The Missing Read Online Free PDF Page B

fricking hospital. “I’m fine . . . Hey, what’s your name?” Taige really wanted to know, because she had a feeling she was going to spend a lot of time daydreaming about him.

    “Cullen. Yours?”

    “It’s Taige. Cullen, I appreciate the help, but I am fine. I just want to go to bed.”

    “I bet you do,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Taige, you aren’t fine. Where’s the hospital?” He tugged on her arm again, and Taige didn’t feel steady enough to fight him, so she fell into step beside him. He led her to a rusted-out, patched-up vintage Mustang, and Taige had to smile.

    It was parked in the middle of Porsches, BMWs, and Volvos, all of them gleaming and polished and perfect. His car looked like a mutt sitting in the middle of a pedigree dog show. “Nice car,” she murmured.

    He slid her a narrow look as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. But he didn’t say a word about the car. Cullen cocked a brow at her and repeated, “Hospital?”

    She folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. “No. I’m not going to no damn hospital.”

    “You can’t just go home.”

    She didn’t have any intention of going home, either, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Her knees buckled, and she knew she had to sit down. “Look, how about you take me to a friend’s house? Her son is an EMT. He can look me over, and if he thinks I ought to go to the hospital, I’ll go.”

    But Dante wouldn’t insist on that, not unless she was in serious need of a doctor, and she knew she wasn’t. He could check her over, and Rose could fuss over her, and she’d be fine.

    Cullen stared at her as though he seemed to realize just how unsteady she felt, and he guided her around the car so that she could lean against his rusted-out Mustang. It was mottled between some indeterminate shade of blue, that ugly primer gray, and rust. But it could have been covered with slime, and she wouldn’t care. It took some of her weight, and she finally stopped feeling like she might hit the ground.

    “What about your folks?” he asked softly. “They’ll be scared. Won’t they want you to get looked over?”

    She looked away. “My parents are dead. I live with an uncle and he—” She just barely managed to stop herself from saying, If those boys had killed me, Leon would have offered up his praise to God. She finally forced herself to say, “He won’t care. Look, just take me to my friends. I feel like hell.”

    THE door opened to reveal a skinny black lady. The top of her head might have barely reached Cullen’s shoulder. The guy behind her looked like a damned giant. He probably stood a good head taller than Cullen, and he probably weighed the same as Cullen and the lady together. Cullen topped out right at six feet, but he felt like a midget standing there. The man’s eyes narrowed on Taige’s battered, bruised face, and then they slid up to Cullen’s, like he was imagining how Cullen would look after a close encounter or ten with a big, blunt object.

    The woman, though, was focused on Taige. “Oh, baby,” she murmured, reaching out to touch Taige’s face. She immediately stepped aside and shoved on the big guy’s chest until he did the same. “Out of the way, Dante. Go get me the first aid kit.”

    Dante—great name, Cullen thought. He could see hell burning in the big guy’s eyes, and even though he hadn’t done a damn thing, he wasn’t all that happy to be standing in front of the man. Dante didn’t move, and the woman spun around and slammed the heel of her hand into his chest. “Boy, I told you to get out of the way. Come on, now, honey, let’s look at you.”

    Taige gave the woman a wan smile. “I’m okay, Rose. I just need to get some rest.”

    “Okay,” Rose muttered. She shook her head and then repeated it again, like she couldn’t quite believe what Taige had said. “You’re okay?”

    Cullen said, “I tried to get her to let me take her to the hospital, but she