Wherever You Are. Elle Wright

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Drake asked after a few seconds.

      “Well, nothing. She is still Avery, busy and about her business.”

      The sarcasm in his words wasn’t lost on his nephew, who folded his arms across his chest and planted himself on the arm of a chair.

      “Drake, I don’t want to talk about her,” El persisted. “I went to see her. We had words. I left. Nothing more, nothing less. Let’s go.”

      Except, El knew there was more to that visit than he’d let on to Drake.

      “How long will she be here?” Drake stood up and walked toward the door. “I want to see her.”

      “I have no idea.” They left his office and headed toward the elevators. “I had to use the emergency room valet when I came back.” El had been called back to the hospital earlier when one of his patients attempted suicide, and had never gotten a chance to move his car.

      They fell into step beside each other as they walked to the Emergency Department parking lot.

      A few people breezed past them as they neared the doors. El noted the crowd in the waiting room.

      “Are those photographers?” Drake asked, pointing toward the glass doors at the entrance.

      El frowned. Photographers in the ER were a rare occurrence, and he wondered what had happened. He caught a glimpse of the same guard he’d seen earlier with Avery as the burly man stormed into the triage area.

      When he saw a distraught Jessica run in next, his heart fell. Because on the gurney behind Jess was Avery.

      Drake jumped into action first, calling Avery’s name as he met the paramedics. Shock, fear and concern shot through El at the sight of an unconscious Avery. The paramedics yelled out commands, while Drake barked out a few of his own.

      “El?” Drake barked. “Snap out of it.”

      El peered down at Avery, then at Jess. “What happened?” he shouted.

      Jess was barely holding on. Her eyes were swollen and red, and pieces of tissue were stuck to her cheek. “She...” she croaked, swallowing visibly. “I knew she didn’t feel well. I told her to rest, but she wouldn’t. El, what if she dies?”

      El grabbed Jess’s shoulders and squeezed gently. “She won’t die, but I need you to tell me what happened.”

      El prided himself on being able to hear two conversations at once. It often came in handy in his line of work. He was able to talk to Jess and hear the symptoms being thrown out by the medical personnel working on Avery. Vision changes and high blood pressure. Jess continued her explanation, telling El about Avery’s behavior after the graduation. Severe headache. The other woman explained that Avery told her she couldn’t see her. Possible stroke.

      Possible stroke? He turned to Drake. “What?” he asked.

      Drake lowered his head. “It sounds like it.”

      Before El could ask anything else, emergency room staff were there, pulling Avery behind the frosted glass. Drake was right behind them, dialing furiously on his phone.

      Jess tried to push her way through, but El held her back. “Jess, you can’t go back there.”

      “But she needs me,” Jess yelled, panic in her voice. “I can’t leave her alone.”

      “She’ll be fine. Let the doctors do their job.”

      El couldn’t believe how easily the words came out. Sure, he’d practiced them thousands of times in medical school. When there was nothing else left to say, encourage the family to let the doctors do their job. Only this wasn’t a random patient; it was Avery, the only woman he’d ever loved. And she was fighting for her life.

      Hours later, an ER doctor pulled some strings and El and Jess were allowed in the room while the doctors worked on Avery. Drake had been called away for an emergency, but had been checking in periodically.

      It was surreal to see his colleagues, some of his friends, working on Avery. Many of them had attended college with them, had known her before she was the Avery Montgomery who had a hit television show on network television. Of course, they were professional, but occasionally one of them would shoot him a sad glance. A few would give him updates as they worked.

      Avery Montgomery was high profile, and the hospital had taken steps to secure the facility so that they could save her life without interruptions. Only a few people were allowed on the hidden floor where they’d taken her. It hadn’t stopped the phone from ringing. Jess had two, and had been frantically barking orders over the lines. Each call had seemed to fray Jess’s nerves even more, and he’d finally convinced her to hand over the devices to him.

      El had managed to get Jess to settle down, but every few minutes she would break down in a fit of tears. This time Jess was bent over, shaking, as a sob broke through the activity in the room.

      He rubbed her back. “Jess, she’s going to beat this.”

      His words were meant to soothe Jess, calm her. But they weren’t just for her benefit. They were for his, as well.

      She peered up at him and offered him a watery smile. “What if she doesn’t?”

      “Don’t say that,” he snapped, before he was able to catch himself.

      “I told her to cancel the trip to LA, to rest. She just didn’t look good. I know her, had a feeling she’d forgotten to eat.”

      El chuckled. “I remember. That woman never took care of herself. I had to make her drink a protein shake or eat an apple when she was working in the lab.”

      Jessica shook her head. “When she came back from the graduation she was distracted, but I could tell she was battling something.”

      El couldn’t help the guilt that crept in at Jessica’s admission.

      “I told her to lie down before we went to the airport,” she continued. “El, watching my best friend collapse into a seizure was the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

      He was at a loss for words. El knew that was saying a lot for Jess, considering her husband had died a few years earlier.

      Shaking her head, Jess finished her bottled water. “It was awful. And I feel so bad that I didn’t believe her at first. I thought she was joking.”

      “Don’t do that to yourself. You couldn’t have known.”

      The doctors had told him and Jess that Avery had a stroke that affected her vision and caused her to lose her sight earlier when she was with Jess. According to the attending physician, surgery wasn’t needed, which was a relief to El. Yet there was no way to tell if the damage was permanent at that point, since Avery was still unconscious. El could only pray that it wasn’t, because if Avery lost her sight forever, it would destroy her.

       Chapter 3

      Where am I? Avery heard voices, but they weren’t familiar. СКАЧАТЬ