by Tina Bass
“There was a 911 about an hour or so ago. A transport to the hospital, patient unconscious. You didn’t get that?” Velgada asked him, more concerned now.
“No, fuck, and Krista isn’t picking up her phone.” Kade was already walking, almost running to the door. He jumped into his truck, and before he could get it in gear, he saw a cruiser pull right up in front of him, lights already on and at the ready. He flew to the hospital, right on the ass of the cruiser, with lights and sirens blaring. As soon as he reached the hospital he headed for the emergency entrance, when Velgada pulled up in the cruiser with his window down.
“Good luck, man. Hope everything is okay with your girl.”
“Thanks, Lee, and thanks for the escort.” Kade waved at Velgada, but never stopped until he was through the doors and at the information desk. “I need information on a transport that was brought in on an ambulance about an hour or so ago,” Kade barked at the nurse sitting behind the desk.
“Name, please,” the nurse asked him, sounding bored.
“Krista Avery.” Kade shot back. The nurse hit a few keys on her keyboard.
“Sorry, sir, there’s no one by that name registered here,” she replied.
“There was a 911 call about an hour ago from Mt. Eve. An ambulance did a transport of an unconscious patient. Maybe you don’t have her name because she’s fuckin’ unconscious.” Kade was trying to keep calm, but he couldn’t stop the growl which emitted from the back of his throat.
The nurse turned back to her keyboard and hit a few more keys. “There’s no Jane Doe listed either.”
Kade had had it. “Check again!” he hissed, just as the doors to the emergency wing opened and he saw Krista come walking out. Her head was hanging down, hands at her side. She looked like she’d just lost her best friend. “Fuck. Mrs. Worley,” he muttered to himself, too low for the nurse to hear him. He turned from the desk and walked over to Krista. “Krista?” he called her name, and she looked up at him and then through him, then looked back down again.
“Kade,” Krista mumbled, almost to herself, and he felt the breath leave his body at the look, at the blankness, on her face. He had never seen her look that blank before, but to hear her call him Kade instead of Irish, made him feel as if a piece of his heart was being ripped apart. Before he could open his mouth, he heard someone else call out to her from somewhere behind him. “Kris!” He turned around to see who was calling her and at the same time, Krista stepped around him and ran across the waiting room, right into the arms of another man! Who the fuck? He wanted to know who this was, as he walked toward them both. Before he could get there, they turned and were walking out the door, the man’s arm around her shoulder.
“Krista!” Kade tried shouting again and walked faster, trying to get to her. He saw her turn in his direction, but she didn’t meet his eyes, just shook her head, turned, and walked out the door. He stopped dead. What the hell just happened? Had he destroyed what they had by being so careless with her? Had something happened to Mrs. Worley? Who the fuck was that man she just walked out the door with? Questions churned round and round in his head.
Chapter Sixteen
Krista sat with Lance at the little table by the side of the hospital building. She’d just told him everything she knew, up to the part about his mom being transported to the hospital. How she’d found her passed out at her house and called 911. The nurse taking her name, and saying she would page as soon as the doctors were done with their testing. Now they were waiting on his wife to get back from the little café across the street, and the nurse to page about his mom. She sat quietly, thinking. She’d walked up and down every hall in the emergency wing, until she just couldn’t take the sounds any longer. She walked out to the waiting room, hoping Mrs. Worley’s family would start to arrive soon, and she’d dang near walked right into Kade. When he’d looked at her, he had that scary pissed look on his face, but she didn’t know why, and right then, she couldn’t deal with it. Thank goodness Lance had called her name.
