"Don't need a doctor." He jerked his shoulder but regretted it when it throbbed. "She'll be fine, too. She's got enough people hovering over her."
"She inspires love and loyalty because she's generous with giving both." Rising, Ann emptied the basin, refilled it. "Take off what's left of your shirt."
He cocked a brow. "Well, Annie, I'm a little impaired, but if I'd known you had an urge to—Ow!" He gaped, shocked speechless as she gave his ear a hard twist.
"I'll twist more than your ear if you behave like a baboon. Take that shirt off, boy."
"Christ!" He sat for another moment, rubbing his stinging ear. "What's your problem?"
"Your hands aren't the only things you've cut to blazes. Now get the shirt off so I can see what you've done to yourself."
"What the hell do you care? I could bleed to damn death and you wouldn't bat an eye. You've always hated me."
"No. I've always been afraid of you, and that was foolish. You're just a pitiful man who hasn't a clue of his own worth. And I made mistakes I'm sorry for, and I hope I'm woman enough to admit it." Because he wasn't cooperating, she tugged off his tattered T-shirt herself. "I thought you had beaten your mother."
"What? My mother—I never—"
"I know that. Be still. Oh, Jesus, boy, you've done a job here. Oh, poor lad." She crooned now as she dabbed gently at the gashes on his back. "You'd have killed yourself for her, wouldn't you?"
Suddenly tired, unbearably tired, he laid his head on the counter, shut his eyes. "Go away. Leave me alone."
"I won't. Nor will anyone else. You'll have to be the one to do it. Hold on now, this is going to hurt."
He hissed between his teeth as the antiseptic bit. "I just wanna get drunk."
"You will if you must," she said easily. "But a man who would brave an earthquake to get to his woman should have enough nerve to face her sober. This bruising could use liniment. Well, we'll see to that after we've seen to the rest. Take off your pants."
"Oh, for Christ's sake, I'm not going to—Christ!" He yelped when she twisted his other ear. "All right, all right, you want me naked, you got it."
He rose, wrenched the button of his torn jeans, tugged them off. "I'd have gone to the hospital if I'd known what the alternative was going to be."
"That cut on your thigh could use stitches, but we'll do what we can."
He sat bad-temperedly but shoved the tumbler aside. He didn't feel like drinking any longer. "Is she all right?"
A smile ghosted around Ann's mouth, but she kept her head lowered. "She's hurting, in more ways than one. She needs you."
"No, she doesn't. The last thing. You know what I am."
Now she lifted her head, looked him dead in the eye. "Yes, I know what you are. But do you, Michael Fury? Do you know what you are?"
He worried over it like a man worrying over an aching tooth. How could he concentrate on what he needed to do when he kept seeing her the way she had been, white and still on that ledge? Or the way she had looked, eyes filled with hurt and temper, as she'd turned at the door and told him she loved him.
Distractions didn't help. He'd dealt with the mess of the apartment—because Ann had ordered him to get up off his butt and take out the trash. He'd calmed his horses, rehung his tack, then taken the tack down again and packed it.
He wasn't staying anyway.
In the end he'd given up and started across the lawn to Templeton House. It was reasonable, wasn't it? he argued with himself, to want to check on her. She probably should be in the hospital. Her family wouldn't push her. It was obvious to him that when Laura Templeton dug her heels in, no one could push her.
He would just check, then he'd make arrangements to stable his horses elsewhere until he could get the hell out of Dodge.
As he walked through the garden, Kayla and Ali popped up from their perch on the terrace where they'd been playing jacks. His first thought was that he hadn't known kids still played jacks. Then they launched themselves at him.
"You saved Mama from the earthquake." Kayla, all but climbing up into his arms, made his fresh bruises throb.
"Not exactly," he began. "I just—"
"You did." Solemn-eyed, Ali looked up into his face. "Everyone said so." He started to shrug, uncomfortable in the role of hero, but she took his hand and her eyes were clouded with worry. "They said she was going to be all right. Everyone said she was going to be all right. Is she?"