Page 17 of Thor
Ace grinned.“Playing hard to get?”
I gave him a sour look.“Yeah.Maybe you could get Deuce to ask Sophia to have a word with her.You know?Tell her how great it is to be a Riptide old lady?”
“Not a chance.”Ace held up both hands.“I’m staying out of your love life, and I’ll bet Deuce is too.”His face got serious again.“Shadow will keep his eye on the dark web, see if anything about you pops up.Meanwhile, keep your head down and try to think if there is anyone you may have pissed off enough to want to slaughter you.It could have nothing to do with Riptide.Gotta think you weren’t an angel before you joined the SEALs program.”
He had a point there.I’d been in a few scrapes in my teenage years, but I couldn’t come up with anything I might have done to provoke this drastic an attack.Just the usual shit kids do before they realize they’re not invincible.A thought occurred to me.“If this was a hit, it had to be someone with serious money.Murder for hire isn’t cheap.”
“True.”Ace narrowed his eyes.“I’ll have one of the prospects keep an eye on the guy they cut loose on bail.Whoever hired him might get in touch.They would be pissed if they paid and didn’t get results.”
I nodded, struggling to look alert.I could feel my strength waning.Probably had something to do with the liquid dripping into my arm from the IV.I needed a nap, but damned if I was going to let that show in front of Ace.
It was as if Ace could read my thoughts, part of what made him a natural leader.“I need to get back to the clubhouse.Beast and Rattler have been scouting real estate and they have some likely properties they want to go over.Market is ripe for investment right now.”He reached out to grip my hand.“If you need anything, just holler.Give the prospects something to do besides hold the wall up out there.”
I gave his hand a squeeze and let go.“Thanks.”
His mouth narrowed into a thin line.“You’re family.We find out this was aimed at you, we’ll take care of it.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“What?”Ace barked out the question.
“The doc is here to check on Thor.Should I let him in?”
Ace slanted a look at me.“Yes.I was just leaving.”He lowered his voice.“You can update me when he’s done.You have your phone?”
I nodded.“Yeah.Janet brought it in for me.”
He studied me for a moment.“She’s a keeper, Thor.Nail her down.”
“I’m trying.”
A ghost of a smile crossed his face.“Good.Talk soon.”Spinning on his heels, he brushed past the doctor, who looked pretty spooked.Likely more used to giving out orders than taking them.
The doctor picked up the clipboard from the bottom of my bed, and studied the monitor hooked up to me.“How are we feeling today?”
I snorted.“Don’t know about you, but I feel like I got run over by a bus.”
“Not surprising.This says you have a knife wound, not to mention assorted bruises and scrapes.”He carefully removed the bandage and checked out the stitches, poking gently at the skin around them.“That is one nasty cut.The stitches are starting to heal already, though.No infection, which is good.Knife wounds are notorious for that.”
“You’re not the same guy that stitched me up, are you?”
He shook his head.“No, that would have been Dr.Murphy.He’s the emergency room doctor, but once you stabilized you got stuck with me.I’m the local on-call guy.”
“Fair enough.”Not that I really cared, but there had been something about the Murphy guy that sent a bad vibe through me.Probably nothing, but trusting my instincts was what had kept me alive in combat when there wasn’t enough time to think things through.I was okay with trading him out.“What’s your name?”
“Dr.Samson.”He pulled a prescription pad out of his pocket and scribbled something down.“I’m going to give you some antibiotics just in case that knife wasn’t as clean as it could be, and a painkiller so you can relax.We’re going to keep you here for the night, and unless anything changes you can go home tomorrow.But you need to take it easy for the next couple of weeks until that cut is well on the way to healing.You try anything strenuous, you could pull out the stitches and start it bleeding all over again.”
I wasn’t about to ask him what he classified as strenuous.If he didn’t say no sex, I wouldn’t have to lie to Janet when she asked me.
Just as if I’d summoned her, Janet appeared in the doorway.“May I come in?”
Dr.Samson looked up.“Hi, Janet.Sure.You know the patient?”
She locked her gaze on the bandage as he taped it back down.“I’m afraid so.He going to live?”
The doctor chuckled.“I think it’s likely so long as he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
She shook her head.“If he didn’t do anything stupid he wouldn’t be here, so that’s not comforting.”
