should see them any second.”
As if on cue, two uniformed men came through the door.
“They’re here,” I said.
“I’m going to hang up now and they’ll take care of everything. You did great.”
“Thank you.” I set the phone down and leaned in close to Madden’s ear but he was no longer responding.
“Help is here. Everything’s going to be okay now.”
But as I said the words, I wondered if it was really true. I wondered if anything would ever be okay again.
Chapter 2
Twelve hours later, Madden stood at the nurse’s station in a pair of jeans and a loose button-down shirt, arguing with the doctor about going home.
I still couldn’t believe he was alive, let alone standing and arguing with anyone about anything. How Madden had come through the violence and horror relatively unscathed was a miracle.
Only he didn’t seem to see it that way.
His face was drawn and pale and he gripped the edge of the counter with white knuckles. They’d sewn him up and given him pain medication, and I could see it in the long blinks he took.
“I’m going home, with or without your consent. You’ve done your damned job so go help someone else now,” Madden said between gritted teeth.
“I am recommending against it,” Doctor Henries said. His eyebrows were drawn down and he was frowning at Madden. “There was no damage to internal organs, but you were stabbed, Mr. Cross, and we would like to keep you under observation for a full twenty four hours.”
“I’m fine,” Madden rumbled. “Give me the damned papers so I can go.”
I stepped to his side and he glanced down. I could see the pain behind his eyes. I wrapped my arm around his, more so to make she he didn’t fall over than anything else. There was a slight sway to his body I didn’t quite trust.
“Are you sure?” I whispered. “One night won’t be so bad. I can take you home first thing in the morning. A compromise, right doctor?”
The doctor reluctantly nodded.
“I don’t compromise,” Madden growled. “I’m leaving now.”
A hundred different things that could go wrong flashed through my head. I still hadn’t recovered from seeing him get stabbed or all the blood. I wasn’t sure I could handle another emergency if anything happened.
The police had taken my statement after we got to the hospital and they spoke with Madden for a few minutes after he regained consciousness. The two men were alive and had been brought to the same hospital. At least Madden hadn’t killed anyone, though their fate was up to some public prosecutor because Madden refused to press assault charges.
I didn’t understand why and when I asked, he refused to answer.
After the police left, the pain pill took over and he fell back asleep for a few hours. At some point when I was grabbing some sleep, he must have called his driver to bring him a change of clothes. I didn’t know that until I returned to his room after grabbing some coffee in the hospital cafeteria and saw him struggling to put on his clothes.
No amount of pleading to get back into bed had changed his mind.
“I’m going home. And unless this is a prison,” he glared at the doctor, “I’d like it to be now before the damned press gets ahold of all this. If they haven’t already.”
The doctor stood up straighter and cleared his throat. “We take security here very seriously Mr. Cross, as I’ve said. You can be sure of complete discretion during your stay.”
Madden scowled. “There will be no stay, I’m leaving. You have two minutes to give me the paperwork to sign before I’m walking out without it.”
“Very well.” The doctor set his clipboard on the counter and slid it toward the nurse. “Have Mr. Cross sign the paperwork stating that he left against my advice. If there is any change in your condition, Mr. Cross, you must come back immediately. I’ll have the nurse give you a prescription for painkillers that you should take every eight hours for the first twenty-four. Then you can take as needed. You will be sore for some time, Mr. Cross and again, if there is any excessive bleeding, you need to come back right away.”
“I’ll make sure he does,” I said. Despite what Madden wanted, if it looked like anything was wrong, I was calling for another ambulance. His wishes be damned.
Madden signed the paperwork and I took the prescription.
“There’s a pharmacy on the first floor so you can fill that before