Written in the Sand

by Marie , J

  “You stupid bitch. Did you kill him?”

  “No. You fucking bastard! You knew he was dead, but you still questioned if I had seen or heard from him? He tormented me and I lived in fear, and you fucking knew he was dead. Devin, it says suicide. How long ago Devin? How long have you known? What makes you think I had anything to do with that…” I shook my head vigorously and pointed at the paper in his hands. I was furious and relieved at the proof he showed me. Then he smashed it in anger back into his pocket.

  “DID. YOU. KILL. HIM?” He shouted it at me this time and cocked the handle on the gun still aimed at Beau.

  Anger rushed through my core. I hadn’t, but I wished I had. I wished it was me that had looked into his dying eyes as he begged for mercy. For someone to just end it because he was too much of a coward to stand the pain.

  “NO!” I shouted. “I didn’t kill him, but that bastard deserved to die and I’m not sorry he’s dead. Not one fucking bit. Him dying was the best thing that had ever happened to me. It figures he’d go out that way, he was always a coward.” I looked up at him, right in the eye. I was egging him on, but what else did I have to lose? He’d already told me I probably wouldn’t survive tonight. Might as well make my last words count.

  Beau looked over at me, pleading with me, and shook his head then motioned to Devin. “Cass. Shut up. For the love of God. Do not piss off the guy aiming a gun at my head.”

  I ignored him. I didn’t listen and turned back to Devin, “What? Your brother was a cheater, a liar, a wife beater, and the lowest scum of the Earth and he deserved way worse than he got when he left this world.”

  It took me a minute to hear the gun go off. I didn’t remember flying through the air as Beau pushed me to the side. The noise was deafening. It was like a bomb had detonated right beside me and the world was blurry. I was disoriented. I heard screams coming from somewhere, but I couldn’t tell where, and then I realized it was me. I was the one screaming at the top of my lungs as the world around me fell away.

  My eyes trailed to where Beau lay on the ground. Blood pooling from his neck. His body laid lifeless.

  His eyes found mine and he whispered, “Cass…”

  His chest rose and fell and I breathed for the first time since the shot had gone off.

  Everything came back to me in that minute. I crumbled into a ball on the ground. Visions of Beau dying in front of me tormented my mind and I sat and cried. Panic overcame me. Sweat seeped from every pore on my body. I felt nauseous, and the world spun as I looked around. So dizzy. And then everything went black. There was nothing there. Maybe I was dead, but it was finally quiet around me. I had found peace.

  It wasn’t so bad dying. It was like slipping under a sea of white, cascading into a bed of fluffy pillows. I didn’t feel fear. No pain. Nothing.

  It was better than I had pictured, but for some reason it was slipping away again. As I came to, I felt something touch my arm. Something or someone felt like they were shaking me, but I was going toward the light in my mind. I wanted that peace. It looked beautiful.

  “Cassidy Mae.” There was that voice again.

  “Cassidy Mae.”

  Yes?

  “Cass. Wake up. It’s me. It’s Beau. Cass.” I groaned. Whoever it was shook me again and I told them to go away.”

  “CASSIDY MAE!” I heard my name clearer now. I opened my eyes and for a moment my vision was blurry. I tried to focus on the shadow in front of my face.

  “Beau, we need to get you out of here. You’re bleeding really badly.”

  I heard Reagan’s voice and the memories of what had just happened as they crashed back into my brain.

  Beau’s voice was weak, but still stern, “I’m not leaving till I know she’s okay. She fainted, Reagan.”

  “She fainted? You’re bleeding out, Beau.”

  Devin with a gun. Beau getting shot.

  “BEAU!” I yelled, rolling over, scrambling to focus on him.

  “Where’s Beau?”

  “I’m here, Cass. I’m here. I love you. I need to go to the hospital right now. Best be glad he’s a horrible shot.” He smiled and then winced. I could see the pain etched in his face as blood trickled from his neck. All the memories of the night Andrew died came back to me in vivid detail. I remember the blood as it trickled out from every part of his body. No. My vision was starting to waver again.

