A Perfect Mistake
Page 23
Then he disappeared into the bathroom and came out with a towel and rushed over to me, pressing it against my back. I groaned in pain, but he only pressed harder.
“Boone! What the fuck happened to your door!” I heard Deke’s voice and when he hit the doorway. “Geezus. What the fuck!”
“Call 9-1-1! Get help. Hurry, Deke,” he said, his voice laced with so much fear. “Verity.”
“I’m so c-c-c-old.” I felt dizzy and weak.
“Don’t leave me. Hang on. Please hang on.”
Darkness stole over me and I groped for Boone’s hand. “Boone.” My voice hitched. “I’m s-s-s-sorry. S-s-so, s-s-sorry.”
“Victims? Two, no three. The guy that attacked them. He’s unconscious.” I heard Deke shouting into the phone for them to hurry, but I wasn’t sure they would be in time.
I wanted to tell him that we had a boy. A beautiful boy, but the darkness took me. The terrible sense of regret followed me into that black, sucking hole.
Chapter Seventeen
Boone
Verity was so pale when the first set of EMTs got there. I backed off when they came into the room. One guy looked at me.
“What is your name?”
“Boone Outlaw.”
“Where are you?”
“In my bedroom.”
“What time of day is it?”
I felt a bit disoriented. The other guy was working on Verity and I heard more sirens.
“Boone, stay with me. We’re helping her. What time of day is it?”
“Day?” I said feeling a little woozy, blood was sliding down my face and my torso and I took a breath. “Ummm,” my mind didn’t seem to want to work.
I licked my lips and my mouth felt suddenly dry. I looked at the guy who was talking to me and suddenly it was like I was looking down a tunnel.
The guy came towards me. “I think he’s going into shock,” he said. Grabbing hold of me as I lost control of my legs, he caught me and lowered me to the floor. I was still trying to grapple with what fucking time of day it was. I looked over at Verity. Her eyes were still closed. The guy working on her had gotten her hooked up to an IV. What had she said before fucking Freeman stabbed her? Fucking bastard. I turned my head to look at his ruined face. He was lucky I hadn’t killed him.
Verity had said something important. What time was it?
“What’s your name?”
This shit again. But for the life of me I couldn’t think what it was. The EMT looked concerned. I felt a stab and then the feel of something cold going into my arm. He pressed something to my face, a gauze pad. Then the sheriff came into the room.
He crouched down so he could talk to me. I liked Sheriff Dalton. He was Aubree’s step-daddy and he actually was a good guy, not a dick like some law enforcement guys could be.
“Boone? What happened?’
“Time,” I said, my head rolling back to Verity.
I watched them work on her a bit more, my insides shredded. She looked so beautiful, her features so delicate, her mouth so kissable, and my chest tightened into a hard ball of fear. “Please, don’t let her die.” Finally they loaded her up and took her away. I just stared at the floor where her blood had pooled.
Everything went blurry, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in an ambulance. “How you doing?”
I just stared at the guy. My brain felt frozen. I muttered, “Verity.”
“Is that your girlfriend? She’s in the other ambulance. As far as I know, she’s stable. What’s your name?”
I felt myself slipping again. “Boone Outlaw,” I said before I went out like a light.
When I woke up again, I was in a hospital room. My mind refused to function, and I groped for a hand hold. There were no answers, no explanations, I was just moving on autopilot, a sickening fear in me. I tried to get up, but the IV pulled at my arm. I reached over and dragged it out. I got up and went to step forward, but Brax was there, his face worried and pinched. I was still shirtless, the slices on my face and chest sending waves of pain out in all directions. I wondered absently why he looked so upset. I had to get to Verity.
“Boone, what are you doing up?”
“Verity,” I said like that was explanation enough. I walked past him and out the door.
He followed me and a nurse said, “What are you doing? You need to go lie back down so we can stitch you up.”
I ignored her and kept moving. I didn’t know where to find her, so I shouted her name at the top of my lungs.
Suddenly Booker was there, and Aubree. They took my arms, but I shook them off. Then this burly guy grabbed me and I felt a prick. I broke away but stumbled, my legs not working right. Then Brax was there catching me in his arms. “It’s okay, Boonie. I got you.”
“Verity,” I said as my mind reeled and I lost touch. I was lifted and then was moving again.
They brought me back to that room and my mind spun around and around in one circle. Was she all right? Had she died between the time I had seen her taken out of my bedroom and now? They reinserted the IV, the nurse giving me a sympathetic look as I fought to focus my thoughts. I’d been sedated because I had been out of control. I grabbed Brax’s shirt. I’d gotten my blood on him. “Brax, Verity, please,” I begged.
“Booker, try to find out about Verity for him.”
A man came in. “Hello, I’m Dr. Stevens. What happened here?”
“He was attacked with a knife,” Brax said.
“And, his name?”
“Boone.”
I groaned when he probed at the cut that stung from my chest all the way to my waist.
“Looks pretty good, Boone. There’s no muscle damage, but it’s deep enough that I’m going to give you stitches. Let’s take a look at your face.”
