Free Another One Bites the Dust by Lani Lynn Vale Page A

told me Max was hurt, and my heart had broken.  Literally shattered in a million pieces.  I dry heaved for nearly an hour, and I’ve been sick to my stomach ever since.  When he got onto that plane, I watched it take off, and I knew that something bad was going to happen.  I knew that our relationship was never going to be the same.  What I hadn’t counted on was him having no memory of me, or the last year of his life. 
    According to Ember, when Max got to the states, they decided that he would be healthy enough to come to Texas for his care.  Other than bumps, bruises, a concussion, a few cuts, and a broken arm, he was relatively healthy.  All things said and done, he was lucky that he was the first off the helicopter, because otherwise he might have been a lot worse off, like the pilot, or the poor woman who was presumed dead, and whose body was never found.
    “What the fuck are you doing touching my sister?”  I heard Max yell.
    I was outside his room, and I snickered covering my face with my hands.  This wasn’t even remotely funny.  Not in the slightest.  Except for the part where he didn’t remember that his sister was married and had a kid, that is.  My part in it wasn’t funny in the least.  Painting on a brave face, I walked into the room and stopped dead at the sight of him.
    He was shirtless, blanket up to his armpits and folded under his arms.  His hair was shaved to a fine stubble, revealing a nasty cut that ran the length of his skull, down the middle of his forehead, and came to a stop at the eyebrow above his left eye.  His face was battered and bruised, arm covered in dressings most likely due to the burns they said he had.  His arm was covered in a bright fluorescent green cast, and a jealous ball slid up my throat when I saw the name Jenny in cutesy artsy fartsy handwriting with a number underneath.
    I gritted my teeth at the surge of anger, and told myself the first chance I got I was kicking that bitch’s ass.  Finally, I allowed myself to meet his eyes, and was taken back at the amount of emotion there.  I wasn’t sure he would remember me, but it seemed instinctively he knew I belonged to him, and it didn’t matter that he didn’t remember.
    A leaning mountain of dog nearly took me out at the hip, but I caught my balance by grabbing hold of the end of the bed.  Well, I thought it was the end of the bed, when in reality it was Max’s foot.  He didn’t seem to mind though.  His blanket slipped down some on his chest, revealing his nipples, and dog tags that hung down the middle of his chest.  I looked down and collected myself.  I bought myself some time by scratching Alpha between the ears.  Over the past two weeks, we’d grown attached to each other.  He seemed to know me better than I knew myself at times.
    I came in early to work so I could stop by and see Max.  Just in case, I wanted a contingency plan to fall back on if Max didn’t want me here. 
    “You’re not my nurse.”  Max finally said.
    “How do you know that?”  I countered.
    “Your ID badge has pink on it.  The other nurses don’t.”  He stated.
    I was pretty damned impressed that he figured that out in the two minutes I’d been in the room.  “You’re right, I’m not.”
    He nodded.  “Come here.”
    I hesitated, and Alpha sensed it, so he put himself in between me and Max.  Ember and Gabe sat in a chair across the room, and watched silently while we had a battle of wills.
    “Platz.”  Max demanded in a funny accent.
    Alpha seemed to understand the word, but he wasn’t trained to follow anyone’s command but mine.  “What the hell, Apollo.  Why aren’t you listening to me?”
    “Uh, Max?  This isn’t Apollo.  This is Alpha.  You bought Alpha for Payton when you left for Iraq.”  Gabe said from his seat.
    “Oh, man.  I’m so fucking confused.”  Max said bring his hands up to rub his forehead.  His groan of pain had me at his side in a flash.  I took his