Page 133 of Samson

Trevors stood.

“Agent Trevors?” the doctor said when he got close.

“Yes.”

“I’m Doctor Gill. I’ve already informed the family, but I was told to give you an update on Samson when he came out of surgery.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Delilah held her breath but stayed near the wall. She was unsteady on her feet, and if it was bad news, she didn’t know how she would respond.

“He went into cardiac arrest on the table, but we were able to revive him. He’s a lucky man. Besides the bullet wound, he had other internal bleeding, but the surgery was successful. He’s notcompletely out of the woods yet, but we’ll know more in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Assuming there’s no infection or other complications, with physiotherapy, it’s possible he will have an extensive if not a complete recovery.”

“You sure?”

The doctor smiled. “Yes. At this point, things are looking positive.”

“That sounds…impossible.”

“He’s doing much better than we expected.”

“I take it his family’s with him now?”

“Not yet, but they will be able to visit with him soon. I understand he’s part of an ongoing federal investigation?”

“He is. But there’s nothing urgent, unless—” He turned to Delilah. “I can get you in if you want.”

“No. No, I couldn’t. Thank you, Dr. Gill. That’s wonderful news. I know his family will be relieved.”

Gill nodded. “Agent Trevors, you can have me paged if you need anything further.”

“Thank you. I will.”

Trevors waited until the doctor turned before he looked at Delilah. “You sure you don’t want to see him? I’m going to head in once he’s able to have visitors. I want to congratulate him on not dying. Again.”

“You go ahead. He gets to see his daughter, and that makes me so happy. The last thing I want to do is ruin it by turning up in his room.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I am.”

Samson blinked away the fuzziness in his vision. He knew he was in the hospital and somehow he was still alive, but when he thought he saw his daughter standing near the door, he became concerned. Either he was actually dead, or the drugs they’d given him were making him hallucinate.

Another figure appeared in his line of sight. It was his dad, wringing his jacket in his hands.

“Son. We thought we lost you.”

He got his focus back on his dad, then looked at his daughter, who was still there.

“Riley?”

She smiled and walked slowly closer. “Hi…Dad.”

His face bunched as tears stung his eyes. “You’re alive?”

She nodded as tears ran down her face. “Yeah.”

“I heard the gun.”