Page 42 of Breaking the Alpha
Still gone.
The nurse asked him a series of mundane questions and he answered them in a gruff monotone he didn’t recognize until she left with a promise to be back shortly.
Angelina’s gentle touch on his cheek and Grey’s face were the last things on his mind as he slipped back under into a drugged, dreamless sleep.
*
Angelina read Birch’slatest update while River’s doctor examined each of his wounds one by one.She kept her back to the view in a futile attempt at self-preservation.
She was already struggling to keep her own memories at bay and seeing the bandages was hard enough for her to process without breaking down.Knowing how bad River was hurt beneath his dressings was guaranteed to do her in.
And River needed her to be calm, because he most definitely was not.
His second waking was rough.Alert and sitting up, he tried to remove the leads and tubes keeping him tethered to his bed.Nothing she said could bring him out of his frantic insistence that he needed to go, needed to join the search for his brother.She wasn’t even certain he saw her or heard her, his mutterings more to himself than anyone else.
A quick adjustment of the pain medication flowing through his IV knocked him back out swiftly.His nurse didn’t bat an eyelash as she reattached the pads and wires to his unconscious body, her voice soothing when she reassured Angelina that he’d done no more harm to himself.
This time, she was ready.Or so she thought.As the clock approached midnight, the search for Grey ground to a halt with promises to resume at first light.The sedan was located just off the interstate outside Lincoln and Sheriff Fogerty was working with the local police to bring the dog team into the search in the morning.
Armed with this information, she was ready to break through to River’s rational side when he woke, ready to show him his brother’s texts ordering him to stay in bed.
But he hadn’t opened his eyes prepared to leave.
Instead, he sat up, disoriented for a moment, and asked one question.
“Did they find him?”
Her expression gave away the answer and he lay back down without another word.His eyes closed as he listened silently to her update, the only sign that he’d heard her the tightening of his bandaged hand around hers.
Chapter Seventeen
River sat onthe edge of his hospital bed, his mind too foggy to comprehend the instructions the doctor was giving him.
But Angelina was listening.Her thumbs were flying across her phone screen as she took meticulous notes.He knew she was recording his medication times, how his dressings needed to be changed, what to watch out for, and when he needed to return for a follow-up.
And while he wanted nothing more than to fall at her feet and thank her for holding him together when he couldn’t, his mind was unable to move past the clock.
Forty hours.
Grey had been missing for forty hours now, the last breakthrough being the white sedan’s discovery outside Lincoln.Sheriff Fogerty relayed information on the condition of the car through Birch, and from there it went from Jocelyn to Angelina and finally to him.The defunct license plate led to a literal dead end—a deceased woman—and the serial numbers indicated that it had been stolen from a home in Denver.
The Lincoln PD joined the neighboring counties and were out scouring the streets and using their undercover cops to check for information from their sources.The dogs had hit the ground twenty minutes ago.Birch and Jocelyn were holed up at the house with a security team patrolling.Winter was pumping his contacts on the inside for intel.
And here he was sitting on a hospital bed, glaring at the wheelchair he’d soon be taking to Angelina’s waiting car.
Handing over a stack of paperwork, the doctor gave him a tight smile.“We’re all hoping they find the son of a bitch who did this, Mr.Baker.Best thing you can do right now is rest up, heal up, and be ready to take the stand to identify him when he’s caught.”
“Will do,” he replied robotically, staying in agreement with the lie he knew Fogerty had put out to the public as he pushed himself to his feet and limped to the chair.“You sure I have to use this?”
“I’m sure I don’t like lawsuits, Mr.Baker.”
Angelina thanked the doctor profusely and tucked the insurance papers and prescriptions into her purse before spinning the chair, and him, around like a pro.“See you Friday.”
She wasted no time getting him to the elevator and through the lobby.The cops who’d stood guard outside his room followed the two until they reached her car.
“Mr.Baker, Ms.Watson,” a blond officer ventured while River lowered himself into the passenger seat with a grunt.“It’s been recommended that you stay with your brother until this all blows over.”
Before River could argue, Angelina closed the passenger door and stood with her back to him, her voice too low to make out.Getting into the driver’s side, she buckled her seat belt and eased out of the parking lot.
