No Love Allowed (Dodge Cove Trilogy #1) (19 page)

The smack of a thick folder against wood drew his attention. JJ flipped open the file and scanned the pages.

“Diana Alexander. Seventeen. Father left when she was eight. Mother works multiple jobs to support their family. Grades are deplorable. Barely managed to graduate high school due to a poor
attendance record. She’s not—”

Caleb’s indignation rose with each piece of information about Didi that reached him. “You had her investigated!”

His father pinned him with a cold stare. “It was for your own good.”

Caleb ran his fingers through his hair in disbelief, not caring that he messed up the styling for the evening’s twenties theme.

“The way you looked at that girl . . .” His father’s shoulders slumped when he exhaled. “That’s the same way I used to look at your mother. And she’s not good
for you. . . .”

His father’s words snapped him out of his speechlessness. “Don’t you dare say that about Didi!”

It took all of his willpower to keep from walking across the room and punching JJ in the face. To actually say . . . No, Caleb wasn’t surprised. Of course his father would have resorted to
this kind of tactic. Caleb squared his shoulders and faced the bastard head-on so his intentions wouldn’t be misunderstood. He modulated his voice, intending for his father to hear each and
every word clearly.

“Ever since Mom died, you have buried yourself in your work. You didn’t raise me. I had to fend for myself. I dated everything in a skirt so I
wouldn’t
become someone
like you. Someone who fell in love and allowed it to destroy him.” He ignored the shock on his father’s face. “Then Didi literally tripped into my life and changed everything.
She’s the light. She makes me feel again. Makes me feel like maybe falling in love isn’t as bad as I used to think. You should understand that. It’s what I remember best about you
and Mom.”

“Caleb, you don’t understand what you’re talking about. She’s—”

“No!” He waved his hand so JJ wouldn’t say anything more. “There’s nothing else you can say that will change my mind about her.” He turned on his heel and
hurried out of the office.

“Caleb!”

Didi had been at the bar with Natasha, laughing at something she had said, when Caleb found her. He immediately entwined his fingers with hers.

“Tash, will you excuse us for a second,” he said, already pulling Didi away. She barely had time to leave her glass and say a quick good-bye.

A sense of mischief, like fireworks in her belly, led her to ask, “Where are we going? The party is that way.” She hiked her thumb over her shoulder, even though Caleb wasn’t
looking. He was too busy navigating them toward a secret place only he knew the location of. They left streams of confetti in their wake like bread crumbs.

“Let’s go for a drive,” he finally said as they entered a long hallway.

“Wow, paintings!” She swiveled her head just to catch a glimpse of the framed artwork hanging along both walls.

“We can look at them later. Right now I just want to get away.”

The urgency in his voice called to her adventurous side, and she quickened her steps, the low heels of her shoes clicking against the marble. The end of the hall forked into two paths. Caleb
veered left and headed straight for a door at the end.

She barely had a chance to look at where she was going when the unseasonable chill of the air outside nipped at her skin. She bent forward to catch her breath when they stopped along a gravel
path. As she straightened she noticed they had made it to the front of the house.

“Which car did you park last?” Caleb asked one of the valets milling around.

“Mr. Parker’s roadster,” the guy answered, his gaze flitting toward Didi.

“Hand me the keys,” Caleb demanded. The entire time he held on to her hand. She wouldn’t have wanted to let go anyway. Residual energy from the party still clung to her. Faint
strains of jazz coming from inside made her bob in place.

“Sir?” The valet scratched the back of his bowed head.

“Don’t worry about it,” he insisted. “Nathan won’t mind. Just give me the damn keys.”

The command in his tone spurred the poor guy into action, grabbing the keys from another valet and tossing them to Caleb. He caught them with his free hand and headed for the end of the long
line of cars.

“What’s gotten you all revved up?” she asked, matching his pace. “Does it have something to do with your father? Because if it does, I’m not afraid to take
him.” She made a fist with her free hand and waved it in front of her.

Caleb chuckled, but there didn’t seem to be a shred of humor in the sound. “I just want to get out of here and breathe.” He rounded the sports car with its top down and opened
the passenger door for her. Without further prompting, she slid into the bucket seat. Then he jogged to the other side and jumped in. “Buckle up.”

