“Mr. Winchester, I told you no more than one visitor at a time.”
I assumed Bryce was the Mr. Winchester the nurse was scolding, and he confirmed it with a shrug.
“Oopsie.”
“And you call yourself a good cop,” Dalton said.
“I am a good cop.”
Bryce glanced down at his phone. “Shit, I have to go.”
“Go, I’ll stay here,” Dalton said, giving Bryce a knowing look.
Once again, I was on the outside looking in. “Is he okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, he just has something he needs to take care of.”
From the looks on their faces, they all knew what.Or who. Before I could ask, the nurse ordered them out.
“Say your goodbyes,” the hardened nurse ordered. She gave off Nurse Ratched vibes as she crossed her arms over her ample chest and waited for my family to leave.
“There are more people waiting to see you,” the nurse said as she approached my bed. “But they’ll have to wait; it’s time for your morphine.”
I looked at her name tag and poured on as much charm as a human punching bag could muster. “Nancy, would you be an angel and let me talk to my Uncle John and Ryan Gibson before you knock me out again?”
She studied me for a minute. “Fine, but five minutes and not a second more.”
“Thank you, Nancy, there’s a special place in heaven for you.”
She laughed as she walked out. “Five minutes.”
When she opened the door, I saw Bryce talking to John and Gibson.
Whatever he told them didn’t go over well, but they both nodded.
I tried to sit up as they approached, but they rushed to opposite sides of my bed and pinned my shoulders.
“Easy there, Boss.”
Taking it easy wasn’t optional. I had the strength of a two-year-old, and moving too fast made me dizzy.
“What happened?” I asked. “And talk fast, Nurse Nancy probably set a stopwatch.”
John and G filled in the gaps in my memory, making sure to remind me often that Nina was safe and sound.
“Someone is with her at all times,” John said.
“Who’s with her now?”
When I coughed, John handed me the water cup. Unlike Bryce, he let me drink like an adult.
“Mary.”
“Her grandmother?”
“Kroupa and Madi are with her. We didn’t have time to relocate her to the care center.”
“She’s okay?”
