“Took a turn? What the fuck does that mean. What happened?” I slammed my hands on the desk in front of her in frustration.
“Please calm down. I don’t know what happened, I wasn’t on the morning shift.”
She stepped back from the desk.
My patience was wearing thin, fear overtaking common sense. “Then why don’t you look in her fucking file, you people always seem to be writing something in them?”
“I will ask you again, please calm down or I will be forced to call security. I will check the file but I need you to lower your voice and remain calm.”
I did lower my voice, not wanting to be banished from seeing Gracie, but I stayed angry. “Like fuck. The woman I love seems to be fucking missing from her room and all you can tell me is she took a turn. A turn for what? Why the fuck is she being operated on?”
Pushing my hands roughly through my hair, I watched as she opened the file and read over the notes. I hadn’t seen this nurse before and to be honest she was fucking pissing me off with her calmness.
“Faster, read faster.” The nurse glared at me before speaking.
“It’s her left lung.” She read from the file. “Mrs. Reynolds lung deflated and there were complications. She was taken to theater for surgery to repair the problem.”
“What the hell? How? Why? Her lungs were fine?” I began to settle down.
“It appears a fractured rib was what caused the damage.” She closed the file and looked up at me, her eyes full of apprehension.
“When did they take her?”
“Just after two-thirty.”
My heart sank and bile rose in my throat. That was only seconds after I’d left. I should have stayed. I should have waited five more fucking minutes.
“I can call theater and get you an update if you like.” The expression on her face was one of concern.
I stood cracking my knuckles and chewing at the inside of my cheek.
“Um yes, yeah do that.” I stumbled over my words.
I fisted my hand in the pocket of my sweat pants and felt the phone I had there. I needed to text Brad. Fuck, and Martha. I pulled out the device and fired off a text to both of them before I got sidetracked.
Me: Gracie is in surgery, her lung deflated or some shit. Update to follow but I need you here now.
I hit send and watched the nurse as she nodded and hummed into her phone before hanging up.
“The nurse in the operating room said Gracie is stable. They’re in the process of finishing up and she’ll be taken to recovery before they bring her back here. You’re welcome to wait in one of the waiting rooms or by her bed, Mr. James.”
“Okay. Right. Um… yup. Thanks.” It was all I could push out, it felt like my own lungs were deflating.
I turned slowly, trudged back to where her bed should have been and dropped into the chair.
I’d thought Ari was almost the death of me, that I couldn’t possibly hurt more than I had when I’d lost her. Succumbing to the dark was such a violent, insufferable and agonizing pain that I hadn’t thought I could live through. As bad as it had been, it was nothing compared to what I felt at the prospect of losing Gracie.
I’d wait. I’d wait here for as long as it took, until she was stable and back with me.
I made up my mind in that moment, as soon as she woke up and was no longer in danger, I would call an ambulance to take her to my home at my base. I would keep her safe, her asshole husband would never again be able to find her or hurt her.
I would hunt him down and kill the prick myself. I didn’t care if he’d been affected by his tour of duty. There was no way I would ever forgive him for what he’d done.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GRACIE-MAY
I wasn’t on the ground anymore, was Ben gone? I was in someone’s arms. I knew that smell –Kaden’ssmell. It was safe, comforting unlike Ben who smelled of hate and violence, beer and cigarettes. They were Kaden’s arms, he’d found me.
