Beautiful Broken Promises(39)

“How do you feel?”

“Not dizzy, so that’s good,” I replied.

“That was scary,” he whispered. “You need more rest.” He handed me a bottle of water and I gratefully snatched it from his hands and started gulping the cold liquid down. “Why didn’t you tell me you had sepsis? A blood infection is a huge deal, Raegan.”

“How did you find out?”

“The nurse that helped you called the doctor about your prescription, just to double-check everything.”

“I didn’t exactly know the right time to tell you about it. It’s healing, and it’s not as bad as it could have been.” I shrugged my shoulders casually, trying to tamp down the seriousness of his face.

“I think an infection that damages your heart is pretty bad.”

“And the medicine is healing it. In the meantime, it makes me a bit dizzy.” I shrugged again, hoping to play off the situation.

“It all happened because of that cut on your forehead?” he asked. I nodded in return and looked away, attempting to cut off his line of questioning. “How did you get it?”

“Let’s not do this here, okay?” I pleaded. “It’s probably not one of those conversations you want to have in front of… everyone.”

He wasn’t happy about that, but he looked satisfied to see me drinking water and I followed where his gaze had moved. Kate was sitting in a large, leather chair with Lane’s dad. The two of them each had an ear bud in one ear, and they were whispering animatedly about the music that I assume they were listening to. The Chief looked beyond joyful and I wondered if Kate had any idea that she was sitting in her grandfather’s lap.

I scanned the room for the other little set of eyes that usually weren’t far from Kate. When I came up empty, I immediately shot a look to Lane while trying to push myself more upright.

“Where is he?” I demanded.

“Hey, he’s okay,” Lane said with a consoling tone. “He’s just doing his psych eval. I can see the door from here. I’ll know the second he comes out.” His soothing words did little to diminish my anger.

“What? How dare you! He’s my child. I should have been the one to consent to this!”

Lane scooted across the couch and pushed me back down, his hands holding my arms gently. “Rae, you did consent. That’s why we’re here, babe, remember? I’m sorry, I told them we should wait for you, but dad made a good point. If we want to get this all over with, we need to just get it done. Braden said he would go first. I explained the situation to him and he seemed fine.” His words began to penetrate my fiery rage.

“What if she—” I began.

“I gave her very strict instructions not to pressure him,” he interrupted. I finally felt a deep sigh leave my chest and I stared at the closed door. “He should be done soon. Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to him.”

I stared at him when those last few words left his mouth and tried to decipher what he meant. I decided it was best just to ignore them for now. There were much more pressing problems at the moment. I laid my head back onto the couch pillow and thought about everything they could be discussing in there.

I had tried my hardest to make our situation appear as normal as possible to Kate and Braden. I never wanted them to know that they had been kidnapped. I didn’t want them to know that if we weren’t there, they could actually run and play in the sunshine... that there was so much more for them outside of those four depressing walls.

“I wasn’t sure exactly, but I told her that he probably wouldn’t know much,” he gently conveyed to me.

I nodded my head. “Thank you.”

My eyes had closed, so when I felt his hand lightly squeeze my leg, they snapped open in surprise. “We should head to the apartment tonight so they don’t have to keep paying for the hotel.”

The fact that he said the apartment and not his apartment was not lost on me. That was probably the last place I ever wanted to see again besides that house in Mexico. But the apartment I was cruelly taken from years before was a close second on the list. I didn’t have much of a choice though. I didn’t even have any identification, let alone money. I would need to figure something out really soon.

“We won’t stay there long.” His hard tone, indicating that he felt the same as I did about the place, surprised me.

“You must have a nice job now if you can afford to keep a New York apartment you don’t even live in anymore.” I’m not sure why I said that, but it came out of my mouth all the same.