“I promise I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
The kindness fades from his eyes. “We don’t say those words unless we mean them.”
“Well, maybe it’ll take me ten or fifteen. Everything hurts?—”
“‘I promise.’”
Oh.
“You do what we do,” he says, “you learn to read people. I don’t know what your story is. And until West gets back, I won’t press you for it. Doc wants you with him, and that’s all that matters right now.”
I nod, then regret the motion as the room spins around me. Graham wraps an arm around my waist and helps me into a chair.
“Who is he to you?” I ask when I no longer feel like I’m about to pass out.
“He patches us up when we need it. Most of what we do isn’t as simple as pulling people out of a downed sea plane.”
“Rescuing us was simple?” I choke back a laugh.
Graham cracks a smile. “Relatively. We didn’t have to sneak past border security, pay off a foreign government to look the other way, or find electrical power in the middle of the jungle.”
“Who were the other names Doc mentioned?” Gingerly, I reach for one of my hiking boots. “Besides the pilot. Q? Cara?”
“Family. Q—Quinton—is my partner.” Graham pulls out his phone and taps the screen. A man with light brown hair grins back at us, an orange cat in his lap. “Don’t tell West—or Ryker—I showed you that photo.”
“Why did you?” I take my time with the laces. My fingers ache, and it lets me steal glances at Graham.
He pushes to his feet, standing between me and the door. “Like I said, I read people. Beyond treating us off the books, Doc doesn’t lie. The man is about as straight and narrow as they come. Yet he trusts you enough he’s willing to do it for you. That raises a lot of questions we need answered. But it also means I can probably trust you too.”
I scramble for something—anything—to say. But after a breath, he holds out his hand.
“You don’t have to talk to me now. Hell, you don’t have to talk to me at all. But since we both know your attacker wasn’t a random burglar, consider me your bodyguard until West gets back. Surgery is on the fifth floor. I’m sure they’ll be done with Doc soon, and he’s going to want to see you when he wakes up.”
It only takesanother half an hour before a doctor in light green scrubs pushes through the double doors that hide the surgical wing. “Mr. Templeton?” the woman calls.
“That’s me.” Graham rises. This could be my chance. I only need a few seconds of distraction to bolt. I hope. But he doesn’t leave my side, waiting instead for the doctor to cross to us.
“Dr. Reynolds is in recovery. He’ll have a chest tube for the next twelve to twenty-four hours, but assuming no complications, he can be discharged sometime tomorrow. He was lucky. Whoever treated him saved his life.” She gives Graham a pointed stare, but he doesn’t react. With an exasperated sigh, the doctor shakes her head. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I only risked my entire medical license when I treated the very obviousbullet woundto his upper arm. One of the nurses will come get you in a few minutes.”
She stalks back through the doors with a huff. All the tension I’ve held since the second Parker showed up in my kitchen melts away.
I collapse back into the chair, and my tears finally start to fall.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Doc
I’m lostin the dark. Can’t fight my way back to where I need to be. Voices pierce the silence, but they’re too muffled. I can’t understand the words. There’s something I need.SomeoneI need. Where is she?
Where am I?
“Doc.”
The single, breathy word is my anchor in the storm. I’m floating. Light and shadow, soft sounds that linger in a sea of confusion.
But that word cuts through the fog.
“I’m sorry.” Lips brush mine. A light caress flits over my cheek. Something presses to my palm, and then there’s a tug over my heart.
