by April Wilson
“You work here?”
“Yes. Actually, I own this store.”
That takes me completely by surprise. “You’re kidding? It’s a small world then. Clancy’s my home-away-from home. I love this place.”
Speak of the devil, Lia walks up behind Beth and bumps her hip, a big grin on her face. “Hey, princess.”
Right behind Lia is an incredibly good-looking guy wearing a gray knit cap and dark sunglasses, dressed in a black leather jacket and distressed jeans.
Beth confers with the couple for a moment, discussing lunch plans. Then she introduces us. “Lia, this is Jamie’s neighbor, Molly.”
“Hey,” Lia says, giving me the once over. “How’s it going?”
“Great, thanks. I’ve seen you a couple of times in my apartment building. My apartment’s on the second floor, next to Jamie’s.”
Her eyes light up. “Oh, you’re that Molly – the one Jamie can’t stop talking about.” She offers me her hand. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Jamie’s cool sister.”
She says this with such a straight face, I can’t help laughing. I like her already.
“And this is Jonah Locke, Lia’s boyfriend,” Beth says.
Jonah Locke? Holy cow! The name and the face register then, and I realize I’m talking to a real-life rock-and-roll celebrity. I can feel my face heating up. “Nice to meet you,” I say, trying not to gush like a teenaged fan girl. “I have quite a few of your songs on my favorites playlist.”
Jonah offers me his hand, and we shake. “Nice to meet you too.”
“Why don’t you join us for lunch?” Lia says. “Do you like Mexican food?”
“Absolutely! If you’re sure you don’t mind.” I glance at Beth, trying to gauge her feelings on the matter. “I don’t want to impose.”
“Hey, the more, the merrier,” Lia says. “Besides, any friend of Jamie’s is a friend of ours.”
A red-haired hunk who’d been lurking in the background comes forward. “Don’t forget me!” He elbows Beth. “Let’s go get your purse and coat. I’m starving.”
“Don’t mind him. That’s Sam – Beth’s bodyguard,” Lia explains, as she catches me watching the redhead follow Beth up the staircase.
Beth has a bodyguard? Why does she need a bodyguard?
A few minutes later, Beth and Sam return, and the five of us head out. The restaurant’s just ten minutes away, Lia explains, so we’ll walk.
We hadn’t gone more than a few blocks from the bookstore when all hell breaks loose. Everything happens so quickly, I can’t even make sense of it all. Just as we’re crossing an intersection, a car comes barreling around the corner, and it’s obvious it won’t stop in time to miss the pedestrians in the street. Beth is directly in the path of the car, and I scream out a desperate warning. She would surely have been run down if Sam hadn’t shoved her out of the way, sending her flying across the rough pavement. She lands on her hands and knees, rocking forward, and just barely avoids hitting her head on the road.
“Beth!” I scream. I run to her and drop down beside her to assess her injuries. Her palms and knees are covered in blood, abraded with tiny bits of gravel and broken glass. “Are you all right?”
She wavers unsteadily on her hands and knees, and I encourage her to sit before she topples over.
Sam’s not so lucky. He must have been hit head on and thrown across the street directly into a lamppost. There’s blood on the lamppost and Sam’s lying like a lump of clay on the ground. Even from where I’m crouching beside Beth, I can see that Sam’s left femur is at an unnatural angle. Clearly, his leg is broken. But what’s far more worrisome is the bloody gash across his forehead. His face is coated with blood. He’s not moving. Oh, my God, is he…? My stomach roils.
Beth catches sight of Sam and lets out a frantic scream.
“Beth, stay down,” I tell her when she tries to get to her feet. I press my hands on her shoulders to coax her back down. “You’re bleeding.”
“Sam’s hurt!” she cries, pointing in his direction.
My attention is momentarily diverted by the sound of angry shouts and gunfire. It looks like Lia shot out the back tires on the car that hit Sam.
“Get out of the fucking car!” Lia shouts, as she points a black handgun at the driver’s window of the car that hit Sam. “Get out and put your hands up, now!”
Jonah’s in the middle of the street trying to control traffic. “I called 911,” he yells to Lia.
