Chapter 10

 

“Owen.”

Is that my voice? Lena wondered, mystified by her surroundings. What the fuck happened? Where am I?

“I’m here. I’m right here, Lena. I’m not going anywhere.”

There was a scuffling to her left and several voices admonished Owen to stand back. Lena shifted toward the noise, searching for his familiar face. Her eyes couldn’t seem to focus on anything properly, and it hurt to keep them open for more than a second at a time. There were people all around her, testing reflexes and shining lights in her eyes. Her brain worked to put the pieces together slowly as she took an inventory of the room around her and of her own body.

Hospital… But why? My head hurts… and my back… and my chest… What happened?

“What...?” she rasped, wincing at the pain in her throat. One of the nurses held an oxygen mask to her face, and Lena forced herself to breathe evenly, feeling a sharp ache in her ribcage with every breath she took.

“Don’t try to talk just yet, dear. We’ll explain everything, but we need to examine you right now, alright? Your fiancé is right over there,” the woman said kindly, nodding toward Owen.

Fiancé?

Lena’s brow furrowed in confusion, irritated by the unexpected difficulty of stringing two thoughts together. She struggled to think of the last thing she remembered, and her father’s face swam to the forefront of her mind. They had argued...

I told him I didn’t want GC… and then…

“Dad,” she squeaked into the mask, her aching eyes scanning the room for a sign of him.

Owen’s heart clenched at the sound of her plea, and his relief at her awakening warred with his dread of having to tell her what had happened. He was reluctantly grateful that the doctors and nurses were shushing her for the moment, but he knew how confused she must be. Owen had hoped that perhaps Lena might not remember the argument with her father, but the fact that she was already asking for him proved she at least remembered something.

“I need to ask you a few questions, Miss Gardner, but if it hurts to talk, you can blink once for yes and twice for no, okay?” Dr. Thompson enunciated his words more carefully than he might have if he’d been addressing someone who hadn’t suffered head trauma. Lena tried to speak, but no sound left her throat, so she blinked once. “Very good, Eleanore. Are you in pain?”

One blink. Seriously? They just pulled a tube out of my throat.

“We’ll work on getting that under control as soon as possible. Do you understand that you’re in a hospital?”

One blink. Well, I’m sure as hell not on a beach somewhere.

Dr. Thompson nodded and turned to gesture Owen to come forward. He bent over her bed slightly so that she didn’t need to strain her eyes to focus on his face. Owen’s face was wet with tears as he slipped his hand into hers and squeezed gently.

“Do you know who this young man is?”

She blinked once quickly. He looks awful. Lena’s brow contorted as she took note of the dark circles and overgrown beard. He seemed thinner, almost haggard-looking. How long have I been here?

“Very good. Do you remember what happened?”

Did she? She’d argued with Nate during dinner at Phelps’ house, and they’d gone to his study to continue the discussion privately. She’d finally come clean about her feelings regarding GC, and he’d been… Lena winced at the memory of his reaction. He’d been stunned and hurt by her declarations, and she’d attempted to put an end to the conversation before her emotions could get the better of her. She’d gone to the door, and then… what?

“I think we’re still a little confused there,” Dr. Thompson’s voice distracted her again. “That’s alright. Let’s not push it for now. We’ll need to repeat the head CT among other things, but I’m confident we’ll be able to answer most of your questions very soon, alright? I just need you to be a little patient for now.”

Lena blinked at him once before her eyes shifted back to Owen. He had knelt on the floor next to the bed, and he held her hand to his lips. Her trembling fingers stroked the growth on his face, testing the length and thickness of it as she wondered again how long she’d been unconscious. Her blue eyes were a sea of confusion and pain, but she didn’t renew her attempts to speak. Lena felt a hollow sensation settle in the pit of her stomach as her father’s absence became, to her, the most overwhelming presence in the room.

