Page 85 of Hart of Redemption
“I heard Maggie talking to Ted on the phone about what you did.” She shivered. “I should thank you for saving my life.” No sincerity in her tone.
“Grace, I adore you. I never meant to hurt you. When it comes to your brother, well, it’s complicated. What Duke was doing was illegal, and no matter how much I… care for him, I won’t apologize for doing my job. I lost a brother undercover.”
She didn’t need to know that Jason had infiltrated Brian McCauley’s organization. Or maybe she already knew that. She certainly seemed privy to information, if only because she listened to others’ conversations.
“Is Duke going to jail?” she asked, slowly losing the attitude.
“That’s not up to me,” I said. “Look, I would like to see Duke. I understand he’s not awake yet.”
If it weren’t for him, I might be the one in a hospital bed or in a morgue. Although I should thank Rosario as well.
More importantly, Duke and I had unfinished business. Whether he wanted to hear what I had to say, I had to get some things off my chest. I hadn’t found closure on Jason, but I had a chance to say my piece to Duke.
“If he wants to see you.”
“I’ll check back later.” I had nothing else to say to Grace. She needed time to process who I really was, her brother’s situation, and the hell Mateo had put her through.
I pivoted on my heel, and when I reached the end of the hall where the information desk was, Grace called, “Duke loves you, you know.”
“People keep telling me that,” I tossed over my shoulder. “Except Duke.”
After my big reveal, I wasn’t counting on hearing those three little words from his mouth. Even if I did, I didn’t know if it would make a difference.
32
DUKE
Islowly opened my eyes, wincing at the pain in my body and an annoying beeping sound. I blinked several times as the blur began to fade amid the harsh lights.
“Duke.” Denim’s voice was somewhere nearby.
I jolted upright, pain gripping my left side. “Where am I? Grace?”
He placed a hand in front of me. “Easy. She’s fine. You’re in the hospital.”
I grunted as I examined myself. My chest felt heavy, as though a weight were pressing on it. I had one of those oxygen tubes in my nose and pads stuck to my chest along with an IV in my right hand. I tried to move my left arm but couldn’t.
Then everything came screaming back. Joy. Fallyn. Bullets. Mateo on the floor. Me falling on my shoulder. Grace in danger. The heart monitor beeped like it was on steroids.
“Water,” I said in a gravelly voice, trying to move saliva around in my mouth.
Denim poured water into a cup that was on a table beside the bed. “You’re lucky you’re alive.” He brought the cup to my mouth and stuck the straw in.
I sucked it down as if I’d been in the Sahara Desert for weeks.
I choked on the last of the water, and some dribbled out the sides of my mouth.
A nurse, a petite brunette in pink scrubs, breezed in carrying a tray with a syringe on it. “Mr. Hart, you’re awake. How do you feel?”
Denim moved out of the way while Ariel, as her name tag read on her scrubs, set the tray on a rolling table. “From one to ten, with ten being the worst, what’s your pain level?”
“Seven,” I said. “My left side. I can’t move my arm either.”
She fiddled with my IV then added the contents of the syringe into it. “That’s because you dislocated your shoulder and we removed a bullet from your bicep. Not to mention the other bullet we removed from below your clavicle. You lost a lot of blood too.”
“You coded, bro,” Denim said on my left.
“How long have I been out?”
