Read Men Out of Uniform: Three Novellas of Erotic Surrender Online

Authors: Maya Banks,Karin Tabke,Sylvia Day

Men Out of Uniform: Three Novellas of Erotic Surrender (18 page)

BOOK: Men Out of Uniform: Three Novellas of Erotic Surrender
11.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
“Wait here for the doctor,” the nurse said. “He’ll be out to speak to you in just a moment.”
The nurse let herself in and Truitt rose up on tiptoe to see inside. He only got a brief glimpse of Jessie lying on a stretcher. She was surrounded by medical personnel so he couldn’t even see if she was conscious or not.
Kirsten blew out her breath and leaned against the wall.
“You okay, doll?” Rick asked.
Kirsten nodded and then hastily wiped at a tear that rolled down her cheek. “She’s already been through so much. The car accident was devastating. They weren’t even sure she’d ever be able to walk without a cane. And now this. First she’s accused of murder. Then she’s kidnapped by a murderer. When does it stop? She’s never done anything to anyone. She works hard. She’s the best person in the world. She’s just ... good. And it’s like fate is determined to shit on her.”
Truitt squeezed her shoulder. “She’s awfully lucky to have a friend like you. I don’t want you to worry. She has us now. Rick and I are going to take good care of her. We’ll see her through this. We aren’t going anywhere.”
Kirsten turned her tear-ravaged face up to Truitt. “You promise? I just want her to be happy.”
Rick put his hand on her other shoulder. “We promise.”
The door opened and a doctor, who looked to be in his forties, looked between Rick, Truitt, and Kirsten. Then he stuck his hand out to Truitt.
“I’m Dr. Anderson, the on-call orthopedic surgeon.”
“Truitt Cavanaugh,” Truitt said. “This is my partner Rick Broughman and Jessie’s friend Kirsten. How is Jessie?”
He couldn’t keep the anxiety or the impatience from his voice.
After the doctor shook Rick ’s and Kirsten’s hands, he folded his arms over his clipboard and leaned against the wall next to the door.
“The ER physician is finishing stitching her wounds now. She lost a lot of blood but the cuts weren’t deep enough to cause internal damage. What is of concern is her knee, which was already damaged by an earlier accident. To be honest with you I don’t know how she managed to evade a killer. She shouldn’t have been able to walk, much less run. Her kneecap is shattered. She’ll be going up to surgery in a moment and we’re going to try to reconstruct the bone. If that’s not possible we’ll have to do a full replacement.”
“Will she be able to walk?” Kirsten cut in.
“Usually I’d say that depends on the patient, how successful the surgery is and how motivated the patient is to recover. But in Miss Callahan’s case, I’d say without a doubt she’ll likely walk, and not only walk but soon. She’ll need rehabilitation and she’ll use a wheelchair or crutches at first and graduate to a cane. But given just how determined this young lady seems, I fully believe she’ll make a complete recovery. Will the knee ever be as good as new? No. But then she’d already sustained injury to it. But neither will it be a catastrophic injury.”
“Can we see her?” Truitt interrupted.
“I don’t see why not. She’s been given pain medication. She’s slipping in and out of consciousness. We want her to be as still as possible so she doesn’t further injure her knee. It’s currently immobilized until we can take her to surgery. But as soon as they’re through stitching her up you can go in to see her for a few minutes before we take her up.”
“Thank you,” Rick said.
The doctor walked away and the three stood waiting, impatient. Truitt, unable to remain still, paced a tight perimeter, from one wall to the other, his gaze never leaving the door.
Fifteen minutes later, it opened and a nurse motioned them in. Truitt pushed off the wall and entered on the nurse’s heels, Rick and Kirsten right behind him.
Truitt went to her bedside, Kirsten at his elbow, while Rick went around to the other side and carefully navigated the array of equipment.
Jessie looked completely fragile. One leg was bandaged from knee to hip and the other was immobilized and secured in a large plastic splint. The hospital gown didn’t cover much of her. Just her breasts and part of her left side. Down her right was thick bandaging where the long cut had been stitched.