She didn’t have to be told twice. She tugged on the seat belt just as he inserted the key into the ignition and started the engine. He pulled out onto the path that led away from the house
just as she clicked the buckle into place. He was in a hurry to get away, but all her concern turned into elation when Caleb gunned down the tree-lined driveway leading to and from his house. When
she had arrived in a limo with Natasha earlier, her eyes almost popped out of her head at the sight of the massive, almost palatial, mansion. Tash had laughed when she blurted out that
Caleb’s house was bigger than theirs. A part of her had immediately wanted to explore, see what its walls hid inside. Maybe even see Caleb’s room. But she forgot all that the moment she
locked eyes with him in a tux. He looked so dashing, like a dark prince from her very own fairy tale.

As they zipped their way along the mountainside, she raised her hands up and squealed. The wind whipped through her hair. She could barely breathe when she screamed for Caleb to go faster. And
go faster he did. The rear tires skidded to the side every time they took a corner. Everything around her passed by in a blur—the water on one side and the mountain and trees on the
other.

“It’s like flying!” she yelled through the engine’s roar. “Faster, Caleb, faster.”

With a grin stretching his lips, he shifted gears and the car leapt forward like a sleek jungle cat chasing after prey. She whooped and laughed. How could she not? Her belly tumbled like a
boulder rolling down a hill. This was the most exhilarating thing to ever happen in her life, and she was with Caleb as it happened.

Because of the rushing wind, she didn’t quite catch the words he said when he finally spoke again. She turned to face him. Having escaped from the headband, her hair covered her face. She
reached up and tucked the strands behind her ear.

“What did you say?” she shouted at him.

“I think I’m falling in love with you,” he shouted back, taking his eyes off the road to look her in the eye.

That one moment was all it took to change everything.

In her periphery a shadow leapt out into the road in front of them. She shrieked, “Watch out!” about the same time Caleb hit the brakes and twisted the wheel all the way to the left.
The car swerved violently.

The
crunch
of metal cut Didi’s scream short.

CALEB GASPED AWAKE,
then groaned as pain exploded in his ribs. He grabbed his left side and rolled into the pulsing beneath
his palm. Right about the same time, a dull throb began behind his eyes. He shut them again. His body felt like he had bounced off a brick wall after running full speed into it. In the distance, in
between the pounding beats in his head, he heard someone call for the doctor.

It might have been a minute or several hours later when sure hands rolled him onto his back again. His breathing went from shallow and fast to deep and easy after a pinprick in his arm. The
tight muscles of his face eased with the dulling of the nerves sending protests to his brain.

“Caleb,” someone said. “Can you hear me?”

He nodded once. With less pain came more fatigue. All he wanted was to go back to sleep. What the hell had happened that had him feeling like crap?

The numbness allowed for memories to flood in. His birthday party. The argument with his father. The crazy drive down the mountainside. The crash.

Eyes popping open, he sat up without thinking. Just as fast, hands grabbed his shoulders and applied pressure. He looked around at the unfamiliar faces. Two women in green scrubs and a man in a
white coat.

“Where am I? Where’s Didi?”

“Caleb,” the man said in a calm but firm tone. “You are in the hospital. Do you remember the car crash?”

Losing patience he didn’t have to begin with, he pushed back against the nurses holding him down. “That’s why I’m asking about Didi.” He gritted his teeth as the
doctor ran a penlight over his eyes. “There was a girl with me.” He reached for her full name before it slipped away. “Diana Alexander. Is she all right?”

“Caleb, I’m going to need you to calm down while I finish my examination,” the doctor continued as if his rising panic wasn’t about to rip his heart out of his chest.

He grabbed the lapels of the doctor’s white coat. “Then tell me what happened to Didi!”

“Caleb, chill!”

It was Nathan’s voice that allowed him to let go of the doctor. One of the nurses already had a needle out, no doubt filled with a sedative. Taking deep breaths that ended with a slight
twinge of pain, he tried his best not to run out of the private room. The attending physician adjusted his coat and returned the penlight to his breast pocket while the nurse put away the
needle.

