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“Thanks for being here,” I yawned. “You didn’t have to, but it means a lot.”
“I kept your aunt up to date on your surgery,” Mercy said. “She told me to tell you to call her when you were feeling better, and she says the next time you go into surgery like this, make sure that she can get a flight out.”
I chuckled softly.
“It’s not my fault she lives in the remotest part of Alaska,” I muttered. “And the only way to get there is to take a damn small plane that runs only once a week.”
I felt someone kiss me on the cheek.
“Call me if you need me,” she said. “I better get this one fed and home to study before she loses her shit.”
I snorted. “Too late. She’s already lost it.”
“Very funny,” Sierra drawled. “Bye. I’ll be sure to have a nice, scalding hot sponge bath for you tomorrow.”
I gave her a thumb up, causing her to laugh.
When I opened my eyes next, it was to find my room empty.
Which sucked.
But that was the way of my life.
I’d be more surprised at this point if somebody was there.
Bonus points if they were here for me, and not for a family friend, but just so happened to know the guy in the other room…aka me.Chapter 6Look at you, being awake and stuff! You are reading words, and probably aren’t even stabbing anybody at the moment. Way to adult!
-Text from Oakley to Pace
Oakley
I blinked my eyes and grinned at my dad, who had his arms crossed so tightly across his chest that he looked downright mean.
“Luke,” Trance said stiffly.
Luke was the chief of police for the Kilgore Police Department and a man that my father respected quite a bit.
“Trance.” He offered him his hand. “How’s your girl?”
I gave Luke a thumb up. “I’m doing good.”
“You are?” he asked skeptically.
I pointed down to the bottom of the bed, to the railing that was holding my catheter bag.
“I’m peeing,” I told him.
Luke blinked at me, looked at the bag, then looked back at me. “Ahh, that’s good?”
I nodded. “Peeing means my kidney that Pace donated to me is working.”
Luke nodded his head in understanding. “Gotcha. That’s good news, then.”
It was. It was very good news.
According to the doctor, one in three patients could possibly not have a functioning kidney for weeks. If that were to happen, then I’d have to go back on dialysis.
Luckily the kidney that Pace so graciously donated to me was working minor miracles.
I loved my kidney already.
“You like Sergeant Jackson on your force?” My father didn’t beat around the bush.
Luke frowned. “Overall, he’s not well-liked. However, he’s a good police officer, and he has one of the best ratings in the department. Why?”
“Because I’m about to go kick his ass, and I was wondering how attached you were to him,” my father replied.
Luke frowned. “What did he do?”
I liked that he didn’t immediately get all defensive. For my father to get mad, he had a damn good reason. For him to threaten violence? That was something my father didn’t do unless shit was serious.
He was a cop as well. He was very careful and contained because he had to be.
“My kid was dying,” Dad said stiffly. “They gave her days, not even weeks, to live. I slowly watched her, day by day, waste away into a shell of the kid I once knew. And Pace Vineyard answered our prayers. He donated his kidney and risked his life for my kid, and he gets written up at work for it?”
Luke stiffened. “What do you mean he got written up at work?”
“I was listening to him talk to another officer downstairs,” Ford said from his lean against the wall next to my bed. “He was very vocal about the fact that he didn’t like Pace, and that it was only a matter of time before he was off the force. If he got two more write-ups, he could let him go since he was still in his probationary period.”
Luke’s head dropped back, and he studied the ceiling.
“He was having this conversation where people could hear him, in a public setting?” he asked, laughing humorlessly. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“He needs to be fired,” my father told him bluntly.
Luke sighed. “I wish I could. I really do. I’ve had so many complaints on him that it’s getting to the point where something should be done. But his brother is the mayor, and his niece is the goddamn department shrink. His parents are very important donors to the fallen officer fund, and have so much reach in Kilgore, as well as the state of Texas, that it’s creepy. If I fired him, they’d just find a way to fire me.”
My father growled.
“Then fix it so that Pace isn’t in his department anymore,” Ford suggested.
Luke’s eyes went thoughtful for a few long moments, then he grinned. “I got a new, experimental department. I’ve been moving some of my more troublesome officers there. Not that they’re bad officers or anything, but they’ve definitely found themselves in some hot water to get to this particular department. But, since I have full confidence that this new branch of the department will work, it’s not a career death sentence. It’s a working department that I think will bring a lot of revenue to the city.”
