My brows lifted at herlaissez-fairetone. “Depends on what he said. First offense, I knock out teeth.”
“How reassuring!”
Before we entered the sunroom, I commented, “You’re taking this rather well, Kitty. Not that I’m… We all have coping mechanisms.” Mine would ordinarily include banging her through the wall as I burned off the adrenaline after a night like tonight. “But I thought you’d be more distraught.”
She pursed her lips. “You have to do what you have to do. I’m too pragmatic for my own good. I choose to do no harm, Stan. But it’s also my decision to revoke that choice when people hurt me and mine.”
I released a breath.
“What?” She tilted her head to the side. “Don’t you agree?”
“I do. Wholeheartedly.”
“What was with the sigh then?” she grouched.
“You’re perfect and I can’t show you how perfect you are yet.”
“Oh.” She blinked then tucked her chin into her chest. “Yet. Hmm?”
“Yet.” I kissed her temple, which only made her snuggle into me more. Once we were in the sunroom, I tipped my chin at the doctor. “How are you doing, Victor?”
He shot me a kind smile. “All’s well with me, Stan. I’d ask the same but… who do we have here?”
As he tended to her, going through the motions of ensuring she was well and cleaning up the wounds on her face, I watched on, fully aware that she hadn’t asked me to leave.
I turned to give her privacy when he checked out the rest of her. His grunts and tsks only confirmed what my eyes had told me the first time I’d seen her.
“We need an X-ray?—”
“No! I don’t want to go to the hospital.”
“If you’d let me finish, Ms. Frasier, we have a digital X-ray. Please, lie back.”
“Holy crap, you have the RT-987 model?”
“How do you know that?”
“I’m a physician assistant and I work in the ER,” she returned.
A quick over-the-shoulder glance assured me Victor helped her lay back on Luciu’s antique mahogany table.
Ten minutes later, he proclaimed she had no broken bones or internal bleeding.
“Can you manage a urine sample?”
“I’ll carry you to the bathroom,” I offered immediately.
Matristuck her head around the door. “I’ll help her, dear.”
“Eavesdropper,” I accused, but both women ignored me as I carried Kitty to the bathroom andMatritook over.
Once the urine test was complete and came back clear, my worst nightmare hit.
“Do you think a rape kit is necessary, Ms. Frasier?”
She’d said they hadn’t, but if any of thosepezz'i miedda hadraped?—
“And who’d prosecute this?”
