by Alice Sabo
A commotion at the front door interrupted them. Before either of them could get to his feet, the door flew open and Ellie walked in.
Chapter 13
He didn’t actually see her cross the room. One moment Ellie was at the door, and his heart skipped a beat. The next second, she was hugging him. He didn’t care how much it hurt. She was here, and he didn’t need to worry about anything now.
Asher let go of Ellie reluctantly. “I can’t believe you’re here. Did you bring the kids?”
She kissed his cheek before settling on a footstool in front of him. “Bunny called. He said you’d been hurt. Mom was happy to take the kids for a couple days.” She scooped up his hand to examine the bandages.
He stared at the way the sun, coming in the window, shone on her auburn hair. He had missed her so much he could barely speak. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
She turned her attention to his face. Her eyes skipped over the lump on his forehead, then down to meet his eyes. “Me, too.”
“Can I get you some coffee, Mrs. Blaine?” Jeff asked, He stood nervously in the kitchen doorway.
Asher choked back a laugh as Ellie’s sharp blue eyes narrowed. She had chosen not to take Asher’s name when they married. Since she’d already established herself in her own right, she didn’t need his name, or the baggage that came with it. “Yes. Black.”
“That’s Jeff,” Asher said quietly.
“Mmhmm.” Ellie checked his other hand, then examined his swollen ankle. “Anything broken?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Bunny said you didn’t go to the hospital.”
Did he do that wrong? Now he had doubts. Asher sipped his coffee to avoid her eyes. She could look right through him and see any lies. But he would never lie to her. He hoped that she knew that. “No.”
“I have some calls in to a couple of local sports medicine places. I want to make sure you didn’t do any permanent damage.”
“Okay.” Her matter-of-fact tone helped him relax. He hadn’t done anything wrong. She would have let him know. He hated falling short of her expectations. And he loved that her expectations of him were so high.
Jeff brought Ellie her coffee. He stood uneasily in the middle of the room. Asher wasn’t sure if he wanted to finish the previous conversation with him. The rules he had with Ellie were private. “Any biscuits left? Ellie, his biscuits are exceptional.”
“I’m starved,” she said. “The flight served the worst sandwich I’ve ever eaten.”
“Yes’um.” Jeff darted into the kitchen.
“He’s a good kid,” Asher said under his breath.
“Good.”
Jeff brought out more biscuits, butter, cheese and some apples he’d sliced. Ellie settled in with the food and started making plans. Asher couldn’t stop smiling. He watched her eat. She juggled food with her phone and a tablet that she was making lists on. Ellie was very good at lists. She’d set it all straight, and he wouldn’t have to think too hard since his brain still felt mushy, and his legs were throbbing in a way that ran up his spine and made his head feel like it’d been put on wrong. He thought back to his conversation with Bunny. Ellie didn’t run his life. She helped him with the things he didn’t do well. He’d have to think about how to return that favor.
After she finished eating, Ellie gave him a pill and escorted him to bed. He didn’t question what the pill was. Ellie kept all the medication, even the vitamins, because swallowing pills was his worst addiction. He trusted her implicitly, knowing that she wouldn’t do anything to derail his sobriety. It was equally as important to her. She sorted out his blankets for him and tucked him in with a kiss on his forehead. A little off centered because of the massive egg he’d gotten bashing his head on the cliff. He watched her leave the room, wishing she’d stay till he fell asleep.
Ellie closed the bedroom door with her heart in her throat. She’d been in a panic to see Asher since Bunny’s phone call. She’d caught the first flight out, worried to death about him. He was stressed enough about being on his own, and now this.
Jeff peeked out the kitchen door. “More coffee, ma’am?”
“No, I’m fine. Why don’t you go on home?” Ellie noted the look of disappointment. Was the kid hitting Ash up for money? Her husband was a soft touch for a hard-luck story and looking at the kid’s worn clothes and drawn face, he definitely fell into that category. Asher had a history of hiring the wrong people. At one point, Sharon had been flat-out stealing from him, and he hadn’t put an end to it.
