Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(82)

She was cold.”

Dr. Ingleton nodded. “She’d gone into shock.” She sighed. “Let me tell you where she stands now, since I imagine that’s of most critical importance to you, and then I’ll explain to you what her injuries tell me— my best guess, at least.”

Isaac nodded, but said nothing. He didn’t want to distract her from telling him what the f*ck was going on.

“She lost a great deal of blood—as much as 40%. This is an extremely dangerous situation, which could result in serious organ damage. She’s very fit—really in quite good shape, with a strong cardiovascular system—so that will help her. But now, she’s in a coma. She’s breathing on her own, and her vitals have shown signs of improvement, which indicates that her organ function is recovering. But we can’t know whether there’s been lasting impact on her brain function until she wakes—if she wakes.”

“Could she die?” Isaac had to force the words to leave his throat.

The doctor was direct. “Yes. I’m sorry to say that her condition is very critical right now. But she is, again, showing some signs of rebounding. That she’s breathing on her own is a good sign.”

“When can I be with her?”

“She’ll be in the ICU for a couple of days at a minimum. Visiting hours there are very restricted. I’m sorry.”

“Fuck that, Doc. I’m not leaving her. I’m not. Drag me out if you can.”

She sighed and considered. “I’ll make some arrangements for tonight and tomorrow. Then we’ll have to talk.” Looking suddenly awkward, with a glance at his kutte, she cleared her throat. “There are some other issues I need to discuss with you. I’ve had to call the Sheriff’s office.”

He’d expected as much. Lilli’s injuries were obviously violent. The Sheriff would not be a problem.

“It’s fine. Why?”

“The laceration to her neck is most likely from a bullet. She has other injuries, though—broken bones in her hand, a badly sprained ankle, serious bruising, and other, smaller lacerations. She looks as if she’s been bound and beaten. Some of the wounds cause me to believe that she’s been . . . tortured.”

Isaac put his hands over his eyes. He had seen her, lying on the rotting wood floor of the deer blind, her clothes torn open, covered in blood. He shouldn’t have been surprised. And he wasn’t, not really. But he was sickened. He needed to dig Ray back up and kill him again. He needed to make Wyatt pay.

But he was the one who’d exposed her plan. It was him. Maybe, if he’d let her handle it the way she’d originally intended, she would simply have made Ray disappear, and the Horde would never have been the wiser. In the end, this was on him.

“We did a rape kit.”

He dropped his hands and looked at the doctor. She shook her head. “It was negative. But I need you to understand that her injuries are extensive. The next half-day or so will be crucial. She’ll be getting transfusions at least through tomorrow. If we can get her stable, then it will be a matter of waiting for her to regain consciousness. If that happens, we’ll know more whether there has been lasting brain damage from the blood loss.”

If. If she wakes up.

Isaac sat and let all that sink in. He tried to, anyway. All that really stuck was that Lilli could die. “I need to be with her, Doc.”

Dr. Ingleton nodded. “She’ll be brought to the ICU shortly. I’ll have someone bring you to her once we get her set up.”

oOo

It was another half hour before someone came and led Isaac to a small room with glass walls. He stopped in the doorway, cut down by the sight of her, small and frail, connected by wires and tubes to all kinds of apparatuses.

She was so pale. As if she were already gone.

There was a single chair in the room. Isaac pulled it as close to the bed as he could get and sat down.

Taking her cool, unresponsive hand in both of his, he laid his head on the knot their hands made.

“Stay with me, Sport. You stay with me.”

He got no answer but the whir and beep of the machines surrounding her.

oOo

The next morning, Show came to the door of Lilli’s room. Isaac was sitting, watching her chest move, taking what reassurance he could from that. Show knocked on the door jamb, and Isaac turned.

“Any change?”

Isaac shook his head. “What’s up?”

“Got everybody here, boss, waiting in the chapel. We brought the meeting to you. Can’t leave Wyatt in the Room indefinitely.”

“Everybody? Who’s watching him now, then?”

“I got Victor’s proxy. He’s babysitting.”

Isaac didn’t want to leave Lilli even for the time it would take to go down to the chapel and have this meeting, but he knew Show was right. Feeling a pull of conflicting loyalties, he stood, kissed Lilli’s still too-cold forehead, and followed Show out.

The men were arrayed on pews in the small chapel, roughly in the same order in which they sat around their table. Isaac and Show went to the front. Show sat, and Isaac turned and faced his men.

“I need to get back, so I’m gonna get to it. We need to vote on Wyatt. Two votes: his patch and his life.

He went against a club vote. That action got Rover killed, and it got my old lady badly hurt. She might die.”