CHAPTER
Eighteen
“Baby?” I lean in close to her face, speaking softly. “Lauren, are you awake?”
She tries to move and scowls. “Fucking hurts.”
“I know. Don’t try to overdo it.” I reach over and press the red call button.
“Can I help you?” a faceless voice asks.
“Lauren is awake. We need the doctor, please.”
“Happened?” Lo opens one eye, trying to focus on me.
“I’ll tell you everything. Just relax for now and rest, beautiful. You’re in the hospital, but you’re going to be okay.” I kiss her forehead and gently caress the hair at her temple. “I’m so relieved to hear your voice.”
“That was quick,” Dr. Black murmurs as he bustles through the door with Dr. Shay on his heels. “Please stand back, Ty.”
The doctors take over, taking vitals, checking her pupils, asking her questions. A nurse stands at the end of the bed taking notes.
Finally, Dr. Black addresses me. “This is very encouraging, Ty.”
“How is she?”
“She’s going to be sore, and we’re going to keep her for a couple more days to watch that head injury, but I think she’s going to be just fine. We’ll do another CT scan tomorrow morning to monitor the fluid on her brain.” He grins down at Lauren and pats her hand. “You’re a very lucky woman, Lauren.”
“Don’t remember anything,” she whispers, and licks her lips.
“She asked for water,” I say.
“I’ll go get her some ice chips,” the nurse offers, and hustles out of the room.
“You’re going to be sleepy for the next day or two because we’re going to keep your pain meds up,” Dr. Shay informs Lauren. “You’re going to be very sore for a few days, so be careful when you try to move around.”
“Ty,” Dr. Black says, “why don’t you step out and make some calls while we remove her catheter and make her comfortable?”
“I don’t want to leave her.” I take her hand in mine.
“’S okay,” Lo whispers. “Call everyone. I’ll be here.”
I kiss her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
I hurry out into the hall and call Jill, then Josh and Zack, informing them that Lo’s awake. By the time I’ve called Cary and Emily, I’m itching to get back into that room to her.
I have things to say before she falls back to sleep.
I knock and wait impatiently for the nurse to open the door for me. Dr. Black is helping Lo back into bed.
“Why is she up?” I rush to her side.
“Had to pee.” She winces as she eases back against the bed. “My ribs hurt like hell.”
“How is your head?” I ask softly.
“Sore. Did I get hit by a truck?”
“No.” I shake my head and press my lips to her forehead.
“Call if you need us. We’ll be in for the next round of meds in about an hour.”
The doctors leave and I drop into the chair beside Lo’s bed, watching her carefully. “God, baby, I’m so happy that you’re awake.”
“What happened? All I remember is e-mailing my editor, and then waking up here.”
“Maybe we should have this conversation after you’ve had time to recover a bit more.” I don’t want to upset her and make her hurt any worse than she already does.
“Just tell me.” She raises her hand to cup my face. I feel tears in my eyes as I turn my face and press a kiss to her palm.
“Jack came to your house two mornings ago.”
Her eyes register confusion as she watches me. “Two days?”
“You’ve been asleep for a few days, letting your body heal.” I kiss her hand again. “Jack hurt you, sweetness.”
She frowns and closes her eyes, then they open quickly, wide, and she stares at me in shock. “He destroyed my office.”
I nod, waiting as it all comes back to her.
“He hit me.” Her breath catches and she winces. “He was pissed because he found out about the books. How did he find out?”
“I don’t know. I suspect he was the one who had been in the house while you were gone.”
“He was going to kill me,” she whispers, and a tear falls as the events of that morning play through her head. “He was drunk, and he had a knife.”
I feel physically ill with the need to go after him and hurt him, but suddenly, she blanches and tries to sit up, reaching for the call button. “I need a nurse.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I need to ask them something.”
“Lauren, stop, you’re just going to hurt yourself.” I settle her against the bed and hold her shoulders in my hands, looking deep into her injured blue eyes. “What is it?”
“I should talk to a nurse,” she repeats in a whisper.
“You still don’t trust me?” I ask incredulously.
“I do!” She takes my hand in hers and holds it up to her cheek. “It’s just—”
“Talk to me, sweetness.”
“I don’t know if he raped me.” The words are barely audible.
“What?”
“He was holding the knife to my throat and was unbuckling his belt, and he said he was going to—” She can’t finish the statement. Tears roll down her cheeks and she bites her swollen lower lip.
“Hey.” I lean in and kiss her temple. “It’s okay, Lo. We’ll find out, okay?”
She nods and I press the call button, and before the nurse answers the call, Dr. Black walks through the door.
“What’s up?”
“Was Lauren found dressed?” I ask bluntly.