Krista had met Lance and his wife, Marissa, a few times, as they lived the closest to Mrs. Worley, and came to visit her more often. They had two daughters, one of which had a little boy who had just turned four. She’d only met Lance’s sister, Lucie, once, but Mrs. Worley had told her about her, and how she’d lost her husband years back and never wanted to remarry. She was raising her three boys on her own. Now, two of those boys were married, and one of them had a three year old little girl, and the other married one had a child on the way. Krista realized she knew these people a lot better than they knew her, except for maybe Marissa. Marissa and Mrs. Worley were very close, even though they didn’t live close to one another. They talked on the phone at least twice a week, sometimes more, and Mrs. Worley talked about Krista to Marissa, a lot. Krista found this out the last time they’d visited and they all treated her like she was a part of their family. Marissa had pulled her aside and told her that as far as Mrs. Worley was concerned, Krista was family and she expected everyone else to treat her as such. And all of them did, to Krista’s surprise.
Now, she was sitting and waiting, and waiting, when a big hand closed around her arm and she heard his voice. “Krista, we need to talk.” She looked up and Kade was towering over her. She just dropped her head and shook it at the table. She heard a chair scrape over the cement patio.
“Is there a problem?” Lance asked. Krista jerked her head up to see Lance—who was not a small guy by a long shot—standing and facing Kade who still looked as though he could break Lance with one hand. She stood quickly between them.
“Kade, this is Lance, Mrs. Worley’s son. Lance, this is Kade.” Done with the introductions, she just stopped talking and Kade jerked his head her way and glared at her.
“Is there a problem, Kade?” She heard Lance repeat his original question just as Marissa walked up, holding a cardboard cup holder with three cups of coffee.
“Kris, honey, is everything all right?” Marissa asked while swinging her gaze back and forth between her husband and Kade. Kade looked pissed off, and Lance looked as if he wasn’t gonna back down and allow Kade to drag her off somewhere.
“Yes, everything is fine. Kade, this is Marissa, Lance’s wife. Marissa, Kade.” And again, Kade looked toward Marissa and then back at her.
Then, Kade leaned down and spoke into her ear. “Krista, we need a minute.” She heard him and also noticed that Kade said it loud enough for Lance and Marissa to hear him also. Krista turned in Kade’s direction, looked at the hand still holding her arm, and then back up at Kade, without actually looking him in the eyes.
“Fine, Kade, let my arm go.” Kade immediately dropped his hand from her arm. “I’ll give you a minute, or until I’m paged.” Krista had already turned and was walking away from Lance and Marissa’s little table. She had walked around the corner of the hospital and was by the doors to go back inside when suddenly, Kade was there, standing in front of her, blocking her path. He reached down, grabbed her hand and walked over to the bench beside the doors. Kade sat and pulled her down to sit next to him, let go of her hand, leaned over, and placed his forearms on his knees.
“I’m so sorry, baby.” Kade looked down, staring at the ground. “Shit was happening at the station and I was being kept in the dark about it. I was pissed and I took it out on you. That’s no excuse for the way I treated you. I know this, but, baby, you gotta’ know how damn’ sorry I am.” He pleaded his case and then turned his head to look at her.
“Krista Avery, please go to the nearest information desk. Krista Avery, please go to the nearest information desk.” She heard her name being called over the loud speakers and jumped up, heading to the doors when she saw Lance and Marissa coming her way. She stopped to wait for them to catch up to her.
When she felt Kade at her back, then his hand threaded his fingers through hers, he bent his head down so he could speak into her ea
r. “You’re not doing this alone,” he whispered so only she could hear him. She turned to look at him to say something, but she wasn’t sure what to say. Then Marissa grabbed her other hand and they all started walking to the doors. They all walked up the information desk.
“I’m Krista Avery. I was paged.” There was a man behind the desk now, and he looked like he was about a hundred years old, but was typing on the keyboard in front of him like he invented it. Then he looked back at her, glanced at everyone in her little group, then back to her.
“Yes, Mrs. Avery—” Before he could say another word, Kade spoke up, interrupting him.
“Miss,” Kade stated this information and everyone turned to stare at him. “Miss Avery, not Mrs.” Like that piece of information was of the utmost importance.
“Yes, of course, Miss Avery. There’s a message for you from Nurse Greene. She says you may go back to the patient’s room and the doctor will be there shortly to talk to you.” The little man informed them all, looking pleasant and sympathetic at the same time.
