holding my tongue and my temper out of respect for that. But I don’t have the time or the patience to repeat myself. Apparently, you weren’t paying attention to Evette when she straight-out told you where she wanted to live. You also weren’t paying attention when I explained to Gabe that your daughter has not left his side. Not for any reason. Before you ask Gabe to turn his back on her and suggest she move in with you and your wife why don’t you think what that will do to her? Take a walk and I’ll call you when Chief Carson is on her way.”
There was a knock on the door, then it pushed open and a tall, older woman walked in. She did a top-to-toe scan and smiled.
“Mr. Harris, you’re awake. Sorry it took me so long. I was in my car leaving for the day but when the nurse paged me I came back up. I’m Dr. Lexington. Your doctor for this evening will be joining us in just a moment. He’s finishing up with a patient.” Dr. Lexington glanced around the room then finished. “Gentlemen, if you’ll give us about thirty minutes you can come back in when we’re done.”
Joe said not a word when he turned and basically stomped out of the room.
“That went well,” I muttered.
“Guns could’ve been drawn,” Z returned with a shrug.
“I’m unarmed unless you strapped an AR under the bed for me. You know, right next to my piss bag.”
“Oh, right. Evette was in the room for that fun procedure.”
“Seriously?”
“What, she wouldn’t leave and I figured she’d already seen it—or at least I hope she has.”
“Is there anything you take seriously?” I groused.
Zane was at my bedside in a flash. Smile gone. Spine straight. Face full of thunder.
“There are a great many things I take seriously. Making sure that Jacko and Mario find themselves un-fucking-happy in the very near future is one of them. You in that bed looking like you went ten rounds with a heavyweight champ and lost, another one. Your goddamn brain swelling, another. Evette freaking the fuck out, coming apart at the seams because the man she is ass over tea kettle in love with isn’t waking up, another. Your cock and your woman seeing it, not so much.”
“Appreciate you looking out for her.”
“I know you do. But that’s not why I did it. Evette’s…special. I respect her loyalty. And the fact she was willing to shoot me makes me want to be BFFs with her.”
And there it was—Zane just couldn’t help himself.
“Leave so I can get my head examined and get my woman back in the room.”
“Silver lining—we now know you do have a brain, but it’s worrisome it only swelled to the size of a normal person’s.”
“Yeah, great news. Now leave.”
Zane stared down at me then gave me a short nod, “Good to see you awake.”
And in typical Zane fashion, with the last word he left the room.
Chapter 31
My gaze moved from the baby bundle in my arms to Anaya. She was leaning heavily into Ivy giggling at something Natasha said. Nat, I came to find out had a dry sense of humor, and laughed at herself often. She was right then in the middle of telling a story about the first time she’d chopped wood. In and of itself there was nothing funny, but the way she told it was. And the copious side commentary about the guys’ reaction to her carrying in an armful of wood declaring she would be keeping them warm with her efforts was funnier.
Even my mom was laughing and I thought that said something considering less than an hour ago she walked into a hospital after traveling to Virginia from Wisconsin after hearing her daughter had been kidnapped. And if my mom wasn’t freaked enough, I had a mean, ugly argument with my father. Something that had never happened before. Sure, I’d argued with my parents plenty especially when I was a teenager, and as an adult less so, but I still butted heads with my dad. But never ugly. And never, never mean. I loved my parents deeply. They were good people, great parents. My dad was protective but fair.
But sitting in the crappy hospital cafeteria I wasn’t thinking about why I’d been such a raging bitch to my dad and how I needed to make that right. I wasn’t thinking about Gabe in a bed a few floors above me. I wasn’t thinking about how my stomach