by Sharon Sala
“I don’t know...at noon with Meg, I guess.” And then his eyes really did fill with tears. “Damn. That feels like a century ago.”
“How do you take your coffee?” Ryal asked.
“Black.”
“I’ll be back in a few.” Ryal walked out of the waiting room with Beth at his heels.
A little while later they returned with several cups of coffee and an assortment of chips and honey buns.
“This will make you feel better,” Ryal said, and handed Linc a cup of coffee and a sweet roll.
Linc took the food gratefully and allowed himself a few minutes to relax. The other food was distributed among the family. After that, they all nursed their coffee in silence, looking up only when they heard footsteps out in the hall in hopes it would be Meg’s surgeon. The footsteps walked away, and they all returned to their individual thoughts. Linc had never been good at waiting, and this suspense was a living hell.
As more footsteps approached they looked up again. Sheriff Marlow walked in, and headed straight to Linc and Dolly.
“Any news on Meg?” he asked.
Dolly shook her head.
“Where’s Prince?” Linc asked.
“Down in the E.R. I think they’re going to have to operate on his leg to repair some muscles in his thigh. That dog of Meg’s did a number on him. Mighty fine dog. She’s got heart, and more guts than good sense. If you ever breed her, I want one of her pups.”
Jake beamed. “She’s out of good stock.”
“So which charges does he answer to first?” Linc asked. “Murdering Dad, stalking Meg or attempted murder on Wesley?”
“It’s up to the district attorney.”
Linc’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t like the ambiguity of that answer.
“No, by God, it’s not. You have a duty to correct the wrong that was done in your jurisdiction, and there’s proof to do it. This is exactly why I don’t trust anyone with the so-called law on their side. If I have to, I will get an attorney and shove this down your throat via the media. If you can’t do what’s right on your own, then the fear of not getting reelected might do the job.”
Linc got up and strode out of the waiting room, too angry to sit there and talk anymore.
Marlow frowned. “Damn, I didn’t mean to upset him.”
Quinn snorted softly. “Upset him? Hell, Sheriff, considering what happened to him, don’t you think he’s got a right to be upset?”
“Yes. I’ll talk to the D.A. myself. I won’t let this be swept under the rug.”
“And neither will we. You can count on that,” Dolly said.
Marlow frowned. He didn’t like having his word questioned, then realized what Lincoln Fox must have felt like, having truth on his side and knowing it still wasn’t enough.
“So, I’ve got to get back to Boone’s Gap. I need to take care of Fagan. He’s going to jail, as well. Just because he wasn’t in on the actual acts, he can be charged with abetting due to his silence. He’s going to be charged right along with the rest of them.”
Linc was pacing the hall, trying to come down from the adrenaline surge. He was shocked at himself and his lack of emotional control. The construction business was a daily grind of adjustments and frustrations, and he’d never lost it like this. This had only begun happening after he’d come back to Rebel Ridge—when he’d come face-to-face with the people who’d abandoned him. Obviously he had some issues to address. Even though he’d been betrayed as a kid, he was a grown man now, and he was coming off like some grudge-bearing maniac.
Marlow walked up behind him. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to imply that your case would be shoved to the back burner. It’s just that things are so convoluted, I’m not sure what the D.A. will want to address first.”
Linc sighed. “Yeah, I’m sorry I lost my cool. It’s been a long night.”
“I totally understand,” Marlow said. “And for what it’s worth, after what you pulled off, I think you’re about as close to a damn superman as a mere mortal can be.”
“There’s one thing about this whole mess that still doesn’t make sense,” Linc said. “Why was Prince White so set on stalking Meg? It doesn’t fit the rest of what’s been happening.”
Marlow frowned. “You know what? I hadn’t thought about it like that, but you’re right. I’m meeting with Detective Kennedy tomorrow. I’ll see what I can find out.”
