Read Online Nightfall by Evelyn Glass - Free Book Online

what happened?” She moved fast, putting herself under Izzy’s arm so the other woman could take the weight off the sore leg entirely. Izzy sighed with relief.
     
    “Long story,” she said. “I need your help with something. And— ay, Santa , I need it to be discreet, if you can?”
     
    It only took a moment for Roxanne to make that call. It wasn’t the request that surprised her, but the tortured look in Izzy’s eyes as she asked. “Sit down,” Roxanne said. “I’ll close the door.”
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Roxanne whistled through her teeth at the wound on Izzy’s thigh.
     
    “I did my best to clean it once I woke up,” Izzy said. Her voice had lost that panicked edge once she had managed to get back out of her jeans and was lying down. The neutral tone was its own kind of worry, though. It might mean that she was going into shock. “But it’s a mess, and I need some help.” The girl chuckled. The sound was cracked and jagged.
     
    Roxanne felt around the wound as gently as she could. “Izzy, this isn’t something we can just wash out and you can pretend it didn’t happen. Steri-strips or dermabond aren’t going to cut it. You need stitches, you need a tetanus shot, you need antibiotics.” She took a deep breath and tried to sound like the convincing and concerned older sister. “You need to be admitted. I can’t get you any of those things without you as a patient. I would if I could, but—”
     
    “No,” Izzy said, shaking her head. “You don’t understand.” She reached for her jeans on the edge of a chair, but sagged back against the bed, her face tight with pain when the wound pulled.
     
    “Is it the money thing? The hospital will take care of you, even if your insurance hasn’t kicked in yet. Or because you don’t want people to find out you were with a woman?” Izzy’s eyes flicked up to Roxanne’s, and then away. “No one cares. You’re a good nurse, that’s all they care about here.” She let the silence stretch for a moment. “You know the rates of infection from human bites. If we’d been able to clean it immediately, maybe, but this happened—what, eight hours ago? No way. The tissue might even be dying in some of these spots. You need anesthetic, and to have the edges trimmed.”
     
    “I like your world,” Izzy said. “Everything’s simple there.”
     
    Roxanne brushed Izzy’s bangs back from her face, feeling the heat rising off the girl’s forehead. “I work twelve hour shifts, four days a week. I don’t have time to make things all complex and stupid just to keep me entertained. When I want that, I turn on the entertainment news and have a grand ole time.” She sat down on the edge of the bed and thought for a minute. “Stick tight. I just got here; I don’t know who’s on Charge yet. Let me see if I can finagle something.”
     
    * * *
     
    It took a solid twenty minutes to find the charge nurse—Sam, today, a transplant from New Orleans who kept his dark hair shaved close to his skull and wore an easy smile in all but the most dire circumstances. “I have a patient with a bad wound on her leg,” Roxanne told him. “She’s refusing to be admitted, but it would be irresponsible for me to let her leave without receiving some care. Please, is there anything we can do?”
     
    Sam studied her for a long minute, his eyes steady and focused, as if he could see right through her. Roxanne did her best to stay innocent and unexciting. “Audits have been good so far this month. If we’re down one tray at the end of the fiscal, I don’t think anyone will create too much fuss. Especially if it goes on record as dropped and needing to be disposed. You dig?”
     
    Roxanne thought about hugging him. “I dig. I very dig.”
     
    “Tell Izzy her secret’s safe with me,” he said.
     
    “Izzy? I don’t…” She let her voice trail off when his raised eyebrow made it very clear that she wasn’t fooling him at all.
     
    She went back into 24 with a