“Speaking of.” I kept my voice low. “Did Wes make it?”
She shook her head. While the loss of life was never something to celebrate, I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad. Wes had been terrorizing Finn for weeks. He deserved to rot in prison for the rest of his life. Bastard made his choice when he detonated a bomb in a building full of people, then held us at gunpoint. At least now we knew it was over for good.
“Here you go.” The nurse opened the door. “There’s a call bell on the bedside table if you need anything.”
I was too busy staring at Finn to notice when she left. They’d changed him out of his tux and put him in a standard hospital gown. His bare feet peeked out from underneath the tan blanket they’d covered him with and hung slightly over the end of the bed. But he was alive, thanks to the Kevlar vest. The bullet hit him in the center of his chest. If he hadn’t been wearing it, no amount of speeding would’ve gotten him to the hospital in time.
“Go sit with him.” Shayne nudged me forward. “I’m gonna find the cafeteria. Some of us were too busy working to eat a fancy dinner.”
Closing the distance, I grabbed a chair, dragging it across the off-white linoleum floor to the side of the bed.It took me a few minutes to figure out how to lower the rails so they didn’t block my access. Once I had them down, I practically fell into my seat. The adrenaline from earlier had worn off a while ago, so the fact I was still functioning was a testament to my grit and determination, both of which were waning.
I held his hand between both of mine, watching his chest rise and fall. Between counting his breaths and the steady beep of his heart monitor, I must’ve dozed off for a few seconds. My eyes popped open to see ocean-blue ones staring back at me.
“You’re awake.” Realizing my head was resting on his thigh, I sat up quickly
“That’s a relief. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”
“Donotjoke like that, Finnian.”
“Too soon?” He chuckled, then grimaced and groaned. “Feck. Getting shot hurts.”
I reached over, pushing the red button on the call bell. In no time, a male voice sounded through the room.
“Can I help you?”
“Mr. O’Lachlan is awake and he needs something for pain.”
“Okay. I’ll see what he has ordered and let the doctor know. He’ll come in shortly.”
“Thank you.”
“The pain isn’t that bad, baby, but thank you.” He reclaimed my hand. “What happened? Everything’s a little fuzzy.”
“Before or after you took a bullet to the chest?”
“Wait. Are you mad at me?”
“Furious.” I kissed the back of his hand. “But not at you.”
Now that he was awake, everything hit me at once. Itwas like my mind was playing a game of emotional tug-of-war between fear and anger. Fear still had her claws wrapped around my throat, but anger was trying to pry her loose. Eventually, I’d need an outlet for both. Maybe Duncan would be up for a round in the boxing ring.
“Talk to me, Waverly.”
“I––”
“Knock, knock.” An older gentleman with glasses and a trimmed beard walked in, followed by the same nurse from earlier. “I’m Doctor Billings. How’s your pain?”
“My chest and head are both pretty sore.”
“I’d expect they are. You’ve got a moderate concussion and a contusion to your sternum.”
“Contusion?” Finn asked.
“Basically, you’ll have a hell of a bruise across your chest for a week or two, but you should be fine. I’d like to keep you overnight since you were unconscious when they brought you in. Just to monitor you a little more closely for the next twelve hours.”
“Sure.”
“All right. Let’s have a look, then Nurse June can give you something to help with the pain.”
