Page 6 of The Criminal’s Cure

“That’s perfect.” She takes it from him, winding the tubing up and draping it over a hook. Withdrawing a bag of some kind of liquid from her supplies, she attaches it to the IV. Soon, it’s pumping into him.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“It’s an antibiotic and pain killer combo.

It’ll help kill any infection he might have before it gets too far and help manage his pain the next few days.

And this is more sedative…” She hooks another one up.

“It’ll help with the pain when I take the drain out and hopefully keep him quiet for a few days. ”

“How are you doing, Ty?” she asks, flashing him a smile.

“Good.”

“Good,” she says, moving down to the drain in his stomach. “Now comes the tricky part. I had this in your stomach to help relieve some of the pressure, but now we can take it out.”

“Is it going to hurt?” Ty asks, frowning in fear.

“It might a little, but we’re going to do it really fast. And your dad is going to hold your hand the whole time and you can squeeze as hard as you want.”

Ty cracks a small smile. “What if I squeeze so hard I break his fingers?”

“Even better.” Madison winks at Ty and then glances up at me. “Come right over here.” She gestures to a spot up by Ty’s head and I carefully sit.

“Alright, little man, let’s see what you’ve got.” I offer him my hand and he eagerly takes it.

“Okay, I need you to take a big, deep breath in. You don’t know how to count to ten, do you?”

“Of course I do. I can count to a hundred,” Ty snaps back, giving Madison exactly the reaction she was looking for.

She laughs. “Great. How about backwards?”

Ty looks at me, not as confident in his response this time. I shrug. “I bet you can. Why don’t we do it together?”

“Okay,” he agrees.

“Great. You tell me when you’re ready.” Madison uses a wipe to blot around the wound and the base of the straw. It’s not drawing any more blood out, and I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not.

For a minute, I wonder if I really did do something to mess it up when we moved him.

Ty hesitates for a second, and then finally gives her the go ahead.

“Here we go, Ty. Remember to count. One hundred...ninety-nine...” she instructs, getting right to work.

“Ninety-eight.” His voice is shaky, and he fights hard not to cry as Madison tugs at the straw.

I give his hand a tight squeeze and count with him. “Ninety-seven...ninety-six...ninety-five...ninety-four...”

Ty is tough as nails as she slides the straw out, his whole body tightening. He lets out the smallest whimper when the last bit releases and she puts a piece of gauze over the incision. There’s a bit of blood, but nothing like before, and I pretend not to see the relief flood Madison’s faces.

“You’re doing great, buddy. Almost there.”

“One more big breath in for me.” Her voice is so gentle it’s almost calming me down, and I’m a bit in awe of her. She’s obviously very good at what she does, and she has Ty completely comfortable; unphased by all of this.

Ty takes a deep breath.

“Good. Ninety-three...ninety-two...ninety-one.” We all finish the last numbers together.

Madison smiles, snapping her gloves off empathically for effect. “All done!”

“That’s it?” Ty and I both say at the same time.

“Yep! You did great! And now all you have to do is lie here while your body starts to heal and watch all the movies and eat all the ice cream you want. Doctor’s orders.”

“Hear that buddy? You’re going to be feeling better in no time!” Hopefully, I sound more confident than I am. No stitches? No more tubing? She doesn’t seem like the type of person who would risk a child’s life just to get back at me, but it feels like there should be more.

“Why don’t we get started on that now?” Joe comes into the room and turns the TV on.

He plops on the couch next to Ty, who dissolves into giggles.

Joe is like an uncle to Ty, and the two are best of friends.

We never would have survived the last few months if it hadn’t been for Joe and his wife, Sarah.

He smirks up at me and I let out a sharp laugh. “What? She said doctor’s orders.”

With Ty occupied, I help Madison clean up.

“You’re welcome.” There’s a familiar bite in her voice, all the gentleness and warmth she’d given to Ty completely gone.

“What?”

“I said you’re welcome. Usually, when someone willingly goes out of their way to help you, you would say thank you.”

It’s both odd and refreshing that she isn’t afraid of me. Despite me holding a gun to her head and kidnapping her this afternoon, she’s as feisty and argumentative as ever. There isn’t a person in my life I’d let get away with speaking to me the way she is, but I’ve got to admire the audacity.

I clench my jaw. “I wouldn’t exactly say you did it willingly.”

“Yeah, forcibly kidnapping someone kind of takes that option away.” She glares.

“Speaking of which, I need to get going. Keep him on the IV for the next forty-eight hours and if everything looks good after that, you can take it out. I would suggest hiring someone to take care of his wounds and rehab. They’re going to need to be dressed constantly for a while, and once he’s feeling up to it, he’ll need to build his strength up slowly. ”

“You’re not going anywhere. At least not until I figure out what to do with you.

” I might have gotten a little ahead of myself with this one.

It isn’t like me to act without all the details seamlessly ironed out, so I’ll blame the desperation.

I didn’t think about what I would do with her after the fact, just that I needed her right then.

“What are you talking about? You said if I saved him, you’d let me go.”

“What I said was if you saved him, I wouldn’t kill you.”

Madison’s face turns white, teeth sinking into her lip. “Roman, please. I swear, I won’t tell anyone about this. Just please let me go.”

Her pleas have me feeling things far past the logistical benefits of keeping her here, but I shove the thought away. Jesus, what’s wrong with me?

“Dante, can you show Madison to a room upstairs?”

“Roman, you can’t do this!” she insists, growing more flustered by the second.

I let out a sharp laugh. “Madison, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I can do just about anything I want. I appreciate what you did for Ty, but I’m sure you can understand that letting you walk out of here isn’t an option. Not with what you’ve seen today.”

“So what? You’re going to keep me here forever?”

“Dante, upstairs. Now.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to stay here as some kind of prisoner,” she hisses, jerking away from Dante. He finally gets hold of her and leads her up the staircase. I watch until they disappear down the hallway, listening to her protests the entire way.

“What the hell are you doing, Roman?” I didn’t even realize Joe was next to me until now.

I wish I could tell him. Every logical part of me knows I should let her go.

Ty is stable, and every second she’s still here only digs me into a deeper hole.

By now, people might be looking for her or noticing that she’s gone.

It would be easy for me to put a man on her to be sure she stays quiet, so what exactly am I doing?

Then something strikes me. Madison proved her worth as a doctor today, and I could use someone like that around here, especially with Ty recovering. Having her around permanently is more enticing than it should be.

“I’m going to offer her a job.”