“Easy, Rambo. She’s not in a state to see anyone right now.”
I looked at his hand on my chest. Then I looked at his eyes.
“Touch me again, Dominic, and you’ll be in the bed next to her.”
He hesitated, the bully’s instinct recognizing a predator, then stepped back. I pushed past them and opened the door.
The sound of the ventilator was the only thing in the room. Whoosh. Click. Whoosh.
I walked to the side of the bed, and my knees almost gave out. If the name on the chart didn’t say Tessa, I wouldn’t have known it was her. Her face was swollen to twice its size. Her jaw was wired shut. One eye was completely sealed, a bulbous mass of purple and black. Her beautiful blonde hair had been shaved on the left side to make room for stitches that ran across her scalp like a railroad track.
