Chapter 41
Zane
I motioned for Constance to follow me and launched myself toward Lieutenant Wellbourne. It sucked that I’d have to wait to catch up with Peyton, but I’d been watching the bloody patch on the boss’s side.
“Lieutenant,” I said, getting his attention.
“Hey,” he answered tentatively. “Before you get started, we have to follow protocol when we have a shooting. That’s just the way it is.”
“It’s not that,” I explained as I turned to face Lucas and pointed. “He won’t listen to me, but I think the boss got shot and needs medical attention.”
He twisted around. “Shot?” He jogged over, and the shouting began. “Lucas, what the hell? You had me send the woman to the hospital, and you didn’t mention you got hurt?”
“It’s nothing,” Lucas countered.
Constance and I stayed back and watched.
For a moment it looked touch-and-go, but Wellbourne prevailed and the boss agreed to go to the hospital, saying, “Fifteen minutes and I’m out of there.”
“Thirty minutes minimum,” Wellbourne countered. “And Lucas, if I hear anything from the hospital about a lack of cooperation, I will personally chase you down and arrest your ass.”
The boss scowled.
The lieutenant waved over the idle pair of paramedics. “Get this man to the hospital immediately.”
“Did you see that?” Constance asked.
I nodded. Now that he was standing, the wet patch of blood on Lucas’s side was obvious.
“I’m calling the others,” Constance announced.
“Good plan.” I waved at the lieutenant. “I’ll ride along in the ambulance to make sure he gets there.”
Wellbourne nodded back.
With the aid of a siren and lights, the ambulance made good time on the trip to the hospital.
“It’s no big deal,” Lucas barked as the paramedic tried for the second time to remove his vest.
I took my life in my hands and turned his own words against him. “Boss,” I insisted. “He’s been ordered to take care of you. Let him do his job.” I said it with as much authority as I could muster.
“Smart ass,” Lucas snorted, but he stopped resisting.
After removing the vest, the paramedic took out scissors and cut the boss’s turtleneck off, showing the source of the bleeding.
Lucas had wadded up cloth under his vest and cinched it down tight. Now that the pressure was off, the wound oozed blood.
“You’re a lucky man,” the paramedic said. “This is just a graze.”
“Like I said,” Lucas snorted. “No big deal.”
I watched the medic wipe the blood away several times and prepare a large dressing.
“Hold this tight,” he instructed me while he pulled tape off a spool. “A slightly different angle, this would have hit the liver.”
Lucas winced as I bore down hard on the dressing.
That’s when I noticed what he’d hidden with the turtleneck—bruising on his neck.
I’d put those bruises there when he’d woken me up from the nightmare this morning, and we’d struggled.
“Keep the pressure on.” Then the medic loosened the gurney straps, urged Lucas to lift up, and wound an elastic bandage around him three times and over the bandage.
“What happened here?” the medic asked, touching the bruise on Lucas’s neck.
Lucas answered quickly without even a glance in my direction. “Wrestling with one of my men this morning.”
“You guys should take it easier on each other.”
I looked away. Lucas was strong enough to fight me off and wake me up, but what if it had been Peyton? What if I’d had my hands around her neck? What if I hadn’t woken up and stopped in time?
A pit formed in my stomach. This changed everything. I’d promised to keep Peyton safe, and now it was me I had to keep her safe from. There was only one way to do that. As much as it hurt, I had to be strong and do the right thing by my woman.
Peyton
They unloaded me from the ambulance at the emergency room entrance.
“You can let me go now,” I complained. The gurney’s straps still held me down.
“What do we have?” a young doctor asked as they rolled me toward the door. His name tag read Larson.
Mindy ignored my plea and answered the doctor. “Neck and frontal abdominal lacerations. Head trauma, possible concussion, second one in a week.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m fine.”
Dr. Larson saw me. “Good catch, Mindy.” He shone a penlight in my eyes and tugged my eyelid up. “Secondaries can be tricky. Hopefully, it’s mild.” He turned off the light and moved a finger left and right in front of me. “Follow the motion for me.”
Sick of this, I looked him in the eye. “Hey, I said I’m fine.”
“Sure you are.” He patted my shoulder and turned to a nurse. “Burke, start the paperwork and get her the first available CT slot.”
Mindy slid up the bottom of Zane’s jacket, which was all I had since Lucifer had shredded my top.
“What do we have under these bandages?” Larson asked.
“Clean lateral surface lacerations,” Mindy answered.
“I want to go home.” All I really wanted was Zane.
“How did these happen?” He asked looking at Mindy.
I answered for her. “A maniac.”
Larson nodded. “We’ll deal with those second. Let’s start with the CT.” The doctor then was called to assess another patient.
I’d been cycled through the CAT scan room, had my cuts tended to, and only had to wait on the results of my scan to be able to get out of here.
Dr. Holland, the same woman who’d seen me last time I was here, shifted the curtain aside and walked into my exam area. “The CT won’t take much longer.” She approached and reached for my neck. “May I?”
I nodded and turned my head.
She lifted the bandage to check out the cut on my neck.
I squinted into the overhead light and shivered as the moment Lucifer had threatened to slit my throat almost overwhelmed me.
“Does the light bother you?”
“A little.” I knew it wasn’t a good sign.
“I’ll have them re-bandage this. And as much as you enjoyed your last time here, you really should stop banging your head around just to get to see me,” Dr. Holland joked.
I gave her a wan smile. “It wasn’t my fault this time either.” She lifted the hospital gown they’d put on me to examine my cuts. “How did this happen?”
“The Boyfriend,” were the only words I got out before a coughing fit overcame me.
“Boyfriend, huh?”
Just then, the curtain shifted, and my mood improved a million-fold.
Zane walked in.