Monroe, Marla - Brandy's Bikers [The Dirty Dozen 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (15 page)

“They’re supposed to call me the minute she wakes up from the sedation, so I can interview her. I don’t want any problems with you two about that. I have to know as soon as possible what happened, or I’ll end up letting the bastard go.”

“The hell you will.” Kyle took a step forward.

“I need her statement to hold him longer than the twenty-four the law allows me without charging him. I can charge him with failing to yield for a pedestrian as it is. He’d be out on bail by the time she wakes up.”

“You keep that son of a bitch in jail, or he’ll deal with us,” West promised.

The sheriff sighed and shook his head. “I’ll be going now before I hear something I don’t need to hear.” He turned and walked toward the outside door.

“If Jim ends up out on the street, he’s mine.” West looked Kyle in the eyes.

“He’s ours, West. We’re in this together.”

“No, if I go to jail, you need to take care of Brandy. He isn’t going to walk away without paying for what he did to her.”

“It’s not going to come down to that, West. She’s going to tell the sheriff everything he needs to know to put Jim down for a long time.” Kyle drew in a deep breath. “Besides, we’re taking her away from here. She won’t be anywhere around that bastard again.”

“What if she doesn’t trust us to take care of her now? I mean, we weren’t there for her.” West’s expression was one of anguish.

“She’ll know we couldn’t do anything until we found out what happened to her. We came for her, West. She’ll understand. She’s not going to change her mind.”

Kyle hoped he was telling his best friend the truth. He’d worried a little about that as well. She’d been attacked before, and then there was the incident with Jim when they’d first met her. They hadn’t been in her life for the first one, but they should have stopped Jim from ever laying a hand on her the second time. They’d been trying to keep out of the way until she was alone to approach her. It was too late by the time they realized Jim was manhandling her.

He could still see her body on the ground with all the blood on her hands and arms. She had been soaked with sweat, and her clothes were covered in briars and dirt. It looked as if she’d been running for her life. Kyle had little doubt she had been doing just that,. God, the fear she must have had knowing Jim was looking for her. How had she gotten away from him in the first place?

“I can’t take much more of this waiting, Kyle. I’m going to go crazy.” West was clenching and unclenching his hands now.

“It shouldn’t be long now. They’ll be out soon to tell us what is going on.”

Another thirty minutes went by, and finally, a man in green scrubs stepped through the door and focused his attention on them.

“Kyle and West? The sheriff said you would be this woman’s next of kin to talk to.”

“That’s us. I’m Kyle, and this is West.” Kyle introduced them.

“I’m Dr. Ken Strong. Let’s sit over here so I can tell you what is going on right now.” He indicated a set of chairs away from the others in the waiting room.

“Brandy has multiple lacerations to her hands and left arm. We’ve sewed them up, but she had a lot of dirt and debris in them. I’m worried about them getting infected.” He stopped and let that sink in.

“Next, she has a badly sprained ankle, but it will heal fine, I’m sure. We have a wrist brace on her because of the cuts we need to watch on her hands and arm. As long as she keeps the brace on and doesn’t attempt to do anything with that hand, it will be fine.”

Kyle looked over at West. He knew the worst was yet to come.

“What else?” West asked him, nodding at Kyle.

“She has a bruised hip, but it’s not broken. All in all, she’s a very lucky young lady.”

“When can we see her?” West asked.

“They’re moving her to a room right now. As soon as she’s settled in, a nurse will come get you and take you to her room. She was awake and answering questions before I left. I’m sure you know the sheriff will be back to talk to her before long.”

“We know. So she’s awake?” Kyle asked.

“She was when I left, but we are keeping her pretty sedated to help her with the pain. She might be asleep when you see her. Let her rest as much as she can. She’s been through a major trauma.”

“But she’s going to be okay.” Kyle made it a statement. He wanted affirmation.

“Yes, barring the infection I’m worried about with her hands and arm, she’s going to be fine. We have her on some heavy antibiotics.”

The doctor got up and turned to go but stopped and turned back around. “I’m sure you want to know and just haven’t asked. She wasn’t raped, that we can tell.

“Thanks, Doc. We really appreciate you’re coming out to talk to us. We’ve been imagining the worst.”

He just nodded and returned to the back.

Kyle sighed in relief. He looked over and found West with his hands covering his face, and bent over as if in prayer. Maybe he was praying. Maybe he should be thanking the good Lord himself.

“She’s going to be fine, West.”

“Yeah. I feel like I’ve been through a stampede. I’m all washed out now that I know she’s going to be okay.

“Remember, the sheriff is going to be coming back to ask her questions. We have to let him talk to her. He’ll let her rest if she needs to. He’s not insensitive.” Kyle wanted to get back there to see her before he showed up, though. He wanted, no, needed to see her for himself.

Nearly an hour went by before a nurse came out to get them. She introduced herself as Clara and walked them around the emergency room to a bank of elevators. They went to the second floor and down a hall where she stopped outside of room two-twenty-three.

