CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The automatic doors of the Marymount Baptist Hospital of Belgrave, Florida flew open and Grant was met by a gaggle of reporters and photographers hanging out in the lobby as microphones were shoved in his face and camera lights were flicking in his eyes.
A nurse was waiting for him. “This way, Chief,” she said promptly as they began hurrying down the hall. The reporters were following them.
“Why are they allowed in here?” Grant asked her as they hurried.
“It’s a public space. They aren’t allowed beyond these doors, however,” she said as they hurried toward the inner doors.
But as they were hurrying, the press didn’t hesitate to lob questions their way.
“Chief, why would you here to check on a consultant that called you and your department incompetent?”
“She has nothing but contempt for you.”
“How did you feel when she questioned your ability to run the police department, sir? Were you angry with her, sir?”
“Did you have something to do with her car accident, Chief?”
Grant gave a chilling look to the reporter that asked that ridiculous question as the nurse pressed the big button on the side of the wall and the double doors opened. He was able to escape any further ridiculousness. He hurried to Marti’s bedside.
Fearing that it was going to be a repeat of his sister’s Dana’s plight in the hospital, he hesitated before walking into her room. He didn’t know what he was going to see. But when he finally got up the strength to walk on in, he was relieved to see that Marti wasn’t even in bed. She had just taken off her hospital gown and was about to put on her bra when Grant walked in without bothering to knock. When the nurse, who was behind him, saw the state of her patient, she tried to block Grant. But Grant hurried around her and rushed to Marti. As soon as Marti saw him, too, she dropped her bra and fell into his opened arms.
The nurse, stunned by what she was seeing between their police chief and the police consultant, quickly realized more was at work here than a professional relationship. She discreetly backed out of the room and closed the door.
Grant, so relieved and delighted that he was near tears, pulled back and looked Marti squarely in the eyes. “Were you hurt anywhere?”
“No, thank God. I wasn’t harmed at all. But the teenager in the car that hit me was. She’ll survive, but the doctor said she was banged up pretty badly.” Then she looked at Grant. “It wasn’t an accident.”
“You think that teenager hit you on purpose?”
“Not her. But whoever was driving the truck.”
Grant was confused. “What truck?”
“A big four-door pickup truck rammed me from behind and tried to PIT me, but I was able to escape him. Until I got in that intersection and had to slam on brakes. That’s when he hit me again. That’s when I lost control.”
“And then he took off?”
She nodded. “From what I’ve been told, yes. He took off.”
Grant pulled her in his arms again. If he found out it was any of his guys involved, he was going to kill them before he fired them. He was just that angry.
“What if,” she started to say but stopped.
Grant pulled back from her again. “What if what?”
“When you moved me into your house, you said I would be safer there because you didn’t want some rogue cop harassing me. Was that really what you were concerned about?”
“A part of it, yes.”
“What was the other part?”
“I have guys on the force who don’t want the band dismantled. You could dismantle the band. They may go to great lengths to keep the band together. That’s the other part. But mainly I was worried about the harassment more than anything else.”
“But maybe they decided to do more than harass me.”
“Maybe. I doubt it, but we’ll see,” he said, and held her again.
She felt warm and protected in his arms. “They wanted to keep me overnight and run all kinds of tests,” she said as he held her, “but I told them I was fine. I told them I’m not staying overnight in any hospital.”
When Grant heard that, he pulled back from her. “They want to run tests?”
“Yes. But I told them I’m not going for that.”
“Oh yes you are,” Grant said firmly. “They’ll run every test they need to run to make certain you’re okay. What’s wrong with you?” He seemed angry. “You can have internal injuries you don’t even know about and you don’t wanna find out if you do or not? To hell with that!”
“But I hate hospitals, Grant.”
“Tough. Put back on that gown.”
“Grant!”
“I’m not playing with you, Markita. Put it on!”
“There you go again,” Marti said, “bossing me around.”
But Grant gave her a look that made debating the issue a nonstarter. He was not backing down.
A part of her knew he was right. She could have internal injuries. But she hated hospitals!
But when she didn’t move fast enough for him, Grant grabbed that hospital gown and put it back on her himself. Then he informed the staff that she wasn’t going anywhere. That she was ready to take any test they wanted to give to her, and he wanted them to give her all they had. He would foot the bill.
The charge nurse, pleased by this new development, notified the doctor.