No More Mister Nice Guy

by Linda Randall Wisdom

  “Miss Carlisle.” He managed a weary smile. “Mr. Hawkins has lost a lot of blood and he had a punctured lung, but I have no doubt that with plenty of rest he’ll come through just fine. He hung in there from the beginning. He’s a fighter.”

  Shelby started to sniffle again. “Oh, damn, I’m turning into a watering pot.”

  “Delayed shock,” the doctor told Rick, who merely nodded. “Miss Carlisle, how you’ve managed to stay upright this long is an absolute miracle. I checked your friend’s room and there’s an empty bed next to hers. I suggest you climb into it and have a good long sleep. You need it.”

  “Meredith?” Guilt instantly set in. “I forgot all about her.” She paused. “What about Jed?”

  He shook his head. “He’s in ICU right now under a nurse’s watchful eye. You need to get some rest. I’ll prescribe something for you to help you sleep.”

  “That might not be a good idea. She was just given something by a doctor, after which she punched out the sheriff and broke his nose,” Rick muttered. He nodded when the surgeon stared at him as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard,

  “It just goes to show there’s justice, after all.” The doctor chuckled as he walked off. “Room 207, Miss Carlisle. Tina, the charge nurse up there, will be waiting to tuck you in.”

  She shook her head. “I need to see Jed fist.”

  The doctor started to refuse until he saw the look of stark determination on her face. He knew if he didn’t agree she would probably take the hospital. apart looking for him. The man heaved a deep sigh. “Five minutes and no more. He’s so snowed under he won’t even know you’re there.”

  “Yes, he will,” she whispered:

  Shelby wasn’t prepared to see Jed lying under a sheet that was as white as his features. A thick bandage covered his chest and wrapped around his shoulder. She wanted to cry at the sight of him lying there utterly helpless. Various tubes helped him breathe, while an IV bag hung near him, dripping drugs into his system as he lay unconscious. She stood by his bed and touched his hand. The fingers under her touch were unresponsive as she lifted them to her lips.

  “I love you,” she whispered against skin that felt warm and dry.

  She wished she had the strength to argue with the nurse about staying longer, but the way Shelby’s body was moving slower and slower told her she barely had enough energy to make it to Meredith’s room.

  By the time she staggered into the room a friendly nurse escorted her to, she felt as if she had been awake for weeks. She took one look at Meredith, asleep in the other bed, smiled fondly, then dropped onto the mattress. Curling up into a tight ball, she instantly fell into a deep sleep.

  “I’ll have you know I’ve had much livelier roommates in my time. But I have to say I’m very glad to see you.”

  Shelby rolled over and opened her eyes. The white room was unfamiliar and she could feel aches and pains in every part of her body. She stared at the next bed, where Meredith was sitting up.

  “You look awfully good for someone I thought was dead,” she croaked, struggling to sit up herself.

  “And you look terrible for someone who always looked so good first thing in the morning. I was once convinced you slept with your makeup on,” Meredith countered. She fairly bubbled with excitement at seeing her friend again. “I heard you shot one of them while Jed took out the other. When did this bloodthirsty trait of yours emerge?”

  Shelby nodded, then shrugged her shoulders. “It wasn’t exactly the highlight of my life.” She winced as another bruise made itself known when she shifted her body. “What time is it?”

  “A little after two in the afternoon. You missed breakfast and lunch.” When she saw Shelby’s look of shock, she hastily added, “They said you needed the rest, Shel. You were on the point of collapse. The doctor still can’t figure out how you functioned after the heavy-duty tranquilizer he gave you. I heard it wasn’t long after you were given the happy juice that you broke the sheriff’s nose. You are on a roll, aren’t you?”

  “That was the highlight of the day.” She struggled to her feet, only to have the world spin around her. She abruptly sat back down before she fell down. “I need to see Jed.”

  “He’s still unconscious. I asked about him, since I knew that would be the first thing you’d want to know,” Meredith told her. “The nurse said not to worry. It’s more a healing sleep.” She leaned over on her side. “What happened out there?”

