19.
A JAX
Even though I’d already gone upstairs and removed the note, Sandi knew that something was wrong the second she woke up because I wasn’t in bed snoring beside her. However, she handled the change like a champ and came downstairs dressed and ready for work and made a beeline for the coffee pot, ignoring everyone in her wake.
I gave her a minute to fix a cup and take a few sips before I walked up behind her, wrapped my arms around her waist, and propped my chin on her shoulder.
“If you need some alone time before work, you’re probably gonna have to go back upstairs, but with that being said, I’m going to have to go upstairs myself to pack my bag.”
“Something happened.”
“Yeah.”
After a few tense seconds, she surprised me when she asked, “What happens now?”
“We’ve moved the timeline up a few days. Abigail and the kids are already gone. They rode with Fish and a few of the guys who will drop the kids off with some friends in Tenillo before they play the shell game with Abigail as the prize and zigzag their way over to DC for the hearing. Dante will get the kids from Tenillo when he and Jolie are finished in New Orleans. I’ll meet up with the guys on the road and take my turn escorting Abigail and then stay with her through the trial. Roux is going to stay in the apartment with you and keep an eye on things for me.”
“You’re not going to ask me to disappear somewhere safer?”
“I would love to ask you to do that, but I have a feeling I know what the answer would be.”
“Will this happen often?”
“I’ll try my hardest to make sure it doesn’t, but there are no guarantees.”
“What will you do to make sure?” Sandi asked before she took another sip of her coffee.
As she leaned her head back to rest on my shoulder, I answered, “I won’t bring my work home with me ever again.”
“If there’s a case like Abigail’s, you damn well better,” Sandi said, almost angrily.
“Okay. Now that I know your opinion on the matter, if a case like this one comes up, I will communicate the dangers with you and then make a decision.”
“That’s much better,” Sandi said calmly. “Am I going to be in danger if I stay here?”
I sighed and thought about my answer. I’d been weighing the pros and cons of letting Sandi stay here and live a regular life, and worried that whoever had sent those men to my address would just send more. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a perfect solution. I didn’t know that there would ever be one other than locking her in a tower with a moat of alligators swimming in nuclear waste and surrounded by armed sentries.
Although that sounded perfectly reasonable to me, I didn’t have access to a tower and nuclear waste was frowned upon and hard to come by. The gators were plentiful, though. I’d seen that for myself an hour ago when I went to give some of them a snack.
I was honest with Sandi and said, “Other than locking you away somewhere, I can’t think of a way to keep you completely safe.”
“I’d be in danger even if you could,” Sandi assured me.
“What makes you say that?”
“If you fence me in, I’m likely to get snippy. You and I both know that can cause things to devolve quickly, even around people who are generally calm and put together.”
I burst out laughing and kissed her temple before I asked, “Isn’t that the truth?”
“Other than locking me away, what ideas have you floated?”
“I can have you and Roux bounce hotels while I’m gone or even have you stay with friends around town. The problem with that is you'll end up even more exposed. If you’re here, this place is easy to protect, so there’s that angle too.”
“This is my home now, and if there’s a way I can stay in it, that’s what I’d like to do. If you figure out something safer or this becomes more unsafe, then we can try another tactic.”
“How do you feel about handguns, Ratched?”
“I feel that they’re the last line of defense.”
“Do you know how to use one?”
“Point and shoot?”
“It’s a little more nuanced than that, but you’ve got the basics. As much as I’d love to be the one to take you to the range for a lesson, I’ll have to leave that to Roux and whoever else I can get to stay here.”
“You’re bringing in more men to watch me?”
“I don’t know that I have any other choice.”
Sandi sighed before she said, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I said okay.”
“That’s it?”
“Do you want me to argue?”
“Absolutely not, but this went a lot easier than I thought it would.”
Sandi hummed before she said, “I like to keep you on your toes.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” I admitted.
“I might miss you a little.”
I chuckled before I said, “I might miss you a little too.”
“But it’s for the greater good, so I can probably muddle through.”
“I’ll try to do the same.”
“But you’ll keep in contact as much as you can, right?”
“Of course. And you’ll listen to the guys if they ask you to do something?”
“Of course.” When I laughed, she said, “I will!”
“We’ll see how that works out. I’ve gotta go pack, sweetheart. I’ll be gone before you get home from work.”
“Love you.”
