by D D Loomis
I glanced at my well-wrapped right hand. “I can truthfully say having a toe smashed is much more painful than messing with your shoulder or fingers.”
He gave a shudder and stood. “I’ll go tell the nurse you’re back with us. Then I’ll get out of your hair. The whole gang’ll be here in the morning, so save up a little energy for ‘em.” He laid a hand on my chest. “Glad your safe, man. See you in the morning.”
Once he’d gone, I took stock of how I felt. Physically, the drugs were holding the pain to a whisper. They also helped with the mental end, too. Felt like I was floating in a sea of calm. Nice. I snuggled down and let sleep come.
A hand touched my uninjured shoulder. “Mister Baker?” A pleasant male voice—where’d I hear that voice before?
I roused from deep slumber, eyes taking a moment to focus on the dim figure above me. “Yeah. Time for a pill or something?”
A light came on, showing what looked like a doctor in hospital greens standing by my bed. “No, but I was hoping you would be up for a conversation. My real name is of no consequence, but you can call me by my American name of Jimmy.”
A rush of understanding passed through me. The man by the fountain at the mall, later at the restaurant. And most importantly—“That was you,” I whispered. “You were watching when I was being tortured.”
He nodded, no expression on his face. “Correct. We were also interested in the missing money, the money our country was to receive for the counterfeit bills. It was good to have someone else do the torture for us. I personally do not enjoy it.”
My right foot began throbbing as I choked down my fear. “So now what?”
“Since the money is out of reach, my partner and I have failed in our overall mission. Yes we destroyed the evidence, and killed those who broke their word to us. But our Leader will not accept the fact we did not recover the funds that were to be paid us. Do you know a government official you trust?”
The sudden question threw me. “Trust? Um, yes, I think I do. Why?”
“We wish to claim political asylum in your country. There are things that may be happening soon that your officials would be most interested in. All we wish is to be allowed to settle in the United States.”
I raised my good hand. “Wait. You said the evidence was destroyed?”
He gave a short nod. “We booby trapped the counterfeit money with several thermite grenades. It was in another room beyond where you were tortured. When the police opened the door, it set off the thermite.” He shrugged with the hint of a smile. “One officer received minor burns, but no one else was hurt.”
After he’d left, I tried to settle down, to no avail. Well, crap. Now I’d probably be involved a little longer than I’d hoped in this mess. I carefully rolled over and opened the drawer on the end table. Tony’d made sure my valuables had been placed there before leaving. I managed to latch onto my phone. Now to see if I still had the right phone number stored in it…Ah. There it was.
After a couple abortive tries, I finally punched in the correct number. “Hello, Al? Sorry to call so late, or early, whatever time it is. Something’s come up…”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I got off the elevator at the ICU floor, spotting Mike patiently sitting in the waiting area. I stumped over, not leaning quite so heavy on the cane like I had last week. “Hey, Mike. Sorry I couldn’t make it sooner.”
He stood, shaking my left hand while helping me get seated. “Not much you could’ve done, Francis. Lenny made it through the operation, but her chances are still slim. The doctor said it was a miracle she made it this far.”
I eased my right foot out in front of me. “So what’s the latest prognosis?”
“If she wakes up, there’s a chance of recovery. But there’s been no change for the past twenty-four hours.”
I shook my head. “If only…”
“I know,” he interrupted. “And I feel the same way. She was already scheduled for an operation, but ran out of time and had a seizure. The doctor said they had to operate right away, or they would’ve lost her for sure.”
I took a deep breath and gave my head a shake. “How’re you doing? Hear you were put in charge of making our North Koreans into legal immigrants.”
He shrugged. “Easy job. All I had to do was make ‘em new I.D.’s, and they disappeared. After giving us a few choice tidbits, of course.”
I shivered. “Glad they’re gone. They were a bit too cold-blooded for me.”
“How about you? I haven’t heard a thing since you let me know they’d saved all your toes except for the little one.”
