The Curse of a Single Red Rose (Haunted Hearts Series Book 7) by Denise Moncrief Page B

attention back to where she’d left it in the bedroom. That’s odd. She was certain she’d put the phone on vibrate. She trudged across the floor and lifted the phone just as it quit ringing. Sure enough, the ringer had been set to silent. Very odd. The call went to voicemail. When it finished recording, she pressed play and listened.
    “This message is for Elsa Madsen. I’m at the ER nurses’ station at Tulane Medical Center. Collin McVey has been in an accident. We’ve tried to get him to give us the name of someone in his family, but he insisted that we call you instead. He has a message he wants me to give you personally… I don’t usually do this… Can you please call me back?” The nurse left his name and a number on the message. Elsa wasted no time returning the call.
    Within minutes, she had changed her clothes and raced out of her apartment heading toward Tulane. The nurse had thought Collin’s message for her was nonsense, but Elsa knew exactly what he meant.
    Collin had told the nurse to tell her that the gifter had given him a rose. But Collin hadn’t been in the hotel, and it wasn’t a stormy night. Was the gifter trying to alter the rules of the curse? Or was this an elaborate ruse designed to scare both Elsa and Collin? For what reason? If it was an attempt to frighten them, then the ruse was working. Elsa was scared.
    ****
    When Elsa arrived at the ER, she finally found Collin in an exam room at the back of the unit. Standing near his bed was a man she’d never seen before.
    She ignored the stranger and rushed to the other side of Collin’s bed. “Are you all right? What happened? Are they letting you out of here tonight…today, I mean?”
    Collin glanced toward the stranger and then offered her a weary, pain-soaked smile. “Slow down, Elsa. I’m going to be all right. I blacked out for a little while, but I should be fine in a few days. They’re going to keep me here overnight, and then I’ll need someone to stay with me for a few days when I go home.”
    Anxiety fueled the furious beating of her heart. “Do you have a concussion?”
    “Yes.”
    “Headache?”
    “Yes.”
    “Memory loss?”
    “Who did you say you were?”
    The twinkle in his eyes betrayed him. The spark came and went in a flash, but it had been there.
    “This isn’t funny, Collin.”
    She turned her attention to the other man, who was smirking behind his hand. The stranger seemed familiar in a vague sort of way.
    “I don’t think we’ve met.”
    “Detective Nick Moreau with the New Orleans Police Department. I’m investigating the accident.” His eyes darted toward Collin.
    “You can tell her. I’ll stop you if you’re saying too much.”
    The sour expression on the cop’s face suggested he didn’t like being censored and would have preferred that Elsa make a hasty exit. That wasn’t going to happen. The patient had requested her presence, so the cop could get over it.
    Moreau sighed, and an expression of resignation crossed his features in a brief flash of exasperation. “Mr. McVey doesn’t believe it was an accident, and I think he’s right.”
    That was a very brief synopsis of the reason for the cop’s presence. She inched closer to the side of Collin’s bed, dared to reach out and wrap his hand in hers. Her previous fear surged again.
    She asked her question carefully, not certain how much Collin would have told the cop. “Why do you think it wasn’t an accident?”
    Collin held her gaze. “The driver of the other car didn’t slow down when he hit me, and then after my truck stopped going around in a circle, he ran into me again, straight on.”
    She slid her bag off her shoulder and let it drop to the floor. “Someone hit you on purpose?”
    Collin nodded and then winced.
    She released his hand and touched his cheek. The intensity of his gaze brightened through the pain that had dulled his eyes. Her heart did a little tap dance on her rib cage. It hadn’t been her imagination. In the