“I love you too. Thanks for being so understanding.”
“Do I have any other choice?”
“You could be a raging bitch about it, but it wouldn’t change what I’ve got to do.”
“Exactly.”
“You know what?”
“The odds are high that every adult hand you shake has touched a dick within the last twenty-four hours.”
I burst out laughing and said, “That’s a disturbing thought, but that’s not what I was going to say.”
“What were you going to say?”
“Getting shot that night was the best thing that’s ever happened to me because it brought me to you.”
“Let’s try not to do that again, okay?”
“I’ll try my hardest.”
“I guess that’s all I can ask,” Sandi said before she put her mug on the counter and turned around. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me tightly before she leaned back to look into my eyes. She gave me a sweet kiss and then murmured against my lips, “Come back to me, Eric.”
“I promise that I will.”
“If you don’t, I’ll track you down, drag you back, and cuff you to the bed again.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Sandi rolled her eyes and gave me one more kiss before she said, “I’ve gotta get my day started, sweetheart, and so do you.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
◆◆◆
SANDI
“You said that you injured your foot while you were cleaning the house?”
“Yes.My toe.”
“Okay. You also complained of rectal pain?”
“I fell.”
“When you hurt your foot?”
“Yes. I fell onto the coffee table and something happened.”
“Something?”
“There was a bowl of fruit on the table that I fell onto when I hurt my toe.” I could see where this was going and tried my hardest to keep my expression blank. My suspicions were proven correct when he continued, “I accidentally fell on the banana, and it went inside me but came right back out.”
“Okay.That’s good.”
“But then I fell again.”
“Oh.” I looked at the tablet in my hand and bit the inside of my cheek as I took a deep breath in through my nose and then exhaled slowly. I couldn’t look up again because I knew I’d laugh if I did, which would make the situation so much worse. When I was able to control myself, I asked, “Sir, when you fell the second time, did something . . . Did you happen to encounter . . . anything else that may have . . . stopped your fall?”
When the patient didn’t answer, I looked up and found him staring at the ceiling tiles. He took a deep breath and then looked at me before he answered. “Grapes.”
“Grapes?”
“They were plastic, but they looked real.”
“Just one or two?”
“Um . . . no. More than that. They were together on a stem. You know what I’m talking about, right? They were in a bowl on the table with some other fake fruit.”
“Hold on a second. You said they were on a stem. They’re not anymore?”
Cheryl cleared her throat and then coughed before she turned around and used her key to open the supply cabinet, not because she needed anything other than a minute to compose herself.
“No.”
“How did they . . . Did you remove them before you . . . um . . . fell?”
“No.”
“How do you know they’re not still on the stem?” I asked.
“Because once I realized what had happened, I managed to turn off the vacuum cleaner and . . .”
The man paused, and Cheryl sniffed before she cleared her throat again and then turned around and asked, “The vacuum cleaner came off of your penis when you hit the switch?”
“Not exactly. I guess when it accidentally pulled my penis into the hose, it made it get . . . bigger.”
“Mmhmm,” I hummed before I bit my lip again.
“I turned off the power, and the vacuum stopped, but it was still in there.”
“Your penis.”
“Right.”
“Okay.”
“Since I couldn’t get the hose off, I decided to focus on the grapes.” I nodded in agreement, and the man continued, “I yanked on the stem and pulled them out.”
Cheryl asked, “You yanked on it?”
“Yeah. I thought it would help if I pulled really hard, like when you’re pulling the string to start a lawnmower or something.”
I coughed and blinked a few times when my eyes started to tear up before I said, “Okay.”
“Well, while I was focused on the grapes, I guess my penis deflated and the hose fell off.”
“And that’s how you hurt your toe?”
“No. I hurt my toe while I was kicking the vacuum cleaner, trying to get it to turn off.”
I looked down at the toe and winced when I saw that it was already swollen and purple. My guess was that it was most likely broken and probably hurt very badly. However, I had just seen this man’s penis that was fairly beaten up from the suction of the vacuum cleaner hose that attacked it while he happened to be cleaning house in the nude and wondered which hurt worse.
Until he said, “But then, I realized that some of the grapes had come off the stem.”
“And they fell to the ground?” I asked hopefully.
“No, they were still in there.”
“Okay. So, we need to get some images and find out the exact location of those grapes,” I said cheerfully. “Is there a possibility that they might see . . . anything else that you may have encountered in your fall?”
