Pandora's Box (3 page)

Lousy conk on the head. Big deal. You’ll be fine in a bit.

Heart pounding, Mina raised her head to glare past her chin at nothingness. “Damn it. What the hell’s going on?”

Teague, who’d just clicked off the phone, looked over at Mina. “Doctor’s on her way. She said ice was okay, so that’s what
I’m getting you.” He paused to study her dubiously. “Are you going to pass out on me again? You look white as hell. Whiter
than a few minutes ago, even, and you looked like a ghost then. Maybe we should—”

“No. Ice is fine.” She sounded faint even to her own ears. Maybe her hearing was screwed up? She’d heard buzzing in her ears
before. Ringing, too. So maybe this—what sounded like a voice but probably wasn’t—was all just her imagination. She’d been
knocked unconscious, after all.

Hmph.

She stilled, gazing around suspiciously as she rubbed at her ear. “I think I’ll just rest now. If that’s okay.”

“It’s all I wanted.”

Some people got it good.

“Yeah, I got it good all right. No money, no insurance, a car older than my students—my former students, rather—and now a
hole in my wall. Got it just great.” Not that she was in the habit of feeling sorry for herself, but the unplanned ventilation
of her house—okay, so it was planned in a manner of speaking, even if the head conk wasn’t—was sort of jarring. And now she
either had a concussion or she was just going nuts.

Got it better than I do. Haven’t had a good night’s sleep since
Maegth sicced her—Aaaargh!

“Ouch.” Mina cringed, raising a hand to her temple. “Will you please stop yelling? My head is killing me.”

Teague raised his voice just above his men’s chatter. “Guys, less talk and more action, okay? Injured client.”

“Sure thing, Teague.”

Two thousand years and you’d think I would have learned not
to say her name. Guess I’ve gone too damn long without a good—
ahem. Sorry, Mina. I forgot about the lady in the room. Although,
for a lady, you have some kind of mouth on you.

“I know. I cuss like a trucker with hemorrhoids. It’s been worse since my breakup, too, but then what do you expect?” She
muttered it resignedly, still studying the inside of her eyelids. Everything was a funky reddish black with painful glowing
splotches that were probably lights just waiting to nail her when she opened her eyes. “I’d like to see
you
discover your live-in boyfriend in bed with a bimbo named Tiffy. Bet it does wonders for your X-rated vocab, too. What a stupid
name. Like you’d need a nickname for
Tiffany
for pete’s sake, but I guess three syllables is just one too many for her to handle. Her spastic little brain shorts out after
the schwa sound.”

“Um. I’m sure you’re right?” She heard a click and mumbling. “Yeah, Nell. Kick it in gear, please. She’s sounding a little
odd. Anything I should watch for?”

Mina kept her eyes closed throughout. Her head just plain hurt, damn it, so she was allowed to sound a little off, in her
opinion. A moment later, she felt a cold bag of something touch the side of her head. She flinched. “That stings.”

“Easy, honey. It’ll help. Doc’s orders.”

Grimacing, she felt him replace the pack. After a few moments, she had to agree. Cold felt better. “Got another one of those
for my shoulder?”

“Your shoulder? You didn’t mention your shoulder before.” He sounded alarmed.

“That’s because my head hurt too much and my shoulder was still numb.”

“Damn it, you didn’t say anything about a numb shoulder. Nell—”

“It’s not numb anymore, genius. That’s the point. It hurts like hell.” She enunciated carefully, then heard a sigh and retreating
footsteps.

“Any reason why you keep hurling insults at me?” The words came from the other room—her destroyed kitchen, she was pretty
sure, which was downright airy now, thanks to her new, unobstructed view of the outdoors.

“You called names first.” She sounded like a sulky brat, but it was true. After the last name-calling encounter with her ex-boyfriend,
she’d sworn not to put up with that shit from any man. Even if the man in question did look too sexy for his tool belt. And
his jeans. She was above all that. Although, she supposed, Mr. Sexy Teague was turning out to be darned helpful for a simple
contractor. A lot of guys would have called the ambulance and shipped her off as fast as possible, not put up with her grumbling
and nurse her in spite of herself.

Footsteps returned. “Which shoulder?”

“The right one.” He gently settled a second pack against her shoulder as closely as possible without jostling. “Yeah, there.
Thanks.”

“Can you move your fingers?”

She wiggled them obligingly.

“Any nausea? Janelle said to ask.”

“No.”

“Confusion?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.” He sounded grim and worried again.