Lena couldn’t bring herself to ask her questions out loud, and for the first time in her life, she was afraid to look into the sad, green eyes of the man kneeling at her side. She knew the answers would be written there, and she wasn’t ready to know. So, she watched the door and waited, her mother’s words echoing through her mind.

“It’ll be alright, baby. Someone will come help us get out. We’ll be okay. Shhhh. Daddy will come get you.”

Daddy will come, Lena thought, hoping, as her mother had hoped, that it was true. Daddy will be here...

He can’t be gone.

 

 

Lena fell asleep as a pair of nurses wheeled her back to her room from radiology, and this time, Owen was almost relieved to see her eyes closed. Her slumber looked more natural without the intubation, and the pallor that had lingered in her face had already begun to recede. It also gave him just a little more time before he would have to deliver the heartbreaking news that her father was dead. The hospital had sent a psychologist to help Lena through the conversation, but Owen had insisted that she wouldn’t want an audience for this. Dr. Maitland had agreed to wait outside the room while they talked in case she wanted to speak to him, but Owen knew Lena wouldn’t be ready for that any time soon.

Logan stepped quietly into the room and stood at the foot of Lena’s bed for a few moments, watching her closely. He had discussed security measures with Wyatt and Cook as they’d waited for Lena to be cleared by the doctors, and Cook had left shortly thereafter for a meeting with Agent Ramsey of the FBI. A quick phone call to Valerie had reassured them that Ramsey was wasn’t the type to be in anyone’s pocket. Logan hoped that Cook’s willingness to play the spy would be the break they needed to put Phelps behind bars where he belonged. He scowled inwardly as he recalled the other bit of news Valerie had given him over the phone, but he knew this wasn’t the time to bring it up.

“Did they say how long they’ll keep her in the ICU?” Logan asked. Owen shook his head dolefully, running a hand through his unkempt hair.

“They said her preliminary scans looked good. Or at least… They saw what they expected to see, I guess. They still haven’t told her any of the medical stuff, but they said I could tell her about Nate when she wakes up. They’ve got a shrink on standby.”

“Right,” Logan snorted. “Like Squeak’s gonna put up with that bullshit.”

“I’m not going to force it on her right now, but I will make sure she gets grief counseling. She’s going to blame herself again,” Owen murmured. Logan sighed in resignation.

“I never could understand that. It took her a long time to open up to me, and even then, she never really said it in so many words, but… She was in so much pain over her mother’s death. You’d never know it unless you were really looking for it, though. She hid it well.”

“Not so well anymore. And a lot of her pain could’ve been avoided if she’d gotten more help as a kid.” He stopped short of admonishing Nate’s failure to see what was really going on with his daughter. However true it might be, there had been much more to Nate’s general lack of insight than Lena had ever known.

“Do you want me to stay while you talk to her?”

“Maybe. We’ll leave it up to her. She doesn’t like to cry in front of people. I seem to be one of the few exceptions.”

Logan nodded and didn’t reply, but they both stood at attention when Lena’s breathing changed. Her eyes fluttered briefly before opening, and she blinked in confusion a few times before she was able to focus on the two men at her bedside.

“Hey,” she whispered, wincing at the soreness in her throat.

Owen stifled a sob of relief and moved to hover near her head, kissing every inch of her face. Lena closed her eyes as his lips brushed across hers, savoring the sweet contact for as long as possible. Anything to delay the inevitable. When at last he pulled away, she caught sight of Logan. He gave her his familiar smile, but his eyes were glassy.

“Hey, Squeak.” He settled into the chair opposite Owen and took her hand.

“Hi. You look almost as bad as he does,” she rasped, glancing at Owen, who hurried to bring a styrofoam cup of water to her lips. She sipped from the straw and gave him a weak smile of gratitude. “How long have I been out?”

“It’s Friday, so… five days,” Owen replied, returning the cup to the bed table. When her eyes widened in shock, he reluctantly added, “They had you in a medically induced coma so you could start to heal a little easier. I’d rather let the doctors explain everything to you. Just try not to move around too much, alright?”

