by K. M. Hodge
Poor kid.
Mari kept looking at her shoes without saying a word.
Jason wondered if she loved Manny. He shook away the selfish thoughts floating around his mind and tried to hear their conversation.
“How is he?” Mari’s voice cracked. “Can I see him?”
The anguished tone in her plea made Jason’s chest tighten. His selfishness bubbled back up again.
It’s barely been a year since we broke up!
The thought fluttered away the moment Sally awoke beside him and he remembered. How could he fault Mari for moving on? He loved Sally and wanted to be with her, so what did it matter? But it did. Somehow it still stung.
Sally sat up, but clung to Jason’s arm, which tingled from the return of circulation.
Her son shot her a quick, worried glance.
“Can I see him?” Mari asked again.
“He’s stable,” Zane said. “The angioplasty procedure went well. We’ve got him in ICU Cardiac Care Unit to keep an eye on him. Julie is in with him. Only immediate family can visit for now.”
Mari’s face fell at the news and a strangled sob escaped her tightly clasped lips.
Zane gave her a look of remorse and patted her hand. “So, Mrs. Richards, as soon as you’re ready, I can take you up to see your husband.” His smile deepened and he gave her a wink. “He’s been asking for you.”
Mari cried and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Thank you!”
“Why don’t I take you to get cleaned up and, by the time we’re done, we’ll be able to get you in.”
Mari leapt from her seat and followed Zane through the secured double doors, marked For Personnel Only.
Once they were out of sight, Jason stood and stretched.
A man in a suit with a hospital badge tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me, Mr. Knettle, Mr. MacAvoy has informed me of your visit and has instructed me to take you to a private suite that we’ve set aside for our very important clientele. Please follow me.”
Jason reached blindly behind him for Sally’s hand and helped to pull her to her feet. The man didn’t seem to be asking them if they wanted to go to the suite, but instead seemed to be telling them. Considering the time and the events of the last few days, Jason didn’t much feel like arguing. A bed sounded like heaven right about now, anyway, so he stepped forward to follow the man with Sally in tow.
“Jason!”
He turned around at the sound of his name being yelled across the room, and smiled a little at the sight of Ellie running towards him, out of breath.
“I came as soon as I could. There was an accident on the interstate.”
Jason let go of Sally’s hand and went to Ellie. He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight. It had been months since he’d left Ellie and Chris’s house in the dead of night to hide out at the cabin. Holding her now, he realized how much he had missed her. She squeezed him back and some of the tension he’d been carrying around with him began to dissipate.
“I should be angry.” Ellie looked over his shoulder at Sally and her jaw dropped. “You’re....”
Jason never thought he would see the day when Ellie was rendered speechless.
Sally just stood there, not saying a word, sleep walking through the whole interaction.
He tried to push down his worry about her health and focus on the moment. Ellie’s confounded glare and the late hour made it difficult for him to get his thoughts in order.
“It’s a long story, Ellie,” he said.
“It always is with you, isn’t it?”
Jason shrugged and looked down at his feet. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”
Ellie cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest. “How’s Manny? Is Mari with him?”
She must already know about them.
Jason pinched the bridge of his nose again. His head pounded and he needed to get to bed, but she had come all this way and deserved to know. “He’s stable now. Julie and Mari are with him.”
“Your friend is welcome to come as well,” the guide said. “There is more than enough room to accommodate.” He pointed to the elevator at the back of the room. “If you’ll just follow me.”
Ellie regarded Jason with a quizzical arch of her brow, but he just waved both her and Sally forward. “Come on. Let’s just go upstairs.” He didn’t have it in him to argue.
They took the elevator to the top floor, which required a key. The door opened up into a wide hallway with three marked doors. The guide handed one key to Jason and another to Ellie.
“What the...?” She glanced at Jason.
Three armed guards waited outside each door, making it seem like their stay at the hospital wasn’t exactly voluntary. The guide gave a curt smile. “For your protection, of course.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Jason clutched the key in his fist while Sally grabbed his free hand and tugged. When he looked down at her, his stomach bottomed out. Her lips formed a tight line and the expression in her sunken eyes seemed to implore him to cut to the chase.
Zane had given his mother medication when they’d arrived, but Jason noticed she didn’t seem to be feeling any better.
“Have a good night’s rest.” The guide turned and returned to the elevator.
“Jason—”
“Ellie, let’s just get some rest and talk about this in the morning, okay?”
Her eyebrows formed an angry line but she nodded.
Jason used his key to open the first door and the women followed behind him. The posh suite had everything anyone could possibly need—no expense had been spared. His and Sally’s luggage sat in the center of the room. “I guess we’ve been moved out of the mansion, Sal.”
Sally harrumphed in response before collapsing on the plush sofa, her eyes closing the moment she hit the overstuffed furniture.
Ellie narrowed her eyes at Sally. “Seriously, what the hell is going on, Jason?”
“War. Good versus evil. Or some kind of shit like that.”
Ellie crossed her arms over chest and pursed her lips—not amused.