The older man frowns and tilts his head in thought. “I’m not positive. I’m not an emergency-room doctor, so Lauren didn’t come into my care until she was transferred up here.” He scowls at both of us and then asks Lo, “Are you worried that you were sexually assaulted?”
She nods yes. “He threatened to, but then he knocked me out, and I don’t remember anything after that.”
Dr. Black leans back against the wall and crosses his arms. “Given the severity of the assault, and the fact that there were no witnesses and you were unconscious, we performed a rape kit, Lauren.” He looks up at me with sober eyes. “There was evidence that you’d had sex.”
“We made love not twenty-four hours prior,” I confirm.
He nods. “But there was no evidence of violence or forced penetration. The rape kit was negative.”
I sigh in relief and shake the doctor’s hand in gratitude. “Thank you.”
I sit beside Lo as the doctor leaves and caress her hand.
“Thank God,” she whispers, her eyes drifting closed.
“Tired?” I ask softly.
“Yeah.”
“Can you open your pretty eyes for just a minute more?” I lean toward her so she can see me clearly. She pulls her eyes open and offers me a small smile. “I love you so much, sweetness.”
Her eyes flare in surprise and then soften and fill with tears again. I brush a drop away with my thumb and cup her face in my hand.
“I love you too,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I just didn’t want to go another minute without telling you that I love you and you’re stuck with me. Nothing like this will ever happen again, I promise you that.”
She begins to cry in earnest, wincing in pain.
“Don’t cry, baby.”
“He could have killed me and I never would have told you that I love you,” she whimpers.
“You’re right here, right here with me.”
“He was so cruel. So evil. I was sure that I wouldn’t survive it. Thank God he didn’t—” She shakes her head in misery. “I couldn’t bear it if he’d done that.”
“You’re safe.” I kiss her softly. “Go to sleep for a while, love.”
She finally calms and slips into a deep sleep, and as each minute passes, I feel the rage building in me. Hearing how cruel he was to her, what he threatened to do to her, is the final straw in my resolve.
“Can we come in?” Jill asks softly as she opens the door and peeks around at us.
“Sure,” I whisper back. “She’s sleeping.”
All four of them file in.
“Can you stay with her?” I ask the girls, my eyes pinned to Zack.
“You’re leaving?” Jill asks, surprised.
“I have something to handle. We won’t be long.”
The girls nod and I motion for Zack and Josh to follow me out into the hallway.
“Are we going to do what I think we’re going to do?” Josh asks with anticipation.
“Fuck yes,” I reply. “Tell me Brad is on today.”
“He is.” Zack nods and leads us out the doorway to my Jeep, holds his hands out for my keys, and starts the engine. “You shouldn’t be driving.”
“How are you going to get to him, Ty? Just walk in and say, ‘I want to kick the shit out of Jack’?” Josh asks.
“There are rooms in pretty much every jailhouse where attorneys and clients can speak without any kind of recording devices or monitors.” I grin over at my friend smugly. “I’m thinking about taking Jack’s case.”
“Awesome.” Zack rubs his hands together as he parks before the police station. “Let’s go.”
The three of us walk in, and I have one thing in mind: get to the motherfucker who hurt Lauren.
Brad meets us in the foyer and shakes our hands. “How is she?”
“Hurt,” I reply. “I’d like to see Jack.”
“In an attorney capacity?” Brad asks.
“We can call it that. I’m going to need a privacy room.”
“I can do that. Follow me.” Brad leads us down a hallway to a room with no windows and leads us inside. A table and two chairs are in the center of the room. “I’ll be back with your client in a moment.”
“Are you sure there’s no camera in here?” Josh asks.
“I’m sure.” I fold my arms over my chest, waiting impatiently for the piece of shit to be escorted in.
Finally, the door opens and Brad leads Jack inside. “Your lawyer would like to speak with you.” Brad unlocks the handcuffs and backs toward the door. “Just let me know when you’re done. I have some phone calls to make.”
“You’re not my fucking lawyer,” Jack growls when Brad leaves.
None of us respond; we just watch Jack start to squirm.
“Sit.” Zack plants his hand on Jack’s shoulder and pushes him into the chair.
“You won’t touch me,” Jack sneers.
“You like beating on women?” Josh asks in a low voice.
“She deserved everything she got,” Jack replies, his chin in the air.
“You like putting women in the hospital?”
“Oh, you mean she isn’t dead?” Jack chuckles. “I guess I’ll have to go back later and try again.” He pins me with his gaze and leans forward in his chair. “Did she enjoy me fucking her again?”
Zack lunges, making Jack flinch, but I put my arm out. “No.”
