Chapter 11 Brady
brADY
The ambulance hasn’t even pulled away from the curb when I’m starting my car and dialing Finn.
“Did you find her?”
I have no patience for his jokes right now. “Partial plate.” I rattle off the information I heard the guard give the responding police officers. “See if you can get anything off traffic cams.”
“What the fuck happened?” Finn’s voice is sharp, jokes forgotten.
My fingers flex hard on the steering wheel. “Ambushed us in the parking lot. They cut her.”
“Shit. Is she okay?”
“Yes.” She has to be. “I don’t think it’s critical.
Make sure one of the rooms upstairs is ready for when we leave the hospital,” I tell him, referring to the small rooms we have on the upper floor of our headquarters.
We don’t use them often, but they are fully equipped for overnight guests in dire circumstances.
“I don’t know if it will be tonight or tomorrow.
Depends on the wound.” My stomach knots.
“What’s the plan?”
“In development.” I end the call and immediately call Luke, filling him in and telling him which hospital Elizabeth is being transported to.
Racing into the first parking space I find, not caring if I get towed, I reach into the duffel in the back seat and swiftly swap my blood-soaked dress shirt for a gray T-shirt.
By the time I stride through the emergency department doors, the adrenaline has burned off, leaving something sharp and exhausted in its place. The woman behind the nurse’s station looks at me suspiciously.
“Elizabeth Gowan? She was just brought in by ambulance.”
“Are you family?” Her fingers are flying over the keyboard.
“Her husband.” I don’t even hesitate. I’m not in the mood to deal with the hospital’s bureaucratic bullshit.
When the nurse glances up, her eyes linger on the dried blood on my jeans, and she gives me a sympathetic smile. “If you’ll take a seat, I’ll let the doctors know you are here.”
“I’m not waiting.”
Her face hardens. “Once they’ve assessed your wife’s condition, they will let you know.”
For a moment, I consider arguing, but she raises a cool eyebrow at me and angles her head at the security guard by the double doors, behind which they are taking care of Elizabeth.
I shove my hand back through my hair and dial my sister’s number.
“What’s going on? Finn says you’re pulling out all the stops on some new case.”
“Hardly. I don’t have time to explain right now, but we have a new client. She’s been stabbed, and I need you to bring me some clothes for her. She’s about your size. Grab one of my spare sets out of the office, too.”
“Not a problem. Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
There’s a pause. “You said she was stabbed, and Finn mentioned an ambush. I just thought, if you were there with her, it meant you had to be…” Her words trail off.
I could explain to Sera that I hadn’t screwed up, but it wouldn’t be the truth. It was my fault Elizabeth got hurt. I shouldn’t have let her get in that elevator.
“Just bring the clothes.”
I pace the waiting room under the security guard’s watchful eyes, and I’m just about to lose my shit when someone shouts at the entrance. The security guard goes to investigate, and the next time someone exits the double doors, I slip through.
Elizabeth is in a small room at the back of the corridor.
Standing in the doorway, I take in her pale face and the monitors beeping beside her.
A nurse is adjusting the IV. When Elizabeth’s eyes blink open, I let out my breath.
She looks groggy, but she’s alive, and her color is better than the last time I saw her.
“See, honey,” the nurse says, hearing my footsteps.
“He’s right here.” She gives me a warm smile.
“Your wife was very lucky. The doctor will be in soon to give you a full report, but she’s going to be fine.
She might be a little out of it. We had to give her a sedative.
” She chuckles. “Your wife is a determined woman and she really didn’t want to get stitches.
” She pats me on the shoulder as she passes and closes the door quietly behind her, leaving Elizabeth and me alone.
I clear my throat, feeling suddenly awkward. “You always this dramatic when you get a scratch?” I glance at the digital screens on the machines next to her. I don’t really know what any of it means, other than her heart is in a stable rhythm. And right now, her heart beating is all I care about.
Yeah, I’m definitely in over my head with this woman. “You’re okay.”
“Define okay,” she grumbles.
I startle, not realizing I’d said the words out loud.
The corners of my lips lift. “So, you tried to fight the doctors?”
“I don’t remember any of that.” Her cheeks flush. “But I really, really don’t like medical stuff.”
Before I can tease her again, the door opens without warning, and a doctor enters with the nurse from before. He glances at the chart in his hand. “Elizabeth Gowan?”
“Yes.”
“I’m her husband,” I say before he asks.
