“What?”
“When you kill me. Make it fast.”
I’m shrouded in his shadow as he gets closer to my bed.
I close my eyes and wait for the end.
“You need to eat something.” Kara shoves a bag of chips in front of my face like I’m a child.
“I’m not hungry.” My tone cuts sharper than I mean it to. “Where the fuck is the doctor?”
“He said he was getting the latest results and he’d be back. If you go charging the nurses’ station again they’re going to kick you out.”
I huff. “I’d love to see them try.”
Kara places her hand on my shoulder. As annoying and stubborn as she can be, she’s been a steady force throughout the last three days.
“Okay, boss man, calm down. You’ve already scared half the nurses to the point they don’t want to come in here.”
“Then they should do their fucking jobs.” I lean over Sienna’s sleeping form and press my hand to her forehead. Still warm.
At least she’s not hot. Three days ago she could have warmed a small room with her fever.
“They are doing their jobs.” Kara moves to the other side of the bed and sits beside my wife.
My sick, hurting wife.
She hasn’t said anything today. Which is good, because the last time she opened her mouth, she asked me to make her death quick.
No. She ordered me to make her murder fast.
“She has a little more color,” Kara offers as she brushes her hand across Sienna’s cheek. “The doctors will have good news today.”
“Yeah.” I grab hold of Sienna’s hand and squeeze it, willing her to open her damn eyes.
It wasn’t long ago I wanted revenge. I wanted to make her family pay—makeherpay.
Now, I just want her to open her eyes.
She’s woken up a few times over the past three days, but she’s been so groggy, so out of it from the medications and her fever, it hasn’t offered much hope. But it’s been almost twelve hours since her eyelids so much as fluttered.
The swelling has gone down on her left eye, and her split lip is mostly healed, too. The external evidence of Dante’s attack is fading, but the internal damage is the more concerning.
Her lung collapsed when the rib he broke struck it. Another rib ruptured her spleen, which needed to be removed. All of this should have amounted to a few days recovery, but infection took over.
I roll my shoulders. My muscles scream with the movement. Three days in this chair has not been kind to my back.
“I’m going to go down the hall and call Melody to check in about Tommy. If he asks to see her?” She hops off the bed and crumples the empty chip bag into a ball.
I shake my head. “Not yet. Not like this. I don’t want him scared.”
“Okay, I’ll tell him she’s still sleeping, but Kaz, I think not being able to see her or talk to her is starting to scare him.”
“If she’s not up by tomorrow, maybe, but not today.” I bring Sienna’s hand to my mouth, pressing my lips to her fingers.
Kara doesn’t argue, but just like Sienna I can sense she has plenty more she wants to say on the subject.
As soon as she walks out, the door to the hospital room opens again and my brothers walk through.