He peered at my cheekbone, and when he touched me I hissed in pain. He smelled like antiseptic and coffee.
Booker came back into the room. “She’s in surgery. That’s all they would tell me. But she’s being taken care of, Boonie.”
I hung onto that. Verity was alive and she was in surgery.
I heard my mother’s voice, “Where is he?”
“Here, Ma.” Booker disappeared, and when he came back my mother was with him. She rushed to me and buried her hand in my hair.
“My baby.”
“He’s going to be fine,” the doctor said with an encouraging smile.
“Oh, thank God.”
Baby. Fuck. Verity. She’d told me she’d gotten pregnant. I’d gotten her pregnant. Fucking A. A baby. I couldn’t get my mind around it. That made me a daddy. I was a fucking daddy.
She hadn’t told me. What the fuck was that all about? Had she thought I was too much of a fuck-up? Had she thought I didn’t care! I fucking cared, and a burning sensation that had nothing to do with the slices raged inside me. My kid! What had she done with that baby?
I felt sick that I had fathered a child and never known it, and if she hadn’t just told me, I would never have known. She had to answer to this! I needed to know.
It was life-changing. It was mind-boggling, and I reached for how I felt about her not telling me and there was a wall of anger and frustration. I wondered what had happened to the baby. Whether it was a boy or a girl or had she…terminated it. My chest felt so damn tight, and I was shattered and devastated all at the same time.
“Folks, I’m going to need you to clear the room. You can come back in once we get him cleaned up and stitched.”
My ma gave me a kiss on the temple.
They filed out and Brax was the last one to go. I met his eyes and he looked so worried, then he too left.
I gritted my teeth as Dr. Stevens jabbed me several times with a needle all along my gash. Then on my face. I moaned as the pain radiated out to my hairline and made my eyes water. Then blessedly my skin went numb. They cleaned me up, the sharp smell of alcohol burning my nostrils, the white gauze red from my blood. Then he bent over me. He worked on my face first, taking small stitches, but I felt eac
h tug as the needle threaded in and out of my skin.
When he moved down to my torso, I closed my eyes, frustrated, scared and helpless. My head cleared a bit and I only felt worse as the anger took hold of me, made me clench my teeth.
I just wanted Verity to live so that I could ask about everything that she’d been holding back. Everything that I wanted to know. Everything she didn’t trust me with!
The pain of losing my daddy all those years ago came back tenfold. I thought of my connection to Henry and how fiercely I loved that kid. They had me on my side to do the stitching. Tears slipped out of my eyes and dripped off the bridge of my nose.
A nurse dabbed at the moisture and pushed back my hair. “It’s going to be all right, Boone.”
Her voice was comforting. But it wouldn’t be all right until I saw Verity. Saw that she was okay, whole. I closed my eyes and drifted away.
Voices woke me. It was Dr. Stevens. My head cleared even more and the pain of Verity holding back on me mixed in with the anger.
“I was extra careful with the slash on his face. He shouldn’t scar. I’m going to recommend that he remain in the hospital. I’d like to pump more fluids into him and keep an eye on him. His wounds, although they looked terrible, were luckily not too severe. He should recover completely.”
“Thank you,” I heard my ma say, then it was quiet.
I realized that I was in a hospital bed in a different room. It was dim, but I made out my ma’s silhouette as she stood near the bed.
“Ma.” My voice was rusty.
“Yes, Boone?”
“Verity?”
“She’s out of surgery. They won’t tell us anything because we’re not next of kin. But, I tell you what. I’ll go find Mrs. Fairchild and try to get more information. The sheriff wants to talk to you. Do you feel up to that?”
“Yes, I can talk to him. Turn on the light.”
She reached over and turned on the bedside lamp.
A few minutes later, the sheriff came into the room. “How you doing, Boone?”
“I’ve been better, Sheriff.”
“I bet. Can I ask you a few questions?”
I nodded.
After I told the whole story of how Billy Joe had attacked us, Sheriff Dalton said. “I found a sermon on his computer. It was all about cleansing Verity of the devil Outlaw.”
“Freeman?”
“You gave him a concussion, broke his wrist, and he’s in this hospital.”
“Sheriff…”
“Don’t worry, he’s being watched, and he’s cuffed to the bed. As soon as he’s well enough, he’s going to face charges.”
“I only care about Verity’s safety. I got a bad feeling about him, I should have followed up with that.” But I had been so distracted by Verity and falling madly in love with her. Now I didn’t even know where we stood.
“You saved her from Freeman, and with your quick thinking saved her life. You should be proud of yourself, son. The more I get to know you boys, the more I find to like. You take care.”
“Thank you, Sheriff.”
My ma came back into the room just as the sheriff was leaving. He squeezed her arm.
“Verity is in stable condition, which Mrs. Fairchild tells me is good. That poor child was really lucky. The knife only nicked her kidney and nothing else vital. The main danger to her was the shock of losing so much blood, which you helped with by pressing that towel over her wound.”
I couldn’t stop the well of emotion that swamped me. I covered my eyes, my throat thick and burning with my relief.
My ma stroked my hair and didn’t say anything.