  Shelby’s mind seemed to run in fast motion from the time Jed released her bonds to their making wild love in the cave to their escape down the mountain and Jed’s fight with Eric.

  “More than you’d ever imagine,” she said wearily. Here she’d just woken up and she already felt tired. And hungry. She looked around. “You didn’t happen to keep anything from lunch, did you?”

  Meredith shook her head. “I’m sure one of the nurses can find you something.” She pressed her call button.

  Shelby climbed off the bed and walked over to her friend. “I am so glad you’re all right.” Her voice shook with suppressed tears as she hugged her tightly. “When I saw you lying on the floor and all the blood around you, I thought for sure you were dead.”

  “I probably would have been if a deputy hadn’t come by when he had,” Meredith admitted. “When I heard they’d taken you, I was so afraid.” Her eyes were dark with concern. “Then I heard all those stories about those men, rumors they were kidnapping women but nothing could be proved. I wasn’t sure if I worried more about you stuck up there with them or your having to survive without running water,” she joked feebly.

  “Considering how horrible they smelled, there was no doubt they had no idea what water was,” Shelby quipped in turn, wrinkling her nose. “By the time Jed got me back down, I think I smelled almost as bad as they did.”

  Meredith lay back against her pillows. “Amazing, isn’t it? Here you talked about wanting Jed to turn into this super Alpha man and it sounds as if he did just that. It’s enough to make a woman’s toes tingle.”

  What came to Shelby’s mind was the night they’d made love in the cave. She’d left scratches on his back as she practically ravished him. They had mated like two young animals, and she couldn’t remember ever feeling as satisfied as she had that night.

  “When I said I wanted to see another side to him, I had no idea just what I would see,” she murmured.

  Meredith’s eyes widened. “Really? What exactly are we talking about here?”

  Shelby gave the smile of a supremely satisfied woman. “Let’s just say when he reveals his other side, he reveals it in spades.”

  “Damn!” Her friend snapped her fingers. “And to think you offered him to me and I said no. When will I learn?” She affected mock disappointment, then continued her interrogation. “Did you tell him you love him?”

  “Not so he could hear me.” Shelby inspected her nails. All were broken and sported chipped polish. It was going to take awhile to bring them back up to snuff.

  “So you decided to keep him after all. Now what?”

  She shook her head. “I have no idea. All I know is I don’t want to give Jed up. And he acted as if he wasn’t about to give me up. But he isn’t going to give up his work, either.”

  “Are you willing to settle for a long-term affair?” Meredith asked gently.

  “I could give you excellent examples of unmarried couples who have been happy together for years and married couples who have barely lasted a year,” Shelby replied evasively.

  “Yes, but you still want to take the chance, don’t you?” Meredith pressed.

  She nodded. “I guess I’m more traditional than I thought I was, but I don’t want to give Jed up, either. I’d like a chance to figure out this new side of him first.” She knew she couldn’t tell her friend Jed’s true occupation or the secrets her father had kept all these years.

  Their conversation was interrupted when a nurse walked in. She looked decidedly perky that afternoon with her ash blond hair pulled u
p in a bouncy ponytail tied with a bright pink bow. A stethoscope hung around her neck against her floral-print top.

  “Well, well, I see our newest resident is awake.” She walked over to Shelby and picked up her wrist, pressing her fingertips against her pulse point as she studied the second hand on her watch. “How do you feel?”

  “As if I went ten rounds with King Kong,” she groaned. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to mountain climb. It’s too hard on the body.”

  “I’d say you did just fine.” She unrolled the blood-pressure cuff and wrapped it around Shelby’s arm. “Let’s just make sure all the signs are normal, shall we?”

  “I’m breathing. Isn’t that enough to tell you I’m fine?”

  The nurse smiled as if Shelby was a precocious child who had said something amusing. “I’ll be the judge of that.” She noted the blood-pressure readings, jotted them down on a chart and looked up. “Then we’ll see what the doctor says when he gets in, hmm? You’ve become a special patient to us. We want to make sure you’re well taken care of.”

