“Maybe?” A deep V formed between her brows when she looked at me. “Why maybe? If you’re so qualified, why can’t you read these? You also still haven’t told me what happened.”
I filled my lungs with air and counted to five. “I can read them, but they only show us so much. Adi has no fractured or broken bones, but that being said, she may still need surgery if there’s other damage on the inside that we can’t see here. There are a lot of maybes right now because we’ve only just stabilized her. We’ll learn more as we run more tests, but there was only so much we could do before you got here.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” she muttered. “He did this, right? It was Craig’s fault?”
“It seems so,” I said. “You’ll have to speak to your husband about what exactly happened. I can only tell you what the paramedics told us.”
She glared at me, fury raging in the depths of her eyes. “He’s not my husband. He’s my ex.”
“Sure. I didn’t know if you’d gotten the divorce yet or not.” I took the X-rays down and slid them back into the envelope, glancing at her. “He’s kind of a dick.”
“That’s why I said he’s my ex,” she replied, shaking her head before turning back to her daughter. “There’s also no kind of about it. He’s a total and complete dick who just so happens to have a small one.”
I snorted, trying to bite back my laughter. She’s a feisty one, all right.
Even though it was obvious she was having a tough time with all of this, it was also clear she was not one to be babied and coddled. She wasn’t about to faint, puke, or bawl her eyes out.
But I still felt the need to reassure her. It was so instinctual that I couldn’t help it, and besides that, no mother should have to go through something like this. Especially not when the father who caused it couldn’t give a fuck.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said quietly. “She’s going to be fine. We’re all here for you.”
“I don’t need your doctorly bedside manner,” she snapped, sending yet another glare my way. “This should never have happened. She shouldn’t have gotten hurt. What did he tell you anyway? Did he even bother telling you what happened?”
I shook my head, trying to tread carefully while being honest at the same time. “Adi appears to have fallen off the back of his motorcycle. She wasn’t wearing a helmet, but it seems like her arm took the brunt of her fall instead of her head. We’ll monitor her for a possible concussion, though. The motorcycle couldn’t have been going very fast, but she’s still got a nasty bruise to show for the lack of a helmet.”
April’s hands trembled, and her shoulders fell, another tear tracking its way down her cheek. Her voice was shaky but filled with fury when she spoke again. “Despite everything he did to me, I never thought he’d be so careless with her. How could he?”
My heart thudded against my ribs like it wanted to reach out to hers. I hated situations like this one with a passion. Men like Craig weren’t men at all, if anyone asked me. Not that they had.
If I hadn’t heard the altercation outside and Hunter telling her that security had been called, I’d have been dragging him out of there myself. He might have left the premises with a few bruises of his own if I had, though—which wouldn’t have been good for anyone concerned.
Adi let out a soft moan, drawing our attention to her. April’s gaze found mine, confusion dimming the usually bright orbs. “I thought you said you gave her something to sleep?”
“We did, but it was very light. With the possibility of a concussion, I didn’t want to risk giving her any of the heavy-duty stuff. We’d also never give any of that to a child without first obtaining consent, and even then, only if they really needed it. Adi just needed a little nap to calm down, nothing more.”
“Why?” April whispered furiously. “Wasn’t she calm?”
I shook my head but didn’t offer any further explanation once I saw Adi’s eyes blinking open. I smiled down at her, running my hand over the top of her head again and reaching for my flashlight with the other.
“Hey, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?”
“You’re still here?” she croaked, then spotted her mother standing next to her bed. “Mommy! You came.”
“Of course, I did, baby.” April swiped the tears from her eyes while Adi seemed to be holding back a flood of her own. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. What happened?” She blinked slowly, a tiny crease appearing when she pulled her brows together. “I don’t remember falling asleep.”
“We gave you something to make you feel a little better. Do you mind if I take another look at you now that you’re awake?”
She shook her head, and April nodded her assent when I glanced at her. I smiled at my new patient, raising the light to her eyes. “Okay, would you mind looking at me for a sec?”
Once we were done with the basics and there was no real cause for immediate concern, I moved on to what I knew would be a problem area. “Can you try moving your arm for me, honey?”
I touched her injured arm lightly when she didn’t move it, tapping each of her fingers in turn. “Do you feel that?”
“Sort of.” Terror flashed in her soft brown eyes, but she still didn’t cry. “Why can’t I move it?”
“You’re probably just a little stiff and woozy from the medicine.” I flashed her a smile. “Can you sit up for me? I want to have a quick look at your neck.”
April helped the little girl shuffle to a sitting position while I moved in behind her. “Thanks, Adi. You’re being a really tough girl, do you know that? You’re very brave.”
“I am tough,” she agreed, “but I’m also thirsty.”
I chuckled, scrutinizing her neck while trying to examine it as gently as possible. “I’ll go get you something to drink in just a minute. I’m sure you’d like to have your mom to yourself for a little while.”
Dropping my hands to my sides when I was done, I forced a relaxed grin to my lips and walked around her bed. “Is water okay? Or do you have a favorite soda I can get you instead?”
