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“A job,” I said slowly. “She wanted to offer me a job in New York.”
I said no more.
* * *
I came awake slowly, like emerging from a long dark tunnel. There was numbing pain down my right side. I blinked my eyes, overcome by some unaccountable sense of remorse and regret – and then remembered that Nancy was dead.
There was a uniformed blonde woman standing close to the bed. She stood, quietly watching me.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” the woman said. There was a bright chirp to her voice. “We thought we’d lost you for a while there.”
I swallowed. My mouth felt swollen and the air seemed to wheeze from my lungs.
“How long…?”
The nurse widened her eyes. “It’s been three weeks,” she said.
“Am I going to live?”
“Apparently,” she said in good humor. “I’m sure all your fans will be pleased to hear the news.”
“You know who I am?” every word was a strain.
The nurse smiled. “Of course,” she said off-handedly. “You’re Boston’s own BDSM Master. The nurses on this floor have been drawing straws for the last couple of weeks to see who gets the pleasure of sponge bathing you.”
I think that was a joke. There was a twinkle of mischief in the young woman’s eyes. She was like a bright humming bird. Her hands flitted like wings as she changed a dressing – some kind of wound down around my hip that I couldn’t see – but I could feel.
“What’s the damage?” I asked at last.
The nurse straightened and her face became more serious. I saw her glance over her shoulder as if to be sure we were alone in the room. “The doctors will tell you the details,” she said in a conspiratorial hush. “But you survived with a broken leg, concussion, a collapsed lung and some broken ribs.”
Lucky me.
I nodded, and then flinched. There was a lance of pain like a white-hot needle that stabbed behind my eye. The whole side of my face felt swollen.
“The woman that was here…?” I groaned the words.
The nurse arched an eyebrow. “The pretty redhead?”
“Yes.”
“She’s down at the cafeteria,” the nurse said and then paused as if unsure. “Is she your wife… your girlfriend, maybe?”
“What makes you ask that?”
The nurse shrugged. “She has been here at your bedside since they brought you to the hospital. For the first week she slept on the floor by your bed – we couldn’t get her to leave. Now she arrives at the break of dawn and stays until past visiting hours. She’s very, very devoted to you.”
At that moment April came back through the door.
She saw I was awake. She threw her handbag at a chair and came to the bed, joy blooming across her face. She flicked a glance at the young nurse as if to seek her permission to approach. The nurse smiled a nod and then discreetly drifted from the room.
April clutched at my hand. She was warm and smiling, and there was a glisten of happy tears in her eyes. She smelled of soap and perfume.
“Hi,” she said in a breath of relief.
“Hi,” I muttered. I tried to smile but the swelling tugged at my mouth and the expression became a wince.
“You’ve been in the hospital for three weeks. Did you know that?”
I nodded – and then had a sudden stab of alarm. I tried to sit up. My body wouldn’t work. “My stuff,” I grunted. “My apartment…”
April shook her head and gently touched at my shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve taken care of it. All of your possessions have been moved to my apartment.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I had movers take everything to my place,” she said, then shrugged her shoulders as if it made perfect sense. “After all, I’ve been looking for a flat mate since Renata moved out, and you’re not going to be in any condition to take care of yourself for some time yet.”
For a long time we said nothing. I stared up into April’s face, seeing her afresh. She was beautiful, with an integrity and an honesty that I hadn’t appreciated before. She was smiling. I tried to smile back.
“Work?”
April nodded. A shadow passed across her eyes. “There is a new manager at the station,” she said. “He seems okay. He’s from Cincinnati. He seems to know the industry.”
“So we still have jobs?”
“Of course,” April said. “Whenever you’re fit for work again. Everyone is waiting for you. There has been over ten thousand calls to the station since word got out about the accident.”
But it wasn’t an accident. It was attempted murder. Grover had tried to kill me, and inadvertently killed Nancy instead as he took his own life.
I said nothing.
“So…?” April asked at last.
“So what?”
“Are you okay about sharing an apartment with me?”
I nodded. I liked the idea. A lot.
“Good,” she said and beamed a smile. “And I promise to be a good girl for you,” she leaned close and whispered softly in my ear. “Anything at all you want – anything at all… and I’ll give it to you gladly. Master.”
I felt myself flinch. April leaned back from the bed and smiled at me, her eyes big and artless with innocence.
“Don’t call me that,” I said quietly.
April nodded her head in a gesture of acquiescence and understanding, but the smile stayed on her lips and became feminine and secret. She leaned over the bed and kissed me on the lips.
“Yes, Master,” she nodded.
THE END.
