Page 5 of Ozzie

Axel and I stand up. “Yes.”

“She’s out of surgery. The bullet nicked a vein in her leg, but we got it all patched up. She needs a lot of rest, but with that, she should be fine.”

“Thank you,” Axel says. “Can we see her?”

The doctor nods. “Once she wakes up. But since this was a gunshot wound, we were required to notify the police. An officer will be here shortly to talk to you.”

“We know the drill,” Axel says.

The doctor frowns.

“We work in security,” I say as a way of explanation.

The doctor slowly nods as she backs up. “Well, I hope I don’t ever see either of you two in here.” She spins and returns to the back.

Before we can sit down, two officers walk into the waiting room and up to the front desk. I can’t hear what they are saying, but they talk for a minute. The woman behind the desk points to us.

One of the officers steps up to me. “I need to ask yousome questions. They have a room over here.” He leads us to the room.

“Please sit down,” he says.

Axel and I sit down as the officer does. The second officer enters the room and remains standing.

“I’m Officer Adams, and this is my partner, Officer Sinclair. Can you tell us what happened?”

I tell him everything that happened and how I found Piper. Then I hand him the card for the officer who arrived on the scene. He’s expecting a call from me to answer questions.

“Did you see someone shoot her?”

I shake my head. “I got there after. Her ex, John, had already shot her and was lunging for her.”

The officer glances at the other one. “John woke up and gave quite a different story.”

Of course he did.

“The nurse reported Ms. Moreau also has a nasty bruise on her cheek. Can you tell me how that got there?”

“John hit her.” I may not have seen it happen, but I have no doubt that’s what happened.

The officer leans back. “John said you hit her. He also states he lunged at you to protect Ms. Moreau and that you knocked him out.”

My jaw clenches as I bite back what I really want to say about John. It won’t help me here.

“Are you accusing him of assault?” Axel asks.

“We’re just gathering facts right now,” he says.

I glance up at the other officer, who is watching me closely. “Why don’t you ask Piper what happened?”

The first officer stands up. “That’s what we plan to do. We’ll be in touch.”

They both leave the room, and I stand and kick a chair. I’m angry at them, at her ex, and hell, a little at Piper for not telling me about him. No, I can’t be mad at her. We aren’t a couple. I have no right to know about her past. Yet.

“Hey, you all right?” Axel asks.

I shake my head. “That asshole tried to kill her, and it sounds like they don’t even plan to detain him. Not until they gather their facts. In the meantime, he could come after her again.”

Axel closes the door the officers left open. “Did you knock him out?”

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