My Bad
Page 19
The trauma room that I’d incidentally followed the crowd into.
I’d sat by Landry’s side talking to her as the doctors and nurses worked her over, stopping the bleeding from her wound and getting her to the point where she could be taken up to surgery. Wade arrived and took my place, but still, I didn’t leave.
It was when Castiel arrived that Pru started to object.
The commotion of controlling her bleeding had died down, and now she was relatively comfortable and stable as we waited for them to move her to surgery, which would be happening any minute.
“All right, it’s time to go,” Pru said with a shake of her head. “I realize that y’all are worried, but you can’t all be in here.”
“We’ll stay out of the way,” I promised, backing up to put myself against the wall.
“We’ll behave, Pru.” Bayou promised. “But don’t make him leave.”
With Wade’s tortured eyes on his wife, I knew he wouldn’t willingly leave. Then I’d be obligated to make him leave because my girl wanted us gone—and that altogether wasn’t a good position to be in.
I didn’t want to come in between Wade and his girl.
Landry became agitated when Wade backed away from her, and she opened her eyes for a few seconds. Long enough to say ‘don’t go’ before she passed back out again.
That cemented it. Wade wouldn’t be leaving without a fight.
I silently cursed.
Pru walked out of the room long enough to grab a computer that was sitting near the nurses’ station, then rolled it back in. She pulled some med out of her pocket and scanned the label when Wade said, “What are you giving her?”
Pru didn’t look up as she continued with what she was doing. “Giving her some meds that’ll help keep her calm for the next few minutes while we get the operating room ready for her arrival.”
“Will it knock her out?” I asked.
“Likely,” she answered me, her eyes flickering up to me and back to the screen.
God, she was sexy as hell when she worked.
“If she’s knocked out, then we won’t get answers as to what happened,” Castiel butted in.
“Are they going to help with her pain?” Wade pushed.
Pru shook her head. “No. Just control her consciousness and keep her calm.”
“Can you not give it to her?” Wade asked. “I need her to answer a few questions.”
Pru looked torn. “She can’t get worked up. She has to stay calm. Getting her worked up makes her blood pump, and that’ll cause her to bleed…which she can’t afford to do.”
Wade looked like his chest was ripped right open by Pru’s words.
He nodded his head. “I’ll keep her calm. She’ll be okay as long as I’m here. But…we have to know. We have to figure out what happened so we can better protect her.”
“You don’t have long,” Pru murmured. “Five minutes max.”
Pru relented, but she didn’t roll the computer away or put the meds up. She placed it back in her pocket, just in case.
“Baby, please wake up.”
Wade’s tortured voice had my stomach clenching.
It clenched even harder when Landry’s eyes blinked open and snapped back closed.
“Baby, please.” Wade dropped his forehead to rest on hers.
The pure love and devotion that I could see between the two of them was awe-inspiring.
I wanted that.
I wanted that bad.
I hadn’t realized how badly until right then.
My eyes flicked up to Pru, who was watching me, and not Landry and Wade.
Something passed between us, a knowledge that we both craved that intimacy, and my spine stiffened.
I wanted that with her.
She wanted that with me.
Landry moaned, drawing our attention away from each other.
Pru moved with a penlight to Landry’s head, and Wade blocked her from getting too close with his big body.
Pru’s eyes narrowed. “Sir, I’m not going to ask you again to stay out of our way. If I have to repeat myself, you’ll be removed from the ER.”
“Listen, Girl,” I found myself saying. “I know that you’re thinking that you’re helping, but you’re not. You know how she was acting when she was brought in. The only way she calmed down was when he had her hand. Trust me when I say you need him.”
I shouldn’t have said that.
I really shouldn’t have.
The moment the words were out of my mouth, I realized that I should’ve held my tongue.
Pru had been very nice about allowing us to be in here. I knew that had I not been who I was to her, none of us would be in here
And I’d just shit on all that she’d allowed me to do by contradicting her in a room full of my club brothers.
Pru stiffened even further as she turned to look at me with glaring eyes. “I agree,” she said calmly. “That he helped her calm down. But, I can also achieve those same desired effects by using drugs. And, since y’all for some reason think it’s better that she be awake so she can tell you what you think you need to know right now, I’m allowing that to happen. But, I’m trying to work here. She’s losing blood. I cannot have her getting harmed worse because y’all won’t stay the fuck out of my way.”
I winced.
Visibly and mentally.
And, of course, Landry chose that moment to wake up fully and get with the party as well.
