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“Well, you’re still running a little fever. A lot lower than yesterday. You’ll be better soon.” Layla kissed my cheek.
“Just sleep, Hope. No one needs anything from you.” Max told me to, so I did just that.
The next time I roused, I felt better. Thirsty and achy, but not hot. I forced myself awake, which was less than stellar because I was covered in sweat, and that was gross.
Layla, who sat to my left, looked up first. Followed immediately by Bridget. Layla held Noah, who she quickly passed behind her to Zeke. Michael was to my right, behind Bridget, and he nodded to me. And Max, like a statue at the end of my bed, stared at me silently.
I cleared my throat. My shoulder throbbed. I could feel my hip area was sore, but fuck, my shoulder hurt. It had felt like my arm when I was shot, but now I could feel it in my shoulder.
“Have you ever felt like a zoo animal?”
Max grinned and then immediately stopped, shaking his head.
“You scared us.” Layla smiled. “It’s nice to see your eyes clear.”
I lowered my eyes. “I’m sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to.”
“You aren’t responsible for how anyone here feels about what happened to you. In no way are you responsible for their feelings. That belongs to them. The only thing you’re responsible for right now is getting better.” Max crossed his arms over his chest.
Everyone turned to stare at him and then looked back at me. It was Bridget who finally broke the silence that followed his statement. “Are you in pain? Let’s call the doctor.” She leaned over and pushed a button. There were dark circles under her eyes.
“Max’s speech aside, I really don’t like to worry people, and I am sorry that I got shot. That you’re all here in… Are we in Germany?”
Zeke nodded. “Germany.”
“Why was it Germany?” I couldn’t remember if I knew that.
It was Michael who supplied the answer. “We contract with this private clinic to take care of us if things go askew on a mission. They’re always at ready for us. Fully equipped, and it was closer than trying to get home.”
Zeke bounced the baby, but he shot daggers at Michael. “She should never have been allowed to do this to begin with.”
“We’ve talked about this.” Michael didn’t regard him, keeping his gaze either on Bridget’s back or on me. “She’s a grown woman. She was doing it with or without me. End of story. I chose with me.”
Zeke pointed at him. “This very scenario is what I pay you to avoid. You are supposed to be keeping the family safe.”
Bridget jumped to her feet. “In what world can anyone really keep anyone else safe? I mean, really? We make choices every day. If I fall down the fucking stairs, it’s not Michael and his men’s fault that it happened. Hope decided to do a dumb fucking thing because she’s big hearted. Michael tried to help her not die. She’s not dead. Looks like it succeeded.”
“Hey.” Max stepped forward. “You don’t get to lay judgment on what she did or did not do as you sit on some throne of superiority. She wanted to save that child because she believed it to be her job when no one else in the universe was going to help him. It was brave. She’s constantly brave. Maybe you don’t knowthat because you ran away to Hong Kong to live your life where no one has to see or remark on what you do.”
I held up my hand as Bridget’s face fell. “Whoa. Everyone stop. Please.”
The doctor chose that moment to enter.Saved by the man in the white coat.He spoke to me for a while and told me several times how lucky I had been. I was half convinced that what he really wanted to say to me was that I’d done a really stupid thing and most people would be dead if they’d done the same. Since I already knew this, I mostly nodded.
Michael’s phone pinged, and he left the room to go deal with whatever it was. Zeke watched him go with no amount of overt hostility chasing him from the room. The doctor finished up, letting me know I would be there a week, possibly more, and that he’d see me later.
I rubbed at my face. “Zeke, you know that I insisted on this.”
He stared at me. “I know. I’m not firing Michael, but I don’t have to like it. Do you know what it would do to the people who love you if you got yourself killed?”
“Do you know what emotional manipulation looks and sounds like?” Max shot that question right to Zeke, who pointed at him.
“What the fuck are you even doing here?”
Layla touched her husband’s arm. “Obviously, they care about each other.”
“Care about each other so much that he just went along with this plan?”
Max shook his head. “It isn’t my job to tell Hope what she can and can’t do. She’s a grown woman. I went along to help, and I am here because I want to be.”
