HERO (The Complete Series)
Page 117
“How are you feeling?” Johnny said, placing them on the ledge and coming to my side. He pressed a kiss on my forehead and took my hand, gripping on tightly.
“Happy to be alive. Everything is okay, right? At the arena?” I looked over at Fred. “It was her. The woman in Kevin’s car. I got a close look at her.”
Fred nodded and stepped forward. “We know who she is now. We’ll find her soon.”
“Oh good. She caught me by surprise. She was wearing event staff’s uniform. Something else was different from the images we have of the assault on Kevin. She definitely has blue eyes.”
“Don’t worry about that now. Just focus on getting better. I’m glad to see you conscious, to be honest.”
“Yes. The doctor said I’ll be released tomorrow.” I looked up at Johnny. “He said I can’t move from this position for four days. I can’t fly, drive a vehicle, or stand during that time. So I was thinking, does the road crew tour bus have room for me?”
Kevin spoke up from behind them. “We’ll make room if we have to, but I don’t think that’s the best option. I can arrange a private medical transport. It’ll be easier on your injury. I’ll get my assistant on it now.”
“I need you to get her a private room for tonight too, Kevin. Something with a sofa. I’m staying here with her until she’s released.”
I could have cried right there and then from his kindness.
“No problem. I’m on it.”
“Thank you, Kevin,” I said. “That would be great. I appreciate it.”
He turned to leave, but looked over to me. “I’m happy to hear you’re going to be fine, Amanda.”
He nodded, patted Johnny on the shoulder, and went outside with his phone already to his ear.
“I’ll make sure Larry and a few more guards stay behind with you for whenever you come back, Amanda,” Fred said, turning to leave.
Johnny looked around at him. “I’m staying back with her, so you may want to leave more men here. I’ll let Kevin know he needs to organize a few SUV rentals for whoever waits with us for the drive back tomorrow.”
Us.
My heart melted a little that he’d give up the convenience of flying home for me. LA was less than a three-hour drive from San Diego, but it was the thought that mattered.
Fred nodded. “I’ll talk to local police on your behalf, Amanda. We’ve already connected with the SDPD site commander at the arena, so you can give your victim’s statement tomorrow.”
“That’s great.”
“Larry and Jenny will return to LA on the plane with Kevin. I’ll drive with the team that’s accompanying you back, whether it’s on the tour bus or an SUV following the medical transport.”
“Thanks Fred.”
He said a polite, but warm-sounding farewell and left.
Johnny bent forward and kissed me again. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was going crazy on the way over here.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I would have come sooner, but Kevin didn’t tell me what happened until the concert ended. Hold on a second. I’ll pull up a chair.” He stepped around the bed, out of my line of sight, and reappeared with a fabric-covered guest chair. He pulled it as close as he could to my bedside, and sat.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not at the moment. It stings a little.”
“I can’t believe this happened to you…with all the security we hired.” He sat up in the chair and looked away. His nostrils flared, his eyes narrowed, and he looked like he would start pacing any minute. “I swear I could strangle that crazy bitch for what she did to you.”
I mentioned he needed to keep his voice down as we weren’t alone.
“Right,” he whispered. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Hey, did anyone grab my things from the performers’ dressing room?”
“Yes. It’s all been handled.”
“That’s great. I’ll need more time with my tablet if I have to be stuck like this for a few days.”
Kevin returned to let us know I would be moved to a private room within the hour.
“Excellent. Thanks, Kevin,” Johnny told him, turning back to me.
“By the way, keep these curtains drawn and don’t leave this room,” Kevin said.
Johnny turned to him. “What? Why, what’s going on?”
“There are people from the media swarming all over this place. Most of them are following hospital protocol and waiting outside, but there’s always the desperate paps scum willing to do anything. Hospital security already removed three of them from this floor.”
“Fine. I’ll stay put.”
“And they’re not just after you right now, Johnny. Everyone wants to interview Roxy Punisher. They can’t get enough of this story. They’re playing this from every angle—Amanda’s injury, the scandal of your cover being blown, the fake relationship between you and Johnny, with everything about your MMA career thrown in. Amanda, my PR rep is on standby if you need any help putting out fires, or weeding through it for the good inquiries. Do you still have someone who deals with this for you?”
“Yes. My manager. I can get you his number from my phone.”
“What’s his name?”
“Gary Stuart.”
“I know Gary. This entertainment business is a small world, dear. I’ll look him up.”
“Thank you, Kevin.”
“No problem. Well boys and girls, I’m going to get over to the hotel for some sleep. I’ll come back in the morning. Get some rest.”
I was moved to a private room shortly after, with a pullout sofa where Johnny would sleep. After the nurse made sure I was settled in and left, Johnny came back to stand at my bedside.
“Do you need anything?” he asked, running his hand through my hair.
“I’m good and tired. I’m sure I’ll sleep well.”
“You and me both.”
“Sorry you have to sleep in that thing,” I told him, motioning to the sofa-bed.
