Save Me, page 12
Chuck was pale and Brenda was weeping.
“I’m sorry, son,” Chuck said.
“No, you’re not, and don’t call me ‘son.’”
Hunt shuddered. He felt empty. Like all the negativity they’d fed him was gone. They were staring at him, pale-faced and silent. His parents. Her parents. All of them. For the first time holding and owning their guilt.
“I don’t know how your lives are going to end, but I know Lainie and I will thrive without you. You men are worthless. Whatever tiny bits of good you have put out into this world, you have negated it a thousand times over with your hate. When you die, they should burn you into ashes, bury you both in the same unmarked hole, then forget you ever existed. You have wasted your entire lives fighting over nothing but a common dislike for each other, so you should spend eternity together. And if God wants your sorry souls back, He’ll know where to find them.”
Greg shuddered, and Chuck was slack-jawed in disbelief. Had Hunt just heaped a curse upon their souls? They wouldn’t look at their wives, and they wouldn’t look at each other. But they were all watching Hunt as he picked up his backpack and walked away, and they were still watching when tossed his backpack inside his Jeep and began stripping down to his briefs.
Even from a distance, they could see the man and muscle the Army had built, and to their horror, the scars it had left behind. They were still watching when he retrieved clean clothes from the back seat, then put them on and drove away.
The parents parted company without a word. It was going to be a long silent drive back to Louisiana for all of them, with plenty of time to reflect on what they’d wrought.
As they were driving away, Hunt was entering the hospital address into his GPS. He followed them all the way to Denver Health, eyeing the massive edifice as he pulled into the parking lot, then drove to the emergency room entrance and parked. He grabbed his backpack as he was getting out, and hurried inside.
* * *
CHARIS HAD BEEN in the ER lobby for hours, eyeballing every man who walked in. She knew it would take time for Hunter Gray to get off the mountain and then back into the city, but it didn’t matter. She was here for Lainie.
And then she saw a man coming toward the entrance. His head was up, and he was moving at a fast pace, with a trail-dusty backpack slung over one shoulder.
The moment he entered the lobby, she knew it was him. Tall, dark and handsome didn’t cover it, and even though she was close to the date of her own wedding, just looking at him sent shivers up her spine. She jumped up, running.
“Excuse me! Excuse me! Are you Hunter Gray?”
Hunt skidded to a stop and turned around. “Yes. Who are you?”
Charis sighed. “The scout your girl sent to find you.”
His relief was evident. “She’s okay?”
“Yes, or will be. They took her to surgery to—”
He panicked. What had he missed? Did delaying her retrieval make it worse?
“Why surgery? What happened?”
“I’m sorry. Nothing dire. They decided anesthesia was the best option before they began treating her feet.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “She passed out last night when I started pouring disinfectant on them. It scared the hell out of me. Can you tell me where she is?”
“Consider me your escort. I work here, too, although this is my day off. I’m to take you to her room.”
“Yes, ma’am. Lead the way.”
“Oh, by the way. My name is Charis, and Lainie is one of my best friends.”
* * *
BETWEEN THE DRUGS, the shampoo, and the bed bath they’d given her, Lainie was feeling no pain—or at least, not much. But being a patient here was the flip side of her daily life. In here, she felt isolated from everything.
She frowned as she fingered her scalp around the head wound. They’d shaved a little bit of hair away to staple it up, so she’d chosen not to look at herself in a mirror. The expressions of horror on her friends’ faces when they’d first seen her said it all.
She quit fiddling with the staples, and was staring at the ceiling and thinking about Hunt when someone knocked, and then the door swung inward.
Charis came through, then stepped aside. “Mission accomplished, dear friend. Rest well. We’ll talk another time,” she said, then blew her a kiss and left the room as the door swung shut behind Hunt.
Seconds later, he was at her bedside. He dropped his backpack to embrace her, then froze. Between the stitches in her head, the bandages on her feet and the cuts still healing on her lips, he was afraid to touch her body at all, and took her hand instead.
“Hey, baby...what did they say? What all did they do? Are you hurting?”
“Pain-wise, I’m better now. I have a concussion, which is healing in spite of me. Bruised ribs but nothing broken. The obvious staples in my head. I’m told that after they cleaned my feet, they glued the deep cuts, and left the rest to heal on their own. A couple of places were infected, as you know, but I have double doses of antibiotics in me, and enough pain meds in me to make the world look pretty in pink.”
He smiled. “I’d almost forgotten your sense of humor, and now I’m wondering what kind of description you gave to your friend that made her identify me so fast.”
“Oh...basically just look for the best-looking guy with black stubble,” she said, and ran her fingers against his chin.
“Ah, yes... I’m going to have to deal with all that.”
“They’re going to let me go home tomorrow. I’m still here only because they administered anesthetic. When do you have to go back to work?”
His eyes darkened. “Never. I’m not leaving you.”
“But your job?”
“Darlin’, I can fly choppers anywhere. However, I may be ahead of myself. I guess I need to ask, is there still room for me in your world?”
