Page 33 of Burke (The Haven #2)

S hirley woke later that afternoon, the pain absolutely excruciating. The nurses were there almost immediately and smiled at her and asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Probably as you would expect,” she muttered. “Kind of like somebody just put a hot burning poker through my shoulder.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” She was quickly checked over, and her pain meds were delivered.

As soon as that happened, she looked around. “Was anybody here?” Shirley asked hopefully.

“If you’re looking for the man who has been at your side the whole time, we sent him home while you got a chance to rest, as he needed to do some other things,” she shared. “Or maybe we told him to go get other things done.”

“Right,” she said, with a sigh. “That sounds like Burke.”

“He’s really cute.”

She nodded. “Of course, but he doesn’t think so.”

“That always makes for the best kind though,” the nurse said, with a laugh.

She smiled at that. “You’re right there,” she muttered, checking her name tag. Willow .

“Anyway, he’s not here right now,” Willow confirmed, “but he’s been here for the most part. He settled down after you were safely out of surgery.”

“Okay, that’s good to know.”

“He was very attentive, so you’re a very lucky lady.”

She looked over at her, half smiled, and let the world start to fade away again as the pain meds kicked in.

She woke up again, fell back asleep, and then woke up one more time, starting to feel a little bit better.

It was dark out, but she had lost all sense of time.

When the nurse came in, Shirley asked, “What time is it?”

“It’s nine o’clock,” she replied. “You’ve been sleeping pretty heavily most of the day.”

“I do feel better now though. I guess there’s no chance of a shower yet, huh ?”

“Nope, not a chance,” she stated cheerfully, “but maybe tomorrow morning.”

“That would be nice,” she muttered.

“And we do understand how it feels,” she noted, “but we want to give you the best chance to heal as we can.”

“That makes sense.”

“Are you expecting company tonight?”

“I don’t know whether Burke will come back or not,” she said, with a yawn. “There are a lot of animals to look after.”

“He has called a couple times today to see if you were awake.”

“Ah.” She smiled. “That is nice to know.”

“He seemed very concerned about you.”

She nodded. Just that news alone made her feel so much better.

She knew that Burke didn’t want to go back into that whole family thing again, but the ache in her heart would never heal, knowing that he had chosen her sister over her, and then her sister had turned around and had treated him so badly.

When the nurse came in shortly after that, she held out a phone. “It’s Burke,” Willow announced, with a smile.

She reached out with her good arm, wincing as she shifted a little too much.

Willow handed it to her with a warning. “Yeah, you’ll have to make smaller movements for a while,” she suggested, with a smile.

“You’re not kidding,” she muttered. She cheerfully answered the phone. “Hey, Burke. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, his tone heavy and still worried.

“I’m a whole lot better than I was, so thank you very much for getting me to the hospital.”

“Right,” he said, with a note of humor. “Things blew up really quick.”

“I’m not even sure what that was,” she replied, trying not to move. “I never ever would have thought Silvia would shoot me.”

“She also shot you in the back.”

“Yeah,… that says an awful lot too, doesn’t it?” she asked, with a sigh.

“I’m on my way back into town,” he told her. “I was just checking to see if you were awake and up for a visit.”

“I would absolutely love a visit,” she said warmly.

“Good, and you should know that I told the nurse we were engaged, so they would let me stay and visit with you.”

Her heart slammed against her chest at that news. “What?” she asked in confusion.

“They only allow family.”

“Oh, right. I guess that makes sense.”

“And, by the way, everybody here sends you their best and are hoping you’ll recover quickly.”

“I’m sure—except for Timber, who’s probably hoping I’m dying, so he doesn’t have to face the whiteboards.”

He burst out laughing at that. “I’m pretty sure he wants you to get your ass back here so he does everything right because that whiteboard scares the crap out of him.”

She smiled. “I appreciate the sense of humor.”

“I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. So hang tight. Then we can talk.” With that, he disconnected.

She relaxed back into the bed and closed her eyes.

Twenty minutes was nothing, and she was feeling much better than she had all day.

She shifted around a bit, then realized she needed to go to the bathroom.

One of the other nurses came in and made sure she was able to get there on her own, waiting outside the door to confirm she was okay.

As she made her way out of the bathroom and gingerly climbed back into bed, the nurse added, “It sounds as if your friend should be here soon.”

“Yes,” she confirmed, with a bright smile.

When the nurse disappeared, Shirley sank back. Then, hearing a noise at the door, she shifted to face him, a bright smile on her face, then froze because it wasn’t Burke. It was Frankie.

