Unbreakable (City Lights, #2)(41)

Chapter Sixteen


Cory



I dreamt of soft red hair against my cheek and expensive perfume in my nose. I dreamt of arms around my neck, thighs parting for me, a voice whispering Yes! Yes! Yes! like a heartbeat, and then ecstasy beyond anything I could have imagined. And then pain. A heavy, hot pain that tried to drown me. The voice turned frantic…

Stay with me...

Yes, I tried to say. I’ll stay with you…forever…

But I couldn’t talk, couldn’t breathe, and then another voice, loud and chafing, like metal scraping against glass…

“He’s in here?”

I opened my eyes. The sunlight streaming in the window was searing. Not the bank. A hospital. But Alex was there, sleeping, holding my hand. I smiled.

“Cory?”

Alex jolted awake, disoriented at first too. The owner of the chafing voice cleared her throat.

Georgia stood in the doorway wearing a man’s blue button-down shirt—one of mine—with the sleeves torn off at the shoulder, and black leggings. Bracelets jangled on her tattooed arms as she put her hands on her hips. She glared at Alex.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Alex. Alex Gardener.” She slipped her hand from mine, leaving it cold and empty. “You must be Georgia.”

“I must be. And how do you know Cory?”

“She was a hostage with me,” I whispered and winced. My throat felt like I’d been gargling rocks and glass.

“I fell asleep,” Alex said, rising hastily. “I didn’t expect to…I’d better go.”

I wanted to tell her to stay. I wanted to tell her a lot of things but my voice was so weak and she was already halfway to the door.

Alex turned. “Goodbye, Cory. I’ll…um, check in on you later. Nice to meet you, Georgia.”

“It’s not even visiting hours now,” Georgia said when Alex was gone. “How’d she get in?”

Why do you care? I wanted to demand. I tried to pry through the fog of pain medication to remember the last time I’d even spoken to Georgia. Weeks ago. A text that said to expect a hearing notice about her moving to Sitka with Callie. My girl…

“Where’s Callie?” I croaked.

“With Janice.” Georgia flounced into the seat Alex had vacated. She smelled like patchouli and the mint tea she liked to drink. “Did you think I’d leave her alone?”

I didn’t take the bait. “Why didn’t you bring her?”

“I didn’t know what you’d be like. I didn’t want to scare her.”

“Oh, good. Yeah, no, that’s…good. Maybe later this week.”

“We’ll see.” There was a silence and then Georgia said, “So the doctor said your lung collapsed. And that you have two shattered ribs.”

“She’d know.”

The humor was lost on Georgia.

She scowled, the hard lines returning to her face, which looked younger even than her twenty-six years. “Seriously, Cory, you got shot? Saving her?” She jerked a thumb as if Alex were over her shoulder. “The nurses are saying you’re a hero. That the whole robbery ended when you jumped out like f*cking Rambo and started shooting up the bad guys.”

“I didn’t shoot anyone…”

“I had to fight through the press to get here. They asked me all about you—”

“Don’t talk to the press, Georgia,” I said, suddenly feeling even more tired. “You’ll just make it worse.”

“Worse?” She snorted a laugh. “How can it get worse? Cory, you have no health insurance. Your heroics are going to sink you.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Oh, because it’s just that simple? You think your lying bastard of a boss is going to help you out? Randall doesn’t even pay you when you work. And you’re going to be out of work. For months.”

“Not that long,” I said, not knowing if it were true. I couldn’t be out of work for months. I couldn’t be out of work, period. I closed my eyes against the terrible weight that pressed down, like an unseen hand, to take up just where it had left off before the robbery.

“It doesn’t matter,” Georgia was saying. “You’ve had surgery. An ambulance ride. Hell, just lying here is going to cost thousands of dollars a day. You’ll need to win the lottery to pay it off. Or declare bankruptcy—”

“No,” I said and then coughed painfully at the jagged pain in my throat. Another faint pain, deep in the right side of my chest, was slowly waking to join it. “I said I’d figure it out, Georgia, and I meant it. I always do.”

She leaned back in her chair and bit her thumbnail like she did when she felt guilty. “You should come with us to Sitka.”

“And do what? Work as a bouncer? For minimum wage and all the free beer I can handle?”

“You can still do construction. They do build houses there, you know.”

“It’s not enough money and you know it.” A silence fell and then I said, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you want me to move? So that we can be together? Or so that you don’t feel so guilty about taking Callie away from me?”