“Pepsi,” she whispered, her attention fixed on her mother. I figured it was as good a time as any to give them some time alone, not doubting that April was holding back a thousand questions she didn’t want to ask while I was around.
Since I needed to speak to Hunter and check on things outside anyway, I’d kill two birds with one stone. “Sure. I’ll be back in a few.”
April started talking as I was shutting the door, but I didn’t stick around to eavesdrop. The smile dropped from my face when I spotted Hunter speaking to a security guard down the hall.
“Is he gone?” I asked as I went to join them. “Craig, I mean.”
“Yeah.” Hunter grinned and clapped the guard on the shoulder. “Jessie is on duty all day and he’ll make sure the asshole doesn’t come back in.”
“Thank you, Jessie,” I said, giving him a nod before walking away and motioning for Hunter to follow me. The two finished the conversation they’d been having about some football team, and then he came to join me at the nurses’ station.
I set Adi’s chart down, propping my elbow up on the cool linoleum counter. “I think there’s something wrong with a nerve in her neck. She’s having trouble moving the arm.”
“Should I book an operating room?” he asked, expression pinched until I shook my head.
“No, I’m not cutting her open if it’s not absolutely necessary. Let’s wait for the swelling to go down and give it time to settle. Then we can re-evaluate.”
“It’s not dangerous to leave it?” he asked, not second-guessing but genuinely interested. That was one of the things that made Hunter so good at his job. If he didn’t understand something, he asked, and then he remembered.
Someday very soon, he would know everything I did and then some. “No, not under the circumstances. I think there’s definitely been some damage, but the swelling is hiding it and making it seem worse at the same time. I’m prescribing something that
should help with the swelling and the pain. We’ll take another look tomorrow.”
“We’re keeping her?” He frowned, sighing.
I shrugged. “Yeah, I’m afraid we have to.”
“Okay, but you’re going to have to be the one who tells April. After what I saw, I’d only give her good news from a distance. I don’t want to be anywhere near her when you tell her all this.”
“Yeah, neither do I,” I agreed. “But someone’s got to do it. If you’re too afraid of the womenfolk, I guess that’s up to me.”
He shook his head but didn’t take the bait, calling out after me as I walked away. “I’ll buy you a beer later to make up for it. Sorry, dude.”
I smirked. “Don’t even worry about it. Some of us still have our balls attached to our bodies.”
“For now,” Hunter barked out with a shout of laughter. Then he flipped me off and went in the opposite direction.
I inhaled and exhaled a few times once I’d grabbed Adi’s soda. Pausing outside the door of her room, I pasted a smile back on my face and forced it to stay there. All righty then. Let’s go get these balls severed from my body.
Fuck, this wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience at all.
Chapter 4
APRIL
The last twenty-four hours had been some of the worst of my life, and that was saying something. While I didn’t like to complain too much about it, except for bitching about Craig from time to time, I hadn’t exactly had things easy.
But having my daughter in the hospital? It sucked giant-ass donkey balls.
I hadn’t left her side, but if that doctor decided to keep her for another night, I would have to. Katie had brought me a change of clothes, but I had to work tomorrow, which meant I’d need more. I’d also need a decent shower and then actually to go to work in the morning.
Sure, I’d still be in the same building, but I really didn’t want to have to leave Adi alone in this room. Too many scary things happened all the time, and I didn’t want her to have to face them without me.
The meds Chris had prescribed for Adi made her drowsy, so she’d been asleep more often than not, but that didn’t matter. I still wanted to be there for her.
At least some nurses on this floor were my friends. It helped calm my nerves to know the people looking after us. I knew they wouldn’t bullshit me, even if I wished they’d swoon a little less over the doctor and focus a little more on his patient.
I couldn’t really blame them for wanting to hang around every time Chris was supposed to make an appearance, though. The man looked like sex on a stick, and though I didn’t really know him, I’d heard a lot about him.
He was a definite favorite among the staff, female or not. I hadn’t realized who he was when I’d first gotten here, but as things had calmed down, it had all started coming back to me.
Doctor Chris Matthews with his shorter, dirty blonde hair and light green eyes the color of springtime grass with a layer of dew over it was a legend in these halls. He was built like a swimmer, tall and toned, but that wasn’t even what people couldn’t shut up about. It also wasn’t that he was revered by his peers and was thought to be one of the most intelligent doctors around.
It was the fact that, while working full time at the hospital and apparently volunteering some of his time to help out veterans, he had also developed some kind of machine that had turned him into a billionaire.
Being hot, smart, and rich meant he was a perfect trifecta for all those who liked to gossip, and there were a lot of those people in this hospital. I couldn’t deny that I was one of those myself, but it was more because I couldn’t avoid it.
The front desk was a point of convergence for everyone from the different departments, which meant that people shared a plethora of information while they handed files or patients off, walked them in, or came along to discharge them.
