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Grady sighed as the nurse helped him into the hospital bed. The sheets were cool against his skin. And clean. He lay back, allowing himself to relax for the first time since he’d been picked up by the cops. Or was that whatever the nurse had put into the IV dripping into his hand? He didn’t care.
A whirring sound, and his head and shoulders lifted.
“That comfortable?” she asked. “You need another pillow?”
“I’m okay.” At least that’s what he hoped he’d said. His mouth and his brain weren’t cooperating.
“You press this button if you need anything.” The nurse wrapped his hand around a small plastic cylinder.
Her voice was calm. Soothing. She sounded pretty, but he couldn’t open his eyes enough to look. Or maybe that was the drugs, too.
“You rest now, you hear.” A cool hand brushed against his cheek.
Sounded like a good idea. With another deep sigh, Grady allowed himself to drift into nothingness.
Enrique and Xiang invaded his nothingness, knives slashing, boots kicking. Beeping tones got faster. A bomb? Grady struggled to get away. He was supposed to be safe. The doctors and nurses had promised. But he couldn’t escape their sneering faces.
No! Don’t hurt me again!
“Grady. Wake up.”
Hearing his name, Grady forced his eyes open. In the dimly lit room, the shape hovering above him was a shadowy blur. A person. Only one. Xiang? Enrique? A hand reached for him. Grady flinched, but didn’t have the strength to fight back.
“Grady. It’s me. Bryce. You were having a nightmare.”
Grady blinked the cowboy into focus. Stetson. Long ponytail. His heart rate slowed, as did the beeping.
The door opened. Light filled the room, and Grady squinted.
“You all right, Grady?” The nurse’s voice.
“Yes.” His voice was a hoarse croak. A cup of water appeared in front of his face, a straw bent toward his mouth. Hands propped him up, helped maneuver the straw until Grady could take a long, welcome drink.
“Just a nightmare,” Bryce said.
The nurse—she was pretty, in a grandmotherly way—checked the machines, took his blood pressure and wrote on a chart. “How’s your pain?” she asked. “On a scale of one to ten.”
Grady handed the water to Bryce. “Not too bad. Maybe a four?”
The nurse lowered her head and gave him a disapproving stare over her glasses. “You’re not going all macho man are you? Where a four means an eight?”
“No, ma’am,” Grady said. “I feel a lot better. Can I go home soon?”
As he uttered the words, he realized he had no clue where home was. Hot tears filled his eyes, but he blinked them away. When that didn’t work, he turned his head toward the wall.
Bryce rested a hand on Grady’s shoulder. “He’s got a lot of work to do at the Triple-D. There’s a horse in need of his attention. But not until he’s ready.”
“I’ll let the doctor know,” she said.
The nurse bustled out of the room, and a vast silence descended, broken only by the steady beeping. Grady braved a look at Bryce, who’d settled into a chair alongside the bed, as if he’d been there awhile.
“What time is it?” Grady asked. Sunlight filtering through the window said it was day, not night.
Bryce pulled out his cell phone. “Little after ten.”
Memories flooded back. Enrique, Xiang. Mr. Tall and Silent. The beeping grew faster. Grady took a slow, deep breath, the dull ache in his chest reminding him of his beatings. Being trapped in a trunk. But another glance at Bryce, and Grady knew he was safe. “How did you find me?”
Bryce grabbed his ponytail and bounced his fingers on the rubber bands. “You up for a visitor? Someone’s been raising holy hell wanting to see you.”
“Who?”
“I’ll go get her.” Bryce squeezed Grady’s shoulder again.
Her? Grady’s first thought was someone had called his mother. No, even if they had, she wouldn’t come here.
While Bryce was gone, Grady shuffled himself and his IV pole into the bathroom and took care of business. While washing his hands, he stared into the mirror above the sink. A bald, clown-faced raccoon stared back at him.
You’re alive. You’ll heal.
Grady climbed back into bed, lightheaded from the exertion. He tried to replay last night, but he couldn’t remember anything other than waking up in the hospital, with doctors poking, and a couple of cops asking him questions. Questions he couldn’t answer.
The door opened and Bryce appeared, pushing a woman in a wheelchair to Grady’s bedside.
“Cecily?”
She reached a hand out. “They said you were here, that you were all right, but I had to see for myself.” The wide-eyed look she gave him pretty much matched his own reaction to his reflection.
“You should see the other guys,” he said with a straight face. “Not a scratch on them. But I’ll be fine. What happened to you?”
He knew better than to tell her she looked awful—which she did—but considering his condition, there was no point in bringing it up. The cuts on her face made his gut roil. A matching set for his. He reached for her hand, and she gripped it. Tight.
“Xiang?” he whispered. “Enrique?”
She nodded. “But we’re here now, and we’re fine. They’re in jail.”
“They’ll get out. They always do.”
“Not this time.” She squeezed his hand even tighter. “The cops are going to want to take your statement. They’ll want you to testify. Will you do it? For me? For all the other people those two have gotten their claws into?”
The pleading in her eyes would have been enough to convince him, but even if she hadn’t asked, he’d have done it. If for nothing else than to see the looks on Xiang’s and Enrique’s faces when he fingered them for the dirtbags they were.
A nurse, not the one who’d cared for him, came into the room. “That’s enough, Miss Cooper. Back to bed, and if you tell the doctor I let you escape, I have ways to make you regret it.”
Grady’s eyes popped at the threat, but he saw the twinkle in the nurse’s eyes.
“I’ve got it,” Bryce said, and he wheeled Cecily away.
After that, the day passed in a blur. They were still giving him painkillers, and his body demanded rest. He ate his breakfast, but had no recollection of what it had been. Same with lunch. Two cops came in with pictures. He pointed out two guys he recognized from when he’d been in Enrique’s good graces.
“Yeah, they’d use their skateboards to purse-snatch,” Grady said.
“What about these?” the cop asked. He handed Grady six more pictures. Women with dogs.
Grady shook his head. “Nope. Never saw them at the house. Everyone there was closer to my age. And no pets.” He told them what he’d heard about Xiang and Enrique’s means of disposing of people who crossed them.
They thanked him, reassured him Xiang and Enrique were going to be locked up for a good long time. “The prosecutor will be in touch,” one of them said. They handed him their business cards—nobody had ever given Grady a business card before, and he felt suddenly important—and left.
Bryce peeked his head in the door, and for no reason he could understand, Grady burst into tears. Bryce strode to his side. Wrapped him in a hug. “It’s all right. It’s normal. A release when everything’s over.”
Once Grady had himself under control, he stared at one of the few people in his life he thought he could call a friend. “How did you find me?” he asked.
Bryce hung his head and sat on the edge of the bed. “You’ll have to thank Cecily. She wouldn’t give up on you. She went looking for you, and we went looking for her.”
“You mean she’s hurt because of me?” Grady asked.
“No, she’s hurt because she’s Cecily. That’s what she does. Helps people.”
“She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?”
“Count on it,” Bryce said. “And probably looking for more people to help before she’s out of the hospital.”
Grady gave Bryce a weak smile. “I’m okay. Go to her.”
“She’s sleeping. I thought we could visit a while.” He took Grady’s hand in his. “Anything you want to talk about?”
Grady’s jaw dropped in astonishment. “You sayin’ you want to talk?”