Kane

by Douglas, Cheryl

  Chapter Nine

  Macy

  “How could you? Who the hell do you think you are?”

  I imagined Brody holding the phone away from his ear to save his eardrum. “Look, Macy—”

  “What gives you the right to decide who I hook up with?” Minimizing what Kane and I had shared made me feel marginally better. The ache in my chest lessened, making it a little easier to breathe. I’d already had three glasses of wine since Kane’s call ninety minutes ago, and now I was ready to unleash on my sister and her future husband.

  “I’m guessing Kane decided to back off?” When I swore, Brody said, “You’re going to thank me for this someday. I know my brother. He never would’ve uprooted his life for you.”

  The ache was back, making it difficult to breathe again. “I wouldn’t have asked him to.”

  “Then you would have given up your career to move back here?” Brody sighed in the beat of silence. “That’s what I thought. Look, I know you might hate me now, but forcing Kane to face this now was the best thing I could have done for him and you.”

  “Who made you my keeper?” I’d always liked Brody, except for the years when he’d played fast and loose with my big sister’s heart, but I couldn’t imagine forgiving this misstep.

  “I love you.”

  I sucked in a breath, and tears burned my eyes. Damn him for knowing exactly how to disarm me. “Shut up.”

  “I’ve watched you get your heart broken. I’ve threatened bodily harm to every guy who thought they could score with you.”

  A tear slid down my cheek. I knew he’d go to the mat for me, every single time. “I know, but I still hate you for going to Kane behind my back.”

  “You hate me now,” he said softly, “but you’ll thank me someday. I know you’ve had a thing for him for a while, hon. But now that you’ve got it out of your system—”

  “What if I haven’t?” I held out my hand, looking at the ring he’d placed there. “What if I still want him?”

  “I know it hurts right now,” Brody said, clearly trying to placate me. “I’m sure it’s not easy for him either. But better now than later.”

  “Put my sister on the phone.” I’d already said my piece to Brody, and I wasn’t ready to forgive him, no matter what he said.

  “Don’t blame her for this. I went to see Brody. She didn’t even know about it ‘til I came home.”

  “Don’t try to defend her.” Brody didn’t do anything without thinking about how it would affect my sister, so if he’d gone to see Kane, it was because he believed that was what Riley wanted. “Just put her on the phone.”

  He must have covered the phone while he filled Riley in because I heard muffled voices before she said, “Hey. You okay?”

  “No, I’m not okay.” I sniffled, wedging my palm into my eye. “How can I be okay when the people who supposedly love me won’t give me freedom to manage my own life? You’ve been there. Remember how you felt when Mom and Dad tried to keep you from Brody?”

  “We were kids then,” Riley said.

  “Which makes what you and Brody did even worse! Maybe things would have blown up with Kane. I don’t know. But if you’d stayed out of it, he could have made a few more of my fantasies a reality first.” It may have been the wine talking, but knowing we’d had sex for the last time was topping my list of reasons to be mad at my sister.

  “Jesus, if you’re looking for a good time, someone to help you get over Brendan, I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding someone.”

  “Is that what you think I had with Kane?” His sudden change of heart made a lot more sense to me now. “Did Brody tell him he thought I was using him to get over Brendan?” When she didn’t have the guts to confirm my suspicions, I shouted, “Answer me!”

  “He may have said something like that. But come on. You were with Brendan for a long time. No one expects you to get over him overnight.”

  “I am over him. I have been for a long time.” A few sweet memories I’d made with Brendan filtered through my head, but the more recent memories I’d made with Kane quickly edged them out. “He was an important part of my life for a long time, but I was ready for it to be over.”

  “We just don’t want to see either one of you get hurt. That’s the only reason we got involved.”

  “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have.” I gripped my head, knowing it would be aching by morning. And Brendan and I had a long road trip ahead of us. Hours locked in a car with my ex while trying to figure out how to end my marriage without anyone finding out was enough to give anyone a headache.

  “Please don’t hate me,” Riley said, sounding desperate. “You know I hate it when we fight.”

  “I could never hate you.” Brody, maybe. But not my sister. “But you have to know that if you can’t learn to back off and let me live my own life, we’re going to have problems, Ri. Big problems.”

  ***

  Kane

  “Hey,” Brody said, jumping out of his truck at the curb in front of my house just as I was heading out to the gym. “We’re on our way to the airport, man. We just got word that Macy was in a car accident. Her parents are meeting us there. We—”

  “Wait. What?” My head spun as his words hit me. If they were all flying out to be with her, it wasn’t just a little fender bender. “Is she okay?” Please God, let her be okay.

  “We don’t know anything yet,” Brody said as Riley stepped out of the truck, her face streaked with tears. “Just that she and Brendan were on their way to a gig in Charlotte when they crashed. It was a single-car accident, so no one else was hurt.”

  Riley stepped into my arms, sobbing. “I’m so sorry, Kane. I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to her. We should never have warned you off. Macy cares about you. She called me last night, mad as hell that—”

  “Sssh,” I said, stroking her hair when she struggled to get the words out. “It’s okay. None of that matters now. The only thing that matters is making sure she’s okay.” My hand trembled on Riley’s back, something it never did, not even when I was staring down the barrel of a gun.