As Jeff was leaving, Bunny arrived. “You’re here already,” he said, greeting her with a ritual set of air-kisses.
Ellie dropped into the chair Asher had been in. She waved Bunny to a seat across the room. “What happened?”
“I was hoping Asher would be awake to tell me,” Bunny said with a shrug. “I told you everything I know on the phone.”
“Who was driving? Not the kid?” A spike of panic went through her at the thought that someone was after Ash again. That time was a horror she didn’t want to revisit.
“No, it was Oscar. He’s at the hospital. I don’t ask about the details when he gets hurt, so he probably won’t call until he’s ready to come home.”
“This is bad,” Ellie groaned.
“Last night, he seemed shaken up, but not fragile. He hasn’t had a drink that I’ve seen,” Bunny assured her. “I’m amazed he’s keeping it together as well as he is. Believe me, I had more than a few glasses of wine last night and I wasn’t in the avalanche.”
“Me, too,” Ellie confessed. She didn’t drink at home, but allowed herself a couple of drinks on the plane. “It’s the pain I’m worried about. He can block it pretty well. I was surprised how well he handled it when he broke his hand and again when he got shot, but—”
“Wait.” Bunny scooted to the edge of his chair. “Did you say shot?”
Ellie nodded. “He faced down a drug dealer. . .” Her throat tightened, making it hard to speak. She didn’t want to finish that sentence. They had spent months getting past the repercussions of that night in the alley. Asher still had nightmares.
“Good Lord, was this while he was using?”
“No, it was when he was trying to find a murderer.”
“He did what?” Bunny stared at her wide-eyed.
Ellie waved the question away. It was too long a story for right now. “He’s in a lot of pain. I gave him. . .something that will take the edge off, so he can sleep.”
“Non-narcotic?”
“Of course.” She was feeling defensive. “He needs sleep to heal.”
Bunny nodded. “That was a good idea.”
She relaxed a little hearing Bunny’s agreement. Balancing Ash’s pain tolerance against his refusal to take pain meds wasn’t easy. She didn’t want to interfere with his sobriety or his ability to heal. “How stressed has he been?”
Bunny rolled his eyes. “Darlin’ same as all of us. Mayhem in the woods. Explosions and wildfire. Now this avalanche—”
“Rock slide,” she corrected.
“Whatever.” Bunny settled back into the chair. “He isn’t acting any weirder than any of us. But I thought he was calling you every night.”
“He is. I can’t always tell when he’s covering up.”
Bunny’s eyebrows rose. “Covering up what?”
“Panic.”
“He depends on you for a lot. How are you holding up?”
“What has he said?” She didn’t like the tone in Bunny’s voice. He was definitely probing.
Bunny shrugged. “Just that. He talks about you all the time. How you keep him on the straight and narrow.”
Ellie sighed. “Not really. He can do that for himself well enough. When I found him in Torrance, he was doing it all on his own. And Ash doesn’t do alone real well. That he was sober and functioning despite it, really impressed me. That’s when I knew he had changed. So I know he’s capable of taking care of himself, but he gets worked up about the past. Es
pecially on a big gig like this. He starts second-guessing himself. There are a lot of people that are very angry at him for how badly he screwed up. Sometimes that weighs on him.”
“So when he says he needs you?” Bunny asked.
Ellie smiled. She could hear Ash saying it. “Don’t you need Oscar?”
Bunny’s mouth quirked in a saucy smile. “Well, when you say it that way.”
Asher woke, surprised that he’d slept. There were voices in the living room, but they were so low, he couldn’t recognize any of them. This time his hands worked a little better, so getting out of bed wasn’t quite as much a chore. He shuffled into the living room to find Bunny, Ellie and George.
“George!” Asher tried not to grin because he knew how much it would hurt.
“Hey, you. God, you look like a raccoon.” George gave him a wincing smile. “How do you feel?”
