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He was just a kid himself. She didn’t want to see him locked away for this. If Gogo was going to make it, he would need his brother.
Lia snapped off her bloody gloves and put on clean ones to focus on the cleaning. Normally other team members did that part, but there was no one else in the room and she wanted to keep busy so Sneaks would keep watching her. She wished she knew what Joe had planned.
He’d been steady as a rock during the surgery and hadn’t tried to distract her or Sneaks. Instead, he’d followed her lead and kept his sexy voice to himself unless he had a pertinent question. She’d take his assistance over Larry’s any day.
Joe moved around the edge of the gurney and drew Sneaks’ eyes away from hers.
The boy reacted and the gun came up. “Stay where you are, cop.”
Joe held his hands to the side and he didn’t tense up at the tone. “Easy. Just moving out of the way of the docs. They’ve got things to do and I’m in the way now.”
Lia realized that she hadn’t thought past the surgery. Her only focus had been on saving her patient. What would happen now? Would Sneaks simply let himself get taken into custody?
Seemed doubtful while he had a gun. Lia didn’t watch enough movies to even guess at a likely outcome. Getting Gogo out of the room seemed the smartest option. “We’ve almost got your brother ready to head into recovery, Sneaks.”
“Are you lying? Is he dead and you’re not telling me?”
Lia addressed the panic in his voice and kept her voice calm. “He’s alive. He’s going to recover. You can see his chest moving. He’s breathing.”
“There’s a tube in him. You could be faking it.”
“I could, but I’m not. I promise you that your brother is going to live. I didn’t work that hard to let him die.” Although that had happened in the past. Some patients simply couldn’t be saved. Thankfully, Gogo wasn’t one of those.
Sneaks has lifted the gun again and she could feel his fear across the room.
Joe’s voice spoke calmly. “The doc’s not lying, Sneaks. If you move, you can see the monitors and the numbers for yourself. I don’t know how to read them or what most of it means, but I’ve watched enough TV to know what a heartbeat line looks like.”
Sneaks pushed off the wall and moved toward them. The gun was still up but his eyes were on the monitor. If he dropped the gun, Lia knew Joe would jump into action. His body was relaxed but ready.
Then Sneaks stopped and waved the gun at Joe. “Over there. Doc, you come here.”
Joe stepped sideways to block her access to Sneaks. “I’ll show you. The doctor’s got to be worn out.”
“No! I need the doctor.”
Lia could hear the stress in his voice, so she took a step forward. “It’s okay. I’ll show you.”
Joe flung her a pissed off look over his shoulder, but his expression was calm again when he looked at the boy. “Okay. The doc will understand it better than me, anyway.”
Joe didn’t move away from his position, but Lia eased around him and behind her back, waved at Casilda to move toward the door. She wanted her friend far away from the weapon.
She stayed closer to Joe than Sneaks, as she wasn’t particularly eager to get close to the gun either. She’d seen the damage caused by guns far too many times to ever want to touch one.
“The big green number in the top right is his heart rate. Just where it should be while he’s in surgery. It’ll get stronger as he recovers. As a good athlete, his rate is probably normally low anyway. Although it looks like he’s in the middle of a growth spurt, so it might take a little longer to get back up to normal. We’ll keep an eye on him in case he needs more fluids.”
Sneaks studied the monitor and the gun lowered but it was now pointing closer to Gogo. She stepped closer to the gurney to give Joe room to maneuver if he had a chance.
“He’s really alive? He’s really going to be okay?”
Lia smiled. It was shaky, but it was a smile. “He really is Sneaks. Thanks to you. You got him to me in time.”
The young man’s eyes filled with tears, probably of relief.
She felt Joe edge closer to her without actually seeing the movement. She shouldn’t be able to feel a complete stranger, but there it was.
Joe spoke. “You did your job, Sneaks. Time to deal with the rest. Time to come with me.” The low, gravelly voice would have had her complying with the implied request immediately.
The exhaustion must be getting to her.
