“Pupil reflexes are responsive,” he mutters, clicking his flashlight off and depositing it back into his pocket. “Your CT scan and X-rays were clear. You do have a mild concussion, and a small laceration we stitched up above your right eye. All things considered, Miss Thompson, you’re very lucky.”
I don’t think I’d call being attacked lucky, but he’s right. I could be dead. There’s always an upside to everything, I guess.
“I’d like to keep you here for another day, just to err on the side of caution.” He nods, disappearing only a few seconds later without so much as a goodbye.
Another day here? Under normal circumstances, I would be fine with that, except for Jinx. I have no way of knowing whether or not she’s okay. The thought of her being hurt and alone unsettles me, because she has no one but me to care for her. I can’t stay here for another night, at least for her sake. Even if the idea of stepping foot back into my house—which will never quite feel the same again—alone so soon after the attack, scares the holy hell out of me. One way or another, I’m breaking out of this place, even if I have to leave against medical advice.
The nurse returns with a white paper cup, along with a plastic carafe of water, taking my attention away from the painful memories filling my head. She hands me a cup of water and two white pills that go down like lead balloons against sandpaper as I swallow them. Taking another sip of water, it burns slightly less than it did the first time. The nurse takes the cup and sets it on the bedside table.
“Would you like to sit up?”
I nod, and she reaches for the remote to lift the head of my bed.
“You’ve got quite the entourage out in the waiting room,” she informs me with a teasing smile.
I frown. “Excuse me?” Why would I have an entourage? It’s not like I know anyone close by, and all my neighbors are gone for the summer. The nurse shifts to the other side of the bed and re-adjusts the pillow behind my head.
“The guy that came in with you—the one with all the leather and the dog? He’s been out in the waiting room all night. Made quite the scene when they wouldn’t let him back to see you without showing his ID. The dog nearly bit one of the security guards.”
Dog? I shoot her a look of confusion. I was alone, so she must be mistaken. I have no one close by—not a soul. I’d call my parents, but I doubt they’d even care. The second I moved in with my grandmother at fifteen, I was no longer their problem. They didn’t even show up for her funeral three years ago. They did, however, contact her attorney to see if she’d left them anything in her will.
“It’s not like you could miss him, or the half dozen of his friends dressed just like him that showed up a few hours after you did. They’ve been sitting out there ever since. Must be nice to have that many cute guys around, huh?”
“I didn’t come here with anyone.” Seriously. If I had a man in my life, I’d more than likely not be in the situation I currently find myself in.
“I get it. I wouldn’t want to share either.” She winks as she tucks the blanket tightly around my feet, eliciting a hiss from me. “You might want to talk to him about that dog, though. A hospital’s no place for an animal like that.”
What dog? I don’t have a dog. Who the hell is this guy? There wasn’t anyone else there but Jinx and me. Unless…
No. It can’t be.
Was the voice I heard comforting me real after all?
GreenPeace
“So, you never saw this fucker’s face at all?” Karma asks after I finish explaining my story to the rest of the guys.
Sighing, I drag a hand over my face, exhausted after the massive surge of adrenaline I experienced earlier, and anxious to know what exactly is going on down the hall with Blair. “No. Dude had on a balaclava, and I never got a chance to take it off.”
“Looks like Walter got a good chunk out of him, though,” Judge notes, pointing a finger at the sleeping dog, his muzzle stained with dried blood from the mystery fucknut’s arm.
The nurse nearly had a coronary when I burst into the emergency room with Walter at my side, but one look from me, she shut her mouth pretty damn quick. He and I had just been through something intense, and there was no way in hell I was stopping to take him home before I went to the hospital. Besides, all I’d done was kick the fucker. It was Walter who had rushed in and saved the redhead. I hadn’t even known her real name until the medic had gone into her purse by the front door and searched out her ID.
“He got him good,” I confirm. “I gave him a decent boot to the head, too, so my guess is he’s also got a wicked concussion right now. He’ll need a doctor, and when he goes to one, we need to be there.”
Judge nods, chewing on his lip. “There are only four hospitals within a two-hour drive of here. I’ll send a couple of guys to each one, and when he shows up, we’ll nail him.”
And this is why I called him. Judge may be the president of the club, but he’s a brother first. He’s one of the scariest sons of bitches I’ve ever met, but he’d give the shirt off his back for any one of us. And when it comes to someone committing violence against another person who can’t defend themselves, he sees red.
I don’t know who that fucker was, or why he was in Blair’s house, but the fact that he had the foresight to wear a mask tells me she’ll likely not have a clue who he is either. He attacked her in her own home, and if it hadn’t been for Walter, who knows what would’ve happened to her.
The memory of her lying on the floor, her gorgeous red hair stained crimson with her own blood, makes me wish I could turn back the clock and kill the bastard when I had the chance. But ensuring she was all right had been the most important thing to me at the time.
“We’re going to find him,” Judge says, clapping a hand on my shoulder with a firm squeeze.
Nodding, I stand a little straighter when a doctor enters the waiting room. Hospital policy states you must be an immediate family member to accompany the patient into the treatment area. And even though I’d lied and said I was her fiancé, there was no way they were letting me back there. The nurse who had broken the news to me hadn’t given two shits about any menacing looks I’d thrown her way; she wasn’t afraid of me. And though I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin waiting to hear news, I’ve felt better knowing the no-nonsense woman was caring for Blair behind those closed doors.
“Are you the man who came in with Blair Thompson?”
Blair Thompson. Before a couple of hours ago, I’d never heard that name before, so why does hearing it now make me feel like my very soul is tethered to those three syllables?
I nod, moving closer, suddenly unable to breathe. Even Walter lifts his head, his gaze focused on the doctor in front of me.
“We’ve checked her over. She took a nasty blow to the head and has a mild concussion. The laceration on her temple took a few stitches, but it should heal up without leaving a scar. We’re going to keep her here for observation, but Miss Thompson is going to be just fine.”
Just fine. Those two words wash over me like a healing wave of relief, and finally, my lungs are able to function again.
It’s funny. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty level-headed guy. I think everything through, and never lead by emotions. But right now, my emotions are getting the best of me. All I want to do is push past the scrawny four-eyed doctor and rush into Blair’s room, gather her in my arms, and tell her I’m so fucking sorry I let that son of a bitch get away. To promise her I’ll find him and make him pay for what he did to her.