“Okay,” she nodded carefully, still taken aback by the word ‘coma.’ No wonder I feel like shit. Her thoughts turned to the previous chaos of the room when she’d awoken. “So… fiancé?”

“It was the only way they’d let me stay with you,” Owen explained, pulling a chair as close to her bed as possible. He brought her hand to his forehead and closed his eyes, praying for strength. “Lena…”

“I know,” she said as she gently tugged her other hand from Logan’s grasp and threaded her fingers through Owen’s hair. He looked up at her in surprise.

“You remember?”

“No, I… I don’t know how it happened, but I know he’s gone. He would’ve been here when I woke up. Obviously, something really bad…” her scratchy voice trembled as the tears slipped from her blue eyes. “I could tell…” she sobbed brokenly. “By your face…”

“Shhh,” he said, hugging her as gently as possible. He’d have loved to shelter her in his arms and let her cry for as long as she needed, but her body wasn’t up to it. Lena buried her face against his chest, trying to ignore the pain in her ribs as she wept. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Wh… What happened?”

“There was… an explosion.” He nearly said the word bomb but changed tack at the last second.

Lena sobbed harder, both from the pain in her body and the pain in her heart. Her memory of those final moments with her father had become clearer since she’d woken from the coma, and she knew the last words she’d said to him had been words of anger. After everything he’d done for her, everything he’d given her… She’d basically told him she didn’t want any of it and thrown it right back in his face. I yelled at him like a spoiled brat… Just like I did to Mom.

It took a good twenty minutes for Lena to even begin to pull herself together. A nurse had peeked into the room after seeing the disturbance on the monitoring system, and Dr. Maitland had been summoned from his office. He was a tall man in his early fifties, and he wore a kind expression as he watched unobtrusively from the open doorway.

Lena took a shuddering breath, allowing Owen’s touch to calm her. He hadn’t pulled away from her or tried to quiet her tears. He’d merely held her as the grief had overwhelmed her, proving once again that he knew precisely what she needed without having to be asked.

“How did this happen?” she rasped, when at last she managed to find her voice. The two men exchanged a glance and nodded reluctantly.

“They’ve been saying it was a gas explosion.”

“No,” Logan interrupted. “I talked to Valerie earlier. It’s what we thought.” Lena frowned in confusion and frustration.

“What was it then?”

“A bomb,” Owen whispered.

“The FBI is investigating, so Valerie is working the case. They confirmed it today. It… It seems to have originated in the room where you and Nate were at the time.”

Lena stared back at him as though he’d just told her that two plus two equals eight purple potatoes.

“But… How? I don’t understand…”

“Phelps. We don’t know for sure yet, but we do know he wants to hurt you,” Owen replied.

“No, Squeak. He wants to kill you,” Logan clarified. “He tried to coerce Cook into getting him into your room alone while you were unconscious. We think there’s a good chance that what he bought in the alley that night wasn’t drugs at all. It was a bomb.”

Lena’s expression was blank as she listened, and she couldn’t summon a coherent response through the chaos that overwhelmed her brain in that moment. Guilt churned thick and hot in her stomach as she berated herself. Not only had she disrespected her father right before he’d died, but she’d failed to convince him that Phelps was a threat. She’d let the matter go too easily. Why hadn’t she gone to him when they’d suspected that Phelps had ordered the first attempt on her life? Would he have listened?

I should’ve made him listen. I should’ve let Owen’s friend hack the system to get the proof that Phelps is dirty. I shouldn’t have backed down until I forced Dad to believe...

For the second time in her young life, Lena had been spared in a horrific event that had taken the life of her parent. She was an orphan, and as the full weight of that thought settled upon her shoulders, she’d never felt more lost. A child’s foundation was built on the love of a parent, and now they were both gone forever. Desolation threatened to swallow her whole, and were it not for the touch of the man at her bedside, the loneliness would have been unbearable.

