“I’ve been asking myself the same thing.” I had no doubt that she was hoping for an explanation, but I had none to give. I still knew nothing about her, so I asked, “You got a name?”
“You don’t know who I am?”
“I wouldn’t be asking your name if I did.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. I’m Everleigh Freeman.” She lifted her hand and turned her wrist, revealing her IV. “Did you do this?”
“No, that was Doc.” I motioned my hand toward her back. “He was the one who patched you up.”
“Oh.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked down at the nightgown she was wearing—the one I’d borrowed from Kiersten’s room. “Did he do this, too?”
“That was me.”
“Oh.” She nervously raked her teeth over her bottom lip, then looked up at me with those beautiful green eyes and said, “I don’t know what to say. I’m just so confused by all this. I don’t know if I should be scared out of my mind and fearing what’s to come or grateful that you saved me.”
“You got no reason to be afraid of me, Everleigh. I’m not the hurting kind.”
Everleigh lifted her hand to her head and ran her fingers through her tangled hair, then sighed, “How long have I been down here?”
“Too long,” Doc answered as he and Viper stepped through the door. “We were beginning to worry about ya.”
Everleigh’s brows furrowed as she asked, “Doc?”
“You remembered,” Doc answered with a smile.
“Vaguely.”
“But you remembered, and that’s a good sign.” He motioned his hand over to the door as he said, “This is Viper. He might not look like it, but he’s friendly and here to help.”
“Okay.”
“So, how ya feeling?”
“Pretty good, I guess.”
Doc took a small flashlight out of his pocket and shined it in her eyes. After checking her over for a moment, he asked, “Any dizziness or headache?”
“No.”
“What about nausea?”
“No.”
“Good.” Doc turned to Viper and me, then asked, “You two mind giving us a minute?”
“Sure thing.” We both stepped into the hall, and I’d barely closed the door behind us when Viper asked, “Did she say anything?”
“Not much. She hasn’t been awake long, but I did get a name.” I felt a twinge of guilt—like I was betraying her trust when I told him, “Everleigh Freeman.”
“Good, I’ll let Menace know and see what he can find on her.”
Before I could respond, he took out his phone, then stepped further down the hall and called Menace. While I could still hear what he was saying, I wasn’t listening. I was too busy thinking about what was happening on the other side of that door.
After what felt like an eternity, Doc finally came out and said, “Okay, boys. We’re all done in here.”
“Everything okay?”
I stepped into the room and was surprised to find that Doc had removed not only Everleigh’s IV, but her catheter and feeding tube. She was sitting up on the gurney and smiled when Doc answered, “Yeah, she’s good. Really good.”