“She’s in there. She’s probably sleeping, so let her sleep. She’ll wake up off and on, so you can talk to her when she does.”

They thanked her and eased into the room, careful not to make any noise. At first, Kyle almost didn’t recognize her. She was white as the sheet on the bed, so that her dirty, matted hair looked bright in comparison. There were dark circles around her eyes making them look sunken and black. Her left arm was in a brace and there were bandages covering both hands.

West crossed over and laid a hand against her cheek, then stepped back and sat down in one of the chairs.

Kyle pulled another one closer to the bed and sat next to her as well. She was so still, and the sight of the tube running to her right arm reminded him that she needed medication to keep away the infection.

“She looks so bad, Kyle.” West spoke first in a soft whisper.

“I know. But she’s alive, and nothing major is wrong. She’ll be over the soreness and sprained ankle in no time. That’s all that matters at this point.”

“Do you think it would be okay to kiss her? I want to kiss, let her know I’m here even if she is asleep.” West looked back at her.

“Yeah, I think we can kiss her as long as we don’t touch her anywhere else. I don’t know what is hurt and what isn’t.”

West stood up and leaned over the bed and placed a soft kiss on her lips. He smoothed back her hair and whispered something in her ear. When he sat down again, Kyle stood up and crossed to the head of the bed.

He leaned over and kissed her gently, wishing she were awake to know he was there. He ended the kiss and bent to her ear to whisper in it how much he loved her.

“Brandy, baby. It’s Kyle. I’m here, too. We won’t leave you alone. One of us will be here with you until you’re well enough to go home. Then we’re taking you away from here. I love you, baby.” He stood up and looked down at her pale face.

With a sigh, he returned to his chair and sank down feeling depressed, though thankful that she was going to be all right.

Silence took over the room as he and West remained quiet and watchful. Several times, West got up and walked around the room, then settled back down in the chair. Kyle knew West was used to doing things and not waiting. He was showing a huge amount of restraint.

“West, why don’t you go phone Cole and let him know how she is doing. We haven’t talk to him since we’ve gotten her report. I’ll sit by the bed with her until you get back.”

West winced then nodded. Kyle knew he needed to get out of the room and walk off some of his anxiety before he accidently woke Brandy up.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Walk it out, West. We’ve probably got a long night ahead of us.” He checked his watch and grimaced. “Well. It’s nearly ten thirty. Go ahead and call Cole. He’ll be getting up soon anyway.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” West stood up. H reached over the rail and rubbed his fingers gently over her cheek before stepping outside.

Kyle sighed and waited for something to happen. At this point, her moving in her sleep would be better than this deathly stillness.

He had nearly dozed off when West returned with the sheriff in tow.

“She hasn’t woken up yet?” West asked.

“No, not yet.”

“I guess I’m going to be waking her, then. We’ve got to have something to keep our guest in jail. You know I’ll make it quick so she can go back to sleep.”

“Just take it easy on her. She’s going to be upset,” Kyle reminded him.

“I will. Don’t worry. Now move back or I’ll make you leave the room while I talk to her. No interfering, either.” The sheriff gave them both a stern look before turning back to the bed where Brandy lay still as death.

“Brandy, this is the sheriff. I need you to wake up and talk to me, honey. I need to know what happened to you.”

Kyle held his breath as her eyelids fluttered, opened, and then closed again. The sheriff bent down and spoke in a low voice.

“Brandy, wake up. I need to talk to you. Wake up, now.”

“Sheriff,” West began.

“West,” Kyle said in warning. “He said he would be careful of her, but he has to talk to her.”

“What–what is going on?” Brandy’s weak voice grabbed his attention.

Chapter Twelve

“Hey, Brandy.” The sheriff pulled West’s chair up to the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore. My hip hurts.”

“I’m sure it does. You’ve been through a lot. Why don’t you tell me what happened. Start from when you got off work.” The sheriff pulled out his pad and pen, ready to take notes.

“I remember thinking that I was getting off early for once, and would beat the guys home. We’d closed a little early since no one had been there in over an hour. I walked out to my car and couldn’t get my key to go in the lock. I don’t know why I couldn’t.” She looked up at him.

“He’d put something in your keyhole to keep you from being able to unlock your door,” the sheriff explained to her.

“It was Jim! Did you get him? He grabbed me and taped my hands behind my back and my legs together and put a gag in my mouth. I couldn’t get away.” She began to get agitated.

Kyle stepped up to calm her down. “Easy, baby. It’s all over with now. You’re safe.”

“Kyle. Let her talk,” the sheriff said in warning.

Brandy looked over at Kyle with tears in her eyes then searched to find West on the other side of the room. He looked ready to kill someone. She smiled the best that she could for him.

“So he used tape on you and had you tied up. What happened next?” The sheriff pulled her attention back to her story.

“He put me in a van. I don’t know where he got it ’cause Jim’s never had a van before that I knew about.”