The Damaged Heroes Collection [Box Set #1: The Damaged Heroes Collection] (BookStrand Publishing Mainstream)

by James, Sandy

  * * * *

  When Laurie opened her eyes again, she was both amazed and very pleased Ross still sat by her bed. Then she noticed Andrew and Deepika were also in the room. She wondered just how long she’d been out. The fragments of time she could grasp frustrated her. She wanted to take back control over herself and vowed not to push the button for pain relief again. Tylenol would have to suffice.

  “Welcome back,” Deepika said as she smoothed a cool hand across the part of Laurie’s forehead that wasn’t covered in bandages. “How’s the head?”

  Laurie was relieved Deepika didn’t read as being overly concerned. The injuries must not have been too severe. “Better. Still kind of...throbby.”

  Andrew laughed. “Is ‘throbby’ a real word?”

  Deepika looked over the bruises on Laurie’s face and arm. “You should be fine in a couple of days. How’s the pain?”

  “Not bad enough to use that friggin’ button again. What time is it?” Laurie asked, trying to orient herself back to the waking world. The window’s halo of sunshine had disappeared. It was dark now.

  Ross answered her. “Almost eight. They told me you should call the food service number when you wanted to eat.”

  “Eight at night? Was I asleep that long?”

  “Best thing in the world for you,” Deepika replied.

  Ross looked over at Deepika. “Still think she’ll be able to get out of here tomorrow?”

  His question sent a panic through Laurie. As much as she hated the place, she wasn’t in a hurry to leave the hospital. She was afraid when they released her, Ross might disappear again. Surely the only thing that held him at her side was an ill-placed sense of guilt over how pathetic she must look.

  “Probably. Depends on how she’s doing,” Deepika answered.

  The door opened and Alex walked in. All of their friendly talk came to an abrupt halt. Laurie eyed him suspiciously, and Ross stood up and pulled her blanket a little higher. She caught the possessive reaction and hoped it meant he hadn’t stopped caring for her altogether.

  Alex carried a small vase with a pink carnation. He placed it on the table next to Laurie’s bed. Standing next to the enormous crystal vase of red roses, it looked a little sad.

  Who sent the roses?

  Ross, her intuition answered. She smiled when she realized not only had she read Deepika, but her other gift had returned as well.

  Alex tried to move a little closer to Laurie. Ross blocked the path to her on one side, and Deepika didn’t seem inclined to move away from the other. Alex finally stood at the foot of the bed. “How you doin’, Laurie? Did they tell you I was the one who found you? That I was the one who called the paramedics?”

  “No, I didn’t know that. Thank you, Alex.” Laurie wrinkled her brow in thought before continuing. “Don’t think I don’t appreciate it, but I just don’t understand what you were doing at my house.” She was having a hard time reading him. As usual.

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  Ross continued to crowd the area around Laurie’s bed. His dark gaze and scowl revealed a great deal of mistrust of the historian. Even though she couldn’t read Ross, his emotions were plain.

  A nurse came into Laurie’s room and clucked her tongue in a scolding manner. “No more than two visitors at a time.” She walked over to Laurie as she gently pushed Alex and then Ross away. After handing Laurie a couple of pills and a glass of water, she said, “Sweetie, who do you want to stay?”

  Andrew helped narrow her choices. “I need to head back to the clinic. Now that everyone’s gone, they’re coming to finish working on the front doors and the new alarm.” He glanced at Deepika. “You’re staying until your shift?” She nodded. Andrew patted Laurie’s foot and made a quiet retreat.

  Ross scooted a little closer to Laurie’s bed, wishing everyone would leave so she could get her rest. Deepika leaned over and whispered something in Laurie’s ear. Laurie listened for a couple of moments then suddenly blurted out, “Alex.”

  Ross’s heart clenched and his gut tightened into one enormous knot. She wanted Alex to stay. Not that he could blame her. It wasn’t as if he had treated her very well for most of their short time together. Back at the Montana ranch, he’d pouted like a spoiled child and had never really shown his appreciation for her rescue or her hospitality. On their first real date, he’d turned away from her because of another woman. And when she’d been obviously devastated over the destruction of her office, he’d abandoned her.

