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At the hospital, Wilde stayed with Doc in the waiting room as I went into the ICU.
A nurse caught me as I passed the station toward Celt’s room. “Miss? Miss?”
I wasn’t sure she was talking to me at first, but there was no one else around. I turned to the short and curvy woman dressed in blue scrubs with a paper mask hanging around her neck and a name tag reading: Roni Lewis.
“You can’t go in right now.” She urged me back toward the waiting room. “Your brother just woke up, and Dr. Carson is examining him.”
I pulled my arm from her grip and turned back toward Celt’s room. “Listen, Roni. I need to know that he’s going to be okay.” I called as I walked past the young nurse.
She raised her voice as she scurried after me. “He’s very responsive. Tha-That’s a good sign. But I-I’m under orders to keep family out for now.” She bustled around me and planted herself in my path, holding both hands forward in a stop motion. “Miss, please don’t make me call security. As soon as Dr. Carson is done, he’ll come out and talk to you.”
My knee twitched with nerves and the temptation to just bowl past her into the room. Something was wrong. I couldn’t explain how I knew, but every hair on my arms stood at attention.
“How long?” I demanded.
Folding my arms over my chest, I waited for her to answer. I’d seen the shows on TV. They always kept the family out for a reason, and it couldn’t be anything good. If Celt was awake, but they wouldn’t let me in, something else was off.
The pretty little nurse, with her blonde hair pulled back in a bun, grabbed both my elbows and turned me toward the waiting room. “Come on. He’ll be alright.”
Roni Lewis’s eyes were a bright green, almost aqua, and piercing. And there was something I couldn’t place behind them. She smiled shyly as she persistently urged me toward the door. I looked down at where her hands grasped my elbows and caught a glimpse of an angry red circular scar just above her wrist.
She jerked back and pulled the sleeve down as she continued to escort me out of the ICU. Her voice was sweet as honey as she said with more authority that seemed possible in her sweet stature, “If Dr. Carson hasn’t come out in ten minutes, I’ll get an update for you. I promise.”
Before I knew it, she’d pressed the button to open the door and scooted me out into the waiting area. My jaw hung open, reflecting my pure stupor over how she’d finessed me right out of the ward. Wilde came over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as I stood watching the doors close and the little nurse disappear.
Wilde urged me over toward the chairs near the window, but we hadn’t made it halfway before Roni Lewis’s voice called my name. Having not given that to her, I turned, folding my brow as I waited for her to continue.
She rushed over, placed her little hand on my forearm, and said, “Dr. Carson asked to speak with you. Will you follow me?”
Together, Wilde and I started to follow her back into the ICU.
But she stopped and tried to tuck a lock of her hair that behind her ear. The thing was, her hair was perfectly slicked back into that bun. Nervous tick, I supposed and grinned up at my man. He certainly was imposing, and her being so tiny, I could understand how she’d be intimidated.
She collected herself and forced her hands back to her sides. “I’m sorry, mister?” She waited, but Wilde didn’t reply, probably because he’d never been called mister before. Much like no one called me “miss.” A spark seemed to fire in Roni’s eyes at his lack of response. She jutted her chin higher and added, “Dr. Carson said only Miss Murray. You’ll have to wait here.”
48
Wilde
I paced around the waiting room outside the ICU. Doc left, and I was the only person there, as Cook hadn’t arrived yet that morning, and apparently the other patients in this white-washed place weren’t in rough enough shape to be on this floor. I hoped Celt would pull through this and return to his old, protective self. I liked the man. But more than that, I wanted him to be okay for Bou.
I would do any goddamn thing in the world for the woman who’d just walked through those double doors. My simple willing presence in a hospital was evidence of that. Yeah, there was shit to do with my old man, and I’d probably have to take that DA’s call today, but the only thing in the world I was concerned with was what news Dr. Carson was delivering to my woman about her brother and exactly how that might destroy her even more.
I felt helpless standing in that empty waiting room, like a discarded tool, and I thought about following her despite the instructions from the doctor and nurse. Bou needed someone to be strong for her right now, and that was me. I flexed and released my fingers as I walked. The suits and ties on the TV talking about some festival in Phoenix this weekend or the latest sports game were starting to annoy me, so I marched over and ripped the thing’s plug out of the wall.
Silence. But that wasn’t any better. The only sound I heard was the blood rushing in my ears as I became more and more agitated at having to wait.
“Fuck!” I shouted to the empty room, then ran my hands over my head and sank into the nearest chair. I don’t know how long I stayed like that, but in the silence, I heard every little sound: lights buzzing, the elevator dinging, and the air alternating between on and off. So, when the double doors swooshed open, I was on my feet before anyone appeared, ready and waiting to pounce.
Bou walked out slowly, her face pale, her eyes wide and worried.
I rushed over to her and put an arm gently around her shoulders, and I tried to be patient and understanding. I truly did, but I felt a growl gurgling low in my chest.
“Bou,” I coaxed. “Tell me what’s wrong. What do you need? Whatever it is, I’ve got you.”
I was fucking babbling like a high-school girl, but she wouldn’t talk. I turned her to me so that we were face to face.
Her mouth opened, closed, then repeated.
