Page 32 of Tripp

“Ms. Edwards, I’m Doctor Greene. I’ve reviewed your scans with the help of radiology. There are no skull fractures. The knot on your temple doesn’t seem to be more than a blaring sign that someone clocked you a good one.”

“She’ll be alright?”

“Yes, but it’ll take a little bit of time to heal from her injuries.” He looked from Tripp to me. “We’ll need to clean up your arm. For that they’re going to have the orthopedic surgeon?—”

“I need surgery. What…” I had to fight to hold back a sob.

“No, ma’am, it’s not that at all. We need them to assess you before we can get someone in to scrub your arm. You have flecks of debris in some of those cuts, a few of which will need some stitches, others we can close using steri-strips. It’s going to be a tedious and painful process. You can be given something to numb the area, or we can have ortho come in to give you a nerve block.”

“I’ve had more stitches in the last few weeks than I’ve had my entire life.” I frowned. “This freaking sucks donkey balls.” I looked around the room and let out a long, frustration-filled breath. My eyes teared up again.

“Go for the nerve block,” Phoenix remarked, grimacing. He held out his left arm. The scar that ran up it was jagged but very faint.

“What happened?”

“I fell off a roof. The beam I’d been standing on shifted. It was too late to do more than go with it. I caught my arm on something—a nail, roof corner, a pipe, it could have been anything if I’m honest. The nerve block they gave me when I went up to have it worked on, that one procedure saved me hours of pain.”

“It hurts like a bitch when it wears off though. If we are being transparent. I had one after an accident once. My calf was hamburger, and they spent hours pulling gravel out of it. I felt nothing more than the pressure of the procedure.”

I shuddered. “And you wonder why I don’t want to ride?”

He leaned in and kissed my nose. “Never fear, I won’t put you on a bike unless you want it.”

“Okay, let’s do the thing. I don’t want to feel anything.”

“Very well. Nurse Lane will be back in, and we will get you set up. We will ask that everyone else leave while they work on you.”

“I love you.” Tripp leaned in and kissed my lips softly. “See you in a little bit, okay?”

“I’ll be here…” I made a face, then winced when that hurt.

After another kiss, he walked out with Phoenix. I had a very bad feeling churning in my gut. That man was up to something, and here I was stuck, not able to go after him.

Chapter 11

Tripp

Leaving Casey in that ER bay, in pain, worrying, absolutely gutted me.

But I did it.

I had to.

I was going to track this asshole down; make him pay. I’d made her a promise, no one would hurt her again, and I was going to make sure he would never hurt anyone again.

“Tripp, wait!” I heard Gabe call for me, but I ignored him. I stopped next to my bike and climbed on. Pulling the key from my pocket, I inserted it into the ignition. “You heard me calling you, asshole. Wait a damn minute.”

He was scowling when he reached me. Funny enough, he wasn’t alone. Trace, Chipper, Charlie, and two others I didn’t know but recognized stood behind him. Their faces were determined.

“I have a motherfucker to find.”

“We know where he is, if you would just fucking wait a goddamned minute.”

It wasn’t like Gabe to curse so much. Oh, he could sling the words, but he usually chose not to. That alone told me just how upset by all of this he was.

I held up my hands. “Spit it out then.”

“Derek pulled Casey’s dash cam. Watching it, he noticed another camera. We got a warrant and pulled the pawn shop footage; it’s outside of where she was attacked.”

---