“Call Shane!” Lia yells back at him.
Crowds of curious gawkers gather on all corners of the intersection. It’s utter chaos, with people milling about, and traffic at a dead stop. Angry motorists, many of whom probably don’t realize that someone’s been hit, start yelling and honking. Lia’s holding the driver of the vehicle at gunpoint, threatening to shoot him right through the car window if he so much as moves a muscle.
I glance down at Beth, whose face is deathly pale. I think she’s going into shock. “Beth?”
She glances up at me, her tearful eyes wide, but she says nothing. Then her gaze returns to Sam’s lifeless body, and she cries out in agony before leaning over to retch. We both watch in horrified anticipation as a man leans down to press his fingers to Sam’s throat as he searches for a pulse. His stoic expression tells us nothing. We honestly don’t know if Sam’s alive or not.
“Go to Sam,” Beth gasps, her voice barely audible. “Please! I’m fine. Help Sam!”
I’m torn, loathe to leave Beth sitting alone out here in the middle of the street with all these cars. But Jonah’s doing an effective job at blocking traffic. Lia has now dragged the driver out of his vehicle and has him pinned against the side of the car, his hands behind his back. I watch as she secures his wrists with a long plastic zip-tie.
Just as I honor Beth’s request and go check on Sam, Beth passes out, slumping to the ground. Jonah runs to her and crouches on the ground beside her.
“Is she okay?” Lia yells to Jonah.
Jonah takes off his jacket and lays it beneath Beth’s head, protecting her from the hard ground. “I think she passed out.”
When I reach Sam’s side, the stranger kneeling beside him is still checking Sam’s pulse.
“Is he alive?” I ask, my voice quavering.
The air is rent with the sound of shrill sirens speeding to our location.
“He has a pulse,” the man says, “but it’s weak.”
We both glance down at the spreading pool of blood beneath Sam’s head.
“Head injuries bleed a lot, you know,” the man says. “At least he’s alive.”
* * *
Three patrol cars arrive almost simultaneously, boxing in the chaotic scene in the intersection. One of the officers takes over directing traffic. Another takes custody of the driver from Lia.
A moment later, two emergency squads and a fire truck arrive. I stand back, my arms wrapped around my torso as I watch the EMTs tending to both Beth and Sam. One team of EMTs places Beth on a stretcher and loads her into an ambulance. Another team is carefully assessing Sam.
Lia climbs up into the ambulance with Beth. She looks right at me as the ambulance doors are shutting. “Call Jamie!”
It takes longer for the second team of EMTs to stabilize Sam and get him transferred to a stretcher and loaded into the remaining ambulance. Jonah climbs in with him.
I’m pulling out my phone even before the ambulances have pulled away. Jamie answers on the second ring, and it’s difficult for me to hear him over the noise of the car horns and the sirens.
His voice is instantly sharp and to the point. “Molly? What’s wrong?”
I finally lose my composure and give in to tears. “There’s been an accident. Beth is hurt, but I don’t think her injuries are life threatening. But Sam – he was hit by a car. He’s alive, but he’s hurt badly. He hit his head hard, and there’s a lot of blood.”
“Where are you?” he asks. He sounds a little breathless now, as if he’s on the move.
“Downtown, a coup
le of blocks from Clancy’s. I’ll grab a cab and come get you. You’ll need help navigating the hospital.”
“I’ll be waiting for you out front.”
Chapter 20
Molly
By the time I make my way back to N. Michigan Avenue, the traffic has cleared enough that I can finally flag down a cab. I give the driver my address and ask him to hurry.
I’m sitting in the back seat, shaking, my nerves completely frayed as I relive the past few minutes, over and over. Scenes from the accident loop through my mind like animated GIFs – Sam shoving Beth, Beth hitting the ground hard, Sam flying over the hood of a black sedan and lying in a pool of blood. It’s all so unreal I have to keep asking myself if it really happened, or if my mind is playing tricks on me.
I’m barely aware of our location when the driver pulls up to the curb in front of my apartment building. Just as he promised, Jamie’s waiting out on the sidewalk. He’s got his cane, but no Gus.
