Chapter Fifteen – Red
Everything hurt. Why did my entire body hurt?
I moaned and tried to move, but I found I could barely open my eyes. I scrunched my eyes at the bright light that, even through my closed eyelids, was too bright. Wincing, I opened them little by little, trying to make sense of the blurred objects, until I could open my eyes without it hurting. Well, minimizing the pain as much as I could. My face hurt all over; even my eyelids were sore.
Metal railings. Typical hospital bed and monitors beeping their own symphony. The room was clean and pristine. The sheets were pure white, making me look more pale than usual I am sure.
I stared at the scarred canvas that were my hands. My nails were chips and my knuckles had newly formed bloodied scabs.
What happened to me?
It all came back to me in flashes.
Bryant. His smiling face over me as he screamed, “You’re mine.”
I shivered; the evil glint in his eyes shone clearly in my mind.
He’d found me.
I wasn’t safe.
He was going to kill me.
Am I dead now?
I looked down and saw the IV in the crook of my elbow and heard my heart beat wildly as I realized if I was here, he’d decided not to kill me and was planning to take me home.
The sleeping hulk of a man beside my bedside only reinforced my belief.
I could not go back.
He couldn’t take me alive.
I flinched back, ready to snatch the IV out and run with whatever energy reserve I could find, but then I took a longer look at the body. He had on leather. I only knew a few men that wore leather vests all year round, no matter the occasion, and I would have bet money I knew the emblem that was on the back. The beeping of the machine announced my panic and woke whoever it was beside me, and he leaned back.
It was Wiz. I recognized the youthful face and the way he looked at me, trying to figure out what parts he could take apart and fix.
“Oh. Good. You’re awake. Let me get you a nurse.”
“Water,” the words burned my throat and I clutched my neck.
A nurse with ebony skin and hair gelled up into a bun came around the corner. Her brown eyes were bright against her dark skin. “How you doing, honey? My name is Betty.”
“I—”
“Try not to talk for a while. All right? Your windpipe was badly damaged.”
She must have understood my confused face.
“You don’t know what happened?”
I shook my head back and forth. That hurt too. All I knew was Bryant had tried to kill me and hadn’t been successful.
“Mirror,” I croaked, swallowing loudly.
She looked hesitant but turned to get one.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Red.”
I stared him down until he murmured, “Tamara.”
That didn’t sound right either, but I refused to let him call me Red. Only one man did that, and I wondered where he was.
The nurse handed me a small handheld mirror and I gasped at my appearance. I looked inches from death. My swollen face, cracked lips, bruised cheeks, blackened nose that was bandaged, and the butterfly tape on forehead were a sight, and I knew I probably looked worse when they brought me in. At least now the blood was cleaned off. I tilted the mirror and lost my breath again. There was a clear, purplish handprint outlined on both sides of my throat. One hand wrapped around my throat and squeezed long enough to leave a mark. I guessed Bryant had, at the very least, tried to kill me. Which didn’t explain how I escaped or got to the hospital.
The nurse took the mirror back in exchange for a tiny plastic cup of water, which I gulped down.
“More.”
It was so refreshing against the heated and damaged tissue in my body.
“You can have as much as you want, as long as you slow down. I don’t want you to choke. You should still be a little groggy from the pain medicine, but that should wear off in a few,” she said, reaching for a blood pressure cuff. “You were strangled and badly beaten.”
Well, that much was clear.
“I’m going to take some of your vitals then leave you in peace. You need to rest,” she said it pointedly to Wiz, who raised his hands in surrender.
“You got your orders, I got mine. I’ll do what I can to follow both.”
She talked as she worked. “Some of your motorcycle friends brought you here and we patched you all up. You’re already looking better than we thought. I imagine you can leave in a few days with some rest. That’s what your body needs most right now, so get that,” she said, standing and cutting Wiz with a critical look. She looked at him out the side of her eye until she left the room. I didn’t wait for long to disobey her instruction.
I tried to talk, making a few false starts as my voice cracked, and it was sometimes too painful to finish the word.
“Warren?” I found the pain wasn’t so bad when I whispered, and since I had a million questions, I had no plans of sitting quietly.
“He’s at the police station.”
Wiz held his hand up as my mouth opened to say more. “Just chill. I’m getting to it.”
“The police thought Warren did this,” he said gesturing to my beat up body, “to you and you weren’t awake to say he didn’t, so at first it was really messy but once they got to the hotel room and saw the large blood stain on the carpet from your ex’s foot and the evidence of the gunshot. They eased up on him. He had blood all over his face and clothes so he was an obvious suspect. Tattoos and leather don’t help either.”
Blood?
My eyes widened and Wiz continued talking.
“None of it was yours, or much of it anyway, but they weren’t exactly inclined to run a lab kit. We know it was your ex’s but they didn’t know that and Warren was upset. He told us the gist of what he did to the guy. Beat him up badly and shot him in the foot during a struggle. Looks like he got back in your car and fled. The police caught up to him on the highway and corroborated Warren’s story.”
I threw my feet over the railing, clenching my teeth to hold in my moans of pain. I didn’t care who I had to talk to, but I was getting my man out of wherever he was.
“Hey! Where you going?”
“Jail,” I said barely audible.
“No, no, no,” he said, pushing me back, and damn me for being too weak to push back. I slumped back on the thin bed. “We already handled it, so he’s probably on his way here.”
Wiz had barely finished talking before Warren barged in, followed by three nurses.
“Sir, you can’t be in here. The officer said you had to stay outside.”