“Yeah, and another week the fingers will be good as new. Amazing what a month of therapy will do for you.” I rubbed my right shoulder. “I’m still unhappy about getting an infection in my shoulder. Wouldn’t let me travel, until recently.”
“Well, you’re here now. Lenny’s folks were around until an hour ago. Go on in and sit with her if you want. I’ll clear it with the nurses.” He stood. “Plus I’ve got to get back to the office. Give me a jingle tonight; I’ll take you out to dinner.” Another left-handed shake and he was gone.
Entering Lenora’s room was hard. Last time I’d seen her, she was still heavily bandaged around the head because of injuries from the dirtbags who’d been trying to kill her when I interrupted. She still had bandages, mostly on top of her head due to the operation she’d just been through. I studied her face as I sat, noting the paleness of her cheeks. Monitors over her bed measured brain waves, heart rate, and who knew what else. A deep warmth arose in my chest and I closed my eyes, willing a smile onto my face.
“Well hello there, beautiful. Bet you thought your lover-boy wasn’t going to make it, did you?” I shuffled my chair closer to the bed, leaning slightly forward. “Do you recall the last time we talked? I’d told you a couple of friends had agreed to work with me to start up a publishing house. Surprise of all surprises, it’s actually working out pretty good.”
I stopped and took a couple of deep breaths. This was harder to do than I’d thought. Her face was so pale it looked like a piece of carved ivory. Was she really still there?
“Remember my mentioning John Morrelli? He took over the actual running of the business. Has a ton more experience in the publishing world than me. Well, we decided to take a book that a friend of ours had just written and rush it through editing and production. We both liked the book a lot.” I straightened up, trying to ease a cramp in my back.
“Did a bunch of advertising for it, and got the thing into bookstores four days ago. Man, you should’ve seen it fly off the shelves over the past three days. We’re already planning a second printing. It’s gonna be a best-seller. Also got two other big-name authors who finished their latest books and want us to publish for ‘em. I think we’ve got a winner of a business.”
I looked at the monitors, still making their silent jiggles on the screen. “Hm, I can see I’m boring you. Okay, if that’s the way you’re going to be, I’ll get right to it. I’ve missed you something terrible. Soon as I walked in the room, I’ve had this urge to make love to you again. So here goes.” I once more leaned close. “This time, I’ll start at your toes and work my way up. That suit you?
“I’ll kiss each of your lovely toes, letting my fingers lightly trace their way up your calves, up to those gorgeous knees. A kiss to each ankle, then creeping higher as will my questing fingers…” By the time I was kissing her thighs I was beginning to breathe a little harder. Damn, this was stimulating!
“…A long kiss on each nipple, while my fingers draw circles around your breasts…”
When I reached the part about nibbling on her lips, a sound of muffled sobbing made me look around. Three nurses stood in the doorway, two of them quietly weeping while the other stood there dreamy-eyed. Well, hell. I turned back, trying to focus on what I’d been doing.
A flutter of Lenora’s
eyelids had me rising from my chair, heart soaring. Her cheeks had taken on a hint of color, and the corner of her mouth had curled up slightly. Her lips began moving. Eagerly I leaned forward, listening.
“Tell…other ear…”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A long time ago in a faraway land known as Oregon, I began my journey as a writer, when I wrote a short story for Boy’s Life magazine. Thus began an itch that had to be scratched--the desire to write. After decades as a technical writer and several non-fiction works, retirement happened. Suddenly, the Muse pointed in a different direction, and I began writing fiction again. I recently published some Action/Adventure novels (Baker’s Gold/Baker’s Redemption/Baker’s Luck) on Kindle, and also have a short story collection (Bedtime Stories for Grownups) that is now available. To shake things up a bit, I’ve published several Military Science Fiction novels, with the first two under the same cover.
Where will this tale of a writer haunted by two genres end? Only the Muse knows...
NOTE:
If you enjoyed this novel, go to: amazon.com/author/dannyloomis for more of his works.