"Would you say that we're friends, Beth?"
"Yes, I'd definitely say that we're friends."
"Then what's so above and beyond the call of duty for a friend to help you out? Especially a friend who works for you? We can make it a working lunch. We meet your ex at a public place. We work. When he comes, I'll continue to work while you two talk. I can even step away to give you two a little privacy, but I won't leave you there alone. I'll just be two steps away. He'd be a fool to try anything shady knowing that I'm there."
Blake is a sweetie. That's all there is to it. Just an all around nice guy. I'm not so sure that I want to pull him into my world of crazy, or if I should go back into it myself. Meeting Ethan would be like a suicide mission. If Roman even got a whiff of it, he'd probably blow up the place to get at Ethan. That's even if I'm still high on his priority list these days.
We've been playing phone tag ever since he decided to go to Miami on his lame work excursion. Something about "getting his head together." I'm not convinced. The only things in Miami are beaches, beautiful girls and Kat. So that's why I may have pressured my aunt to tell me a little more about the woman who practically committed statutory rape when Roman was a kid.
I know that her father is Donald Dixon Jr. and he's a self-made real estate mogul who's been friends with Uncle Joseph since they were around my age. He lived with a woman who is Kat's mother for several years until she left him and moved to Florida. Kat went to live with her mother after graduation, and hasn't left Florida since. She's newly divorced, in the film business, and runs some sort of production company in Miami. Supposedly she's hired Roman to do some work for said company.
Puh-lease.
She's newly single. She's a blast from his past. And she's totally manipulating him. Playing the friend of the family card.
"You're doing an awful lot of overthinking on this. Maybe you should tell your guy about it and ask his opinion. If I were your man, I'd definitely want to know what was going on. Especially if there's some risk involved."
"I can't tell him."
"He'd be angry?"
"Yes."
"And would he have a right to be angry?"
"Probably."
"But you're still considering doing it?"
"Yes."
"Do you love both of them or neither of them?"
"I only love Roman."
"Well why don't you text your ex back, and try asking him again for a phone conversation. Maybe he'll agree to it, and you don't have to physically meet him."
Silence falls between us for a moment. I'm thinking about what I've just admitted out loud to Blake, and God only knows what Blake is thinking about me right now. Probably that I am the worst girlfriend that ever lived.
"I want you to understand that my decision about this has nothing to do with Roman. I'm my own woman, and I make my own decisions. It's just that there's a lot that went down with my ex that makes Roman a bit overprotective. And rightly so. But you're right about one thing; I'm totally distracted by all of this. I need to do something."
I'm assuming Ethan won't be open to just a phone call, because he's already asked to meet with me twice, but I figure it can't hurt to ask. I never actually asked. So I pull out my phone and shoot him a quick text.
Me: I can't meet, but I can talk over the phone. Why don't we set up a call.
A few moments later and I receive a response.
Ethan: No texts. No email. No phone. I have my reasons. I can meet you at our diner on Thursday at 3:00. That time good?
I reread his email several times in an effort to process everything he said. Red flags are flying sky high. No texts, no email, no phone? He sounds like he's in trouble. And what does he mean by our diner. He's in lala land. It's my diner. It was always mine. Not ours.
"What did he say?" Blake asks.
"He said no email or phone and that he'd meet me at a diner we used to go to in college on Thursday. I think I'm going to go. It's a public place and the people know me well there. I should be fine."
"I still think I should go if you're not going to tell anyone."
"Even if I were to tell him, Roman's out of town," I say.
"All the more reason for you to take me up on my offer then."
I'm digging myself an even deeper hole than I was already in. The list of little small truths that I'm keeping from Roman continues to grow.
1. Shrek sighting
2. Ethan email
3. Ethan text
4. Getting Blake involved
Plus Jade is still a wild card out there. I haven't heard anything from her in weeks and it's clearly past her forty-eight hour deadline, so I have no idea when she is going to strike.
On top of everything else, now I've got to deal with this additional problem. Kat. I keep imagining all the things a horny teenaged Roman must have done with the very buxom blond.
I know down in my gut that he'd never be unfaithful to me, even while we're going through a difference of opinion, but I can't help but become emotional over it.
Roman doesn't have a lot of friends. I thought I knew them all. Yet this is the first time I've even heard about him having any sort of long-term friendship with any woman other than Jade. He's never mentioned Kat to me, and maybe he hasn't for a reason.
"Sure, let's do it," I say to Blake. I need to get my mind off of this Kat person. "We'll have a working lunch like you said. I'll hear him out for ten minutes, and then we'll eat a really yummy turkey burger and start planning what we want to include in the next update for the app."
"Excellent plan."
"All right, now that that's out of the way, can you pass me a can of Red Bull and show me what this line of code actually does?"
Blake grins triumphantly. "You got it, boss lady."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ELIZABETH
I am freezing.
My eyelids feel dense and heavy like two cast iron skillets.
