Page 78 of Secrets We Fight

“Sorry I ruined your wedding.” I hung my head.

“What? No!” Tyler moved closer. “You got shot. You didn’t ruin anything.”

“But it was at your wedding,” I argued.

“We had already left,” Hayden reminded me. “We actually didn’t find out until this morning because we had our phones off. We feel horrible for not getting here sooner.”

“How long has it been?” I asked, looking at my mom.

She took a seat in a chair in the sitting room portion of my hospital room. “It’s been about twenty hours, sweetie.”

“Shouldn’t you two be on your honeymoon?” I questioned my friends.

“We leave in the morning,” Tyler replied.

“Oh.”

Tyler and Hayden were going to Anguilla for a week, where they would probably spend most of the time naked. That was all I wanted to do with Rhett instead of lying in a hospital room.

“We wanted to stop by and see how you were doing first. We received a text you were awake,” Hayden said.

“From who?” I wondered. Would my parents let them know? Rhett, maybe?

Tyler glanced at my mom and then rubbed the back of his neck. “Yourfriend.”

I stared at him for a moment as I tried to understand who he was referring to, and then it hit me. “Is he here?”

Tyler nodded. “Downstairs.”

“Can you tell him to come up here?” I wanted to see Rhett so badly, and I didn’t care if my mother would be watching.

“He … ah …” Tyler looked at my mom again.

“You’re talking about Agent Davis?” she asked.

“Yes. I want to see him.”

“That’s not a good idea,” she said.

“And why not?”

She took a deep breath. “Agent Davis was relieved of duty.”

I blinked. “Relieved of duty?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he attacked your brother,” she responded.

“Good. He’s the fucking reason someone shot me, Mom! If I could, I would beat his ass too.”

The machine next to me beeped annoyingly, and a nurse rushed in. “Your heart rate is too high.”

“Yeah, well, it’s because I’m pissed.” I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows, the harbor in the distance. I didn’t want to meet anyone’s stare. How dare my mother say I couldn’t see Rhett!

“Maybe you need to take a little nap,” the nurse suggested as she stopped the beeping.