“Oh, good,” she said as she rushed over tome. She was older, hadshort,thinbrown hair, with a plumper frame and bright red lips. She looked tobe about in her mid-sixties as she came up to my bedside. “Goodmorning, Miss Wilder. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up. Youmust be terribly confused.”
No shit!
I looked at her with panic in my eyes. Whothe fuck was this woman and where the fuck was I? And why the fuckcouldn’t I open my jaw?!
“Shh, shh, calm down before you furtherinjure yourself. You’re going to be okay. I’m NurseGinsby,and I’m going to be taking care of youwhile you recover from your recent injuries.”
I tried to calm my breathing down as Iattempted to get her to tell me the extent of my recent “injuries.”I wanted to know what kind of damage Darren had done to my body. Ilifted my right wrist only to wince in serious pain and look downto find it was in a cast.
Motherfucker.
“Now, don’t struggle,” she urged me.“Yourright wrist is broken andtwo of your ribs are fractured. Your lower jaw was also fracturedwhich is why you’re mouth has been wired shut to prevent furtherinjury. You also suffered a slight concussion along with multipleexternal bruising.”
Now, I was pissed. Darren had not onlycompletely immobilized me,but he alsotookaway my ability to speak and cry for help. He was sucha cruel son of a bitch!
“Your prognosis isgood,though,” the nurse beamed positively. “You’ve beenasleep for a couple of days and your body is already beginning toheal itself at a fine rate. Depending on your amount of rest, youshould be all healed up within a few short months and your jaw willbe unwired within the next thirty days.”
I raised my eyebrows. Thirty days? My jawwould be wired shut for thirty days?! Rage started to fill me againand the beeps on my heart monitor sped up.
“Now, keep yourself calm,” she pleaded. “Mr.Davis will not be happy if you do something to slow yourrecovery.”
I gave her the glare of death.
“Where is he?” I mumbled without opening mymouth and then winced. Any kind of vibration I made with my throathurt my jaw.
“Mr. Davis is away on business and is notcurrently on the island. He means to return as soon as he knowsyou’re awake. I imagine he will be here tomorrow.”
“Island?” I asked her. We were on an islandnow?
“Yes, sorry, you were unconscious when theybrought you here. We are on Mr. Davis’s private island.”
“Where?” I spoke softly hoping I mightactually have a location disclosed to me for once.
“The Bahamas, and we’re expected to havegreat weather this season so there should be plenty of motivationfor you to get better so you can soak up some of that sun.”
The only motivation I had to get better wasso I could kill Mr. Davis myself one day. I sat back against thepillow and tried to relax, looking around the room to familiarizemyself with my surroundings. A few chairs were spread throughoutthe white linoleum floor, a small dinner table complete with fourchairs, a comfy looking couch against the window, and a fridge nextto what looked like a small kitchen complete with counters,cabinets,and a sink. To my leftlooked to be the bathroom and another door that I didn’t know whatit led to. Further left was another door, where the guard sat in achair next to it, staring straight ahead. I had a feeling he was apermanent fixtureinthe room.
“I’m just going to give you a quickassessment, and then I’ll fix you something to eat that yourstomach should be able to handle.”
I nodded, and it fucking hurt.
NurseGinsbyassessed everything—checking my breathing, drawingsome blood, and determined my pain scale, which was a fuckingtwenty, by the way. She told me the IV was for my fluids,antibiotics, and my pain medication. A lovely catheter had alsobeen inserted, and I wondered if that was the source of thesoreness I felt down there, or maybe it was from Darren.
When she was satisfied, she went over to thekitchen area and started pulling out some fruit from the fridge. Icouldn’t see much of what she was doing, but it looked like she wasmaking me a smoothie, which was probably all I could eat right now.When she returned, she came back with a bottle of water and asmoothie cup with a bendy straw. She cracked the bottle of wateropen first and put another bendy straw in it.
“Drink this first,” she said. “It’ll easeyour stomach.”
She held the water to my mouth, and Itentatively barely opened my lips to take the straw. I lightlysucked on the straw, groaning in pain as I did, but when the waterreached my mouth, I felt a wave of instant relief wash over me. Thewater felt so good in my mouth, and it calmed my now achingstomach. I finished half the bottle before she took it away and putthe smoothie in a cup holder that was close enough to reach myface.
“I want you to sip on this for a while. It’sa fruit smoothie with lots of protein and vitamins. I tried to makeit as thin as possible, but you’ll need to be careful with thesuction so it doesn’t hurt too much.”
I gave her a tiny nod and wrapped my lipsaround the straw, sucking the thicker liquid downinmy gut, the sweet taste of bananas andstrawberries on my tongue. It wasn’t easy to suck the smoothiethrough my teeth and swallow, but when I did, I felt a small waveof nausea come over me and backed off.
“It’s the medication,” she said. “And thefact you haven’t eaten in the last three days.”
I looked at her in shock. It had been threedays? What the fuck?!
“We’ve kept you asleep to help your bodyheal faster,” she replied without looking at me as she checked myheart monitor. “Now, if you can manage to get a good fourth of thatdown, I’ll let you sleep, but you really need to get some food inyour stomach first.”
