doctor. That’s good news, indeed.” I wiped the sweat off my brow. Why was it suddenly hot in here?
“Raiden, are you okay? You’re looking gray.”
The room swam for a minute and then rectified itself. “I’m better now. Was a little lightheaded for a second.”
“It’s not unusual,” the doctor answered.
“Can I see her?”
“Not yet. She’s in recovery and will stay for a while. I suggest you go home and get some rest. Come back in the morning. She’ll be transferred to a room by then.”
Drex and Cruze looked toward me for an answer. “Sounds good.” I was still fairly weak. What a wimp. I needed to bolster myself up.
“I’ll drop you off at your place then,” Cruze said. “I can drive by somewhere to pick up some food if you’d like.”
“Thanks. And thank you both for coming and waiting with me. I really appreciate it.”
“Hey, it’s what friends do,” Drex said, extending his hand. I took it and we shook. Then the bodyguards escorted us to our cars.
Chapter Sixteen
Scottie
My mouth tasted like a dead critter, and I was in acute pain. I heard a constant beeping, which was annoying as hell. When I cracked open my eyes, the bright lights made me wish I hadn’t.
“Ms. Sullivan, welcome back.”
“Where’d I go?” My neck craned to find who the voice belonged to.
“You just had surgery,” the voice responded. Then a young woman appeared next to me and began asking me a series of questions. It was so bright that all I wanted was for her to dim the lights. I held up a hand, and that’s when I noticed the IV.
“Um, what happened?”
“Don’t worry, everything went well and you’ll be fine.”
“Nice to know, but what happened?”
A group of people who wanted to chat joined us. Didn’t they see I wanted to sleep?
“Ms. Sullivan, I’m Dr. Carter and this is the surgical team that performed your procedure.”
“Procedure?”
“Don’t worry. We have given you sedatives so your memory will be slightly clouded. It will come back tomorrow.”
I tried to sit up, but pain sliced through me. “See this button?” the doctor asked, pointed to a little button near my hand that attached to the IV.
“Yeah.”
“Whenever your pain gets bad, just tap it. It’s a morphine pump.”
“Whoa. I don’t want that stuff. It’s addicting.” As a former DEA agent, I’d heard all kinds of horror stories about people getting addicted like this.
“You’ll be fine. It’s only for one or two days.”
“Can’t I have Tylenol instead?”
He took my hand, and his kind eyes met my worried ones. “I know you’re scared, but you need morphine and not Tylenol. You just had surgery to remove a bullet that pierced your liver, damaged it, and went through your large intestine too. We had to fix you up and insert two drain tubes. Until we get you through the pain hump, you need this. Being in pain will only extend your recovery time, and we don’t want you on any solid food yet. We want to get you back on your feet as soon as possible.”
As he spoke, it was all coming back to me. Raiden, me in the apartment. The invasion and the gunfire. I thought we were both dead.
“Fine. I’ll stay on it tonight, but I want to reassess my condition tomorrow.”
He smiled. “We can do that. We’re waiting on a room for you to be transferred. Your boyfriend just left. He waited for you and wouldn’t leave until he knew you would be okay. I sent him home and told him not to come back until tomorrow because you need your rest.”
“Okay.” My boyfriend, huh? Had the doctor assumed that? Or was that how Raiden introduced himself? “Am I going to be okay? I mean my liver and large intestine.”
“Yes. Don’t worry. We did an excellent job of patching you up, so you’ll be as good as new. You must be on liquids for a few days and a patient here until we get those tubes out, but afterward, you’ll be free to leave.”
“Thank you.”
He patted my hand. “Ms. Sullivan, try to stay away from bullets from now on. They’re not your friend.”
“Wait. It’s not like I wanted to get shot. They broke into my apartment and did the shooting first.”
“I see your memory is returning.”
“Yes. It was awful. Did Raiden get injured?”
“No, not even a scratch.”
“Good.”
“The police will be here tomorrow with questions. I told them no questions tonight. So get some sleep because they’ll be pounding on your door come morning.”
“Thanks, doc.”
With a nod, he left,