He looked at her and glared.

“Hello, Frankie,” she said.

“What the hell is going on here?”

She stared at him. “You tell me. Apparently you convinced Silvia to shoot me.”

He blinked several times and repeated, “She shot you?”

“Yeah, she shot me,” Shirley stated bitterly. “How did you find out I was here?”

“She called me from jail.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“I can’t imagine your sister in jail.”

“Honestly, neither can I.”

“So, you’ll need to help her,” he noted calmly. “That’s what family does.”

She stared at him, then snorted. “Family does help family, but you know what family doesn’t do?” she asked, almost bursting with anger. “Family doesn’t shoot each other.”

He looked at her and said, “I don’t believe she shot you.”

“Of course you don’t,” she noted, with a wave of her hand. “Yet it was witnessed by quite a few people.”

“ Right , according to you.”

She smiled. “Have you talked to the cops?”

“Nope, I don’t do cops.”

“Ah, must be a nice option, considering.”

“Yeah, it is a nice option.”

“That’s lucky for you, but Silvia’s in jail. She was picked up for this little shooting, right on the scene.”

He hesitated and asked, “Did she really do it?”

“Yes, she really did it,” she spat, glaring at him.

“She said you were the reason, that she was scared of you and needed to disappear and get free of you. The fact that I didn’t have any money for her meant she would be in trouble with you, and, when I walked away from her, she shot me in the back. ”

That news seemed to really surprise him. “She shot you in the back?”

“Yes, she shot me in the back,” she repeated, glaring at him.

He stared off in the distance. “That’s interesting.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t think she had it in her,” he muttered, with half a smile.

“I’m sure you’re delighted to know who she is on the inside.”

“It’s always nice to know. I can’t really say much about it because I’m not sure I believe you,” he shared, with a shrug, “but I guess I’ll need to have a talk with her.”

“You can probably call her in jail.… I don’t know.”

“She already called me,” he noted, “but I didn’t accept it.”

She frowned at him. “Okay, and why is that?”

“If she’s going down, I’m not going with her,” he declared calmly. “That’s not part of the deal. She had no reason to shoot you, I gather it was…” He stopped and just shook his head. “I can’t really see it. I think it must have been out of temper.”

Shirley shrugged at that.

“Now that I can see, but I’m still not going down with her because, once they figure out all the shit I’ve done,” he explained, “I’ll never see daylight again. Whereas your sister, while I don’t know what they’ll do about this, it’s her first offense.”

“Except for all the fraud.”

“Except for the fraud.”

“Which they do know about, so I don’t know that she’ll get away very easily.”

He studied her for a long moment. “It only became a problem when she decided to go after somebody she knew, and, the minute you do that, all bets are off.”

She stared at him, not sure what he was saying, but something about the look in his eyes she didn’t like. “When you say she was going after—”

“Yeah,” he interrupted. “You take credit cards from strangers, not from people you know. That adds an element of personal revenge that never works in this industry.”

“If you say so,” she muttered, wishing he would just go away.

He glanced around a couple times and said, “I heard the nurse say you were expecting somebody.”

“Yes,” she replied, then realized the last thing she wanted was for Frankie to see Burke. “Why?”

“I told them you were expecting me, and she seemed to smile, like it was perfect.”

“Of course,” she muttered, sagging back warily. “And why are you here?”

“Just trying to confirm what stunt your sister had pulled to land herself in jail.”

“I’m not in the hospital for nothing.”

“That just means that she and I are done,” he said, with a nod. “Which is really too bad because it was the kind of a con that worked, and she was really good at that part.”

Shirley winced. “Yeah, apparently she was, but how is that good though?”

“It was good for me, not so good for her,” he clarified, with a chuckle, “but it’s not my problem now. You should have just given her the money.” With that, he picked up the backpack he had on the floor beside him. She hadn’t even noticed it. “I just have one more thing to take care of.”

“What’s that?” she asked, frowning.

He looked at her, smiled, then lifted a small handgun, pointing it right at her. “You.”

She shuddered.

“I highly suspect that to save her own ass, she’ll open up about all kinds of things,” he added. “She can make up whatever story she wants. She can’t prove any of it, but you, on the other hand, if you back up some of it or give them any information, it’ll just lend weight to it.”

She looked at him with a puzzled expression, a sense of dread creeping up her spine.

He shrugged. “That is something I just can’t have. You may have survived her attack, but you won’t survive mine.”

And, with that, he fired.