Page 120 of Mother Parker
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ve had worse.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t hit an artery, or you wouldn’t be saying that,” the doctor said and lowered his hands.
I didn’t say anything to that. There was nothingtosay. I couldn’t tell him he didn’t know what he was talking about because he did. But I’d been through worse. So much worse.
In fact, I was going through worse right now. Hwan hadn’t called, he hadn’t chased after me, he hadn’t even sent a message to ask me if I was okay. Did that mean he didn’t care about me?
Was getting shot a blessing in disguise, keeping me away from someone who didn’t feel the same way?
“Now, you need to take it slow for the next couple of weeks until the skin bonds again and don’t shower for at least forty-eight hours to avoid an infection. I’ll prescribe some painkillers—”
“I don’t need them,” I grumbled and turned to Maddox. “Anything?”
He shook his head. Ash and Wyatt were supposed to find the dickhead that shot me but nothing. He’d vanished into thin air.
No one seemed to have seen anything, and naturally, a lot of the seedy crowd hanging out at the Outpost had vanished before the police and the ambulance got there.
I needed to know who it was. I needed to find out who was behind it. I needed to know it was an accident and nothing more. Because if it wasn’t then…Hwan might also be in danger.
“Fuck!” I groaned at the mere thought of my Hwan, my boba, getting in harm’s way.
I didn’t care if he felt the same way about me or if he wasn’t there yet. I couldn’t imagine a world where he wasn’t free to smile as and when he pleased.
“Stitches?” Autumn rushed to ask.
“No. Hwan,” I mumbled.
Autumn rubbed her hand on my back, barely avoiding my stitches, and squeezed my hand.
“He’ll take the painkillers.”
The doctor nodded and wrote something on his clipboard.
“Great. I’ll go ahead and issue the prescription and get your discharge papers going,” he said and left without further fanfare.
“Any word? Anything?” I asked Maddox again.
He shook his head and started to say something when his phone rang.
“Shepherd,” he answered it.
You could take the man out of the SEALs, but you couldn’t take the SEAL out of the man.
“I think you’ll want to take this,” he said, offering me the phone.
I stared at it and Maddox for a moment before I took it.
“This is Parker,” I said.
“Mr. Parker, hi. I…erm…it’s Elliot.” The meek hushed voice of the part-time assistant at the café came through, and my heart took a dive.
“Elliot, what is it?” I asked.
I’d have time for niceties later.
“Erm, Mr. Parker, Hwan…”
“Hwan, what? What about Hwan? What happened?” I raised my voice, and the boy stayed quiet on the other end of the line.