“Better.” George was one of his oldest friends next to Ellie. They had made a movie together that had sent them both rocketing into stardom. George had become a well respected director in high demand. Asher had followed a similar trajectory until drugs and booze shrank him down into an unreliable hack. George had walked away long before Ellie did. Asher was still earning his friendship back.
Ellie came over and escorted Asher to the armchair he’d been in earlier. She scooted the footstool over then lifted his bad ankle up onto it.
“Yikes,” George said. “How did you do that?”
“I have no idea,” Asher said.
George’s face changed. His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched “You don’t remember?”
A hot flush ran up Asher’s neck to his cheeks. He was an innocent victim here, but George had been burned too many times to give Asher the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s common with trauma,” Bunny said.
Asher silently blessed him for coming to his rescue. Hearing it from a third party would validate it for George.
“He probably had so much adrenaline pumping that he didn’t feel the pain when he sprained it. I can’t tell you how many times Oscar walked away from some stunt disaster feeling fine and an hour later, he’s off to the emergency room.”
Asher deliberately met George’s eyes. “It was bad. The car rolled off a cliff. I hardly remember anything but being scared to death.”
“You’re lucky you could walk away from it. You sure it’s just a sprain?” George asked. He came over to inspect the ankle more closely.
“We’ve got an appointment tomorrow morning to have him checked out,” Ellie said. “But I think a break would be too painful to walk on.”
Bunny nodded agreement. “I’ve seen plenty of breaks. I think it’s just a sprain.”
For once Asher didn’t mind people talking about him. In a way, it was reassuring. No part of this was his fault. He hadn’t done anything stupid.
“So what the hell is going on?” George asked. “You’ve been in two car crashes, an explosion and found a body?”
Asher’s heart sank. There wasn’t a lot of heat in George’s question, but there was some worry. “I don’t think it’s about me,” he said, but his voice sounded weak in his ears. Lined up like that, things looked more dire than he’d realized.
“The explosion had nothing to do with him,” Bunny said indignantly. “I was here, too.” He waved in the general direction of the guest house. “We were all evacuated. The fire came nearly to the cottages.”
“And the car crashes?” George asked.
Asher scrutinized him to see how much anger fueled the question. George needed straight answers. “I wasn’t driving,” Asher said carefully. “The first accident was carelessness. Driver was on the phone. No one was hurt.”
“But Oscar got hurt.” George said flatly.
Asher knew he needed to proceed cautiously. Hysterics wouldn’t help, although he did feel like screaming at George that none of this was his fault. “We were coming back from the stables. Oscar took me up there to meet the horses and Ed. It was raining. Oscar was driving. A rock slide hit the car.”
George paced the small room. “Oscar was driving.”
“Yes,” Asher answered.
“Who else knew you were going to be up there?” George asked.
“Oh for Pete’s sake, George, this isn’t some conspiracy,” Bunny snapped at him. “It was a rock slide.”
“That seems pretty elaborate for someone to stage,” George conceded. “Was anybody else involved?”
“No. Thank God. The whole road is gone,” Asher said.
George spun back to Asher. “Gone? Are you sure? I thought it was just a little debris. That you guys rolled into a ditch?”
“He said cliff, George,” Bunny interjected. “Off a cliff.”
“I saw it when the cop brought me back here. The whole road broke away from the mountain. It’s all gone. Luckily, we were thrown toward the edge of it, so we didn’t get buried.” Asher hugged himself. Ellie put her hand on his arm. It felt so good to have her next to him.
“Do they think sabotage?” George asked. “Terrorism?”
“Really, George? To what point?” Bunny asked sharply. “Is there a top secret lab at the top of the hill hidden behind the stables? You’ve been reading too many B-movie scripts. The truth is a bit more mundane. It’s a wet year. The hill gave way. There was a rock slide on the news just the other day. Blocked the interstate. This is the mountains. It happens.”
Bunny’s protest sounded a little strident to Asher, but he was relieved that his own fears were being laid to rest. It was a year and a half since the murders that had nearly sent him to prison. His life had changed completely after that. He wouldn’t let something like that happen again. Not now that he had a family.