  Guilt engulfed him as Ross remembered Andrew’s admonition. If he would have taken Laurie home, she might not have been hurt. Ross would have been with her and could have protected her from her attacker. This was all his fault. And why? What was so important that he allowed her to face danger alone? His damn wounded pride. He wondered if he would ever learn that pride preceded a fall.

  Sometimes you must lose a battle with pride to win the war of love.

  Goddamn fortune cookie.

  Ross had used the time Laurie slept to think hard about his life. Especially about his mistakes. For too many years, he’d nursed his loathing. It wasn’t as if he even had a really good reason to hate people who inherited money. The intolerance was based on his need to assign blame to someone—anyone—for his father’s suicide.

  He’d kept vigil at her bed all afternoon and searched his thoughts. As difficult as it was to dredge up, Ross forced himself to finally recall one important trigger for his hatred. Right after his father’s funeral, Ross had gotten into an altercation with a couple of the mill manager’s kids. The brothers had taunted him about his father’s death which had helped the already growing anger bloom into the white-hot hatred he’d stubbornly clung to ever since. The police were called to his home after he’d beaten down both boys. One had a broken nose and the other lost two teeth. Their parents demanded Ross be arrested. The officers threatened to take him to juvenile detention, but his mother pleaded on his behalf and used his father’s death as an excuse.

  But Ross knew better now. He hated those boys before his father’s death. Their taunting had only given him license to act on his jealousy and envy. And those two sins were exactly what possessed him—a destructive combination. They’d probably cost him the first woman in the world who wanted him despite knowing all there was to his life. Even his obstinate personality. The first woman I ever really loved. He’d almost been stupid enough to walk away from her. Hell, he had run. Now that he realized how much he needed her, how much he wanted her, how much he loved her, it was too late to make amends.

  As he sat through the day and watched Laurie sleep, he felt every blow to her body as if they had landed squarely on his own. Ross counted her bruises, held her hand, and whispered the three words he would never have had the courage to say when she was awake.

  But Laurie made her choice. She couldn’t forgive him for his abandonment.

  Ross let his shoulders sag in defeat. He started to move away from her bedside.

  “Where...where are you going?” Laurie asked. “Ross? Why are you leaving? You promised you’d stay.” Her voice sounded almost frantic.

  “You said you wanted Alex to stay.”

  She shook her head and gripped her blanket with white knuckles. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t.”

  He was confused. “Then why did you say you wanted Alex when Deepika asked who you wanted to stay?”

  Deepika threw her hands up. “Bugger. I didn’t ask her who she wanted to stay. I asked her who she wanted to leave. I was whispering so I wouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.”

  Alex stood there unflinching for a moment. A flush spread up his neck, and one of his eyelids twitched. “In that case, I’ll be leaving. Laurie, I’d really like to read that journal. Maybe when you’re better we could... I don’t know...find some time together?”

  Laurie shook her head. “I told you, it’s just personal stuff. It can’t help you.”

  Alex took a couple of deep breaths, and Ross figured the guy might explode in a tempe
r tantrum. “But I’d really like to see it,” Alex insisted. “Primary sources are often personal. You’ve got no idea how much it might help me.”

  “She told you. It’s too personal,” Ross said, resisting the urge to push the guy out of the room.

  Alex glanced back at Laurie. “We can talk later.”

  As he walked out the door, Laurie almost called out that she had nothing to say, but she figured yelling would make her head hurt again. She breathed a sigh of relief when Alex was gone.

  “What a wanker,” Deepika declared as soon as the door closed behind him. “What journal was he prattling on about?”

  “Laurie and I found a diary in Montana,” Ross replied. “I think it dates back to the 1920s.”

  “I just don’t want him to have it. Call it intuition or whatever,” Laurie said, wondering why she felt so defensive. Her intuition was prodding her, but she had no idea why. And her thoughts remained too scattered to try to figure it out. “I feel bad he obviously hasn’t finished his dissertation, but I don’t want to give him that journal. I’ve barely begun to read it myself. It seems like an invasion of the woman’s privacy to hand it over to him.”

