Necessary Evil of Nathan Miller by Demelza Carlton Read Free Book Online

at my hands and the
dressings on my wrists. "When he cut you, when he tied you up, when
he broke your fingers, when he raped you…"
    The tears started, part anger and part
pain. My anger packed more power into my voice than I’d intended.
"No! He never did anything like that. He couldn’t do that to
me...He would never..."
    "You didn’t always see the face of the
man who was hurting you, did you?" Jo demanded.
    My voice died to a whisper. "I don’t
have to see his face or know his name to know who he is, Jo. He’s
not one of the men who hurt me."
    Nathan advanced into the room, as if
he’d been listening outside and couldn’t stay out any longer. I
found I felt grateful for his presence.
    He said something to her, but I didn’t
hear it.
    She opened her mouth to deliver an
angry reply, but I shook my head slightly. I lifted my hand to wave
goodbye. She returned the wave and left without another word.
    I settled into Nathan’s comforting
embrace and let the tears flow until they ran dry. Anger and pain
drained out of me with the salt water, leaving a contemplative
calm.
    I lifted my head from his chest to help
him wipe my face and a flash of pink caught my eye. The electric
toothbrush. I could have clean teeth again! I smiled through my
tears.

Part 18
    Carol bustled in with an armload of
dressing packs. "Time to change your dressings. Let’s see how
you’re healing up!" She smiled for all she was worth, but her eyes
told me she was putting a positive spin on something she liked as
little as I did. She didn’t want to see my wounds, either.
    I felt sorry for her, but I was happy
to see her. It was a relief to know both the ward and the hospital
I’d been sent to, not to mention see a familiar face in uniform.
"Hi, Carol. Of all the wards to bring me to, I ended up in
yours."
    Her cheery smile didn’t reach her eyes.
She was trying to tell me something without words. "Of course. St
Elsie's is the best hospital and we're its best ward. We had to
fight for you, but we traded a couple of sporting injury patients
to the other wards to keep you."
    Sporting injury patients went to the
day surgery. In and out in a day, such patients were rarely sent to
a ward at all. Fight for me? Oh… perhaps she meant they'd fight for
me if they had to. It was a sweet thought, but I couldn’t allow any
of the capable nurses on this ward to stand in the way of a bastard
who wanted to kill me.
    What if one of them killed him before I
could?
    I forced a laugh. "You just wanted
fewer names to learn at handover."
    Carol laughed easily as if my joke had
been funny. "You know it. Actually, while you were asleep there
have been some very interesting men in the ward keeping guard over
you. I almost thought about asking them to pull out their weapons…"
I saw her eyes drift in Nathan’s direction before coming back to
me. Mr Sleazy Roommate had been busy, charming the nurses in the
ward while I slept, and she was trying to warn me.
    Nathan looked worried. I realised there
was something he didn’t want me to know, so I feigned ignorance. "I
have guards?"
    "Sure, a different police officer every
day, like some sort of desk calendar. They make sure you don’t have
any unwelcome visitors. Plus…" This time her glance at Nathan was
more obvious. Had he told the staff that he was my boyfriend, so
that they’d let him stay?
    I stared at him, wondering if he’d
really done something so silly. There was more he wasn’t telling
me. As he averted his eyes, I wondered how much of it I already
knew.
    I remembered something and tried not to
smile as I spoke. "I thought you had a new man – Scott. How does he
stack up against the desk calendar guys, or is he out of the
picture now?"
    "I’m still with Scott, but that doesn’t
mean I can’t look…" Carol drifted off and so did my thoughts.
    She broke my reverie. "So, where do we
start?" She had a hand on the curtain and another question in her
eyes. She wanted to know whether I wanted the curtain