Page 65 of Celtic Dragon
“Well, I think I’ll let you get some rest, Rebel. Aillise, why don’t we go back into the living room and relax. Rebel needs his rest,” I say.
She looks annoyed but agrees and follows me out of the room. Caden is at the door and a tall, rather handsome man is coming into the house.This must be Brewer, I think. He’s carrying a medical bag and now I know why he had to be called. He’s a doctor.
Honey is in the kitchen rustling about when I walk in. I ask, “Whatcha doing?”
“Oh, just making some coffee and getting some snacks together. It wasn’t like we flew commercial and were fed on the plane. I’m sure everyone is probably famished.”
“Good idea. Can I help?”
“Yeah, why don’t you get coffee cups, cream, and sugar? I’ll cut up some cheese and we can make a cold cut plate for folks to snack on.”
“Sounds good.” As we’re working on getting things together, Ari walks into the kitchen.
“How’s Rebel?” Honey asks.
“He’ll be ok, I think. The doctor is with him now.” She pauses and I clearly see the exhaustion on her face. It’s easy to see that she didn’t get any sleep on the flight. “Brewer says he’s really lucky. From what he can tell, the bullet exited through Rebel’s abdomen cleanly without hitting any major organs. He’s concerned about the blood loss, but says that it is manageable. He said he’ll give me a more accurate update once he fully examines him.”
She plops herself down onto one of the bar stools. “Is that coffee done yet?”
“Almost, sweetie,” Honey replies. Ari lays her head down on the counter.
“Ari, you really should go get some sleep,” I say.
“I know, I will. I just want to wait until Brewer is done examining Rebel. I won’t be able to sleep until I know for sure that he’s going to be ok.”
Well, I can’t argue with her there. I’d feel the same way if it were Caden.
Once the coffee is done and Ari gets her cup, Honey and I bring the serving pot, cups, and snacks into the family room. Aillise and Connor appear grateful as they both pour themselves a cup. I’m still not sure how I feel about those two. There is something about them that makes me leery. But I guess that time will tell. I’m sure we will be spending a lot of time with them in the near future.
Chapter 23
Caden
“Now that my sister is out of earshot, give it to me straight, Brewer. How is he, really?” I ask.
“Ice, he’s been shot. He’s in pain and he’s lost some blood. From what I can tell from the exit wound and the bleeding, it doesn’t appear that the bullet hit any vital organs. But, and I know that you’re not gonna like this, I’d really like to get him over to the hospital to make sure he doesn’t have any internal bleeding, just to make sure.”
“Damn it, you know how I feel about hospitals. It’s a gunshot wound. They’ll have to report it and there’s no way they can know that he was in Ireland when it happened.”
He thinks for a moment and then says, “If I promise to keep it under the radar, will you bring him in?”
“Can you guarantee no police report?”
After thinking about it, he replies, “Not 100%, but 95%?”
“I don’t know if I can risk that 5%, Brewer.”
“So you’re willing to risk his life instead,” he replies dryly.
“You’re not playing fucking fair!”
“I’m just telling you like it is. I would rather see you be safe than sorry. I know how important he is to you, hell, how important all your brothers are. So, are you willing to take that 5% risk or are you gonna risk his life?”
“Well, if you put it that way, I guess I really don’t have much of a choice, now do I?”Fucker. I know he’s right, but it really pisses me off when someone makes you think you have a choice in a matter when in reality you have no choice at all.
“Let me make the arrangements and you can bring him in tomorrow.” He pauses and starts putting things back into his bag. “I think my work here is done for now. Doc did a great job getting the bleeding to stop, so I’m not too concerned there. He’s a little pale, but I don’t think the blood loss is dangerous. I gave him some pretty potent pain meds, he’ll sleep the rest of the night. But someone should keep an eye on him.”
“I think that is covered. I don’t see Ari leaving his side tonight.”