But she wasn’t alone. Owen was there, as he always had been in one manner or another. He was kissing her tears away, keeping her safe, and carrying her when she was too weak to stand on her own. The parallel to Nate’s paternal role in her life was not lost on her, and as her mind replayed the details Owen and Logan had given her about her father’s death, an altogether different emotion rose up within her.

Anger.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Aside from the obvious injustice of having lost both of her parents in such tragic ways, Lena felt a mounting fury over Phelps’ betrayal. Nate had trusted him, defended him, treated him like family. And Phelps had betrayed him to the very end.

She wanted vengeance. She wanted justice. She wanted to find Phelps and kill him with her bare hands. A surge of adrenaline pushed her to move in spite of her injuries, but she hadn’t managed to sit up more than a few inches before Owen urged her back against her pillow.

“What are you doing?! Lay back down right now!”

“He has to pay,” Lena groaned, her eyes tormented with pain, grief, and rage.

“He will!” Owen promised. She stopped struggling, but her heart rate had jumped dangerously, and he knew that at any moment, a nurse might descend upon them and force him and Logan out of the room. “Lena, please. You have to calm down.”

His silent prediction came true not thirty seconds later, but to Owen’s surprise, Dr. Maitland waved the nurse off, telling her everything was under control. The man exchanged a nod with Owen before resuming his quiet observation. Lena, in her grief and distraction, had yet to notice Maitland’s presence.

“Things have been stalled with you being unconscious, but now that you’re awake, you can take action. Even if you have to do it from your hospital bed. You’re the sole owner of GC now. Your authority supersedes his,” Owen pointed out.

She was instinctively repelled by his words, mentally recoiling from the reminder that the company she’d never wanted to run was now under her control. Owen’s voice had taken on an authoritative tone, however, and despite the fact that he was telling Lena she was in charge, he commanded her attention as though the roles were reversed. Had she not been so overwhelmed by the situation, she would’ve noticed it sooner. Lena eyed him speculatively, realizing that the past five days had evoked a sort of evolution in him. Natural and irrevocable.

“You need to fire Phelps, effective immediately,” he declared. “Have security lock down his office without warning, change all of his passcodes, have someone watching him twenty-four seven—”

“Actually, that’s not a good idea,” Logan spoke up. They both looked at him in disbelief. “If he knows his cover is blown, he’ll disappear, remember? Right now, he’s cooperating with the police and the FBI, playing up the victim thing. We need to keep the status quo until they have enough evidence to make an arrest.”

“And how long will that take?!” Lena demanded. “I’m just supposed to let him have control over my dad’s company for who knows how long?”

“No. Now that you’re awake, you’re in charge, like Owen said. Legally, Phelps is your employee, and you can order him to do whatever you want. But the last thing we want him to do is disappear to some country without an extradition treaty with whatever he’s managed to embezzle from GC.”

Lena scowled in frustration, both at the thought of owning GC as well as the idea of Phelps getting away with what he’d done. Owen sighed in resignation. Logan had a point.

“He’s right, Lena. We all want justice for Nate, but right now, that means keeping a cool head.” Owen’s words did little to take the fight out of her, but she felt her eyes prickling with a fresh batch of angry tears.

“He killed my father,” Lena said brokenly. “We all know it. How can I look that man in the face and pretend otherwise?”

“We’ll limit your contact as much as possible. Sean has been sitting in on as many meetings as he can, trying to represent your interests. He hasn’t been able to do much more than observe, but now that you’re awake, maybe we can change that.”

“That was very generous of him.” Her poor attempt at a smile made his heart ache even more.

“It was his idea,” Owen smiled, stroking her cheek. “Why don’t you try to close your eyes for a little while? I’ll give him a call and see if he can come give you an update. I’d imagine it won’t be long before your doctor shows up with the rest of your test results too.”