Okay, sure, she was confused. He would be too, if—

“Now hold still. You’re bleeding and I need to see how bad it is.”

“I am?” She felt pressure, then shooting pains across her forehead. “Ow, damn it!”

He pulled back, waited a few moments, then gently reapplied the towel to her temple.

She winced but, braced this time, didn’t protest. “Is it bad? Do I need stitches?”

“Mmmm. Probably not. Bled like hell, but it doesn’t look as bad as I thought it might. Can you see okay? How many fingers?”

She squinted at his hand and closed her eyes. “Three. Look, I can see as well as I ever could. The light just hurts my head.”

“Okay. Well, good.” He sounded marginally relieved.

“So . . . did your neighbor mention anything about hearing-changes?”

“You can’t hear?” So much for relief, marginal or otherwise.

She shot him a look through lowered eyelashes before closing her eyes again. “Changes in, not loss of.”

“Oh. Like ringing in your ears? That blast was pretty loud, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Um. N-no. Not ringing. Exactly.”

“Buzzing? Like a hollow sound maybe?”

“Hollow’s getting there. But it sounds more like a . . . voice?” That sounded nuts even to her, and she opened her eyes slightly
to gauge his reaction.

As expected, Teague looked appalled. “Oh. Shit.” He dug in his pocket for the cell phone. “That does it.”

Hospital
. Stupid. She should have known. “No. Wait. Just . . . I was joking. Really. My hearing’s just a little off. It’s probably
from the noise, like you said. That blast was loud.”

He stilled, eyeing her dubiously. “You sure?”

“Sure, I’m sure.”

“Maybe we should ask—”

“I think I’d be the one to know exactly what I’m hearing, wouldn’t you?” Uh,
no
. She didn’t know what the hell she was hearing. She just couldn’t chance an emergency room bill.

But that
voice
. Yeah, but what voice? And she’d never heard voices before. Never verged on insanity before either, thank you very much.
It had to be her imagination, right? She was just a little shaken by the whole window-smashing business.

Damn. This guy’s looking a little pale. You’d better take it
back like you mean it, lady, or you’re going to find yourself in the
loony bin. Trust me on this. My hostesses and the loony bin experience
go waaaaay back. At least they don’t burn people at the
stake anymore for witchcraft or demonic possession. That’s sheer
agony, babe. Hell, I remember this one time—

“Stop!” She slapped her hands over her ears, trying to shove that damn voice back into silent oblivion where it belonged.
She was losing it. Would the state pay her bills if she went nuts? Maybe they’d find a way to saddle Jackson with the expense—since
he was probably responsible for driving her nuts in the first place. Actually, inconveniencing Jackson would almost be worth
her insanity, except she damn sure didn’t want to end up locked in an institution doodling with finger paints all day.

Fine, then. Lord, but you’re touchy. Just a little human contact
was all I wanted and you deny me even that. Consider me
gone.

Mina swallowed. She hadn’t heard that. She hadn’t. She’d just rattled her brains a little. Carefully, she lifted one hand
off her ears.

Nothing.

Other hand.

Still nothing.

Cautiously, she opened her eyes. Teague looked rattled. And, yes, he was shouting into the phone.

“I swear to God, Janelle, you get here right now. I don’t know what the hell to do. She’s not making sense, talking about
voices and—”

“Teague.”

He pointed a finger at her, his eyes hot. “You just lie still a minute. This shit’s just wrong—”

“It was a joke, Teague. You know, a
joke
? A bad one, granted.” That stupid voice was right about one thing: she’d better make Teague believe her voice comment was
a joke or she’d be looking at an emergency room visit, if not more. “I guess I should give the lame humor attempts a rest
until my head’s better, huh? Sorry about that.”Teague was still freaked and angry—and Mina would bet the good doctor Janelle’s
ears were ringing every bit as much as her own right now.

Ringing. That’s what it was. “It’s just that my ears kept ringing. And you shouting was making it worse. Teague?” She tried
for a sane-but-bravely-enduring smile.

Teague focused a set of seriously harassed-looking green eyes on her. “Well, guess what? I don’t believe you. I’ll bet you
even have a concussion. A bad one. Your brain probably imploded just like the window did.”

Mina dropped the smile. “Gee, that’s mature. Why don’t you let
me
talk to your friend?”

Teague looked undecided, and Mina heard the echo of chatter over the phone. Mina held out a hand.

Reluctantly, Teague passed her the phone. “She says talking to you would be a good idea.”