I parked myself in the corner and listened, adding my two cents here and there while I soaked in her words. All the while, I watched Pru…and she was pissed.
***
An hour later, after making sure that Wade was settled, and he wasn’t going to lose his shit, I went back down to the ER in search of the woman that probably wanted to throat punch me.
“She’s been called to the principal’s office.”
I turned to see her sister, Phoebe, leaning back in a chair staring at me with sympathy.
The feeling of dread slithered its way through my body once more.
“Kelley?” I guessed.
“Kelley,” she confirmed.
“Why?” I questioned.
“Kelley found out that she allowed y’all to stay in the room, and that she begged the doctor to allow you to. He wasn’t happy about it.” She paused. “Neither was my mother, who had to come down hard on her in the middle of the ER about five minutes ago.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Pretty much,” Phoebe confirmed. “Have fun dealing with that. You might want to get her something to eat from the cafeteria. She’s on her lunch break as of right now.”
I walked to the hallway the security guard had led me to a couple of days ago, and then waited down the hall, out of sight, but close enough to hear every single word that came out of Kelley’s mouth.
And, with each word, I wanted to rip his balls off.
“My girl can hold a grudge.”
I looked over to find Cheyenne standing with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at not me, but the open door that she could also hear Pru getting ripped a new one.
“If he’s head of the board of directors, why does he deal with the reprimanding of ER staff?” I asked, sounding calm but feeling anything but.
“Kelley is head of the board of the directors, but he’s also the son of the CEO of the hospital. His grandfather is a huge donor as well. Essentially, he’s my boss, minus my firing and hiring powers. So, really all he can do is lecture and bitch. If he wants to fire someone, he has to go through me. If I refuse, he’ll have to go above my head, which I have no doubt in my mind that he’d do.”
I wanted to junk punch the man.
“He’s a douchebag, and I want to fuck his face up with my fist,” I muttered as Kelley droned on.
“Welcome to the club,” she snorted. “I came down here from labor and delivery about four years ago because I wanted a change of pace. Something that would allow me to come home at normal hours. And it was the worst mistake of my life. Kelley has done nothing but make my life a living hell since I made the decision.”
“And now your daughter works for him, too,” I muttered, my fist clenching when I saw Kelley through the open doorway stop too close to Pru and touch her shoulder. “I want to rip his hand off.”
I’d sat by Landry’s side talking to her as the doctors and nurses worked her over, stopping the bleeding from her wound and getting her to the point where she could be taken up to surgery. Wade arrived and took my place, but still, I didn’t leave.
It was when Castiel arrived that Pru started to object.
The commotion of controlling her bleeding had died down, and now she was relatively comfortable and stable as we waited for them to move her to surgery, which would be happening any minute.
“All right, it’s time to go,” Pru said with a shake of her head. “I realize that y’all are worried, but you can’t all be in here.”
“We’ll stay out of the way,” I promised, backing up to put myself against the wall.
“We’ll behave, Pru.” Bayou promised. “But don’t make him leave.”
With Wade’s tortured eyes on his wife, I knew he wouldn’t willingly leave. Then I’d be obligated to make him leave because my girl wanted us gone—and that altogether wasn’t a good position to be in.
I didn’t want to come in between Wade and his girl.
Landry became agitated when Wade backed away from her, and she opened her eyes for a few seconds. Long enough to say ‘don’t go’ before she passed back out again.
That cemented it. Wade wouldn’t be leaving without a fight.
I silently cursed.
Pru walked out of the room long enough to grab a computer that was sitting near the nurses’ station, then rolled it back in. She pulled some med out of her pocket and scanned the label when Wade said, “What are you giving her?”
Pru didn’t look up as she continued with what she was doing. “Giving her some meds that’ll help keep her calm for the next few minutes while we get the operating room ready for her arrival.”
“Will it knock her out?” I asked.
“Likely,” she answered me, her eyes flickering up to me and back to the screen.
God, she was sexy as hell when she worked.
“If she’s knocked out, then we won’t get answers as to what happened,” Castiel butted in.
“Are they going to help with her pain?” Wade pushed.
Pru shook her head. “No. Just control her consciousness and keep her calm.”
“Can you not give it to her?” Wade asked. “I need her to answer a few questions.”
Pru looked torn. “She can’t get worked up. She has to stay calm. Getting her worked up makes her blood pump, and that’ll cause her to bleed…which she can’t afford to do.”
Wade looked like his chest was ripped right open by Pru’s words.