Lena didn’t want to sleep, but as usual, Owen read her with ease and accuracy. Her body had been through too much to stay awake for any considerable period of time, and the weak attempt she’d made to get out of bed had drained her more than she wanted to admit. She acquiesced with a mute nod and closed her eyes, drifting to sleep almost immediately.

“That could have gone better,” Logan whispered. Owen’s gaze remained fixed on Lena’s sleeping face as he replied.

“It could’ve gone worse too.”

 

 

The next time Lena opened her eyes, she was surprised to see a different pair of faces smiling encouragingly at her. Sean and Mary Langford had taken the seats that had been previously occupied by Owen and Logan, and both appeared to have a set of thick document files in their laps.

“Hello, dear,” Mary said kindly. “It’s so good to see you awake again. Are you in any pain?”

“Not really.” Lena glanced at the clock, realizing she’d only been asleep for about an hour. “They gave me something not that long ago. It’s nice to see you both again.”

She had gotten to know the Langfords reasonably well since the first time she’d met them. She and Owen tried to make it to their family dinners at least every other week, and they’d never been anything but gracious and welcoming toward her. As Lena’s eyes swept the room in search of Owen, however, she realized it was the first time she’d found herself alone in a room with them.

“Where’s Owen?” she wondered aloud.

“I made Eric drive him back to your apartment for a real shower. He needed it,” Mary smiled. “He hadn’t left the hospital since Sunday, and he’s only used the staff showers when someone forced him to leave this room. He put up quite a fight, but he finally agreed to go as long as we stay with you until he gets back. Your friend Logan went to check in with his girlfriend.”

“He needs a shave too,” Lena replied sadly. Sean and Mary chuckled in agreement. “Eric’s here?”

“Yes. Next week is his spring break, but his exams were finished yesterday. So, he’s home for a little while.”

Lena gave a tiny nod, limiting her movement so as not to bring on a headache. In truth, her body ached just about everywhere, but she knew the pain medication would put her to sleep. She wasn’t surprised by the fact that Owen had scarcely left her side in the past five days, having guessed as much due to the length of his beard. The mention of Eric’s name was a pleasant surprise, however, and Lena was glad that whatever reservations Owen had harbored about introducing her to Eric had turned out to be unnecessary. Eric had treated her like a sister rather than a prospective date when she’d met him at Christmas, following the trend of the rest of his family. All of the Langfords had been unswervingly supportive of her relationship with Owen.

Mary glanced down at the thick folder on her lap, and Lena realized belatedly that it was her own medical chart.

“Pretty grim reading material?” Lena joked weakly.

“Not at all, sweetie. Your doctor came by to talk to you while you were asleep, but he thought it best not to wake you.”

“Can you just tell me? I think I’d rather hear it from you.”

Mary nodded and proceeded to give Lena a summary of her condition. It was too early, at this point, to estimate a timeline for her recovery, but her prognosis was good. Depending on possible complications that might arise, however, there was a chance she would need specialized care for a couple of months.

“Months?” Lena echoed incredulously. “I can’t stay here that long. I have to bury my father, I have to… I have to make sure his company survives this.” I have to see Phelps get what’s coming to him, she added silently.

“Well, that’s where I come in,” Sean assured her, holding up his own file folder. “I have some things for you to sign, if you’re able. Acknowledging your ownership of GC and your place as CEO.”

She sighed ruefully but didn’t shrink away from the idea this time. At one point, she might have wished she could simply refuse to sign and run away from this mess, but it was too late for that now. After everything that had happened, there was no way she was going to escape this. And Lena realized, to her surprise, that she no longer wanted to. As much as she still hated the idea of running GC, her desire to honor her father’s memory was much stronger.

“We can wait to talk about it until Owen comes back, if you like,” Sean added, seeming to sense her ambivalence. Lena shook her head minutely.

