Page 22 of Freedom to Love

Chapter Six

“Vander. Vander?” Kat felt her heavy eyes flutter open. The room was bright, harsh. She brought her arm up to shade her sensitive vision, but she found it difficult. A cord of some sort was connected to her hand.

“Easy,” a familiar voice said. She felt a warm hand cover hers.

“Murph?”

“In the flesh.”

She turned her head and found him smiling beneath the bill of a worn camouflage Tarheel hat. His shirt matched his hat in different shades of green, but his pants were thick denim, mud smeared on one knee. He wasn’t wearing his firearm.

She couldn’t yet make sense of any of it. “Where—”

“You’re in the emergency room.”

“What?” She tried to sit up, but he eased her down. She closed her eyes in frustration, and suddenly, the noise all around her penetrated. A baby crying, beeps, coughs, loud orders, soft, soothing talk. She lifted her tethered hand and found an IV. “Why?”

He sat slowly, carefully, as if she’d fly out of the bed at any moment. “Your wound was bleeding and infected. And you were very weak. You’re lucky you got here when you did.”

“Brynn?” She stared directly into his brown eyes. His face fell in a microsecond and then recovered, but she had seen it; it was too late. “Where, Murph?”

“We took her in.”

“She brought me here and you took her in? Did you arrest her?”

He looked down and stared at his hands. “We had no choice. Had no answers. And you, you had disappeared, and then she shows with you near death and covered in dirt. What were we supposed to do?”

She tensed, but it caused pain up in her shoulder. She was still in a sling. “Damn it, get this thing off me.”

Again, Murph stood and eased her busy hands. He did so firmly yet gently. He shushed her quietly as if soothing a fussy babe. “You have to relax and be still. That antibiotic needs to get into your body.”

She jerked away from him, so frustrated she could scream. It caused a huge stab of pain to course through her, but she didn’t care. Her anger was winning out. “Can’t they give me a shot? Two shots? I need to get to Brynn.”

“So you’re on a first-name basis with her now?”

Her mind raced right over his question. First, the cabin, Brynn’s nude body, the argument with Bea and then the drive ho—“Fucking shit, where’s Gunner? He’s not in the car is he?”

Murph shook his head and tried to grip her hand. “Williams said you two dropped him off at your house.”

Kat leaned back and took a big breath. She could remember nothing after leaving the cabin. Brynn could’ve taken her anywhere, done anything. But once again, she’d brought her to where she needed to be. Even if it wasn’t what she currently wanted.

Murph tugged on the bill of his cap and rubbed his stubble. He still had a baby face no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

“You been fishing?” she asked. He was dirty, black under his nails and in his nail beds. He’d been digging for worms.

“Yeah.”

“They called you in?”

“We were all worried sick when you disappeared, Vander. Captain Bowman insisted I take the day off instead of pacing the floors looking for you.”

“I had something I had to do.”

“Like go get the Williams girl. You know how much shit you’re in?”

Kat looked away. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

He rested his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor. “I hope you’re right.”

---