“Thank you.” Krista gave him a small smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. They all then moved to go back through the patient’s entrance and down the hall to Mrs. Worley’s room to wait some more.
Chapter Seventeen
Kade sat at the small table in the café across the street from the hospital, and beside him, but not close, sat Krista with her elbow on the table and her head resting in her hand. She continued to look down at the table, while she stirred her coffee that she hadn’t added a thing to. The nurse had met with them in the small hospital room and informed them that some of the tests were taking longer than expected, and she would let them know something as soon as possible. Now he was sitting with Krista, waiting. She looked small, so defeated, and so damn sad. He was at a loss. He didn’t know what to do or what to say to her, what he could do to make her feel better. He didn’t know a damn thing. And. He. Fuckin.’ Hated. It! He reached out to touch her and watched her move her arm away. His heart dropped. Just that little movement of her arm away from him felt like a knife shoved into his heart. Then she finally looked up at him.
“Why are you here?” She really didn’t know why he’d come here? Kade was just stunned she could ask him that question.
“When I heard that a 911 call had been sent out to your street, and there was a transport by ambulance for an unconscious patient and you hadn’t answered your phone, I was worried something had happened to you. I got here as fast I could.”
“Wow.” That was all Krista could think of to say.
“What?” He was confused. Did she really think he wouldn’t have been worried about her? Just her not answering her phone sent him into panic mode.
“You said all that without the use of even one curse word.” He tried to smile at her response, but it felt a little off. It wasn’t what she said, it was the way in which she said it. She didn’t sound like herself at all. Her face was blank and her voice was flat, devoid of any emotion. What happened to his Krista? Did he do this to her? Was she that worried about Mrs. Worley, a woman she couldn’t have known longer than six months? How could she feel that deeply for someone she hadn’t even known a year? Then it hit him…he’d only known Krista for just over a week now, and he was falling for her and falling hard and fast.
“Baby, look at me,” he whispered to her as he leaned on the table toward her. She turned and looked at him, but, again, her eyes were blank and flat. “Talk to me,” he damn near begged. He would if he had to. To get his Krista back, he would drop to his knees right here in this little café, and beg her.
“I don’t…I can’t…I…” Krista shuddered and dropped her head. When he placed his hand under her chin to lift her head, she didn’t jerk away. He lifted her up until he saw her eyes. They were no longer void of emotion. They were filled with so much pain that it leaked out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. A pained look that was so fuckin’ deep it was impossible to fathom the true depths.
“Baby.” He choked up, his heart breaking for her.
“I can’t watch someone else I love die, not again. I can’t!” she cried out, then dissolved right into him as the tears and pain racked her body. He brought her over into his lap and held her tight to his chest. He just held her while she cried and cried. He never knew someone who could cry so damn much over a loss, especially a loss that was some time ago. When he felt the wetness of her tears soak into his shirt, he moved. He’d never liked little café chairs, but for once, he was glad to be sitting in one of those little chairs which barely held his ass. Grabbing his wallet, he pulled out a few bills, and threw them on the table before he walked out the door, carrying Krista tightly to his chest. Reaching his truck, he unlocked the door and helped her inside before he got in after her. He turned in his seat, tucked her back to his chest and just held her. Had she watched someone else die? Her mom? Her dad? Both? He had to know, and she had to let some of this pain go, pain that had been eating away at her for years. He continued to hold her, murmuring softly, until she finally, finally, stopped crying.
“Baby, I know the timing is for shit, but can you tell me what happened to your mom?” he spoke softly. So softly, he almost hoped she didn’t hear him. Bu, when her whole body tensed up, he knew she had. She sat quietly for a while, so long, he didn’t think she would even answer. He wouldn’t push her. At least, not right now. Then he heard and felt her taking a deep breath.
“She was killed in front of me, and I couldn’t do anything to save her.” Krista sounded so sad and defeated. He held her just a little bit tighter, trying to lend her his strength. He knew her mom had died, but killed in front of her, and she was only fourteen? He remembered her telling him that her mom had died when she was fourteen. Fuck! He wanted to scream, wanted to go back in time to save her and to save her mom.
