Twenty-Four
Good God, everythinghurts. I tried to straighten myself in the bed, but it brought on a wave of pain and nausea that I wasn’t expecting. A cold cloth was on my head, and a warm hand was on my arm, the two sensations warring with my muddled brain.
“You’re okay, baby,” Brady whispered, his other hand coming down on the wet cloth on my head. “Just take it slow and don’t try to move too quickly.”
“What happened?” I muttered with a mouth full of cotton.
“You don’t remember?” he asked, his voice nonjudgmental and comforting.
I rocked my head on the pillow a couple of times and sorted through the gauzy haze in my brain, pushing aside the headache to sort through the last few hours of my life. My breath hitched, and I moaned. “Oh, God, it was Darla.”
My eyes came open and stared directly into Brady’s ice blue ones. Those eyes told me he was scared, and I instantly felt terrible for making him feel that way. My hand came up to cup his cheek, his beard prickly against my palm. “I’m sorry,” I said, emotion clogging my throat. “I’m sorry. I should have been smarter.”
He tenderly grasped my hand against his face. “Shh, it’s over now. I’m going to take care of you. This wasn’t your fault, cupcake. Let me call Officer Stevens in before you tell me what happened. He’s been waiting for you to wake up so he could talk to you.”
“I need a drink.” My mouth was so dry and sticky that I was afraid I’d never swallow again.
He held the cup and straw for me while I drank thirstily, finally pulling it back from my lips. “Not too much at a time, or you’ll get sick,” he said with a smile. “Let me get Officer Stevens.”
He jogged out of the room, and I tried to sort out what happened to make sure I told him everything in the right order. It wasn’t going to be easy when my mind was so scattered, and my body hurt so badly. My shoulder was on fire, and my neck felt like someone hit it with a baseball bat. Add to that the pain in my heart when faced with Brady, knowing he was going to leave me sooner rather than later, and a tear ran down my face before I could stop it.
He returned at that moment, and his frantic gaze landed on mine, zeroing in on the tears immediately. “Hey, it’s okay,” he promised, wiping the tear with the cloth from my forehead. “God, I love you so much, cupcake. My heart has been on pause in my chest for the last three hours since I found you.” His hand was in his hair, and I swallowed down the sob bubbling up in my throat.
More tears fell, and I wasn’t able to say what I wanted to say, so I just bit my lip to keep it from trembling while he wiped the tears.
“Officer Stevens will be right in. Take a few deep breaths, sweetheart. I know you’re out of sorts.”
“Why does my shoulder feel like it’s on fire?” I asked, trying to look at it, but my head hurt, and I got dizzy if I moved my eyes that way.
“You had a wound there that the doctors had to close in surgery. The doctor said it was to the fascia and tissue, but no other damage. He was able to close it up on the inside and then close the incision on the outside. He said you’d have a small scar, but he did the best he could to make it less noticeable.”
“Surgery?” I asked, confused. “How did I end up with a wound on my shoulder?”
“The doctors said it was a stab wound,” he said, his lips in a thin line.
“Haylee, man, it’s good to see you awake,” Jack said from the doorway as he walked into the room.
I waved and smiled the best I could. “Hi,” I said weakly. “I didn’t mean to hold you up.”
“It’s no problem, Haylee. I wanted to touch base with you because some of the things you told Brady before they brought you in were concerning.”
I nodded, which I instantly regretted. My brain bounced around inside my skull, and I put my hand to my head to make it stop. “It was Darla,” I managed to say. “She was waiting for me.”