  Shelby glared at Meredith, who hooted with laughter.

  “If you could see your face!” Meredith squealed, flopping back against her pillows.

  “It’s a good thing you’re in a hospital,” she muttered between clenched teeth. “That way you can receive medical care without having to wait.”

  By the time the doctor arrived, Shelby was practically foaming at the mouth. She had asked for a report on Jed and was told he was doing fine. Which meant nothing to her. She wanted to see him for herself.

  “Bridie’s in charge of ICU this shift, and believe me, you don’t want to go up against her,” the nurse Shelby now knew was named Faye warned her. “No one in their right mind wants her for an enemy.”

  Shelby gave in, but she wasn’t graceful about it. She had tried to call her father on his private line, but only received a recording to leave a message on his voice mail. She decided against leaving one and made a mental note to try again later.

  As soon as the doctor declared she was fine, Shelby took advantage of the small bag of her clothes Rick was kind enough to bring in and quickly showered and dressed. She stared at herself in the mirror and grimaced at the bruises mottling her face and chest. She discovered makeup couldn’t effectively cover them up.

  “Now you look as if you were only in a minor battle instead of an all-out war,” Meredith told her.

  Shelby sat on the edge of her bed. “I guess when we talked about having an adventure, we didn’t expect such a painful one,” she said. She inwardly winced at the bandage covering part of Meredith’s forehead. Her friend’s very expensive haircut had been altered when the doctor had to shave a section of her scalp to stitch up the cut she’d sustained when her head hit the dresser. But Meredith wasn’t too worried. The doctor, attractive, single and very interested in Meredith, was taking her out to dinner as soon as she was released from the hospital. Meredith had informed Shelby of that fact soon after he’d left.

  “Only you would be robbed, attacked and badly injured and end up dating the doctor,” Shelby teased as she brushed her hair.

  “I wanted this experience to have a positive effect on my psyche,” Meredith replied with a regal air as she watched her friend leave the room. “Give tall, dark and handsome a kiss for me, will you?”

  Shelby dimpled. “No problem there.”

  Her smile wobbled as she approached ICU From what she’d heard of Bridie, she expected to find an Amazon manning the desk. Instead, she found a petite brunette fireball who seemed to handle ten crises at once without batting an eyelash. Dressed in a pink top and pants, she looked too delicate for the demands of nursing, but Shelby soon realized the woman was more than capable of taking on anything thrown at her.

  “Mr. Hawkins has been resting comfortably,” she reported after Shelby identified herself. “In order for him to recover, he needs all the rest he can get. Which means the last thing he needs is a visitor guaranteed to raise his blood pressure.”

  Shelby looked down at her tan-colored walking shorts, long-sleeved ivory blouse and navy-and-tan print vest. Navy leather flats completed her outfit. While she had been able to brush her hair into a semblance of order and add makeup, she still didn’t feel she looked her best.

  “Believe me, he’s safe. I’m afraid I left my see-through negligee at home,” she said flippantly. She instantly regretted her words.

  “Laughter is fine and good, but Mr. Hawkins lost a great deal of blood before he was taken into surgery. He also has a punctured lung that had to be repaired,” the nurse informed Shelby with a forbidding expression on her face. “Which means he needs quiet and rest.”

  “All I want to do is go in there, make sure he’s all right and sit there and hold his hand,” she argued. “I just want him to know I’m there for him.”

  Bridie studied her for a long moment. “Did you really break the sheriff’s nose?”

  “Yes, I did, and I’d do it again.”

  A smile softened Bridie’s features. “Go on in, but make sure to stay out of our way when we need to be in there. And be sure to let me know if he wakes up.”

  Shelby almost ran into the room. She pulled a chair close to Jed’s bed and picked up the hand that was free of IV tubes.

