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The nurse jumped.
Val looked like she was about to cry.
And Felix looked annoyed.
Sensing she wasn’t needed or wanted in the least, she left with a huff.
“I want her nowhere near my wife,” I snarled. “If she gets near her, I’m going to fuckin’ revolt.”
Felix nodded once, looking contrite. “I’ll have a word with her.”
He fuckin’ better.
“Feel free to fire her if you want,” Keene muttered, looking at Val. “I’ve yet to find her attitude anything but atrocious.”
Felix’s left eye twitched. “Noted.”
“Is there anything else?” Simi asked as she clung to Coffey.
We were standing in the hallway at the end, right outside of Sunny’s room. The hallway was partially blocked off by another set of doors, and it was obvious this was a containment room of some kind that they’d turned into a special room just for Crimson.
But that was what money bought you.
Privacy.
What it also bought you was fuckin’ headaches.
Like the paparazzi that had camped out for two reasons right outside the goddamn hospital doors.
One, because they’d known that I was involved in some sort of ‘attack’ at the circus. And two, because my ex-wife had gotten out of the pen, and was now trying to check in on me every two hours.
Luckily, my parents had kept her away.
Unluckily, my parents hadn’t stayed away.
They wanted to know anything and everything there was to know about the woman who’s side I hadn’t left.
They also had food sent up here, and brought themselves, every single day since the event had taken place.
Speaking of parents, my mom poked her head through the closed doors at the end of the short hallway.
Upon seeing me, she walked right up to me and poked me in the good shoulder. “You’re supposed to be in a hospital bed, Mister!”
I sighed. “That hospital bed wouldn’t allow me to be where I’m at right now.”
Val snickered.
Dr. Felix Kent looked at her in a way that I recognized.
Zip said something to Tony, Hades, Keene, and Simi that had them all snickering.
My mom wrapped her arm around my waist and said, “Is she going to be okay?”
“That’s what I was just relaying,” Dr. Kent said as he looked at me, then my mom. “We expect Crimson to make a full recovery.” He paused. “It’s just going to take quite a bit of time.”
• • •
It took her a week to wake up.
Part of that week she’d been sedated.
The other part she’d been stubborn and hadn’t wanted to wake up.
In the end, it’d been in the middle of one of my more forceful talks when she’d finally popped open her eyes and said, “Do you ever shut up?”
Grinning, I said, “I’m not sure I know what that means.”
“And I thought I was bad.” She rolled her eyes. “All you do. Yap, yap, yap. A person can’t get any sleep around here.”
I felt tears well up in the back of my throat. “That’s why I’m here. To annoy you like you annoy me.”
She sighed, then turned her head with a small wince.
It was enough to have my heartrate jacking up into the ‘probably should get that checked out’ zone.
“You love me, huh?”
I swallowed hard.
“For some reason,” I teased.
She reached out her hand, and I took it.
I’d only let it go to stand up and lean over her bed.
Now, I caught it back up in mine, feeling like a piece of my soul had settled back in place, and said, “Sleep, baby. I’ll be here when you wake.”
She grinned. “I know you will.”
• • •
3 days later
The next time she woke, was when we were all in her room, and we were discussing Jessup Smith and Dario Espada.
“Hey,” she whispered.
I whipped my head around and stared at her, my heart full once again to see those beautiful eyes on me. “You’re awake.”
“You’re here.”
I winked. “I said I would be.”
She smiled, then turned her head to look at the rest of the room. “All of you? Weirdos.”
Keene snorted. “We’re weirdos because we love you and want to make sure you’re okay after witnessing a shit show like that?”
“Whatever,” Crimson grumbled. “Who has my food? I’m starving.”
It was only after she’d settled back with some broth that she circled her hands in the air and said, “You may continue to talk about Dario.”
I didn’t bother to call her on her eavesdropping.
Instead, I went back to talking. “Jareth and a few of my guys interrogated Dario and have linked him to several child abductions throughout the years. He used to be a sound guy with y’all. Any of y’all remember him?”
I passed around a photo that Jareth had given me earlier.
“Actually, yes,” Val said. “He was creepy. I remember because he kept trying to get me to go out with him, only he wasn’t allowed to go unless he went with his mother.”
“Gross,” Simi said. “No, I don’t recognize him. But I tended to stay away from the weirdos.”
