Page 45 of Bernadette
“Ouch, then the rest of what I have to say isn’t going sit well with you, then.”
“What?” Bernie demanded.
“He has several cracked and broken ribs, I’m assuming that was when the ATV landed on him, or from his impact with the ground. It’s hard to tell. He’s going to have to take it easy for a few weeks, so he doesn’t cause them to puncture a lung. We’ve gotten the other test results back, and we were going to prep him for surgery, but we’re going to have to wait to see what those men injected into him. He can’t go under anesthesia with something foreign in his body.”
“We understand that, but what does he need surgery for?” Justin asked.
“He has a shattered left wrist. We need to take him in and repair it.”
“Shit,” the three Stuart men said at the same time.
“What’s wrong?” The doctor asked in alarm.
“He’s left-handed,” Josh said. “Can’t do shit with his right hand.”
“Well, it’ll be fun to watch him then. I’d suggest having him talk to his boss about maybe doing a less hands-on job and trying to teach him to use his right hand. That’s all I can tell you, but we can’t do anything until we get the results of the drugs he was given.” The doctor nodded to them then quickly exited along with the two nurses. By then there was more commotion out in the hall, and Bernie looked out and saw three men in suits exchange handcuffs with the security officers, and walk away with the men. Another man in a suit stayed behind. Astrid looked at Bernie and grinned.
“Mikel Stokes, FBI. He’s been in our office at the compound many times. He knows us.”
Bernie hurried out into the hall, and walked right up to them. “Bernadette Cromwell.”
“Ah, you’re the commander from the marines Morgan was waiting for.”
“I am, what can you tell me about those men?” Bernie asked as she pointed to the ones that were being led away.
“We’ll take them back to the office and question them, we’ll book them on attempted murder, then more when we get the results back from the lab. We’ve been working with Owen Drake over at BCI and he has Randy Weis in his custody over there.”
“Good,” Dillon said, then called out to the men taking the suspects away. “Hold up!” Dillon strode forward and looked at two of the men, and even from half a hallway away, Bernie shivered at the coldness in Dillon’s voice as he spoke to them.
“George Aurther, Paulie, or Paul Short, you are hereby fired from employment for the Flying E ranch. I, as ranch owner will pack up your bunks in the bunkhouse and put your things in storage until I receive direction from Agent Mikel Stokes from the FBI as to what to do with them.”
“Bring everything to my office,” Mikel said as he joined them. “They really work for you?”
“These two did, I have no clue who this guy is though.” Dillon pointed to the man that one of the J’s had taken down. He himself had taken George down. “I know I have no right to tell you how to do your job, but you might want to contact BCI and have them tell you what Weis was up to.”
“He got caught?” The unknown man demanded, then shut his mouth when everyone turned to look at him. “I want a lawyer.”
“I bet you do,” Bernie said from beneath her breath and looked at the people beside her. “Let’s go see what’s up with Chuck.” She turned on a heel, swore when she forgot about her knee, then hobbled back into the room that held Chuck Dryden. She smiled when she saw him sleeping, and for a man that was tough looking, and acting, he looked like a little boy while he was sleeping. She had a sudden thought strike her out of nowhere as she wondered what any children of theirs would look like. They both had blonde hair, and if she had to pick, she’d give them Chuck’s green eyes, instead of her own brownish green ones. On a sigh, she took the chair someone brought to her, and looked at the others.
“I’ll stay here, why don’t you go over and be with your sister. I don’t want her to be alone. Fill her in on what happened here, then we can coordinate later.
The J’s reassured themselves she would be okay by herself, but quickly left after she gave them several deadly stares. It surprised Bernie that Lucas had opted to stay with her and not see Morgan. After about two hours, she looked over at the younger man and frowned. “Out with it.”
“Huh? What?”
“Why didn’t you want to go see Morgan?”
“You saw that, huh?”
“I did, I don’t think anyone else did, but I did. Why not?” Bernie figured it would be easier to be blunt then to sugarcoat it.
“Because it’s all my fault Uncle Wyatt and Chuck got hurt. I don’t want to face her and have her tell me she hates me to my face. I’ll suffer her ire from afar.”
“What are you talking about, how did you fail them?”
“Because she told me to call in the cavalry by six oh one. I waited until six thirty. We never left the compound until after seven. That’s an hour I wasted when I could have been there faster.”
“Lucas, from what I’ve seen in the little bit of time I’ve been here, Morgan adores you. She is probably more grateful to you that you listened to her and brought help, no matter how late or early it came. At least it came. What if she hadn’t said anything? She and Wyatt could still be out there, and how long would it have been before that horse made it home. If you waited until then, it might have been too late. As it was, we were there only hours after it all happened. You’re going to need to come to terms with it. I’m not being a bitch or anything, but life happens. You just so happened to be the one that knew when to get the rest of us. From where I’m standing, you’re the hero in all this.”
