Page 5 of Endure the Pain
Jamie tilted his head toward the IV pole I was tethered to. Understanding, Louie rolled the pole behind us as Jamie carried me to the bathroom.
“I probably could have walked,” I said as he sat me down on my feet in front of the toilet.
“You’re hurting. I don’t want you pushing yourself.”
Louie handed my IV pole to me and they both left to give me privacy. Pain flared in my abdomen and head as I sat on the toilet and it didn’t let up when I slowly hobbled over to the sink to wash my hands.
I glanced in the small mirror. I had bandaging from the center of my forehead to my temple. I was sporting a nasty black eye, and cuts and scrapes from my ear down to my collar bone. Bunching up my gown in my hands, I dared to look at where I'd been shot. What I saw left me stunned and confused.
What the hell?
My abdomen was blotched with purple bruises and patched up with bandages in multiple areas—not just where I'd been shot. What was even more shocking was the blood-filled drain tube coming out of me from under my sternum.
“Maura.”
Through the mirror, I saw Jamie poke his head into the bathroom. His eyes took me in—standing before the mirror with my gown up—then he stepped fully into the bathroom. He closed the door and leaned his back against it. “You were bleeding internally. The doctor said your spleen ruptured due to the accident. They had to rush you into emergency surgery where they removed a portion of it and repaired the damage the bullet caused. You also have a nasty skull fracture.”
Was that all? I almost said. As I absorbed everything he told me, I found words failing me and I numbly dropped my gown.
Jamie pushed off the door and I turned to face him. His hand slid behind my neck and gently pulled me closer. Eyes boring into mine with the slightest hint of sadness, he said, “I almost lost you.”
I laid my cheek over his heart, seeking comfort while offering what I could to him in return.
The doctor showed up after I returned from the bathroom. She greeted me with a friendly smile and began looking me over. She asked how I was feeling, and I expressed how much pain I was in. The doctor called for a different nurse to bring me something to help with the pain. Then she asked if I remembered my accident. I lied, saying I didn’t, and she immediately tried to reassure me that having a hazy memory wasn’t uncommon with skull fractures.That’s good to know.
Stefan was still gone, and Dean and Asher were still waiting in the hall. Jamie and Louie were with me and listened quietly as the doctor went over the surgery and the extent of the damage. The healing period was four to six weeks. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work for me. I had the drug pillar to run now that my uncle was gone, and De Luca refused to work with anyone but me. Not to mention I’d go nuts if I had to be stuck in bed twenty-four-seven for weeks. Jamie must have seen something in my expression because he asked her, “What if she refuses to stay in bed?”
Louie chuckled at the not-so-friendly look I was giving Jamie.
“You need to listen to your body. If you overexert yourself, there could be complications and you’ll extend the time it takes for your body to heal properly,” the doctor advised.
After the doctor left, Stefan returned to my room with Brody right on his heels. Brody was barely in the room a minute before he began fussing over me. He fluffed my pillows and adjusted my blankets. Then after I told him how the first nurse had treated us, he stepped out, and demanded angrily to the first hospital employee he saw that he wanted to speak with the hospital director immediately.
“Stefan Quinn is a major benefactor to this hospital, and this is how you treat his daughter? Maybe he should pull his funding!” Brody said loudly.
“That won’t be necessary, sir,” the director said with panic in his voice. They were standing out in the hall, but the door was cracked, and we could hear everything.
“She’s been through enough with the accident and surgery, she doesn’t need some self-righteous wretch making her feel worse than she already does,” Brody seethed.
I snorted trying to suppress my laughter. “Brody’s going all mama bear on him.”
Stefan looked up from his phone with a raised brow. “Interesting choice of words.”
“I think they’re quite accurate. When it came to raising me, he was more nurturing and softer. Since I already had you, I always compared him to what it’d be like to have a mother.”
“I can see why you’d think that,” he said and returned to whatever he was doing on his phone.
“You never talk about her,” I said softly.
His fingers froze mid text before his eyes flicked back to mine. “You never ask about her.”
That was true. Mostly because I was apprehensive of what he’d say if I ever did bring her up or ask the questions that weighed on me. I’d been having the same nightmare almost every night since my rape. It was amazing what someone could learn to live with when left with no other choice. But Stefan and I had been growing closer. Staring at him, I contemplated whether or not I should tell him. “I—”
I was interrupted with a knock on the door and I couldn’t tell if I was relieved or irritated. Not that it mattered, because of who walked in.
Without waiting for permission, one right after the other, Detectives Cameron and Brooks strolled into my room. Dean followed in after them, looking even more pissed than when Nurse Ratched had been here. Stefan, Jamie, and Louie rose from their chairs, all of whom didn’t seem too pleased.
The two detectives eyed the mobsters surrounding me before their stares homed in on me. “Good afternoon, Miss Quinn,” Detective Brooks greeted.