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“Hi, yourself,” Hannah said and scooted closer to her. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. My hands are worse than my knees and they aren’t so bad either. The doctor reckoned one or two of my ribs have been bruised, and that hurts like the devil, but otherwise I’m fine. My pants are ruined though.” She grimaced. She held up her bandaged hands. “They look worse with the bandages, but the doctor insisted I have these on for at least a day. He’ll come and check on me again this afternoon.”
“I can’t believe you were kicked,” Hannah muttered.
“Yes, and a nasty kick too. But really, it’s not so bad,” Zoe said trying to erase the worry on Hannah’s face. “It could have been anyone in the crowd, and it might have been done by accident.”
But Hannah shook her head. “I wish it was that simple, but this was no accident.”
“What is going on, Hannah? Who is this ‘he’ you spoke about last night and what is happening? Talk to me.”
“I… I’m not sure. I have to figure this out on my own.”
“But you don’t have to, surely you know that we’ll all help? But we can’t help you if we don’t know what’s going on.”
“And risk more of you getting hurt? I can’t let that—”
A sudden commotion erupted outside their room, and the next minute both Dale and Darryn burst inside.
Zoe blinked. Hannah stood up quickly.
“What are you doing here?” Hannah demanded.
“What do you think?” Darryn said gruffly. But then Dale was next to Zoe’s bed and she only had eyes for him.
“Zoe,” he said and touched her face, her hair, her arms. “Are you really okay? Your hands.” He breathed and turned them gently around. “What happened?”
“That’s what I would also like to know,” Darryn growled.
Zoe felt so overwhelmed she wanted to burst into tears. Damn it, she came to the Seychelles to get away from Dale. And now he was here, and she was so glad to see him, she wanted to throw her arms around him and sob out her worry for Hannah on his solid chest.
“You are upsetting Zoe.” Hannah scolded Darryn. “Look, she’s crying.”
Darryn rubbed his face. “I’m sorry,” he said to Zoe. “I don’t want to upset you, I’m just trying to find out what happened.” He turned to Hannah. “And, by the way, can I just point out that if you hadn’t been so stubborn, none of this would’ve happened. We had security people who were happy to escort you, but, no, you always have to do things your way.”
“I know that!” Hannah called out, clearly upset. “I don’t need you to remind me!”
She turned to Zoe. “We’ll talk later. I can’t be in the same room with this man.” She stormed out, Darryn close on her heels.
Shaking his head, Dale sat next to her on the bed. “Tell me what happened,” he said again.
Zoe tried to remember everything and relayed the events of the previous evening in as much detail as she could.
“Hannah seems to think it was because I was mistaken for her that this happened,” Zoe said. “Although she hasn’t gotten around to telling me exactly why anyone would want to hurt her.”
“How could someone mistake you for her?” Dale asked, obviously startled.
Zoe grimaced. “I know. She’s so beautiful, blonde, and well-known, why anyone would mistake me for her, I don’t know. We were wearing similar outfits, maybe that was why.”
Surprised, Dale touched her cheek. “That’s not what I meant at all. Yes, Hannah is beautiful, but you…” He inhaled and stroked her arms. “I don’t see anyone else when you’re around.”
Zoe caught her breath. “Dale,” she whispered.
He smiled and moved closer. “At least you’re sounding better than you did when I phoned earlier.”
“It was really you on the phone? I thought I was dreaming,” she said and could have bitten her tongue.
He smiled. “So, you dream about me?”
