Spencer's Reluctant Rescuer - Rescue for Hire 9 http://www.bookstrand.com/spencers-reluctant-rescuer
Spencer opened his eye and looked over
to the corner of the room. Yep, he was still there. It had become a ritual. No
matter how many drugs were thrumming through his system, when he became halfway
aware of his surroundings, he looked for the dark,
deadly man in the corner with a toothpick in his mouth.
Today things were the clearest they’d
ever been, and Spencer wondered what his
true memories were and what were crazy dreams.
“How long?” Spencer asked. He thought
he’d asked that question more than a few times since he’d been here, but he
couldn’t be sure.
“That cup on the table next to you has
water in it. Take a drink,” the man ordered.
The dry,
scratchy soreness in Spencer’s throat eased as the water slid down. Using his
free hand, he touched the edge of the
table before setting the plastic cup onto
it. He was getting used to always gently touching the tip of his finger to
whatever he wanted before trying to pick it up. Knocking things over sucked.
Spencer looked back at the man and
waited for his answer.
“This time you’ve been here about two
weeks.”
Spencer rolled that around his foggy
brain while he watched the man watch him. The first time he’d noticed someone
sitting in the corner Spencer thought he was hallucinating. Then he decided he was seeing a ghost.
One time Spencer awoke to Shane Miller
in the room talking to the man. That ended his theory of ghosts of times past. Now
Spencer had the scary job of finding out who this guy was. He looked like an
older, harder version of the only man who’d ever had a place in Spencer’s heart.
Would it crush Spencer if he weren’t the same
man? What did it mean if he was? As usual he didn’t have any answers.
“Was Terry real?” he asked.
Dark, slashing eyebrows lowered into a
frown over hard black eyes. One of the eyebrows was
bisected at an angle by a white scar, making the man look sinister. The
short black beard didn’t hide how the man’s lips pressed together into a thin
line of irritation after he took the toothpick out of his mouth. Spencer waited
to feel a shiver of fear at being the
recipient of such a deadly man’s displeasure
but didn’t. For some reason, this man
represented safety to Spencer.
The man’s black eyes never wavered in
their frigid stare. “Yes.”
Okay, Mr. Deadly didn’t like him
mentioning Terry. Well, too bad. For the first time in a long time, Spencer cared enough to want answers. And
he decided he would revisit the whys of his sudden caring later, much later.
“Why am I here?” Spencer knew he was
jumping around, but he couldn’t keep his
mind settled on one subject.
The man’s eyes widened a hair, and one nostril flared just a bit. Others
might not have caught it, but those
subtle changes of expression told Spencer that the man was furious.
“You developed an infection from your
prior injuries. It spread to your internal organs. Your liver and kidneys couldn’t combat it and
started shutting down. When that bastard dumped you onto the floor, the tissues tore, releasing even more
infection and putting you into shock.”
“How bad am I messed up?” Spencer asked.
“You’ll heal in time,” the guy answered.
A small smile graced those thin lips, and Spencer felt warm inside. That dark
gaze lowered, and Spencer glanced down
and saw he was pinching the soft blanket covering him.
Releasing the now puckered material,
Spencer figured he had nothing to lose and asked, “Why are you here?”
“I assisted Rescue for Hire in finding
you,” the man said.
Spencer wasn’t sure he’d needed
rescuing. Maybe he had and hadn’t realized it. His fingers bit into the blanket
again.
“But why are you here in my room?” he persisted.
“I’ve decided your days of getting
kidnaped are over, and I’m making sure you stay where you’re supposed to be.”
Spencer felt his eye widen. Who the hell
did this guy think he was? Spencer didn’t even know him. Did he?
“What’s your name?” Thick anticipation
and fear rose into his throat, cutting off his breathing.
“Ruger Black.”
Spencer’s heart stuttered, and a sudden pressure exploded behind his eyes. Lights
started flashing, and a buzzer pierced
the air from the machine next to the bed.
The door flung open, and a nurse rushed into the room.
No comments:
Post a Comment