“Will you tell me what happened?” He knew he didn’t want to hear what this beautiful woman had been through when she was only a little girl, but he also knew he had to know. He had to somehow find a way to help her, and if he couldn’t help her himself, he would find someone who could. If it took every damn cent he had, he would do whatever it took to un-break this broken soul. That was when he heard her take a deep breath, and he mentally braced for what was to come next, but she just held that breath in…and held…and held…and then he heard her blow it slowly out, and he knew then, that it was bad. Real fuckin’ bad.
“My dad had to go out of town. I can’t remember why, or if I ever even knew why. I just knew he was gone for few days and then it was the day he was coming home. I had school that day, but I begged and begged my mom to pick me up early so we could make a special dinner for dad when he got home. She didn’t like me missing school, especially with me being sick so often that I’d already missed a lot. But, I begged until she gave in. Said she would only work half a day and then would pick me up and we could go by the store and pick out what we wanted to fix. So, she did. We were fixing roast, with all the extras and apple pie too. All of his favorites. We were at home at a time when we shouldn’t have been, wouldn’t have been, if it wasn’t for me.
“Two men broke into the house. I’m not sure why, and cops never really found out the why, but one of them grabbed my mom and held a knife to her neck. The other one grabbed me, trying to drag me from the kitchen. I heard my mom start screaming and I managed to jerk away, and I ran to my mom, but the one who held her pushed the knife into her neck and kept shouting ‘shut up, shut up.’ I froze at the sight of my mom’s blood running down her neck. It wasn’t a lot of blood, but still it scared me and my mom too, because she stopped screaming. The other guy grabbed me again, but this time, I fought him, or I tried to, until the one who was holding my mom said, ‘little girl, watch this,’ and when I looked back at him, he sunk the knife into my mom’s neck, and then dragged it across. I looked into my mom’s eyes and watched as the life leaked out of them, as the blood ran o
ut of her neck. When the one who was holding her let her go, her body dropped to the floor and she was gone, and I just stood there, couldn’t move, and I don’t know if I even tried. I just stood staring down at my mom’s body. Then the one holding me laughed. He laughed and laughed and then jerked me around and ripped my dress down the middle and then…and then he…he—” She never once looked at him as she told him of her fuckin’ nightmare.
“Stop, baby.” Kade was begging her, whispering into her hair while he held onto her. He knew the ‘and then’ part, he knew what had happened to her. “You blame yourself for what happened to your mom?” He stated it like a question, but he already knew the answer.
“It was my fault. And, my dad thought so too,” she whispered this last part, her heart breaking as she remembered. Kade could feel the pain and guilt seeping out of her pores, it was so thick in her words.
“Your dad tell you that?” There was no way the same man she’d talked about before, the one reading fuckin’ Romeo and Juliet to a child, could ever blame that child for something so absolutely horrible.
“No, he never said it, but he changed. Everything changed after that. He was not my same dad, ever again.” More tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“Krista, baby, look at me, sweetheart,” Kade spoke softly and waited until she looked up at him. “What happened to your mom, what happened to you...” He shook his head. “Not your fault.” When she dropped her head, he nudged it back up to look at him again. “That man you told me about, reading Romeo and Juliet to a child, changing his voice to make you smile, to make your mom smile.” He shook his head again, thinking of it all. “No, baby, that man could never blame that child. All you wanted to do was something nice for him, something sweet for him. What happened was fucked. It was completely fucked-up, and should in no way, ever have happened.” He dipped his chin to meet her eyes when she started to look down once more. “Sweetheart, what happened to his wife. To his only child. His little girl. Baby, that broke him. It would any man, not being there to protect what was his. Yeah, baby, he changed, because he had no other way, but that man who loved his daughter would never blame her. Himself, yeah. His little girl? No fuckin’ way.” He leaned in, kissed her forehead, and with his lips still pressed to her, he whispered softly, “Believe me, baby, and know that’s the truth.” Then he kissed her again.
