Redemptive (Combative, #2)(22)
“I got it,” Tiny said, already halfway out of the room. A few seconds later he returned with a glass of water. She almost inhaled the drink, the sounds of her swallows filling the room.
Polizi gave his standard doctor smile when she was done and took the glass from her hands, setting it on the nightstand. She curled back into herself, her head on my shoulder again. “Can you tell me how you’re feeling?” Polizi asked.
“Weak,” she said. “And my vision’s blurry. I’m hot. And I’m cold. I don’t know…”
The doc continued to ask her questions, and she answered each one as best as she could. “Are you allergic to any foods?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Have you had anything to eat today that you don’t normally?”
“Cake,” she said. “It was my birthday.” She removed her arm from around my neck and shoved it under Polizi’s nose, twisting her wrist a little to shift the bracelet in its place. “Nate got me this.” She sounded so young, so innocent.
Polizi smiled. “It’s beautiful.”
“I know,” she responded.
Polizi moved toward his medicine bag. “I’m going to have to run some tests so we can find out what happened to you tonight. Have you felt like this before?”
She looked up at me as if questioning how much she should tell him.
“Be honest, Bailey. You can trust Doctor Polizi. Tell him the truth.”
She nodded and moved her gaze back to him. “When I’d go days without food, I’d feel like this. But never this bad. The last few days—”
“Days?” I interrupted. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Her gaze dropped again. “I didn’t know I was allowed to.”
My heart sank. “You felt like you couldn’t tell me you felt sick?”
Before she could respond, Doctor Polizi spoke. “I’ll need to get a blood and urine sample and get it sent off to a lab.”
Bailey’s eyes widened. “Do I need to go anywhere? Can you do it all here?” Swear to God, there was more fear in her eyes in that moment than the night I found her.
Polizi pinned me with his gaze. “Can I talk to you?”
I nodded.
“I’ll be back,” I told Bailey, kissing her temple again.
I saw Tiny’s eyebrows lift from the corner of my eye, but I didn’t care. In that moment, I only cared for Bailey.
*
“I need full disclosure, Nate. I can’t give her the best treatment if I don’t know what’s going on,” Polizi said, arms crossed.
I sighed and leaned against the wall in the hallway. I hadn’t thought things through properly when I’d asked Tiny to bring him here.
“She’s here under my protection. Just mine,” I said, making sure he understood that no one else was to know about it, not even Benny or The Family. I added, “She witnessed something, and I’m hiding her out here until it’s safe. That’s all.” That was far from all, and he knew it.
He pulled a small notepad and pen from his pocket. “So when you say she’s hiding out… does she get any sunlight? Fresh air?”
I shook my head as I stared down at the floor. “Nothing.”
“Food?”
“Of course I feed her. I’m not—”
“What kind of meals is she having?”
I shrugged. “Takeout… leftover takeout.” And even as the words left my mouth I knew it wasn’t good enough. I should’ve been taking better care of her.
“Are you… I mean is she… are you… sexually active?”
“What? No.”
“So you’re not having relations?”
“No.”
“Is there a chance she could be pregnant?”
I opened my mouth, the word no on the tip of my tongue. But then I realized… I had no clue what she was doing before I found her, or how far Pauly went. “I don’t think so. She’s had her period, and we haven’t done anything.”
Polizi scribbled a few notes and replaced the notepad and pen back in his pocket. “It’s not always a sign of a negative pregnancy result. I guess that’s something we should rule out.”
I nodded, though the thought of her being with someone like that had bile rising to my throat. I didn’t even want to think about the wrath of what would happen if Pauly or PJ had anything to do with it. I’d kill PJ. Daylight. Cold blood. Bare hands. I wouldn’t give a f*ck.
I walked in after the doc and resumed my position on the bed, my shoulders tense and my fists balled. “Nate?” she whispered, but I couldn’t look at her.
If this was her fate then f*ck it all to hell.
“I’ll be able to do the blood and urine tests here. The results may take longer than usual due to your circumstance,” Polizi told her. “But I think it’s best we rule out one possibility while I’m here. Bailey, is there any way you could be pregnant?”
I saw Tiny step forward, Polizi step back. It felt like a vice had surrounded my chest, squeezing the air out of me while my head pounded.
She was taking too long to answer.
Why the f*ck wasn’t she answering?