Killian (Hope City #8) - Kris Michaels Page 0,79

to pained. He squeezed her hand. “I thought we talked about this; it wasn’t your fault.”

“If I hadn’t kept digging…”

“You wouldn’t have been true to yourself and I still wouldn’t have sold that property, so they probably would have come for me anyway.”

The door opened and a small swarm of people came into the room. “Mr. Ganas, I’m Doctor Pardallis, this is Doctor Collette and Doctor Ridgway, my surgical residents.” He glanced at Bekki. “Could we get a moment with Mr. Ganas so we can do an exam? I’ll have someone come get you from the waiting room when we’re finished.”

Bekki’s eyebrows shot up at the dismissal. Killian chuckled and drew everyone’s attention. “Doc, I got to tell you, she’s not used to being bossed around.” He nodded toward Bekki.

The doctor blinked at him and then looked at Bekki in complete confusion. One of the residents, Killian couldn’t remember which was which, laughed into his fist, drawing a stern look from the surgeon. The resident fought hard to control his smile but didn’t succeed. The surgeon cleared his throat. “Forgive me if I was focused on your healthcare instead of niceties. Ma’am, would you please step out? Now.”

Bekki’s mouth dropped open. She grabbed her purse and pointed at the doctor. “You better have better medical skills than you do interpersonal skills, Doctor Pardallis, or you’ll find out what it’s like to have an investigative reporter crawl up your ass.” She flounced out of the room.

The doctor’s eyes were huge when he turned back to Killian. “What was that about?”

“That was an investigative reporter with too little sleep, too much stress, and no coffee.” Killian watched and listened as the doctors examined his incision and talked about the procedure as if he was a crash-test dummy and not a breathing human. Maybe Bekki had a point about the interpersonal skills after all. Doctor Pardallis finally turned his attention to Killian and gave him instructions about PT, the first round of which would be this morning. Staying still and giving your body time to heal was no longer a thing, obviously. The doctor tapped something into the small computer the nurses were using to track his vitals and announced he’d be sending his resident back this afternoon to ensure everything was going well and to release him if it was. If it wasn’t, he’d see Killian in the morning.

The doctor and one resident swooshed from the room but the third hung back. “Hey, I’m Luke, a friend of Elias’. I’ll be back as soon as we finish rounds and if you have any questions, I’ll answer them then. Elias should be here shortly when—or should I say if—things settle down in the emergency department.” The resident popped out of the room with his white coat flapping after him.

Killian dropped his head back to the pillow and stared at the ceiling. A knock at the door sounded not long after. A tall woman with brown hair pulled back into a long ponytail and a man about his size entered. The woman held up her badge. “Killian Ganas, I’m Kallie King, and yes, I know you know me, but we have to do this by the numbers. This is my partner, Grant Couch. We’re here to talk to you about last night’s events.”

Bekki pushed open the door and stutter-stepped, hissing when her coffee spilled a bit. “Oh, dang, did you need me to step out?”

“No. You can stay.” Kallie smiled at her but swiveled her head back to look at him. “In your own words, would you describe the events of last night?”

“Sure. The power went out last night, so I had to send my people home. We have generators, but we were far enough ahead that I could release them without dropping behind in the build.”

“You own Ganas Construction, correct?” Grant asked as he scribbled in his notebook.

“I do. Well, my father and I do. He helped me get started and I’m still paying him out.” He hated to admit that, but he wasn’t about to lie to the police about anything. “Anyway, my dog and I went down to the shoreline for a while and then came back to the trailer.”

“Did anything strange happen during that time?” Kallie asked the question as her partner wrote.

“Duke, my dog, caught the scent of something, but that’s not anything unusual.” He dropped his head back against the pillow. “When I got back up to the trailer, I took a shower and turned on the television