by Ivy Smoak
"Saved his soul?" James looked like he wanted to laugh.
"Yes. Like I saved yours."
"Is that so?" He raised his left eyebrow.
"Don't look at me like that, James."
"Like what?"
"You know like what. You're in a hospital bed."
"I'm pretty sure last time we were in a hospital bed together and the roles were reversed, I told you that I loved you for this first time. And then I made love to you." He lightly touched my cheek. "I like that I can still make you blush."
"I'm not blushing." I tried to hide my smile.
"You are." His fingers slid to my neck.
"James, you're supposed to be resting."
"I'm tired of resting." His hand slid down my neck.
"The doctor hasn't cleared you for that yet."
"Have you asked?"
"Of course I haven't asked."
"You're blushing again." He gave me one of those smiles that instantly made me wet.
Damn it. "Don't be ridiculous."
"You're allowed to ask when you're allowed to make love to your husband."
"Yeah, when we leave the hospital. You only just woke up. And you can't even stand up without grimacing in pain."
"I'm pretty sure that will make me feel better."
I laughed and stood up as a someone knocked on the door of James' room. My smile faded when someone I didn't know walked in.
"Excuse me Mr. and Mrs. Hunter. I'm Detective Lee. I've been assigned to your case after the arrest of Isabella Hunter. I have a few questions for you."
"Of course," James said. He didn't look like he was in nearly as much pain as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
"After yesterday's incident and a statement from Cliff Stern, we know that Isabella impersonated your maid, Ellen Price, in order to gain access to your apartment. Rob Hunter arrived at the scene after Isabella was already inside. He was hit in the back of the head with her gun and proceeded to fall down the staircase where he struggled to get up and was then shot in the shoulder and hit again in the back of the head until he lost consciousness."
"He was shot after he was already unconscious."
"You were present for the shooting?"
"Yes. I already told Officer Daugherty all of this. Isabella was trying to stage a scenario that made it look like I was the one that was behind James' shooting."
Detective Lee scanned his notes. "Officer Daugherty must have left that out of the notes. Or maybe I'm missing a page. I'll give him a call this afternoon. Isabella is currently being questioned by him at the precinct. For now, could you just run through said scenario again for me real quick?"
Shit. I had already told Officer Daugherty all of this. He had talked about how the scenario didn't make any sense because they would have found out that I wasn't pregnant during my autopsy. So I had to tell him that I was pregnant. I didn't want James to find out like this. "Could we maybe talk in private?"
"Of course," Detective Lee said.
"Baby, it's okay," James said and lightly touched my back. "I want to know what happened."
I exhaled slowly. This didn't really matter. Officer Daugherty already had my official statement. I wasn't even sure why Detective Lee needed to know this. "Yeah, of course. She just wanted to make it seem like Rob and I were having an affair or something. The whole thing was ridiculous."
"Got it," the detective said and jotted something in his notebook. "After you left the crime scene yesterday, we located a duffle bag underneath your bed with a sniper rifle in it. There weren't any prints on the bag or gun and the rifle wasn't registered. Does it belong to one of you?"
"No," James said. "I would never own a gun."
I shook my head. "Isabella was wearing cleaning gloves. That's probably why there weren't any prints. She had broken into the apartment to frame me."
"So there was no premeditation for violence?"
"No, but she didn't hesitate at all to escalate it to that. She tried to kill both Rob Hunter and Cole Porter. And if it wasn't for Cole, she would have killed me."
"Okay," he said and jotted something else into his notebook.
"She mentioned that she had a lot of connections. It made it seem like there were a lot of people working with her. And James and I both found it odd that his lawyer insisted that he had a DNR, since James is insisting that he does not. Could you look into that? Maybe he's one of them?"
"What's your lawyers name?"
"John Litt," said James. "He's a name partner at the law firm Ellis Litt. I really can't imagine him being behind any of this."
"But we'd appreciate you looking into it," I said.
Detective Lee looked back and forth between us and jotted something in his notebook. "I'm going to try again to get a hold of Officer Daugherty to get the rest of the paperwork and an update on the questioning. Hopefully Isabella will be willing to cut a deal to name some of her accomplices."
"A deal? What kind of deal?" Isabella had been right. She'd never end up in prison. We'd never be able to get away from her.
"We'll have to see. I see the situation with Mr. Porter and Mr. Hunter as attempted murder, but there are defenses against that. Your brother, Mr. Hunter, not you Mr. Hunter." He suddenly looked a little flustered. "We're still trying to link her to the other crimes. Was there anything else that you forgot to mention to Officer Daugherty yesterday? Anything at all?"
I frowned. "What about the note where Isabella threatened to end James if he married me? That was a blatant threat. Isn't that enough to prove that she tried to kill James? She even told me she tried to kill him twice."
"We're still looking into it. Unfortunately, like all the other notes in evidence, there were no prints. Is there anything else?"
Neither James nor I said anything.
