“I guess you could say that,” he replied.I was shocked when he shyly ducked his head. The reaction seemed so foreign from the tough guy persona he exuded.
“You got me away from Mendoza and that horrible place.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“So you saved me, and I’d like to thank you.”
He glanced up to give me a sad smile. “You’re welcome.”
When I tried pushing myself up in bed, pain once again charged through my midsection like a locomotive, causing me to wince. “Do you need more pain medicine?” Rev asked.
“No!” I answered a little more loudly and emphatically than I should. I felt embarrassed at Rev’s raised brows. “I’ll be fine,” I added more calmly. The truth was I didn’t like feeling woozy and incapacitated. The last time I had been drugged was when I had been kidnapped.
Once I had ridden out the pain, I asked, “How long have I been out?”
“A day.”
I gasped. “I was out that long?”
“After being beaten and going through surgery, you needed it.”
“How bad was I?”
Rev grimaced. “Breakneck wasn’t sure you would make it through the surgery.”
“Breakneck?”
Rev chuckled. “I mean, Dr. Edgeway.”
“He was very kind to me when I woke up before surgery.”
“He’s an amazing doctor. If anyone could have saved you, it was him.”
Staring into Rev’s face, I recalled more of what had happened before I went into surgery. “I asked him to get you, didn’t I?”
He nodded. “And I came to you.”
“Yes, you did,” I murmured, as I vaguely remembered him standing in the doorway before I slipped into unconsciousness again.
“I stayed by your side the entire time you were in recovery. It’s probably good we were in Mexico because I’m pretty sure an American hospital wouldn’t have allowed me to stay.”
I couldn’t rationalize why I found myself so drawn to him or why I had felt the need to have him with me during surgery. After all, he was a stranger to me. Sure, he had proven himself to some degree by rescuing me from the depths of hell, but I still knew so little about who he was. And I couldn’t deny the ugly reality that I had learned about men having to earn my trust. It seemed they always had their motives. So was Rev really a knight in shining armor or had I once again met a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
When I shook myself free of my distracting thoughts, I found Rev staring at me. I hadn’t cared about my appearance since I had been kidnapped. Although I had been forced to look good for Mendoza, I didn’t seek his approval. For some strange reason, though, I found myself worrying about what Rev thought of me now. I brought my hand, which was currently tethered to an IV pole, to my hair. “I must be a mess.”
“No. I was just thinking how much better you already look after surgery. I was so scared for you when I found you in the compound.”
“I thought you were Jesus,” I murmured, alluding to what I had said at the compound.
“I’m still just Rev,” he teased.
For some reason, I found myself smiling at his response. It felt good to smile again and to have someone tease me. It made me think of the past before everything that had happened to me with Mendoza. “So what kind of name is Rev?” I asked.
“Road name.”
I jerked my hand from his in revulsion.No, it couldn’t be true.Surely someone as kind and caring as Rev couldn’t possibly be like Johnny and his friends.
When I continued staring at him, Rev said, “It’s not what you think.”
