43. Lincoln
43
LINCOLN
“If you even think of getting out of that hospital bed, I will tie you to it myself.” Arden’s voice cut through the incessant beeping and other annoying hospital sounds.
I turned on the edge of the bed to give her my most charming smile. “Kinky. I like it.”
“Linc,” she warned. And I should’ve taken that warning because the woman had been on the warpath for the past twenty-four hours. The second a flicker of pain showed in my expression, she was paging nurses. When a doctor showed, she peppered them with questions, listing off things she’d read in articles about abdominal wounds and all but threatening their lives.
“Vicious,” I said, lifting a hand to beckon her over.
She didn’t come. Instead, she crossed her arms in a way that thrust up those perfect breasts and pinned me with a glare.
“The doctor is signing my discharge paperwork right now. I can get up.”
“He said you have to wait for a wheelchair.”
“I don’t need?— ”
“You had surgery,” Arden snapped.
“Barely. They cleaned the wound and stitched me up. That’s it.”
A shadow passed over Arden’s eyes, turning them stormy, and I knew it hadn’t felt like nothing to her. Hell. “Come here.”
She still didn’t move.
“You don’t come here, I’m coming to you, and you really didn’t want me out of this bed.”
Arden let out a soft huff of air and dropped her arms, walking slowly toward me.
The moment she was within arm’s reach, I grabbed her T-shirt—the fucking adorable death metal unicorn one Fallon had brought in the change of clothes—and tugged her between my legs. I took her face in my hands, thumbs stroking the soft skin there. “I’m good. Barely in any pain. The doc told you at least five times that the bullet didn’t hit anything important. No organs or arteries. The stitches will come out in a week. That’s not even a bad gash.”
Arden stared down at me, so much emotion swirling in those captivating eyes. “What if he’s wrong?”
“Baby,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to one cheek, then the other, then her forehead. “You bombarded him with eighty-two million questions. You talked to the surgical nurse, the anesthesiologist, and cornered an orderly. I’m good.”
“I needed to make sure I was getting the full story.”
My mouth curved. “I love you, Vicious.”
“Linc.” My name was a choked-out rasp as if her vocal cords were wrapped around the syllable, not wanting to let it free.
I dropped one hand from Arden’s face and placed it over her heart. “You don’t have to say it. Won’t make it any less true.”
Her eyes closed, squeezing as if in pain. “I’m trying to keep you safe.”
My brows pulled together. “Keep me?—”
“All right, you two lovebirds,” a nurse said as she bustled into the room. “I’ve got your marching orders. The doctor would’ve brought them himself, but I’m just gonna be honest with you and say that he’s scared shitless of this one over here.” She inclined her head toward Arden.
Arden stepped back and out of my grasp, shaking off the pain in her expression. “I wasn’t that bad.”
The nurse arched a brow. “Honey, if he had the choice between you and a bunch of rabid dogs, he’d go with the rabid dogs every time.”
Arden’s jaw dropped, and I struggled not to laugh.
The nurse waved her off as she motioned an orderly in. “It’s a good thing. We need our people to fight for us in the room we aren’t in. That’s you. A fighter.”
Vicious to the bone. In all the best ways.
“Thank you for your help, Bess,” I said as I stood.
Arden moved in as if spotting, and I pinned her with a look. “I’m not going to bite it.”
Bess chuckled. “Precious cargo and all that.”
This would get old quick. I lowered myself into the wheelchair. “I really can walk.”
Bess made a tsking noise. “I’m not afraid to set the fighter on you, Mr. Pierce. You’re going to take it nice and easy for the next week or two.”
I was already twitchy. I wanted a run or a swim. Or better yet, a good fight.
“Good luck with that,” a new voice said, stepping into the room. Cope grinned at me, but I saw the strain around his eyes. “We gotta stop meeting like this.”
“You started it,” I shot back.
“I think you both need to quit giving us all heart attacks,” Sutton said as she moved into the room. “We could all use a nice round of boring.”
“I could be into watching paint dry,” I said. As long as Arden was with me.
Cope chuckled. “Well, you’ll have plenty of time for your new hobby over the next couple of weeks.”
“Week,” I corrected him. “The doctor said I can start light workouts again when the stitches come out. ”
“I’m getting his credentials checked,” Arden muttered.
Cope choked on a laugh. “She’s still terrorizing the staff?”
“I’m pretty sure she made Dr. Mathison cry,” I said as the orderly unlocked my wheelchair’s brakes.
“My sister, the hero,” Cope said.
“I hate you all,” Arden grumbled. “Can we just go home?” Cope didn’t answer right away, and Arden stiffened. “What now? Did something happen? Are the horses okay? Brutus?”
Cope held up a hand. “Nothing like that. It’s just that Mom is in full mom mode, and the entire family is waiting for you.”
Arden stared at Cope for a long moment before squeezing her eyes closed.
Cope patted her on the shoulder. “You almost got shot. I think you’re going to have to deal with a little bit of hovering.”
Arden’s eyes opened again. “When I find this asshole, there’s no one-ball castration for him. He’s losing both.”
Sutton looked back and forth between them. “I think I’m missing something.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” I muttered.