Adam
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“HOW ARE YOU FEELING?”Elsa withdrew with the glass of water she’d offered me.Unable to lift my head from the pillow for more than a few moments at a time, I’d been reduced to drinking from a straw like a bloody infant.“Have you slept?”
“Ein wenig,” I murmured, pleased to see her smile at my German.“I managed a little sleep.”
“That is good.”She put down the glass and checked the machine reading my blood pressure.Slim and blonde, she wasn’t my normal type, but I was happy to have somebody so easy on the eye looking after me.“And your memory.How is that now?”
Closing my eyes, I contemplated her question.What did I recall from before I walked in the desolate fog and had woken up in the hospital with her?
“Do you remember where you were before you were brought here?”she prompted.
“I...”I focused on the window beside my bed, watching a small bird wander along the windowsill.“I don’t know why I’m in Germany.”
“Switzerland,” she corrected.
“What?”I glanced her way, regretting the haste with which I’d managed the deed.
“You’re in Zurich, Adam.”
Her lips tugged, but that time, the gesture expressed her pity, not her delight, and my stomach lurched at the contrast.I was a man of importance who wasn’t used to being pitied.I hoped my strength would return soon so I could resort to seeing the flicker of admiration and fear in other people’s gazes.
“Zurich?”That location made even less sense.
Why would I have been in Switzerland?Ian wouldn’t have sent me there on foreign business.He needed me in Fortorus, rolling out Rehome.
“It’s okay.”Her tone was consoling.“The doctor thinks you will remember.We must just be patient.”
“But why am I here?”I glanced around the room as though the sterile décor would have the answers for me.Fortunately, the pretty nurse had managed to persuade the officer outside to remove my handcuff, but nothing else had been explained since I’d woken up.“Do you know?”
“I am an emergency nurse.”She jotted down some digits on a chart as she went on.“It is my job to help my patients, not to know their backgrounds or why they are here.”
“Of course.”My hand rose to rub at the side of my head.
“Do you have a headache?”she asked, apparently concerned about the prospect.“You are booked in for an MRI later today, but I can pull that scan forward.”
“No,” I assured her.“There’s no pain.”
“Okay.”She sounded unconvinced.“Let’s MRI you now anyway.”
“Whatever you say, Nurse.”
It was unusual to be dictated to by a woman, but unlike my glorious leader, I had no problem with female authority.My mother had always run our family with stern intent, and her discipline had never done me any harm.I smiled at the thought of the woman who’d raised me, hoping Ian’s most recent crackdown hadn’t extended to women of her age.Either way, she would be safe because my position protected her.
“I’ll arrange the MRI in the next hour.”
“Fine.”I nodded slowly.
Whatever had landed me in hospital, I needed the medics to make sure I had a full bill of health before I traveled home.As soon as I was back in Britain, I’d ask Armitage to give me a once-over anyway, but I didn’t want to risk the journey if there was any chance of my blood pressure spiking again.
“If only all my patients were as obliging.”She chuckled as she stopped to review my heart rate.
“I try,” I replied.
“After your scan, I shall find some breakfast for you, and then the doctor will be back to see you.”
I had the sense she was talking more to herself than to me.
