Revealing Annie - Freya Barker Page 0,86
leaving us sitting in the middle of the hallway.
“Are you hurt? Let me look at you.”
I lift my head and reach for her face. There is some redness around her mouth and I carefully touch it with the pad of my finger.
“He taped my mouth, that’s all. My hip is a little bruised so Tony insisted on the chair,” she babbles nervously, while I let my hands run over her face and body, needing to check for myself. “I smell, because I was hiding in a pile of rotting vegetables.” Suddenly she starts crying.
“Hey.” I pull her forward in my arms and she buries her face in my neck. “It’s okay, you’re all right.”
“I’m blathering on because I’m too scared to ask how Bryce is,” she sobs.
I set her back by the shoulders and cup her face in my hands.
“He’s in surgery. They’re fixing his leg. It may take some time but he should recover just fine.”
“Are you sure? I heard it, when the van hit…”
“Shhh. He’ll be fine.”
I quickly press my mouth against hers, tasting the salt of her tears on her lips. When I pull back I brush my thumbs under her eyes.
“No more—”
“Sumo?” Blue calls out.
I turn around to see the surgeon come through the doors.
Annie
“Thank you.”
Blue grins at me. “No problem. We often steal scrubs from the hospital. We get puked on regularly and I don’t like walking around in a dirty uniform.”
“I bet.”
Blue just wheeled me into a washroom after the nurse came to get Kyle. Bryce is still in recovery, but starting to wake up and apparently got a bit agitated when he didn’t see his father. Blue offered to help me get cleaned up a bit. I guess I was starting to stink up the waiting room.
“Here, I nicked you a towel as well. Unfortunately the only soap is the antibacterial stuff from the dispenser.”
She helps me on my feet and I wince when I put weight on my left side. I really did a number on that hip.
“Sure you don’t want that checked out?” she asks, helping me out of my jeans while I pull off my shirt. “Yikes, you’ll wanna ice that as soon as you can.” I look down to see a nice big bruise forming. “Let me find a bag for these,” she rolls up the dirty clothes, “and an icepack for your hip. You gonna be okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”
Ten minutes later I’m washed up—I even stuck my head under the tap—am wearing clean scrubs, and have an icepack wedged against my hip when Blue wheels me into the elevator. Apparently Kyle came looking for me because they were moving Bryce to a regular room on the second floor.
Kyle is waiting when we get out of the elevator, looking exhausted but smiling when he sees me. He leans over and kisses me sweetly.
“Feeling better?”
“Much.”
“I can’t get him to rest, he keeps asking for you. Wants to make sure you’re really okay.”
“I’m gonna leave you guys to it, find Tony, and see if he can give me a quick ride to the station,” Blue announces. “Cheddar took the rig.”
I watch as Kyle wraps his partner in a hug, mumbling, “Thanks,” in his partner’s ear before letting her go. With a wink for me she steps back in the elevator.
Bryce looks small in the hospital bed. His eyes are open when Kyle rolls me up to the bed.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, and I promptly start tearing up again. Seriously, such a good kid.
“I’m fine, just a bruise. I’m more worried about you.”
“I’m sorry. I tried to stop him.”
Damn kid is breaking my heart.
“Are you kidding right now?” I grab his hand in mine. “Detective Ramirez told me what you did. I would’ve been in big trouble without you telling them how to find me. You saved my bacon, Bryce. I’ll never forget that.”
He manages a wobbly smile.
“Cool.”
Then he asks me how I got away, and I give both of them the whole story. I watch Kyle—who took a seat on the other side of the bed—as he wrings his hands in his lap. I can tell he’s struggling with something but that’ll have to wait until later.
Later comes sooner than I thought when after I make Bryce laugh with my dumpster story, he promptly falls asleep. A nurse comes in to check on him and gently informs us maybe it’s time to let him rest.
Kyle leaves Bryce’s phone on the nightstand where he can reach it, and jots down his