Chapter Twenty-Six
Beefy orderlies rolled his bed into a quiet nook at the far end of the E.R.
A fat, unamused African American nurse scoffed down at Charleston, and she seemed more interested in testing the cold steel handcuff that tethered him to the gurney than to any of his medical needs. He could only look out of one eye, and his body floated off into a fuzzy ether, a warm pool like a womb.
“Best behave yourself on my watch. Understand?”
The nurse gave him a raised eyebrow, and then she trotted off.
Hospital sounds flooded in. Charleston flickered back to consciousness enough to absorb the general bustle of the swarming Emergency Room and its structured clamor. Doctors, nurses and orderlies handled the flow of f****d-up patients.
He'd been left lying beside Giordano, similarly h
