~ I miss you too, baby. Training’s going well. Only a few more hours. Hope the guys are taking good care of you.
And the butterflies froze. Seriously? Is that all he cares about? That the guys are taking good care of me? I wanted to write something brave back. Something that would show him that I didn’t need protection. But what? What could I possibly say? Maybe I’d tell him that I was enjoying a long walk along the beach by myself. Maybe I’d tell him the others went to lunch and left me alone in the hotel room. Maybe I’d tell him . . . my thoughts and brilliant ideas started getting foggy and I had to clutch the sink for stability as the room began to spin. My eyes scanned the room around me, trying to make sense of what was happening.
“Nick?” I tried to call, but my voice was weak and hoarse. I slumped to the floor. “Noah?” I tried again.
The room was darkening around me when the door opened and Nick said, “Don’t get mad at me, Anna. I just need to check on you.”
I couldn’t answer.
“Anna!” the door opened hard and that’s the last I registered.
“Jake can’t find out about this,” I heard Noah say as my thoughts started slowly collecting again.
“I agree,” Rachel added.
“That’s not a good idea,” Nick argued. “He’ll be pissed if he finds out and we didn’t tell him.”
“I don’t know, Nick,” Claudia chimed in. “He’ll be even more pissed if he finds out we nearly killed her.”
“I should never have let her go in there alone,” Nick mumbled.
“It doesn’t much matter how it happened. Jake can’t find out. He’d lose his mind,” Rachel said.
“I don’t know,” Nick said.
“She’s right,” I heard myself say, my throat harsh and sore. “He can’t find out about this.” My eyes opened and I found myself lying on my hotel bed with my four friends surrounding me. I wasn’t exactly sure what Jake shouldn’t find out about, but I did know that whatever it was would only cause him to become more of a constrictor—never leaving my side for even a minute.
“How are you feeling?” Claudia asked, removing a facecloth from my forehead and replacing it with a cold one.
“What happened?” I asked, trying to piece together the events.
“Carbon monoxide poisoning,” Rachel answered. Nick and Noah both hung their heads. “It came in through the vents. We had no idea.”
“I felt dizzy and then passed out,” I recalled.
“Doctor just left. He said you’ll be just fine. He had you on a breathing machine for oxygen therapy for a couple of hours—to clean the poison out of your blood,” Claudia explained.
“Do we know who did this?” I asked. “I assume it wasn’t an accident.”
Noah shrugged. “There’s an investigative team on it now. But, yeah, it wasn’t an accident.”
I looked at each one of my friends, each carrying a portion of guilt. “This is not your fault,” I said. “And I agree that Jake can’t know about this.”
“He’s been texting me,” Nick said. “Apparently he’s been texting you and not getting any answers.”
I remembered back to the washroom when I had texted Jake and told him how I missed him and he had responded with a comment about how he hoped I was being protected. It had made me angry. And before I had a chance to respond, I had collapsed.
I dug through my clutch and found my phone. Eight new texts since our last exchange. Three missed phone calls.
I read the texts first:
~ Well?? Are they?
~ Are they taking good care of you?
~ Why aren’t you answering me?
~ I just tried to call. Anna, mess off and answer me.
~ !!!
~ Anna, I’m coming back if you don’t answer me!
And then there was a reply from me, which I knew I hadn’t sent, so it must have been Rachel, Claudia or Noah. Nick wouldn’t have been so bold. It read:
~ I’m fine. I love you.
“Who sent that?” I laughed, surveying their innocent faces.
“Rachel,” Claudia grinned. “It kept going off while we were with the doctor so we had to shut him up. Last thing we needed was for him to come back before you were better.”
I continued reading the texts.
~ Okay, good. I love you too.
And then the last text, which was received within the last half hour, read: