Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
I sat and only let out a small groan when my butt hit the hard surface.
“Based on your bruising pattern, I’m guessing you were curled up into a ball, and she was only able to hit your left side,” he offered as he moved away.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Tell me from start to finish what happened,” he urged.
The shower turned on, and then he was back, helping me undress.
He took the IV out of my hand and then replaced it with a Band-Aid before I started explaining.
“I don’t really know what happened with my dad. He was spouting all this crap about my mother, and I must’ve said or done something to really make him mad, because he punched me in the face,” I said. “I’ve never been hit like that before. I was stunned, and it hurt so bad that it took me a couple of minutes to orient myself. By then he was leaving, but he left the door open to my apartment.”
I explained the rest while Webber gently helped me into the shower.
He washed my hair while I told him about how Cadence Moran entered my apartment.
He rinsed my hair out while I told him about how Moran had taken advantage of my vulnerable position.
He applied conditioner while I told him about how I feared for my life.
He ran his soap over my body, and the scent of man filled my nostrils as I told him what she’d had to say when I’d heard her break my chair—by that point, she’d hit me in the face on the other side of my eye, and I hadn’t been able to see.
“She told me that I needed to tell you that if I didn’t get her brother to her by the end of the week, she’d kill me. My sister. My nephew. And your daughter. She said we had four more days, and she was going to start picking them off one by one, saving me for last so I could witness it all and hopefully convince you to find her brother.”
Since I couldn’t see Webber, I couldn’t tell how mad he was by the end of my explanation.
His touch had never gotten any rougher than a whisper across my skin.
His voice remained even.
His soothing sounds remained just that—soothing.
However, I didn’t need to be able to see or hear his anger to know that he was angry.
Who wouldn’t be after what I’d just told him about his daughter?
He helped me out of the shower, and his hands were so achingly soft as he toweled me dry.
He helped me into one of his shirts and then handed me a toothbrush with some toothpaste on it before saying, “Sink’s right here.”
I brushed my teeth and used the bathroom, achingly aware that he was close by.
When I was finished, I felt around for the door that would lead me out of the bathroom and nearly lost my life when my foot hit a wet patch on the ground.
I was caught by a hard, overwhelmingly welcoming body.
“Careful,” he said quietly.
I pressed my forehead against his chest and couldn’t stop the moan that left me. “That hurt.”
He may have caught me as gently as he could, but still.
“Come to bed,” he urged softly in my ear. “I’ll get you some medication.”
He gave me something amazing and I eventually was in no pain as I lay in bed and listened to Eedie and Webber talk quietly about the movie we were watching.
I was so comfortable and warm that I found myself falling asleep without another thought.
“My job,” I said the moment I woke up, in enough pain that it woke me.
Even worse, in my panic, I forgot that I couldn’t see and started panicking even more.
It was seriously scary not to be able to see.
I couldn’t even pry my eyes open—and I’d tried—they were that swollen shut.
“I’ll have Apollo handle it.” I assumed Webber dialed Apollo, because Apollo’s voice filled the room around me.
“Webber, what’s up?” Apollo asked, sounding distracted.
I knew Apollo well, and he probably was distracted.
He always had something brewing, and he would never slow down, even with him running for state office.
“Need some help,” Webber explained everything, and Apollo hummed. “On it. I’ll just do her work remotely, and they won’t notice she’s not even there.”
That was sadly true.
Most nights, I was the only one there, and I arrived after everyone left.
And, since I was traveling around to various departments throughout the hospital, they might not even know I wasn’t there if they came looking for me.
“Good, thanks, man,” Webber said as he hung up.
The silence stretched, and I yawned, which was the wrong move, because holy hell did my jaw hurt.
I must’ve let out an inadvertent whimper because I felt the bed shift, and then heard Webber walk out of the room.
I had no clue what time it was, but Webber didn’t seem to care that it was probably early in the morning.