Mina accepted the cell phone. “Hi. Janelle, is it?”

“Officially, it’s Dr. Janelle Corrington, but if you’re a friend of Teague’s, Janelle’s great. So, you must be my patient.”

“Sounds like. Look, your buddy Teague’s just a little panicked over here.”

Janelle laughed wryly. “So I gather. How do you feel?”

“Bruised and tired and rattled.”

“Sounds about right. Any nausea? How’s your vision?”

“No, and fine. Just a rotten headache—and Teague already stopped the bleeding, so that’s not a problem. Even he admits the
cut doesn’t look bad.”

“A cut? On your head?”

“Well. Yeah.”

“I still want to see you, in that case. Just to be on the safe side. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Try to keep him calm in
the meantime, if you would.”

Mina laughed a little, but stopped when it made her head pound. “Sure.” She hung up.

Mina glanced at Teague. “Janelle’s on her way. She sounds less than stressed, so take it easy, please. You don’t even know
me.”

“Well, hell, your kitchen blows up, part of your wall falls down, and you wind up unconscious on the floor. Since I and my
guys were on the other side of that wall, we feel just a little responsible. I don’t like that.”

“Relax. I’m not suing.” She muttered it tiredly. “I don’t have the cash for an attorney anyway.”

“You don’t? Am I going to get paid?”

“Sure,
now
you worry about my money.”

“Well, it looks like you got a little boo-boo head to me.” Dr. Janelle Corrington gave Mina a wide-eyed look and Mina snickered
over Janelle’s shoulder at Teague.

“Smart ass.” Teague was looking harassed, but less freaked.

Janelle winked at her. “Just keep it on ice and take it easy. No driving for today, either. I want you to call me if the pain
gets worse, or if you experience memory loss or confusion, blurred vision, inability to move your limbs or nausea. Got it?”

“Maybe.”

“Here’s my number.” She held up a business card and set it on the table next to Mina’s head. “And I want an update from you
tomorrow, regardless. Understood?”

Mina nodded. “Thanks.”

“Is that it?” This from Teague. He sounded doubtful. “That’s the official doctor’s exam of a head injury?”

“Well, I can’t exactly open her skull to physically probe her brain—”

“What about CAT scans or an MRI or all that other fancy stuff? Shouldn’t she have something like that?”

Janelle spoke patiently. “Her pupils are fine. The bleeding’s stopped. The bump is protruding, which will, with any luck,
rule out any internal swelling. And the cut, as much as it bled, doesn’t even need stitches. She got lucky.”

“So today’s my lucky day, ” Mina mused brightly. “Who’da thunk it? First I inherit a rock and then I have a wall blow up in
my face and I don’t even die. Obviously, it’s all just a matter of perspective.”

Teague turned a scowl on Janelle. “See what I mean? She’s been spewing nonsense since she hit her head.”

“Oh, like that’s different from any other day.” Mina carefully tipped her head so she could meet his eyes. “You hardly know
me. Maybe I always spew nonsense.”

Janelle started laughing.

“Oh, and Teague?” Mina raised her voice to be heard over Janelle. “Don’t even
think
about leaving until that wall is capable of repelling thunderstorms.”

“Yeah, fine. Women.”

Mina turned back to Janelle. “Amazing, isn’t it? I just met Teague in person for the first time today, but we bonded over
pain and panic. Sweet, huh?”

“Very.” Janelle gave her an odd look.

“No worries. I’m not hitting on him. You’re his neighbor, right? I get it. Dibsies. I don’t poach.”

“Oh, but he’s not—”

“Nell.” Teague gave the doctor a sharp look. “Leave it alone. Seriously. The woman’s just plain scary.”

Janelle sighed and looked ready to clobber Teague harder than the wall had clobbered Mina. “You’re annoying. Why couldn’t
the wall fall on you?”

He smiled. “Because then Mina would be liable. And she doesn’t have insurance.”

Mina frowned. “No, it’s money I don’t have. And medical insurance. I think I have homeowner’s insurance, though. Don’t I?”

“Hell. Yeah, you probably do.” He looked thoughtful. “I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before—guess we were both distracted—but
. . .” Teague spread his arms and let them slap against his thighs. “There’s your answer. That wall of yours has to be defective
or it wouldn’t have come down like that. The window busting, fine, but not tossing big chunks of your wall out with it. I’ll
swear to it. Give the insurance company a call. Have them check it out and pay my bill for you. We’ll call it restoration.”