“Only my mother calls me that,” I grumble, relieved something works.
“I think I have rights. Full name, please?” The surgeon putters around the room, but his restless action does little to disguise his relief.
I rattle off my stats that evaded me a second before but return in force now that he’s kickstarted my dust-laden brain. I’d show him more gratitude, except that right now, everything hurts. I yawn, my head heavy. Echoes of past recuperations slam into my thoughts, but I shove those aside. Giving in to panic and wallowing in the negative won’t help me out of this bed anytime soon, no matter how many pinches and kicks it takes.
“Claiming the miracle, Doc?”
“It’s two-sided, I’m sure.” He winks. “Between the devil and me. Because if you get on another bull, Rand, that’s where I’m sending you.”
My eyebrows quirk.At least those fuckers don’t hurt.“I think I liked it better when you used my full name and were all paternal.”
“Just keep wiggling those toes, son.”
I snort, attempting to sit up. The nurse presses a hand on my shoulder. “Down, cowboy.”
I wince as the world sways, or maybe it’s my bed. “Did you spend all night thinking that one up?”
“Couldn’t wait to use it.” She pauses. “Your girlfriend has been outside the whole time. She refused to leave.”
“She was in here, with me,” I recall, starting to smile, but that hurts, too.
“I kicked her out after three days.”
“How long was I out?” I ask, looking around the room. “Nurse?” I try to focus on her name badge, but my brain can’t cope with the fine print.The red hair. Lanie has been here all this time. But she was meant to be somewhere…else. Away, right? I scramble to remember, but my unresponsive brain refuses to put two and two together and come up with any logical answer.
She swaps my IV bag for a fresh one. I follow her around the room with my gaze, but I don’t stay awake long enough to see her leave.
Sensation walks up my arm. I drag myself out of sleep with a monumental effort that uses as much energy as it gives. Something bleeps near my head. It takes me a moment to place the sound.Hospital.I pry heavy eyes open, already prepared to sleep again. A blaze of red stalls me. I blink rapidly, grit and fog obscuring everything in a blur for a painful minute.
Lanie smiles, dark circles beneath her eyes where she curls in a chair with her wolf blanket wrapped around her.
My already gummy mouth dries. “You look?—”
“Like absolute crap. I know.” She runs hands through her messy wild-cherry hair, pushing it back, but it cascades around her anyway, unwilling to be caged.
Just like her.
“Beautiful,” I finish.
Her cheeks burn as bright and deep as her hair.
“The nurse said you stayed the whole time.” My voice rasps with lack of use.
Lanie passes a glass of water into my hands, watching mecarefully as she helps me work the straw. My swollen jaw doesn’t work the way it should, not yet.
“Five days,” Lanie murmurs, returning the glass to its stand.
I swear, the letters jumbling in my mouth. Fear grips my stomach. I cough, but that hurts, too.
“Did—did my lawyer speak to you?” I can’t remember his name, any more than I could my own the last time I woke. At least that’s there now.
Lanie nods, her expression shuttering. “He did.”
“And?”
West leans against the doorway. “You’re not dead yet, you ugly asshole. You can deal with your own damn business.”
A nurse bustles around him, frowning. “One visitor at a time, please.”
