Chapter 19
There was nothing to do but wait. There was no update. There was no doctor coming in to give her a status. Flynn was in emergency surgery. Nobody knew anything.
Levi and Ice had arrived. Stone and Merk had gone to her house. Logan was at the hospital with her. Rhodes had gone down to the police headquarters. Apparently, he knew several cops and would raise Cain.
There wasn’t enough Cain in this world for anybody to raise to make her happy. She had one goal now: to ensure Flynn survived. And if she had a secondary, it was: make certain Brendan didn’t. But she had no idea how to get her hands on him.
Levi sat down next to her; Ice on the other side with her arm around Anna’s shoulders. She said, “We need to hear your words. Exactly what you saw.”
She stared at them, more tears burning her eyes, so hot with fear that nothing would cool them, and she once again explained what she’d seen. “I think it was the shot that woke me up.” She shook her head. “After that it’s all a blur. Just a painful, agonizing blur.”
“At least it did wake you up. Flynn got attention as fast as possible. You have to hold on to that. Plus, you can confirm it was Brendan, and you found the weapon.”
“I guess it proves Brendan was after Flynn all along. He could have come upstairs and shot me. I don’t know that I would’ve been awake and aware enough to have avoided it.”
Ice gripped her fingers. “Thank God he didn’t.”
Anna turned to look at Ice. “Did you guys find his car? Did the cops get the gun?”
“Yes and yes. You gave the gun to Logan, and he gave it to the cops.”
Anna frowned. “Right. I remember that.” She waved a hand. “Honestly, everything’s a blur. I don’t really understand the sequence of what happened.”
“And you don’t need to. The police are running the ballistics on the gun. We think the black car you saw at your house might’ve been Brendan’s brother’s.”
At that Anna gave a half snort. “The brother who doesn’t believe Brendan would do anything, right?”
“Well, he might be changing his mind now,” Levi said coolly. “He’s down at the police station. Rhodes is clueing him in.”
“Good. He should be locked up too.” Anna glared at Levi. “I suppose it’s his damn lawyer connections that got his brother out in the first place.”
“It’s possible.” Levi shrugged. “There’s just no reason sometimes.”
“Right now I know the reason. The best murderer is a dead one. I’m now a believer in the death sentence.” She slumped back in the chair and leaned her head back.
Ice looked at her. “Did you have your arm checked out?”
Her head rolled over toward Ice, and she asked, “What’s wrong with my arm?”
She could hear the heavy sigh from Ice and remembered her stitches from the bullet wound last night. She glanced down to see fresh blood all over the bandaged injury. She stared at it in surprise. “No idea how that happened. I can’t feel it, so it can’t be bad.”
“You can’t feel it because you’re in shock. But those are stitches, and if you’ve ripped them, we need to get them looked at.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said firmly.
But Ice wasn’t having anything to do with that. “There’s stupidity, and then there is stupidity. We only deal with one kind. Right now Flynn’s being taken care of. Now you need to be as well.” And with a firm grip on her uninjured arm, Ice forced Anna to her feet and said, “Come with me now.”
Ice, just like all the men in the company, was a force not to be ignored. Anna turned to look back at Levi as Ice dragged her toward the doorway.
“Don’t let him be alone,” Anna cried out.
“He’ll be in surgery for several more hours. You’ll be back before he comes out. If I hear anything, I’ll let you know. And I promise, I won’t leave him alone.”
Sobbing quietly, Anna let Ice drag her down to the emergency area. It was full but not crazy. Ice walked over to one of the nurses and explained what happened. As it was, it was the same nurse she’d had the previous evening.
She took one look at Anna and asked, “Oh, my dear, you’ve had a terrible twenty-four hours, haven’t you?”
Anna, hating to be the watering pot, turned and scrubbed her face. “It’s probably nothing. Ice is just worrying over the blood.”
“And she’s right to.” The nurse led Anna to a bed and made her sit down. She left a moment and came back with scissors, quickly cutting off the bandage. “It’s not too bad though.” She patted Anna on her good arm and said, “I’ll let the doctor know in case he wants to see you too.”
As her eyes went down to study the wound, Anna realized she probably needed to get it taken care of, but she hated to think about herself when Flynn had suffered so much.
“You have to consider your own health,” Ice said. “The animals will need you, as will Flynn as soon as he wakes up.”
Anna stared at her. “I didn’t think about that.”
And she hadn’t. She’d been so locked into the immediate negativity, she hadn’t seen that, if he did survive the surgery, somebody must take care of him. And she did have animals to look after. Therefore, she needed her dominant arm, which was the one that was injured.
She looked down at the blood. “You are right. I should’ve gotten it looked at. But I really didn’t notice.”
“Of course not,” Ice said in a gentle voice. “But once you take care of the first emergency, it’s very important to take a look around and see what needs to be dealt with next.”
