Fatal Secrets - Desiree Holt Page 0,52

arm was bound to her chest with bandages around her neck, and she was hooked up to a gillion machines.

He looked at Sadie with raised eyebrows.

“Broken collarbone. Internal bruising. Broken fingers. And, um, they had to remove her spleen.”

Sean was afraid for a moment he might throw up. He took her uninjured hand in his.

“My fault,” he said, not for the first time. “I should have protected her better.”

“Sean.” Sadie shook her head. “You were nearly killed yourself. If you hadn’t steered the truck the way you did, you’d both be dead.

He just put his head on the bed next to Zoe, holding back the tears. What if he’d lost her?

“I love you, Zoe.” He kissed her uninjured fingers. “I love you so much. Get better so I can tell you all the time.”

“She’s going to make a full recovery,” Sadie hastened to assure him.

“That she is.” A nurse had entered the cubicle and was changing the IV bag. “She’s got a long haul to travel but, with your help, she can do it.”

“I won’t be leaving her side,” Sean assured the nurse. “For as long as I have to stay in this stupid wheelchair, I’ll be sitting in it right here in this room.”

“Arrangements have been made,” Sadie assured the nurse in a soft voice. “Please check at the nurses’ desk. But Sean, you have to go back to your room when it’s time to rest.”

And that was how it went for the rest of the day. He grudgingly rested in his room when the doctor told him to, but the rest of the time he was with Zoe. As far as he was concerned, he never wanted to leave her ever again.

Chapter 11

“You spoil me.” Zoe grinned at Sean, who had brought her a fresh glass of iced tea,

They were sitting on the back porch of White Oak Ranch. Everyone refused to let Zoe go back to her apartment, even with Sean taking her, because of the steps. And everyone had insisted on coddling her and waiting on her. Sean had had to work very hard to get alone time with her. Except at night, of course. Sean had demanded, much to her embarrassment, that they share the large room she was staying in. and Hank and Sadie had smiled and nodded. She got stronger every day, and she loved being with him every minute.

It took a long time before he could accept that the accident was not his fault. Sometimes at night he still woke up sweating and crying, “No, no.”

At last she’d managed to make him believe that the way he’d turned the truck had actually saved both of them.

He finally told her more details of his last mission, which had prompted the return of his nightmares occasionally, but she was there to soothe him. Sometimes he paced the room. Other times he wanted to be next to her. Sex wasn’t on the agenda yet, but they spent a lot of time in bed wrapped in each other’s arms, talking and kissing. The agreed they could wait until she got the doctor’s okay because they would have a lifetime together to enjoy it.

Sean had thought long and hard and discussed it in great detail with her, but ultimately decided to join Alex Rossi as a deputy. He figured assignments with the Brotherhood Protectors would take him away from her too often, and he didn’t want that.

A lot had happened in few short days. Well, weeks. A couple of weeks. Zoe had still been in the hospital, although out of ICU and in a private room when Alex Rossi had arrived with Hank to give a report on what had happened.

“The DEA was only too happy to step in and take this fucker down,” Alex told them. “Because of the license plates on the truck and cars, they were able to get warrants to search all of Montoya’s property and from that to get warrants to examine his businesses, the public one as well as the vast drug business. Piece by piece Montoya’s empire was dismantled by the feds.”

“And what of the others, like Vicks and the public defender?”

Alex shook his head. “Some sad stories there. Randall Vicks, who is a senior attorney at Elliott Craig’s firm, was the front man for all of Montoya’s people when they were in trouble. Cal Woodrow, the public defender who represented all Montoya’s lowlifes when they were arrested, was taking payoffs for years. A lot of people got their hands