Page 56 of Bernadette
“I’m fine, Aunt Morgan,” Lucas sighed in relief as he hugged her to him. After several minutes, he stood back up, and held her shoulders in his hands. “How is Uncle Wyatt doing?”
“No change,” Morgan sighed, and with his hand in hers, she turned back to the room. She stopped at the door and introduced Lucas to the men.
Lucas didn’t say anything until they entered his uncle’s room. “Armed guards?”
“Yeah, your father demanded them after what happened over at Chuck’s room. We still don’t know who’s after us.”
“Did anyone get any answers from those guys yet?” “Not yet, and we still haven’t heard who the guys that shot at your Uncle Wyatt and me are. No one knows who they are. Not Wilson, not your father, and they weren’t talking.”
“Oh, shit.” Lucas said and stopped dead in his tracks when he looked up and caught sight of his uncle lying there with tubes coming out of his mouth, nose, and IVs in his arm.
“Yeah,” Morgan said as she walked over and took one of Wyatt’s hands in his. “Hey, Lucas is here,” she said and nodded to Lucas, who walked over and laid his hand next to Morgan’s he didn’t know where else to touch his uncle.
“I’m here Uncle Wyatt. I’m sorry it took me twenty-nine minutes to go get help.” He jerked, then exchanged looks with Morgan.
“Talk to him,” Morgan said and waited. She had thought she felt Wyatt tighten his grip on her hand as Lucas talked.
“Yeah, I was a coward. Chuck was hurt, someone shot out his tire after we talked to Tom to send help, and he went ass over tea kettle. He forgot to let go of the handlebars and the ATV landed on him. He’s over at the other hospital with a crushed left wrist. I stayed over there with him, because I was too scared to face Aunt Morgan. I thought she would be mad at me for not getting help at the exact time she told me.”
Lucas looked at Morgan when Wyatt’s eyes started to flutter. They watched as his eyeballs rolled behind his lids, then he opened them, closed them, opened them, and closed them several times. At one point, Morgan reached down, grabbed the button to push for the nurse and pushed it. The nurse rushed in just as Wyatt turned his head and looked around the room. As they worked on him, Morgan and Lucas were asked to wait out into the hall until they could finish their assessment on Wyatt, and with the door open, the two of them stood in the hall watching the activity in the room. The FBI agents were on their phones as they too reported to whomever they had to report to, and they stood behind Morgan and Lucas to watch what was happening. Morgan was so intent on keeping an eye on Wyatt, it took her several moments to realize someone was talking to her.
“Mrs. Erwin, please, come in, we’re ready to ask your husband some questions to see what his mental status is.”
Morgan and Lucas exchanged fearful looks, grasped each other’s hand, and slowly reentered the hospital room. The doctor had them stand at the end of the bed while they talked to Wyatt, and all Morgan could see was herself and Wyatt’s position reversed from three years ago when she woke up after her motorcycle accident to no memory. She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them, she stared directly into Wyatt’s blue, blue eyes.
“Come here,” Wyatt’s voice was gruffer than usual, and Morgan put that down to him having a tube down his throat for the last two days. She looked at the doctors for confirmation, but jerked her look back to Wyatt when he spoke again. “Don’t look at them, look at me. Come here.”
She took encouragement from Lucas’ subtle nudge on her back, and slowly walked over to the side of the bed. As she approached, Wyatt reached out, took her hand in his, and pulled, causing her to land against his chest. When he winced, she tried to take the pressure off his injuries, but he wouldn’t allow it. Instead, he reached his left hand up, caressed his thumb over her cheek, then leaned in and kissed the bandage on her forehead at her temple. The one she had completely forgotten she had. If she had looked in a mirror right then, she would have run from the room screaming. Not only did she have the bandage, but she also had bruising around it, as well as a black eye, and several scratches on the side of her face and around the bandage that didn’t cover them.
“Are you okay? Did you get hit?”
“What do you remember?” The doctor demanded, then sighed when Wyatt gave him a look, then took Morgan’s chin between his fingers, brought her head down, kissed the bandaged area gently, then kissed her. When he let her go, he grinned at her, then settled back in the bed, but he wouldn’t let her step away from him. He looked at the doctors and shook his head.
“It was weird.”
“Weird how?” The doctor that seemed to be in charge asked. He had taken a spot next to Lucas at the end of the bed, since Wyatt wouldn’t let go of Morgan. “I’m the neurosurgeon that operated on you, by the way.”
“Oh, then maybe you’ll know what I mean by weird.” They all paused as someone walked in the door, and Morgan nodded to the two gentlemen, who had pulled a notebook and pen from their pockets, ready to take notes.
“Mikel Stokes had them guard your room,” Morgan said by way of explanation.
“Ah, okay.” Wyatt nodded and looked at the doctor. “In case you’re wondering, I know almost everything. The only thing I don’t know is what day it is.”
“Friday,” the doctor answered for him.
“Okay, then follow along. My name is Wyatt Willam Erwin. I married this woman six days ago, her name is Morgan Jane Stuart Erwin.” He paused as the doctor looked at Morgan for confirmation, then nodded for him to continue. “That young man right there is Lucas William Erwin, he is my nephew.” Again, he paused for the doctor to confirm it.
“What can you tell me about the accident?”
“It wasn’t an accident, I… no, we, were shot at.” Wyatt said firmly as he looked at the FBI agents and saw their nods.
“Let me tell you what I remember, then we’ll get to the weird point. Morgan and I were coming home from our honeymoon. In a way, it was a working honeymoon. I own a ranch that is over fifteen thousand acres, it takes up three counties. There was a line shack that needed some repairs on it, and it’s out in the middle of nowhere, there was also a creek that some beavers had started to damn up, and I needed to break it apart. If not, when I got back, I was going to send some hands up there to do the repairs. I wanted to look first to see what exactly needed to be done.” Wyatt looked at Morgan, lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. He gave her a sappy smile when she held a cup with a straw in it for him to drink. When he’d drunk his fill, he turned back to the others.
“On horseback, from my barn to that shack is a six-hour ride. We left the cabin at ten in the morning, no later than ten fifteen, by my calculations, and based on the slant of the sun, I would say it had been around three in the afternoon when we were trotting the horses, talking, laughing, holding hands when the horses would allow us to get close, and I estimated we had about an hour to an hour and a half before we reached home.” This time Wyatt looked at Lucas with a raised brow.
“By the time we got everything and everyone together, it took us two hours to reach you.”
“Okay, that sounds about right. As I was saying, we were trotting the horses, and I had no clue what we were about to endure. Somehow, my horse stumbled, and I kicked my feet free of the stirrups, ready to jump from the back of the horse. I looked over at Morgan in a panic, and the next thing I know, the horse wasn’t beneath me any longer. Thankfully, I had my feet free, and I was able to launch myself into the air. I heard a bone break, then it was like a delayed action before I felt the pain. As I lay there, I swore there was the sound of another bone breaking, but I didn’t feel anything.” He looked at the doctor directly as he said his next statement. “I was awake, but I wasn’t.”