  “Beau?” I said again. I blinked again and my vision got clearer. I could see that he’d crawled to me after he’d been shot. He was the one who was shaking me. I crawled onto him, my hands grabbing for any purchase on his body that I could. .

  “BEAU JOSEPH MONTGOMERY, if you do not let us take you to a hospital, I will shoot you myself and I will not miss this time!” Reagan was now shouting.

  I watched as Beau laid back to the ground. Reagan was holding pressure to his neck and I could tell it was bad. I could see the blood still trickling out. I heard sirens coming up the road and I knew I needed to get up to help.

  To be there for Beau, but my legs wouldn’t lift me up. I tried to sit up and the world around me spun.

  I couldn’t move. I watched as the EMS picked up Beau and got him into the ambulance. Reagan jumped in behind him and they left, gravel flying as they flew across the fairgrounds. A second ambulance pulled up and I saw the EMS coming toward me.

  “I’m fine. Take care of Beau,” I whispered as a tear crept down my cheek. I closed my eyes and my world went black for the second time tonight.

  “Cassidy Mae?”

  I stirred, opening my eyes. Reagan and Rhett were looking down at me smiling. My head was pounding and my mouth felt like I’d eaten cotton balls and all I craved was a glass of water.

  “Water?” I whispered.

  She grabbed the pitcher behind her and poured me a small glass. Handing it over to me she said. “Drink it slow. Little sips.”

  I nodded and put the glass to my lips. The taste of it on my tongue was sweet gloriousness.

  “Beau?” I asked, looking around the room.

  “He’s doing okay. He has a concussion from the fall. The bullet grazed his neck and Doc says he may have a pretty nasty scar if it doesn’t heal properly, but he’s okay, Cass. He’s gonna make it. We saw all that blood and thought for sure it hit his jugular. Doc said we got mighty lucky that it wasn’t worse.”

  “I need to see him.” I tried to sit up in bed and the room spun a little. “Whoa.”

  “You will do no such thing. You fainted, twice. And you had a panic attack. Your pretty little ass isn’t going anywhere right now.”

  “I need to see him, Rea. I need to see with my own eyes that he’s okay.”

  “And you will. Now stay put.” She pushed me back and I huffed, knowing there was no way she was going to let me out of this bed.

  Rhett looked over at Reagan. “I’ll be right back. I wanna let the nurse know she’s awake.” He winked and then turned to leave.

  What in the heck was that?

  “Okay, when I get out of here, I’m gonna need you to tell me what the heck is going on between you two.”

  “To be honest, Cass, I have no freaking clue. He likes me one day. Acts like he doesn’t know what to do with me the next one. I’m just confused.” She shook her head.

  I laughed, although it sounded hoarse, “Hey, men are weird.”

  She sighed heavily, “Touché.”

  “So, what happened to me? Did they really admit me just for fainting?”

  “Cassidy Mae, you fainted twice and you bumped your head both times so they wanted to check you out. They took some scans. Everything came back clear so far, still waiting on one. Doc said they needed to give you an IV with some fluids because you were so dehydrated.”

  I nodded. “That’d make sense. I didn’t eat much at breakfast and I hadn’t had anything to eat during the day.”

  The door to my room opened and Rhett strolled back in. “They’ll be over this way shortly. Doc is just checking out your last scan. Results just came
back.”

  “Thanks Rhett.”

  He tipped his hat. “Sure thing. So… how do you feel?”

  I leaned back and rested my hand on my forehead. “Like I got into a fight and lost. Why am I so weak?”

  Reagan huffed, hands on her hips. “Cassidy Mae… Did you not listen to a word I said? You fainted twice.”

  The doctor walked in and I repeated all the questions I’d asked previously to Reagan, to him. He repeated pretty much what Reagan and Rhett had already told me. I asked him about Beau and he went into his confidentiality spiel about me not being family. Apparently not even being a fiancée counts. He excused us and said he’d be back in a while to check on me.

  “Excuse me, did you just say fiancée?” I looked over and Reagan’s mouth was hanging out.

  I laughed hoarsely. My throat burned, “You better shut that thing or something’s going to find its way into it.”

  Rhett laughed out loud and I realized what I’d said. Reagan slapped him on the shoulder and shook her head. “Get out of the gutter, Rhett.”