I open the door and jump out of the cab. “Jamie! I’m here.”
He zeroes in on the sound of my voice and meets me halfway. I grab his free hand and lead him to the cab. As soon as we’re in the vehicle, I give the driver instructions.
As the car pulls into traffic, Jamie grabs my hand, holding it firmly. “Does Shane know?”
“Yes. Jonah called him.”
“What about you?” He turns in his seat to face me and skims his hands up and down my arms. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Tell me what happened.”
As I relay the events, moment by moment as best I can recollect, he squeezes my hand. When I’m done, he brings the back of my hand to his mouth and kisses it. “Thank you for calling me, and thanks for coming to meet me. It’s times like this that my deficiencies really hit home.”
I can’t seem to stop shaking, and Jamie lays his arm across my shoulders and pulls me close. “Everything’s going to be all right,” he says. “Don’t worry.”
Feeling chilled to the bone, I lean into him, gravitating toward the comfort of his warm body. “It happened so fast. Everything was chaotic, and Beth was frantic about Sam. He looked terrible, Jamie. There was so much blood.” I shudder at the memory, and Jamie tightens his hold.
“Sam pushed Beth out of the way of that car,” I say, my throat tightening as reality hits me. Sam could die. “He may well have saved her life.”
Lia’s words from earlier come back to me. Sam is Beth’s bodyguard. My God, did he risk his life for her? I’m simultaneously amazed and horrified. What if, God forbid, Sam dies? How will Beth ever get over that?
Our taxi pulls up at the main entrance to the Cook County Hospital Emergency Room. As we exit the vehicle, Jamie hands the driver cash to pay for our fare. There are a lot of people milling about outside the hospital’s entrance, so I reach for Jamie’s hand to guide him around the crowd and through the sliding doors and into the waiting room.
“Molly! Jamie! Over here!”
I turn to see Lia waving at us from across the room. “There’s Lia and Jonah,” I say, leading Jamie by the hand.
We take the two empty seats beside Lia, who fills us in. Now that I have a chance to sit down and decompress a little, I feel exhausted.
“Shane and Cooper are here,” she says. “Shane’s with Beth, and Cooper’s with Sam.”
Jamie keeps hold of my hand, resting our linked fingers on his thigh, and I take comfort in the physical connection. Even though he’s caught up in conversation with his sister and her boyfriend, he never once lets go of my hand, and I’m glad. I definitely feel a little out of my element here, but his grip on my hand keeps me feeling connected to him.
It’s not long before we’re joined by other members of Jamie’s family. His sister Sophie, a gorgeous brunette, arrives followed shortly by Jake. Another brother, Liam, arrives right on their heels, along with several people from Shane’s company.
Amidst all the conversations going on around me, Jamie leans close and murmurs in my ear. “You didn’t eat anything for lunch, so you’ve got to be hungry. Do you want to go downstairs and get something from the cafeteria?”
I feel shaky from low blood sugar, but the thought of food right now makes me queasy. “Thank you, but no. I can’t eat anything right now.”
“Molly, you have to eat. Let me go get you something.”
“I can’t, Jamie. Not right now. Maybe later.”
Jake comes back from visiting the treatment area and gives us updates on both Beth and Sam. Beth is doing all right, but Sam is in critical condition. He’s in surgery right now to stop the bleeding in his fractured skull.
Jamie and his sister Sophie go back to the treatment area to see Beth, and I wait with Jamie’s family. I feel like an interloper, but everyone’s very nice, and they make an effort to include me in their conversations.
The afternoon passes slowly, hour after hour, with the occasional updates. I’m exhausted, but when Jamie suggests I go home, I refuse. I’m staying, I don’t care how long, until we know something about Beth and Sam. I’m staying until Jamie is ready to leave.
When I hear a gasp from someone seated near me, I glance up just as Beth walks into the waiting room. She’s walking slowly, her arm in a sling, and she’s cradling it protectively against her chest. Shane’s got his arm around her, supporting her. I feel my eyes tearing up at the sight of her standing on her own two feet.
