I only grunted in response. He was right. Sarah’s decision not to lie on the stand had changed things. I was much more likely to be acquitted now, and that screwed with their plans.
Unless I was dead.
The anger that had been simmering beneath the surface surged, and I met Maxim’s eyes while the doctor pulled out the bullet and dropped it into a metal bowl.
“Baldoni might think he can prove himself by taking me out, but he’s going to soon realize that he doesn’t know who he’s fucking with,” I said. “Increase security at our legitimate businesses. And get me information about Baldoni’s plans. Until I figure out who in my organization is feeding him information, our best course of action is to do our own spying. There must be weak people in his inner circle that we can get to.”
“I’m on it.”
At that moment, we heard the front door of the safehouse open. The bedroom we were using was in the back of the house, so Maxim stepped out into the hallway to see who was here. He came right back in with a relaxed demeanor, so I knew it wasn’t unexpected trouble. A moment later, Lev came in with Sarah right behind him. She didn’t even look around at the bedroom orthe other people present. Her wide eyes locked onto me, and she rushed forward, practically shoving Lev out of the way. I would have laughed at the affronted look on his face if she didn’t look like she was on the edge of panic.
“Are you okay? What happened? You were shot?”
“Lev told you that?” I asked, my eyes flicking to look at him over Sarah’s shoulder.
“She demanded to know what was going on before she’d come,” he said defensively.
Sarah’s eyes shifted to the wound in my shoulder that the doctor was stitching up. From the way her face went pale, I figured it was a good thing she didn’t get here just a few minutes earlier. Seeing the doctor dig around for the bullet might have made her pass out.
Her hands fluttered just a few inches away from my chest, as if she was afraid to touch me. She bit her bottom lip. “Are you okay? How many times were you shot? Did you lose a lot of blood? How’s your head?”
“My head?”
Raising my hand to my head, I felt dried blood in my hair and the tender lump on my forehead. I sighed. “I guess I look like shit, huh?”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “What, do you have a hot date? Who cares how you look?”
I grinned. I didn’t give a damn how I looked, but my comment distracted her just enough to keep her from freaking out.
“It’s one gunshot but the doc is fixing me up. And don’t worry, I’m hard-headed.”
“You could have a concussion.”
The doctor had been silent up until now, but he stood straight and pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket. I flinched when he shined it into my eyes, one after the other.
“Did the air bags deploy?”
I nodded, then winced in pain.
“Do you feel dizzy or confused?” he asked.
“No. I just have a headache,” I said, flinching away from the flashlight.
“Sensitivity to light?”
“Not until you shined that in my eyes.”
He tucked the flashlight away. “You probably don’t have a concussion, but I’ll give you some pain killers. Your shoulder’s going to hurt like hell in about an hour when the local anesthetic wears off. Other than that, you need to rest and take it easy for a few days. Change your bandage every day and keep the wound dry. I’ll follow up to remove the stitches in ten days.”
I waved him off. It wasn’t the first time I’d had to be stitched up. I could handle the aftercare. But I noticed that Sarah was giving him her full attention, as if she was making an effort to memorize everything he said.
Something warm and unexpected spread in the center of my chest. Between the concern she showed and the way she was nodding along while the doctor prattled on about signs of infection and what issues could crop up to indicate that my head was worse than it appeared, I was beyond touched. Sarahcared. She was worried about me.
The only person who ever worried about me in my life was my mother, and she’d been gone for thirteen long years. I’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone make a fuss over me.
When the doctor left, Sarah went straight to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and gave me two of the pills the doctor had left for me. She propped up pillows behind me on the bed and helped me sit up.
“The pills say you should take them with food, so I’m going to find something in the kitchen to give you.”