“Easy, Scheme.” Ely’s voice was soothing, comforting as her gloved hands pressed against her stomach. “I just want to make sure there’s no internal bleeding. There are no broken bones, though there’s a hairline crack in your left arm. You took a beating.” Her voice was soft, though husky, as though she had been crying. “I’ve given you more of the hormone to allow for the exam and to give you time to heal.”
Scheme struggled against the blackness surrounding her, a whimper leaving her lips.
“You’re not buried, Scheme,” Tanner whispered at her ear again. “Ely had to place coverings over your eyes while she swabbed around them. They’ll be off in a minute.”
She tried to shake her head. Now. She wanted them off now.
“Easy, pretty girl,” Tanner crooned at her ear. “Would I lie to you, baby?”
In a heartbeat, if he thought it was for her own good.
He chuckled huskily. “I would never lie about this, Scheme.” A light touch to her cheeks, beneath her eyes, her forehead, proved his words. “See, you’re fine. Just in Ely’s lab. You took a beating, baby.”
“David.” She managed to push the word past her lips.
“Safe and sound.” His lips brushed over her ear as his hands smoothed to her bare shoulders. “Tamber is dead. We got to you in time.”
Did he? She couldn’t see; she couldn’t be certain. She whimpered in dread, terrified it was another trap. Did Cyrus have her again? Was he tricking her somehow?
“Take the coverings off her eyes, Ely,” Tanner ordered. “Now.”
Soft latex brushed her cheeks, and an instant later the pressure was gone. Her eyes flickered open as the lights dimmed in the exam room.
“You look like shit,” she whispered as Tanner’s face came into focus.
He looked haggard. Pale, his face streaked with grime, his hair tangled.
“Keeping up with you is hell on my appearance,” he said, his amber eyes gleaming with…love. They were filled with love. Soft, warm, rich with emotion.
“I love you,” she whispered then, her lips trembling as his hand clasped hers and he bent closer to her. “I was so afraid I couldn’t come back to you.”
She had been terrified. In the midst of everything rushing around her, in the back of her mind, the awareness that Tanner could be lost to her forever had been more horrifying than the thought of being buried.
“I’ve managed to dull the mating heat for the time being,” Ely spoke. “But it’s only going to work if you two try to keep a handle on yourselves here.”
It was then that Scheme noticed the machines she was tied to. She recognized most of them, but the one her right index finger was attached to had her brows drawing into a frown.
“Hormonal indicator,” Ely explained. “I had to readjust the hormones and trick your body into thinking Tanner had been doing the nasty with you.” She waggled her brows suggestively.
Scheme stared back at her suspiciously before turning back to Tanner.
“This isn’t the doctor who checked me earlier. Someone should look for the real one.”
Ely’s smile was self-deprecating. “I was wrong about you,” she said simply.
Scheme snorted. “I’m really not willing to go through this every time someone here gets in a snit. And put a leash on that kid; he’s dangerous.” Her eyes drifted closed. “You guys need to learn how to avoid conflict,” she muttered. “Go to school.”
“Do what?” Tanner chuckled.
“Go to school. Teaches you all kinds of neat stuff. Public school, hell of an invention.”
She drifted, aided no doubt by the drugs dripping into that IV in her arm. She liked drugs, she decided. She really liked them.
“I’m gonna sleep,” she mumbled, frowning. She had done something really bad; she knew it. “Tell David mum.”
“Mum?” Tanner’s voice sounded far away.
“Mums thaword,” she slurred. “Tell David mum.”