  “We gotta go,” Brody said. “We have to get to the airport. I’ll call you and fill you in as soon as we know what’s going on.”

  “I’ll meet you in Charlotte. Text me the details. Let me know which hospital.”

  Brody frowned. “Can you get away right now? You just got back. What about work?”

  “I’ll get someone to cover for me.” Normally work would have been my first priority. Not now. A few of my colleagues owed me favors. Someone would come through for me. They had to. I bent my knees to look Riley in the eyes as I gripped her shoulders. “You’re shaking. You need to take it easy.”

  With my arm around her, I walked her back to the truck. I got her settled inside and made sure she’d fastened her seat belt before I closed the door and crooked a finger at Brody. He met me at the back of the truck, looking more worried than I’d seen him in a long time.

  “How bad is it? The truth.”

  “She needs surgery for a ruptured spleen. That’s all I know.”

  I leaned on the tailgate, struggling to breathe. “She’s gonna make it though, right? They never said anything that would lead you to believe she wasn’t?”

  “When the hospital called, they told her parents they should fly out.”

  Oh, God. That meant it was bad. They were afraid of losing her. Gripping the tailgate with both hands, I leaned over. “God, I feel sick.”

  “Don’t lose it here,” Brody warned, slapping my back. “Riley’s already freaked out. You’re supposed to be the unflappable one. If she sees you scared, she’ll lose it.”

  Sucking in a breath, I stood. “Right.” Looking Brody in the eye, I said, “I messed up, man. I let her go when I should have fought like hell to hold on to her.”

  “It’s my fault,” Brody said, gripping his chest and looking tortured. “She was so pissed at me last night. If that was the last conversation I ever get to have wit
h her—”

  “Shut. Up. Don’t say that. Don’t even think that.”

  “You’re right.” Brody slipped the sunglasses on his head over his eyes when they filled with tears. “She’s going to pull through this. She has to. I mean, people can survive without spleens, right?”

  I got the sense there was more he wasn’t telling me. “Is that what they said? They told her parents they had to remove her spleen?”

  “Her father told me this,” Brody said, turning his back to the truck as he lowered his voice. “He doesn’t want Riley or her mother to know. The internal bleeding… it’s bad.”

  “Jesus,” I said, staggering back as I fought another wave of nausea. “How bad?”

  “I don’t know. I just know we have to get there. Now.” He offered his hand and pulled me into a half-hug when I took it. “You gonna catch a later flight?”

  “Yeah, I’ll get there as soon as I can. Don’t forget to text me to let me know what hospital.” I took my keys out of my pocket. I had to go back inside to pack a bag and make some calls. “Call me if you hear anything, okay?”

  “Kane…” Brody rounded the side of the truck, curling his hand around the edge of the bed. “I know you’re not real big on praying. Since Mom died, we all kind of lost faith. But we need to say a prayer now. You got me?”

  Brody may have lost his faith, but in my line of work, I knew it was more than dumb luck keeping me alive. I had to pray Macy had some of that same luck shining down on her. “Yeah, I hear ya.”

  ***

  By the time I got to the hospital six hours later, night was closing in. After being directed to the Intensive Care Unit, I found Riley, her parents, and Brody sitting in plastic chairs, along with several other families who looked as ravaged as they did.

  Brody approached me. “She’s out of surgery.”

  “And?”

  “They removed her spleen.”

  “And?” Getting more than a single word out seemed to be more than I could handle, but I needed answers to the questions rattling around in my head. The main one being, Is she going to be okay?

  “They’ll keep a close eye on her for the next little while.”

  “But she’s going to be okay, right?” She had to be. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her now, with so much left unsaid. “I get that she’s got a long road ahead of her, but I need you to tell me she’s going to make it.”

  “The doctor seemed optimistic,” Brody said. “But you know how they are. They like to err on the side of caution. She needed a blood transfusion to—”

  “Excuse me,” a pretty young nurse with a clipboard said. “I have a few questions now that Miss Myers is out of surgery.” She frowned. “Or is it Mrs. Steele? I wasn’t sure. Her temporary driver’s license said Steele, but all of her other ID said Myers.”

  My heart sank as the nurse’s gaze traveled around the small group. I’d teased Macy about taking my name, but I had no idea she’d actually followed through, especially since our arrangement was supposed to be temporary.

  “What the hell?” Brody asked, his gaze sliding to mine. “Why would she have taken our last name?”

  When her father’s eyes settled on mine, I knew I had to come clean. “Can I fill you in in just a few minutes?” I asked the nurse. “I’ll need to give you insurance information too.”

  “Macy didn’t have insurance,” Riley said, looking as confused as everyone else. “We were going to pay for her care.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Adding her to my policy had been one of the few smart decisions I’d made when I returned to Tampa. “It’s taken care of.”

  When the nurse walked away, Brody said, “What the hell’s going on, Kane?”

