Watson by Kathi Barton (ebook reader txt) 📕

when he didn’t say I could. I was really hungry. And I thought he was gone for the day when he come back and slapped me around. Then when Brenda told him I was a little thief and that I needed to be taught a lesson, he said he’d cut off my hand so I’d not be able to steal again. Don’t tell them I told you. Please?”

“I won’t.” She hated that the child was so afraid. “I’m going to call another doctor in to see how many stitches we need to put in. You can trust him, Louis. He’s a good man.”

“I don’t trust nobody, ma’am.” That tugged at her heart so much that she had to look away in order to reach for the little device around her neck that would call anyone that she needed. She had noticed that Wats had his on when he’d been in the office with her.

“You miss us already? I’m still here if you need to have— Something is going on.” She explained to him, not alarming Louis, that she had a patient that needed stitches. She asked him to come to her now, please. “I can do that. I have my father with me. Would it be all right if he were to come with me?”

“Yes. That would be wonderful.” She smiled at Louis. “You’ll like Mr. Wilkerson. He’s a good man too. He’ll have our daughter with him.”

She didn’t have to wait long for not only Wats to join her but also her father-in-law and Cooper. The man with them was one of the officers on the force and seemed to be off duty, as he was dressed in jeans and a shirt. She introduced Louis to them all, not telling him that Cooper was a cop. As soon as she showed them the cut on Louis’s arm, Cooper stepped out, saying he’d return. Brenda returned just as he left them.

“What the fuck are you doing now? Having a tea party? I need him to get his ass home before his daddy shows up. He’s going to be mad enough that I had to waste my time as it is.” She put out her fist and told Louis he’d better have not been a bad boy. “Come on then. I guess you’ll have to deal with it bleeding all the time. Get your ass in gear.”

Before she could get out of the emergency department, three cruisers pulled into the lot with their lights and sirens on. Brenda slapped Louis hard enough to have him falling backward, and she took off running.

“I don’t think she’s going to get too far. Not with her slippers falling off and her pants that tight. Do you suppose she went to a store called ‘I have no clue how to dress when I leave home, and I don’t care’?” The police caught up with Brenda just as she was heading down the street. “You did good, honey. One more abuser off the streets is just what this town needed.”

Louis was taken back to where he’d been before Brenda hit him. After examining him from head to toe, she found several more injuries that varied in the date given to him as well as types. Admitting him so that he could get some proper care, she was making sure he was in a room when the boy’s father showed up to be stitched up too. Apparently, he didn’t care for the police showing up and taking him away from his shows either.

“Mr. Sloan, it seems like you’ve had a busy morning.” He told her to fuck off. “Yes, that’s a good thing to say to someone that is going to put a needle in your arm.”

“You ain’t putting anything in my arm but sewing shit. I ain’t having you drug me all up so you can do shit to me.” She wondered what kind of “shit” he thought she was going to do to him when he growled at her. “You hear me? Just sew me up, and I’ll be on my way. With my kid.”

Rayne thought she was a little too excited about putting stitches in his arm and head without giving him anything for the pain first. Not giving him anything to numb the pain of her stitching him up was going to be quite painful, she thought. Taking several deep breaths, she let them out slowly before she opened her kit up and began to work. First, his arms, which needed four places stitched up, then his head. He’d already refused X-rays.

“Your little boy was pretty cut up.” The man jerked from her needle when she pushed it through the skin. “You have to sit still, or this is going to take a lot longer than necessary.”

“It hurts.” She asked him if he wanted her to numb it. “Sure. I guess so. Not a lot, though. I want to have all my facilities when I leave here.”

She thought that correcting him would be stupid. “As I was saying, your son, he was hurt pretty badly. He’ll need to take better care that he doesn’t climb trees in the future. Brenda might not be there to make sure he’s not hurt more seriously.” He laughed as the medication flowed through his veins. “Is that better?”

“Oh yeah.” He laid this head back on the chair he was in. “Brenda hates him. Me too, but since his mom ran off a few years ago, I had to take care of him. Don’t know what I’d have done if Brenda didn’t care for him while I nap. He’s a noisy little fuck.”

“Why do you keep him if you hate him? I mean, there are all kinds of services that will make sure he gets to a good place.” He told her how he got himself a check each month for him. “Oh. I guess I didn’t think about that.”

He opened one eye and looked at her. “You ain’t going to tell me to get a job? Most