Linc shoved a hand through his hair and winced when he accidentally hit the stitches. “This is a hell of a thing...Lucy and Prince, even Meg...all here under one roof. It’s giving me an uneasy feeling, like Meg’s still not safe as long as they’re this close.”
“Just so you know, there’s a guard on Lucy’s door. At first he was there to keep her safe. She doesn’t know it yet, but he’s there now to make sure she doesn’t bolt. There’s also a guard on Prince’s room, and he’s handcuffed to the bed.”
Linc watched the sheriff walk away and was heading back toward the waiting room when he saw a man in scrubs approaching.
“He’s coming,” he said as he entered.
When the doctor walked into the room, they were all on their feet.
“Margaret Lewis’s family?”
“Yes,” Dolly answered.
“She came through surgery just fine. We’ll keep her in ICU tonight, and if there are no surprises, we’ll move her to a room tomorrow.”
“When can I see her?” Linc asked.
The doctor eyed the crowd. “Visitors are allowed for ten minutes at the top of the hour. Two at a time. There are a lot of you. You’ll have to figure it out.”
“Her mother goes first,” Linc said.
Dolly’s eyes welled. She knew how much it cost Linc to say that. “And you’ll be with me.”
Linc backed up to the nearest chair and dropped. The others were still talking to the doctor, but he’d heard all he needed to hear.
The surgery was over, and she was alive.
Twenty
It was nine o’clock in the morning, and Linc was asleep on a couch in the ICU waiting room. He’d spent the night there, waking every hour on the hour when the alarm on his watch would go off, just so he could get an update on Meg’s condition. He’d sat out three separate visitations so that her brothers and their wives got a chance to go in and see her. And one by one the brothers and their wives went home, leaving Linc, Dolly and Jake. After Dolly made her second visit, Jake had taken her to a nearby motel to get some rest, and Linc was finally alone.
When the alarm went off again he was standing up almost before his eyes were completely open. He reeled on his feet, wincing at the soreness in his body, and headed for the bathroom. He’d quit looking at himself in the mirror, because his appearance wasn’t getting better. His head and cheek were turning purple and green around the stitches, and one eye was slightly swollen from the impact with the cliff. It had occurred to him that even if Meg did wake up, she might not recognize him. He was a wreck. After washing the sleep out of his eyes and using his fingers to comb his hair, he headed for the ICU.
By now the nurses all knew how the patient in bed six had been injured, and knew the hunky giant who stood in line to see her was the man who’d saved her life. When he was finally admitted, Linc walked in quietly and stood by Meg’s bed.
At first glance she didn’t look any different. Still hooked up to machines that beeped, her shoulder and arm bandaged from the surgery, and the leg with the dislocated hip in traction. He sat down on the stool at the side of her bed and gave her fingers a soft squeeze.
“Hey, Meg. Good morning, honey. It’s time to rise and shine.”
She stirred, and his pulse kicked. This was the first time she’d responded so quickly to the sound of his voice.
A nurse came by and paused at the foot of the bed.
“She’s been trying to wake up for a couple of hours now,” she said. “Let us know if she opens her eyes and speaks to you.”
His hopes rose as the nurse moved on.
“Your
mom left to get some rest. She’ll be back around noon. Your brothers all went home about daybreak. It’s just you and me, babe.”
Meg sighed. Her eyelids fluttered, reminding him of that moment on the ledge when she’d first opened her eyes and seen him.
He watched her nostrils flare slightly, saw her trying to shift position and guessed she was in pain.
“Are you hurting, baby?”
She licked her lips, then squeezed his hand just enough to let him know she’d heard him.
“I’m so sorry, Meg. So sorry. Hang on and I’ll go get a nurse.”
She clutched his hand tighter, silently asking him not to leave, and so he stayed.
Her eyelids fluttered again, and then opened. Not much, but just enough that he could see tiny slits of green.
“Hi,” he whispered.
A frown immediately shifted her expression. She lifted her hand toward his face and touched his cheek right below the stitches.
“Wha...?”
“War wound. It’s nothing.”