“A plastic apple.”
“Of course,” I said before I bit my lip so hard I could taste blood. “So, the apple is still in there?”
“Yes. I tried to get it out with the vacuum, but that didn’t work.”
“Did you happen to turn on the vacuum when you were using it to search for the apple?”
“Yes, but it hurt so badly that I had to turn it off.”
“Okay. What happened to your eye?” I asked. “Did you hurt it when you fell? Did you bump your head?”
“No. I was in the bathroom trying to go, you know, to get the apple and grapes out, when I suddenly got this horrible pain in my eye.”
“It looks like you just ruptured a blood vessel, but I know that can be painful. We’ll have the doctor look at that after your scan.”
“Is there any way you can just give me something to make it easier for me to go to the bathroom so we can avoid all the scans and doctors?”
“No, sir. The scans are absolutely necessary at this point.”
“Will it take very long? I’m in my mother-in-law’s car, and I’ve got to pick her and my wife up in about an hour.”
“You should probably call and let them know that they’ll need to find another ride.”
“I need to go home and finish cleaning before they get there.”
“Sir, it’s dangerous to have a foreign object . . . objects . . . floating around in your body, so it’s imperative that you let us take care of that.”
“But when she sees the state of the living room, she’s probably going to freak out.”
“She might, so if I were you, I’d fill her in with however much you’re comfortable telling her when you let her know that you can’t make it to pick them up.”
“Okay,” the man said sadly. “I’ll call her.”
“I’m going to step out and get those orders in for the testing,” I said as I walked toward the door. “Just sit tight, and someone will be with you shortly.”
I walked out into the hallway with Cheryl close on my heels. We made it to the nurses’ station before she asked, “Wanna go to lunch with me?”
“Sure. What sounds good?”
“There’s a smoothie place that just opened down the street that I’ve been dying to try.”
“Sure,” I choked out. I cleared my throat and asked, “Did you want to ask him the brand of that vacuum? The suction on that thing must have been out of this world.”
“My guess is that the mother-in-law probably has one of those classic old school vacuums if she’s still decorating with plastic fruit.”
“You’re probably right,” I said as I looked at the digital board to make sure my notes had updated regarding Mr. Hoover the Fruit Guy to alert the doctor that he was ready to be seen and then glanced out into the waiting room and smiled at Roux. The poor guy had been sitting there for almost five hours now and had to be bored out of his mind. I had tried to convince him that I’d be okay at work without him since we had our own security team. I’d even promised that I wouldn’t leave the hospital until he showed up to escort me out, but he refused. I glanced over at Cheryl and said, “A friend of mine will be coming to lunch with us, if you don’t mind.”
“The one that’s been assessing every person that walks through the doors as if he’s waiting on a crazed gunman to appear?”
“That’s the one.”
“Girl, you’ve gotta tell me what’s going on.”
“Nothing too outrageous.”
“It has to be at least a little outrageous if you require a guard.”
“It’s because of my boyfriend’s job.”
“Oh. Well, what does he do?”
“He has the ability to piss people off even when he’s not trying.”
“You’re dating my ex-husband?” Cheryl asked.
I burst out laughing and shook my head before I explained, “He’s irritated someone so badly this time that he’s afraid that they might come after me.”
“If they do and your friend can’t hold them off, we can give our patient a laxative, bend him over, and let him fire off plastic grapes at the bad guy.”
I was about to respond when another nurse walked by and said, “I should eat some fruit, or I’m going to be the one who needs a laxative. Hey! Have you heard about that new smoothie place that opened up down the street?”
For the first time in my life, I could finally say that I loved my job.
Now, if the man I loved could just hurry safely home, all my dreams would come true.
◆◆◆
“How is your trip going so far?”
“Well, it’s much better than the first trip. It’s a lot easier to travel without the little ones, that’s for sure,” Ajax said as he opened a door and walked into a generic hotel room where he’d be spending the night.
“I took road trips with my boys when they were small, and let me say, it’s not something I want to do again. How is Abigail holding up?”
The phone jostled before he propped it up against something so I could see him sitting at a table. “A lot better than I thought she would be. We’ve been taking turns riding while one of us drives the truck, and the times I’ve been with her, she’s been nervous but chipper. She misses her kids, and she’s really bummed about the breastfeeding thing, but she gets it.”
