Page 62 of Wyoming Bodyguard
Even if what they found changed her life forever.
Chapter 23
Sniffing back tears, Lily took a step away from Madden and wiped her eyes. “What happened to my dad?”
Madden skimmed his knuckles up and down her arms. “I’m not sure, but I guess they tried to call you and it went to voicemail, so they called me. Deputy Silver said the guard contacted her. Where’s your phone?”
She patted her pants pocket until she found it then yanked the cell phone out with a shaking hand. “It’s dead. I didn’t have my charger last night. And I’m still wearing yesterday’s clothes.” Panic struck her mute. Her chest tightened and breaths came out in sharp gasps.
No. She couldn’t fall apart. Not again.
As if sensing her spiral, Madden flattened his palms against her jawline and turned his gaze on hers. “Everything’s going to be all right. We’re going to go inside, and you’ll get changed. Grab anything you need, and I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
She nodded along with his words, grateful for his presence. “Okay.”
Madden trailed his hand to rest at her back and steered her toward the door. “Reid, we’ve got to go. Can you handle the horses?”
“Yep. I’ve got it.”
“Does he know how to take care of horses?” She didn’t know much about Reid except he wasn’t from Cloud Valley, and he’d served in the military with Madden. She couldn’t waste time, but also couldn’t leave her animals hungry.
“He grew up on a farm in Indiana,” Madden said. “Trust me. He knows his way around a barn. Now let’s get you ready.”
Not needing any more reassurances, she sprinted into the house and got ready in record time. Madden waited for her by the front door as she threw her hair into a ponytail and jogged to his truck. By the time she clicked her seat belt into place, the ranch was in the rearview mirror.
Madden captured her hand and didn’t let go until he’d parked in the full lot outside the county hospital.
She was out of the truck before he’d shut off the engine. Time ticked by as if in a strange dimension—excruciatingly slow but also at lightning speed. Her heart was in her throat as she approached the doors to the waiting room. They whooshed open, and she stepped inside. The all too familiar punch of disinfectant smacked her in the face and turned her stomach.
Madden stayed a step behind her, but she couldn’t focus on him. She had to get to her dad before it was too late.
Finding his room, she ignored the guard stationed where he’d been the day before and skidded inside, but the room was empty. She spun in a circle, fear hitching high in her throat and stealing her breath. “Where is he?”
“Let’s find someone to speak with.” Madden clutched his cowboy hat in his hands and glanced into the hallway.
Lily couldn’t stand around and wait for a nurse or doctor to pass by. She hurried back the way she’d come and stopped in front of the nurses’ station.
A young woman with black-framed glasses, short brown hair and blue scrubs sat behind the large U-shaped desk. She flashed a smile. “Hello, can I help you?”
“Yes. I’m Lily Tremont. I received word my father, Kevin Tremont, wasn’t doing well. I went to his room but he’s not there.” Her voice cracked as she struggled to hold herself together. The possibility that her father may not survive had lived in the back of her mind since the moment he’d been shot, but now that possibility was more real than ever.
Sympathy pushed down the nurse’s full lips. Staring at her computer monitor, she worked her fingers over the keyboard.
Each second that ticked by increased Lily’s anxiety. She tapped the tip of her finger against the smooth desk, urging the woman to hurry up with her mind.
Madden stood behind her, near enough to touch her but he kept one hand on his hat and the other shoved in his jeans pocket.
“Okay,” the nurse said. “Looks like your father is in surgery. He had some complications. That’s as much as I can tell you, but if you take a seat in the waiting room, I’ll let his doctors know where to find you as soon as they’re available.”
Frustration fisted her hands, and she bit back a growl. As much as she wanted to scream and stomp her foot until she got more answers, throwing a tantrum wouldn’t do anything except make her look ridiculous. “Thank you.”
Madden gently touched her back, prompting her in the direction of the waiting room.
She found a cluster of unoccupied chairs in the corner and sat. God, she hated this place. Hated the memories that attacked her. The smell of burnt coffee and the quiet drone of the news channel from the mounted television added to her increasing anxiety.
“I wish I had more information.” She folded her hands in her lap and stroked her thumb over the skin above her knuckles over and over. “I don’t even know what they’re operating on. It could be his heart, I mean, he’s old and the trauma he experienced had to weaken him even more. Or maybe his lungs? That’s where they operated before. Maybe something went wrong the first time and they had to fix it. Or, oh God, could he have something wrong with his brain? Maybe an aneurysm or a stroke. Something that’s kept him from waking up all this time.”
“Nothing I say will stop you from worrying, and I wish to hell I had answers for you. But I can tell you that your father is getting the medical attention he needs, and the doctors and nurses will fight as hard as they can to save him.”
