Divorced, Desperate and Dead (Divorced and Desperate Book 5) by Christie Craig Page A

grandmother’s house. Called him before J.D. had let himself get high and lost.  Carlos’s brother, Moses, worked at the hospital, and had been talking about a cop who’d been shot and was still in a coma at Glencoe Memorial.
    “Is that the cop you shot?” Carlos had asked.
    “I don’t know,” J.D. had said, but it had to be him, didn’t it?  The papers hadn’t said what hospital he was in, but it had to be, right?
    Glancing up at the large building, he felt small. He felt . . . insignificant. His gaze fell to his gun, still resting beside him on the seat. When he’d first bought the weapon, it had made him feel more powerful.
    Safe.
    Now that he’d used it, he didn’t feel safe anymore. He felt marked. Dirty. Tainted. He didn’t want to be like Jax and the others.
    His hands immediately started shaking. Why the hell had he come here? It wasn’t that he was planning to do anything.  Or was he?
     
    • • •
     
    “I think he was lying,” Sheri said as she started the car. She’d followed Chloe, down four flights of stairs.
    “I think I’m a mess.” Chloe looked down at her clothes. “Can you take me to my apartment and then back to the bakery?”
    “Did you see how he looked guilty when he said he didn’t remember you?” Sheri asked.
    “Doesn’t matter.” Chloe buckled her seatbelt. Her heart raced and she felt a drip of sweat running down her brow. She picked off a couple of smashed peas from her arm and flicked them out the window.
    “Oh, hell yes, it does. You had an afterlife experience with that guy. You were in bed with him.”
    “It could still have been a dream,” Chloe said, wanting to believe that. “Oh, hell, what I wouldn’t give to rewind this day and never go to the hospital.”
    “No. Don’t start backtracking. You already said he looked like Johnny Depp, and then it really happened. And that man looked like Depp, maybe better. And after seeing him naked, well, except some well-placed hands, I’m thinking you need to have some real life experiences with him.”
    Chloe shook her head. “That’s just it. If he did remember, well, he doesn’t want any real life experiences with me, or he would have said something.”
    “Maybe he’s just in shock. I mean, you were thrown for a loop there, too. And well, he was naked and looked like he was in pain.”
    Chloe dropped her face in her hands, feeling mortified. “I hit him.”
    “You hit him?”
    “Twice.” Chloe said, her face still buried in her palms.
    “Twice?” Sheri asked. “Why would you hit him?”
    She dropped her hands. “I didn’t mean to. We fell, my arm got him first, and then we fell again, and my knee got him.”
    “Got him . . .  Wait! You don’t mean you hit him in the . . . Oh, my God, you do mean that!” Sheri burst out laughing.
    “Don’t laugh,” Chloe said. “This was a disaster.” And then she did exactly what she told her friend not to do. She laughed.
    She couldn’t help it. It was laugh or cry. She’d already cried once today, and to do it again would bring on a migraine.
    When their laughter faded, Sheri looked at her. “You know what you need to do, don’t ya?”
    Chloe shook her head.
    “You need to go right back to that hospital. Right now.”
     
    • • •
     
    “I still can’t believe Chloe Sanders came to see you,” Kelly said. “Bella is going to be so excited to hear this. And to see the picture. Hey, since you kind of know her, do you think you could invite her over for Bella’s birthday party?”
    He shook his head. “No.”
    “Why not?” she asked.
    “No. I’m not going to say anything else. Just no.” Thirty minutes had passed, his floor was cleaned up, he’d taken another shower, had on a clean gown, and Beth had gone to Wal-mart to buy him some short pajamas bottoms and underwear, so he wouldn’t have to worry about mooning anyone when he had to take a leak.
    “She’s nice and she’s pretty. Or she would be, if she hadn’t been covered in