All he had to do was believe.
Everything in Wilt’s body ached. His back. His head. His shoulder. But what ached even more was his heart.
The last twelve hours had been a blur. He’d been in a daze through half of it.
They’d arrived at the Broome Health Campus, where she was rushed into a room. He didn’t try to follow her, even though his natural instinct was to do so. She needed to be treated, and him standing around pacing wouldn’t help anyone. He’d also been ushered into another room where they looked at his shoulder again. He’d shook them off and assured them he would get help, that the pain level was minimal, and he didn’t want any drugs.
Truth be told, the pain was bad, but not so bad that he couldn’t deal with it himself when needed. He wanted to keep his wits about him so he could follow whatever the doctors told him about Indigo’s condition. He would have to call Zara and give her all the details on what had occurred. Zara would likely be on the next flight to be at her side.
Wilt fully expected Indigo to be transported to Perth. As large as the health facility was, her injuries would require a skilled surgeon.
He’d been right on both counts. Zara had told him she’d get the first flight, and after the doctors had stabilized Indigo enough, they’d prepped her for a transfer.
Now, some eight hours after all of that, he was in another room, waiting for news. He’d finally succumbed to the need to take some pain relief for his shoulder, and the drugs were relaxing not only his bruised and battered muscles, but everything in him.
He was having trouble keeping his eyes open, but he needed to. He was all Indigo had. She had no family, and her best friend was still in the air on her way over.
Movement at the door caught his attention, and he tiredly looked up, surprised to see a large group of people make their way into the room.
“What are you all doing here?” he asked when Steve sat beside him.
“We’re here for you. You didn’t think you’d go through this alone,” his boss commented as Tabby, his wife, kissed Wilt’s cheek before sitting beside her husband.
“Yeah, but how did you guys get back here so fast? I got your message about you being safely on board and out of the hot zone a few minutes before chaos hit. Is Bayden okay?”
“Cass at Alliez arranged for a private jet to get us out of Jakarta. She also arranged for a medical crew to be onboard to help with Bayden. We came straight here from the airport with him. He’s in surgery, but it looks like he’s going to be fine,” Damon answered, his eyes revealing his fatigue. Wilt imagined he looked about the same.
“That’s good. I’m glad you’re here.” And he was. His team shouldn’t know about the change in his and Indigo’s relationship, but the fact they were all there belied that assumption.
Or it could be the fact that the message he’d left Steve–the desperation and worry he had in his voice for Indigo–was likely plain to hear.
Even if he wasn’t in love with Indigo, there was no way he’d leave her by herself at the hospital. It wouldn’t have been appropriate. However, his call to Steve would’ve been concise and to the point, not the gibberish he was sure he’d left.
“How long has she been in surgery?” Reed asked. His gaze darting to the door, no doubt expecting his wife to walk through it any minute now. Like Andy’s fiancée Narelle would be. There was no way they wouldn’t have informed their loved ones that they were back and headed to the hospital. Fortunately, their partners understood the brotherhood they all had, and that they wouldn’t leave anyone behind to deal with a trauma by themselves.
Hence why they were all there for him as well as Bayden.
“A few hours.” At least Wilt thought it was a few. He’d lost all sense of time.
“What happened?” Steve asked.
Wilt gave everyone a rundown of everything that occurred. “Jeffrey is keeping me updated. Louella isn’t saying much, but they were able to locate her sister, who is actually a friend of Indigo’s, and Reina was never in the running for the job. Greta had insisted on Indigo from the start, and she was the only one they contacted. Reina had no idea what her sister was doing, and is mortified that she stabbed Indigo. Reina did recall that she told her sister that the campaign was one she would love to have gotten, and I guess Louella decided that Indigo had taken it from Reina.”
“Sounds like there are some issues with Reina’s sister,” Damon said.
“It’s likely, but Louella never gave any indication during the shoots that she was out to get Indigo. In fact, she was always nice to Indigo when Vincent, the photographer, was being an ass.” Wilt had some sympathy for her, if she did have a few problems, but she stabbed Indigo with an intent to kill. She would need to pay for that. “I’m sure it will come out during the investigation, and whatever help Louella needs, she’ll get it. But she will also have to face what she did to Indigo and the punishment that comes with that.”
“For sure. I’ll contact Jeffrey again in the morning to follow up. Have you spoken to the police?” Steve asked.
“Yeah, the officer in charge of the case called me. He gave me a phone interview. Not what he wanted, but that was all he was going to get from me. He’ll email my statement to the office. I’ll review it, and if it needs changes, I’ll get back to him and we’ll go from there.”
“Surprised they didn’t want you to do it face to face,” Andy commented.
Wilt smiled wryly. “He came to the hospital, but he took one look at me and said he’d call. It’s not normal, but given what we do, he trusted that nothing I saw would be forgotten anytime soon.”
His friends nodded. As former SAS soldiers, their recall skills hadn’t softened over their time out of service.
Wilt was aware of Steve’s scrutiny. He waited for the inevitable question. “What’s your status with your shoulder?”
