Page 57 of The Hero
“Chappy, will you please take Marlowe ... somewhere else?”
“What? Why?” she protested.
“Because he doesn’t want you to have to watch what comes next,” Chappy said, putting his hand on the small of her back. “It’s going to hurt, and he’s going to want to whimper and moan and cry like a little girl, and he can’t do that if you’re here.”
Kendric rolled his eyes and shook his head at his friend in exasperation.
But because he didn’t actually contradict him, Marlowe guessed there was at least some truth to what Chappy had said. She wanted to stay with him, but evenshewasn’t sure if she could look at his back again. She was queasy enough as it was.
“I’ll take her down to the cafeteria and get her something to eat,” Chappy said.
“And maybe find somewhere she can shower and get a change of clothes?” Kendric asked.
“That too,” he agreed.
Marlowe walked toward Kendric and leaned over the stretcher. The doctor was waiting not so patiently behind him, but she didn’t care. Itfelt weird telling him that she loved him in front of all the strangers in the room, so she simply kissed him gently on the lips. “As soon as you’re in a room, I’ll be there.”
“No room,” Kendric said firmly. “I want to go home.”
Marlowe frowned. She straightened and said sternly, “You’ll do whatever the doctor tells you to do. And if that means staying here for the next month, that’s the plan.”
The guys all chuckled, even Kendric. “Usually I’d do whatever you wanted, Punky, but not this time. I want to go home.”
When Marlowe was ready to argue with him some more, he stopped her before she could get a word out. “Besides, you’ll be there to make sure I don’t do anything stupid. Right?”
She felt all gooey inside. “Yeah,” she whispered.
“Right. Then go with Chappy. Eat. Shower. Change. By the time you’re finished, the doc should be done torturing me, and we can go home.”
“Okay,” she said meekly.
“Okay,” he agreed. Then he looked up at Chappy and gave him a nod.
Marlowe felt Chappy’s hand at her elbow, and she let him lead her out of the room. It felt wrong leaving Kendric, but he was in good hands. There was no chance someone would burst into the room and haul him away to a dark prison cell somewhere. They were both safe ... and it felt unbelievable.
“Talk to me,” Bob ordered JJ. He was lying on his stomach as the doctor cleaned out and stitched his wounds. The heavy dose of antibiotics he’d gotten on the way to Maine was already working extremely quickly. While he wasn’t infection-free, the doctor thought it would be all right to sew the worst of the wounds shut.
Marlowe was right. The doctor didn’t want to send Bob home, but he wasn’t budging on that. He’d have Marlowe with him, and he had no doubt she’d hover and do whatever the doctor ordered. At the slightest indication that something was wrong, or if he wasn’t healing as fast as she thought he should, she’d have his butt right back at the doctor’s office.
Having someone watching over him—no, having hiswife, who loved him, hovering and being worried about him—felt incredible. While healing from his injuries after being held captive, he’d had no one. Other than his friends, who were dealing with their own injuries. He’d been on his own, and he really hadn’t minded in the least. Now, knowing just how much he’d missed out on had him anxious to soak up every ounce of Marlowe’s love and concern.
While the doctor had given him a local anesthetic, Bob could still feel the pinch and slight sting as the man worked on his back. He needed a distraction, and talking with JJ and Cal would do just that.
“Tell me how pissed you guys are. Tell me what Marlowe said when she called. Tell me how the hell I’m here right now.”
“I’m not pissed,” JJ said. “I’m not,” he insisted, when Bob gave him a skeptical look. “I’m more hurt than anything else. You should’ve told us. Should’ve toldme. I would’ve understood.”
Bob shook his head. “I’m not sureIunderstood,” he told his best friend. “I was completely fine with moving here and starting the business. I still am. But after a few months, I got restless. Antsy. I needed more.”
“More what?”
“Excitement. The adrenaline rush I got when we were on missions. At first, it was great. I’d leave, do what I needed to do, be back within a week. I got paid well, you guys were safe here in Maine, and I was helping others. But now ...” Bob’s voice trailed off.
“Now?”
“More things went smoothly than not on this mission ... at least until the end there. Willis’s plan to break into the prison worked, evenif it was insane. Marlowe got out, I met up with her, and we made our way across the country. But with every day that passed, the more time I spent with Marlowe ... something changed.”
“You love her,” Cal said, speaking up for the first time.