I want to open them, but I'm not sure that I can. I hear random voices but can't really discern any one in particular. None of them sound familiar to me at all. They're all babbling in some sort of strange foreign language. Using words I've never heard before.
That's when I start to panic.
Where am I?
What's the last thing I remember?
The obvious thing to do would be to start with a visual cue. I work really hard to crack one eye open and regret it immediately, once I notice how bright it is in the room. A room with cream walls, and bright fluorescent lighting across the entire ceiling.
I turn my head gingerly to my left, it feels heavy and very sore, and I notice a stainless steel guardrail. The type of rails you would see attached to a hospital bed. Okay, so I guess I'm in the hospital. Shivering under the thinnest blanket known to man. I know germs multiply in warm environments, but at this rate I'll die from frost exposure. Yet there seems to be something about the frigid temperature which seems to be triggering my memory. I remember being ... cold.
It was raining.
No, I think it was storming.
I was in a car. It's not clear if I was driving or riding along, but I know it was moving fast. I hear voices. At first they sound as if they're trying to speak inside of a long tunnel, their voices distorted and distant, but they seem closer now.
Clearer.
Louder.
One of the voices belongs to a man who I think belongs to me, and it grows in intensity after a series of loud booming thuds and clanks.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ELIZABETH
My head is throbbing.
This must be what a migraine feels like, because I want to throw my shoe at the lights in this room. It's way too bright in here, and I feel nauseous.
I try to turn my head to take a look around. From the little that I can see, I notice that this room looks different then the one I was in before. I notice a mini white board on the wall with my first name written on it and some random numbers under it. One of the numbers w
ritten is 142.
Oh my God, is that my weight up there?
I pretend that I don't see that.
I can't see much else, because my head and neck hurt like hell, and I seem to be in some sort of hard plastic contraption that is affixed around my neck.
I can't hear anything, which seems weird.
No machines.
No television.
No people.
I could hear voices the last time I was awake. I thought I heard familiar ones. So now I'm starting to wonder if I really am awake or am I dreaming?
Why is there no one here to offer me an explanation?
My eyes feel extremely heavy now.
I wish I could stay awake, but it's just too difficult.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
ELIZABETH
It's still so frackin' cold in here, but I think I'm finally starting to remember more. That's the only good thing about the cold. It's triggering more memories.
I was spinning in a three hundred sixty-degree circle.
Round and round and round.
The rain was falling hard.
Freezing rain.
My foot was on the brake.
I was concentrating really hard not to slam on the brakes, but to pump them like my father taught me to do in case my car ever started slipping and sliding in wet weather.
But the car kept spinning.
The brakes wouldn't cooperate.
Not even the emergency brake was working that ... that Blake pulled.
Blake was with me.
Wait a minute. Maybe Blake was driving. I'm not sure. I'm still confused. Oh my God, is he okay? Holy crap, I hope I didn't hurt Blake.
I try desperately to mouth the word Blake. I want to know his condition. Maybe someone will see me moving my lips. Is there anyone in here?
I notice for the first time that there is a nurse call button in my hand. Someone must have placed it there for me just in case I woke up.
I press it once.
Then again.
And again.
I'm going to press it until someone comes into this room and gives me some answers. I need answers. I've got a ton of questions.
How long have I been here? Where is Roman? Why isn't he here? Where's Sloan? Did she tell my parents? Do they know that I'm in here? Someone needs to tell the doctors about my penicillin allergy before they kill me accidentally.
I continue to fall in an out of a rather loopy state of consciousness.
Now I understand.
They must be drugging the hell out of me.
I'm relieved when a rather obese woman dressed in light blue scrubs enters the room. I can hear her before I see her, because her rubber clogs apparently squeak when she walks across the linoleum floor.
Her head bends over the bed and above mine wearing one of the phoniest smiles I've ever seen. Her disingenuous expression tells me that she's tired. Like she hasn't had any sleep in a week and doesn't want to be here taking care of me. But I don't care. She's the first human being I've seen since ... since I don't know when.
"Well top of the morning to you, Miss Hill."
I try to respond with my own verbal greeting, but I can't talk. I can't even open my mouth.
"Try not to talk Miss Hill. Your head took quite a beating in the accident, but the great thing is that you only have a concussion. Could have been much worse."
That explains the raging migraine, but how do I communicate with her?
"Are you in pain, Miss Hill? Blink once slowly for no and blink rapidly twice for yes."
I blink twice.
"You're on a timed morphine drip, but I can call the doctor in to see if we can give you something different or perhaps more frequently. I'm sure everything hurts right now."
I blink twice.
"Is that why you called me, Miss Hill? For the pain?"
I blink once.
This would be a whole lot easier if I could talk. I'm frightened and alone. Nobody I love is in the room with me. The only explanation I can come up with is that they don't even know anything's happened to me.
"I'm sure you're terribly confused, Miss Hill. I'll call the doctor in to explain everything to you. Dr. Hammond is on rounds, but he's due to swing by here soon. Don't you worry, I'll make sure you see him. We're taking good care of you."