“I don’t know,” he continued. “I just found out about Sally a day ago, and Charles... well, he has decided to wage war against Scott, who wants us all dead.”
Ellie buried her face in her hands and groaned. Again, the good doctor appeared to be left speechless.
“I know this all sounds crazy. Because it is!” His harsh whisper came out a little louder than he would have liked. He looked over his shoulder at Sally but she was still passed out cold.
Ellie looked away from him and turned to gaze out the floor-to-ceiling window. “I can’t believe we’re right back in this again. I thought all this was over.” She plopped down on one of the stools at the kitchen island. “How are—”
“I’m fine,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m not going to fall off the wagon, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
She reached for his hand and pulled him over to the seat beside her. “What else is going on?”
“Oh, nothing big. Sally’s getting a new kidney and has a kid. Oh, and Alex is the dad.”
Ellie stared back at him, her mouth agape. After a moment, she took in a shuttering breath. “Oh, Jason, are you sure?”
“You should see him, El. He looks just like Alex. There’s no mistaking it.”
“He never told me. Why wouldn’t he have told me this?”
“She never told him. He didn’t know he had a son.”
Ellie looped her arm around Jason’s shoulders and gave him a squeeze. “This is so messed up, J.”
“I’m glad you’re here.” He returned the hug while stifling a yawn.
“Go to bed and try to get some sleep,” she said, holding up the key to the second suite. “I’ll be right next door if you need me.”
***
Mari’s hands trembled as she crept into the cardiac care unit’s ICU, wearing a pair of scrubs that the young Dr. Ride had been able to scrounge up. By the time she’d made it
to the last curtain on the left, she had almost lost her nerve.
A young nurse in cotton candy pink scrubs saw her and loudly proclaimed, “Mr. Richards, I think your wife is here to see you.” She gave Mari a wide, easy smile. “Come on in, honey.” The nurse, whose tag read Eve, guided her into the cubical space.
Manny, covered in tubes and wires, machines ticking and whirring beside him, seemed so frail to her. Suddenly, Mari felt like she couldn’t breathe, and when Manny reached for her hand, she burst into choking sobs.
He pursed his lips and his eyebrows drooped as he looked up at her. The softness in his eyes caused her chest to tighten. This man loved her—if she didn’t already know it, she knew it now.
The nurse patted Mari’s shoulder as she walked away, leaving them alone.
Mari grasped his hand in hers and brought it up to her chest where her heart thundered. A small choking sob escaped his chapped lips and something inside her cracked.
“I’m sorry, Manny. I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head and tried to open his mouth to speak, but only gibberish came out. The right side of his face slumped and his grip on her hand loosened.
“Nurse!” Mari ran out to the hall. “Something’s wrong. You have to help him!”
***
Zane lay in the dark listening to Julie’s short, uneven breaths, which were punctuated by tiny sobs. He mustered the courage to reach across the bed and hold her hand. Instead of taking it, she rolled over into the crook of his arm and cried against his bare chest. In such a short amount of time, this girl had woven her way into his heart and he was falling hopelessly in love with her.
She tipped her face up to kiss him and he was caught unaware. When she broke the kiss, she pulled her scrubs up over her head.
He followed her lead and made love to her on an expensive bed in a suite at the top of a brand new state-of-the-art hospital where he was chief of the ER. His life couldn’t get any more surreal.
Afterwards, she fell fast asleep in his arms, but he lay wide awake. His smart watch blinked with several messages that he had missed.
Charles: Be here tomorrow at 7 am.
St. Rita’s Hospital Page: Mr. Richards suffered a stroke at 0100 hours. Please log in to system for records of treatment and patient status.
Zane quickly logged into the hospital records and heaved a sigh of relief as he read over the medical chart. Mr. Richards was listed as stable now. He could do nothing more but get some sleep himself.
Tomorrow would bring the tipping point. If he held up his end of the bargain, his mother would get the kidney she so desperately needed, and Charles would be free to murder a murderer. By his breaking the law and his oath as a doctor, things would either get exponentially better or crash all to hell. With his mother involved, he leaned towards it turning all Hindenburg on him.
***
St. Rita’s Hospital
Danville, Virginia
June 28, 2026
6:00 AM
~~~
Jason walked out onto the balcony off their suite and took in the view of the palatial grounds. The hospital, on the outskirts of Danville, overlooked the town on one side and the countryside on the other. He could see the Danville News building—his legacy—at the center of town. It looked so small and unimportant from up this high. He imagined Lisa charging through the doors any minute with a mug full of coffee and an attitude that frightened and inspired most of the staff—she did a much better job at the helm than he ever had. He hadn’t spoken to her in two months, and he made a mental note to call her when he could. At some point, she would worry and send the hounds out after him. No sense worrying about that now, though, with more pressing matters at hand.
He reached inside his pocket and fingered the metal loop he’d kept with him every day for over a year. It was something Manny had given him to remember Sally by—the woman with the nose ring and the bright blue hair that, for a short time, had rocked his foundation.
Speaking of blue....