"Very well. Your doctor wanted to have a word with you. I'll let her know I'm done questioning you. Thanks for your patience with this. We're doing everything we can to sort all of this out."
I found his statement ironic. Because I wasn't being patient at all. And I was furious with the way they were handling this. When he left the room I turned to James. "What if they let her go? What if..."
"Penny. It's going to be okay. We have to let them do their job."
"Since when do you trust them?"
"I don't have the energy to not trust them right now."
It broke my heart to see him in his hospital bed. It broke my heart that I couldn't fix this. "But you have enough energy to have sex?" I wanted him to laugh. I wanted him to not worry about anything. I needed to step up and handle this.
He gave me a small smile. "That's different."
I shook my head. "How about we focus on getting you out of here, okay?"
"That sounds like a great idea," the doctor said as she walked into the room. "How are you feeling today, James?"
"Great." He sat up and kept a level face, not showing his pain at all. But I could see it in his eyes. "Much better. When can I get out of here?"
She picked up his chart and looked at it.
"His birthday is on Sunday," I said. "Is there any way he could be home for that?"
"I think we can arrange that. Even though you were unconscious, your body has been healing for two weeks."
"What about Rob? Will he be able to get out of here soon too?" James asked
She smiled. "I've already agreed to discharge your brother tomorrow morning. He won't stop pestering me to come see you, but I told him I'd change my mind if he refused to rest. But the injuries you sustained were much more serious than your brother's."
"How is he doing?"
"He's acting like he's perfectly fine. The bullet in his shoulder had a clean exit and the break in his leg was also fairly clean, but it's pretty miraculous how quickly he's recovering. I'm sure he'll be stopping by first thing tomorrow morning."
James nodded.
"I'm going to have the nurse come in and give you a few vaccines. And according to your chart you're also b
ehind on some of your regular immunizations. We'll have her administer those too. It's important that you stay on top of those from now on. After a splenectomny, it's much more likely to contract infections. You're at a much greater risk now."
James nodded again.
"And we need to discuss your blood pressure."
"What about it?"
"I have your most recent checkup information from your primary care physician. Which was from six years ago. Your blood pressure was already borderline then. And he had recommended you come in the next year for a follow up. Which you did not."
"It's hard for me to get time off work."
The doctor gave him a stern stare. "Well, James, it's not borderline anymore. You have stage 1 hypertension. Although it is not proven that stress causes long-term high blood pressure, before you woke up, your blood pressure was fine. As soon as you came out of your coma it skyrocketed again. So in this case, I feel like it is related. If you don't make active changes, this is going to become an issue."
"This situation has been stressful. That's all."
"And six years ago? Most people in your physical condition in their early twenties don't have this problem."
James pressed his lips together.
"There are medications we can prescribe to lower..."
"No," he said. "I don't want any medication."
"Then you need to actively pursue a less stressful lifestyle. I'm recommending that you take at least the next two weeks off to fully recover from your splenectomy anyway. And we'll continue to monitor the healing of your lung. Take things slowly. You'll be able to tell when your body can resume normal physical activity. You'll be running again in no time, I'm sure."
"And what about intercourse?" James said without a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
I was mortified.
"As newlyweds, I don't think anything I could say would dissuade you from that," she said and smiled. "But maybe keep it to positions where you exert less effort, though."
Oh my God.
"I'll send the nurse in."
As soon as she walked out I lightly slapped James' shin.
He smiled and slowly put his hands behind his head. "I think reverse cowgirl counts, don't you?"
"What is wrong with you?"
"I'm pretty sure she just said we could do that."
"She also said the nurse was about to come in."
"I stopped listening after that. But maybe that would be good. You always have been excited by the thought of people watching..."
I ignored his last comment. "Well, she also said your blood pressure is too high. That you're too stressed out. I think we need to talk about that."
"I was thinking we should do something besides talk."
I laughed as he pulled me down into his arms.
"I was stressed out when you left me. And I was worried when I woke up. That's it." He put his hand on my cheek. "I'm not stressed out now. I'm sure if she took my blood pressure right now it would be excellent."
"Excellent, huh?"
He pulled my face toward his. "Excellent." His lips gently brushed against mine.
I immediately scooted off the bed when the nurse walked in. I held his hand and looked into his eyes. He didn't even flinch when the nurse started to give him his first shot. For a second I wondered if he had ever taken drugs that way. But I didn't really want to know the answer. That was who he used to be. The man in front of me right now is who he truly is. I was optimistic that nothing would get in the way of our future again. I was still worried about how he'd react to hearing about the baby. But I knew he'd eventually be excited. He had to want it.
***
James had fallen asleep early. When he was in his coma, it had been agonizing to watch him. But it wasn't like this. Now he looked peaceful and happy. Whenever I woke up before him, I always asked him what he had been dreaming about. He always said he had been dreaming of me. I knew that couldn't really always be true, but I loved when he said it.
My phone buzzed and I looked down at the screen. I quickly answered it before it buzzed again. "Hey, Tyler."
