I shivered. The room icy, and the smell of antiseptic only made me cringe. “Did Enzo do something to me? Why am I in the hospital?” I didn’t feel sick or hurt. I couldn’t remember the incident. Was that why I was hooked up to machines. How long had I been here?
“Enzo reported your appearance to the police,” Lincoln said.
That didn’t make sense. “What?” Why would he do that?
“He called the sheriff’s office. You don’t remember anything else after you were put into the car?”
I shook my head no. All of it was a blackout. “We were in the car. I was in the backseat and nothing after that.”
“The sheriff found the man who took you dead, Zan Marino. It appears that he committed suicide. He was found outside of Ricci’s home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The lab is testing Enzo for gunshot residue, but we’re pretty sure Enzo will be clean.”
“Zan killed himself?” That made even less sense to me. “Why abduct me and then bring me to Enzo only to kill himself?”
Lincoln squeezed my hand. With his other hand, he brushed a strand of hair out of my face and behind my ear. “I’m pretty sure Enzo wasn’t behind your abduction, but I think he ordered Zan to kill himself, or he made it look like Zan committed suicide.”
“Who would do something like that?” I mean, I knew it was Enzo, but I didn’t understand why. His motivation, what would possess another man to follow.
“Enzo’s part of the crime syndicate.”
“The Italian Mob.” I had surmised as much from the articles that I’d discovered recently about his business and his practices, which were shady. The government had nothing on him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t watching him. Hopefully, they’d find something and put him behind bars.
“You didn’t tell me you were married,” Lincoln whispered, his gaze staring into mine.
The doctor stepped into the room, my chart in his hands. “It’s good to see that you’re awake and alert, Heather.”
I swallowed nervously as he used my legal name, my real name. No one called me by that, ever. Had they fished out my identification from my purse that I had left at Ariella’s house?
He retrieved a penlight from his front pocket. “Follow the pen,” the doctor instructed.
The doctor briefly examined me and then explained that the drugs were all out of my system and that I was free to leave. The bout of amnesia from the abduction may never return, but that I shouldn’t suffer any lasting effects from the drugs that had been forced into my body.
“The nurse will get the paperback, and you’re free to go,” the doctor said. He headed out of the room, leaving Lincoln and me together.
Silence filled the small space.“I’ll call a cab,” I said. “You can head home.” I didn’t want to be a burden.
“It’s a two-hour drive to Breckenridge, and there is likely to be press outside of your hotel. We’ll be lucky if they’re not outside the hospital when we leave,” Lincoln said.
“Oh.” Wonderful. Just what I wanted to deal with tonight.
“I’ll take you back home. Well, to Breckenridge.”
“Thanks,” I said and sighed. I dropped his hand from mine. My fingers played over the white sheet, staring down at the cotton material.
Lincoln let the silence thicken like a cloud. The nurse eventually came back in, I signed the papers, got dressed with Lincoln waiting out in the hallway, and then he helped me down to his truck.
We had barely spoken two words since I was discharged.
Tension sizzled in the air between us like lightning, ready to strike.
“Here we are.” Lincoln unlocked the truck, and I climbed inside, buckling myself. It was well past midnight.
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive back tonight? Maybe we should get a hotel room?” I suggested. I didn’t have anything to change into, but at least he wouldn’t fall asleep behind the wheel.
Lincoln shut my door and stalked around to the driver’s side. He climbed into the truck. “I’d rather sleep in my own bed tonight.”
He started the truck.
“Okay.”