She lay completely still, eyelashes resting on her cheeks. Her respirations were so light that Truitt had to lean down to reassure himself that she was breathing.
There was so much stuff everywhere, an IV in each hand, that he honest to God didn’t know where he could touch her. He finally opted for cupping his hand over her head and then he leaned down to kiss her forehead.
“Jessie,” he whispered achingly. “We’re here, baby. You’re okay now. They’re going to take good care of you and then Rick and I are going to take you home.”
She didn’t stir.
He stroked her forehead, smoothing the hair from her eyes. For a long moment he simply stared down at her, his chest tight and his eyes burning.
Then he leaned closer so only she would hear.
“I want you to know I love you, Jessie. I’ve loved you since I first saw you but the idea of saying it always scared the shit out of me. I’m not afraid now. All I’m afraid of is you not being with me.”
He kissed her temple and she stirred ever so lightly.
“You aren’t alone anymore, Jessie. Rick and I will be here. We won’t leave. We’ll be waiting when you come out of surgery. We’re going to be there for you during your recovery.”
Her eyes opened slowly and she stared at him with sleepy, drugged eyes. But then she smiled. It was such a bone-achingly sweet smile that his heart did flip-flops in his throat.
“You’re here,” she whispered.
“Where else would I be?” he whispered back.
“Where’s Rick?”
Rick touched her cheek, causing her to turn slowly in his direction.
“I’m here, Jessie. We both are. And Kirsten too.”
Jessie glanced down the bed and smiled. “Hey, you.”
The words came out quiet and pained.
“How are you feeling?” Truitt asked gently.
“Happy.” It came out more as a sigh than an actual word.
It wasn’t the word any of them were expecting. Truitt frowned, wondering if the drugs had turned her brain to mush.
“I’m alive,” she said in a whisper. “I survived. I swore I would. Nothing else seems important right now.”
“You’re right about that,” Rick said gruffly.
Jessie turned her gaze up to Truitt, her eyes soft and a little dull. “Did you say you loved me?”
He kissed her forehead, breathing in her scent. She smelled of old blood, dirt, and the sterile aroma of the hospital, but he savored it because it smelled of something else. Courage and life.
“I did,” he softly returned. “But we’ll talk more about that later when you aren’t hurting so much and when you’re not so drugged up.”
The door opened and a nurse returned.
“Sorry folks, but we’re going to take her up to surgery now. You can wait in the surgery waiting room and the doctor will come out to talk to you when the operation is over.”
Kirsten pushed by Truitt and bent to kiss Jessie’s cheek. “Hang in there, girlfriend. This will be over soon.”
As Kirsten stepped back both Truitt and Rick leaned down at the same time and kissed her.
“Go kick some ass,” Rick choked out. “Just like you did today. We’ll be waiting for you when you’re out.”
Chapter 18
 
J
essie awoke to a white, blank void. For a long moment she stared, trying to make sense of all the white space. But then as noise began to creep into her consciousness, she realized she was staring up at the ceiling and that someone was gently calling her name.
She glanced in the direction of that voice and saw a smiling woman dressed in scrubs.
“Ah, you’re awake. Welcome back. Are you feeling any pain?”
If the nurse hadn’t mentioned the
P
word, chances were, Jessie would have continued to float in her little dream world, but reality intruded in a rather rude, abrupt manner and pain sliced through her knee and up into her hip.
Her mouth was so dry that it felt like her lips cracked when she tried to speak. Then she realized that her throat was sore and her attempt at speech came out as a rasp. So she nodded instead. More than once so the nurse would get the idea.
The nurse fiddled with Jessie’s IV and a few moments later, she floated back out to sea on a very soft cloud where there was no pain and no annoying white void.
The next time she drifted toward consciousness she heard her name again, but this time the voices were deeper and loving. She sighed and smiled dreamily.
A light chuckle made her crack her eyes open although she really didn’t want to return to the reality of the wrenching pain.
