The bastard hit me on the side of the head hard with the back of the knife and I saw stars and went down. Things went black for a few seconds.
When I opened my eyes, the room was filling with blue. I could feel blood pouring down my face. My vision was tinged with red.
Police were everywhere.
I watched in slow motion as the bastard was racing toward cops with the knife. He lunged at the closest officer, the knife held out in front of him. As he went to stab him, I heard a shot ring out.
He stumbled.
As he fell, he turned to looked at Harry, lying unmoving in Marco’s arms.
“Fucking cunt!” he screamed as he fell to the ground. “I’m glad I killed you! Bitch!”
He was still screaming at a lifeless Harry as he died.
Harry was lying still in Marco’s arms. He looked at me frightened and I felt my heart stop. Please, I prayed. Please don’t let her be dead.
I got to my feet somehow. I was feeling groggy and unsteady but I made it to Harry and Marco. She looked awful, her eyes were rolled back in her head, and I prayed she was unconscious but we both knew she was dead.
There was pandemonium as the cops tried to sort everyone out. We tried to explain who we were. Marco refused to let go of Harry even when the paramedics arrived. Police were coming and going. I have no idea what was happening half the time.
When the paramedics finally got Marco to let them check Harry, they told us she was still alive. I think we were both crying at that point. The paramedics managed to stabilise her for the trip to hospital. The gash on my head was cleaned up but they told me I would have to get stitches but, as far as I was concerned, they would wait until we knew if Harry was going to be okay.
One of the paramedics told us she had several stab wounds and they were concerned she may have head injuries as well as internal injuries. She’d been unconscious for so long. He couldn’t tell us if she would be all right. She would be scanned once they got her to the hospital. At that point no-one knew if she would live.
They insisted that I had to go to the hospital to be stitched up. Marco told me to ride in the ambulance with her. He would drive to the hospital. The paramedics got us both in the ambulance, me sitting up front.
Harry was unconscious all the way. I was so scared she wasn’t going to make it. On the way I gave them her details, they rang through to the hospital and when we arrived, she was whisked away quickly to Emergency.
I followed. As I walked into the emergency section, it looked like every doctor in the hospital was there gathered around her bed.
“Sir, you’ll have to wait outside.”
“I’m her partner. I’m staying.”
A man pointed to the side of the cubicle.
“Stay over there.”
As long as I could stay in the room, I didn’t care where I stood. They cut Harry’s clothing off and I groaned when I saw her body. There were angry red bruises all over her. He must have kicked her. Her face was swollen in places and covered with blood. A large cut was down one arm and she had a big long slash wound on her thigh. She was finally semi-conscious and groaning in pain.
The staff worked on her. I had no idea what was happening. About twenty minutes later Marco came in shouting. I grabbed him and pulled him over to where I was standing and told him to be quiet.
The next ten minutes were completely lost to Marco and me. So many people. They poked and prodded her. She was hooked up to machines. All I could hear was her moaning. A few times she called our names. Then they finally took her out to be scanned. Marco and I slumped against the wall.
The man who had spoken to me in the beginning came over.
‘I’m Doctor Ken Delaney.”
“Bryan Garret, this is Marco Campione. What’s happening?”
“Are you related?”
Marco rolled his eyes and angrily replied. “We’re her partners. Okay!”
The doc held up his hands. “Okay, just asking.” He looked a little confused. I patted Marco’s arm.
“Harry and the both of us are in a relationship, we’re getting married soon. Sorry if you find that offensive but honestly I don’t give a fuck.” I was beyond caring at that point. “Now what’s happening with our girl?”
“Ah, so you are the men she was calling for. Okay. At the moment, we are most concerned with her head. She was unconscious a long time, which isn’t good. She has a large haematoma on her forehead. There is a possibility she is bleeding in her brain. On top of that, we think she has a broken rib. So we are scanning her head to toe for breaks and also in case there are internal injuries. She was kicked a number of times. The wound on her arm will require stitches, as will her leg, its quite a long slash. Speaking of which, so does your head, Mr. Garret was it?”
“Yeah. It can wait.”
Marco looked fearful. “Will she be okay?”
“As I said, we won’t know until we see the scan. I’m pretty confident that she’ll survive but just how long it will take to heal her will depend on the results.” He looked at us both curiously. “Can you tell me anything about the old scars on her body? She’s had a lot repair-type surgery, and there are what look like old stab wounds.”
“The fucker that did this to her, attacked her twelve years ago. She was messed up pretty bad. She was raped and left for dead.”
“There’s nothing on the records here.”
“It wasn’t here. She moved here after it happened.”
“Do you know what hospital? I can get the record sent over just for reference.”
“Sorry, no.”
“Okay.” He pulled a small plastic bag from his pocket and handed it to Marco.
“Her ring, necklace, and earrings.” He gestured to a chair. “Sit down, Mr. Garret, I may as well stitch you up while we wait.”
He made me sit on a chair and cleaned the blood off my head. I could feel Marco’s fingers digging into my shoulder as the doc worked. Seven stitches later and it was over. A few minutes later they wheeled Harry back in.
