Defective (The Institute Series Book 3) by Kayla Howarth Read Free Book Online Page A

closed shut. There’s a bump on the left side of her forehead that’s red, and easily going to be bruised in a few hours. She has a patch of skin missing from the left side of her chin, I can only guess it was caused by a fall on cement or bitumen of some kind.
    “Hi there,” I say in a calming tone. “My name is Allira and I’ll be fixing you up tonight.” The girl just looks at me, her eyes wide… well eye – the one that isn’t closed shut. I’m not sure if she fears what I’m going to do to her, or if she’s reliving what’s already been done. “Can you tell me what happened?” I ask, knowing full well she probably won’t tell me.
    She tries to shake her head, but winces in pain and grips her side a little tighter.
    “I’m going to examine the rest of you, is that okay?”
    “Yes,” she manages to get out.
    Lifting up her shirt reveals a huge, red, bruising mark on her ribs about the length of a foot. I think it’s pretty safe to say that at least one of her ribs is broken. Pulling her shirt back down, I look at her with furrowed brows.
    “What I’ll do first is get all of your stats, take you for an x-ray, fix up that open wound on your face, and we’ll get a cold compress for your eye. Is that okay with you?”
    “Yes,” she says, again struggling to get the word out.
    “Is there anything else we should know? Anywhere else that hurts?”
    “Just my ribs,” she says breathlessly.
    “We’ll get you x-rayed as soon as we can, okay?” I tell her. She nods in response as I start getting the things I need to fix her up.
    I check her stats to find she has slightly raised blood pressure, which is understandable in the state she’s in, her temperature is fine, and her pupil reacts when I shine a light in her good eye, which is all good news. Grabbing an ice pack for her eye, I’m about to take her to get an x-ray when Aunt Kenna comes back in.
    She must’ve had dinner, too, as she was gone for at least half an hour. “Sorry, I didn’t even see anyone come in. I was trying to keep an eye out. What do we have?” she asks, approaching us and standing at the foot of the patient’s bed.
    “She’s going to need an x-ray on her ribs. She has a wound on her chin which needs to be cleaned and patched up. Her right eye is swollen and is currently being iced to try to bring the swelling down.”
    “Great work, Lia. I’ll take it from here, I need you back out on reception if that’s okay.”
    “Sure.”
    I make my way back out into the reception area to find the guy who brought the patient in sitting in the waiting room, still looking at the forms. He gets up when he sees me and makes his way to the desk.
    Again I’m flooded with memories of Chad. This guy even walks like Chad. I shake my head. Stop thinking about him.
    “Got them all filled out?” I ask, grabbing for the forms.
    “Uh, not quite. I filled out what I could,” he says sheepishly, handing them to me.
    He’s only filled out her first name and address. Wow. What a catch this guy must be.
    “You don’t even know her last name?” I ask, trying to hide the condescension in my voice.
    He slowly shakes his head while he looks at his shoes.
    “Well she might be here for a few hours yet. You’re welcome to go home, and we can call you when she’s ready to be picked up.”
    “I don’t mind waiting.”
    “Suit yourself,” I say, sitting down at my desk with the barely filled out form. I can’t even put this information into our computer yet. I’ll have to give it to the patient later to fill in.
    He remains standing at the desk, leaning on the bench with his elbows, looking down at me with a weird smile on his face.
    “Can I help you with something else?” I ask.
    “Yeah. I’ve just been wondering about this place. I didn’t even know it existed. Tina told me to bring her here,” he replies.
    I glance down at the form to confirm Tina is the patient.
    “We’re still relatively new. We’ve only be open a few