Truitt and Rick stood over her bed, staring down at her, worry—and love—in their eyes.
“Hey there,” Rick said. “You’re awake. The nurse said you’ve been sleeping too long and it’s time to come around. She asked us to nag you.”
Jessie frowned her annoyance and Truitt grinned. “The sooner you wake up, the sooner they’ll move you to your room.”
“Okay.”
Or so she thought she said okay. She wasn’t convinced any sound actually came out, but they seemed to understand.
Rick leaned over and kissed her. Truitt slipped his fingers underneath hers and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. It was almost as if they couldn’t stand not to touch her in some way.
“Am I all right?” she asked in a creaky whisper.
“Yeah, baby, you’re all right,” Rick said as he kissed her temple. “You will be.”
She sighed a little in relief. She was still too fuzzy to figure out just where all she hurt but they didn’t look too worried, so she must not be too bad off.
She glanced down at the cast enveloping her leg and held her breath. “My knee?”
Rick and Truitt exchanged glances.
“Tell me,” she croaked out.
“The orthopedic surgeon thinks you need a replacement. Because of your previous injury and the pain you already experience, he wants to discuss the option with you,” Rick said.
Her mouth turned down. “Oh.”
“It’s not so bad,” Truitt said gently. “The replacement could possibly alleviate the pain and weakness you were already having.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, determined not to cry. She hadn’t broken down, not even when she’d faced certain death.
“Jessie, don’t cry, honey.”
She opened her eyes again, but tears swam, blurring her vision. “I can’t afford a knee replacement. I don’t have a job. I don’t have insurance. I already have medical bills from my previous surgeries. And now I’ll never finish school.”
She bit her lip, pissed at how defeated she sounded. She’d survived. She was alive. What else was important but that? So what if she wasn’t able to walk. She could use a cane. Or crutches. Even a wheelchair. She was
alive
.
Truitt squatted beside the bed so that he was eye level with her. “Do you remember what I told you right before you went to surgery?”
After a brief hesitation she nodded. Unbidden, her gaze drifted to Rick but she jerked it back to Truitt, not wanting to make the moment awkward. It looked like she was looking to him for ... for the same declaration. And didn’t that make her twisted?
Rick leaned over, tucked a finger under her chin and gently turned her back to face him. As if he understood exactly what she’d asked for. “I love you, Jessie. I told you out in the woods but you were unconscious. I’ve told you in my head a million times, but this time I’m saying it out loud. To you. I love you.”
This time she didn’t even attempt to call back the tears. They slid in damp trails over her temples and into her hair. Truitt leaned over and kissed one away.
Then he murmured low next to her ear. “The reason I’m telling you this again is because what it means is that you aren’t alone. You won’t have to do this alone. You’ll have us. That’s right. I said us. We’re going to be with you every step of the way. And you know what? We’ll figure it out. You’ll get your knee replacement and you’ll get the therapy you need.”
She glanced between the two men, afraid to hope, afraid to put to words the question burning a hole in her brain. She licked her lips and gathered her courage.
“You both are okay with . . . if... I mean, you won’t be angry if . . .”
“If what, sweetheart?” Rick asked as he stroked her cheek with one finger.
“If I love you both,” she whispered.
“Well, hell, I hope you don’t just love one of us,” Truitt said in a disgruntled voice. “That would be hell on a friendship, not to mention cause problems for you when neither of us refuses to let you go.”
It was getting harder to concentrate as the pain in her leg became progressively stronger. She knew this was important. Perhaps the most important thing to her future. Their future. But she struggled to get the words just right.
BOOK: Men Out of Uniform: Three Novellas of Erotic Surrender
11.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban
Nate Coffin's Revenge by J. Lee Butts
El simbolo by Adolfo Losada Garcia
Driven by W. G. Griffiths
Panic by J. A. Huss
The Shadow of Ararat by Thomas Harlan
Duplicity (Spellbound #2) by Jefford, Nikki
The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah