“Well, it’s not really...” When Max looked at the man, he shut up instantly. “Absolutely my Dominor, as you wish.” The doctor looked down at Lou and she rolled her eyes at him with a grin that made him laugh. “Alright, I’ll let you all visit with the patient but remember, not too long! She needs rest and calm.” His voice was stern as he looked at her visitors before he left the room.
All the faces were looking at her as if she was about to die and it was starting to freak her out.
“Stop looking at me like that!” She finally said. “He said I’m going to be fine so quit looking at me like I am going to knock off at any second.”
The faces instantly lightened, all but Max’s. He stood there watching her like she was a ticking bomb about to blow up in his face. She looked at him and cocked her head sideways, at least as best she could.
“What’s with you Mister Grump?” She raised an eyebrow when he didn’t respond. “Hey gang, can you give us a minute?” She looked at her mother first and she nodded and smiled knowingly, then got up.
“Come on boys and girls, lets go check with the doctor what we can feed our patient and whip something up for lunch.” Shevaun lead them all out of the room while Max simply stood there, continuing to stare at her with that pained expression on his face.
“Max, you are seriously freaking me out. What is wrong with you?” Lou demanded.
“Wrong with me?” His eyes went wide at her question. “Nothing is wrong with me! You, on the other hand!”
“What? What’s so wrong with me that you are looking at me like I’m going to implode?” She could see by the look in his eyes that he didn’t want to answer the question. “Get me a mirror.” She told him but he just continued to stand there. “Get me a mirror or I’m gonna get up and go look for myself!”
He grumbled but turned to do as she asked. After hearing him fumble around in her bathroom for a minute, he came back with a hand mirror and sat down on the side of the bed next to her.
“I am so sorry.” he said as he handed it to her.
Lou expected a horror the way he was being so dramatic so she took a deep breath as she looked. Oh yeah, her face was toast for sure. Her old black eye was entirely refreshed to a lovely raspberry black and the other side matched nicely, though the swelling explained why her vision was off. She had really expected that though, given how hard the bastard had whacked her. She also had expected a slash across her throat but there was no bandage there as she examined herself. Lou suddenly realized she had no idea what the hell she was wearing and thought that should have occurred to her before everyone and their cousin came sauntering into her room. But she figured her mother would have made sure she was properly covered given Max was there and all. So upon further inspection, it appeared she was wearing some sort of one-shouldered toga style nightdress that was fastened over her right shoulder. That made sense when she looked to see the heavy bandages that covered her left shoulder and continued down and across her chest in a diagonal direction. She looked at Max and scrunched her nose as she thought a moment.
“Turn around.” She said to him.
“What?” It wasn’t what he was expecting her to say, obviously.
“Yeah, I know you saw me buck naked but that was different, so turn around!” She made a turning gesture with her right hand and he did as she asked.
Lou resumed examining herself and pulled the nightdress away from her so she could see just how far the bandages went. Apparently Albert had cut her crossways from left shoulder, across her chest, breast and all, then down to the bottom of her right ribs. The bandaging was so heavy that she had no clue how deep or thick the slash was.
“How deep did he go?” She asked as she put the fabric back in place to cover everything. “You can turn around now.” Max didn’t turn around and didn’t answer. “Look at me!” She managed a semi-intimidating growl and he finally turned. She saw the tears in his eyes that he was fighting.
“I almost lost you.” Was all he could manage.
“Max...” Lou reached and took his hand. “... You didn’t. I am here and I am going to be fine. I just want to know and I need you to tell me.”
He laced his fingers with hers and stroked her hand gently with his other hand. “He nicked your heart and lung. I was able to put pressure long enough for the med-team to get you patched so we could air-lift you out.” He took in a deep breath before he continued. “You were in surgery for eleven hours.”
“Wow. What the hell day is it? How long have I been out? How did you get me home?” She started hurling the questions at him in her normal fashion and it eased his gut to hear her as her normal self.
“They had you in a drug induced coma because of the pain and you needed to stay still. That was for three days but then you wouldn’t wake up. After three more days, I talked with you’re mother and Joe and we felt that bringing you home might make you feel safer so you would want to wake up. That was two days ago”
“Holy crap! So I’ve been out for like nine days? What’s today?” She was utterly shocked.
