Page 2 of Needing More
Opening her eyes, she winced at the pain the bright light caused.
"Sapphire! Sapphire, can you hear me?!"
"Joel, calm down. You're going to scare the hell out of her yelling at her like that."
Sapphire couldn't focus her eyes. The pain in her head was too much. The shapes around her were moving too much, everything was too much.
"Sir please, I need you two to step back and-"
"And fucking what? We're her-"
"I want to hear this," another voice said dryly.
"Gentlemen, please. Only one family member can stay with her at this time and…and I need you to choose out of the three of you who that will be."
There was a moment of silence and she heard the low sound of voices talking—discussing.
"You stay here. Look after her. We'll be back."
She wanted to hold onto the voices a little longer to say something, but all she could see was the blurry whiteness of everything surrounding her. Too weak to hold on any longer, Sapphire closed her eyes.
A warm hand slipped into hers and the tight feeling in her chest eased just a little as she let out a small sigh.
The warm grip around her hand was the first thing she felt when the voice came to her ear. Warm puffs of air tickled her ear as she listened to the deep words.
"The sheriff is on his way up. He is going to ask you some questions about what happened." The deep voice purred into her ear.
Who was speaking? Whathappened? What did he mean? Whatdidhappen?
But the voice continued talking. "Whatever you do, just don’t say who it was. Don't give any details. For Joel and Hayden's sake, don’t say anything."
Frowning, Sapphire opened her eyes just a crack. The sharp pain was immediate, but not as bad when she tried to let in as little light as possible.
The sound of a click—a door opening maybe—sounded to her left as she struggled against the blurry painful light.
Blinking, Sapphire stared down at her lap as the sea foam green sheet covering her came into focus. Movement from her left caught her attention and she looked up squinting at the familiar figure of Sheriff Owens and his brother coming into the room.
"Miss Waters?" The Sheriff's golden eyes locked onto her, assessing her as she took in everything around her. His eyes softened at her confusion. "I just wanted to know if you are up to answering some questions about what happened?"
For a second his words hung in the air as she slowly looked at him and his brother and then at the third man standing to the right of her bed. With his black hair loose around his face, Vic, the third and reclusive Heathen, stood giving her an unreadable look.
Sapphire inhaled sharply at the sudden memories. She had been shot! Shot by that same biker from the night at the motel.
Frantically she began to look at herself. Pulling at the thin cotton hospital gown.
"Sapphire," Vic said, stepping closer to her bed. "It's fine. You're fine, you weren't hit, just grazed on your shoulder and you got a small concussion when Finn yanked you down."
Finn! Memories of Finn's scream amongst the sounds of shattering glass replayed through her head. Cautiously, Sapphire lifted a hand to her head.
"You can see she's just now waking up," Vic growled at the officers. "Why can't you come back later?"
"You know why we can't," the deputy replied, turning to face Vic head-on. Both men were unreasonably tall.
Even standing toe to toe against the officer dressed in all his bulky gear, Vic was intimidating. His broad shoulders pressed into the material of his shirt accentuating the bulging striations of muscles in his arms. His lean tapered waist leading down to his long legs spoke of the grueling hours he put into the farm.
The sheriff ignored the two men facing off and kept his glittering gold eyes trained on her. "Did you see the man who shot at you and Finn?"
Yes, she saw him, but she remembered the voice in her ear—Vic's voice. She wanted to look at him but knew that would be too obvious. Looking away from the sheriff's unnaturally bright eyes, she stared at the IV tubing leading underneath the white sticker patch in her hand and shook her head.
