Page 28 of Her Ruthless Protector

6

A.J. looked down at Letty and kept a smile on her face. It wasn’t easy when all she wanted to do was cry.

Suck it up, tears never helped.

She’d talked to Don and two other executive producers. They’d been informed that the lights had been sabotaged, but that Letty and the two other performers from Spain hadn’t been specifically targeted. A.J. couldn’t decide if that made it better or worse. They knew they weren’t targeted because the cable could have broken at any point during the day, it just happened to break lose during Letty’s rehearsal. She looked down at the unconscious girl.

The doctors still weren’t sure if there would be permanent damage or not. One of Letty’s vertebrae had been damn near shattered and two others were badly damaged. She’d been in surgery for ten hours. Letty’s parents still hadn’t arrived, so it was vitally important to A.J. to make sure that the young girl saw a friendly face when she woke up.

Letty’s eyelids fluttered open. She had a breathing tube inserted in her throat so she couldn’t talk. A.J. saw the flare of panic in her eyes as she tried to move her arms and couldn’t.

“You’re in the hospital, Letty,” A.J. explained softly. “You need to be still, you have a tube in your throat to help you breathe, and there are needles in your arms to help you.” A.J. didn’t know the right word for I.V. in Spanish. Letty’s eyes filled with tears. “Your Mama and Papa will be here soon.” A.J. stroked the hair from the girl’s face, grateful that she could provide comfort. Even more grateful that the girl had two caring parents who were rushing to her side.

Letty gurgled. “Hold on and I’ll get a nurse. Let’s see if we can get that tube removed, huh?”

As she turned around to leave the room, in rushed two frantic parents. They immediately started speaking to their daughter.

“A moment, please.” A.J. said over their voices. “Letty can’t answer. Let me get the nurse and the doctor.”

“Who are you?” Letty’s mother grabbed her arm. “What happened? Is she well?”

A.J. patted the woman who was the spitting image of her beautiful daughter. “Let me get her doctor.” A.J. left the room for the nurse’s station. They’d taken all three performers to the Royal Hospital in Muscat because of their status. A.J. had been impressed with the staff, but the hospital itself seemed so dark, dismal and quiet that it was weirding her out.

“Pardon,” she said. It was one of the ten words she knew in Arabic. The nurse looked up and immediately responded in English. A.J. explained about Letty’s parents arriving and her agitation. The nurse got on the phone and soon the doctor and another nurse materialized. They suggested that A.J. go and sit in the waiting room.

“Do you know Spanish?” she asked.

When the doctor admitted he didn’t, A.J. followed them into Letty’s room. She acted as translator as the doctor explained Letty’s status. A.J. hated it, because it wasn’t a rosy picture. Dammit, she needed to get back to the stadium and find out who the hell had sabotaged those lights!

Senora Cortez was keeping it together, but her husband had tears rolling down his face. When Letty could finally speak, she and her mother both tried to console Senor Cortez. It was surreal seeing the dad be the one who was a basket case. The few years she had her dad in her life he had been the bulwark in the family, her mom was the one who always sucked all the oxygen out of every room. A.J. felt her shoulders tense at the thought of her childhood.

Nope, no time for that sitcom.

“I have to go, but here’s my cell phone number,” A.J. said. “I know with the translation app on your phone you’ll be able to communicate with the staff.” A.J. repeated herself in English for the doctor.

“We will bring in a translator as well,” the doctor assured the Cortez family. It really didn’t matter how dark the hallways were, the hospital was topnotch as far as A.J. was concerned. She leaned down and whispered good-bye to Letty.

“You would have won the show for sure,” she said.

“Really?” Letty asked.

“No doubt,” A.J. smiled.

Seeing Letty’s face light up was worth the white lie. A.J. touched the girl’s fingers and waved goodbye to the staff and ignored the parents. Really, she just couldn’t deal with the father’s bullshit. A.J. called downstairs for her driver. She still felt weird about having drivers assigned to her, it felt kind of hoity-toity, but that was part of the gig.

“How is the girl, Madame?” Mohammad asked as she got into the car.

“I thought we agreed you were going to call me A.J.”

“Yes, Madame. How is she?”

A.J. sighed, she so wasn’t going to ever win this battle. “Letty has a long road to recovery, but her parents are with her now, so that’s good.”

“That’s good. My youngest daughter is her age.”

Which is why you shouldn’t call me Madame.

“Are we going back to the stadium, or to your hotel?” he asked.