Read Debra Burroughs - Paradise Valley 04.5 - The Color of Lies for Free Online Page B

said, bringing her left hand to her head. Then she glanced down at her broken right arm. “How did I break my arm?”
    “We were in a car accident. You really don’t remember?”
    “The last thing I remember was leaving the theater after watching some gawd -awful movie with Will Ferrell in it.”
    The door to Emily’s room opened, and a petite brunette nurse in a bright floral uniform breezed in with Ernie following close behind.
    “I see you’re back with the living,” the nurse quipped with a grin. “Let’s check your vitals.” She glanced from Colin to Ernie. “Some privacy, boys?”
    They caught the hint and went out into the hallway.
    “I’d better call Isabel and the others,” Colin said, digging his phone out of his jeans pocket.
    Ernie stuck his hand out to stop him. “It’s three o’clock in the morning.”
    Colin looked down at his watch. “Oh, man, you’re right. I hadn’t realized. Maybe I should text them. They’ll be upset I didn’t let them know Emily woke up.”
    “Especially Isabel. You’d better not get on that one’s bad side.”
    Colin had to agree. “Yeah, I’d rather not tick off the FBI.”
    Ernie chuckled. “One thing I don’t understand, Colin, about what you said in there.” He tilted his head toward Emily’s room and his eyes briefly flashed in that direction. “You always said that Miranda had been gunned down in the line of duty, but the story you just told me, well…what gives?”
    Colin shrugged. “It was just easier to explain it that way.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “What difference would it make to anyone here? They didn’t know her. It was too painful to have to explain over and over how she was undercover as a hooker and had her throat slit—died, dressed like a whore.”
    “You could have told me.”
    “I didn’t want to tell anybody, relive all the gory details again. Besides, saying she was shot in the line of duty, I don’t know,” he shrugged, “it sounded more honorable. I wanted to protect her memory. Telling that little white lie seemed like the easiest way to do it.”
    “Sometimes those white lies come in handy, don’t they? But no matter what color it was, it was still a lie.”
    “Maybe I was lying to myself too. I didn’t want to remember her that way.” Colin glanced down and kicked at the floor. “Sorry I wasn’t honest with you from the beginning, Ernie. You’re law enforcement. You would’ve understood. I just couldn’t—”
    The nurse popped her head out in the hall. “Detective, you boys might as well go on home. This girl needs her rest.”
    “What about the doctor?” Colin asked.
    “She’ll be here soon. We’ll call you if there’s any change. Right now, the best thing you can do is let Emily sleep.”
    Colin didn’t want to leave her. What if something happened to her before he returned in the morning? A blood clot, a stroke—or worse. Brain injuries were not to be taken lightly.
    “Can’t I just—”
    “No,” the nurse interrupted. “You’re no good to her exhausted. Go get some sleep and come back in the morning. Both of you.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Ernie said with a salute. “You heard the lady, son. Let’s go.”
    ~*~
    At first light, Colin was back at the hospital. He stopped in the gift shop and picked up a bouquet of red tulips before riding the elevator to the third floor. When he stepped off, he was glad to see none of Emily’s friends had made it yet and he could have her all to himself, at least for a little while.
    He poked his head into her room and found her alone and asleep. He stepped to the foot of her bed and set the vase of flowers down on the raised table.
    She looked peaceful. The swelling in her face had gone down and the redness on her cheeks had begun to fade. The heart monitor beeped steadily in the background—music to his ears.
    Colin walked over to the window and stared blankly at the cloudless sky, thinking about how quickly things really could change. He