Her lids shut, but her lower lip trembled. When a tear suddenly rolled down her cheek, Linc groaned.
“No, baby, no. Don’t cry for me. With you safe and getting well, everything is perfect.”
She clutched his hand and gave it a slight squeeze.
“Over?” she whispered
“Yes, baby, everything is over but your healing. They operated on you several hours ago to fix what you broke when you fell. Prince White is in custody. Your family has been here all night and left just a short while ago. Your mom will be back around noon.”
She blinked to indicate she understood.
“Fell?”
“Yes, you fell. Scared the hell out of all of us. I thought you’d fallen all the way down, and then Mariah saw your body on a ledge.”
A frown knitted between her brows. “How...get up?”
He stroked her cheek with the back of his forefinger. “I went down after you,” he said.
She squeezed his hand even tighter.
“Hero. Love.”
Tears blurred his vision of her face. “I love you, too. Hang on, baby. I promised the nurse I’d let them know if you woke up. They need to examine you.”
He waved down a nurse and then stood aside as they began talking to her. He could tell they were trying to get a handle on brain function and her ability to move her limbs.
As soon as they finished, he slid back onto the stool. Meg was drifting in and out of consciousness again. He didn’t care. They’d said enough. She loved him. It was all a man could ever want.
* * *
Detective Kennedy was getting an earful from Prince White. For two people connected by birth and blood, Prince and Lucy’s stories couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.
Even though the surgery to repair Prince’s leg had been successful, he was having some post-op issues they hadn’t expected. Infection had set in, and they were pumping large doses of antibiotics into him intravenously.
As a kid, Prince had been the kind to talk and walk in his sleep. When he got sick and the fever was high, he rambled nonstop, muttering, even crying out from time to time. Kennedy had heard a lot of interesting facts by the time they had the infection under control and was curious to know if Prince would admit the same things while awake that he’d confessed to in his feverish state.
As for Lucy, she was on the same floor as her brother but didn’t know it. He wanted to keep it that way and had already told the nurses not to talk.
Sheriff Marlow was bringing the other White brother to Mount Sterling today, and he’d asked the sheriff and his deputy to swing by the hospital with Fagan before they took him to jail.
He’d finally figured out that the separate stories he’d been getting from Prince and Lucy were mostly bullshit, and he wanted to see what happened when he got all three of them together. It would be interesting to see who pointed the finger of guilt first, and see who they named.
There was one last person involved in this mess who he wanted to meet, and that was Lincoln Fox. He was curious to see what kind of man he’d turned out to be after being incarcerated as a kid, and was toying with the idea of having him present, too. That might just be the trigger that would blow the top off this family conspiracy.
* * *
Ryal and Beth had done the chores at Meg’s house, then picked up a change of clothes for Linc from his place, along with his truck, and brought them to the motel where Jake and Dolly were staying.
Linc was there, waiting, when they arrived. He’d already showered and shaved after Jake and Dolly returned to the hospital, and he was grateful for his truck and the change of clothes that Ryal and Beth brought.
“I sure appreciate this,” Linc said as Ryal handed him the keys to his pickup and the clothes he’d requested.
“My pleasure,” Ryal said. “I have to tell you, that’s one heck of a fixer-upper job you did on that old bomb shelter. You should do that for a living.”
Linc grinned. “Thanks. I’ll give it some thought.”
“Oh. Got a phone call from Cyrus. The vet has Honey all patched up. Broken ribs, some serious contusions on her head and back, and her crippled paw is raw, but he says she’ll heal. The boys are keeping her up at their house for the time being. She’s familiar with everything, and they’ll make sure she gets plenty of attention.”
Linc frowned. “Good to know. I’ve been worried about her, too. I still can’t get over what she did. Despite her handicap and size, she’s got the heart of a lion.”
Ryal chuckled. “Like her owner, and speaking of which, we’re headed up to see Meg. So we’ll see you soon.” He ran back to the car where Beth was waiting.