“See? You won’t do shit to me. How will it look around town if I tell everyone that Ty Sullivan, the attorney who can do no wrong, and his cronies beat me up in jail?”
“I think you came in here already bruised up,” Josh replies with a laugh. “You must have pissed off your cellmate. Did he fuck you, too?”
Jack swallows and watches me, fear beginning to seep into his eyes. “Bullshit,” he sputters.
Josh and Zack are circling the room menacingly, but what Jack doesn’t know is that they aren’t whom he should be worried about.
They aren’t going to touch him.
I’m going to make him wish he were dead.
“Where is that shithead of a cop?” Jack asks nervously.
“Oh, we’re having an attorney/client consultation,” I inform him quietly. “He won’t come until I tell him to.”
“So, what, you want a shot at me?” Jack stands and pushes the table out of the way. “Take your shot already.”
“You’re such a piece of shit,” I reply deceptively calmly. “You’re not a man. Real men don’t beat defenseless women. Trust me, I know. I come from a man just like you. You’re a pussy.”
“I beat the fuck out of that bitch of an ex-wife of mine. She couldn’t even try to fight back. That doesn’t make me weak.”
Zack growls and flexes his hands in and out of fists as he walks behind Jack, glaring holes through him.
“Let me tell you why I’m here.” I lean against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest again. Jack’s eyes bounce from me to the two large, intimidating men pacing about the room anxiously. “I’m here to make you wish you were dead.”
“This is bullshit. I’m here for a stupid assault charge, and I’ll be out in a matter of hours. I’ll kill her later.” He shrugs, but his hands are shaking as he wipes his mouth.
“Oh, they didn’t tell you?” I laugh and shake my head at him. “It’s an attempted-murder charge, and you won’t see the light of day for years, you miserable motherfucker.”
Jack’s eyes go wide and then he frowns.
“But that’s the least of your worries. Do you know what they do in prison to men who prey on children and women?”
I push away from the wall slowly and saunter over to him. “You’ll be lucky if you survive the first year. You can bet that you’ll be someone’s bitch. You’ll get your ass fucked on a regular basis.”
“Fuck you!”
“You’re not really my type,” I reply as though we’re having a regular conversation, and turn to walk past him, but then I pull back and punch him square across the jaw, knocking him on his ass.
Josh picks him back up again by the hair.
“And given that I know a lot of people, ’cause I do, I’m going to make sure that every fucking inmate in that prison knows that you like to bully women.” I walk past again and thrust my elbow into his nose, sending a spray of blood across the room.
“Fucking A!” Jack yells, and doubles over in pain as blood pours out of his now-broken nose.
“Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” Zack growls into Jack’s ear.
I land a hard punch to Jack’s ribs and he doubles over, falling to the floor.
“Leave him there,” I mutter to Zack when he makes a move to lift Jack. I kick him three times in the ribs. “You are most likely going to die in prison, Jack, which suits you.” I pull him up by his hair and land a punch to his right eye, sending him crashing back to the floor.
“I’m going to ruin you for this!” Jack screams.
“Who’s going to fucking believe you?” Josh taunts him. “I didn’t see anything.”
“If you ever”—I plant my heel into Jack’s neck, holding him down to the floor and restricting his airway—“even so much as think her name again, I’ll make sure you die in prison, and it’ll look like suicide, you miserable piece of shit.”
Jack throws up all over the floor, heaving from the threat, and from the damage to his ribs thanks to my foot.
“Put him in a chair.” I stalk away from the evil man at my feet.
Josh and Zack each take an arm and roughly guide him into the chair.
“I should have waited until you were with her so I could kill you too,” Jack sneers, one of his eyes swollen shut and blood pouring down his face and onto his orange inmate jumpsuit.
“Go let Brad know he’s ready to go back to his cell,” I direct Zack and Josh, keeping my eyes pinned to Jack’s. When my friends leave, I push my face into Jack’s and reach down, squeezing and twisting his dick in my hand. Jack cries out in pain and tries to push me away, but I hold firm and whisper, “I’ll make sure you will die with your dick in your mouth if you ever try to get near her again. Are we clear?”
He makes a motion to spit at me, so I tighten my grasp on his dick and he cries out again. “We’re clear!”
“Good.” I stand back just as Brad opens the door.
“You done here?” He raises an eyebrow when he sees the Jack’s condition.
“Yep. I’m not going to take his case after all. And it looks like his cellmate must not like him much either.”
“Jack pisses everyone off,” Brad agrees, and pulls Jack out of the chair and down the hallway toward the holding cells.
I walk out into the rainy fall night and join my friends at my Jeep.
“You okay?” Zack asks.
I nod and sit in the passenger seat. “I need to get back to Lo.”
“We’re on our way.”