“It’s Tuesday.” Max hated telling her how much time she had lost. “Vinny should be here any minute actually, it’s after five and he’s come every day after work.”
When Lou thought of the implications, she realized she must be catheterized and that just utterly embarrassed the hell out of her, with him sitting right next to her.
“Get the doctor and my mother, now!” She shouted at him and pulled her hand away.
“What?! Are you alright? What hurts?!” His face went white.
“Just go! Please!” She could see he was about to freak out and she swallowed her mortification so that he would calm down. “I have to pee if you must know! Now go!”
He was so relieved that she was alright and it was just her normal stubborn pride that he gladly went and fetched the doctor and Shevaun as she asked.
Fifteen minutes later, and much to the doctor’s dismay, the catheter was out and Lou was hobbling to the restroom with her mother under one arm taking the brunt of the weight and the rolling IV stand on the other for stability. When Lou was done, she had her mother stop in front of the wall mirror so she could get a good look at herself. Ironically, her bandage reminded her of those sashes that the beauty pageant contestants wear because that was the length and breadth of it. But her face was so black and blue, she was not anywhere near the realm of a beauty. Christ, she thought, it was over a week and she still looked this bad. It was probably a blessing in disguise that she didn’t see herself then, or remember anything of that last week. Her mother could sense Lou was getting upset and promptly ushered her back to bed.
“Can you get Max for me please, Momma? I need to know what happened.” Lou asked as she relaxed and let her body sink into the soft bed and tried to tune out the pain.
“You bet. Be right back.” Shevaun kissed her daughter’s forehead before heading out to get Max.
When he came back into the room Lou could tell he had washed his face and slicked his hair back with water. The rich brown was glossy with the dampness and she just wanted to run her fingers through it, but she kept a lid on that little impulse. He sat back down on the bed next to her and took her hand again. She really liked the way her hand felt in his and thought she could get used to it.
“Feel better?” He asked her with a half smile.
“Much, thanks. Now what happened? Is he dead?” She looked at him intently at tried to read the look on his face.
“We will get him. He won’t get far and everyone, every last Sanguinostri knows I want his head on a platter.”
“He got away?! You let him get away?!” She tried to sit up, but the pain speared at her and made her wince. She let herself sink back into the bed as he tried to soothe her.
“I couldn’t let you die! I wouldn’t! Given the same choice now, I won’t! So be mad at me all you want!” He tried to look smug but he was too worried about wh
at she thought of him for all of it.
“So you whacked his arm instead of his head so he couldn’t slice my throat?” She was remembering as best as she could and he only nodded in reply. “Alright, I guess that’s okay. He said something about his boat sailing sooner rather than later. Hey! Have Finn read me! He can see things I may be missing!”
“Lou, we will get him, I promise you that.” He wanted to touch her cheek but he didn’t risk hurting her with her face as badly bruised as it was.
“I know why, I figured it out. He hates you because Nila loved you and not him.” She didn’t dare look him in the eye as she said it. She didn’t want to see that he still loved Nila and still mourned her after all these years.
“Yes, we figured that out too. It was hard to comprehend but I never knew he harbored such hate for me and...” He tried to find the right words. “... I am so sorry I got you involved in all of this. That I caused you such pain and suffering.”
She looked at him now, surprised that the pain she saw in his eyes wasn’t for Nila but for her.
“What are you talking about? You think you did this?” He looked down, avoiding eye contact. “Don’t do that, you look at me!” She yanked on his hand and he looked back into her eyes. “Albert is a nut-job who used his former prestige to hide behind while he did his own little crazy dance across the world. He picked me because he thinks you have some sort of thing for me but he could have easily picked Abby or even Caroline! This was not your fault. I don’t want to ever hear you say anything so stupid again!” It was hard to miss the grin that spread across his perfect lips but she tried not to let it get to her. “What are you grinning at?”
“Your mother said almost the same exact thing to me while you were missing. It’s because of her that I figured out where he had you.” He rubbed his thumb absentmindedly across her fingers as he held her hand snugly. “And you must know by now, Lou, I very much do have some sort of thing for you.”