He nodded his head. “I’ll keep her calm. She’ll be okay as long as I’m here. But…we have to know. We have to figure out what happened so we can better protect her.”
“You don’t have long,” Pru murmured. “Five minutes max.”
Pru relented, but she didn’t roll the computer away or put the meds up. She placed it back in her pocket, just in case.
“Baby, please wake up.”
Wade’s tortured voice had my stomach clenching.
It clenched even harder when Landry’s eyes blinked open and snapped back closed.
“Baby, please.” Wade dropped his forehead to rest on hers.
The pure love and devotion that I could see between the two of them was awe-inspiring.
I wanted that.
I wanted that bad.
I hadn’t realized how badly until right then.
My eyes flicked up to Pru, who was watching me, and not Landry and Wade.
Something passed between us, a knowledge that we both craved that intimacy, and my spine stiffened.
I wanted that with her.
She wanted that with me.
Landry moaned, drawing our attention away from each other.
Pru moved with a penlight to Landry’s head, and Wade blocked her from getting too close with his big body.
Pru’s eyes narrowed. “Sir, I’m not going to ask you again to stay out of our way. If I have to repeat myself, you’ll be removed from the ER.”
“Listen, Girl,” I found myself saying. “I know that you’re thinking that you’re helping, but you’re not. You know how she was acting when she was brought in. The only way she calmed down was when he had her hand. Trust me when I say you need him.”
I shouldn’t have said that.
I really shouldn’t have.
The moment the words were out of my mouth, I realized that I should’ve held my tongue.
Pru had been very nice about allowing us to be in here. I knew that had I not been who I was to her, none of us would be in here
And I’d just shit on all that she’d allowed me to do by contradicting her in a room full of my club brothers.
Pru stiffened even further as she turned to look at me with glaring eyes. “I agree,” she said calmly. “That he helped her calm down. But, I can also achieve those same desired effects by using drugs. And, since y’all for some reason think it’s better that she be awake so she can tell you what you think you need to know right now, I’m allowing that to happen. But, I’m trying to work here. She’s losing blood. I cannot have her getting harmed worse because y’all won’t stay the fuck out of my way.”
I winced.
Visibly and mentally.
And, of course, Landry chose that moment to wake up fully and get with the party as well.
I parked myself in the corner and listened, adding my two cents here and there while I soaked in her words. All the while, I watched Pru…and she was pissed.
***
An hour later, after making sure that Wade was settled, and he wasn’t going to lose his shit, I went back down to the ER in search of the woman that probably wanted to throat punch me.
“She’s been called to the principal’s office.”
I turned to see her sister, Phoebe, leaning back in a chair staring at me with sympathy.
The feeling of dread slithered its way through my body once more.
“Kelley?” I guessed.
“Kelley,” she confirmed.
“Why?” I questioned.
“Kelley found out that she allowed y’all to stay in the room, and that she begged the doctor to allow you to. He wasn’t happy about it.” She paused. “Neither was my mother, who had to come down hard on her in the middle of the ER about five minutes ago.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Pretty much,” Phoebe confirmed. “Have fun dealing with that. You might want to get her something to eat from the cafeteria. She’s on her lunch break as of right now.”
I walked to the hallway the security guard had led me to a couple of days ago, and then waited down the hall, out of sight, but close enough to hear every single word that came out of Kelley’s mouth.
And, with each word, I wanted to rip his balls off.
“My girl can hold a grudge.”
I looked over to find Cheyenne standing with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at not me, but the open door that she could also hear Pru getting ripped a new one.
“If he’s head of the board of directors, why does he deal with the reprimanding of ER staff?” I asked, sounding calm but feeling anything but.
“Kelley is head of the board of the directors, but he’s also the son of the CEO of the hospital. His grandfather is a huge donor as well. Essentially, he’s my boss, minus my firing and hiring powers. So, really all he can do is lecture and bitch. If he wants to fire someone, he has to go through me. If I refuse, he’ll have to go above my head, which I have no doubt in my mind that he’d do.”
I wanted to junk punch the man.
“He’s a douchebag, and I want to fuck his face up with my fist,” I muttered as Kelley droned on.
“Welcome to the club,” she snorted. “I came down here from labor and delivery about four years ago because I wanted a change of pace. Something that would allow me to come home at normal hours. And it was the worst mistake of my life. Kelley has done nothing but make my life a living hell since I made the decision.”
“And now your daughter works for him, too,” I muttered, my fist clenching when I saw Kelley through the open doorway stop too close to Pru and touch her shoulder. “I want to rip his hand off.”