I'm frustrated and frightened. I want to ask this nurse a million questions. I don't want to wait for some Dr. Hammond to finally get to me on his rounds. Just one more person who I won't be able to communicate with, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.
One lone tear runs down the side of my face and into my hair. I can't even move to wipe it away.
God, I miss Roman.
Where is he?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ELIZABETH
The next time I wake up, I'm in way less of a fog than I've been in since I've been admitted to the hospital. I'm starting to remember more.
Things are much clearer.
And definitely more painful.
I was in a car accident. An accident that happened after a meeting set with Ethan. Blake was definitely in the car with me, and it happened on a Thursday, although I'm not sure what day it is today.
Blake and I made it to the diner early that day. Ethan wasn't expecting me to arrive so early. He was already seated at a booth directly across from the same man that I saw at Java with the dead, beady eyes. That's when I knew that something was very, very wrong.
"Morning, Miss Hill."
A tall, thin man with a head full of thick, wavy, black hair greets me. He's wearing a set of sea green scrubs with a white doctor's coat on top. The name Jarrett Hammond, MD is written in script lettering on the left hand side, and he doesn't look a day older than thirty even though I'm sure he is by the crinkles at the corners of his eyes.
He must be my doctor.
I remember squeaky shoes nurse telling me that name.
Dr. Hammond.
I make an attempt to smile in response to his greeting, but it hurts too much. My head is still pounding, and it hurts when I swallow.
"My name is Dr. Hammond, and I'm your attending physician. You were in a serious car accident, but you seem to be healing quite nicely. So nicely that you've been moved from intensive care into a regular room. They moved you last night, so that's great news."
Now that he mentioned it, I did notice the room is different. Not as bright as the other. More cozy touches such as curtains and a printed spread on my bed. I also notice flowers. Lots of them.
So people do know I am here.
But where is everyone?
"I'm sure your head is a little sore. No worries, Miss Hill, things are healing nicely. Let me tell you what's going on all right?"
I anxiously blink my eyes yes.
"You were in a car accident ten days ago."
Ten days!
"You suffered multiple injuries including a concussion, a severe vocal cord injury, a broken leg, and a few of your toes were crushed as well on that same leg. You've been in intensive care for eight days, mainly because of the severity of the concussion and the fact that we couldn't keep your temperature down, then you were in a surgical recovery room for one day, and now you've been in this regular bed for one day.
"We had to perform surgery on your leg and toes which were crushed badly by the impact of the car pinning you inside, and we gave you a bulk injection treatment in the vocal cord area to help facilitate healing there.
"You seem to be moving your fingers and the toes in your other leg well, and you seem to have feeling in all of your other extremities, so we are satisfied that you didn't suffer any permanent damage to your neck or spinal cord. You will need to recover from your surgery for a few days, and then go through some rehabilitation for your leg and vocal cords.
"The best news though is that your baby survived and seems to have suffered no permanent damage by the impact of the crash. It's a miracle really. I'll schedule another sonogram with obstetrics, so you
can hear the heartbeat tomorrow, okay?"
BABY?!
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ROMAN
I'm completely mind fucked. Spread across the granite island in my kitchen are the parts to three different pieces. My favorite guns. Weapons that have never let me down and have seen me through some serious shit. I'm wiping each piece down with a soft, white cloth, trying to calm myself down, while Jade pours me a highball of Jack.
It's almost like déjà vu.
We've both done this dance before.
The tiny terror is moving around my apartment very stealth like. Quiet. Calculating. She knows me well. I don't feel like talking, so she doesn't say anything to me. I don't want to even think right now. So she gives me a large drink to numb all of the shit swirling around in my head. I probably should just take the bottle and spare her the formalities of pouring the shit in a glass with some ice.
While I appreciate that she isn't asking me questions, Jade's silence speaks volumes. It's like a blaring, painful reminder of how my own girlfriend doesn't know me at fucking all. A reminder of how I had no clue that any of this was coming. A reminder of my failures yet again as a man. Her man.
Doesn't she know I don't like surprises? Doesn't she know that I would put a thousand motherfuckers to ground for her? Why did I let this stupid, not barely speaking "space" shit go on between us for so long. What a waste of time. I don't even remember what the last thing I said to her was.
I angrily chuck a case of ammo across the room and watch as bullets fly in the air and scatter across my living room floor. Jade still says nothing as she slides the drink slowly towards me and then turns around and pours one for herself. I haven't said much these past few weeks to her or anyone else. Not since I got the call from Joseph.
"Are you back in town?"
"Yeah, got in late last night before the storm hit."
"So you haven't heard."
"Heard what?"
"Elizabeth is in Penn Hospital. We're on our way there now."
He waited for me to say something in response, but all I could hear was heavy silence over the phone and a dull ringing in my ear.
The Cousins Series Boxed Set Page 55
