Having It All Read Online Free PDF Page B

me, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “If he’s still here, I’ll come back before my shift tomorrow and bring you lunch.” She leans down to hug me. “He’s fine. You know he’s tough and way too mean to let this slow him down.”
    “I know. Thanks.”
    She’s only gone a minute when my dad says, “We ought to get going, too. You need to sleep.”
    Maybe I do. That doesn’t mean I can. “I won’t be able to.”
    “When you came in, they checked you over. Prescribed you a sedative, didn’t they?”
    One that will knock me out longer than I want to be. If I take it, Saxon will probably wake up before I do. “Yes, but—”
    “I picked it up at the pharmacy when I went to get your clothes. Now you listen, all right? These guys aren’t going anywhere.” He gestures to Blowback, Stone, and Gunner—the three Riders still here. “They’re going to watch and make sure that no one gets to him while he’s sleeping. He’ll be safe.”
    Safe. How can he be safe? My eyes are burning. “Daddy, you didn’t see him. There was so much blood—”
    “And it’s stopped bleeding. They’ve given him more. They’re taking care of him. But you look like shit and if he sees you like this, it’s not going to help him. He’ll just worry more than he already is. And I know that, Jenny. I know it because I’m feeling the same. I’ve never seen you look so close to breaking.”
    Because I’ve never felt so close. Closer now, because that ragged edge to his breath has returned, the one that comes just before he has a coughing fit and spits a little blood.
    “Okay,” I whisper. “We’ll go home. I’ll try to sleep.”
    He nods and wraps a strong arm around my shoulders, squeezing. “You’ll be all right, baby girl.”
    Maybe. I just don’t see how.
    • • •
    Saxon
    “So they’re letting you walk out of here?” Gunner asks, and his careful tone tells me that he really wants to say I’m batshit crazy, but he knows better than to speak those words to me.
    “I didn’t give them much choice.” Besides, they only wanted to keep me to watch for infection. There’s nothing more they can do to patch me up. But I’m not stupid. I’ll take my antibiotics like a good boy and come back if I start running a fever. What I don’t want is to hang around here, doped on morphine when Landauer can walk in and start questioning me again. I need a clear head. The pain of moving around will give me that. “How’s Jenny?”
    “She’s holding up. Red pretty much dragged her home around four.”
    It’s only seven-thirty now. I’d have been ready to go earlier but I had to wait on paperwork and the doctor giving me a final look-over. I pull on my jeans and grab the shirt lying folded on the chair. This is going to hurt like a motherfucker. Luckily I’m still floating on the shit they gave me last night.
    Carefully I wind the sleeve up my arm. A big padded bandage covers the front of my shoulder. I’m told it looks like ground beef underneath. The chunk out of my neck is the one I’ll have to be most careful about, making sure not to rip open the stitches. The one that hurts most, though, is on the side of my jaw, in a spot covered by a measly square inch of gauze. One little pellet hit bone, and opening my mouth makes me want to slam my fist through a wall.
    But I keep jawing, because what I have to say is more important than a little pain. “I want either Hashtag or Scarecrow with Jenny every second. And find a way to get the phones working out there. Or get them a sat phone for now.”
    “We’ll do it.”
    “I’ve got a list of prescriptions.”
    “We’ll send a prospect to pick them up,” Gunner says and looks over as Stone and Blowback come in.
    Stone’s gaze shoots to the other bed. “The kid’s asleep?”
    “He’s pretending,” I say. “And he’s going to keep his fucking mouth shut. Aren’t you, boy?”
    He doesn’t open his eyes but just nods. I’d grin if my jaw wasn’t aching so bad. There’s