radicalducati Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Two
Colton paced the hospital hallway. He had never been this scared in his life.
When he arrived at Maggie’s shop and saw the back door slightly open, fear had gripped him tight. She would never leave the back door open. Which meant someone else had gone inside. And had still been inside he’d discovered once he entered.
The sight of Maggie being held at gunpoint had almost been enough to stop his heart. The blood-pumping organ had skipped a beat or two, he would bet on it.
He caught enough of the bullshit speech to realize Deloris Brake was off her little old rocker. He’d known there had been something off with Natalie. It hadn’t been his ex attacking Maggie and the cupcake shop, but her mother. And the woman had known it the second Ryder showed her that necklace. They all thought Maggie was in the clear. The attacker was in jail. There was no more threat. Boy, were they wrong.
And now the woman he loved was paying the price.
He still couldn’t believe she jumped in front of him like that. What had she been thinking? When she got out of surgery he was going to…to…to fall down at her feet and beg her to let him take care of her for the rest of their lives.
He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not like this.
She admitted she loved him, but it could have just been a heat of the moment type thing. A “holy shit I’m going to die, better just tell him what he wants to hear” kind of confession.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. What the hell was taking them so long?
After Ryder and the EMTs had arrived, they whisked Maggie off to the hospital. Thirty miles away. She lost consciousness and blood. So much blood. It still coated his hands and shirt, but he refused to wash it off. Not until he knew she was going to be okay.
They let him ride in the ambulance with her, but once they arrived at the hospital, the medical staff had taken her back to surgery. He wasn’t allowed to follow, so here he paced the hallway just outside the waiting room.
“Colton!”
He turned to see his brother hurrying toward him, concern etched deep in the lines of his face. When Dade reached him, his older sibling pulled him into a fierce embrace.
“How is she?”
Tears clogged his throat, but Colton refused to let them pass. He needed to stay strong now, for Maggie. She would make it out of this.
She has to.
“I don’t know. They took her into surgery over an hour ago. No one will tell me anything.”
Dade glanced around. “Let me see if I can find anything out.”
If anyone could, it would be his big brother. His calm demeanor and diplomatic ways could get a confession out of a preacher.
While his brother went over to the nurse’s desk to inquire about Maggie, Colton turned to do another lap around the hallway. For the millionth time, he sent up a silent prayer she would pull through.
Light footsteps sounded on the tiled floor. Hope rose as he turned toward the sound, but it wasn’t the doctor. Dejected and angry, he watched as sheriff Ryder made his way down the hallway.
“How is she?”
Question of the hour.
“I don’t know. Dade is trying to find out.”
Ryder nodded grimly as he removed his hat, gripping the dark brown Shepler tight. “Deloris is in custody. She bumped her head pretty good in the fall, but nothing serious.”
“Too bad.” It might have sounded callous, but the old woman shot the love of his life. He didn’t care if she got a tiny bump on her head.
“Natalie is still in custody, too. Withholding information and conspiracy,” he added at Colton’s questioning look.
“Good.”
“There’s a solid case against both of them. I need your statement, though. It will help.”
“Later.”
Ryder looked for a moment as if he might argue, but then nodded. The sheriff was a smart man. He knew there was no way Colton was leaving here until Maggie was in the clear. Even then, he wasn’t leaving without her. The statement could wait.
“If Maggie pulls though—”
“When.” He shot the sheriff a dark look, fists clenched.
“When,” Ryder corrected, looking abashed. “I’ll need her statement, too. I just came to let you know we’ve got Mrs. Brake in custody, and she’s not getting out. Maggie’s not in danger anymore.”
He said nothing. They both knew she was still in danger. She had a bullet tear through her gut. At the moment, she was in the most danger she had ever been in.
Dade joined them, looking irritated.
“Nurse Ratchet over there won’t tell me a damn thing.”
Colton swore.
“I’m sorry, but she says I’m not family and it’s against hospital procedures.”
Screw hospital procedures. He needed to know what was happing.
Fists still clenched, he started to storm the nurse’s desk. Ryder put a firm hand on his chest, stopping him.