“Dumbest question ever, and yes,” she said. “I have a house. I bought it years ago. I love the house. Everything I did to it was with you in my heart. I guess I should have sent out an SOS years ago, but I think I was afraid to face you.”
“Well, that’s bullshit, and now you know it,” Hunt said. “Then it’s settled. I’ll call my boss, Pete, and tell him I’m staying. I can catch a quick flight back in a few days to pack up my clothes, and we’ll go from there.”
Tears quickened. “Go from there... We finally have a future, don’t we?”
“Yes, ma’am, we do, but we can’t go back. Life happened. We both changed, but without each other to monitor the changes. We’re gonna take this slow and this time, do it right. No running. No hiding. We already love each other. We just need to feel the solid ground beneath our feet here as well,” he said, and brushed a kiss across her forehead.
She was crying again. “Thank you for coming to find me. Thank you for still loving me even after all the chaos my parents caused. I’m so sorry about your scholarship. I cannot imagine how that felt.”
Hunt slid his hand beneath her palm and felt her fingers curl around it. Just like they were before—always needing that feeling of connection. She’d bared her soul to him on the mountain, and he was still living with his hell. It wasn’t fair to her, and there were things he needed to purge. They were already talking about their future, and he was still buried in the past.
“I need to tell you stuff, but at the same time, I keep thinking, wait until she’s better. Only we both learned the hard way what happens when you wait.”
Lainie tightened her grip on his hand. “Lower this bed rail and sit down beside me. Whatever it is will never change how I love you. Give me your demons to hold. I know how to handle them.”
Hunt lowered the railing, then scooted onto the side of the bed. He glanced at her once, then dropped his head.
Lainie reached for his hand as she waited. She could feel the tension in his body and gave his hand a little tug. “Hunter, it’s okay.”
He took a deep breath and started talking.
“I’ve never talked about this before, and you deserve to know. Because there can’t be secrets between us again. Ever. I have nightmares that will never go away. Just as I’m sure you do. But you told me yours. And I need to tell you mine.”
“I’m listening,” Lainie said.
Hunt nodded. “I shut down after I left New Orleans. I packed up the boy I’d been and tried to forget he’d ever existed. There were days in Iraq when I thought I would probably die. Looking back, I think I joined the Army expecting it to happen. By a twist of fate and an aptitude test, I wound up in Aviation training and came out good at what I had learned to do. The whole time I was deployed, I carried out my job in the cockpit of an Apache Longbow, the Army’s most impenetrable helicopter. I occupied the front seat as gunner and copilot, with my pilot, Preacher, behind me quoting Bible verses as he flew. Every pilot has a call sign. They called me Gator because I was from Louisiana. There were days when we felt invincible, and days it felt like not even God could save us. Yes, we got shot at every time we went up. And yes, they threw everything at us from ground fire to blasting at us with RPGs, and MANPADS. But we were in Longbows, and what we didn’t evade was deflected. We were not on the ground like foot soldiers, being moved from place to place in truck convoys, riding along with your buddies in the middle of nowhere and getting blown up by an IED while you’re in the middle of laughing at someone else’s dirty joke. But pilots did die. And war sucks. You know?”
Lainie’s heart was hammering. She could feel every nuance of the nightmares within him, and yet there were no platitudes that fit. No words to take away the pain, so she did what he needed most, and just listened and watched the shadows come and go on his face.
He was staring out a window now as he talked. She knew he’d gone back there in his mind, and there was no way for her to follow.
He glanced back at her face. She hadn’t flinched, and this was good, because it was her permission he sought, to be able to continue.
“We’d been in-country for almost eighteen months and were having a little downtime at the base. It was hot and sunny, and the endless wind was blowing sand in our hair and in our eyes, and if we laughed, we had grit in our mouths, but on that day it didn’t matter. We were just hanging out, playing a game of pickup. Rat had the basketball. I was defending under the basket. T-Bone was dancing around in the corner, waving his hand for a pass, and Preacher was coming in behind Rat for a steal when a sniper hiding in the surrounding mountains fired a shot. Preacher had this look of surprise on his face.” Hunt stopped, swallowing past the lump in his throat. “And then I saw the hole in his forehead about a second before the next shot hit me in the back.”
Lainie flinched. He’d never said he’d been shot!
Hunt looked up and out the window again. “I watched him die in front of me. The last thing I saw before I passed out was Rat running for a weapon. Preacher died and I didn’t, and guilt set in. I didn’t want to get close to anyone like that again. I’d lost you and then him, so I shut down emotionally and focused on nothing but what I’d signed up to do. Even after we were stateside again, and then deployed in different places during the ensuing years, I began to burn out. Ultimately, I left because I was tired of running away from the past. Then I saw your story on the evening news, and the rest you know.”
* * *
TEARS WERE RUNNING down her face. “Oh, Hunt... I need to hug the hurt out of you so bad I can’t stand it, and they’ve hooked me up to everything in this hospital except WiFi. Come lie down beside me. You’ve stayed awake for days because of me. Let me hold you now while you sleep.”
He damn sure wasn’t leaving her and didn’t have it in him to refuse that offer. And, since she hadn’t thrown up her hands in shock at what he’d told her, he guessed she’d decided to keep him.
