Ryder - Caveman Insticts Book Three(51)

The nurse, who was probably in her late forties, giggled and then blushed. She grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and moved Divinity out of the room and walked towards the elevator. I couldn’t hold back the grunt of annoyance as she leaned down and whispered to Divinity. “Our female staff are going to miss you the most. The visitors you get…” she sighed dreamily and Divinity laughed. Thanks to my woman I now knew what it was like to be a prized pony on display and so did my brothers, and cousins.

“Ha, you know my workmates said something similar.” The laughter in her voice had any annoyance I felt fading. As we got into the elevator I didn’t miss the massive, beaming smile on her face. “I’m pretty lucky because not only am I surrounded by man candy, but they are the nicest men, who are all great company, and they help to keep me safe.”

The irony of her last words wasn’t lost on me. We hadn’t kept her safe, and she was in the hospital because of it.

Renee wheeled her to the entrance where Chad sat in the SUV waiting for us. I reached down and carefully picked up Divinity while Renee opened the passenger door. I placed her in the seat and did her seat belt up before turning and smiling down at the nurse. “Thank you and please thank all the staff for your help.” I shut the door, walked around to the other side, and got in the back-passenger seat next to Divinity.

“Yes, what he said,” yelled Divinity as she pressed the button for the window to go down.

Renee waved as we slowly drove off. Chad stayed quiet.

The car stayed quiet until we were almost home when Divinity loudly sighed. “I’m really looking forward to getting home. I know we have tons to talk about and settle, but I can’t wait to relax on a soft bed and comfortable furniture.”

I was grinning like a loon. I knew we needed to talk and I was looking forward to it. Any time I spent with Divinity I looked forward to. What I was grinning about though was that she called my place, our place, home. I loved that she liked our home and everything in it.





I’d been home for two days and had been waiting for the onslaught of friends and family, but they didn’t come and I was grateful. I needed a rest from everyone. I knew they all meant well, but it was exhausting keeping up with them all and I didn’t want to show them how much pain I was really in so I down played it. Now at home I could whine and whine and only Ryder and Arron, when he was there, had to put up with me.

I would never tell Ryder, but the psychologist that visited every afternoon was helping. I had fought him for a week or so while in the hospital when Ryder had told me he’d hired a woman psychologist for me to talk to, almost the day after my nightmares began. He won the fight and the last week of my hospital stay she’d come and listened to me for an hour every afternoon. That week I hadn’t spoken to her about what had happened, I found I could talk about anything but being kidnapped and what had happened to me. It had only been since being home, that I had started talking about what had happened when I’d been kidnapped. I still couldn’t get to what I’d had to do to escape yet, and the nightmares still plagued me almost every night, but I knew coming to terms with everything and working through what I’d had to do and living with the consequences wouldn’t be all good overnight.

I had hoped that Ryder would talk to me about what was going on with the case and him being suspended and what his plans were, but he’d kept to safe, getting-to-know-each-other-more topics. Like favorite color. I was surprised we didn’t know these yet. His was red and mine was purple. We’re both dog people, but I like smaller dogs. Not rat size, but not huge shepherds either. Ryder loved the big dogs. I loved spring, when it was hot, but not too hot. His favorite time of year was autumn, when it wasn’t too cold but not too hot, and he could run for miles happily. I’d learned a lot of things over the last couple of days and was surprised when I learned them that I didn’t already know. I was determined to talk about his work and what we would do though.

Sitting on the long-padded sofa I watched Ryder come and sit at the end, placing my feet over his lap. He started massaging my toes and I closed my eyes as warmth flowed through me. “Mmm, you’re not distracting me. I called you in here so we can finally discuss the elephant in the room. The case and what the fuck is going on with your suspension from work.” I opened my eyes and glared at him so he knew I was serious and he couldn’t change the subject.

“Are you sure you want to talk about this?”

I threw my arms up and winced. I really did forget about my injuries. My drugs were good, until I did something to make them known. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to talk about this.” He stopped massaging my feet. “Don’t stop. I want to talk about what’s going on and could happen, but that doesn’t mean you stop what you’re doing.” I wiggled my toes as best I could with one foot in a cast.