Verity. My beautiful Verity was all right. But nothing was settled between us and everything had changed.
#
Verity
Awareness returned in fragments—like slivers of light infiltrating my mind—and I opened my eyes, blinking several times as I came fully awake. My room was dim and I could just make out my momma asleep in a nearby chair. I was pretty sure a couple of days had passed as I was in and out of sleep.
I had woken up only one time before, but not fully. Mrs. Outlaw had been here. I realized I was in the hospital and everything that had happened flowed back to me. I remembered her telling my mother what room Boone was in.
Boone! He was the only thing that was real and solid in my shattered universe. He’d fought Billy Joe. My whole body trembled with those terrible memories. He’d been hurt. Hurt so many times because of me.
Billy Joe could have taken everything. If he’d carried through with his threat and killed Boone, I would have wanted to just die right there.
Finally, I closed my eyes, the guilt nearly unbearable. What he must think of me. I’d told him about the baby, I remembered that I had, but not much else. I wanted him to know everything.
A new wave of panic rose in me and I squeezed my eyes tight to hold back the tears, not wanting to think what my admission was doing to Boone. There was a time that I thought Boone Outlaw would care less about getting me pregnant, that he was uninterested and underhanded. A time when our son’s conception had changed the course of my life, but I believed it didn’t mean it would affect his.
But finally I had gotten to know Boone, and what I discovered blew my mind. He was so sweet, so strong, so courageous to have taken his life and turned it around. I was nearly overwhelmed over being the person who had been gifted with Boone’s love.
I moved, testing my level of pain. It wasn’t bad. I was connected to an IV, but it was on wheels. I glanced at my momma as I cautiously moved to the edge of the bed. My back protested, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from getting up. I stood for a moment to get my balance. Holding onto the IV stand for support, I shuffled forward.
Thankfully the room number Mrs. Outlaw had told my momma wasn’t far from mine. I had to see him. Now. I couldn’t wait. Not one more minute. I pushed his door open and went inside. He was alone. I was so glad. I made my way slowly to the head of the bed.
My heart contracted as I watched him sleep. He was lying on his side, one arm tucked under his head, facing me. He had shoved the pillow aside, and my heart opened. He’d done that when I had slept with him, and I felt the intimate connection to this beautiful man. The position of his arms drew his muscle structure into deep definition, revealing the even rise and fall of his rib cage. His cheek and torso were swathed in stark white bandages that stood out in contrast to his tanned skin. I gazed down at him, a lump forming in my throat, remorse grabbing a tight hold, along with all the other emotions that clogged my chest. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this at all.
Compelled, I reached out and slid my fingers into his soft, hair, brushing it off his forehead. The touch and feel of him gave me more comfort than I deserved. He was warm and alive. I thanked God silently.
He shifted in his sleep, but I couldn’t remove my hand, just stood there sifting the strands through my fingers. He opened his eyes, a beautiful, dark electric blue. He blinked and his eyes shuttered and his mouth tightened. My heart lurched. He had every right to be angry.
He rose, grimacing briefly at the pain, holding one arm close to his body. He made room enough for me to sit, and I sat, facing him, settling my back against his legs. He cupped my knees and brought them fully against him, grunting a little at the pain. The arm on the injured side of his body came around me loosely. “Geezus, Verity, you feel so good. I was so scared.”
I nodded, the darned tears at it again, clogging my throat so I couldn’t speak.
Finally the painful tears eased and I looked up as he cradled me against him. He tightened his hold on me. Gingerly he moved his good arm and lifted my chin, looking directly into my eyes, his tone soft. “Don’t start blaming yourself. Put the responsibility where it belongs. Right at the feet of that fucktard Freeman.”
“If it wasn’t for me…”
“No, Verity. He wanted you and he couldn’t have you. That’s his problem, not yours. I’m just glad I was there.”
“I don’t give a damn. I’ll fight a million Billy Joes for you, Verity. Geezus, I was so scared. I thought…”
I cut off his words by kissing him, sighing at the feel of his mouth against mine. Boone was what I needed. The heat of him, the texture of him, the feel of him responding to me. His lips working me over with such gentle, heartfelt need. I reached up and pressed my palm against his face, rasping over the stubble as I rubbed against his jaw. The feel of him fulfilled a basic, primal need in me.
We eased back. “Boone. About the pregnancy.”
He met my gaze, his face tense, and a disturbed expression in his eyes. He stared at me for a moment, then looked down, the muscles of his jaw flexing.
“Did you…term—”
“No. No, I could never do that.”
“Oh, geezus,” his voice broke, his expression drawn. “So you went to New York City all alone and pregnant with my kid. Fuck me, Verity. Why didn’t you try to find me?”
“I tried to find you! I got stonewalled by your brothers and I was so scared.”
“You didn’t try hard enough!”
“How would you know? You weren’t anywhere to be found. And even if I had found you, what would you have done?”
He stared at me for a moment and then closed his eyes tight, his hand going to cover them. “I want to think that I would have stepped up and been the guy I always tried to be. But, honestly, I just don’t know. I don’t know,” his voice broke.