I looked at her. What she said didn’t make any sense. “What did you say?”
“Give me another milligram of epinephrine.”
I started to feel woozy.
“Wendy…”
“He’s crashing again, where’s that epinephrine?”
I felt an overwhelming pull toward the ground, like I was going to pass out.
Wendy leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Don’t forget to tell him.”
When I woke up, my eyes opened onto a bright white ceiling light, before people slowly came into focus. Blinking, I let my eyes adjust before sucking in a deep breath.
Wendy was gone and I was in a world of fucking pain.
“Welcome back,” a man in scrubs said as he leaned over me. “You gave us quite a scare.”
I looked at him blankly as the world and everything that had happened came rushing back to me.
The door burst open and Chastity came flying in. She rushed toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck, crying into my throat.
“You scared me,” she murmured, the heat of her breath over my skin making my heart squeeze with the familiarity.
I held her against me and ran my fingers down her spine. “I’m going to be okay.”
She pulled back and straightened, raising an eyebrow at me. “You’d better be, Ruger La Montagne. You scared the hell out of me.”
The doctor told me it took a while to stabilize me. That one of the bullets had come scarily close to my heart and caused a bleed they had struggled to control. Another was too difficult to remove because of where it was, so I would live the rest of my life with a bullet lodged in my chest cavity.
I reached up and touched Chastity’s beautiful face. “Are you okay, baby?’
She sniffed back her tears. “You’re the one lying in a hospital bed and you’re asking me if I’m okay?”
“They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
She shook her head. “I’m not hurt, thanks to you. You killed the one who was going to hurt me before he had the chance to. The others got caught in the crossfire. And I think my uncle took care of the fourth one.”
“Did we lose anyone?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Everyone else was okay. But, Ruger, if you hadn’t noticed when you did… I wouldn’t be standing here.”
Tears fell down her cheeks and she trembled with emotion. I didn’t blame her. Just the thought of her being hurt was more than I could take. Living without Chastity wasn’t an option anymore. A world without her in it wasn’t a world I wanted to be a part of.
But she was safe.
She glanced over her shoulder and my gaze followed. Bull lingered in the doorway looking confused and uncomfortable, and it occurred to me that for the first time ever, the mighty Bull Western didn’t know what to do.
“You plan on standing in that doorway all day, or are you going to come in?” I said huskily. My throat was as rough as sandpaper and it was an effort to talk. Apparently, that happened when you had breathing tubes thrust down your esophagus.
But Bull continued to stall, and I saw his jaw tick as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.
I sighed. “For fuck’s sake, will you get your ass in here!”
Bull strode into the room and took off his glasses, and I could see he was concerned. Despite his bright, piercing eyes, the emotion was tight across his face.
“Are you going to die?” he asked.
“Not today.”
He nodded. “Good.”
“I thought you’d be pleased. Three bullet wounds to the chest…”
He looked at the monitors beeping around me. I was attached to so many different ones, I was surprised I didn’t pick up Netflix.
“Well, it didn’t feel nearly as satisfying as I had hoped.”
Looking at him, I thought about Wendy.
He needs to let me go.
But I didn’t say anything. It had been a dream. The visions of a dying brain as blood drained from my body.
Yet it had seemed so real.
Tell him someone special is coming and he has to let me go.
But I was going to keep it to myself.
Bull would probably put another bullet in me if I mentioned it.
“Has Martel been dealt with?” I asked, pushing the thought out of my mind.
He nodded. “Things have been put in place.”
Meaning Bull was working up to something big. His retaliation would be lethal.
“I want in on it,” I said.
“You need to get your strength back.”
“I’ll be out of here in a day.”
There was no hope I would be out in a day. But it was worth a shot.
“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I don’t want to see your face until you’re a hundred percent.”
I frowned. I wanted revenge for this and I didn’t like being shut out from the retaliation.
But then I looked at Chastity, and the strangest sense of peace and contentment washed over me, and my lust for revenge didn’t matter anymore. She was what I needed. The goddess standing by my bed with bright blue eyes filled with affection and love.