  “Speaking of privacy, you two could probably use some.” Deepika took a peek under the bandage on Laurie’s forehead. “Looks good. Will you be angry if I go catch a nap before my shift?”

  Laurie shook her head. “Thank you for being here. Go home. Get some rest.”

  “Only if you promise to rest too.”

  “I will,” Laurie assured her.

  Deepika reached down and squeezed Laurie’s hand before grabbing her backpack and letting herself out of the hospital room.

  Ross took the seat next to her bed and watched her. She quickly grew self-conscious.

  Running her fingers through her hair, she realized it was snarled and tangled. She touched the bandage on her forehead and then smoothed her bangs away from it, feeling something matted in her hair. Dried blood? “Is there a mirror?” She figured she must look like a raccoon with day old mascara. All she wanted to do was try and make herself presentable.

  “I don’t see one,” he replied, shrugging.

  “Help me go to the bathroom.”

  “Do you need to go? Or are you wanting to look in the mirror?”

  Something about the tone of his voice frightened her. “Why don’t you want me to see myself?”

  Ross shrugged again and smoothed the blanket on her bed.

  “That bad?” she asked with a shaky voice.

  “Laurie, you got thrown down a flight of stairs. You can’t expect—”

  “It is that bad.” She was quiet for a moment. “Ross, why are you here? I didn’t think—”

  “Listen, I made a mistake. We’ve got some things to talk about, but we’ll have time. Plenty of time.” He took her hand in his.

  The knock on the door freed them both from the tension of the moment. Ross dropped her hand as a tiny woman dressed in a pale blue sweater and navy pants breezed in followed closely by an enormous man dressed in black leather who looked like he belonged to a biker gang. “Well, hello. You must be our elusive Dr. Laurence Miller,” the woman said with an enormous smile.

  Knowing how frightful she probably looked and entirely embarrassed at the reminder that she hadn’t been honest with Ross, Laurie wanted to pull the covers over her head and hide. “Yeah. I’m Laurie Miller.”

  “I’m Sheila Crabtree, Ross’s executive assistant. And this is my boyfriend, Bruiser Glenn. He’s a P.I.” She tossed an athletic bag Bruiser had been holding at Ross. “I think I got everything you needed.”

  “Thanks,” Ross said as he put the duffel bag on the floor next to the chair he’d slept in that day.

  Sheila turned back to Laurie and asked the question of the day. “How you feeling?”

  Laurie tried to smile. “Better.” She got an immediate read on Sheila who was obviously a very open person. Sheila was literally full of happiness and contentment. And Laurie caught a hint of mischief. Then she read a small note of apprehension that she could only chalk up to Sheila’s reaction to Laurie’s own horrible appearance.

  “You look like hell,” Sheila said even though Laurie read the woman’s compassion.

  “Sheila!” Ross practically shouted. “Is there ever a single thought crossing your mind that doesn’t fall out of your mouth?”

  “Nope.” She turned her attention back to Laurie. “Who did this to you?” As she continued talking, Sheila pulled a small brush and a blue scrunchie out of her purse. She handed the purse to Bruiser and then walked to the head of the bed. Laurie tried not to laugh at seeing the poor man holding the dainty handbag away from his body like it was infected with anthrax. Sheila proceeded to gently arrange Laurie’s hair into a ponytail.

  Laurie looked up at Sheila when she’d finished and quietly said, “Thanks.” Sheila smiled and nodded in return. Laurie finally answered the question Sheila had asked. “I’ve got no idea who did this.”

  “We’ll find out,” Bruiser said. “Kennedy already has—” Ross loudly cleared his throat, but the detective didn’t seem to get the less than subtle hint. “—me working on the case.”

  Bruiser read of confidence until he glanced at Sheila. Then he emitted pure love. Laurie stopped trying to delve into the new people and looked back to Ross. “Aren’t the cops hunting for the guy who broke into my office?” He nodded. “Then why aren’t they looking for this guy, too?”

