Page 55 of Bent, Not Broken

She reached over to the bedside table and passed me a glass of water. I took it gratefully, swallowing down the cool liquid that soothed my parched throat. “How are you feeling, Officer?”

I tipped the glass back to finish off the entire thing and then handed it to her with a shaky hand. The heaviness in my limbs made it hard to hold them up, and as soon as she took the glass from me, my arm dropped onto the bed. I fell back against the hard pillow behind my head and clenched my eyes closed as a hot spike of torture throbbed from out of my shoulder.

“What happened?”

“You were shot in the collarbone. Ricochet off the bone punctured your lung. Could have been far worse. Do you remember the fight you were trying to break up?” She sat on the edge of the bed and patted my arm.

Vague images of a scuffle between a blonde and a black-haired woman flashed through my mind, but I couldn’t remember how the fight got to the point of me being shot.

“The women have been taken into custody and are facing charges of physical assault and negligence.”

I nodded because I didn’t care at the moment. The burning in my shoulder made me hiss, and the captain stood.

“I’ll go see if I can get some painkillers for you. Before I leave, I’ve been told there’s a certain defense attorney hanging around the hospital, waiting for news about you. He was here when I arrived but was quick to escape.” I opened my mouth, and she held up a hand. “Officer Slater, it is not my place to care about who you see in your free time; however, I will ask you one question that I want you to be completely honest about. Were you seeing Mr. Polunin during the arrest and court case of Mason Riggs?”

I shook my head and the world tilted. I closed my eyes again, just to gain my bearings, before sliding them open to look at her once more. “No, ma’am. This thing started after that.”

“Good. Then it’s none of my concern. In saying that, if in the future—when you recover—if you arrest one of Mr. Polunin’s clients, you or he will need to hand over the case to a coworker so there aren’t any conflicts of interest. Am I clear?”

I swallowed and nodded because I didn’t know what else to do. Hell, I didn’t even know what this thing with Polunin was, but he was here. That had to say something, right?

She smiled, and I stilled in surprise at the rarity on her face. “He’s a fine young man, Officer Slater. Cares very much about you. Shall I go get him?”

Yes. I shrugged, and she squinted at me knowingly before she left through the door. Sighing, I breathed in the disinfectant smell of the room and stared at the pale white walls where the television hung opposite the bed. Everything was too bright and hurt my eyes.

The door opened and Madden stumbled through, looking worse than I’d ever seen him. His nice clothes were askew, with his tie half unfastened and his suit jacket hanging off the crook of his elbow. The white dress shirt he wore was stained brown in spots and had the top two buttons undone. His hair wasn’t much better, sticking up in all directions like maybe he’d slept on it and hadn’t styled it back into place, and black rings marred the skin beneath his sweet brown eyes.

He smiled, though, and my heart clattered against my ribs and stole my breath.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” I whispered.

Madden moved farther into the room and hesitated near the foot of my bed. He was here, and if what Monahan said was true, he’d been here for a while, and I didn’t know how I felt about that —happy and relieved—which was fucking stupid.

I held out my uninjured arm. “Come here.”

He smiled and shifted closer, sitting his ass on the side of my bed near my left hip. “How do you feel?” He sounded tired, the fatigue making his voice deeper than normal. His shoulders slouched forward, and he watched me from half-lidded eyes, like he might fall asleep at any moment.

Concern made my chest tighten, and I grabbed him, tugging him a little closer. I didn’t pull him against my chest like I wanted to, because I had a feeling that would hurt, but now he was close enough I could smell the faint tease of his lingering cologne. It was distant, like he’d sprayed it on yesterday, and it mixed with the natural scent of his sweat.

“Sore,” I admitted, raising my hand to cup his cheek. “How long have you been here?”

“In and out of the hospital for the last day. Paxton tried to get me to go home, but I wanted to be here when you woke up. I don’t think I stink.” He grabbed his shirt between two fingers and buried his nose in the collar, sniffing. “Maybe I do.”

I laughed but winced when an ache stabbed my shoulder. “Fuck. It’s painful.”

“Have you seen the doctor yet?”

“The cap was going to get some painkillers for me, so I guess she’ll let them know I’m awake.” I stroked my thumb over his pale cheekbone and my stomach flipped at having him here when he could have been anywhere else. I thought maybe I should have told him to leave, but I didn’t want him to go.

He flinched. “I’m sorry she saw me. The nurse was supposed to warn me when a police officer was heading this way, so I could escape, but she was busy, and Captain Monahan walked in, and—”

I leaned forward and shushed him with a gentle kiss that made my shoulder throb from the awkward way I moved. His mouth tasted minty, as though he’d only just brushed his teeth, and his lips felt good against mine, warm and familiar. I had to be on some kind of painkillers already, right? So I blamed them for my complete lack of care that anyone could walk in and see me kissing the enemy. All I wanted was to feel him, know that he was there.

He moaned into my mouth, eyes slipping closed, and if it didn’t hurt so much, I might have dragged him into my lap. The agony became too intense, though, and I let out a grunt as I forced myself to sit back against the bed. The burning sensation sizzled around the wound like fire right below my skin.

Madden frowned in concern at me. “Evan, I….”