“I’m fine,” he insisted. “I’ll get it looked at when we’re at the hospital and she’s being taken care of.” His fierce expression held no room for argument.
He only removed his hand when they entered the Emergency Room and the staff wouldn’t let him go any further. A doctor and several nurses began to work on Meg as they wheeled her away.
Staring at them, nauseous, he kept thinking it might be the last time he saw her. How had he let this happen? She wasn’t supposed to get hurt. Her job was simply getting the information for them and they’d do all the hard stuff. He shouldn’t have let her go to work today but they’d needed to ensure Moreno didn’t change any of his plans.Thiswasn’t supposed to happen.
He took a few steps wanting to follow behind. Would she hold on if he wasn’t there beside her or would she give up? Meg wasn’t one to give up. He had to believe she would continue to fight.
“Hey, man,” Dave said as he and Philip came up behind him in the hallway. “You’ve been trailing blood the whole way here. You’ve got to let someone look at that.”
Chris finally became cognizant of the pain in his shoulder and the fact his arm was almost numb. His gaze turned to his blood-soaked shirt, then the crimson drops that covered the floor where he stood and trailed all the way down the hall to where he’d come in.
“Oh, yeah, okay,” he murmured as the room grew fuzzy. He tried opening his eyes wider but everything started to spin and voices yelled next to him.
“We need a gurney.”
Two sets of arms reached for him but he didn’t have time to say any more before darkness descended.
Chapter 20
Meg finished tying her canvas sneaker and sat back on the hospital bed. She was being released in a few minutes, the vein in her neck having only been nicked. She’d lost a good deal of blood, but they told her it could have been worse if it hadn’t been for Chris keeping pressure on it as long as he did. Some stitches, a unit of blood, a good night’s rest, and she was ready to go. Agent Doolittle was picking her up to bring her to the field office for her statement then she was being whisked away to be babysat until they could get a trial date for Moreno.
Shuddering, she remembered how violent the man had become once he’d realized his precious enterprise was going down. Apparently he’d thrown out dire threats against her, Chris, and anyone else who had been involved in bringing him to justice. She’d have to wait a bit longer to be reunited with her family if she wanted to keep them safe.
Leaving the small bag that one of the female agents had brought her on her bed, she crossed the hallway. Chris was two doors down. Last night she’d tiptoed through the hall a few times to check on him. Nightmares had woken her up twice and she’d had to assure herself he was okay. He had been, although he’d also been asleep. A deep pain medication-induced sleep. When she’d kissed his sweet lips he hadn’t even stirred. His beautiful lips that Moreno had split open with his fist.
Her panic had been intense and real when she’d come to last night and Chris hadn’t been around. She’d begged them to let her see him but he’d still been in surgery.
Dave had stopped by and peeked in from the hallway.“How are you feeling?”
“Where’s Chris?”Her bottom lip had trembled as she got right to the most important point.“He got shot and was bleeding. Is he okay? I need to know that he’s all right.”
Dave had smiled moving next to the bed.“Well, that stubborn bastard wouldn’t let anyone even look at his injury until he knew you were being taken care of. Once that happened he passed out. They took him into surgery to remove the bullet and fix any damage. He’s been in there for a few hours. I’m sure he’ll be out soon. I wanted to check with you. I can’t believe I didn’t know what was going on in the back room. I thought all the action would be at the warehouses. I’m really sorry, honey.”
Meg had reached out her hand taking his.“It’s not your fault. If you had come back there they would have hurt you, too. Probably more so since you’d been working for them for a few years. Moreno was in a rage. Knowing you had betrayed him would have sent him over the edge even faster.”
“Thanks, Katie...”He’d closed his eyes and winced.“I mean Meg. Gonna have to get used to the new name. Your real name. But now you get to actually use it again, huh? Must feel good.”
“Will I?”she’d asked nervously.“Did they manage to get enough on Moreno to put him away?”
Dave’s smile had been huge.“All of the busts went without a hitch. Plus, he’s going down on two counts of attempted murder for you and Shaunessy. We not only got enough on Moreno, but Barone as well. And a few dozen of his henchmen. The kicker is that several of them are willing to squeal in exchange for a more lenient sentence.”
Relief had run through her so swift and fierce that she’d started to sob. She could put this all behind her and go home.
“Hey, it’s all over now,”he’d assured her as he’d sat on the bed and squeezed her hands.“Well, mostly over. We still need to get through the trial but with the amount of solid evidence we’ve got, it’s a done deal.”
Her mind hadn’t been able to focus on anything further than how Chris was.
Dave had read her mind.“He’s a tough bastard, Shaunessy. Don’t you worry about him. He’s gonna be fine.”
Meg had nodded her appreciation even if she hadn’t fully believed him. Smiling at the man who had been her good friend for almost two years, her heart ached at the thought of not seeing him again.
“What are you going to do now that you won’t be serving drinks anymore?”
Dave had grinned replying,“Well, I’ve got lots of time coming to me so I plan on taking at least a month off and doing some traveling. Once the trial’s over I’m going to take the detective job they offered me for doing this gig. It’ll be sweet compared to working for Moreno.”
“Good for you, Dave. I hope it works out. I’ll miss you though.”
He had chuckled.“I’ll miss you, too, honey. But once you get back in the real world and have internet and a cell phone, we can keep in touch. And if you ever have any problems you call me and you know I’ll be right there to help.”
