The Syndicate’s Bride

Chapter 6 (cont'd)

He sighed. “Seeing how exhausted you look with worry it’s safe to say he’s in good hands. He must really be lucky to have someone who loves him this much.”

I almost choked on my saliva but disguised the reaction with a cough. Love? I wasn’t even sure we tolerated each other enough.

“I’m just as lucky,” I lied smoothly.

Buying my reply, he nodded satisfactorily. “It’s good to know you both have each other because he’ll need all the help he can get”

My breath hitched. “What does that mean?”

“His injury was fatal and he lost a lot of blood but he’s beginning to respond to treatment, although slowly, so we should hope for the best.”

Meaning he’d either respond to treatment fully or die.

So he might not make it.

I bit my lips nervously. There was nothing else I could do. “Thank you, nurse. Can I see him now.”

He nodded and directed me to his ward.

Ryan’s ward was easy to find as it was just down the hallway from the head nurse’s office. Stopping before the door, I said a short prayer before pushing it open.

A nurse stood by Ryan’s bed fumbling to keep the syringe in her hand out of view. Beside Ryan’s injured arm were two unused injections that contained silver like liquids and his IV line was bent awkwardly, showing that it had been moved just before I arrived. The nurse’s eyes widened when they finally fell on mine.

The only reason she’d be flustered is because she wasn’t supposed to be caught.

I charged forward.

“What the f**k do you think your doing?!” I boomed, hoping to get some kind of attention to the ward.

Alarmed at the volume of my voice, she swooped up her remaining injections and made a run for it. I started after her but stopped, deeming Ryan more important than the spy. A curse left my lips as I watched her exit the hallway.

Fortunately, one of the guards sent by Mr. Logan heard me and came running and I turned to him with a snarl. “Don’t let her escape.” With a nod, he chased her down.

I rushed to Ryan’s side, searching for anything that seemed out of place, but aside from his still very pale skin and the displaced position of his IV line, every thing seemed normal, so I carefully took care of the latter.

He was still fast asleep, unaware of the failed attempt on his life, and I tried not to think about what might have happened if I had been a second too late. Blood stained the white gauze on his arm, showing just how much he had been bleeding previously and I winced remembering his state before the surgery.

I carefully gripped the thick cotton, peeling it slightly off his hand to peek at his injury and gasping at the deep wound that was revealed.

The injury, located on his upper arm, glistened under the hospital light showing how raw and fresh it was. It was an ugly red colour hinting at the amount of blood that had emitted from it. Looking at the cleaned wound, the gash wasn’t as deep as I had originally thought compared to the amount of blood he lost. Still, a renewed sense of guilt and gratitude washed over me.

His injured arm had been protecting my head. If he had been a second later or had place his arm a little bit lower, I would have been the one in that hospital bed, certainly dead. I shuddered at the thought.

“I’m sorry,” I said to his sleeping form. “And thank you.” As expected, there was no reply so I began to carefully change his bandage.

Gently, I lifted his arm up, wrapping the bandage around the injury in clumsy motions. I had never had to take care of someone before so I wasn’t surprised at the awkwardness at which I did it. And being able to touch him this freely made me uncomfortable beyond words, but,

I owed it to him.

Satisfied with my work, I grabbed a towel beside his bed and wiped the sweat from his forehead and neck. If Vanessa of a week ago could see me now, she’d probably have a heart attack. Hell, even the present Vanessa wasn’t sure why she was playing nurse for the man she hated, or the man she was supposed to hate. I groaned. At some point that night, those two people had somehow merged to become one unintentionally.

Done, I took the seat beside him with a sigh.

“Ma’am?” A voice said, making me jump to my feet and snap my head in its direction in alarm.

At my reaction, she raised her hand as if in surrender. “It’s fine. I’m Rachel, Mr. Winchester’s care giver.”

At that, my tensed shoulders relaxed a bit.

Noticing this, she lowered her hands and grinned at me. “It’s really an honour to meet the princess of Logan foundation, Miss Logan.” She stretched her hand for a hand shake.

My eye brows twitched at the word princess, but I smiled nevertheless. “Vanessa is fine. Nice to meet you too, Rachel. I hope you’ll take good care of him.”

She puffed her chest out a little and I feared she would throw in a salute too. “You can count on me.”

Seeing as she had some sort of bias to me, I decided I could trust her, for now at least.

She walked to Ryan’s injured arm and adjusted the gauze a bit, smoothening out the rough edges from my bandaging. “It was quite the injury.”

Tell me about it. “How is he?”

She looked at me slightly confused. “Mr. Winchester is doing great. He’s responding to treatment.”

It was my turn to look confused. “But the head nurse said he might not make it.” And I didn’t think he would lie about something so serious.

She nodded. “That was then, until doctor Brown worked on him. Calling him was a wise decision by the way, because he was almost as good as dead.”

I frowned. Doctor brown? I never called a doctor Brown. I pulled out my phone and scanned through Alice's text for the name of the doctor she sent to the hospital. Upon finding it, my heart started to pound.

His name was Miller, not Brown.

Just then, from the corner of my eyes, Ryan’s fingers twitched a bit. I took it as my cue to leave not wanting him to find me at his side if he woke up.

I smiled through my growing nervousness as I turned to the caregiver who had noticed Ryan and rushed to him. “Yes. Thank you. I’m leaving now but can you make sure no one knows I was here?”

She looked like she was going to question my request but eventually nodded. “Sure.”

“Thank you.” With that, I walked out of the ward, typing in Alice’s name and dialing her number. By the time I was in the hallway, she had already picked the call.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“I want an investigation on Ryan.”