Yes, she told me what to watch for," Jazzie
agreed in a lackluster voice, because her heart had cracked a
little further.

Beau didn't want to talk to her about his
involvement with the beautiful doctor, a woman he'd cared enough
about to ask to marry him. That told her he had unresolved issues
with the beautiful doctor, and seeing her had ripped open old
wounds. It also told Jazzie she wasn't special enough to him that
he felt the need to talk about it with her...that he didn't feel
like he owed her an explanation.

It's just sex between you and him, Jazzie
reminded herself, and you agreed to it. He
doesn't
owe you
an explanation.

When the nurse finished disconnecting her,
she stepped back, picked up the scrubs then handed them to her.
Jazzie eased her legs off the bed and sat up then took them from
her. Using her free hand she pushed up on the bed to stand and
wobbled. Her legs still felt tingly from the taser experience, and
pain shot through her feet when they touched the floor, and she
gasped.

Beau was at her side in a second, and pulled
her to him, holding her steady. "Easy, baby...are you okay?" he
asked with concern.

She pulled away from him and said in an
equally wobbly voice, "I'm fine..." Jazzie didn't look up at him.
She knew his eyes would hold concern, and she didn't want to kid
herself into thinking he cared anymore. The best thing she could do
for her sanity was start pulling away from him emotionally. She was
getting entirely too attached to someone who probably wouldn't be
in her life in a few months. Gingerly, with the nurse holding her
arm, she made her way across the room to the bath, then went inside
and locked the door.

Leaning back against the door, Jazzie took a
deep breath, then let the tears that had been stinging her eyes
fall. She slid down the door and went to sit, but the cold tile
floor reminded her she still had on the backless hospital gown, and
she stood back up to strip and change into the scrubs.

God only knew what they'd done with her
bikini. She was damned embarrassed that's what she'd been wearing
when the ambulance picked her up at the lake and brought her here.
Even more so now that she knew who the doctor that had treated her
was.

Now she understood why Beau, the man she was
afraid she was falling in love with, was emotionally unavailable.
After seeing the dynamic woman he'd been engaged to before, she
could see why. Losing someone like her must have devastated him.
More tears flowed down her face and plopped on the floor, as she
bent over to put her feet into the scrub pants. They were entirely
too long and she rolled them up at the waist a few times. The shirt
hung on her like a sack. That's what she felt like too...a sack of
potatoes.

In comparison to Doctor Anderson, Jazzie was
less than nothing. She was a high school graduate who'd turned down
a scholarship to Julliard to play in a struggling country
band...well, not struggling so much anymore, but still. For the
first time since she'd turned down that scholarship, she regretted
it. Jazzie was confused and defeated, and she needed to talk to her
best friend. Jess would boost her up, make her feel better, but
then she reminded herself that Jess was married now, and her
husband and baby were her prime focus. But Jazzie needed to talk to
her...badly.

She and Wade were probably back from Tahiti
now, most likely at their house in Bowie on the backside of the
Double B ranch. Maybe she could go stay there for a few days,
nobody would find her there, surely. Jazzie dried her tears and
splashed her face with water, then unwound her hair and combed her
fingers through it, then rebraided it.

A forceful knock sounded on the door, then
Beau's deep voice asked loudly, "You okay in there, Jazz?"

Okay?
Hell no, she wasn't okay...but
she hoped she would be...eventually. "I'll be out in a second," she
said flatly.

There was a disposable toothbrush and a
small tube of toothpaste on the edge of the sink, and Jazzie opened
them and brushed her teeth. Taking a deep fortifying breath, then
exhaling slowly, she fought to control the emotions churning up her
stomach. She had to keep it together, because there was no way she
was going to let Beau know how bad she was hurting. It wasn't his
fault she felt like someone had taken a hacksaw to her heart, he
hadn't made her any promises. In fact, he told her he wasn't
interested in a relationship. Despite that, she'd let herself
tumble head first into love with him, and dealing with that was all
her problem, and she would deal with it...somehow.

Jazzie squared her shoulders and pasted on a
smile, then unlocked the door and walked out. Beau was standing
right outside the door and she almost bumped into him, but he put
his hands on her shoulders to steady her, then asked, "You look
pale, sugar, are you sure you're okay? Should I get Jen--um, Doctor
Anderson back in here?"

Jazzie jerked her shoulders from his grasp
and stepped back. "No! I'm fine, let's just get out of here," she
told him firmly. She didn't want Jenny Anderson touching her again,
because she knew she'd lose it. "I want to go to Wade and Jess's
house in Bowie...I need to talk to her," she told him then walked
over to the wheelchair that was parked by the bed and sat down.

"That's too close a connection,
Jazzie...they'll find you there," Beau said in a frustrated
tone.

"I don't give a damn, I need to talk to
Jess," Jazzie insisted.

"So fucking call her from the safe house!"
he argued loudly, then added, "It's not safe for you to be around
her...it's not safe for her, or Wade and Angel either!"

Fear shot through Jazzie and she gasped. She
hadn't thought about that...he was right. If those men found her
there, her friends would be in danger too. "Oh, my god...I didn't
think about that," she said in a whisper. "You're right...I'll call
her. I need to go check on Chase before we leave, though. I want to
make sure he's okay," she said.

Beau's face turned red and she saw him grit
his teeth, then he told her, "Chase is fine, he had stitches, and a
mild concussion..."

"I want to see him and thank him for trying
to stop that man...tell him I'm sorry he got hurt. He's been good
to me," she told Beau firmly.

Beau's face went from red to purple and his
eyes filled with anger, as he said, "Fine--I'll take you up there,
but we're not staying long. We need to get you somewhere safe."

Jazzie nodded and folded her arms under her
breasts as he walked over and took control of the wheelchair and
wheeled her out into the hallway. She glanced back over her
shoulder and saw the FBI agents who had been guarding the door, and
the female agent who'd followed her around the hospital, following
behind them like ducks in formation.