  I looked at her parents, thinking how upset Macy would be that they had to learn about our sham of a marriage from me. “So here’s the thing…” I looked each of them in the eye, reminding myself I was still the same guy who chased killers out of hiding for a living. I had nothing to fear from these people. “Macy and I got married in Vegas.”

  Riley gasped. “When you were there for our party?”

  “Yeah.” I ran a hand through my hair, wishing I could’ve imparted this news after I’d seen Macy. More than anything, I just wanted to look into those beautiful blue eyes, even if the only thing I saw reflected in them was her hatred for me. I thought about her fear that her parents would be furious with her and hoped I could make them understand she’d done what she felt she had to do. “It wasn’t planned. We did it because… she was having a hard time making her ex believe it was over.”

  “She did this because of Brendan?” Riley asked, shaking her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Apparently he was having a hard time accepting it was over. I wanted to help her out, so I suggested we tie the knot, you know, to get him off her back.”

  “Let me get this straight,” her father said, glaring at me. “You married my daughter so she could prove to Brendan it was over between them?”

  I’d met Dr. Myers a few times over the years. I knew he liked to throw his weight around, but I had yet to meet a man who could intimidate me. “That’s right. I know that may sound strange, but I don’t have to tell you how much Macy’s career means to her. Brendan is a big part of that. She didn’t feel she could do it without him, but she didn’t see how they could go on working together unless she found a way to convince him they were never getting back together.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Brody said, leveling me with a look that would have sent most guys running. “And you didn’t think to tell me? The other day when we talked about you and Macy, I didn’t realize she was your wife. Jesus, Kane, how could you keep something like that from me?”

  “I think we’re losing sight of what’s really important here,” I said, trying to placate the group. “Macy was in a serious car accident today, but she’s going to be all right. Isn’t that what really matters?”

  “Of course you’re right,” Mrs. Myers said. “But you can’t blame us for being stunned. You and my daughter weren’t even in a relationship. Were you?”

  “We were friends.” I hated defining our relationship that way. She felt like so much more than that and had for months. “I was trying to help her out of a tough spot. We figured it wouldn’t be long before her ex moved on, then we could…”

  “Get the marriage annulled?” Riley asked.

  I shot a guilty look in her direction. “Uh, I…”

  “You couldn’t get the marriage annulled, could you?”

  “Oh, for the love of God,” Dr. Myers said, looking disgusted.

  “I want to see her,” I said, getting tired of their judgment and recrimination.

  “Immediate family only,” Dr. Myers said, glaring at me.

  “I’m her husband,” I reminded him. “I’d say that gives me some rights, at least as far as this hospital is concerned.”

  “You’re right,” Riley said, shooting a warning look at her father. “We’ve all been in to see her. They’ll only give you a few minutes though.”

  “Understood.”

  “It’s down that hall,” Riley said, pointing. “Third door on your left.”

  “Thanks.”

  I felt eyes burning into my back as I walked away. No doubt Macy’s father was fantasizing about all the ways he could kill me. Not that I could blame him. In his shoes, I might have felt the same way.

  I swallowed as I stepped into her room, eyeing the slight form in the bed before my gaze traveled to all the machines monitoring her. Her beautiful face was bruised, but other than that, all visible signs of damage were hidden beneath a stark white sheet.

  “Hey. It’s me, baby.” My voice was raspy as I pulled up the stool beside her. I took her hand, carefully avoiding the monitor attached to her finger. “How’re you feeling?”

  “How do you think I’m feeling?” she whispered, looking the other way before closing her eyes again. “They just cut me open and removed an organ. I’ve been
better.”

  “I’m sorry, Mace. So damn sorry.” I had a hundred reasons to apologize, but more than anything, I was just sorry this had happened to her.

  “Why are you here?”

  It was a legitimate question, but the fact she had to ask it made me feel as if I’d been the one cut open. “You don’t want me here?” When she didn’t respond, I released her hand. “Too bad, ‘cause I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Stubborn ass.”

  My lips twitched. I knew she was going to be okay. Even a life-threatening accident couldn’t zap her spirit. “A stupid, stubborn ass.” Because one thing was glaringly obvious to me now—I was in love with this girl. “I’m sorry for the things I said to you the other night on the phone.”

  She turned her head slightly, lifting one eyelid. “Why’re you sorry? For speaking the truth?”

  “For being afraid of the truth.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d openly admitted to being afraid, but I couldn’t deny it today. “I’m falling for you, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought letting you go was the right thing to do. But it wasn’t. Not for me and not for you.”

  “You don’t know what’s right for me.”

  “I don’t want to argue with you.” Trying to lighten the mood, I said, “We’ll save that for when you’re feeling better. It’ll give you something to look forward to.” I winced when she didn’t even try to smile. “I know you hate me, but—”

  “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  Okay, at least she didn’t hate me. Something to build on. “Can you remember what happened?” I knew I had to tread lightly, but I couldn’t help being curious about her memory of the accident. “Were you and Brendan arguing? Was he distracted?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  I shook my head, knowing I had to follow her lead on this one. “Okay, there’ll be plenty of time to talk about what happened when you’re feeling up to it.”

  “Is he going to be okay?” she asked, a tear slipping down her cheek.