“Anytime, and keep me updated!” She heads to the front door and throws a wave over her head.
I plop back down on the couch. Ainsley gave me a lot to think about. It’s only once I grab my phone to check my schedule for the day that I see the multiple texts that came during our conversation.
Unknown:
You shouldn’t be sleeping with men that aren’t me.
Unknown:
Ignore me all you want. One day, you won’t be able to just ignore a message that comes through.
My face drains at the messages. I have no clue what this person is playing at, but I need to be cautious. Ignoring the messages is probably the best course of action, but I need to keep an eye out if it escalates. If it gets more serious, I’ll have to go to Arlo.
Chapter 17
Arlo
It’s been a mostly uneventful few weeks.
I finally finished all the paperwork dealing with Tennison, so I can officially put it behind me. Thank God too, because the constant reminder of the case keeps the image of carrying Lennox out of that fucking cabin fresh in my head. Between that and whatever is going on with Rina, I’m not sleeping and am grumpier than usual, according to Audrey.
Today is a big day, though. It’s been about a month in the making, between making sure the whole damn town knew I had the day off and not to bug me, to finding a doctor in Rosedale. It’s taken far longer than I wanted.
My back pain has been steadily growing worse, and it’s time to get it checked out to see if there is further damage than what was already there. The nice thing about my hip injury is they just replaced the whole damn thing. So, while I have some achiness when it rains or gets cold, it doesn’t give me trouble like my back does.
The forty-minute drive gives me too much time to think about Rina, though. Ever since the night I told her why I did what I did and then spent the entire night holding her, it’s been radio silence. I’ve only seen her around town a handful of times, and I don’t know if she’s avoidingme completely or just working through her own shit. What I do know is I fucking miss her.
That night also prompted me to start taking care of myself. I had already gotten Oakley’s therapist’s number, but I actually called and scheduled an intake appointment when I got home from Rina’s that day. Of course, they didn’t have availability for almost a month, so while I wait for that, I figured out things with the doctor’s appointments I’ve been putting off.
Pulling into the medical center, the nerves start to get to me. I had three burst fractures in my back from the accident, and the only thing they could do to fix them was to do a spinal fusion. I was told I could live a perfectly normal life with no pain, or I could live with constant pain. I’ve never lived pain free since the surgery, but it also wasn’t anything more than a dull ache when I overworked it.
This pain, though? Completely different. Sharp, shooting pains along with a near constant ache throughout my entire back and random numbness in my extremities have become the norm. I’m just hoping I didn’t do something that can’t be fixed.
Getting checked in goes smoothly enough. The office is nice, and the receptionist put my nerves at ease while I was filling out the pages and pages of paperwork.
“Mr. Steel?” a nurse calls from the side door, and I groan as I use my hands to push up out of the chair. “Are you good to walk? I can grab a wheelchair if that would ease the pain a little.” Her voice is sweet and non-judgmental, but it makes me feel weak and I can’t handle feeling weak right now.
“I’m good,” I grunt out, trying extremely hard to not take my terrible attitude out on this poor nurse who is just trying to do her job.
She nods but follows behind me closely to make sure I’m okay. “We’ll be in room three today.”
I walk a little slower than normal until I get to room three and take a seat in the chair off to the side of the medical bed. The nurse gets the usual information, and then I’m left with every possibility of what could be wrong.
A knock sounds at the door, and I abruptly straighten, causing my damn back to lock up again.
“Good morning, Mr. Steel. I’m Dr. Vincent.” He holds out his hand to shake.
“Arlo works perfectly, thanks, sir.”
“Then Brian works perfectly for me as well. What’s going on today, Arlo?” He takes a seat on a rolling stool and sits right in front of me, giving me his full attention. He doesn’t look at his paperwork like most do, and it throws me for a loop.
“Umm, I have back pain,” I stumble to get out before clearing my throat and continuing. “I was in the Marines, and I had a repel go bad. It smashed up my back and hip, and I had a spinal fusion to correct the burst fractures.”
“That’s a lot of trauma to your body. I’m glad you were relatively okay. How long ago was this?” he asks.
“About a decade ago. My back was re-aggravated after I carried a guy to my truck. Long story and mostly confidential, sorry,” I throw out. “And it’s been shooting pain and periodic numbness ever since.”
“What do you do now for work?”