“That’s a big deal, but she was preparing for the possibility that she wouldn’t be able to continue,” I told him as I dished out a bowl of chicken and dumplings for Roux and then another for myself. I slid the bowl across the counter, and Roux nodded his thanks before he took a bite and then moaned at the flavor.
I smiled at him as Ajax said, “Yeah, I didn’t know that was why she was occasionally feeding the baby formula.”
“It’s better to change them over gradually if you can.”
“She’s still using the pump, and one of the guys bought her a small battery-powered freezer, so she’s working up quite a stock, I guess. I knew parenthood was a lot of work, but I never even considered what it meant to be the food source as well as the caretaker too.”
“Most men don’t, especially if they don’t have kids of their own.”
“So, tell me about your day.”
“We had a lot of the usual sniffles, fevers, stomach upsets, a couple of job injuries. One of those was pretty gnarly. A guy nailed his hand to a board and then used his circular saw to cut the piece off and drove himself to the emergency room.”
“Oh, hell no.”
“Yep. He was more pissed about the mess he’d have to clean up back at his shop than anything else.”
“Priorities, am I right?” When I laughed, he said, “I like your emergency room stories. There’s always a wild one.”
“The guy with the nail in his hand wasn’t even the craziest.”
“That’s pretty fucking crazy. Hold on a sec, okay?”
“Sure,” I said right before he disappeared from the screen. I heard water running and then he was back with his hands full. I smiled when I realized what he was holding. “Are you having dinner?”
“I am. What are you feeding Roux? It better not be anything too good. He’s already threatened to steal you away from me. I’m afraid that if he eats too much of your cooking, he’ll try to make good on the threat and I’ll end up having to kill him.”
“Nobody is going to steal me away. You’re stuck with me.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
“What are you doing right now?” I asked, even though I already knew.
“I’m cutting up an apple that I bought at the convenience store on the corner. I’m so fucking sick of fast food that even my body is starting to rebel. I needed something fresh.”
“An apple, huh?” I asked with a grin. Ajax nodded and then popped a chunk into his mouth. I gave him a few seconds to chew before I said, “We had a man come into the ER this afternoon with a plastic apple stuck in his ass.”
Ajax inhaled and then started coughing at the same time Roux choked on the bite he’d just taken. I laughed as I listened to the men trying not to choke to death and laughed even harder as Ajax cursed me between coughing fits. By the time he could talk again, I had tears running down my cheeks.
“That was bullshit, Atilla. Fucking bullshit! I really wanted that apple.”
“You can still eat it. It’s not like that’s the one that was up his ass.”
“Just . . . Fuck no.” Ajax picked the half of his apple up that he hadn’t sliced into yet and stared at in horror. He looked at the screen and said, “Let’s not talk about your job while we’re eating from now on, okay?”
“Okay.”
I fished out a dumpling and took a bite while Ajax moved stuff around on the table in front of him. I almost spit out my food when I saw that he had a cup full of grapes and had to cover my mouth to keep the food in when he popped one into his mouth.
“What are you laughing about now, Ratched?” I shook my head rapidly, and he scowled at me before he slid the grapes aside and picked up a granola bar. “Can I eat this without you losing your shit? Can I? Because every time you even crack a smile while I’m eating from now on, I’m going to assume that you’ve heard about someone sticking whatever I’m eating up their ass at some point during your nursing career.”
“Granola bars are safe.”
“Thank goodness, because I’m fucking starving.”
“You’re getting hangry.”
“You’ve got a mean streak a mile wide, Attila, and I’m apparently a glutton for punishment because I find that extremely sexy.”
“That tells me that you’re not the brightest bulb on the string, but you’re cute, so I’ll let it pass.”
“Good, because I love you and I’m not letting you go. Make sure Roux understands that. It might save his life.”
“I love you, too, and believe me, Roux doesn’t have a chance. I’ve put a lot of work in with you, Ajax, while managing to not give in to my baser instincts and poison your food or smother you with a pillow, so I guess you’re stuck with me.”
“It’s still early in the relationship,” Ajax said with a shrug. “But now that I know how you plan to kill me, I might have to start behaving better.”
“It won’t last. You’ll piss me off sooner or later, and then we’ll get right back to it.”
“It probably won’t, but I do love to argue with you.”
“Arguing with you has become one of my favorite pastimes.”