“That’s your military training,” Anna said. “Most people don’t think like that.”
“It’s not just that training or even my medical training. But it is from a life lived on the edge all the time. Which we still are.” Ice smiled at Anna. “You got the right stuff. Your instincts are strong and sound. But you have to learn to look after yourself. Because without that, it’s almost impossible to do the same for those around us. And regardless of what happens, we’re still females. We tend to be nurturers. So Flynn will need your help. If you aren’t strong enough to help him, he won’t get the care he deserves.”
Anna nodded. She grabbed a tissue from the Kleenex box, wiped her eyes and blew her nose awkwardly with her left hand. She wasn’t very good at looking after herself that way. She’d have to change that. Eventually.
Ice’s phone rang. And the nurse returned. With her attention caught between what the nurse was doing and the phone conversation Ice was having with Rhodes at the police station, Anna couldn’t keep track. By the time the nurse was done rebandaging her arm, it was on fire.
The nurse turned to her and asked, “Did you manage to bring any of your painkillers with you when you came to the hospital?”
“No. They’re back at the house. And I probably won’t be allowed in for a while. It’s full of cops right now.”
The nurse disappeared and returned a few minutes later with a small bottle. “There are enough here to get you through the day. Somebody should be allowed back into the house to at least get your medications.”
She accepted them gratefully. “Thank you. I’m sure somebody will be able to.” She managed to hop off the bed but hung on for a moment as the room swayed around her.
Ice looked at her sharply. “Have you eaten?”
She stared at Ice blankly. Then shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”
Ice nodded as if that was exactly what she figured. “Let me phone Levi to confirm there is no change, then I’m taking you to the cafeteria.”
They waited in the hallway for Levi to confirm Flynn was still in surgery. At the cafeteria, they filled two trays and went to a table at the back of the room where they sat down and ate. Anna didn’t want any juice, but Ice insisted. “I can’t have you passing out.”
Every time Ice opened her mouth, it was logical, reasonable, and made so much sense that Anna found herself following Ice’s instructions without question. She poured the orange juice into a glass and drank half of it down. It didn’t take long for her to start feeling better. As she looked at her omelet, she realized she really was hungry. It was just so hard to eat, knowing Flynn was upstairs.
Ice reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “Remember, you’re eating for you, so you can be strong enough to look after him.”
With a ghost of a smile, she teased Ice. “You get away with that line a lot.”
Ice smiled. “I’ve been where you are.”
She studied Ice, seeing the remembered pain and agony of almost losing somebody. Anna nodded. “I believe you.” And she tackled her omelet. She made it almost all the way through before she slowed down. She stared at the last couple bites and shook her head. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“Finish your eggs—leave the toast.”
Anna stuffed down the last of the omelet and pushed back her tray. A large hand reached over her shoulder, grabbing the toast off her plate, as the unmistakable Stone sat down beside them. She studied him. “You have any news?”
“I just came from your house. The cops are all over the place. It looks like Brendan walked in the front door and surprised Flynn or waited until he showed up. What I’m thinking is that Flynn put on coffee and went to look after the animals. When he came back in, Brendan was waiting for him.” She could see it happen just like that in her head. It didn’t make it any easier. “Why is it nobody has picked up Brendan?” She caught Ice and Stone exchanging glances. “What?”
“First, we have to find him. And second, he won’t be picked up. He’s likely to end up in a shootout to avoid capture.”
“Good,” she said in a hard voice. “As much as I like the idea of that man wasting away in a prison somewhere, I don’t want to take the chance of him coming back out anytime in the future and ruining my life again. I want him dead. He deserves nothing less.”
Stone grinned, studying her. “She’s bloodthirsty. I like that.” And he took a big bite out of her toast.
Just then both Ice and Stone’s phones went off. They looked at the number. Ice said, “That’s Levi. Surgery is over.”
But they were talking to the air. She’d already bolted to her feet and raced back to Flynn.
*
More voices. More voices. And yet more voices. Screaming, yelling, then quiet conversation. Between some kind of a mechanical scream in a weird tone, he couldn’t quite make out what was being said. But once the machinery stopped, he heard the doctor say, “He’s back.”
Flynn wondered who’d gone and come back, and why anybody gave a shit. It was so hard to sort out the noises. But at least the pain was better. His chest didn’t feel like it was closing in on him. He still couldn’t move—a sense of being paralyzed. And he couldn’t think of anything worse. It wasn’t how he wanted to live his life. He tried to yell, “Help!”
But nobody answered.
“Hello.”
He could hear the word in his mind, but he knew his lips weren’t moving. He didn’t think they could. He tried to open his eyes, turn his head. Nothing worked. The struggle was too much. The cotton batting around him closed in on him. But at least those long fingers of death weren’t dragging him under. He wanted to roll over onto his side, but again he couldn’t. He gave up the effort and let himself succumb to the clouds, willing them to carry him away.