“It’s not necessary, but since he’s not here at the moment… There’s something else I’ve been wanting to talk to you both about for a while now. Alone.” Sean and Mary glanced at each other in surprise before encouraging her to continue.

“Of course, dear. What is it?”

“Owen told me once that you offered to adopt him after he came to live with you. He told me why he refused, and of course, I told him he was being irrational… I let it go at the time, hoping I’d get a chance to talk to one of you about it eventually, and I just wanted to say that… I think he might be more agreeable now. And I think he needs it. I know what it’s like now… Not to have parents,” her voice broke in a quiet sob. “I don’t want that for him.”

“Oh, darling,” Mary’s eyes were sympathetic and shimmering with unshed tears as she squeezed Lena’s hand. Sean was smiling sadly at her.

“You guys are already his parents in almost every way, and I know that, deep down, he wants it to be official. He’s just afraid to ask for it. He thinks he’s unworthy.”

“We do consider him our son, and we’ve both told him so many times,” Sean assured her. “We’d like nothing better than to make it official. I promise we’ll talk to him about it soon, alright?”

Lena nodded and returned his gentle smile.

“Absolutely,” Mary agreed. “And Lena… You may have lost your parents, but you’re not alone. Owen loves you. He wants to spend his life with you, and that makes you our daughter too. We’ll support you in any way we can.”

Lena wasn’t sure she was ready to accept them in that role yet, but she appreciated the sentiment all the same. The Langfords were some of the best people Lena had ever met, and having them in her life could only be a positive thing, both personally and professionally. She did her best to shake off her tumultuous emotions and tried to switch gears into business mode. They had other things to discuss.

“Thank you both. Not just for being so kind to me, but for everything you’ve done for Owen too. I’m glad he wasn’t dealing with all of this alone while I was unconscious. And he told me how you were helping at GC, Sean. I really appreciate that as well.”

“You’re more than welcome, Lena. I only wish I could’ve done more. I’ve been representing your interests in an unofficial capacity, so I was limited to observation. But I took notes as much as possible. I brought them with me, along with the paperwork for confirming your ownership of GC.”

For the next twenty minutes, she and Sean went over everything he had seen and heard at GC that week. Mary merely listened until her pager went off about halfway through, and she excused herself to answer it. Lena was impressed by the depth of Sean’s knowledge of GC’s business dealings and various policies, and his notes were neat and detailed. When the conversation turned to the events of Sunday evening, Lena winced with regret.

“Owen suggested talking to you about the embezzlement months ago. I said no because we didn’t really have anything to go on other than our own suspicions. I didn’t want you dragged into something that might end up damaging your career or your reputation. Now, I wish I’d listened to him. Maybe we could’ve caught Phelps before he had a chance to…”

Lena stopped short, refusing to surrender to her emotions in front of Sean. There would be time for that later. She pushed her grief and guilt to the farthest possible corner of her mind and forced herself to continue.

“Anyway, I… I know your firm was hired for the Rockford deal, but would there be any conflict of interest to bring you on as my personal attorney? At least temporarily? I wouldn’t ask more of you, but I really don’t know who else I can possibly trust right now. At the moment, every single one of my father’s employees is under suspicion. This has to be bigger than just Phelps.”

“There would be no conflict. I’m happy to help for as long as you need me. I agree that this would’ve been a lot for Phelps to pull off all on his own, so I don’t fault you for your suspicions. But I sincerely hope we’re both wrong about that. Either way, though… As your attorney, I’ll be able to do more than just observe and take notes. I’ll be legally empowered to speak on your behalf.”

Lena gave him a tired smile and accepted his handshake. Once she had signed the paperwork he’d brought with him, Sean promised he would draw up the necessary documents to designate him as her personal attorney as soon as possible so that he could return to GC on Monday morning.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Lena nodded. “And I won’t be sending you in without backup. I just need to talk to Owen first. Alone.”