When I’d first started working there, I’d tried to tune it all out, but in time, it had become like a soap opera I just couldn’t stop watching. Tuning all gossip out had slowly become listening with half an ear, then a whole ear, then eventually became listening unashamedly. And now, I was a full-blown part of it.
I was glad for it now, though. At least I had the lowdown on the doctor who was treating my daughter. I had to admit that so far, he was living up to the hype.
The guy was kind but direct, honest, patient, and, strangely enough, great with kids. It didn’t hurt that he was so easy on the eyes, either. Not that it mattered medically, but I wasn’t blind. Now that the initial shock had worn off, I would’ve had to be not to notice the whole sex on a stick thing.
“Mommy?” Adi whispered, and my spine shot straight up in my chair.
I squeezed her hand and smiled down at her, shutting all thoughts of anything and everyone else out of my mind now that she was awake again. “I’m here, baby.”
“Did I fall asleep again?” she asked before yawning and stretching out her legs.
I nodded. “You dozed off after we got back from the CAT scan.”
“Oh yeah.” She blinked the sleep out of her eyes. “Why is it called a CAT scan?”
“I’m not sure, baby. We can ask the doctor when he gets back with the results.” When Chris had mentioned earlier that he needed to send Adi for the scan, my heart had sunk all the way to China.
I’d been holding on to hope that maybe she wouldn’t have to be operated on, but it seemed like it might just have to happen. When he’d spoken about it in that calm, deep, whiskey-wrapped-in-smoke voice of his, it had all sounded like it would be okay.
It was only once he’d left that it dawned on me that my little girl might just really need surgery. I’d spent the next hour silently cursing Craig. Honestly, I wished I could rip his tiny dick off with my bare hands for this, but that would probably end with me in prison.
I wasn’t afraid of much, but even I didn’t particularly want to end up in the big house. Plus, that would mean that Adi would have to stay with Katie for a while, and I’d never hear the end of it.
No, it was better Craig kept his tiny, talentless dick. As long as he kept his butt away from us while he was at it.
Adi’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Mommy, if a CAT scan is for cats, why did I have to go in it?”
I grinned at her. “We’ll have to ask the doctor that one, too.”
It would be interesting to see what he came up with on the fly. Fuck only knew my head was too flat after events of the last day to come up with any quirky answers for her.
“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll ask him. Where is he anyway?”
I stroked her fingers with my thumb, looking up at the door. “He’ll be here soon. I think he’s just waiting on your results.”
Knowing this hospital, he was probably also so overloaded with patients that it could be hours before we saw him again. But something in my gut told me he’d be by as soon as he could.
Your hormones aren’t in your gut, the snarkier version of me spoke from a corner of my mind. Your libido wants him to be back as soon as he can, but that doesn’t mean anything.
I let out a soft sigh. Snarky, bitchy me was right, though. I had no reason to trust this doctor and his being attractive didn’t change that.
Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t entirely true that I had no reason to trust him. Hunter had told me Chris had been the one to recognize Adi as my daughter. He’d also instructed Hunter to call security if Craig became threatening in any way and he’d supposedly gone toe to toe with him until he’d decided Craig wasn’t worth his time.
Maybe I can trust him.
The man I couldn’t trust was my ex. It came as no surprise, but I still never really would’ve believed he’d let things go this far. If I had, he definitely wouldn’t even have seen Adi without my supervision.
Fuck his mother’s supervision, too. Apparently, not even she could be trusted.
“Baby,” I said to Adi, giving her hand another gentle squeeze. “How did this happen? Why did you get on tha
t motorcycle?”
I kept any trace of accusation out of my tone. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel guilty about this.
“Daddy wanted me to go on it with him.” She looked away from me and focused on the branches of the tree swaying gently in the breeze outside her window. “I didn’t want to, but he told me it would be fun.”
I bet he did. Rage bubbled in my tummy, the feeling so intense that it sent a shiver racing up my spine and begged for the explosive urges to be set free, but I wrestled it all down. I cannot rip his dick off. I cannot rip his dick off.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” I said as soothingly as I could manage. “What happened next?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I got scared and accidentally let go. That’s all I remember. Please don’t be angry.”
“I’m not, promise.” Not at her anyway. “It’s not your fault, sweetie. It was just an accident.”
An accident Craig should’ve seen coming. What the hell was he doing letting a nine-year-old who’d only ever seen a motorcycle from afar ride one?
Adi was quiet for a beat before her eyes opened and slid back to mine. “I don’t want to go with him again, Mommy.”
My heart shattered at the pain in her voice. Scooting forward on my chair, I leaned over to press a kiss against her temple and brushed her bangs out of her eyes.
“You don’t have to. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you again.”
There was a swift, firm knock on the door before it opened to reveal Doctor Sexy himself.
Instead of focusing on the high chiseled cheekbones and the straight perfectly curved lines of his jaw, all I saw was the apprehension shining in his eyes. “Good afternoon, ladies.”
He flashed us all of his straight white teeth when he smiled. But I was willing to bet the farm it was a fake one. “Do you have the results?”
She’s Mine Now Page 3