“Tip your head back.”
The light went on again. The glare hurt. Gedeon thought it was a good kind of hurt and he tolerated it even though his first instinct was to pull away.
“I’m going to put drops in your eyes.”
He’d always hated drops in his eyes. He thought as an adult he’d grow out of that particular idiosyncrasy, but he hadn’t. He figured it was because he needed his sight so much. His work depended on sight.
“Go for it, Doc. How did you get into your line of work?”
“Shouldn’t that be my question to you?”
“Just making conversation,” Gedeon lied. The more he knew about the doctor, the easier it would be to find him later.
The doctor put in the drops. They stung like hell. Gedeon’s cat roared, the sound reverberating like thunder cracking up close, shaking the thin walls of the apartment. Uneasy, not understanding where the sound came from, the doc jumped up and hastily inspected outside through the window.
“What’s wrong?” Gedeon did his best to sound nervous.
“They should have bars on these windows.”
“Why, what’s wrong?” Gedeon repeated the question.
“That sounded like a leopard. They can get into the city, and once they do, they find out they have a smorgasbord. It takes forever to catch them.” He returned to the side of Gedeon’s bed but didn’t sit down. He began to pace. “A couple of years ago, one got loose in the city and killed almost every night for nearly two months. It didn’t have to make so many kills, but the authorities said leave the body to act as bait. The leopard never returned to the same body. It always made a fresh kill. Twice it turned back on the hunters and killed one of them.”
Gedeon had heard of that leopard. It had terrorized the city for months. The city officials had hired several renowned hunters to track and kill it, but all attempts had failed. Gedeon knew eventually a man by the name of Drake Donovan had been contacted, which on the surface made no sense. He ran a security firm reputed to be the best. His men were investigators and bodyguards. They also hired on in just about any terrain to retrieve hostages or pay ransom. They brought the kidnap victim home or exacted revenge. He had a reputation for getting the job done. He had gotten the job done when the other hunters had failed—or at least the man he sent to do the job had gotten it done.
“I think we’re safe enough in here,” Gedeon assured the other man.
“These leopards can sneak right into a home and drag a full-sized man from his living room right out from under the noses of his family. I’m telling you, these leopards in that jungle are no joke. You’re a city man. You’ve never encountered them.”
This told Gedeon that Dr. Smythe hadn’t been born in a city. He’d dug his way out of a jungle village and never wanted to go back. It also told him the man, at some point in his life, had had an encounter with a leopard and it hadn’t gone well.
Eventually the doctor got down to business and he was thorough. He seemed to know what he was doing and talked to Gedeon the entire time. His eyes reacted to the light, a good sign. Nothing was torn, another good sign. In the end, it was a wait-and-see game. If his eyesight was to return, and the doctor thought there was an excellent chance, it would return slowly over the next couple of weeks, and even then, he would need to rest his eyes, stay out of bright sunlight and wear dark glasses if he had to go out. The good news was he would have his beautiful companion at his side fussing over him.
Gedeon heard the door open and close and scented the woman. She was a few minutes early. He had an internal clock, and the passage of time was ingrained in him. She had said thirty minutes and he had been going to hold her to that. She was there. The sense of relief was overwhelming.
“Your money, Dr. Smythe. How is he? What do you think now that you’ve thoroughly examined him?”
She came straight to the bed. To his side. He counted the steps again automatically. Taking his hand, she sat on the edge close to him and leaned in to brush his cheek with her cool, soft lips. His heart jumped.
“He needs rest and to keep his eyes covered for at least two weeks. I’ve given you a soaking solution you can pick up anywhere. You have the antibiotics. I’ll return in three days to check on him.”
“Thank you so much, Dr. Smythe.”
Gedeon didn’t want her to follow Smythe to the door even to see the treacherous bastard out, so he kept a firm hand circled around her wrist. To his shock, the moment the door closed she jumped up.