  “Haven’t you slept enough?” she asked softly. “Honestly, Jed, you’re the least-lazy person I know. There were mornings you’d be up at the crack of dawn so you could jog a few miles while I was still sleeping like the dead.” She grimaced. “Bad choice of words. You know what I mean.” She gently stroked the back of his hand with her fingertips. “I’d honestly feel much better if you would open your eyes for me.” She leaned over so she could whisper in his ear. She smiled as she whispered just about every provocative suggestion she could think of.

  “Are you sure some of those are physically possible?” a voice, raspy from the heavy drugs filtering through his blood, whispered back.

  Shelby blinked rapidly to keep her tears in check. “I have no doubt you’d find a way,” she murmured, pressing the back of his hand against her cheek.

  Jed fingered the tears streaming down her cheek. He opened his eyes, but the usually clear storm gray was hazy.

  “Did they tell you they thought I was going to die?” he rasped.

  She shook her head, lying. “You lost a lot of blood and had a punctured lung.” That much, at least, was the truth.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve had worse.” He licked his lips. “How about some water?”

  She started to reach for the cup, then reared back. “I better call the nurse in first. She might not want you to have any right away.”

  Jed frowned. “No nurse poking and prodding me just yet,” he argued.

  “Trust me, it’s safer for me to call Bridie first than for her to come in and find out you woke up and I didn’t call her,” she told him as she reached for the call button.

  “A regular tyrant, huh?” He made a face. “I’ve met more than my share of those.”

  “Something tells me you haven’t met anyone like her before,” Shelby said sagely.

  Barely a minute later, Shelby knew she was right. From the moment Bridie swept into the room, she took charge. Shelby was pushed out of the room while the doctor was called and Bridie busily checked Jed’s vital signs.

  Shelby paced the corridor with barely leashed impatience until the doctor left the room.

  “He’s already doing better than I expected,” he told her. “But he won’t be getting out of here as soon as he’d like.”

  She smiled. “Such as today?”

  “He thinks he can get up and walk out of here. Little does he know he couldn’t even stand up without falling on his face,” he replied. “Hopefully you can keep him down.”

  “Not exactly down, but I can make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” she assured him.

  “I have to admit the two of you have given this town a lot to talk about,” he muttered as he went on his way.

 
Shelby immediately returned to Jed’s side. She wanted to laugh at the look of disgust on his face. There was no drug-filled haze in his eyes now.

  “I wanted out of here,” he grumbled. “And the doctor said I wouldn’t make it past the door.”

  Shelby picked up the gown lying on the foot of the bed.

  “There is no way in hell I’m wearing that thing,” he stated. “Not when it leaves my butt hanging out.”

  “But it’s such a gorgeous butt,” she murmured, leaning over and dropping a kiss on his lips.

  Jed started to reach up to deepen the kiss, then groaned as the stitches protested his movements.

  “Sorry, hot stuff,” Shelby cooed, amused by this new side of his nature. Her tiger was effectively leashed. “It looks as if you’re going to have to behave yourself for a while.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  Judging by the set expression on his face, Shelby wouldn’t have been surprised if he made sure he was fully healed by the end of the day.

  Chapter 11

  “I don’t understand it. Every time I’ve called my father on his private line I only get his voice mail,” Shelby complained to Jed later. He’d slept on and off during the day, and she alternated between his bedside and Meredith’s. “I’m really worried about him. I didn’t want to phone him until you were out of surgery, and since then I’ve made about five calls and I haven’t heard from him.” Her eyes were shadowed with worry. “And I don’t want to just leave a message.”

  Jed looked away. “I’m sure he’s all right.”

  “Yes, but once he heard I was back and all right, you know he’d want to get right up here. Unless…” She turned sharply and stared at him. The old Shelby wouldn’t have noticed his evasive manner. The new one couldn’t miss it. “What aren’t you telling me, Jed?”

  He looked her square in the eye. “Nothing.”

  Shelby resisted the urge to lean over and pull his hair hard to get his attention. “My lie detector just went off with bells ringing. What’s wrong with my father?” Dread filled her heart as worst-case scenarios filled her mind. “He’s not… ?”