She could feel her face get hot and her breath hitched when he said it. “Yeah well I should imagine any guy would after seeing me strapped naked in a chair.” She tried to make light of it and chuckled nervously.
“I covered you immediately, I promise. As soon as I could, I got my jacket over you so you were covered before the others came in.” The childlike quality in his face as he reassured her of her modesty was almost more than she could stand. But it was an effective dodge tactic obviously by his reaction.
“Thanks, I’m sure it wasn’t a pretty sight.” It was cruel, she knew it but she couldn’t help herself. She had to rib him a little and she could tell it worked.
“I... uh...” When he saw the grin hit her eyes he furrowed his brow. “That’s just mean! Of all things you should know I am a gentleman and would never exploit such a grave situation for a cheap thrill!”
“Oh! So now I’m a cheap thrill!” She had to laugh but it hurt incredibly to do so.
“Stop being such a brat, you’re going to hurt yourself just for the kick of watching me squirm!” He let go of her hand and tried to adjust her pillow to make her more comfortable.
“I can’t help it...” She hissed through the pain. “You just set yourself up so badly for it.” She drew in a deep breath as the worst of the pain passed.
He brushed her hair from her face, smoothing it very carefully. “I’ll argue with you when you’re better. Hardly a fair battle with you in this state.” She turned her head to look at him again, pinning his hand with her cheek. Her face fit so perfectly in the palm of his hand. He hoped it wasn’t hurting her. When she smiled he knew it was alright, and he happily left his hand right where it was.
“So what does everyone think? I mean its not like the department could know the truth so what’s the story?” She blinked lazily and listened for his reply.
“Well that is a little convoluted and I am sure we will need to go over certain things later, but bottom line is you took the suspect down. He got a good swipe in on you before he dropped. Since your captain was at the gala, you had gotten word to him for back up. Evidently he was a tad late but got to you in time. Viola’, here you are.” Max grinned down at her and his heart broke to see her looking so battered and bruised.
“Suspect? What suspect? Bender doesn’t get to go down in infamy?” Her eyelids began to feel ever so heavy.
“I found Albert’s little henchman propped up sitting in the hall. Dead as a doornail with one of Albert’s knives sticking out of his chest. We just did a little rearranging and he’ll be pinned with the other murders. Bender still gets to live in infamy for Katarina Purrs’ demise.” He reached over with his other hand and stroked her hair. He could see that she was about to fall asleep. “I know its difficult for you, having to cover all this up with a lie, publicly. I’m very sorry about that. I promise you, though, Albert and any soul that helped him over the years will see justice.
Lou yawned and grimaced at the pain of it. “Oh I know. I’m good with it.” She let her eyes close and snuggled into the palm of his hand. “Hey is your house done yet?” She tried to keep her eyes open but just couldn’t.
“Not yet.” He watched her fight the sleepiness that washed over her and it made him grin.
“Bummer. Maybe my Mom will let you stay over so we can talk more later. I might fall asleep on you. Sorry, just so sleepy.” She barely got the last word out before she was out cold, sound asleep with her head still tucked in his hand.
“I am not going anywhere, ever.” He risked leaning down to kiss her cheek softly then propped himself as best he could without disturbing her so that she could sleep as she was. If he had his way, he planned to keep her in the palm of his hand forever.
About the Author
A native Southern Californian, Mell Corcoran resides just outside Los Angeles with her family, two cats, a hoard of wild frogs, bunnies, squirrels and any other wild animal that happens to wander in the yard. Yes, she is a huge animal lover and has been known to stop traffic to help critters cross the street.
For many years, Mell’s day job has been in the legal profession but she has always had a strong passion for writing and a deep love of literature, regardless of genre. It was this passion that finally led her to focus her energies primarily on writing.
Mell and her mother, who also happens to be her best friend, are well known for their shared love of a good mystery and crime fiction. This shared interest is what inspired the special relationship between her characters, Lou and her mother Shevaun. When she is not dreaming up new plot lines for a juicy murder mystery, Mell can often be found attempting to play golf or laughing with her family.
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