A blue jay flew past him towards a grove of trees, breaking him from his self-pity party. The sun hadn’t even peeked its head out from behind the horizon yet, but the oppressive humidity choked him with every breath he took—a classic Virginia heat wave. His bare chest and arms prickled from the fine sheet of sweat that coated his body. As he worried his bottom lip, the events of the last few days began to fully sink in.
If the boy did what Charles asked of him, Sally would get her kidney transplant and Charles’s homing beacon. She would take his place under house arrest and he would be free to kill or be killed. A part of Jason hated her for getting them into this mess again, but the louder part of him ached to do anything and everything possible to keep her in his life for good.
Sally came up behind him and touched his lower back. “Ugh... it’s hotter than a goat’s butt in a pepper patch.”
He didn’t take his eyes off the tree line as Sally insinuated herself beside him. His second thoughts about the plan were doubling down, turning his volatile stomach into knots.
“Everything is going to be fine,” she said. “And anyways, worrying over it isn’t helping anything.”
“Why did you come back?” Jason kept his gaze on the tree line.
“How can you ask me that?” She reached for his arm to make him face her, but Jason pulled back.
“I mean it. Why did you pull me back into your life now if you’re going to die all over again?”
“Jason!”
This time she yanked him so hard that he had no other choice but to face her.
“I can’t.” He shook her off and stormed out of the suite, past the guards and towards the elevator. He didn’t stop until he ran smack dab into Zane. He noticed the boy carried his medical bag.
Off to start the ball rolling in this Rube Goldberg madness machine.
“Woah, where’s the fire?”
Jason squared his shoulders and looked away. “Sorry.”
“Are you all right?” Zane narrowed his eyes and tugged on the ends of his stethoscope strung around the back of his neck.
“I’m fine.”
“No offense, dude, but you don’t look fine.” Zane smirked and pressed the down button on the elevator.
“Yeah, well, I’m fine. Thanks for your concern.” Jason began to feel stupid standing in the hall half-dressed and fuming like a toddler.
“Ok-ay, man, we can play it that way.” Zane stepped into the elevator and held out his arm to keep the door open. “You coming?”
Jason shook his head and Zane lowered his hand, allowing the doors to close.
Why am I acting like such an ass? If she dies on that table this morning....
Jason walked back into the suite and into the bedroom.
Sally sat on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands.
He hustled across the room, sunk down onto his knees, and took her by the arms so that he could look her in the eye. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” she said through tears. “I couldn’t stay away. I tried, but I just couldn’t.”
“I know.” He pulled at the back of her knees, maneuvering himself between her legs.
She lowered her head and her lips met his with a sigh.
It didn’t matter that she was a magnet for drama. He could no more deny himself this time with her then he could his lungs the right to breathe.
He pulled away from the kiss and tucked her blonde hair behind her ears. She looked frightened and vulnerable, two things he never would have equated with her before now. She needed him to be strong and support her crazy plan, and as far as he could see, it was the only choice they had right now anyway.
“Marry me.” He held his breath, shocked by his own request.
“Jason....”
A slow, easy smile crept across his face as the tension that held him in a paralyzing grip moments ago released him at last.
“Marry me.” His cheek muscles strained from his broad grin. Her silence, coupled with her qu
estioning gaze, caused his heartbeat to race. “Marry me, Sally. In all the craziness, it seems like the only sane thing to do.”
She stared back at him in disbelief.
If he had blinked, he might have missed the short nod of her head. “Is that a yes?” A small kernel of worry began to popcorn in his gut. Maybe she didn’t want him as much as he wanted her.
A short sob escaped her throat as she nodded again. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
She nodded emphatically this time.
He rose from the floor and lightly pushed her down on the bed, covered her body with his own, and kissed her tear-stained lips.
Come what may, he would enjoy whatever time he had left with her.
***
Charles MacAvoy’s Estate
Danville, Virginia
June 28, 2026
6:45 AM
~~~
Charles paced back and forth inside his narrow office that overlooked a large grove of apple trees on the side of his property. He hadn’t slept a wink in days, too worried that Zane would punk out and leave him stranded.
A knock at his door startled him, and he turned to see his assistant standing in the doorframe.
“Dr. Ride is here to see you, sir.”
“Please send him in,” Charles said. “Oh, and Weston, I won’t be needing you for the rest of the day so you may be excused.”
The poor man never got a break, so it didn’t surprise Charles when he hurried out of the room.
A moment later, Zane entered with a coffee cup, a doctor’s bag, and his get out of jail free card.
Charles knew the boy could lose his license over this stunt, but in the grand scheme of things, it would be a small sacrifice for the overall greater good. Besides, he’d given the kid a cush job and a lab most doctors would kill for.
“Where do you want me, Doc?”
“Lie down on the sofa and take off your shoes and socks.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to run the IV through your foot to make it less noticeable. My ass is on the line here.” The young doctor’s face was drawn and pinched in irritation.
“I’ve got your ass sufficiently covered, so don’t worry about that crap. Let’s just get this show on the road already.”
