by Julia Derek
“I’d rather we stay in the waiting room, so I can find out what’s going on with Chase,” I said. “I want to be sure he’s okay.”
“I can see that,” Gabi said. “Well, in that case, why don’t you go with Nick to the waiting room and I’ll go pick up something for you to eat and drink?”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
After telling Gabi what I wanted to eat, Nick and I went to the dull waiting room again.
A few more people were there now, making the space nearly half full. We took a seat on two of the orange plastic chairs, as far away from the others as possible. I turned to Nick and smiled. As I was closer to him now, I noted that he had the most interesting eye color, a deep blue mixed with lots of golden flecks, and a slightly crooked nose. I wondered if it had once been broken or if he was just born that way. There was also stubble on his cheeks and jaw. Unlike Chase, this guy must like a less polished look.
“It’s quite impressive that you’re holding up as well as you’re doing considering all that you’ve been through,” he said, his voice smooth and deep. “Most people are in shock for days after being abducted and chased by thugs shooting after them.”
I shrugged. “That might be because I still can’t realize this has actually happened to me. But when I do” —I bit my lip—“I might have a nervous breakdown. At the moment, the only thing that’s really bothering me is that we still have no idea why they took us in the first place. It’s just so random. Well, and Chase’s condition of course.”
“I’m sure he’ll be okay. We’re in one of the best hospitals in the world. These doctors know what they’re doing. As for why you guys were abducted, hopefully that’ll change when the NYPD start their investigation. It should clear up then.”
“I’m really hoping so. Do you think they’ll begin investigating soon?”
“Yeah, as soon as they get to talk to you guys. The sooner you go down to the station, the sooner they can get going. And I’ll make sure they put a pair of good guys on the case.” He gave me a crooked, little grin, nudging me in a friendly way. I could totally see why Gabi had gone all gaga over this guy. At least that’s what Dylan’s wife and my friend Nina, as well as her friend Ricki, had told me. Nick was definitely smoking hot.
“Well, given that Chase is being operated on right now, I don’t think we can get down there very soon. At least not together.”
“They can come here to take his statement.”
I nodded. “That’s good. So how did you and Gabi meet?”
He smiled a little, his unusual eyes lighting up under that dark baseball cap. “Let’s just say we met while we were both on duty.”
“So you were working with the LAPD then?”
“I am now, but not when I met Gabi. I worked for the NYPD then.”
“Oh, so you met her when she was undercover here in New York?”
“Right.”
I was intrigued by this. I still didn’t know the details of Gabi’s undercover job. Not that I thought I’d ever find out all of it—I didn’t think she was allowed to tell me—but at least I’d have an idea of what she’d been up to eventually.
“I ran into her when I’d just gotten to the city,” I told him to encourage him to keep talking about this subject. I chuckled at the memory. “I totally had no idea she was undercover! I suppose I should have suspected that she might’ve been since she had changed her looks so drastically. You know, with the blond, straight hair and the blue contacts. At first I thought it was someone who just really looked like her, but then when I took another look, I figured it was her after all. So I said her name and she responded.”
“Yeah, she looked pretty different with that blond hair,” Nick said and nodded. “Still a knockout, though.”
“Yeah, she’s a gorgeous girl, that’s for sure.” When he didn’t say anything else and just kept shifting in his seat, I assumed he didn’t want to continue talking about how they’d met. So I decided to switch the subject. “When did you move to L.A.?”
“About a month ago. But I didn’t look up Gabi until I’d gotten myself situated. We had a bit of a… break before we got back together again.” He cleared his throat.
“Oh.” Hmm. I wondered what that break had entailed. Not that I was about to ask Nick about it, as he looked like he regretted having mentioned it even. Gabi would surely be a lot less tight-lipped about what had happened between them.
When he didn’t say anything, I searched my mind for something else to say to break the awkward silence that had ensued. Something more neutral.
“I heard you guys were in Hawaii on vacation,” I said. It was the best thing I could come up with. “Hawaii is so beautiful. I think it’s my favorite vacation spot on earth.”
“Yeah, it’s incredible. We will definitely go back there again. We had an amazing time.”
“Did you guys surf? I know Gabi loves to surf being so athletic and everything.”
“Yeah, we did some of that.”
“When did you guys get back?” Judging from their rested glow and tans, it must have been fairly recent.
He smiled. “We’ve been back about three days now. We landed at LAX an hour or so before the dinner and headed directly there, just like you were supposed to have done.”
“Ah. Except I never got there.”
“Yeah. We thought that maybe your plane was just late, but then your mother called your brother and let him know that your apartment had been found trashed and that you’d never boarded your flight.”
I shook my head as I thought about how my mother must have been completely freaking out when she’d received that first call from the building manager.
Gabi appeared in the waiting room then. She was holding a tray loaded with drinks and food. I saw water bottles and juice containers, sandwiches, fruit, and yogurts.
Grinning wide, she came up to me and held the tray out below my face.
“Wow,” I couldn’t help but say. “That’s a lot of food.”
“You told me sandwiches and yogurt, but I wasn’t sure what kinds. Pick whatever you want. Nick and I will have the rest. Don’t be shy. You must be ravenous.”
