Love Me Long (Love Me Book 4)

Chapter 7

When Chloe awakened a few hours later, just before sunrise, everything was quiet. The men that had surrounded her cot were gone, and she was alone. She sat up, blinking her eyes, looking for anyone who could update her on what she had missed. It only took a few minutes for Cindy to see her sitting up and join her.

"You're awake, good. I was getting worried." Cindy said as she sat next to Chloe on the cot.

Chloe looked at Cindy, noting that she had bathed and changed.

"Is everyone getting downtime now?" Chloe asked. "What did I miss?"

"Yes. Robert and Petrov worked on the man that you and Juric saved together. I don't know what Juric said to Petrov, but he looked like thunder when their conversation was over." Cindy whispered, looking around for eavesdroppers.

Great, Chloe thought, that meant that Petrov was probably going to be all over her case when she started working again.

"The man's alright?" Chloe asked.

Cindy nodded, looking around again. "His name is Dimitrie, something or other, and he is enemy number one. Nadia and Alena are all worked up about it. They think it will bring the fight to the hospital."

"Does Juric know?" Chloe asked as she wondered what kind of mistake she had made by saving the man.

"You're back to calling him Juric now?" Cindy raised her eyebrow at Chloe's use of his surname. "He was Valentine earlier."

"It was the heat of the moment. I thought his first name would soften him up." Not a complete lie, even if she was omitting part of the truth. 

"Hmmm, how did you know he would be able to help?" Cindy asked, unwilling to let it go so quickly.

Chloe shrugged. "I must have read that he was a doctor somewhere or other." It seemed plausible.

Cindy watched her, debating if she wanted to ask more questions or not.

"Please, Cindy. Let it go." The women's eyes met, and Cindy nodded. She knew there was more to the story, but she wasn't going to push the issue.

"Juric wants to see you, but I would get cleaned up first," Cindy suggested as she stood.

Chloe looked down at herself while nodding. She had figured that Juric would want to see her. "Where did all of the men go?" she asked Cindy while looking around at all of the empty cots.

"Juric had the ones that could be moved transported back to the capital. The others will stay here for as long as they can before he feels they need to be moved as well." Cindy explained before she wandered off to check on some patients.

It took Chloe a little over half an hour to shower and track down Juric. She found him in a tent that had been erected at the back of the camp. There was a soldier standing guard, and she gave him her name, mentioning that she was expected. He looked at her for a moment before he entered the tent.

It was less than a minute before the soldier returned and held open the flap for Chloe to enter.

She wasn't the only one that had bathed and changed. Juric had as well. He was sitting behind a desk, and when she entered, he stood like the gentleman he was raised to be. He then motioned to two chairs that sat in the middle of the tent. Chloe took one, and he took the other.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, looking closely at her freshly washed face and hair, which was pulled back into another ponytail.

"A little sore from all of my running around, but otherwise fine. What did you say to Petrov?" she asked before she lost the nerve.