When she comes over to greet us, I shoot to my feet and hug her carefully. “Oh, thank God! I was so worried when I saw you fall. Is your arm broken?”
“No, it’s just a sprain,” she says, sounding exhausted. “Thank you for coming. But you didn’t have to stay. I’m sure you’re exhausted.”
I am, but that’s not important. “Your family told me you were okay, but I couldn’t leave without seeing you with my own eyes. I’m so glad you’re all right, Beth. And we’ve been told that Sam will be all right, too.”
She nods as her eyes tear up. “Thank you for calling Jamie,” she says.
“I knew he’d want to know.”
She gives me a one-armed hug and smiles at Jamie. “You two should head home.”
As Beth and Shane move on to talk to the rest of Shane’s and Beth’s families, Jamie holds out his hand to me.
“Come on, I’m taking you home,” he says. “You haven’t eaten anything all day, and you have to be exhausted.”
The truth is, I am exhausted, but I didn’t want to abandon Jamie during this crisis.
He pulls me to his feet as he says our goodbyes to his family and the others gathered here. In addition to all the family members, there are at least a dozen people in the waiting room who are here because of the accident, many of whom work for Shane’s company.
As Jamie and I exit the hospital, we grab the nearest cab and head for home. I offer to pay the return fare, since he paid for our trip to the hospital, but Jamie insists on taking care of it himself.
Chapter 21
Molly
On our way in, we stop to pick up our mail. The young couple in Apartment 1B comes in from an evening out, holding hands and stealing kisses as they fumble with trying to unlock their door. I think they might have had a little too much to drink. I can’t help smiling, and Jamie just shakes his head at me as we head upstairs.
At the top of the stairs, Jamie takes my hand and says, “I need to take Gus out for a quick walk. Why don’t you order us some take-out nearby, and I’ll go pick it up?”
Us. He’s already thinking of us as a couple. The thought fills me with pleasure, but it also scares the hell out of me. This feels so right between us, but if things continue there’ll come a time when he’ll want to be intimate, and then I’ll have to face the music and risk rejection. I’ll have to tell him about the cancer and my surgery. And if by some miracle that doesn’t put him off, then I’ll have to face getting naked with him. No, I can’t deal with that right now. I’m worn out, and my ability to cope with anything beyond getting some food
is nonexistent.
It’s almost nine o’clock, and I hate the thought of Jamie wandering too far alone in the dark. “Jamie, it’s dark out.”
He laughs. “Honey, for me, it’s always dark. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
“Why don’t I come with you?”
He frowns. “Because you’re exhausted.”
True. But I don’t want to be separated from him right now. “Look, why don’t we both go? We can grab something from the sandwich shop down the street and bring it back. That’s quick.”
He sighs. “All right. If you’re sure.”
So, while Jamie’s getting Gus, I take a quick bathroom break to freshen up, and the three of us head out.
On the sidewalk, Jamie holds my hand, and after stopping for Gus to take care of business, we walk the two blocks to the eatery and place an order for two sandwiches with fries.
We end up eating in my apartment, both of us seated on the sofa, with our food spread out on the coffee table. While we eat, Gus wanders around the apartment sniffing absolutely everything, and when Charlie makes an appearance, Gus gets excited and tries to initiate playtime.
As I’m carrying cold drinks back from the fridge – a beer for Jamie and flavored tea for me – Jake calls with further updates.
After he hangs up, Jamie fills me in. “Sam’s regained consciousness. There’s still some bleeding in his skull, and he’s had a couple of seizures, but apparently that’s to be expected. Sam will remain in the intensive care unit until he’s out of danger.”
I lean back in the sofa, my mind reeling. “I just happened to run into Beth in Clancy’s this afternoon, and she invited me to eat lunch with them – with Lia and her boyfriend, and Sam. We were walking to the restaurant when the accident occurred.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Jamie says.
I can feel the blood drain from my face. “What?”
Jamie frowns. “Jake said the arresting officers found a photograph of Beth in the driver’s wallet. It looks like it was a hired hit.”
“Oh, my God, no! I can’t believe that! Why in the world would anyone want to hurt Beth?”
