Hunted, The Complete Edition: A Full-length Steamy Vampire Romance (New England Nightwalkers) Read Online Free

had to get this guy out of the cold and in front of a medical professional to make sure that her terrible mistake wouldn’t cause him long-term damage.
    “Stay here for a second. I’m going to get my phone and call nine-one-one so the EMTs can check you out.”
    She stood and scurried back to the car, leaning into the open driver’s side door to retrieve her cell phone. It had flown from her hand when the accident had occurred and it took half a minute of searching to finally find it on the floor.
    She tapped the power button but the screen never came to life. She ran her finger over the jagged center and winced, realizing it had shattered.
    Son of a…
    Okay, so maybe he had a cell phone. Then again, if the impact had been enough to crack her phone, what were the odds of his—
    “What’s going on?”
    A silky baritone sounded directly over her shoulder and she jerked up so fast, she banged her head on the roof of the car.
    She turned to find the man she’d run over standing just a foot away, staring down at her in the dim light of the street lamps.
    She craned her neck to meet his gaze. Lord, he was big. Six four if he was an inch. He towered over her five foot nothing, and she couldn’t deny the sizzle of apprehension that ran through her. Hadn’t she seen a Dateline episode just last week where they did a report on some scam just like this? Was she about to be the victim of some heinous crime?
    She clutched the phone more tightly, prepared to use it as a weapon if she needed to.
    “You shouldn’t be standing up.” She cleared her throat nervously, shifting from foot to foot. “You could have some sort of spinal trauma or neck injury, and standing is only going to make it worse.”
    “I’m freezing,” he muttered in a raspy voice. “I think my fingers are getting frostbitten out here or something because they feel stiff and strange.” He held up a hand and she gasped as she noted a river of blood dripping from the sleeve of his cable-knit sweater onto the pavement.
    “Let me see,” she demanded, reaching out to grip his arm and examining it tersely. The sweater was torn and there was a nasty gash down the length of his forearm. In the relative darkness, it was impossible to tell exactly how deep it was, but she hoped he hadn’t nicked an artery. “Do you have a phone on you?”
    “No. My truck broke down about two miles back and my phone was out of juice. I thought about knocking on some doors, but then I remembered passing a gas station a ways back, and figured I could make it without too much trouble.”
    She vaguely remembered passing a truck with its hazards on, but had been too preoccupied to take much notice.
    Which explained why he was out walking with so few layers on in this weather.
    She released his arm and glanced at the front of her car. The hood had caved in like an accordion, undeniable proof that he’d taken the full brunt of the collision. If this was some trick, he’d committed to it to the point that he’d risked life and limb to pull it off.
    She turned, grabbed her purse, and flipped on her hazard lights. There was no time to waste on her silly paranoia. She’d mowed a man down with her car and now he was bleeding. A lot. It was her responsibility to make it right.
    “Come on. My house is right over there, if you can manage it.” She pointed to the cheerily lit cottage just fifty yards away. “We’ll get you warmed up and bandaged and then make some calls.”
    She took a tentative step toward him and he seemed to sway on his feet.
    “Okay. But, I’m feeling a little dizzy,” he confessed, his words running together as she wedged herself beneath his underarm, praying she could hold his weight if he collapsed.
    Just a short walk. She’d patch him up like new and hope that it wasn’t worse than it looked.
    And tomorrow, she’d have to take a serious look at her choices to this point, because her preoccupation with the dead?
    Had nearly cost this poor man his