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By the time the doctor entered the room, Cole had yanked on his pants and was stuffing his feet into his sneakers.
“Hold on,” the doctor said. “I haven’t released you.”
“I don’t need your approval,” Cole said, shooting the doctor a look. “Please have someone remove this IV or I’ll do it myself.”
The doctor tossed his clipboard on the bed. “I’ll do it, but only because your scans came back fine. You don’t have any internal bleeding, which is amazing, but you should still spend the night here for observation. That’s my recommendation.”
“Noted, but I’m leaving,” Cole said, pulling up the tape that attached the IV to his arm. “And nothing you say is going to change my mind.”
The doctor must have seen that he meant it, because he didn’t argue any further. “You’ll have to sign the Against Medical Advice form.” The doctor took over removing the IV. A few seconds later, Cole had a cotton pad held on by tape over the spot where the IV had been.
Free of the line, he took off the hospital gown and yanked his shirt on, wincing from pain in his cracked ribs. “I’ll sign the AMA at the desk.” He felt a little dizzy and his left side hurt like hell, but he wasn’t mentioning that to anyone. He had people—people he loved—to protect, and he couldn’t do that from a hospital bed.
He marched out of the room to the nurse’s station. The doctor met him there and after another attempt to change his mind, showed him where to sign the release. He put his signature on the page and turned toward Kelsey. She was standing several feet away, holding Eddy close to her.
“Let me,” he said, reaching out his arms when he got to her, but she shook her head and walked ahead of him to the elevator. He wanted to argue that he was capable. The cracked ribs weren’t getting in the way of holding Eddy.
But she’d had one hell of a day. Maybe she needed the security of Eddy in her arms. For all their sakes, he wanted to wrap this mess up, but it would take time.
He assumed the attackers were in police custody. He’d make a call later to find out where they were being held and what the charges were against them.
First, he needed to get Kelsey and Eddy home, but his truck was still in the grocery store parking lot. They could get a cab to take them there, but he didn’t feel it was safe for him to drive, and Kelsey wasn’t in the right head space for that either. They’d go directly to Kelsey’s house and worry about the car later.
“We’ll get a taxi,” he said as the elevator doors opened, “and go home.”
She didn’t argue with him. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all.
TWENTY
Kelsey couldn’t settle. After getting home, Cole went through the usual security check. She talked to the police on the phone twice, since the investigating officers had more questions about the sequence of events that took place in front of the grocery store. And when that was done, she didn’t know what to do with herself, flitting from room to room in search of something to occupy or distract her. Nothing did the job. The restlessness, thewrongnessshe felt couldn’t be soothed by wiping down kitchen counters or tidying the magazines on the living room coffee table. Not when she couldn’t forget the deafening bang of the gun she’d fired…or the way Cole had looked crumpled on the asphalt.
Even now, it didn’t help to look at him, to see that he was alive and awake, because she could also see that he was injured.
He was limping slightly and favoring the side where his ribs were cracked. He’d said nothing about how the concussion was affecting him, but his head had to be hurting him. She glanced across the room where he rocked Eddy while standing in front of the windows that overlooked her patio area. Cole seemed remarkably calm, while she was a whirling tornado of worry and emotions.
“You should have had Raymond and David come over tonight as planned,” she said. “None of us are going to rest, and maybe they could shed some light on how this happened if Gomez is locked up.”
“Kels,” he said, his voice soft so he didn’t upset the baby. He’d made her hand over Eddy earlier when the baby had picked up on her tension and started crying. He calmed down if Cole held him, which irritated her.
“I hate this,” she muttered, dragging her hand through her hair and catching it in a snarl. “What do you think happened? Is Gomez still paying these guys even after the authorities froze his accounts?”
Cole moved toward her. “I’m beginning to think that Gomez was someone’s scapegoat. I just can’t figure out whose.”
“You will,” she said, hoping he could bring some clarity, because she was tapped out. She could hardly think well enough to care for her child, let alone unravel some complicated network of treasonous secrets and kidnappers.
“I’ll try.” He was standing in front of her. “Go take a bath. Soak in the tub and relax for a while. It’ll help.”
“I don’t think so. I feel like nothing will help, like nothing will ever be the same again, and my life will just be chaos and fear forever.” Saying it out loud made her fear and anxiety creep up again.
“It won’t be. You’ve got to trust me on this,” he said. “I’ve seen shitty situations before, and they always work out one way or the other.”
Did he really think that was comforting? Now her mind was churning with all the worst-case scenarios. “What’sthe otherin our case? The bad guys attack usagain? Dad never comes home? Both?” She wasn’t usually so negative, but this was a problem that she couldn’t see a way around. She tried to analyze it like it was a flaw in a program that she’d written, but it defied logic. Or maybe it was because she only could see part of the script and the error was in the hidden part. But how was she supposed to reveal it?
“Your fatherwillcome back. For all we know, he’s on his way here now.” Cole was trying to help her see the positives, but she just couldn’t.
She reached for Eddy. “I’ll put him down for his nap.” As he had earlier, the baby began to sob when she walked to the stairs with him. She forced herself to relax, to ease the tension in her shoulders and soften her hold on him. It didn’t help. The crying continued and grew louder. Cole hovered nearby, prepared to take him, but she didn’t want to let Eddy go.
And she didn’t…she couldn’t depend on him. Sooner or later, he’d leave and she and Eddy would be fine without him around. Heartbroken and sad, but overall, they’d make it.
