A Texas Ranger's Family
Erin, are you awake?"
It was only four words, yet the man's accent was vaguely familiar.
"Yes, I am." Erin Gray's heart lurched at the first recognizable voice she'd heard since regaining consciousness in the ICU of Walter Reed hospital.
The thud of footsteps brought him closer.
"I can't open my eyes!" Her cry was not much more than a raspy whisper, excruciating at that.
"It hurts to move, to talk, to breathe. Hurts everywhere!" She'd give in to the panic rising from her gut but even a single wrench would be too painful.
Tight strips of gauze covered her eyes blocking out all light. Her head and shoulders thumped like the blades of a Blackhawk. Bandages weighed her torso down like a lead blanket. She licked sore lips with a dry tongue. Her mouth was desperate for moisture. Her throat raw.
Respirator.
That's right, a nurse had explained something about being on a respirator for almost three weeks.
Three weeks in a medically induced coma!
Accustomed as Erin was to a military cot, the soft contours of a hospital mattress had produced a throbbing low in her back. She was desperate to sit up or roll to one side. But even the smallest voluntary muscle ... read full excerpt from: A Texas Ranger's Family ebook
