Read Online Embrace the Twilight by MAGGIE SHAYNE - Free Book Online Page B

slept.

5
    W ill opened his eyes, and the white sun was gleaming down into them, blinding him, so he closed them again. He tried to sit up.
    â€œEasy, easy now, pal. Don’t move too much all at once.”
    The voice was young, and male, and…and American?
    He tried opening his eyes again, just a little. As his vision cleared, he realized the blazing white light overhead was coming from a fluorescent bulb, not the desert sun. And the sand underneath him was a mattress, covered with white sheets that smelled of disinfectant. And the robes he wore were only a hospital gown and bedcovers.
    The young man was standing beside the bed. He had dirty-blond hair twisted into dreadlocks, and an eyebrow ring. But he wore the scrubs of a hospital staffer, and the tag pinned to his chest read Danny Miller, R.N.
    Will tried to talk but only rasped, so he cleared his throat and tried again. “Where am I?”
    â€œDude, look around. You’re in a hospital.” The kid pushed a button that raised Will’s upper body, then he picked up a plastic cup with a straw through the top and held the straw to Will’s lips.
    Will drank. The ice water felt good going down his parched throat. He noted the IV bags dangling from a pole beside the bed, noticed the tubes leading to his wrists, glanced down at his foot, but it was covered by blankets. Hell, how bad was it? He couldn’t feel much in any of his limbs just yet.
    â€œWhat hospital?” he asked at length, trying to move the foot but feeling no response.
    â€œBethesda.”
    Will closed his eyes, so intensely relieved it was almost painful. He was home. He was in the States.
    â€œThe doctor will be in any second now. Look, I’m supposed to let some other guys know when you wake up. You up to talking to some people after the doc gives you the okay?”
    â€œDepends on who it is. Although I’m afraid I can guess.”
    â€œMilitary. Lots of hardware on their chests.”
    Will nodded. They’d want to debrief him. It was S.O.P. “Yeah, whatever. First, though, I’d like to know about my foot.”
    The kid reached down to pull the covers away, revealing the well-bandaged foot. “You’ve still got it. That’s good news, right?”
    â€œThat depends. Do I get to keep it?”
    â€œLooks like. The doc will be able to tell you more.”
    â€œThe doc” did tell him more. He told him the foot would never be one hundred percent, that he was going to have to bear up to some intense physical therapy, and that he would have a limp for the rest of his life. He would walk, but never run. He would need to use a cane.
    He did not accept that prognosis.
    He spent the next month in the hospital. The PT was painful, but it was a far cry from the other tortures he’d endured. During that time he was debriefed by the military and declared an American hero by the press. He received a huge cash settlement for the damage done to his foot, and that was in addition to his pension. He was showered in accolades, awarded the medal of honor and a purple heart, and retired with honors, all before he ever got out of the hospital.
    He didn’t want to retire. He didn’t want the damn money or the medals or the press. But with the foot the way it was, he didn’t have much choice in the matter. So he took the cards he was dealt, and he endured the PT, and he got his ass out of the wheelchair and walked through the hospital corridors at night with the help of a cane, because he couldn’t fucking sleep anyway.
    Especially that last night—his final night in the hospital. He’d been there a month, and they would be sending him home the next morning. “Home” was a word that meant nothing to Will. He’d been a soldier for so long, he didn’t have a home. He had nowhere to go. Nothing to do, really. Money? He had plenty of that, the one thing that had never mattered to him.
    He felt as if his life had