“It’s just one night.” He leaned down to me, caressing my cheek. “Besides, I’m could never leave you here alone.”
That was it.
That was what broke me.
I dropped my head back to the pillow and cried. ‘Cried’ might have been an understatement. I went from silent tears to hyperventilating sobs to weeping. Ugly cries followed.
Chapter 16 - Johnny
Fuck.
She was crying again.
I don’t know what the hell I said, but it set her off.
Again.
Shit.
“God, please don’t cry, Amanda,” I said, panicking. “What’s wrong? What did I say? I can call someone to help…the nurse maybe?” I wrapped my arms around her, trying to be strong, but was certain I had the familiar look of terror in my eyes—the powerless, exasperated expression that appeared on most men’s faces when a woman cried.
“Here.” I reached over to the small night stand and passed her the box of tissues.
I rubbed her back, and I waited.
When she calmed down, and the shaking and tears stopped, I wasn’t sure whether to ask her what was going on. This could have been a delayed reaction to the trauma of being sliced open. Somehow, I didn’t think it was.
I brought over the cup of water the nurse had left on a tray near her bed. I cradled her head and put it at her lips for a sip—something that was difficult enough to do for anyone positioned on their side.
“Are you all right?” I asked, still somewhat terrified.
“Yes. Fine. I’m sorry about that. I had a moment…”
“Don’t be sorry. Can I get you anything else?”
“No. Thanks, Johnny.”
I sat beside her in the bed and waited some more.
“I think I owe you an explanation,” she said out of the blue, between sniffles.
“There’s no need to explain. Look at what you’ve been through.”
“No. It’s not that. And you deserve to know, especially after sitting through thi
s…this train wreck of a breakdown. I think I’m ready to talk about it.”
“Okay.”
“Until now, I’ve told you almost every horrible experience I’ve gone through. You’ve been amazing to me, Johnny. Supportive, understanding, never judging me…This is something I had not told anyone since it happened—not even my best friend Eva. I mean, she knows the sound bite I had dismissively told the few people in my inner circle, but no one knew exactly what happened. No one but me…and this other person.”
“Who?”
I took a breath. “What you said reminded me about something that happened when I was out of surgery after the big MMA loss.”
He held my hand. “You know you can tell me anything, Amanda.”
“Okay…I was engaged. Right up to that night.”
What? Engaged?
I looked at her, stunned, not so much about her being engaged, but on how the hell that detail never came up on all her social media pages that I trolled as stonefaceviper79.
“Only a handful of people knew about it. Adam and I…Adam is his name …we had dated since college. He didn’t want any public or media attention on himself or us, so we kept our relationship private when my name started to get out there. We were together for over four years, and engaged for ten months. I thought we had the perfect relationship, you know? He had his thing, I had mine. He didn’t mind that I was a fighter and had to travel for competitions, mostly without him because of his job. We enjoyed being together, yet being apart was manageable.”
“So what happened?”
“He had just received a promotion in Miami. It was the week before my fight, which was in Las Vegas. So when I was injured, he couldn’t be there for me…”
What a jerk. He had this woman, and he let her go through the worst time of her life alone? “He was an asshole,” I told her.
“That’s not the worst of it.”
What else did that piece of shit do to her?
“I had to tell him I could never have kids over the phone. It was horrible. He cried, but he wasn’t crying for me. Adam’s from a big family. He wanted kids. It was all he ever talked about once we got engaged…When I told him, he cried because not being able to have kids with me was a tragedy…it meant he could not marry me. Adam ended our engagement on that phone call.”
Fuck. I could shove my boot up that fucking prick’s ass right now. A man couldn’t be any lower than that.
“Christ, Amanda. You didn’t deserve to be hurt that way… that guy is scum if he could do something like that to you…to anyone. You’re better off without him.”
She shrugged. “He really wanted kids.”
“More than he cared about you? I can’t even try to understand someone that cold. It’s just a gutless thing to do.”
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Then I looked at her, lying in that bed—it reminded me she didn’t need any more stress. I lowered to the bed, and held her.
“Forget about that bastard. I’m here for you now, and I’m not letting you out of my sight. Try to rest, okay?”
She did not take very long to fall asleep. When she did, I opened the sofa-bed, took my boots off, and settled in for the night. As I relaxed there, all of the pieces about Amanda fell into place. It all made sense. Fuck, she had been through so much. She was so strong in spite of all of it. There was a lot to appreciate about her.
I looked over at her for as long as my eyes stayed open. She was mine. I was going to keep her safe.
* * *
The trip back home the next day was hassle-free. Amanda was driven back in the medical transport, and two SUVs with security staff, Fred and me followed behind. We even managed to make it back before Kevin and the group, as they were on a noon return flight. I phoned ahead to the housekeeper, who prepared one of the main floor guest rooms for Amanda to stay in. I also made an appointment with a home health supply store to come to the house to fit her with crutches.
The RHVA awards show was three days away. Kevin was back on my case that my performance had to come off without a hitch. I couldn’t afford another disaster. Yet with Amanda out of commission, I refused to leave her alone.
