She lay on the floor, seeing Leon’s anxious face above hers.
“Oh God, doc. What the hell happened? Stay with me. I’ve got you, honey.”
The sound of sirens filled the night air. Leon’s face seemed fuzzy. Far away. Then another face appeared above her. Shane. Then blackness.
Chapter 9
Floating. On the ocean. On a blow-up pool lounger. Warm sun on her face. Working on her tan.
It’s not warm. It’s dark.
Strange noises seeped into Annie’s consciousness. Noises that did not sound like waves.
Opening her eyes, the harsh lights had her closing them quickly, but not before her brain registered that she was in the hospital. A flood of memories rushed back as she remembered the events in her clinic. Panic rose in her chest as her eyes opened wide and she tried to sit up. The pain in her side sliced through her and she fell back to the bed, a gasp escaping her lips.
“Baby?” a familiar voice sounded right next to her. She opened her eyes again, seeing Shane bending over her, worry lines scoring his face.
Confusion melded with fear and as much as she hated to cry in front of him, tears slid down her face.
Shane cupped her face with his hands, wiping her tears with the rough pads of his thumbs. “You’re okay, baby. You’re gonna be fine.”
“I was shot,” her voice croaked.
“I know. I’m so sorry, Annie.”
“How bad?”
“The bullet just barely grazed your side. Honestly, baby, it did not hit anything major. It is more like a bad burn.”
“Hurts.”
“I know, baby. I know,” he answered as he leaned over and kissed her forehead.
She looked into his blue eyes, so expressive, so different from the dark contacts he had been wearing. She saw concern…and care. No, I do not see care. He does not care about me.
She did not want to ask, but found the words coming out anyway. “Why are you here?”
Shane’s gaze did not waver. “Annie, there’s nowhere else I would wanna be than right by your side.” He saw the doubt in her eyes. “Baby, you ran out yesterday and didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
Just then there was a commotion at the door as Leon and Suzanne hustled in.
“Explain what? That you are a complete asshole who used Annie to get what you wanted? Forcing her into your world of drugs and men with guns and…and …your shit!” Suzanne yelled as she got right in Shane’s face.
Before he could react, Suzanne was pulled back into Leon’s front as he wrapped his arms around her. “Down wild-girl,” he said calmly. “Annie doesn’t need this right now.”
Suzanne burst into tears as she looked down at Annie. “I couldn’t believe it when Leon called, I just couldn’t believe it.”
Leon’s voice, soft and gentle, said, “Annie, I called your mom.” At this, Annie’s eyes grew wide, but he continued before she could say anything. “It’s okay, doc. Your mom was freaked, but I got your dad on the phone. I told him what the doctor said and that you can go home tomorrow. They wanted to come immediately, but I told them to wait. I figured you might need them later.”
He then turned his gaze to Shane and his gentle look was replaced with a hard one. “You want to step outside with me?”
Shane shifted his stance, arms crossing his massive chest, legs apart. “No one knows what went down between Annie and me, but Annie and me. I get that you care and I get that you’re a friend. I respect that. But I’m not leaving her side now. I let her walk away earlier and I’m not making that mistake again.”
Leon stared at him for a moment, as though measuring Shane’s honesty. Finally giving a head jerk, he turned his gaze back to Annie, offering her his dazzling smile. Tucking a still sniffling Suzanne into his side, he said, “Doc, don’t worry about the clinic. We’ll call the appointments for the week and reschedule…”
“No!” Annie protested. All eyes turned to her in surprise. “I’ll be there on Monday morning. We have to keep the clinic open,” she explained.
“Baby, you gotta have time to heal,” Shane said.
She looked at him sharply. “Do not call me baby. And do not tell me what I have to do. You made your play. I get it, Sto…Shane. You had a job and you did it. I was just collateral damage.”
Shane’s look went from concern to scary as he leaned down in her face. “You were not a play,” he growled. “You know exactly what happened between us was real. No play. No game. It was in the middle of a fuckin’ mess, but it was real.”
Staring into his face that still made her long to kiss his jaw, she whispered, “I didn’t even know your name.”