"Hey. I heard he woke up."
"Yeah." I smiled at James and then walked over to the window so I wouldn't disrupt his sleeping.
"How is he doing?"
"Good. He's a lot better today than he was yesterday. And I think they're going to discharge him for his birthday."
"And how are you holding up?"
"Better now that he's awake."
He was silent for a second. "The cops stopped calling me. I saw what happened on the news. How Isabella broke into your house. Are you okay?"
"I'm good. And yeah, they arrested her. They shouldn't be bothering you anymore."
"Thanks, Penny."
"How are you?" I held my breath as I waited for his response. Please be good. Please don't be hurting because of me.
He was silent again. "Better. Actually, I met someone."
"Really?"
He laughed. "Don't sound so surprised."
"I'm not. Any girl would be lucky to be with you."
"Oh, no, we're not dating or anything. She actually just needed a ride to the west coast. We're just friends."
"What's her name?"
"Hailey."
"So you're on a road trip with a relative stranger. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
He laughed again. "No, just learning how to live again."
"You're having fun then?"
"Yeah. I'm having lots of fun."
"Good."
"This was exactly what I needed."
"Hailey or the trip?"
He was silent again for a second. "Both, maybe. I should go, Penny."
"When do you think you're coming back?"
"I don't know. I'll stay in touch, though. Tell James I said I hope he makes a speedy recovery."
"I will. And don't pick up any scary hitchhikers."
"I think I'm good with just the one. Bye, Penny."
"Bye."
It wasn't our normal flow of conversation, but he did sound better. I wondered what Hailey was like. Hopefully she was sweet and caring and loyal.
"Who was that?"
I almost jumped at James' voice. I thought he had been sleeping. "Tyler. He wanted me to tell you that he hopes you have a speedy recovery." I sat down on the edge of James' bed.
"I shouldn't have punched him."
"Next time he calls I'll tell him you're sorry."
"I never said I apologized. I just said I shouldn't have done it."
"What's the difference?"
"I should have had enough control not to do it. It doesn't mean he didn't deserve it."
"I don't think you're going to be getting into any fights for awhile."
James smiled. The way the moonlight shining through the blinds hit his face made him look even more handsome.
"And it sounds like he's met someone."
"Yeah?"
"Mhm. Her name is Hailey. He didn't actually say it, but I could tell that he really likes her."
"That's good."
I lay down next to him. "James, you're all that I think about. There's never been enough room in my heart for anyone but you. You never had anything to worry about. And now that we're married? It's a done deal." I smiled up at him.
"A done deal?" He yawned and kissed my forehead.
"I'm sorry that I woke you."
"It's okay. Actually, I almost forgot to ask you. How did you find out Porter's first name?"
I smiled. I had been wondering when he'd ask me that. "I'm just very persistent."
"He's a rock. I know that's not it."
I shrugged. "He could tell how upset I was. He was trying to cheer me up."
"Hmm."
"He told me how you two met too."
"He wasn't supposed to divulge any personal details about his life."
"Have you ever thought that you may have too many rules? It's probably stressing you out."
He laughed.
&n
bsp; "I'm more comfortable with first names. And he saved my life. Calling him Porter is way too formal."
"I haven't gotten a chance to thank him yet."
"It's the middle of the night. Go back to sleep."
"He's out there, isn't he?"
"Paul and him have been taking turns watching your door, yes."
"And you're calling Briggs Paul now?"
"That's his name."
"Well, if Porter is out there, he's already awake. Go tell him to come in."
"He was worried you were going to fire him, you know." I slid off the bed.
"Really?"
"He probably thinks you don't like him because you call him by his last name."
"He asked me to call him by his last name. And I'd never fire him. He saved your life."
The way James said it made it seem like there was nothing in the world that could outdo that. Because he felt the same way I did. He was my whole world. And I was his.
"I'll go get him." I opened up the door. The hallway was completely empty except for Briggs. And he was sitting on the floor. Crying. I let the door close behind me.
"Paul, what's wrong?" I put my hand on his shoulder.
He cleared his throat and stood up. But he didn't look any less exasperated.
"Are you okay?"
He shook his head. "Penny, I'm so, so sorry."
"I already told you that there's nothing to be sorry for. You couldn't have known what was going to happen. Please don't be upset about that."
"No." He pulled out a handkerchief as he shook his head. "I'm sorry for this." He placed his hand with the handkerchief in it over my mouth and pushed my back against the wall.
I tried to scream, but his hand muffled my voice. A strange smell filled my nose.
"They threatened to kill my wife and daughter," Briggs said.
I clawed at his hand.
"I know you understand that. I know you'd do anything to protect him. You have to understand."
I kicked him as hard as I could and reached for his throat. He was so much bigger than me.
"Please forgive me."
I thought my mind would grow fuzzy. Or I'd start to fall asleep. But nothing really happened. My body just felt strange. And the smell was everywhere.