Caleb turned to where Nathan sat in a corner of the room. He still wore his tux, but the bow tie and jacket were gone and the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up. Based on the light
slanting in from between the blinds at the window beside Nathan, it wasn’t his birthday anymore.

With a frown firmly in place, Nathan said, “Why don’t you listen to the good doctor before we start talking about Didi? A couple of minutes. Can you do that?”

Of course he couldn’t! He needed to know if Didi was all right. But instead of voicing protestations that would have gotten him nowhere fast, he simply nodded and returned his attention to
the doctor. The nurses had left to give them privacy.

The doctor nodded his thanks to Nathan, then studied Caleb. “Besides a couple of bruised ribs and a mild concussion, I can’t find anything else accident related. No internal bleeding
or broken bones commonly associated with driving into a tree. Consider yourself lucky.”

“I will consider myself lucky when I get news about Didi,” he muttered under his breath, his impatience rising back to the surface.

The doctor lifted the chart at the end of the bed and started scribbling. “I’m prescribing you a week’s worth of pain meds to help ease your breathing. Your ribs will remain
sore for a while. I’m also recommending that you stay overnight for additional tests and observation. If nothing comes up, you’ll be able to go home tomorrow morning at the
earliest.”

“Thank you, Doc,” Nathan answered for Caleb, who had a few choice words hovering at the tip of his tongue for the good doctor.

When the man left, Caleb turned the heat in his gaze toward his cousin. “Where’s Didi? Is she all right?”

“She’s fine. You were both wearing seat belts.”

Instant relief burst like a water balloon in his chest. “Holy Christ, I thought I was going to die on the spot.”

“Please don’t ever do that to me again.” Nathan shook his head, the stress on his face obvious. “When I got the call that you were at the hospital . . .”

“I’m sorry.” He rubbed his eyes. “I was being stupid driving that fast.”

“Consider yourself lucky you had your cell phone on you. Didi was the one who called the accident in.”

Holding on to his tender side, Caleb swung his legs over the edge of the bed. A chill down his spine made him look at the hospital gown. “Where the hell are my clothes?”

“Whoa!” Nathan scrambled off his seat and grabbed Caleb’s shoulders the way the nurses had earlier. “Where do you think you’re going? Just because the doctor says
you’re okay doesn’t mean you should be walking around.”

“I need to see her.” He hopped off the bed and winced at the coldness of the floor. “I need to see for myself that she’s all right.”

“JJ’s taking care of all that.” Nathan’s face fell the moment the words left his mouth.

“My father’s here?” His eyebrows came together. “And what does ‘taking care of all that’ mean?”

“Of course he’s here,” his cousin said without meeting his gaze. “Last I saw him he was speaking with Didi’s mom. He’s footing the bill.”

Knowing his father, the hospital bill wasn’t the only thing he was taking care of. He fisted Nathan’s shirt and said through his teeth, “First, you’re finding me some
clothes. If you don’t I’ll borrow yours. Then you’ll tell me where the hell Didi is.”

“Jesus, you’re pushy after wrecking
my
car.” Nathan slapped his hand away, then pointed a finger in his face. “You owe me big for this.”

“I know, Nate.” He held his anger in check. Nathan didn’t deserve it. “I’m sorry about the car.”

“The bill’s in the mail,” his cousin said with a wink before leaving the room.

In jeans and a T-shirt Natasha had brought over for him, Caleb rode the elevator down one floor. He blamed JJ for this. If they hadn’t argued, he wouldn’t have run
out of his office and the crash wouldn’t have happened. He needed to see Didi. See for himself that she was fine before he could truly breathe easy.

He wanted to apologize. For driving too fast. For taking his eyes off the road. For putting her life in danger. He staggered and covered his mouth as bile climbed up his throat when the elevator
doors opened. He had put her in danger. The mere thought of it made him sick.

“Are you all right?” a woman in blue scrubs asked, placing her hand on his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he said, his words muffled by his hand.

“Are you sure? You’re looking pale.”

He swallowed several times before plastering a shaky smile on his face. “I’m visiting my girlfriend.”