Elizabeth's jaw looks like it has unhinged, but when I give her a pointed look, she closes it again. She looks annoyed, but the evidence that she’s feeling better makes me smile.
The doctor is uninterested in our faux marital drama, however, and flips through some pages on her chart. “Nothing vital was struck. No organ or major artery damage. Just stitches.”
He smiles a little condescendingly at her. “You were thrashing around saying it hurt so I gave you same pain relief. You’re kind of a lightweight, out like that.” He snaps his fingers laughing at his own joke. “You were extremely lucky.”
“I don’t feel lucky.” Elizabeth is clearly not amused by the young doctor’s cheerful demeanor. I try not to smile at her sass and totally fail.
“Well, you are,” he continues, undeterred. “However, you did lose consciousness I hear, and a fair bit of blood. You didn’t need a transfusion, but we’re going to keep you under observation for another several hours. If your hemoglobin is stable, we can discharge you.”
“How many hours are ‘several’?”
“Let’s say eight and be optimistic.” He grins before leaving the room.
With a groan, Elizabeth’s eyes drift shut. Alarmed, I take an immediate step forward.
The nurse gives me a reassuring smile. “She’s fine. The pain medication and the other medicine they gave her are going to make her sleepy. Best thing is to rest. Your body needs it.” The last is directed at Elizabeth, who has opened her eyes again. “Are you in any pain?”
“Not really,” Elizabeth admits. “It feels weirdly numb.”
“That’s going to wear off. When it does, just push the call button. The doctor left prescriptions for you for pain medication and an antibiotic cream.”
After she’s gone again, I pull the chair closer to Elizabeth’s bed and lower myself into it. She eyes me warily for a minute, like she wants to argue but thinks better of it.
Closing her eyes again, she says, “On duty?”
“Yep.”
“At some point you’ll have to sleep, too.”
Later. Once I know you’re safe.
“I’m sorry I took off like that.”
I shrug even though she can’t see me, because now isn’t the time to lecture her on the protocols again—though the time will come, and I will use much stronger language than I did before.
“Protection takes getting used to.”
She lets out a slow breath. “Especially when you’ve never had it before.”
A few minutes later, Elizabeth is sound asleep, and the door is opening slowly. Instantly alert, I don’t relax until I recognize my sister entering the room.
“You weren’t answering your texts.” She looks curiously at Elizabeth’s sleeping form in the bed.
“Keep your voice down,” I whisper. “She just fell asleep.”
Sera looks at me with a weird expression and then extends a small bag toward me. “Here are the clothes.”
“Thanks. Any news on the plate?”
Sera shifts on her feet, looking restless. “Stolen plates off a Honda Accord in Alpharetta.”
I frown. It didn’t make sense. Leaving Keith at her house and hacking into the power grid to take down her neighbors’ security cameras required skill, and tonight they were clearly amateurs.
“Do you need anything else?” Sera fidgets, and it hits me.
“I’m sorry, Ser. I should have had someone else bring me the clothes.”
“No problem,” she says, but the way she’s picking at her fingers tells me there is one.
After the weeks she spent in the hospital last year following her attack, Sera had understandably developed an aversion to hospitals. “Callum and Rhodes are still out in the field, and Finn had a date, so Theo is going to be your backup in the waiting room.”
I gape at her. “Finn does not have a date.”
Her face relaxes for the first time since she entered the room. “It’s a setup from his sister. Some friend of hers is in town, and she coerced him into taking her out.”
I bite my lip trying to imagine Finn making small talk. “By the way,” Sera continues. “Vincent says he wants a full report on what’s going on here.” She glances at Elizabeth.
“Understood. Tell him I’ll talk to him in the morning.”
She nods. “We’re working up a background on her. It will be ready by morning. Anything else before I go?”
I shake my head, and once I’m alone, I try to make myself comfortable in the chair. Elizabeth wakes once, and after the nurse gives her a pain pill she’s out again. She doesn’t stir until the nurse comes in early the next morning to draw some blood and check her vitals.
When she returns an hour later she says, “The doctor says you’re all set. I just want to give you a fresh bandage before you go.”
She pulls back the hospital gown, exposing the smooth skin of Elizabeth’s abdomen. I frown at the blood that has seeped through the dressing.
“This might sting a little.” She looks at me over her shoulder. “You can hold her hand if you want.”
Elizabeth shoots me a don’t-you-fucking-dare look.
“If you think it’ll help.” I grin and fold my hand over hers.