As if my stomach had heard her, it made a gnarling sound in response and we all laughed at the funny sound. Well, I didn’t laugh as much as I was trying to make the heat spreading in my cheeks go away by the sheer power of my mind. It didn’t work of course.
I grabbed a bottle of OJ, a yogurt and a sandwich from the tray. I opened the OJ and chugged down its contents, then I moved on to the yogurt. The cup with the cereal on top was emptied quickly as well. As I swiftly removed the Saran Wrap from the cheese and ham sandwich and took a huge bite of it, Gabi looked at me with an amused expression that made me think of Chase. “Let me know if you want me to get some more food,” she said pointedly.
I chewed the sandwich in my mouth and swallowed. “No, no, this is perfect. Thanks.”
When the three of us had finished all the food on the tray and were wiping our mouths with paper napkins, a young doctor in scrubs and an operating hat appeared in the doorway. He scanned the waiting room and then his deep-set eyes behind rimless glasses landed on me.
“Are you Chase Ewing’s wife?”
I immediately stiffened. I didn’t like the serious look on this man’s face. “Um, yes, I am.”
I felt how Gabi was looking at me funnily, but I ignored her and got to my feet. “Is he okay?”
“Yes. We had to remove some bullet fragments and he’d lost a lot of blood, so we had to give him a blood transfusion, but he’s in stable condition now. Would you like to see him? He wants to see you. I really didn’t think it was a good idea since he’s still very weak, but if you promise not to excite him, you can go into his room for a few minutes.”
“Yes! Please take me to him.” Exhilaration surged through me as I strode up to the young doctor. Chase is going to be fine. He’s going to be fine!
“Okay, come with me then.”
I turned around to
tell Gabi that I’d be back, but she just smiled and told me to take my time; she and Nick would wait for me until I was done.
“Thanks,” I said and shot her a warm smile. Then I walked out of the waiting room with the doctor.
Men and women in green scrubs and some regular people passed us as we made our way through the long corridor that took a couple of sharp turns. Neither the doctor nor I said anything. Suddenly the doctor stopped at a room with a closed door. He turned to face me.
“I normally wouldn’t let a patient as weak as Mr. Ewing was when he awoke see anyone,” he said. “But he insisted on me bringing you to see him. Since you’re his wife, I can’t really deny him this.”
“No, you can’t. I really, really want to see him and make sure he’s all right.” As I finished those words, I wondered if Chase himself had thought of saying that I was his wife, or if it had been suggested to him and he’d just gone with it.
Well, I guess I was about to find out.
Chapter Thirteen
The doctor opened the door. “Five minutes,” he said and gave me a stern look that made him seem years older suddenly.
I nodded and slipped inside the room. It was all white and everything in it appeared squeaky clean. Several fluorescent light bars in the ceiling gave it a stark, cold feel. Chase was in the middle of the room, in a bed with its back raised halfway up. His arm was connected to an I.V. drip in a metallic stand next to the bed. He was still pale, but he was smiling at me as I walked toward him. He gave me a weak wave with his free arm.
“Hello there,” he said and the smile got wider. He was wearing a blue, short-sleeved jacket that wasn’t closed, revealing that he had plenty of bandaging around his waist and lower chest.
A feeling of warmth rushed through me and I ran up to him, completely ignoring the doctor’s orders and swinging my arms around him. I pressed my cheek to his, barely noticing how the stubble on his face cut and scraped into my skin. His free arm came around my back, pulling me closer. I could feel him inhaling me.
“Oh, Chase, I was so worried that you might die and leave me all alone with these thugs,” I whispered into his ear. What I really had wanted to say was that I had worried that he would die period. But I thought saying just that would make me sound much too melodramatic, so I added that second part.
“I would never do such a thing,” he whispered back. “You’ll never be alone.”
Hearing him say those words made me feel so good I hugged him even closer, not wanting to let go.
“Well,” Chase said finally, his voice a little choked, “you might end up alone if you keep hugging me like that. I think my wound is about to reopen.”
I let go of him as suddenly as I’d thrown myself upon him. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?” I gazed down at his midriff. So far, no blood was seeping through all the white dressing, thankfully.
Chase chuckled and ran a knuckle along my cheek affectionately. “Don’t worry, Elisa. I’m okay. But it might be good not to press on that area right now. The bullet shards had gone a little deeper than I thought. Apparently they got stuck in there.”
“So you knew all along that you had a bullet in you?”
“I only had parts of a bullet in me. I honestly had no idea if I had or not. I thought that it was possible, but I didn’t want to worry you, so I didn’t say anything. I thought that would only get you even more freaked out than you already were.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that was probably good… So that’s why they had to operate on you? To get the bullet parts out?”
“Yeah, but that went fast. The blood transfusion took a little longer. Apparently I went into cardiac arrest when they’d gotten me to the OR, so they had to use machines on me to jumpstart me again. Fortunately they knew what they were doing.”
I gasped, horrified. “What? You went into cardiac arrest? Doesn’t that mean your heart stopped working? As in you were actually dead?”