We jumped up. They hooked her back onto the machines and finally let us see her properly. Marco stood on one side and me on the other, we both held a hand. At last she was awake.
“Harry.” My voice was rough as I looked down at her. Marco’s sounded just as bad. She gave us a weak grin.
“Hi,” she whispered through her swollen lip. “I hurt.”
“I bet you do.”
“Him?”
“Harry, he’s dead.”
She broke down and sobbed. I felt fucking useless. We should have got back earlier and I told her so. She sniffed and tried to shake her head. She gave a grimace of pain. Marco was kissing her fingers.
“I’ve never been so frightened in all my life. Oh Harry, I thought we’d lost you, then Bryan did his Superman tackle.”
“He did?” she whispered and grinned at me. I squeezed her hand.
We sat silently for about half an hour. Harry was dozing in and out of consciousness. Finally, the doc came back in. He gave Harry a little shake to wake her. The nurses had been trying to keep her awake without much success.
“Well Ms. Kempton, you’re a very lucky woman. There is a very small bleed on the brain, luckily for you the midline shift is less than four millimetres so we have decided not to operate. Instead, you will have to be closely monitored. On top of that, one rib is partly broken, what we call an ‘incomplete fracture,’ but it hasn’t moved or punctured anything. Your liver and kidneys are badly bruised. There doesn’t appear to be any bleeding but we’ll check your urine to make sure there’s no blood in it. The wounds on your arm and leg missed anything vital. I’m going to stitch them up now.”
Harry looked puzzled. The doctor turned to us.
“She’s going to be confused for a while. From what the paramedics reported, and what we have seen here, she was unconscious for quite a while. Things will seem blurry, she may not remember everything clearly or may not remember at all.”
“Ms. Kempton, now
we have all the results we are going to give you something stronger for the pain. I also need to check your pee.” He beckoned a nurse over then he turned to us and grinned. “If you men could just wait outside for a minute while we get a catheter inserted then check for blood.”
We both kissed Harry on the side of the face that wasn’t too swollen. As we went to walk out the doc spoke again.
“Oh and gentlemen, the babies are fine.”
We stopped, turned and looked at Harry. She had gone white.
“Bab…baby?” she stammered.
“You didn’t know? Well in that case, congratulations. You’re pregnant.”
“How?” She was in total shock and so were we.
“I think you know how.” He laughed. I looked at Harry, she was in as much shock as we were. She looked puzzled and confused.
“Are you sure, doc? Harry was told after the last attack she could never be able to have children. Something to do with the damage to her insides.”
“Well something obviously worked. But rest assured, she is definitely pregnant. About ten weeks I would guess.”
I looked at Marco. He was as white as Harry.
“So who’s the father?”
We both burst out laughing. Who knew?
Harry tried to smile but flinched with the pain in her face. She lifted one hand and pointed to the foot of the bed where we stood.
“Them,” she whispered.
“Look, I’ll come back in ten minutes and get that sample. I think you three need some time alone.” He left us, chuckling as he walked passed. We went back to our places.
“Harry?”
She looked from me to Marco. I dug him in the ribs, grinning like a maniac.
“Guess one of us must have strong little swimmers. This is the most…” I felt a tear run down my cheek. Marco dropped Harry’s hand and came round to where I was standing. He hugged me and then bent to give Harry a tender kiss.
“We love you, Harry. This is the best news we ever had!”
“Sure?” She whispered.
“You’ve got to be kidding! This is amazing!”
He kissed me and I grinned at beautiful Harry.
“I love you, Harry, this is simply wonderful. Something neither Marco or I ever expected, to be fathers.”
She tried to laugh, and tried to stay awake.
“Never expected to be a mother.” Her voice was a little slurred.
I grabbed Marco and gave him the biggest kiss just as the doc walked back in.
“Can you men give us ten minutes now? We really need to get her settled and out of some of this pain.”
“Thanks. Of course.”
We blew Harry a kiss or two and went outside into the waiting room. I was in shock, this was amazing. It was wonderful.
“Ha ha, we’re going be daddies!”
“I can’t believe it, hon.” Marco was shaking his head and grinning crazily. “It’s just fantastic. It was meant to be.”
We sat holding hands in the waiting room until a nurse called us and told us we could go back in. Harry looked pretty groggy now, she was almost asleep.
“Okay, she’s now sedated. We’ve stitched her up. There’s no blood in the pee, so that’s good news but we’ll keep monitoring. We have to admit her, not sure how long she’ll be in hospital. That will depend on how her body reacts to the bleeding.”
Marco looked over at Harry lying so quietly.
“You sure the baby’s okay?”
“Yes, we discovered she was pregnant when we did an ultra sound. Check them, there’s good strong heartbeats on them both.”
“Both?”
“Yes, I told you, the babies are fine.”
Marco sank into a chair. I felt a little weak and grabbed the back of it.
“Oh wow. Even Harry doesn’t know that little extra bit of news.”
“Sorry, I thought you heard me. Anyway, she’ll need to see an obstetrician for check-ups. But as I said the heartbeats are strong on them both. We will monitor them while she’s here. Especially with the trauma she’s suffered, somehow she managed to protect the babies. We’ll ensure any drugs she has won’t hurt the babies.”
