Page 44 of The Devil's Redemption

“Hey, Blade. I need to check on Sasha,” Hawk breaks through my anger. All it takes is the mere mention of the woman I love. “Why don’t you come, too? I’m sure she’ll have questions for both of us.”

“Yeah,” I nod my head toward him.

Stone bangs the gavel, ending church.

I meet Hawk at the doors, and we walk down the hallway to the main part of the house.

“What do you need to take a look at? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. I just want to see how she’s feeling.”

Why do I get the feeling he’s making shit up just to diffuse a possible situation between Stone and I?

I follow him into Maggie’s room, and the sight of Sasha makes me feel better instantly. Bon and I were finally able to get her hair under control after several day’s efforts. I’m glad that she’s able to help Maggie out with hers, too.

“Sasha,” Hawk starts. “I’d like to give you a brief checkup. See how you’re doing one day out of my care.”

“What, do you think Blade doesn’t know how to take care of me?” Sasha practically spits, though she tries to play it off as though she’s joking.

“Of course not. But I haven’t taken any vitals in almost twenty-four hours. I just want to make sure they’re still in a healthy range. I know you’re feeling better.” Hawk’s tone turns serious, and I realize he wasn’t merely making an excuse. “But it’s important to still monitor things for a bit. Make sure your heart rate doesn’t spike, things like that.”

Sasha seems to pick up on Hawk’s sincerity because she turns back to Maggie and tells her she’ll return as soon as she can. With a nod and a smile, Maggie allows her to walk back to the room where she stayed prior to last night when I got to hold her in my arms… In my bed.

I’d love to move into her apartment with her, or even get a new apartment somewhere. There are some just up the road from the garage. We could rent one of those. I want to live with her, to be with her always.

“You can have a seat on the table,” Hawk instructs.

The hospital bed she’s been sleeping on has been stripped of all of its linens. In place of them is a single, thin strip of paper like you would find in a doctor’s office.

Hawk retrieves some of his tools before approaching her. First, he listens to her heart. He listens for quite a while, and I immediately want to ask him if anything is wrong. But I don’t. I know he’ll tell me if there is something to be concerned about.

He checks her reflexes and muscle strength. The muscles in her hands and arms are still a little weak.

“I would suggest that you get yourself some tiny hand weights. One or two-pounders should do fine. Also, some stress balls that you can squeeze to build up your hand muscles.”

Sasha fights to keep from rolling her eyes at Hawk’s assessment. I can see her struggling to restrain herself.

“Your legs seem to be fine, little to no muscle weakness there.”

Hawk and Sasha stare at one another intently. Hawk telling her that she’s still not 100 percent healthy and Sasha telling Hawk she couldn’t give two shits about it.

“My recommendation is daily physical therapy for the next two weeks. Then we can talk about you resuming normal activities.”

“You mean like working?” Sasha can’t get the question out fast enough.

“Yes. Like working. You’ll need to make a significant improvement between now and then, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t. You seem like you want to get back tonormalas soon as possible.”

Hawk’s attention moves from her to me.

“I want to check her progress in a week, minimum.”

He looks back at Sasha.

“As long as you’re making good progress, I can sign off on you going back to work.”

“You hear that, Blade?” Sasha pops her eyebrow, making sure I heard that Hawk will give her permission to go back to work.

She still has to get through me. I don’t care if she thinks that Hawk’s professional opinion holds more weight than mine. I pierce her with a stare I reserve for mayhem. Instantly, her face drops to one I don’t ever want to see again. Fixing my gaze, I speak again.

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