Free Packed: The Enforcer: A Shifter Paranormal Romance by Carolyn Faulkner Page B

equipment she didn't know how to work – towards that purpose, anyway.
    One afternoon, when he had first started to stay awake more than he slept, he asked quietly, "How long have you been here taking care of me?"
    She had been reading quietly on her iPad, but looked up at him and began to try to think of the answer. "Well, are you including time in the hospital, or just here?"
    "You were with me in the hospital?"
    He was – understandably – a little shaky about the timeline and the details of what had happened to him, and she had only told him generalities when he had demanded them before, but he was so drugged up and exhausted from healing that he didn't retain them very well, anyway.
    "I've been with you since the moment you were shot, Tek. And that was..." She had to count on her fingers. "Forty-six days ago today, a couple of days in ICU, a week and a half in the hospital afterwards, because of the silver that got into your blood, and a little more than a month here, at home." She had been with him every single second of every minute of it, almost jealously guarding him and knowing that she was the best person – out of anyone – to take care of him. She didn't even leave when the PT guys were here, and she, alone, got him to all of his doctor's appointments. She knew the names and dosages of all of the meds he was on, which were rapidly dwindling as he got better, and gave them to him on a strict schedule.
    There had only been one time when she had to leave him with Abby, for a meeting with her biggest client, who refused to allow her replacement, a rival, but still very talented and a good friend – saying that if she had wanted to hire Lisa Kent, she would have gone to Lisa Kent's office in the first place. And she had done so with extreme reluctance, hurrying there and back as quickly as she dared, as if something horrible was going to happen to him in her absence, although Abby had assured her that all he had done in that time was sleep, which was exactly what he would have done if she had been there herself.
    Unfortunately, spending all of this time with Tek, as altruistic as it seemed, hadn't been good for her business. She was still in the midst of building it, and this was a cut-throat area where there was tons of competition that was at least as good – if not better – than she was.
    But she had done it without a thought and would do it again the very same way. Tek meant more to her than any business she might have. She would rather see him healthy enough to rejoin his crew than stave off bankruptcy, and that was essentially the choice she had already made. Hell, the man had, essentially, taken a bullet for her, and for all intents and purposes had saved her life. She had pretty much ignored her arm in favor of taking care of him, skipping doctor's appointments and having the nurses who saw to his care, see to her, too, so that she could stay with him.
    Besides, her injuries were much less serious than his were, since she was female, so she had much less of a reaction to that deadly element than he did. And the fleshy part of her arm didn't contain any vital organs, veins, or arteries. The bullet had passed through his chest, leaving destruction in its path as it seared its way through him, because he was a true wolf and silver was poison to him.
    By all rights, he should be dead now, but he was just too damned stubborn to go.
    When she returned to the real world, there was going to be a big mess to clean up, and she would very likely have to close up shop for good and find a new job. But she didn't regret one bit of the time she had spent with him, not one single second. Especially, now that he was starting to look more like himself and regain his strength, and she could see that he really was going to recover fully. Until she'd begun to see evidence of that with her own eyes, she hadn't trusted the doctor's prognosis.
    "You look tired."
    "You're a ways from a perfect ten yourself, big man," she shot