“You know it’s against the rules?”
“You leave the demons and the rules to me,” she said, and scooted over until her back was against the bed rail.
Hunt kicked off his boots, lay down beside her and pulled up the bed rail, then turned to face her with the railing at his back. He searched her face for doubt and saw none. All he felt was love. He’d bared his soul, and now his heart was in her hands.
“I love you, Lainie.”
She sighed. “I love you, more.”
“We’re breaking all kinds of hospital protocol,” he said.
“I am a dear and beloved employee here, and you’re already everybody’s hero because you found me, so, in their eyes, you can do no wrong. I love you. Close your eyes.”
So, he did.
Chapter Seven
It was time for evening meds.
Lainie’s assigned nurse, Maggie Rae, was making her rounds when she entered Lainie’s room, then came to a full stop. There was a grown-ass man in bed with her patient, sound asleep and stretched out beside her with his feet hanging off the side. Then she realized it must be Hunter Gray, the man who’d found her.
Gossip was they’d known each other before, and it must have been something special for him to come from so far away to search. Even now, he’d put himself between Lainie and the door, with his arm across her waist in a gesture of protection.
Lainie heard footsteps approaching her bed and opened her eyes, then put a finger to her lips and whispered, “He never slept until he found me.”
Maggie lowered her voice as she began checking Lainie’s stats. “Bless him. He’s quite the hero. How are you feeling?”
Lainie sighed. “Everything hurts.”
“This should help,” Maggie said as she injected the syringe full of pain meds into Lainie’s IV port. “There you go, honey. You’ll get easy soon. Do you need anything?”
Lainie looked down at the man beside her. “Not anymore.” Then closed her eyes.
*
JUSTIN RANDALL HAD been taken in handcuffs from his jail cell to an interrogation room. The guards seated him at a table, then one stayed on guard with him. All Justin knew was that his lawyer was coming, so he settled in to wait, but not for long.
Minutes later, the door opened, and Richard Stovall, his court-appointed lawyer, entered the room.
“I’ll need some time alone with my client,” Richard said.
The guard left the room as Richard sat down and flipped open a file.
“I’ll get right to it. You have problems,” Richard said. “Lainie Mayes was found alive this morning. She has a large number of injuries, some of which back up the police’s theory that you attacked her, and she had plenty to say about that. The lab reports came back regarding DNA found on evidence from the scene of the attack, as well as DNA taken from her backpack they found in the canyon. It’s yours.”
“Okay, so there wasn’t any bear attack, but I didn’t try to kill her,” Justin said. “She got herself lost.”
“Running away in fear for her life after you assaulted her,” Richard said. “I’m told the cops were at the emergency room when they brought her in. They took scraping from beneath her fingernails to test for DNA.” Then he looked straight at the scratches on his client’s face. “We both know how that’s going to turn out. And that’s not all. About twenty-four hours after your name was mentioned as a suspect of interest in the local and national news, four other women have come forward, claiming you both raped and assaulted them, and threatened to kill them if they talked.”
Justin blinked. “They can’t prove any of that. It will be my word against theirs.”
“So, it’s true?” Richardasked.
“Can I fight this?” Justin asked.
“You have no grounds to fight with,” Richard said. “Whatever happens, you’re going to prison. It’s the sentencing that will determine the time you will serve.”
Justin shrugged. “Win some. Lose some.”
* * *
SOMEONE LAUGHED IN the hall outside Lainie’s room.
The sound woke Hunt abruptly from a dreamless sleep, and the first thing he saw was her face. She was sound asleep with lashes fluttering, and a tear on her cheek. She was dreaming. This is real. This is happening. Bruised and battered, and she’d never been more beautiful to him. Thank you, God.
He eased over onto his back to lower the bed rail and stood up, then slid his hands beneath Lainie and slowly eased her back to the middle of the bed. She moaned, then sighed as Hunt pulled the covers up over her shoulders, brushed a kiss across her cheek, then pulled up the bed rail and headed for her bathroom with his backpack.
* * *
LAINIE HAD A brief moment of fright when she woke up alone, then she heard water running in the adjoining bathroom and relaxed. Hunt was in the shower. All was right with her world.
She listened, taking comfort in the sound of his presence until the water stopped, then she heard him moving around and thought of all the mornings of their life ahead. Going to bed together. Waking up the same way. And the sound of a shower. She’d never had the pleasure of his company in this way, and was anticipating the simple acts of life that came with love.
And then he emerged, dressed all but for the clean T-shirt he was holding, and she forgot to breathe. The stubble was gone, and the man he’d become was standing before her. Zero body fat. Chiseled abs. A jawline to die for. Blue eyes flashing. The same sensual mouth and thick black hair. And the remnants of war on his body and in his gaze.
She sighed. “So. You have grown into a magnificent man.”
The corner of his mouth tilted, just enough to pass for a smile as he approached the bed. “I guess we can chalk it up to Uncle Sam’s good cooking,” he drawled.
“Nope. I knew you when, remember? This was always you, just waiting to turn into this.”
