a fit when she came around and got a good look at all the tubes and pipes and wires she was hooked up to. So many of them. Fluids and blood to try and keep her blood pressure rising to an acceptable level she could maintain, wires connecting her to machines that did who knew what. There was a tube disappearing up her nose. And he couldn’t forget the blasted catheter, snaking from beneath the sheets.
Braun released the bed, his fingers aching from the death grip in which he held it, then walked around the drab piece of furniture to drag the chair closer to where she lay, silent and still. His body groaned in thanks, grateful for the reprieve when he sank onto the overstuffed padding. He’d done nothing but pace a trench into the waiting room carpet since he and his friends returned from their nocturnal excursion hours ago.
Connie had waited for an update before kissing Braun goodbye and promising to return as soon as she could. She’d taken Liam with her, the boy damn near dead on his feet. Knowing the Mistress, she wouldn’t drop him off at his own home, but take him back to her place where she could mother him and make sure he wasn’t alone.
Atticus was lurking around the hospital somewhere, doing God knew what. They were still waiting to hear back from the homicide detectives, which didn’t bode well for Alicia, in Braun’s opinion.
Loki had taken off just before dawn in Atticus’s truck, offering only a cryptic, “I won’t be long before I’m back. Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone.”
No one had heard from him in the hours since, and Braun assumed his friend had gone home for a shower and crashed the moment he saw his bed. Christ knew, that’s exactly what he wanted to do this very second—he thought the nurses might frown upon him crawling in with Bodie.
He’d balance on the edge for her, so long as he could just touch her.
Cupping her hand between his, Braun bowed his head over the connection. No one who knew him would say he was a spiritual man, but he might surprise them. He was a firm believer in the power of a touch, a thought. He understood how so much could be conveyed through the stroke of a hand over a nervous submissive’s head, how things could be said without a syllable marring the perfect silence.
He hoped Bodie could sense him.
Closing his eyes was a really bad idea. With their skin pressed together, his fingers linked with hers, his brain switched off. He didn’t have the energy to think about Jasper sitting out in the waiting room with a stubborn, loyal little subbie curled on his lap, or a scared young woman dealing with the cops as her life flipped upside down and inside out.
He was done.
*
He jerked awake sometime later, confused to find his feet propped up on another chair and a blanket spread over him. Someone had leaned him back into his seat and tucked a thin pillow behind his head.
His hand was exactly where he remembered leaving it.
Braun squinted at the nurse dutifully checking the long line of staples piecing Bodie’s stomach back together from sternum to navel. His muscles contracted in sympathy. His girl was going to hurt. “She okay?” he croaked pathetically, then cleared his throat before trying again. “Is she doing okay?”
The nurse, a middle-aged brunette, lifted tired green eyes to his. Her lips curved in a smile. “Ah, you’re awake. We wondered how long you’d sleep for. You missed your girl earlier.” She gently replaced a dressing over the wound, then folded the blankets back into position.
“I...what?” Blearily, he stared at her.
“She woke for a minute. Barely made it sixty seconds before she slid back under with a little help from Mr. Morphine.” The woman turned her attention to one of the machines for a moment. “She’ll be out for a while longer now if you want to go back to sleep. I’m Lisa, I’m on duty today for this part of the ICU. If either of you need me before I come back, just press this button here.” She tapped a finger on a slim plastic box beneath Bodie’s fingers.
Fuck. how could he have slept through her first moments back with him? He felt as though she’d punched the air from his lungs. “Did she...did she know I was here?”
Lisa smiled kindly. “Patients rarely have their bearings about them when they