“Ethan, breathe,” the man said gruffly and I jerked my head up, not realizing I’d still been staring at his hand. Or that I’d been holding my breath.
I sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the pain it caused and then tried to focus on the man’s face. But I couldn’t stop from dropping my gaze to his fisted hand again. Maybe if I could see the blow coming, I’d have a chance.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, though that was the furthest thing from the truth I could have said.
I wasn’t okay. I hadn’t been okay for four fucking years.
“Ethan,” the man said again and I looked up to watch him studying me intently. I couldn’t read what he was thinking, but I highly suspected he had no trouble with knowing what was going through my head. “Take these,” he said and he slowly lifted his fisted hand and opened it to reveal two white pills.
Humiliation scoured through me as I realized he’d had his hand fisted because he was holding them.
“They’re ibuprofen,” he added. “I found them in the bathroom cabinet…I can bring the bottle to show you.”
I swallowed hard and shook my head. I could tell what they were just by looking at them. He dropped them into my hand and then reached for the water. I fought back tears of exhaustion as I swallowed the pills down.
“Who are you?” I finally managed to ask. If he’d been one of Eric’s men, he wouldn’t have given a shit about my comfort. And since Eric had found us yesterday, it made no sense that he’d send someone up the mountain after us when he could have just as easily come himself.
Unless he hadn’t been able to walk out of that house yesterday…
The prospect was both terrifying and thrilling. And the fact that it was both bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
“My name is Cain. Ronan Grisham sent me to check on you.”
“Dr. Grisham?” I said in surprise. That was the last thing I expected to hear.
Cain nodded. “He was worried when you didn’t show up for work.”
That made no sense to me at all. Unless…
“Look, I told him that nurse was mistaken. I didn’t do what shesaid,” I managed to get out even as terror threatened to clog my throat. If I was arrested for what I’d done to that patient, it would all be over. Panic for Lucy welled inside of me.
“So you didn’t save that patient’s life?” Cain asked.
I dropped my eyes and shook my head. “It was chaotic…the nurse just got confused. I…my job was just to transport patients…”
“So I suppose next you’ll be telling me that you trashed that house and that this,” – he waved his hand over my body – “happened during a mugging.”
Since nothing I said would make sense, I did what I did best and kept quiet.
“You’re a shitty liar Ethan…or do you prefer Allen?”
I forced myself to look at Cain as I spoke. “Tell Dr. Grisham I’m fine and I appreciate his concern. Now, I’m really tired. Have a safe trip down the mountain.”
I was proud of how steady my voice sounded even though my gut was threatening to humiliate me with another upchucking episode.
Cain didn’t respond, nor did he move.
Fuck, why wasn’t he moving?
If he didn’t leave, I couldn’t go to plan B which was to grab Lucy and get the hell out of there.
Cain’s expression didn’t change at all as he stared at me and this time I made myself hold the eye contact despite my instinct to look down. Submission was something Eric had demanded, but I’d be damned if I was going to kowtow to this man too.
“Okay, Doc, have it your way,” Cain murmured as he reached for the water and handed it to me. I wasn’t able to hide the flinch that went through me at the nickname so I tried to cover it by taking the glass from him and swallowing a few sips. He was guessing I was a doctor – he had no way of knowing for sure.
“But we’re going to have this conversation every time you wake up and there will be a point where you tell me who did this to you,” he added as his eyes swept my body.
Despite the pain I was in, I still felt heat suffuse my entire system at the move.
