Chapter 32 – Chris
The light hurts my eyes, and I have to blink several times to focus on the white tiled ceiling above me. Machines are beeping. The place smells like antiseptic cleaner. My right shoulder is on fire, and the sling is back on.
Damn it! I’m in the hospital again.
“Jennie?” Her name comes out as a garbled croak.
I look frantically around until I spot her curled up sound asleep in a chair beside my bed. My entire body sags in relief—and damn it, that hurts! She’s okay.
I guess I got shot. I honestly didn’t expect that to happen because I figured Dave Braggart is a lousy shot. But I guess everyone gets lucky sometime.
The important thing is Jennie’s here. She’s okay. She’s safe. Yeah, she looks tired, haggard even, but that’s not surprising given the nightmare of a day she had. But at least she’s in one piece. It looks like we both are.
“Jennie?” I try again, attempting to generate some volume this time. I’m a selfish bastard, and I want her attention. I want to see her eyes. I want to hear her voice. “Sweetheart?”
Her dark eyes fly open, and she sits upright in the chair, her feet falling to the floor. “Chris!” She jumps up and leans close, cupping my face as she gazes deeply into my eyes. She gently brushes my hair back. “Are you okay? How do you feel? I was so scared when David shot you.”
“I’m okay,” I say, surprised by how raspy my voice sounds.
She places a gentle kiss on my forehead. “I love you so much, but if you ever do something like that again, I will kill you myself.”
I muster a smile. I don’t mind getting shot if this is the reception I get. “I’ll try not to.”
She smiles at me, relief evident in her face. “We have to stop meeting like this.”
“Yeah. I’ve had enough of hospitals to last me a while.” My smile falters when I think about what happened today. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
She drops back down onto her chair as if all her energy has been expended. “I’m okay. Really.”
I notice the bandages around both of her wrists. “What happened to your arms?”
“It’s nothing serious. Just some abrasions.”
“What caused them?”
She looks away. “Ropes.”
“He tied you up?”
She nods. “He tied me to a bed.”
“Where else are you hurt?”
“My ankles. Same reason. Other than that, I’m fine.”
My gut knots as I imagine her tied to a bed. My God, if he touched her! “Jennie, did he—”
“No,” she says emphatically. “He didn’t.” She gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Jennie.” I slip into my cop interrogation voice.
“No, really. Other than tying me up, he didn’t hurt me.”
I scrub my left hand down my face. “Please tell me he’s no longer a threat.” Ricky had his instructions.
“He’s dead, Chris. Ricky shot David right after David shot you.”
I nod, satisfied.
“You don’t seem surprised,” she adds.
“I’m not. He was a threat to your life as well as to others. There were a lot of civilians there at the scene. He needed to be neutralized.”
Jennie moves to sit on the side of my bed and reaches for my left hand, cradling it in hers. “You risked your life for me.” Tears spring into her eyes. “You could have been killed.”
“I had body armor on. I calculated the odds he’d manage to hit my head or a major artery, and decided they were in my favor.
Braggart’s not a good shot. He was lucky he managed to hit my shoulder instead of my vest. I determined it was a risk worth taking because, at that moment, he was holding a handgun to your head. And that was unacceptable.”
She leans closer, cupping the side of my face. “You saved me.”
I swallow hard. “I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
She presses her soft lips to mine, and it’s like being kissed by an angel. “Chris, I—”
There’s a knock on my door. “Is this a good time?”
No, it’s a terrible time! But I can’t say that because it’s Micah. “Sure, man. Come on in.”
Micah walks into the room, right up to my bed, and offers a fist bump to my left hand. “How are you holding up?”
“I’ll be right as rain in a few days. I’m just sore.”
Micah nods. “Sure. But no more heroics, okay?” He glances at Jennie, understanding written all over his face. “I don’t think Jennie can take it.”
“I had everything under control. Ricky and I worked it out. The plan was, I would draw Braggart’s attention, and once his gun was pointed at me and not at Jennie, Ricky would take his shot.
Ricky’s a damn fine shot. I knew he could take out Braggart without hurting Jennie, or I never would have suggested it. ”
Micah grips Jennie’s shoulders. “Thanks for taking care of our girl.”
“So, how did you guys get me out of there?” I ask. “When I woke up, I was here in the hospital.”
Micah grins. “Killian and I drove you back to the main house on an ATV. That’s where the chopper picked you up to bring you here.”
“Three of us on an ATV? That must have been a tight squeeze. We’re lucky we didn’t topple over.”
