Page 23 of Speechless
His gaze found Jenna immediately, sliding away from Sarah’s smug expression to rest on the sweet, innocent face slack with sleep. Proper sleep now, he determined. Color surfaced slowly beneath the ghostly cheeks. Despite the blood drying on her mouth and chin, Jenna truly was innocent.
“Considering I’m hearing no argument from your quarter,” Sarah continued gleefully, “we’ll segue from true love into love at first sight. Took her straight under your wing, didn’t you?”
Connor rolled his eyes and pulled his attention back to the annoyance grinning widely at him. “No doubt the tale is making the rounds through the Creek,” he answered dryly. “Was I expected to let those fuckwits manhandle her, paw at her until she passed out in terror and they could carry her away to some dark corner?”
“Who was the first one to reach her, hero?”
He ground his teeth. “Cain—”
“Ah-ah. Which upstanding member of the community out of all those present in the bar—of which there were several—got in Joe’s face, fended off the assholes who ride with him, and smacked that punk bitch into the next millennium for laying a hand on this precious little thing?”
Damn it, she was starting to press his funny button. “That punk bitch has been pissing me off for months,” he pointed out. “It was either punch him or let Cain take his bat to town on the idiot’s thick skull, and I wasn’t inclined to spend my night stitching the whiny bastard back up.”
“Evasion.”
“Sarah.” Connor added a warning tone to his voice. Jenna would have recognized it immediately; Sarah didn’t appear to—if she did, she chose to ignore it in favor of poking the bear.
“You’re not answering the question. When every other patron of the bar kept their ass firmly in their seats while Joe and his pansies heckled her, who came to Jenna’s aid? Cain had your back, yes, but no one else stood up for her, defended her, carried her home.”
He hadn’t given them a chance, Connor recalled. The moment Jenna entered the bar, swaying in the warmth, her blue-kissed skin translucent beneath the shitty lighting, he’d been drawn to her. It hadn’t been the abruptness of her entrance or her disheveled appearance.
It had been her.
Then her shocked eyes, huge and dilated, had met his for the briefest moment, a plea in them, before the jackals moved in and Joe opened his big mouth, set his hands on her.
Connor’s vision had turned red, and the story began from there.
“I need to see to that bite wound,” he stated, abruptly changing the subject and fully aware his scrappy firecracker of a nurse was uncannily like a terrier with a rat.
As predicted, Sarah tossed aside her roundabout avenue of hitting the mark and aimed straight for the bullseye with a steel-tipped arrow. “What you need to do is admit what you feel for the girl before shit gets tangled up. Sooner or later, her family will get involved, Connor. When Jenna remembers who she is, or when Caleb finds her roots, they’ll come for her and they’ll want her back. You need to stake your claim, make sure this girl knows what you feel for her, so she doesn’t think her only option is to walk away to a life she might not want.”
“And if I’m wrong? If it’s not love?” he asked quietly.
Sarah made a rude sound and swiped her hand through the air. “Bullshit. Your fucking heart’s in your eyes every time you look at her, Connor. Hell, it was nearly choking you when you brought her downstairs. Didn’t even know you were on the verge, did you?”
He narrowed his eyes. “On the verge of what?”
“Crying, boss. This little episode nearly broke you. Mute or not, Jenna has your heart by the short and curlies. Few things put a catch in a man’s voice like the prospect of losing someone he loves beyond measure.”
Defeated by a slip of a woman, Connor pinched the bridge of his nose. “I feel like this is something I should be telling Jenna the first time I say it.”
Beaming brighter than a Freightliner’s headlights, Sarah bounced in place. Her hands clapped together in front of her, then she was on her tiptoes, her lips brushing his stubbled cheek. “Don’t tell me. Just make it special when you tell her.”
“Sneaky witch. Am I allowed to do my job now?”
She stepped back, folded her arms over her chest. “Hold out your hands. Palms flat.”
Connor sighed, but obeyed.
She gave him a sharp nod. “You’ve stopped shaking. Off to work you go, boss.”
“Sassy as well,” he grumbled. “There’s a urine sample on the bathroom counter upstairs. Would you mind getting it for me? It can go with the blood samples I’ll have to get this morning.”
“Absolutely.” Singing under her breath, Sarah nearly skipped away.
What a strange fucking morning, Connor thought. His emotions had run the gamut from content to concerned, frantic to terrified, and everything in between. Now he was…peaceful. Calm, focused, prepared.
With his doctor brain engaged, he removed the oxygen mask from Jenna’s mouth and studied her breathing. Steady, strong, normal. Her color was good, her pulse back to its regular beat.