LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Let me know if you hear anything.” He hung up the phone.

      He moved too fast as he pushed through another stitch and the needle jabbed into his finger, making him curse as he pushed his finger into his mouth to stem the blood flow.

      He was going to be in deep trouble if the news that he’d fallen victim to a heist hit the Fed circuit. If it did, within twenty-four hours everyone from his boss to his old FBI buddies would know that he’d lost a vital piece of evidence.

      Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse.

      He knotted the thread as he finished mending the hole and then put everything away.

      He was going to need to get in touch with his boss. He glanced down at his watch. Midnight. No wonder Grant had been tired.

      Instead of calling and waking up the captain, he wrote him a bare-bones email that emphasized the fact he was sitting in the ER. It was low, playing the mercy card, but he needed to buy some time and a little leniency. The last thing he needed his boss thinking was that he lost the drugs due to his incompetence.

      The door to Lex’s room opened, but with the curtain drawn around her bed he couldn’t see who was coming in.

      “Is this the right place?” a man asked, his voice tight and filled with panic.

      “It is, Mr....” a woman answered.

      “Yellowfeather. Travis Yellowfeather.”

      Casper’s heart lurched in his chest. What was Lex’s ex-husband doing here?

      He looked down at her sleeping face and contemplated waking her. Yet she looked so peaceful, her eyes fluttering with REM sleep and her hair, still specked with blood, haloed around her head. She needed her rest.

      “Mr. Yellowfeather, I’m afraid she already has a visitor. We only allow one visitor at a time,” the nurse said.

      “To hell with one visitor,” Travis said, pushing aside the curtain.

      As soon as he saw Casper, Travis’s eyes darkened and his lips curled into a smirk. “I should’ve known it was you who would be here. I guess it wasn’t enough that you got her hurt, now you have to stay here to make sure she doesn’t die—all in an effort to save your conscience, I suppose.”

      Casper went slack-jawed, but he quickly recovered his composure. “Who do you think you are, Travis, walking in here and accusing me of anything?”

      “I’m her damned husband,” he retorted, moving to the side of Alexis’s bed.

      “Ex, from what I hear.”

      Travis’s scowl darkened. “She told you?” He snorted. “So she’s already on the prowl,” he said, half under his breath.

      “Why don’t you leave, Travis? I know she wouldn’t want you here.”

      “And you think she wants you?” His scowl turned into a dangerous smile. “If you think that, you don’t know Lex at all.”

      Travis wasn’t wrong. He couldn’t tell anyone Alexis’s favorite sandwich or the color of her childhood bedroom, but that didn’t mean he was going to leave her here with the man whom, only hours before, she shied away from. He knew fear and hatred when he saw it.

      “If you think she would want you here, then I may know her better than you do,” Casper said.

      Lex’s hand tightened in his and he turned to see her eyes fluttering open. “Boys,” she said, her voice weak, “don’t fight.”

      Travis pulled his lips into a tight line, but he shut up.

      “How are you doing, honey?” Casper asked. He moved to caress her face but stopped as he felt Travis’s gaze searing into him. Lex didn’t need a fight, and no matter how much he disliked the man standing at the other side of the bed, he had been right—Casper barely knew her. They had talked a lot as they hiked, and there had been playful banter, but they were only friends.

      She blinked for a few moments, as if trying to make sense of her world. “What are you doing here, Trav?”

      Travis stepped closer to her and took her other hand. “I heard you were in an accident.”

      He suddenly felt out of place as Alexis said her ex-husband’s pet name. Maybe he’d misread the entire situation. Maybe she didn’t hate Travis like he’d assumed. He let go. He was the interloper here, not Travis.

      “But why are you here?” She moved her hand out of Travis’s. Casper hoped she would reach over for him, but she remained still. “You and I are done. You made that abundantly clear.”

      “We may be divorced, Lex, but that doesn’t mean that I can just stop worrying about you.”

      She pushed the button that moved the bed up. “Actually, Travis, that’s exactly what a divorce means. If that’s not what you wanted, then maybe you should have treated me like your wife instead of just someone you could use and throw away.”

      Casper cleared his throat, his discomfort rising. He shouldn’t have come here and inserted himself into whatever domestic situation they had going on. “Hey, Lex, I’ll see you later.”

      “No,” she said, her voice strong. “You stay here. Travis, it’s you who needs to go.”

      “Are you kidding me?” Travis spat. “You are going to let this son of a—”

      Alexis stopped him with a wave of her hand. “Just go.”

      Travis looked at her and started to open his mouth to say something, but must have thought better of it. He turned to Casper. “You think she’s great now, but let me tell you a little something about Alexis Finch. She only cares about two things—the park and how she fits into it. She doesn’t care about anyone or anything else. If you think you are going to change her or if you got some notion that you are going to be someone she gives two shakes about...” He snorted. “You got another thing coming.” He turned and stalked out of the ER, rattling the curtain rings as he bulled through them.

      Casper stood in silence, staring at the curtain. He had no idea what to say. Divorce was never pretty—especially when it came to navigating the waters of a new relationship. Not that they had a relationship, but things could get a bit hinky when it came to seeing an ex with someone else.

      “I’m sorry about that,” Lex said. She tried to move her head, but it was still in the confines of a brace and as she moved, she winced.

      “Are you okay?”

      “I’m fine,” she said, the tired edge returning to her voice.

      “I’m serious, I can go, Lex. I don’t want to...interfere.”

      Her lips turned into a thin smile. “You made a promise. You said you would stay by my side, remember?”

      He moved closer to her bed. He thought about reaching down and taking her hand, but now that Travis had been there somehow it didn’t seem right.

      “How’re you feeling?”

      “I feel like I was in a fight... Who won, me or the truck?” Her lips curled into a playful half smile.

      There was a knock on the door and the doctor pushed back the curtain. He had a black tablet hugged to his white lab coat.

      “Mrs. Finch?” he asked.

      “Miss,” she answered.

      “Right, Ms. Finch, I’m Dr. Tag, the neurologist here at Kalispell Regional. I just got off the phone with your brother, Dr. Paul Finch. He was very concerned about your well-being.”

      She cringed at the sound of her brother’s name. “I’m sorry, Doctor, he can be a bit...overwhelming sometimes.”

      Dr. Tag didn’t smile or nod, rather, he remained unflappable, making Casper wonder if that was exactly

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