He didn’t respond to them or stop walking until he had me in his arms. I leaned forward, reaching for him. “Red,” he said into my hair before kissing me softly. They felt like butterflies and more gentle than he’d ever handled me. He leaned away to kiss me on the lips. “I’m so fucking glad to see those brown eyes.”
I smiled, despite how bad my face hurt.
“I thought I would never see those beauties again.”
“Sir, please,” the nurse said, trying to pull him by the arm.
“Does it look like she wants to me leave?” he snarled.
If he had been anyone else, I would have been scared, but I knew he wasn’t angry. He was as scared as me. He had been scared that he might lose something he needed. I reached forward to turn his face towards me, and the crazed look in his eyes cooled immediately. They weren’t going to take him away from me. I wasn’t dead, and there was nothing, for now, to worry about. It was like he could read my mind through our intense stare. I leaned to the side to make sure the nurses saw my face and mouth. He stays, I said silently.
With a sigh, they left the room, though Betty paused at the door. With her finger outstretched, she proved she wasn’t afraid of Warren. “I meant what I said,” she said wagging her finger. “Take it easy and no talking. The doctor will be in shortly.”
I had no idea when Wiz left or how long we had been alone, but Warren’s body was a welcomed presence in the tiny hospital bed. He swung his big body over the railing and, careful of my IV chords, held me to his chest.
“I thought I was going to lose you.”
“I’m here,” I whispered. He shushed me with his finger but smiled.
“I hope you’re not planning to go anywhere soon.”
I shook my head no and he kissed my forehead. “Good. I wouldn’t let you.”
He held up a folder and smiled with sad eyes. “I have all your new docs, honey.” In all the foolishness with Bryant, I’d forgotten that was the plan all along. I was supposed to be starting over, running away and trying to forget I ever met Warren. “These docs are foolproof. So if you still want them, they’re right here but …if it was just your husband, I promise you won’t have to worry about him anymore.”
I considered what he said. It was just my husband. I wasn’t running away from anything else. I wish I wasn’t running at all, but that was my reality. Or maybe not. According to him, I wouldn’t have to worry about Bryant ever again. I tried to process that and realized, it would take time for me to believe it. I’d tasted hope once and it was snatched away from me too quickly for me to try it again so soon.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but I promise you, he’s not coming back for you. He won’t ever bother you again. If you don’t believe me, you can still run. I won’t stop you, but just know this: you’re not going alone.”
A knock on the door interrupted our conversation.
The doctor came in and said nothing, though his eyebrow arched seeing us squished together in the hospital bed.
“Mrs. Byrd,” he said, reading the chart, and Warren cut in.
“Tamara.”
“Tamara,” the doctor corrected, “My name is Doctor Conner. I would ask how you’re doing, but it’s much better if you let your trachea rest. So just nod your head or give me some thumbs up. Okay?”
I smiled and nodded.
“Do you know who that man in your bed is?”
Warren chuckled lightly as I nodded with a huge smile.
Doctor smirked, obviously joking, and walked towards the bedside. “All right. Just checking.”
He shined a light in both my eyes before wrapping his hand around my wrist, pressing two fingers to the pulse of my veins.
“Do you know who did this to you?”
I scowled and nodded.
“Do you want to press charges?”
I nodded my head yes and crossed my arms.
“All right. I’ll be sure to send in the officer when I finish.”
I gave him two thumbs up.
“Now, let me get right to it.” Warren sat up a little straighter. “You have a concussion, a broken nose, a head laceration, deep tissue bruising on the neck, some bad bruises on your body, and some scratches on the inside of your legs.” He smiled sympathetically. “But I have some other news.”
I tilted my head to the side, not sure what he would say.
“You are pregnant. Very early. But it came back positive on your bloodwork.”
He took in the state of my dumbfounded face and huffed. “You didn’t know you were pregnant?
I shook my head no.
“Am I right to assume he’s the father?”
I’d forgotten the hard mass behind me was a man and not my bed. I froze, suddenly very scared to turn around. What would he say? What would he think? I hadn’t meant to get pregnant. He had to have known it was a risk since we never used a condom. What if he didn’t want it? I knew myself, and I could not go through an abortion. What if he didn’t believe he was the father? He was the only man I’d had sex with in the last 6 weeks.
“Red?” Warren’s voice was soothing, and it gave me the courage to turn around. “How do you continue to light up my life when I least expect it?”
I coughed, my sob barely audible as tears of joy fell from my eyes.
“What? All I want is you. And having something together sounds pretty fucking great.”
My face scrunched as I tried to figure out the first thing. I pointed to my chest in question, and he laughed.
“Yeah. You. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and the only thing that would make it better is you becoming my old lady.”
“I love you, Red. I love you, and I ain’t never said that to a woman before, not even my Momma, but I do. I love you. I swear I do and I ain’t shit without you. I promise to protect you and love you every day that I’m by your side. Make me the happiest man in the world and tell me you’ll stay. I don’t give a fuck about Bryant or all the damage that he’s done. I promise I love you the way you are and I’ll keep loving you until I die.”
I didn’t know whether nodding my head or giving a thumbs up would be enough, but I nodded and croaked, “I’ll stay.”
“Good,” he said hugging me tight. “I’m glad you said yes.” He whispered into my ear, “Who knows how long it’ll be before I can take you over my knee when you say no.”
I felt my skin heat and covered my face.
I smiled so big, I felt my cracked lips split again, but I didn’t care. I was about to become a Warren’s wife and the mother of his baby. Just like that, the second act of my life began, and I had a feeling it would be more exciting than anything I’d done in all of my thirty-two years of life yet.
*****
THE END