With that, he walked out. I couldn’t help it, I started to laugh. Harry opened her eyes, then closed them again.
“Go ‘way,” she muttered.
I went to her head and leant in.
“We love you, you beautiful, wonderful mother.”
She gave a sweet smile and went back to sleep.
“Oh hell, babe, how’s she going to handle this little extra bit of news?”
“Beats me, hon, but knowing our Harry, she’ll be as excited as we are.” We sat down on either side of Harry. I looked at Marco. “So what happened when I left Harry’s house in the ambulance?”
* * * *
I’ve never been so fucking shit-scared in my life. When we pulled up and heard those blood-curdling screams. Shit!
We raced inside and Bryan just went ape-shit. The fucker had this knife and he was moving it down to stab Harry. Bryan just raced at him and tackled him. I grabbed Harry as they wrestled over the knife.
She looked up at me as I dragged her well away, then she passed out. There was blood all over her face. Oh fuck, she looked so bad.
I looked over at the guy and Bryan. Suddenly the fucker hit Bryan on the head with the knife. There was a gush of blood and Bryan went down. He didn’t move and I thought he was dead. I knew the fucker was going to come at me next but all of a sudden the house was swarming with cops.
The bastard went nuts!
I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he raced at the cops with the knife, trying to get them. They had no choice but to shoot.
I was never so relieved in my life when I saw Bryan get to his feet and lurch over to where I was sitting cradling Harry in my arms. He looked pretty groggy but he was alive. Cops were everywhere. They tried to take Harry but I growled at them to piss off. No way was I letting her go. Next thing the paramedics were there.
I think I might have wrestled with them a bit. I really thought she was dead. When they said she was still alive, I finally let Harry go. She looked so still, so pale under the blood.
I watched as they put a drip in her arm, took her blood pressure and loaded her onto a stretcher. One of them cleaned up Bryan and told him he had to get stitched up. He had a bloody big long cut over one eye.
Anyway, in the end, I told Bryan to go in the ambulance with Harry and I would drive the car over. The cops were trying to find out what happened and wouldn’t let me leave. I think I might have yelled a bit. Maybe even threatened.
One cop took me into the living room and finally got me to calm down. He was okay, said his name was Peter Grant. He was the one Harry had on speed dial. I told him all we knew. That Harry had rung us the day before and we had cut our trip short and come home tonight.
For as long as I live, I won’t forget her screams!
Remembering them, I got angry.
“Why the fuck did he get out?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Campione, but he had served his time. He was seeing his parole officer regularly.”
“Well why didn’t someone tell Harry he’d found out where she lived?”
“It was only when Ms. Kempton rang us regarding the photograph she received that we knew he had located her address. It’s been eight months since he’s release and he has been complying with his parole conditions, at least we thought he was.”
“So why wasn’t he arrested yesterday?”
The cop sighed.
“A car was sent to his residence. No one was home but we had a warrant to search the place. It was clean. There was nothing to indicate he was still obsessed with Ms. Kempton. We contacted his parole officer who told us that Mr. Farris had asked if he could attend his aunt’s funeral. He would be returning in two days. He was granted permission. We now understand this was a ruse.”
I was still riled up.
“Why the fuck didn’t you send a car to c
heck on her? Why wasn’t someone watching the house?”
“I understand your anger, Mr. Campione, but it wasn’t felt necessary. We honestly believed he wasn’t in the town. We thought he was just trying to scare her with the photograph.”
He wrote something in his notebook.
“So you and the other gentleman arrived and heard Ms. Kempton?”
“Yes. It’s Bryan, Bryan Garrett.” The cop wrote down our names in his notebook. I gave him the address of the office and our home plus phone numbers.
“What happened next?”
“We raced inside. The guy was about to stab Harry. Neither of us thought, we just reacted. Bryan grabbed the guy and I grabbed Harry. Bryan and the fucker wrestled over the knife. He hit Bryan, then you guys turned up. The rest you know.”
“Okay. You and Mr. Garrett will need to come down to the station and sign formal statements. Can you both do that tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Okay. What about the fucker?”
“He’s dead.”
“Good, because if he wasn’t, I’d fucking kill him!”
The cops finally let me go. They told me they would shut the house up when they finished their investigation. I didn’t give a fuck, I just wanted to be at the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, some stupid man told me I couldn’t go to where Harry was because I wasn’t related. I swear I was so fucking close to punching him. I think he let me in because I was making so much noise. Bryan grabbed me as I got to the cubicle and told me to shut up.
The rest, well. The rest you know.
Chapter Fifteen
They kicked us out about half an hour later. They were moving her into another area where she would be for some time. She was out for the count. The doc told us to go home and come back in the morning.
“How’s the head?”
“Fucking sore.” Marco gave me a hug as we walked back to the car. “I need a handful of headache pills.”
Marco looked at me.
“Mama?”
I nodded and climb onto the passenger seat. Neither of us could face going home. It was all starting to hit us. The adrenaline surge had long run out. Marco drove out of the carpark and we headed over to his parents’ house. He glanced at me.
Build a Love (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 13