The minute Kevin walked in the door, he got into it. “A second-rate act is not an option, Johnny,” he said after he called me into his office. “This is the RHVAs. You may not get invited back for years with a good performance, and if you bomb, forget about ever returning. Plus, you will have done it in front of up to sixty million viewers worldwide. We have to get it right. I’m adding two extra full band rehearsals to the schedule, and that doesn’t include the choreography practices with the backup dancers.”
“I can’t leave Amanda on her own…not at a time like this.”
“She’s not five, Johnny. She can handle bedrest. The housekeeper can keep an eye on her.”
“Lucia’s busy enough as it is. Keeping this house in order and preparing meals is a lot. That idea’s not enough.”
“We’ve got three days to get this right, Johnny. How about if we get her a nurse or someone full time until she’s back on her feet?”
“You can bring in a nurse, but that’s still not going to cut it. Amanda’s three thousand miles from home, and has no one else in this town. What do you expect me to do!”
“Jesus H Christ, Johnny. Can’t she phone a friend or something? You need to hit the RHVAs act out of the park. It’s the biggest performance of your career to date. You have to be perfect. Every note, every lyric, every choreographed movement has to be dead on. It’s crucial—”
“Wait a second…wait, I have an idea. Can we have all the rehearsals here at the house?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Okay. I’ll do it. Go ahead and set it up. I’ve got to take care of something. Definitely get her a nurse.”
I left Kevin’s office and headed to see Amanda. While I was checking up on her, I managed to sneak her phone off the night stand. I don’t think she noticed it, and I returned it to the same spot less than five minutes later.
She was overdue for another gift from me. I just hoped she would like this one.
Chapter 17 - Amanda
My trip back to LA yesterday was better than I had expected. Johnny was a dream. I could not ask for a more attentive, kind person in my corner. He popped in every few hours to check up on me, and had even rolled in a single bed from one of the other rooms so he could sleep near me at night.
Being bed-ridden however, was another story.
It was only the second day in bed with my tablet, daytime TV and way too much satellite programming as entertainment. I was going insane. It also meant I was three or four days away from going back home. We still didn’t talk about it, and at the moment, I had subconsciously done a full 180-degree flip.
I didn’t want to go back to Miami anymore.
I couldn’t handle another day feeling so stuck in the same space, as well as in limbo with Johnny.
Thoughts, emotions, insecurities and questions kept my mind occupied while my body was incapacitated. The noise more than compensated for the physical boredom my muscles felt, and soon, I was full of doubt again. Would he want me now that he knew everything? Was a month really enough time to make such a big decision? Could I just be caught up in his lifestyle, like all his groupies? Was he even going to have time for me after the tour?
In an attempt to drown out the doubt, first I tried to make myself busy. I went into my emails and checked messages on my tablet. I noticed two from Gary, both saying to phone him asap. I tried phoning him right away, but it went to voicemail. Nothing else was on email, but my phone had dozens of unread texts and unheard voicemail messages. Media hounds. I wasn’t ready to tackle them all, so I set the phone aside.
Next, to prepare for the worst, I imagined what it would feel like to leave LA, fly home to Miami, and walk through the front door of my own apartment. It offered some comfort, and a backup plan if I was getting ahead of myself. I picture standing at Johnny’s door with my bags,
looking inside his house one last time. When the car would leave, I’d look back and see Johnny standing at the bottom of the steps. He would wave goodbye to me for the last time. My flight would be logistically smooth, but emotionally, I would be a wreck.
I imagined making it to Miami, taking a cab home, and hauling my luggage up to my apartment. I would stand at the entrance, silent, to shake off the memory of life in LA, and get back to the familiar and pray that good old-fashioned creature comfort would help me snap out of it. Everything would be in the exact place I had left them, including my fish and the picture of Dad at my bedside. The tension in my chest would melt away, only to be replaced with hours of crying and heaving until I would fall asleep.
That was the thing—no kind of imagining would make it any easier.
* * *
At around midday, the day nurse Kevin had hired brought me a light lunch, and told me she would leave the door open as she wanted to be sure she could hear me if I needed help. I was fine with it.
After I ate, I heard a knock at my open door.
“Come in,” I said.
The person jumped through the threshold like they were on Broadway, complete with the jazz hands.
It was my friend, Eva!
I couldn’t believe it!
“Omigod, omigod! Eva? How did you…what the…get your ass over here and give me a hug, bestie! It’s so good to see you!”
She squealed all the way across the room and jumped into bed beside me for a cuddle.
“There’s the little wounded warrior,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“Bored. Crappy. Forget about that, though. How did you make it out here?” I asked, hugging her again. I was pretty certain Johnny had something to do with it.
“Your rock star god of a husband-to-be phoned me yesterday. Don’t ask me how he got my number, because I don’t have a clue. Enough about that, though. I want to know about you! I saw the photos of you on the floor in a pool of blood. I was terrified, honey.” She hugged me again.