It couldn’t be about him, but a finger of doubt walked goose bumps down his spine. He’d thought the same thing before when people he knew had gotten killed. This time he had to be smarter. Who else knew his schedule? He was making it up on the fly, so no one would know where he was at any point in time. Besides who in all of North Carolina cared enough to try to kill him?
Chapter 14
The appointment at the sports medicine clinic was painful. After a lot of poking and prodding, Asher was declared bruised, scraped and sprained. A physical therapist was assigned and a plan was made. He’d gotten to appreciate plans. He liked knowing what he was supposed to do, and that he was doing the right thing. It was similar to having rules. It let him know what was expected of him because somewhere along the way, he hadn’t learned that. Other people seemed to know it instinctively. Maybe it was all the drugs, a little brain damage perhaps, but he had a hard time figuring out how to act or react in many situations. Ellie knew that. She understood him. He knew that he could depend on her to explain things to him when a roomful of people were giving him that look.
After the appointment, Ellie took him into Asheville for a wonderful lunch at a tapas place. With two black eyes and crutches, he didn’t look like a celebrity. And he especially didn’t look like himself. They got a few concerned gazes. People went out of their way to open doors and help him out on the stairs. Asher was beginning to think that he might be safe from the paparazzi here in the mountains. With all that had happened, there hadn’t been a peep in the media. Something he was extremely grateful for.
Their waitress suggested they stop by the tourist center. Feeling game, and very stuffed full of rich food, Asher agreed. It was a beautiful day in the mountains. September seemed like the perfect time of year. Nights were getting cooler, but the days were still warm. He was happy to be out with his wife enjoying it. They found a bus tour that drove around town to see the local monuments and points of interest.
As Ellie bought tickets for the tour, Asher perused the display racks of things to do in the area. Rock climbing was right off the list. The picture on the cover made him feel weak in the knees. He deliberately looked for something more grounded. There were caves to explore and rafting on the river and zip lining. At the moment, that all sounded
a little too energetic. He checked for the more colorful flyers of things to do with kids and had collected a few by the time Ellie came over. “Look at this. Gem mining.”
She glanced through the brochure. “Emeralds? This says they’ve got the only emerald mine in the country.”
“Cool.” Asher held out another brochure. “This one gives you your own bucket and shovel. Think Thomas would like that?”
Ellie shook her head, a fond smile on her face. “Only if he can dig for dinosaur bones.”
They boarded the bright red trolley and listened to the driver announce the sites. Asher had never done anything like this. The driver was an older man with an excellent voice. Maybe he could do something like this when he retired. Drive around in a beautiful place and tell stories. He stared at the other people on the bus, couples mostly. He watched their behavior and the reactions of the people around them. It seemed like it was okay to put his arm around Ellie. His shoulder hurt when he raised his arm, but he did it anyway. Ellie leaned against him.
“This is nice,” she said.
He kissed the top of her head because that was almost always okay. “Yes, it’s very nice.”
Despite the pain, it was a wonderful afternoon. On the long drive back to the Kozy Kottages, Asher had trouble staying awake. “How long can you stay?” he asked Ellie, fighting a yawn.
“I have a flight back tomorrow.”
“That soon?”
She reached across and gave his wounded hand a gentle squeeze. “Sorry Sweetie, but I wasn’t supposed to come out for another two weeks. We planned this out last month. I’ve still got commitments, meetings, things to wrap up before I can join you.”
Asher reluctantly nodded his understanding. While he’d been getting sober, Ellie had used her connections to get involved with producing. She had established herself quickly. Now she was the one that was bringing in the big bucks, and he was okay with that. It gave him more time to be with the kids and to choose the jobs he really wanted. But that also meant she sometimes had to put in long hours. The project she was working on now had been delayed. Originally, the whole family was going to come out together, but the pre-production meetings had stalled, and now he had to be on his own until she was done. “This is harder than I expected.”
