Page 5 of Hell of a Mess
She wasn’t tiny. She might not weigh much, but she wasn’t petite. I’d guess she was about five-six, maybe five-seven. However, he had a point. Even if I didn’t want to listen to him. She was in pain.
“What’s your name?” Locke asked her.
I shot him a warning glare. It hurt her to talk.
When she said nothing, I looked back down at her. The tip of her tongue darted out and wet her dry lips. The side she’d been hit on was slightly cracked, although she didn’t show any sign of it bothering her, but then I doubted that a split lip ranked compared to the way her ribs and wrist felt.
“I…” she replied, but then her eyes fluttered closed.
“What did she say?” Locke asked.
I shook my head. “She didn’t.”
“Ask her.”
“She’s out again. Jesus, stop with the interrogation. You sound like Linc,” I snarled at him.
He shrugged. “Just doing our job. She’s going into your house, you know. Might want to have some idea who’s gonna be looking for her.”
I didn’t care. Whoever it was needed to stay hidden if they wanted to live. Whatever fucker had done this was going to pay. Once I figured out who it was. Any man who would hurt a woman wasn’t worth the oxygen he used.
“Let ’em come looking. They’ll find me,” I replied, wishing like hell I could have a cigarette right now. Something to take the edge off.
“We don’t know what she did,” Locke said hesitantly.
I glared at him. “Does it fucking matter? She’s dressed like a Sunday school teacher. Probably the boring wife of one of the fuckers at Sovereign, who found him getting his kicks at a sex club. That doesn’t give him any right to beat her ass.”
Locke sighed heavily. “Yeah, that was my guess too.”
This was a prime example of why marriage was a mistake. A fucking death sentence for any man. I didn’t care how damn hot a woman was; no man needed to be locked to one of them for the rest of his life. It was why I’d been so damn relieved when Chloe, the mother of my only child, didn’t want to marry me when I knocked her up. She was smart. We’d raised Kye separately just fine.
Although, he’d somehow ended up married with a kid, even after I’d told him all his life that men weren’t meant to be locked down to one cunt. But he was happy, so what the fuck ever.
Two
Her
“Two of her ribs are broken, and her kidney is bruised. Her wrist has a distal radius fracture. I set it properly, and the cast will have to stay on for six weeks. She’ll need physical therapy when it is removed.” He paused. “Here is what concerns me most. We won’t know until she’s awake how much damage it did. But she hit her head hard. I did a CT scan, and there was no brain bleed or skull fracture. Because of her ribs, she will recover best if she stays in this hospital bed for a few days. It can keep her upper body elevated, making it easier for her to breathe. Let’s hope she’s right-handed, or she will require help doing everything—from eating to using the restroom.”
I kept my eyes closed, not alerting those in the room that I was awake. Mostly because I had no idea where I was or how I had gotten here. It sounded as if I was in a hospital, but with who? Why couldn’t I remember? The injuries didn’t sound like theywere mine. I wasn’t in any pain, but I felt heavy. Weighted down and in a bed. So, it had to be me they were discussing. Right? The woozy feeling made it hard to concentrate on what the male voices were saying, but I did my best to focus. Although the more I tried, the less I realized I knew, and panic was creeping in—or trying to at least.
“Damn,” another man muttered. “I hoped we could patch her up and send her on her way.”
A heavy sigh. “No, she needs a week at least before you think of moving her. But even then…” The man hesitated. “I’d hate for her to be released, only to be beaten again. It’s likely she knows who did this to her, as there are other bruises. Older ones. I don’t believe this was the first time.”
“Where?” a third voice asked, and the deep timbre in it made my heart feel fluttery.
Who was that?
I wanted to open my eyes, but I was afraid.
“She’s awake,” the voice I guessed belonged to the doctor said, and then I heard footsteps move closer to me.
Squinting, I tried to open my eyes, but the light was so bright that it was difficult.
“Wait,” he instructed me before the direct beam over my head went dark. “There. That should be better.”
Blinking, I stared up at the older man who was standing over me with kind eyes and concern in his expression. However, he didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever seen. More like a seasoned cowboy.