  “Oh, but it’s such a fun place to be, isn’t it?” She shook her head and scoffed.

  Her eyes landed on mine again, “Back to you. Fiancée? When were you guys planning on telling me?”

  “He asked right before I went to the barn and ran into Devin…” Panic and dread swept over me again. I hadn’t seen what happened to him after we went down. “D-Devin…wait… did they get him?”

  “Yep, he’s in custody. Sheriff caught him trying to drive off. He ain’t getting away with the crap he pulled tonight. He shot an upstanding citizen of our community and premeditated killing a woman at an event with families and children. That don’t go over well in any part of the country, but especially here. Trust me the charges are piling up.”

  “Good.” I felt a pang of relief in my chest. A little weight had lifted, and I knew the rest of that weight would leave once I could see Beau and know that he was truly okay.

  “When can I see Beau?” I looked over at Reagan.

  “Tell you what. You eat some food then I’ll wheel you down the hall to see Beau. Jameson, Remington, and Faith are with him. He’s not alone.”

  “Oh, okay. I’m glad he has someone there with him right now.”

  I opened my eyes slowly and the light poured in so quickly that I shut them. I blinked again and I could see shadows standing around the bed, but I couldn’t make out who they were. My head was pounding, and my mouth was drier than the desert in the middle of summer. I went to move my arm and a pain shot through my neck. I winced.

  “Damn,” I whispered.

  “Well I’d be. Beau Montgomery is alive and awake, y’all,” I heard Remington’s voice first, followed by Jameson and Faith. The one person I wanted to hear though, was Cassidy Mae.

  “Cass?”

  Remington looked over and put his fingers to his lips. He nodded his head behind me and I turned to see what he was looking at. Cassidy.

  “She’s fine, Beau. She’s been sleeping in the damn wheelchair since you’ve been here. Won’t leave you alone and basically threatened Reagan’s life when she told her she couldn’t see ya.”

  I raised my eyebrow. “They admitted her?”

  “She fainted a couple times so they brought her in to check her out. A few bruises. Concussion, but she’s doing fine.”

  I looked over at Cass peacefully sleeping beside me, soft breaths puffing between her pretty pink lips. Her head hung down, and she looked uncomfortable in that wheelchair.

  My name came out softly, whispered between her lips, and I smiled at the simplicity of her thinking about me even in her dreams. My heart burst for this strong, gorgeous woman. To talk back to a man holding a gun to her head took guts. To be willing to die over it, stupidity and courage. I squeezed my fists angry at remembering how he had treated her.

  I reached my hand over and ran it softly over her own. Pain shot up my arm and into my neck, but I didn’t care. I needed to touch her, “Cass, babe. Wake up, darlin’.”

  “Huh…what? Beau…” came another whisper. Emerald green beauties hit me and I watched as they lit with happiness and a touch of relief. She leaned in closer to me, placing both hands on my face and kissed me like she’d never kissed me before, like she’d lost me, and was finding me again in that one special kiss. When she pulled back her eyes drifted to the bandage on my neck. Sucker hurt like hell, but it could’ve been a lot worse. I could’ve lost the love of my life and she was worth taking a bullet for any day.

  “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Beau Montgomery. You scared the hell outta me! I was so scared… if I had lost you.” She shook her head and wiped away a stray tear that had fallen. My chest ached. I could see it in her eyes. She looked at me with such love and worry.

  “Hey, come here,” I said, pulling her onto the bed with me. “You ain’t gonna lose me, darlin’, but next time someone has a gun trained on you, please don’t egg them on. I don’t plan on being shot again.”

  She sobbed, “I was an idiot, Beau. I never planned on you getting hurt. I tried to warn you to stay away when you peered in the barn at me.”

  I looked down at her as she looked up at me. “You should know by now that I wouldn’t have done that… you mean too much to me. I love you too much to lose you, Cass.” I pulled her into my arms and winced. Man, that pain hurt but I wouldn’t give up a minute of having her close to me in my embrace.

  The doctor had said there was no entry wound so I hadn’t actually been shot, just grazed by the bullet. I’d have a nice scar to remind me of my love for this woman.

