Royce(6)

“St. Luke’s Hospital on Main. You need anything?”

Yes, answers, she thought, but didn’t ask her. “I need AMA papers now.” She wasn’t sure how she expected to leave against medical advice, but she had to get out of here now.

“I don’t think… You won’t be able to leave, Miss York. You’re still hurt pretty badly.”

Well, no shit, Kasey said to herself. She lifted her arm and blinked several times at the bruises and cuts on her arm. It took a full five seconds to remember what had happened and who had done this. She groaned when she remembered every detail. She looked over at the nurse who was still staring at her.

“Papers. Now. I don’t have any insurance and I certainly can’t afford this being unemployed.” That got her moving. Abby was out the door like a shot.

Kasey was still trying to figure out how to get the bed in an upright position when her door opened again. She turned to ask the nurse how to do it when she saw who was there.

“You were going somewhere, Officer York? I’m reasonably sure you shouldn’t be moving about so much just yet. The doctor said he’d have to restrain you if you tore open your stitches again. He sounded pretty pissy the last time you did it.”

Mr. Hunter looked like he thought the idea of the doctor being pissy was funny. She turned away from him to work at the bed again. She felt it was better to ignore him rather than try to make her tongue work around speaking to him. When the bed moved, she cried out in pain. Maybe she should just try and move on her own.

“Are you all right?” He pressed something and she was moving again. When she cried out a second time he stopped moving the bed. For what seemed like hours but was probably only a few seconds, she heard the door open again. She prayed he’d gone away to get a gun to shoot her and put her out of her misery.

“Miss York needs something for pain. I’m afraid she injured herself trying to roll over.”

The very timid “yes sir” had the door opening sound again.

“I’m going to move your bed to the down position slowly. If you need me to stop, say so.”

“Stop,” she told him before the bed moved. His laughter made her want to cry. He just had to be enjoying this after what she’d done about the badge.

“I’m not mad about the badge, Miss York. In fact, I’m quite impressed. No one had the guts to do what you did and it should have been done…well, years ago. I wasn’t aware that the thing had been installed. Well, that’s not true. I knew it had, but I didn’t think of it past the installation.”

“Stupid.” And she was, too. She wasn’t sure why he was here, but knew it wasn’t good. Then she realized he’d answered her thought. “How did you know?”

“You just said…ah, didn’t know you were speaking out loud. I’d like to claim that I can read minds, but I can’t. I just listen very well. Here you go, the nurse has you something for pain.”

“You’re going to feel something warm, Miss York, then you’ll feel better.” Abby was standing on one side of her bed and the hunky Mr. Hunter on the other. Kasey looked up at him to see if she’d spoken out loud again and felt better when she didn’t see that he’d heard her. The warmth of the medicine poured over her like liquid sex. Mr. Hunter’s laughter made her think she might have spoken out loud again, but she was feeling too good to care.





Chapter 3



Royce was sitting at his desk two hours later. He’d probably get more work done if he’d stop thinking about the pretty little officer, but he couldn’t seem to shake the image of her lying on her bed covered in blood. It had been just over a week and the image was just as clear as if it had just happened.

When her uncle and he had pulled up in front of the huge, sprawling house Royce had thought he’d had the wrong address. When Jay had gotten out of the car and walked up the steps, he looked around. The place was a dump and he’d bet his last dollar that a murder happened near here at least daily. The place didn’t improve once they’d walked inside either.

Jay walked up to a couple of kids hanging out on the stairs and spoke to them. He came back a minute later and started up the stairs. Royce was surprised that the man was taking them two and three at a time, but followed him close. The boys came with them.

“They said she came in about twenty minutes ago. Said they didn’t see her, but they heard her going up. She was crying.”

Royce nodded.

The boy in the back went back down the flight of stairs and ran back up them seconds later. He looked over at Royce. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he was pretty sure that whatever it was could potentially get them all in trouble. The kid dropped to his knees in front of a door and pulled open a little black bag.