“Fine,” she said thickly.
She couldn’t believe he was sitting there, that the attack had nearly taken him out. The fact that he was conscious and relatively unharmed amazed her.
“The others?” Her eyes rose to the doctor.
Doc Martin grunted in irritation as he worked another splinter free. “Minor. Limb clipped one of them. The other was thrown into a building. This one had the worst damage. If he would stay still I might manage to get the damned splinters out before next week.”
Kane had shifted again, turning slightly farther away from Sherra. She frowned at his bent head. Was he hurt worse than he was letting on? He was acting so out of character that she moved until she was facing him, then bent down to inspect his bare chest for any wounds. She froze in horror as his head finally raised and a sigh of resignation slipped past his lips. The scarring was horrendous. Long jagged lines of flesh extended from one side of his dark chest to the other. One sliced through a small male nipple, others criss-crossed his chest like a crazed map of violence. He hadn’t had those scars at the labs. And she knew scars—these were old. Dayan said he attacked Kane that night. That he should have been dead. Now I know why he was hurt so badly all those months that he was in the hospital, Sherra. They wouldn’t let me see him then. But the wounds were terrible.Sherra remembered Merinus recounting the evil that had spewed from Dayan as he
attempted to kill her and Callan’s newly conceived child.
Kane’s gaze was hard as he watched her. “Are you going to pass out too?” he asked her warily.
“Merinus has already had her go at it. I don’t think my shoulder can take another swooning female right now.”
His expression was savage, his eyes glittering with pain and rage as she stared back at him helplessly. This had been the price he had paid for trying to save them. The scars he carried daily, a reminder of the deceit and betrayal which had infected her own family.
“Sherra, I need that gauze,” Doc snapped. “Stop ogling that chest and hand it to me.”
She jerked upright, aware of Kane slowly straightening as much as Doc would allow. She handed him the gauze, her mind a morass of confusion. She had never expected to see such scarring on the man she had come to think of as invincible over the past months. Her own anger and tangled emotions aside, she knew she had never imagined a time that she could conceive anyone actually wounding Kane enough to immobilize him. She hadn’t completely believed Merinus until now. She stood there, disbelief filling her as she helped Doc automatically. Handing him what he needed when it was needed, fighting the guilt and rage that filled her each time his muscles bunched. He didn’t whimper or flinch, he endured the pain as though it were no more than an irritation.
“You didn’t need too many stitches, but this wound is a mess,” Doc said as he applied the last stitch.
“You need to allow it to rest for a while. I’ll change the bandages daily, give you a shot for the pain tonight and keep an eye on it. If it gets infected we’ll be in for a battle. We don’t want that to happen.”
Kane only grunted.
Sherra stood silently as Doc gave him an injection for the pain, then bandaged the shoulder.
“Can you get him to his room?” he asked Sherra. “Everyone else is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They’ll let him get back in the fray rather than putting him to bed where he should be when this shot takes effect.”
“I’ll take care of it.” She nodded firmly, meeting Kane’s smirk as his head raised. Damn him, even wounded he had to be a mocking ass.
“He’ll be pretty dazed until he goes to sleep. Stay with him.” Her gaze flew back to the doctor as she began to prepare her excuses.
Was he insane? Stay with Kane? He was well aware of the effect that just being on the same property with him caused. He knew damned good and well what the same room would do.
“Don’t you give me that look, girl,” Doc snapped. “Someone has to stay with him and you’re the only one here. Now get him out of here.”
“Come on, kitten.” Kane’s voice was tired as he pushed himself to his feet, his other hand gripping the wounded arm. “Come tuck me in all nice and quiet and I’ll let you go peacefully.”
“Stay with him,” Doc snapped again as Kane finished speaking. “No argument.”
The world was just out to get her, Sherra decided as she pushed herself against Kane’s side, looping her arm around his bare back.
“I want a damned bath,” he informed her stiffly as they moved from the room. “I’m not touching my clean bed like this.”
She sighed. Yes, the world was out to get her. She prayed someone, anyone, would be available to help him other than her. She moved him to the elevator and hit the button for the main floor where Kane had taken a room. Thankfully, it would open up not far from his door.
“Did you get the bastard?” he asked her as they entered the elevator.
“Yeah. I growled at him and showed some teeth. He passed out cold. I wish they’d at least send someone with backbone. These pansies faint if you smile at them the wrong way.”
Kane grunted. He was leaning heavily against her as the doors opened, though, an indication that the painkiller was beginning to affect him.
“Let’s get you to bed.” She led him from the box and toward his room.
“Bath first,” he reminded her as he breathed in deeply. “I swear to God, this day has been hell.”