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“She’ll have full range of motion?” I asked. “Nothing is wrong with her shoulder mechanically?”
One didn’t realize how moveable the shoulder was until they no longer had the ability to move it.
The shoulder joint was the joint that had the most range of motion. It was more flexible than any other joint in the body.
“The bullet was through and through,” the doctor began answering my question. “No bone was hit. The muscle that it went through will definitely hurt for a few weeks while she’s recovering, but ultimately, I foresee there being no problems whatsoever with her shoulder.”
“Oh, good,” Harlow blew out a relieved breath. “That would’ve really sucked for her, not being able to use it. You know how much she loves to play softball.”
“Jesus, that would’ve sucked,” Adam replied at the same time. “You know how much she loves that co-ed softball team.”
Harlow chuckled. “Watch her ask me to fill in her spot.”
The family laughed, and I felt like I was missing something.
Instead of joining their conversation with the doctor, I looked over at her relaxed face and studied it until they asked the doctor a question that I wanted to know the answer to.
“When can she go home?” Jack asked.
“As early as tomorrow afternoon,” the doctor answered as the nurse came over and fiddled with the morphine pump at her side, checking wires and connections before emptying out the catheter bag. “I want to monitor her numbers overnight. If they remain stable, and she’s able to control the pain well enough with oral medication tomorrow morning, then she’ll be released into your care with the directions to come back if anything goes astray.”
Just as he said that, an alarming sound started to play over the loudspeaker in Catori’s room.
“What the hell is that?” Harlow was the first to ask.
“Means there’s an active shooter situation.” The nurse’s voice quivered. “We need to get the floor on lockdown.”
With that, both people left, closing the door behind them.
Adam and Jack stiffened.
“Son of a bitch,” Jack growled. “I can’t even have my gun in this fuckin’ place.”
“I left mine in the truck, too, since I wasn’t on duty.” Adam’s voice was tight with anger. “Do you think that it’s him?”
We were all thinking the same thing.
The person that was in that hospital, the shooter, might be Thor Thames, the man that’d already hurt our girl once. It would not happen again.
“I got us,” I said as I lifted my shirt to show them my gun.
“Holy shit,” Harlow said. “Are felons allowed to have guns?”
“No, they’re not,” Jack said. “Give it to me.”
I snorted. “Listen, old man. I don’t have a wife, kids, and grandkids. You do. I literally got nothin’. No kids of my own. No girl. And no one looking forward to me coming home.” I gestured to the dog on the ground. “And the one living thing in my care right now is right here, growling at me any time my foot comes too close. So no, I will not hand it over. You have too much to lose.”
Jack opened his mouth to say something, but shut it.
“Fuck,” Adam grumbled. “Just don’t pull it out and shoot anyone unless you absolutely have to. And I swear to God, don’t make me regret this.”
I laughed. “You won’t.”
CHAPTER 6
Making new friends as an adult is hard because I don’t want them.
-Text from Cat to Laric
LARIC
“Let’s get the bed moved as far away from the door as we can get it,” Winter suggested. “Then, Harlow and I will head to the bathroom to get out of the way just in case.”
The calmness in her tone was soothing.
I’d never seen a female, at least one that wasn’t trained in chaos, deal with a situation as well as she was at that moment.
The surprise must’ve shown on my face, because Jack said, “Winter’s a paramedic.”
Understanding dawned, and a whispered memory from earlier needled at my brain. “I might have heard that…I was a medic in the army.”
“Kindred spirit,” Winter mused as she unsnapped the wheels on the bed and started to shove her side.
I got the other, and together we moved her so far into the corner of the room that you wouldn’t see anything in there unless you were standing inside of the room.
“Amelia’s gonna be so pissed.” Adam winced.
I turned to see him silencing his phone and shoving it back into his pocket.
“She’ll just call us next…” Jack said as he pulled his phone out and showed him his vibrating phone.
“You need to answer it or she’ll come up here,” Winter ordered.
“She wouldn’t.” Adam’s eyes narrowed.
“She would,” Amelia, apparently, said as she came into the room.
“Son of a bitch,” Adam growled, going to his pregnant wife.
That’s about the time that Catori woke up again, a look of pain on her face.
I punched her button for her, hoping that the release of the morphine would help, but her face etched into a pained frown.