  The nurse came in to check me and swap out my IV bag.

  As she was doing that she leaned over slowly and whispered, “You know, she’s a tough woman to manage. She yelled at anyone who would dare stand in her way from being here with you. You got a good one.”

  “Oh, I know I do. Don’t plan on ever letting that one go. In fact, I asked her to marry me right before I got shot.”

  She smiled at me once more and I smiled too. “Well, you’ve got it all figured out then.” I was damn lucky.

  “Dr. Thomas will be in shortly. I’ve let him know you’re awake and changed out the IV bag. If you feel any pain let me know and I can give you some painkillers.

  “Thank you.”

  Cassidy Mae leaned into me and I felt a shiver tear down her body. We were injured and my touch still affected her just as much as it did. Everyone had left us alone to run and get food since I’d woken up. Lifting my hand, I slid my fingers along her cheekbone. “How are you, darlin’?”

  She smiled softly at me, “I’m doing better now that I can talk to you.”

  I laughed, “My sweet cowgirl. How long have I been here?”

  “You’ve been here two days. From what I was told you’ve been in and out of it for the last couple days thanks to those painkillers they’ve got you on,” She nodded to the bandage on my neck. “Does it hurt?”

  “Hurts like hell, but I’d do it again if it meant saving you.”

  “Well, clearly you haven’t lost a bit of your charm since you got knocked out.”

  “You didn’t answer my question, Cass. How are you?”

  “I’m a little sore. Kinda hungry, the food here is terrible. Haven’t been sleeping well, but I’m guessing it has something to do with that damn wheelchair and these hospital beds. They are so not comfortable.”

  Right then, the door to the room opened, and a doctor walked in. “How are you feeling, Mr. Montgomery?”

  “Like I’ve been shot,” I said with a chuckle.

  “Well, that’s to be expected. You got real lucky, son. Could’ve been in a completely different situation than how we are now.”

  “I know. I’m real lucky.” Lifting Cassidy Mae’s hand, I gave it a quick kiss. I was the luckiest damn man in the world.

  “Let me take a look at this neck,” he moved to the side where Cassidy Mae sat and she moved so he could take a look at my neck. The bandage pulled agai
nst my skin slightly and I cringed, gritting my teeth. Damn, that hurts.

  He nodded, “It looks alright for now. Will need to keep it clean and dressed until it heals. I’ll have the nurse come in a little while and get you all fixed up. How’s the pain?”

  “I’d like some pain meds, if that’s alright. Pains starting to creep in again.”

  “I imagine so after my messing with it, plus it’s been a few hours since you got some last. Should be ready for another dose. I’ll have the nurse bring that too.”

  A few minutes later the nurse walked in, carrying two trays of food. “I figured you might be hungry and you, you stubborn girl, need to eat. I know you won’t leave the room, so I brought it to you,” her comment was directed to Cassidy. I could clearly tell.

  A small grin ate across her face. “Yes, food sounds great. Thanks.”

  The nurse winked and I shook my head. My stubborn, feisty, strong, beautiful woman.

  “So, I’ve got a gourmet feast under here, right?” I asked, opening the lid to my plate. The nurse chuckled.

  Cass scoffed, “No, Beau. You got what every kid gets in the hospital. Soup. It’s to build up your strength.”

  I leaned over to Cassidy and kissed her ear. “I’m feeling rather ravenous, but not for broth, darlin’,” A blush spread across her face.

  The nurse finished up what she was doing and smiled at us, “Alright you two. You’ve got food. Beau, I’ve given you some pain meds in the IV. Anything else you need right now?”

  “No, thank you.”

  I stayed in the hospital another day, just so the doctor could make sure I was cleared to go home, my vitals were normal, and my wound was healing. The nurse taught Cassidy Mae how to properly clean and dress the wound so it didn’t get infected. I was given antibiotics to further prevent infection and some painkillers.

  The doctor said that I needed to relax for a few days and not to stress myself or my wound. I didn’t see that happening, but I agreed anyhow.

  The door to my room opened and in walked Cassidy Mae with a breakfast tray.