Page 79 of Theirs to Take

“Maybe he has a girlfriend already,” Ruby offered.

“No,” the nurse said. “He just claims that he won’t date anyone who he has to work with.”

“Well, that’s no fun at all,” Millie said.

“Yeah?” Ruby asked. “So, working with Ranger is going to be a picnic for you now?” she asked her friend. Sure, she wasn’t playing fairly, but she didn’t care. It was going to be fun watching both Millie and Ranger dance around each other for the next little bit.

“Not cool, Ruby,” Millie grumbled. “But it will be fine—as long as Ranger either continues to ignore me or comes around and realizes that I’m not the devil for luring him into my bed.”

“Wait—you were the one who lured him into bed?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah,” Millie said. “Listen, I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“Well, we can talk about it later, then,” Ruby assured. “But ignoring Ranger or the fact that you two slept together and now work in the same office, won’t be easy to do.”

“I know,” Millie agreed. “But ignoring it has worked for me so far. I think that might be the right game plan to get through all of this, even if you think I should push the envelope and force Ranger to talk about my feelings. I think I know what’s best for me—avoidance and pretending that it never happened is the way to go.”

“Whatever you say, Millie,” Ruby agreed. Yeah—it was going to be a whole lot of fun watching Millie and Ranger figure this all out together.

Luke

Luke woke up in horrible pain as he tried to sit up. “I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” Ranger said. “Just lay back and take it easy.”

“Where am I?” he mumbled. His jaw was wrapped in some sort of gauze and what felt like an ace bandage as he ran his fingers over it.

“You’re in the hospital and you have a dislocated jaw—but they popped that back into place and the face sling is a nice touch that the doc gave you to keep your jaw immobile. He said not to talk much.” That wasn’t going to be a problem for Luke because every time he tried to open his mouth, his entire face hurt like a son of a bitch. He had no problem keeping his mouth shut if it meant not causing himself any extra pain.

“You also had a broken nose, but the doc fixed that while you were passed out from the pain of him resetting your jaw. He said that it will take you a few weeks of downtime, but you’ll live. How’s the hearing?” Ranger asked.

“Better,” Luke mumbled.

“Yeah, mine is coming back too, so I figured yours would be about the same,” Ranger said. “Sorry about almost getting you blown up.”

“Ruby,” he grumbled. Luke was sure that he had seen her standing over her bedside earlier before they took him up to get x-rays done.

“She’s upstairs, getting checked out,” Ranger said.

“Upstairs,” Luke slurred. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask—why his girl needed to be checked out was first and foremost in his mind. Luke tried to sit up and Ranger practically pushed him back down.

“She’s good,” Ranger said. “When the doctor found out that she was pregnant and held against her will today, he told her that it would be a good idea to get checked out. She and the baby are both doing well,” Ranger said. “They’re just taking precautions and are doing a sonogram while they have her, but she should be released about the same time as you will be, and I’ll make sure that you both get home. Well, I’ll get you back to Ruby’s place. Yours is off-limits until the police clear it and then, I’m assuming you’ll want to add a few walls and all that.”

Luke closed his eyes and groaned at the thought of his house being blown to bits. “Again, sorry about all of that, but it could have been worse. If Millie had been a few minutes later, we would have been blown to bits, not just your house.”

“Hey,” Millie said, rolling Ruby into the small ER room. Luke tried to sit up and Ruby shook her head at him.

“No,” she insisted, “don't do that, Luke. You need to lay back and relax.”

“The baby?” he mumbled.

“Is fine,” she said. “He’s a trooper, just like his daddy.”

“It’s a boy?” Ranger asked.

She smiled up at Luke and nodded, tears spilling down her beautiful face. “It’s a boy,” she said.

“I’m betting he’ll have a lot more to say when his jaw heals and the pain meds aren’t making him drool,” Ranger assured. His friend was right—he’d have a whole lot more to say when he was feeling better. For now, he’d be happily content with knowing that his woman and his baby were both going to be all right and most importantly, were safe.

The nurse from earlier walked into his room and mean mugged everyone standing around his bed. “I thought that we discussed you getting some rest. Are you sure that you don’t want to stay the night so that can happen?” she asked Luke.

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