Ryker (Hope City #6) - Kris Michaels Page 0,36

clothes with them since most of my good work clothes are in your closet.”

“Funny how that happened,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, matriculation through the months.” She swept her hand through his hair again, unable to stop herself from touching him, reassuring herself he was going to be okay.

“Maybe you should move in with me when we figure this situation is done.” His words were sleepy.

She smiled at him. “You could convince me. Until then, why don’t you stay with me?”

He hummed as she combed her fingers through his hair again. “I don’t want to lead them to you.”

“Then we are going to have problems. I’m not leaving you. If you’re not staying with me, we are going somewhere else together.”

“It isn’t safe.” He closed his eyes. Against the pallor of his skin, the dark circles under his eyes slashed a deep reminder of his recent surgery and the reason for it.

“Then, Captain Terrell, we are going to have to find a location that is safe. Someplace people wouldn’t look for you.” She cringed but said it anyway. “We can stay with my parents.”

He opened one eye. “I’d rather not.”

The relieved sigh came in a rush of air. “Oh, thank God.”

He chuckled and patted her arm. “Don’t worry, babe. We’ll come up with something. Tomorrow.” His eyes closed and his words drifted off.

She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “Tomorrow. I love you.”

He mumbled something unintelligible, and his eyes didn’t open. She smiled and stared at the man she loved. Thank God they had another tomorrow together.

Chapter 10

Ryker groaned as he sat down in the chair beside his bed. Rayburn and Watson had delivered street clothes first thing in the morning before they’d gone into the office. They also snuck him a cup of coffee the size of his head and a grease-bomb egg sandwich with enough bacon on the damn thing to give the entire hospital a heart attack. It was fucking fantastic. He had to wait for someone to unhook him from the damn IV before he made a trek to the bathroom and changed.

Damn, he’d sweat bullets exercising before, but this was a new level of exhaustion. He’d tugged one of his XXXL t-shirts over his head and shoved his good arm through the armhole. Getting the material down past his bad shoulder took almost five minutes of gentle tugging and stretching the fabric without pulling against the surgical site. Now, he was shaking like a kitten left outside in a freezing rainstorm and really wanted to crawl back up onto that bed and go to sleep. Fuck, it wrung him out.

“What are you doing?” The stocky nurse stopped in his doorway. The guy pointed to the bed. “You want help to get back into bed or are you going to pass out where you are?”

Ryker narrowed his eyes at the guy and gutted himself up into a standing position. He would not have his ass handed to him. It had been one hell of a long time since anyone talked down to him, and he would not allow it now either. “I needed to get out of that damn hospital gown.”

“Well, bravo. What are you going to do when the doc wants to check that incision?” The guy folded back his blanket and sheet and moved the pillow out of his way in addition to making sure Ryker didn’t face plant as he made his way to the bed.

He grunted. Well, hell. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. My focus was stopping my shit from dangling in the breeze, if you get my drift.”

The nurse chuckled. “I got you. What we’re going to need to do is cut this shirt up the side. We can use safety pins to close the material and protect your modesty.”

Ryker got into bed, carefully adjusted his position, and slowly dropped his head back on the pillow. “That will work. When is the doc coming by?”

“Rounds start at nine. Depends on how many patients he has, but...” The guy glanced up at the clock. “Probably within the next hour.”

“What’s the likelihood he’ll spring me today?”

“That’s up to him.”

Ryker glanced at the guy. “Right. So, based on your past experience with surgeries like mine, and with me saying that I won’t hold you to anything you say or tell anyone what you’ve said, when is he going to cut me loose?”

The guy chuckled. “Probably tomorrow if all that moving around hasn’t messed with his stitch work. He gets peeved when patients don’t listen to directions.”

Ryker