Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I rubbed at my heart. “Maybe he should see y’all first?”
“Go,” Germaine smiled. “It’s enough to know that he’s okay.”
He pressed his fist to his heart.
It wasn’t enough for me.
I wanted to see him.
“Ande, me first,” Garrett said. “I just want to lay eyes on him, then I’ll go.”
Ande reluctantly hung back as Garrett and I left, following Dr. Felix through a maze of hallways.
He led us to the back of some long hallway and said, “Thanks to the shooting, the hospital is stuffed full. This is an overflow wing, and there’s one nurse working on seven rooms. This is also the old children’s wing, so don’t be alarmed by all the paintings on the wall.”
He wasn’t lying.
The hallway was bright and cheerful.
There was Dumbo flying over rolling hills. The girl from Brave running after a bear with her bow strapped to her back. There was even Elsa and Anna on the wall dancing in an ice storm.
He stopped beside a closed door and said, “None of the other people on this wing are involved in the shooting. These are all patients who were in surgery or just out of surgery before the shooting happened. You don’t have to worry about him being next to some gang member.”
Garrett growled beside me, and I reached for his hand and squeezed.
He caught my hand and squeezed back. Hard. Then let me go.
Felix pushed the door open but didn’t go inside.
“He’s awake but could be a bit loopy still thanks to the medication he’s on,” Felix said. “His new doctor will likely make rounds in just a few minutes.”
Then he left us, likely busy as hell thanks to the day’s events.
“Athena.”
My head whipped toward the bed, and there he was, wide awake, staring at me like he’d never seen me before.
“Gable,” I breathed.
He lifted his fingers toward me, and I hurried his way.
My fingers tangled with his, and the tears that I’d managed to hold at bay fell.
“You’re okay,” Garrett said softly.
My face dropped, and I let my head rest on his thigh as I tried to find a way to breathe past the tears clogging my throat.
He was alive.
Alive.
He’d made it.
“Yeah,” Gable sounded worried, though. “I just want to be completely open and honest with you. The doctor wanted to sound positive, but he pointed out that there was a reason that surgery is done in sterile rooms. Says the likelihood for infection is high, and that they’re going to have me on strong antibiotics in hopes that it’ll help with infection, but that I will probably have issues despite their measures.”
I lifted my head, tears blurring my eyes. “What’s that mean?”
He grimaced. “That it’s going to be a long road.”
I stood and cupped his face in my hand, dropping my forehead to his. “Then we’ll travel it together.”
One week later
“Is he okay today?” Garnett asked as she came into the room.
I looked at the man who’d given us not one, not two, but three more life or death experiences in the last week and said, “I think so.”
Today was the first day he actually looked like he had some color to him.
She walked to the bed and fixed his hair.
It was overly long, as was his beard.
He was starting to look like he did when he was undercover.
I loved it and hated it at the same time.
A knock at the door sounded, and Garnett and I both turned.
“Yes?”
That was the last breath I was able to take for a full minute as I stared at the doorway.
“Who are you?” Garnett asked defensively when she saw my reaction.
I couldn’t draw in a breath of air.
My lungs weren’t working.
“I’m Mary Beth. Athena’s sister,” the woman explained.
Mary Beth.
Mary Beth.
“What?” Garnett asked, sounding just as stunned as I felt.
Garnett caught my hand over Gable’s sleeping form and squeezed.
My hip rested against the side of the bed, Gable nestled protectively between us.
I drew in two sharp breaths before saying, “What are you doing here?”
Garnett’s head whipped around, and she stared at me, realizing something was wrong.
She had no idea of what had happened.
I hadn’t told any of them.
I was waiting for Gable to be awake so I could tell him first.
But besides those initial minutes when we’d first arrived in his recovery room, Gable hadn’t been awake or aware enough to listen to me talk, let alone explain something so complicated.
“I’m your sister, why wouldn’t I be here?” she asked.
I inadvertently squeezed Garnett’s hand and said, “Why now?”
Mary Beth’s eyes flitted momentarily to the side before she returned her gaze and said, “I was worried about you. Him.”
“Tell me what’s going on,” Garnett ordered, surprising me with her forcefulness.
I’d, of course, known she was a bad ass.
She was one of the longest standing employees of Dallas Police Department. You didn’t become that without having a little badass in you.