  Bruiser snorted a laugh. “Cops. Right. They couldn’t catch a cold.”

  Ross answered her. “Yeah, they’re looking. Sometimes Bruiser is more effective.”

  “Damn right,” Sheila added as she went back to her boyfriend and wrapped an arm around his waist. Her head didn’t even reach the enormous man’s shoulder. Laurie doubted if the woman’s weight even added up to three figures. But she couldn’t help but smile at the pair. She’d never seen such a mismatched couple, yet they seemed so obviously happy with each other. She instantly liked both of them.

  Sheila glanced back at Ross. “I worked things out with Arthur. You’re out for the next week at least. He still thinks you’ll be back by Friday anyway. The office has a pool on how long you can stay away. I’ve got next Tuesday, by the way. And I could really use the money.”

  Ross chuckled. “Yeah? Well, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for everything. You can reach me here tonight. Laurie should get out of here tomorrow. You can call me at home after that.”

  Laurie didn’t know what to make of the news Ross had taken time off from work. “Ross, you’re going on a vacation?”

  “Not exactly,” he replied.

  She hated the feeling of confusion that now seemed to permeate her existence. “Then why all the time off?”

  Sheila seemed happy to try to fill in the gaps. “He’s staying here with you tonight then he’s taking you home.”

  “Ross? What’s she mean?”

  “I’m taking you to my condo when they let you out,” Ross explained.

  Laurie realized she probably looked as confused as she felt. “Why?”

  “Because.”

  “Oh, well that clears it all up,” she replied as she threw her hands up in exasperation.

  Sheila chuckled before she interrupted. “We’ll just leave you two to your obviously intellectual discussion. Call me if you need anything.” She grabbed Bruiser’s hand and led him out of the hospital room. The man was still holding Sheila’s purse.

  “I want to go home. Why can’t I go to my house?” Laurie asked as soon as she and Ross found themselves alone.

  “Kitten, it’s a mess. I’m going to have somebody get things straightened up, but...”

  Laurie shook her head and then hated the pain that accompanied the action. “No. I want to do it. Please.”

  “Fine. But you’re not doing anything ’til you’re better. Deepika’s staying with Andrew for awhile. I’m getting your place alarmed and having new locks put on. And you will learn to lock the damn door.” He mus
t have thought he had come on a bit strong because he softened his voice. “I want to... Let me take you to the condo. Please. You really need someone to take care of you for a few days.”

  Laurie didn’t want to weep, but between her relief, her constant pain, and her bubbling emotions, the tears came anyway. The crying made her head throb.

  Ross must have figured he’d done something wrong, because he instantly sounded contrite. “I didn’t mean to get so loud.”

  She sniffled for a second as she dabbed at the tears with the sheet. “It’s not that.”

  He just stared at her, obviously waiting for her to explain.

  “Do you forgive me?” she whispered.

  Ross leaned over and brushed a kiss across her cheek. “Nothing to forgive, Love.”

  * * * *

  Alex sat in his car and glared at the enormous old house, feeling his fury swirl around him. The workmen moved inside and out, stringing wiring for a new alarm system. There would be no way he could get back into the place now. He felt the rage rising to a fever pitch.

  It hadn’t been enjoyable to hurt Laurie. He’d had no choice. He couldn’t be discovered searching through her house. She’d simply picked the wrong time to come home. Because she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, she’d finally met the monster.

  Thinking about her callous dismissal when he’d made the effort to see to her in the hospital, Alex was no longer sure she hadn’t truly deserved the pain he’d inflicted. Perhaps it served as well deserved punishment. Perhaps she had a lesson to learn.

  How could she not understand how much he needed that journal?

  And where had she hidden it?

  Not her car. Alex had let the monster take the reins then, let it work him into an uncontrollable state. It was nothing short of amazing he hadn’t been caught that night. Looking through the car was one thing, but he’d let his fury at seeing her with another man channel through his knife, destroying her upholstery and tires. The parking lot hadn’t exactly afforded much privacy, but he’d wrecked his vengeance quickly enough to escape.