“In the technical sense of the word, yeah, I was dead there for a while.” He chuckled again and took my hand, squeezing it. “But the idea of leaving you alone with those thugs was too much to handle, so I had to come back.”
I closed my eyes and sank down on the metal chair that was next to Chase’s bed. “Thank God for that. Wow…”
It really had been very serious then, I thought. Part of me hadn’t wanted to believe it. I was glad that nurse hadn’t explained to me that he was actually dead as she and I had been speaking, or I would have turned into a complete wreck for sure.
“So you’re my wife, huh,” he said and gave me a half smile.
I glanced down at my feet, a little embarrassed suddenly. “Yeah, well, the nurse down at the reception thought I was, so I figured I might as well go with it.” I looked back up at him. “I figured it would give me easier access to see you than if I was just a distant friend or something.”
Chase rubbed his stubbly chin and nodded. “Good thinking. I thought the same thing when the doctor told me my wife was waiting for me out in the waiting area. Since I don’t have a wife, I knew he could only be referring to you. So I told him to bring you in to see me right away, even though he thought that was a bad idea considering my condition.”
“So you’re feeling okay then? He was only exaggerating?”
“I’ve had better days, but I’m not too bad. Where did you get the new clothes from? You didn’t go out and buy them on your own, I hope.” His face darkened. “Elisa, I hope you do realize that even if we got away from those creeps, we’re still not safe. We’re not safe until we know why we were there in the first place.”
“No, no, I do realize that. Gabi bought them for me. While you were in here, I called my mom and she told me my friend Gabi and her boyfriend Nick had flown to New York to make sure the NYPD got on our case as quickly as possible. Remember how I told you about her?”
“Ah, yeah, I do remember that. So they’re here?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they’re out in the waiting room. They insist that I should not be alone until we get a better hang on why you and I were abducted, so there’s no need to worry about me.”
“It’s good that you’re not alone,” Chase said. Grabbing my hand and looking at me intently, he added, “Make sure someone is with you at all times. Even here in the hospital. I know it seems unlikely, but we really don’t know if they have an idea where we are.”
“That’s true.”
He lightened up then, looking me up and down. “I like the new clothes, though I miss seeing you in that skirt that just got sexier and sexier.”
His charcoal eyes gleamed with mischief. I suddenly didn’t know what to say and found myself just staring at Chase. God, he was so cute…
He frowned. “Elisa, are you okay?”
“Um, yeah, sorry, I spaced out there for a moment.” I shook my head. “What did you say about my skirt?”
“That it just got sexier and sexier.”
I rolled my eyes, blowing off his comment as a silly joke. “Ha, ha. I guess it was, if you like dirty, ripped apart clothes. I’m a lot more comfortable in these sweats, though.”
“That’s understandable.”
There was a knock on the door and the doctor stuck his head in. “I think we need to let Chase rest now.” The tone of his voice told us there was no room for negotiation.
I turned back to Chase. “How long do you think you’ll have to stay here?”
Chase gazed beyond my shoulder, at the doctor, who was still standing in the doorway. “What do you think, doc? How long till I’ll be released?”
“We need to keep you overnight to make sure your condition continues to stabilize. If everything seems okay, I would think you’d be discharged at some point tomorrow.”
“That sounds good,” Chase said. “Thank you, doc.”
The doctor remained in the doorway, clearly waiting for me to get my butt out of there.
“Where will you be?” Chase asked me. “Are you going home?”
“I think Gabi and her
boyfriend will take me to a police station so we can file a report first. Or do you want to wait for us to do it until you can come with me?”
“No, you guys go talk to them. The sooner we get this resolved, the better.”
“Okay. I’ll tell Nick to get some men here to guard you. Just in case these goons figure out where you are and come back for you.”
“That might be good. Do you have a number where I can reach you?”
“I can ask Gabi for her cell number.” I looked over at the doctor. “Can I just ask my friend for her number and give it to Chase?”
The doctor looked confused. “Doesn’t your husband have the number to his own house?”
“Um, it’s complicated,” I said. “We can’t use our home phone right now. So can I go get my friend’s cell number for Chase?”
The doctor sighed. “Fine. Just make it quick.”
I turned back to Chase. “I’ll be right back.”
I dashed past the doctor, who opened the door for me so that I could get out of Chase’s room. I ran down the corridor and back into the waiting room where Gabi and Nick sat, looking deep into each other’s eyes and holding hands like two teenagers in love. Gabi must have seen me approach out of the corner of her eye, though, because she quickly let go of Nick and got to her feet.
“How’s he doing?” she asked, coming up to me.
“He’s okay. Can I have your cell phone number? I don’t know if I still have my cell phone after what happened in my apartment. Maybe the thugs took it with them, so I need to give Chase another way to reach me.”
“Of course you can give him my number. Will he stay here then?”
“Yeah. They need to keep him overnight to make sure he continues to get better. Can you come with me to his room so we can give him your number?”
“Sure.”
She and I left the waiting room and strode down the corridor toward Chase’s room. I explained the situation to her and she agreed we should have a couple of men outside Chase’s room just to be sure he was safe until he was discharged. Being a New Yorker, Nick knew plenty of people in the city who could help us with that, she assured me.