“It was tricky going,” he says, “especially with you being out cold. Killian did some pretty fancy driving. I had the easy job—to hold onto you and keep you, and myself, from falling off.”
A hospital employee pushes a cart into my room. “How are you feeling?” she asks. “Would you like some ice water and maybe some gelatin?”
“That depends. Is it strawberry?”
The nurse glances at the small container. “Actually, you’re in luck. It is.”
Micah raises the head of my bed so I’m sitting up. Jennie holds the giant tumbler of iced water so I can take a sip. I wince when I swallow. “Man, that hurts.”
“That’s from the intubation during surgery. The discomfort should ease up soon.”
Jennie opens the container of gelatin and scoops some out with a spoon. “Open up,” she says, grinning as she feeds me.
Throughout the evening, more visitors stop by to say hello—the SAR team members, several of my deputies, and Darlene.
Ricky finally shows up after his shift ends. The first words out of his mouth are, “You sure took one hell of a risk.”
“It was worth it, man. And I knew you could take him out.” Ricky was a sharpshooter in the Marines before he joined law enforcement.
“Yeah, well don’t do that to me again, boss. Jennie’s head was six inches away from my target. I about shit my pants.”
I raise my left fist. “I owe you.”
Grinning, Ricky gives me a gentle fist bump. “It looks like you’ll be out on sick leave for a while. You can pay me back by making me the interim boss. Then I can really piss Jace off.”
“It’s a deal,” I say.
Jennie dozed off in her chair around seven. She’s awakened when her phone rings. “It’s Dawn,” she says as she takes the call. “Hi, Dawn. How’s everything going?”
She listens for a while, then glances my way. “Are you sure?” She listens. “She does? Where does she think we went?” Jennie smiles. “Really?” She listens. “Okay, if you’re sure. Thank you.”
Jennie ends the call. “That was Dawn. She offered to spend the night with Granny so I can spend the night here with you.” She laughs softly. “Apparently, Granny thinks you and I are on our honeymoon.”
“Really?”
She nods. “And guess where she thinks we went on our honeymoon?”
“Where?”
“Hawaii.”
“You’re kidding me,” I say.
“Yeah. I don’t know where she got that crazy idea. I’ve never mentioned Hawaii to her before in my life.”
“Actually, it’s not that crazy,” I say. “I have an aunt and uncle who live in Hawaii. My mom’s younger sister, Cassandra, and her husband live in Maui. I think they’ve got three or four kids.”
“You have family?” Jennie sits upright in her chair. “I didn’t know that. You never mentioned them.”
“Mom and her sister were estranged—no surprise there. Cassandra used to send me birthday and Christmas money when I was a kid, but my mom would always confiscate it. So then my aunt started sending me toys, and Mom would sell them on eBay. I eventually told my aunt to stop sending anything. God, I haven’t talked to her since I graduated college.
She actually helped me pay for school. She paid half my tuition, and I worked to pay the other half. ”
“I’d really like to meet your aunt one day,” Jennie says. “I thought you had no family.”
Jennie spends the night with me in my room. There’s a recliner in the room that lays flat to make a guest bed. A nurse provides her with a pillow, sheet, and a blanket.
Her makeshift bed is close enough to my bed that we can reach out and hold hands as we fall asleep.
* * *
A couple of days later, I’m released in the afternoon after being examined one last time by my surgeon. Micah comes to the hospital in Robyn’s car to drive us back to Jennie’s house. There’s no way I could climb in and out of Micah’s truck.
“Looks like I’ll be staying with you a while longer,” I say as Jennie helps me out of the car.
“I should say so,” she replies as she and Micah help me up the steps and into the kitchen.
They take me straight to Jennie’s room. She puts me in her bed and fusses over me to make sure I’m comfortable enough.
“How was Hawaii?” Rosie asks from the doorway.
God, I love that woman. “It was fantastic,” I tell her.
Rosie nods to Jennie. “See? I told you. This one’s a keeper.” Then she frowns. “I hope we won’t be seeing any more of the bad one.”
“I guarantee you won’t be seeing any more of him,” I say as Pumpkin jumps up in bed with me, purring like a squeaky chainsaw as he butts his head against my chin.
“Good,” Rosie says. “I’m going to hold you to that.” Then she looks at Jennie. “Are we having supper soon? I’m hungry.”
Jennie hugs her grandma. “Yes, Granny. I’ll get on dinner right away.”