All Chained Up (Devil's Rock #1)(10)

“Him?” Dr. Walker queried. “He’s not going anywhere.”

Chester looked Callaghan over belligerently. “He looks fine. All stitched up, I see. Why can’t—”

“He has a concussion and bruised, possibly fractured, ribs. He’s not going anywhere for another twenty-four hours. At the very least.”

Chester’s lips fell into a mutinous line. He clearly wanted to argue, but knew better than to oppose the doctor. Especially a doctor who was so generously volunteering his time while they were short of staff in the HSU.

Dr. Walker turned back around and addressed Briar, a silent dismissal of the belligerent guard. “Why don’t you go ahead and bind his ribs?” He glanced at the clock on the wall and shook his head with a grimace. “Hopefully, we can finally start on some of the appointments.” With a sigh, he rubbed the center of his forehead. “I’d hope to get more accomplished today. Josiah, can we go ahead and send for the first two appointments?”

Josiah nodded and moved to the phone.

Briar lowered her head, hiding a small smile as Chester swung around in clear displeasure at being dismissed by the diminutive man. He barked at the inmate who was well enough to leave. “On your feet!”

She knew Chester likely put up with all manner of abuse day in and day out on this job, but he struck her as a bully. She had never liked bullies.

The door buzzed open and shut as Chester and the other guard left the room with the inmate between them.

Soon, two new guards entered the room to escort the second inmate for transport, assisting him into a wheelchair. Josiah and Dr. Walker moved over to supervise, and Briar was left with Callaghan. She still needed to bind his ribs.

She reached for the gauze and unrolled it a fraction. Gripping it between her fingers, she faced the inmate, her tone all business. “If you wouldn’t mind sitting up again.”

He obliged without a word, lifting long arms corded tightly with sinew out in front of him so she had room to wrap his torso. She began circling the gauze around him, leaning in and out, in and out, repeatedly. Her hands stroked the cotton, making certain it lay smooth against his firm flesh, without wrinkles or bunching. “It needs to feel a little tight,” she murmured, “but let me know if it’s too uncomfortable.”

His breath fell in a steady cadence near her ear. She trained her gaze on his body. Not his face. Not the eyes that she felt moving over her. Touching him like this, being this close, she dared not look up.

Because his body was unnerving enough.

She held in a snort. Just barely. His body was ridiculous. Honestly, there was nothing about him or this situation that did not unnerve her. The hard wall of him made her skin feel too tight. Too hot and itchy.

“You don’t want to be here,” he said so quietly it was practically a whisper in her ear.

Her breath caught. Her eyes flicked to his. She couldn’t help it. She had to take a quick peek. He was watching her like a hawk as she worked. She pasted a brittle smile on her face, her heart racing faster than a jackrabbit in the face of his scrutiny. “Why do you say that? I’m here, aren’t I?”

Was she putting out an I-don’t-want-to-be-here vibe? If that was the case, she hoped Dr. Walker wasn’t picking up on it. Of the eight nurses that worked under him and the other three doctors at the practice, she was the only one who volunteered to join him in this latest charity project. She wanted to be essential to the doctor and the practice. Especially since Nancy, the senior staff nurse, was retiring next year. Briar was gunning for that position, and she knew that having a good attitude was crucial.

Satisfied she had wrapped enough gauze around him, she snipped off the end and taped it into place. With a final pat, she moved back from the bed. “I’ll get you something for pain.”

She didn’t wait to hear if he thanked her. Eyeing the clock on the way to the supply cabinet, she told herself she only had a few more hours to go until she left this place. Then another week until she had to return. A week of normalcy. Back to her safe job with promising chances for advancement. Her comfortable town house. Her freezer full of Cherry Garcia and a DVD chock full of her favorite shows. That was the life she had created. This place didn’t fit into that life.

By the time she had to return here, Callaghan would be gone. She probably wouldn’t have to see him again. Who knew? Maybe they would find a full-time physician in the next week and she and Dr. Walker wouldn’t have to come back at all.

Glancing around the grim room with its gray walls and gray-blanketed beds currently occupied by one fierce-looking inmate with hard eyes that tracked her every move, that was just fine with her.





FOUR


EIGHT YEARS, TWO months and six days.

That was how long it had been since a woman voluntarily touched him.

The nurse wasn’t the prettiest woman Knox had ever seen, but he could safely say he had not seen anything as attractive inside these walls. Ever.

Even though she downplayed her looks, she had a curvy body under the scrubs and so much hair his hands could get lost in it for days. The brown mass was shot with gold and russet streaks. All that hair exploded out of a tight ponytail that looked ready to bust out of the elastic band. Yeah, she had her assets.

His gaze followed her as she moved around the room, never once looking at him. And she wouldn’t. Not unless she had to. He knew that much about her already. She was a good clean girl who wanted nothing to do with a filthy convict like him.