Linc dressed quickly, packed up his dirty clothes, put on his good coat and boots, and slogged through the snow to get to his truck. The streets were snow packed, but the main roads had been sanded, making travel a little easier. He was pulling into the parking lot when he got a text from Ryal.
Meg in room 335.
Great news. No more waiting for a brief glimpse once an hour. He hurried through the lobby and up the elevator, then down the hall to room 335.
At first he couldn’t see her for the number of people surrounding her bed, and then Beth stepped back just as Meg turned her head toward the door.
Their gazes locked.
She smiled a crooked smile, wincing from the pain of her swollen lip.
Linc slipped off his coat and laid it on the back of the chair in the corner.
Dolly saw the look on her daughter’s face and took charge.
“We’ve all had our visit, and if you’re okay with Beth and me taking your quilts to the show, we’d love to do it for you.”
“Yes, thank you,” Meg said.
“No thanks necessary. We love you, Margaret Ann, but you’ll get better quicker without all this fuss. We’ll be in and out, have no fear.”
Dolly winked at Lincoln as they filed out of the room.
Ryal closed the door behind them, leaving Lincoln and Meg alone.
Linc pulled up a chair beside her bed and slid his hand beneath hers as he sat.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier. I was waiting on Ryal and Beth to get here with my truck and clothes. Was it a rough move?”
“Bad enough,” she said, and threaded her fingers through his. “Mom said you saved my life.”
“We all did, baby...but we wouldn’t have gotten the chance without Honey. She led us straight to Prince White and took him down, then Mariah came along with her dog and picked up the trail.”
“Jake said Honey got hurt.”
He nodded. “Yes, but she’ll heal, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s the one who deserves all the praise.”
But Meg wouldn’t let go. Her voice was shaking. “You climbed down a mountain...in a blizzard.” She took a slow breath, easing past the pain of broken ribs to say what she needed to say. “I remember cold...and your face.”
“I was so scared that you would never wake
up.”
She closed her eyes. Her thoughts were already drifting away.
Linc could tell the move had exhausted her. “Sleep, baby, just sleep. I won’t be far. I will never be far away from you again.”
“Lincoln...”
“What, sweetheart?”
She blinked, and for a few moments her eyes were open. “Love you forever.” Then she drifted away again.
Linc patted her hand, then slid it under the covers, and leaned over and brushed a kiss across her cheek. Finally he whispered in her ear, “Forever and ever, ’til death do us part.”
A slight smile tilted one corner of her mouth as she recognized the line, and then she slept.
Linc sat in the quiet knowing that no matter what else happened, he was already blessed.
Almost an hour passed, and then he felt his cell phone vibrate. He got up and walked down to the waiting room to take the call. “Hello?”
“Lincoln Fox?”
“Yes, who’s speaking?”
“Detective Kennedy with the Mount Sterling P.D. Do you have a minute?”
Linc frowned. “Yes. What’s up?”
“Sheriff Marlow gave me your number. I’m calling to ask you a favor.”
“Like what?”
“Would you be willing to be present in the room when I question Lucy Duggan and her brothers, Prince and Fagan White?”
Linc didn’t have to think twice. “In a heartbeat. When?”
“Where are you?”
“Right here in Mount Sterling, at the hospital,” Linc said.
“That’s handy. I’m standing outside Prince’s room, and since he’s not ambulatory, I’m having Lucy brought here. The sheriff is in the parking lot with Fagan. What I need is your assurance that you won’t try and break their damn necks, even though there are those who would argue you’ve earned the right.”
Linc smiled. He liked the man already. “I promise I will not touch a hair on their heads. However, I hope you don’t mind if my presence scares the shit out of them.”
“Actually, that’s what I was counting on. I need to get this mess unwound, and as long as they’re all telling a different story, I can’t figure out who gave the orders and who carried them out. They continue to point a finger at Wendell, who I understand is long dead, making him a far too convenient scapegoat.”
