His hot gaze dropped to the phone, and the muscle in the side of his jaw tightened. She must have dialed Josiah’s number a hundred times, only to listen to the same message over and over.

The number you are trying to reach is not in service at this time.

The phone trembled in her hand. He looked like he might leap across the table at any moment. He said tonelessly, “I lost my phone in the crash.”

“Hospitals have telephones.” She whispered so she wouldn’t shout. She wanted to hit him. “You didn’t call. Not even to leave a message.”

His expression tightened. “I couldn’t. I wasn’t conscious until this afternoon. When I got back to my place and looked through my work emails, Frank had emailed to say you had called and were on your way back to Atlanta. I got here as fast as I could. You shouldn’t have come, Molly.”

She had been eviscerated two days ago. Now her raw emotions spilled out. “Your accident made national news. Did you know that? I scoured every online news service I could find, but none of them offered any real updates. All they said was that Atlanta’s district attorney was fighting for his life after being in an accident involving multiple vehicles. Staying away was not an option.”

“It wasn’t an accident,” he hissed.

Her lips went numb. “Somebody tried to kill you?”

“That’s why you shouldn’t have come back.”

The words blasted her. Feeling buffeted, she flinched and then jumped up to pace erratically. “I don’t care. I don’t care. I’m done with this shit. You woke me up. You were trying to say something. Then your presence settled on the bed, and I could see the outline of your body. You looked like you did in New Orleans when you would lay beside me, only you were transparent.” Backing into the corner underneath the camera’s pitiless lens, she shouted, “I thought you had died!”

He sprang up, knocking his chair back, and launched at her. Pushing her against the wall, he leaned the length of his body on hers. Tears spilled over as she felt his taut, muscular length pressed against her. His scent was strange, overwhelmed with something antiseptic.

She knew so much more now about how to read a person’s Power and physical state, and she used those skills to scan him. His Power was seriously depleted, his body under tremendous strain as he recovered from massive injuries.

But his heart, that sturdy, good heart, was still beating strong.

He buried his face in her neck. “You didn’t catch what I said?”

Her arms locked around his waist. “No,” she said hoarsely. “I was sound asleep, and whatever it was shot by too fast. By the time I had woken up enough to figure out something had happened, you’d fallen silent. Then you faded away.”