“With all due respect, Sheriff, I’d remove that hand if I was you.”
“Colton, I know this is hard, but you causing a scene and trying to scare the daylights out of some poor nurse just doing her job isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
No, but it might make him feel better.
“Maggie is going to need you to be there for her when she wakes up. How are you going to do that if I have to haul your ass in for public disturbance?”
The bastard was right, but that didn’t mean he had to agree.
“Let me go talk to the nurse,” the sheriff offered. “After all, I have to check and see how the victim is doing, right?” Ryder gave his brother a look that said, keep him under control, before he turned and headed toward the desk.
“How you holding up?”
His brows drew down as he glared at his sibling.
“Right. Stupid question.”
Colton sank against the wall in defeat. “I can’t lose her, Dade,” he said softly. “I can’t.”
A comforting hand squeezed his shoulder. “You’re not going to. If anyone is stubborn enough to pull out of this, it’s Maggie. Right?”
Laughing, he nodded. “Yeah.”
Though he knew it was only said to make him smile, it was true. Maggie was stubborn. It was one of her most endearing qualities. He just hoped she used that stubbornness to fight for her life. He needed her to…or his was worthless.
Colton stood next to his brother in the hallway, leaning against the cold hospital wall. He watched Ryder talking with the stern looking, gray-haired nurse at the desk. She started to shake her head until he pulled out his badge. Her attitude changed immediately.
God bless the sheriff.
She searched her desk, pulling out a yellow folder and opening it on the counter. She pointed to a few things, making motions with her hands. He had no idea what those motions meant, but Ryder nodded his head, so he guessed it wasn’t too bad.
Please let it not be too bad.
The sheriff put his badge away, tipped his hat to the nurse, and turned toward them.
Finally!
Colton pulled away from the wall. He wanted to sprint across the room to discover what was found out, but the tight hand his brother had on his arm prevented him from doing just that.
“Easy, Colt. Let him come over here.” Dade motioned with his chin.
Nurse “Hospital Procedure” glared at them. She saw where Ryder was going. Yeah, she’d just been played and realized it.
Well, too bad, lady.
He was going to find out what was going on, one way or another.
Turned out, he didn’t need Ryder to divulge what he learned. As soon as the sheriff joined them, the hallway doors burst open. A middle-aged man and a young blonde woman, both in green scrubs, came into the hallway.
“Are you all here for Maggie Evans?” the young woman asked.
He stepped forward instantaneously, anxious for news.
“How is she? Is she awake? When can I see her?”
The bald man eyed him. “Are you family?”
“I’m her fiancé.”
A little lie, but he wasn’t dealing with this “only release information to family” bullshit again. As long as Maggie lived, he’d make sure it wasn’t a lie much longer.
Please be alive, Maggie.
When Dade and Ryder said nothing to counter his statement, the doctor nodded and continued.
“The bullet was a through and through. She was lucky. It missed all major organs, but there was some small damage to her intestines. We were able to patch everything up. Ms. Evans is still sedated, but she should be awake soon.”
Colton almost fell over in relief. She’s alive! She was going to be okay.
“There won’t be any lasting damage that we can see,” the younger doctor said. “But she’ll need to take it easy for a few weeks. It would be best if she stayed with someone until the stitches are ready to come out.”
“She’ll be staying with me.”
The woman nodded. “I’ll go over her medications with you and the procedure for keeping her stitches clean. Then I’ll take you in to see her.”
At last! He was going to get to see Maggie. She was alive and okay.
Once the doctor gave him the run down, she showed him to Maggie’s hospital bed. An ugly white gown with a faded flower print covered her. The blood had all been clean off, but he could still see it in his mind, red and dark. She’d lost so much, and there had been nothing he could do to help her. There were wires coming from her and hooked up to beeping monitors that displayed numbers. He wasn’t even going to begin to guess what they all meant.
She could have died. He could have lost her.
Colton felt so many emotions right now, relief, anger, happiness, but most of all love. Only at that moment, seeing the woman who held his heart and knowing she was going to make it, that he sat in the chair beside her bed and finally let the tears fall.