The Cost of Commitment - KJ2

by Lynn Ames

  Kate put her fingers on Jay’s lips. “Before we get into that, I want to tell you how very much I love you. You were the only thing that kept me going in there, Jamison Parker. When things got really rough, I closed my eyes, saw your face, and knew that I could survive anything for the chance to see you again.”

  The Cost of Commitment

  Jay stood up from the chair and slid onto the bed, gently taking Kate in her arms and kissing the corner of her mouth. “Is this okay, love? Am I hurting you?”

  “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

  Jay adjusted her position so that she could see Kate’s face more clearly. “I love you Katherine Kyle, more than anything in this world or the next. You are my life and my love. Nothing, and no one, will ever change that.” She snuggled close to Kate, placing an arm gently across her midsection. Emotionally and physically exhausted, both women promptly fell asleep.

  Peter stood in the doorway looking at the tableau in front of him, a smile splitting his face from ear to ear. There on the bed were Kate and Jay, arms wrapped around each other, raven hair and blonde mixing on the pillow. He thought he’d never seen anything that looked so right. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, Kate opened her eyes.

  Quietly she whispered, “Hey there, Technowiz. I hear you got to play cowboy.”

  “Yeah, well, I was getting bored sitting at home—thought I needed a little excitement in my life. God knows I can always count on you for that. A little overdramatic, though, don’t you think?”

  “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

  “Next time?”

  Kate smiled. “Well, you never know.” She beckoned Peter closer to the bed. Her eyes grew serious as she said, “I don’t know how to thank you, friend. I know I wouldn’t be here without you. And from the accounts that I’ve heard, you took fantastic care of Jay, too. There are no words to tell you what that means to me.”

  Peter shrugged. “She’s family. Speaking of which, Barbara’s on her way here to accompany you on the flight to Albany Med. She wouldn’t believe me that they actually have doctors in Buffalo who know what they’re doing.”

  Kate chuckled. “That figures.”

  Peter touched her hand. “Want to tell me what happened in there?”

  Kate glanced down at Jay.

  “If you want to wait until later, I’ll understand.”

  At that moment Jay stirred, raising her head at the sound of voices.

  She looked momentarily dazed as she tried to place her surroundings.

  Spying Peter standing near the bed, she said groggily, “Hey, when did you get here? I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Kate squeezed her affectionately. “Sweetheart, when you’re asleep, an atom bomb could go off and you wouldn’t hear it.”

  Lynn Ames

  “Hey! I resemble that remark.”

  “Yes, you sure do. But I love you anyway.” Kate gave her hair a tweak.

  Jay rose up, separating herself from Kate so that she could stretch without causing her pain. She looked from Peter to her lover and back again. “I interrupted something, didn’t I?”

  Kate said, “Peter was just about to debrief me. You’re welcome to stay if you want.”

  “I don’t think I’m really ready for that,” Jay said. “How about if I go and grab a quick shower while you two talk?”

  Peter looked at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry Jay, but it’s best to get her recollections while they’re fresh. Time tends to skew the memory.”

  “I understand,” Jay said as she rose, kissed Kate on the forehead, and made her way into the adjoining bathroom.

  When they could hear the water running, Kate said, “Where do you want me to start?”

  “Actually, I’d like you to start at the end and tell me what happened from the time you appeared on television to the time we found you.”

  “Okay.” Kate screwed up her eyes in concentration. Her head continued to throb painfully and the effort of recollection was difficult, but the snapshots of images were as clear in her mind as if they were happening in the present. “When we got back to the tier the inmates had pretty much decided it was time to finish the job, although several of them were arguing against killing me. I heard the leader of the group telling others to prepare the TV room.” She looked up at him. “I guess that’s where they decided I should be executed.” She tried to shrug nonchalantly, but the shudder that went through her body was plain to see. “I stood up, trying to think of something, anything, I could do to stop them. I figured with Breathwaite and Redfield calling the shots, I wasn’t likely to get much outside assistance.”

  “You were right about that,” Peter mumbled.

  Kate continued, “Anyway, I had just started looking around when the cell door slid open and the leader and two of his henchmen came in. One of them had a syringe. As the first inmate came close I kicked out; I think I nailed him in the kneecap. As he was busy screaming, the second goon used my cheekbone for a punching bag. I remember stumbling backward into the sink and all three of them closing in on me. They yanked up my sleeve and jabbed me with the needle. The last thing I remember is them leaving and the cell door closing again. The next thing I knew, I was here and Jay was standing over me. Which, I might add, is the nicest possible way I could have awakened.”

  Peter said, “Sounds like our timing was excellent. I don’t imagine five minutes passed from the time they gave you that shot to the time my The Cost of Commitment

  guys arrived on that tier.” He shook his head. “Sometimes it’s good to be lucky.”

  “And sometimes it’s lucky to be good.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  Both of them fell silent as they considered the implications of what could have happened if events hadn’t unfolded precisely as they did.

  When Jay reentered the room, the silence was hanging heavy in the air. “Was I too quick?”

  “No, sweetheart.” Kate’s eyes lit up when she saw her lover. “I missed you.” She motioned for Jay to join her once again on the bed. She was finding it difficult to let Jay out of her sight, and she imagined her lover felt the same way about her. She looked up at Peter. “So, where are Redfield and Breathwaite?”

  “I managed to get the okay for a wiretap and I got them on tape implicating themselves in your kidnapping, not to mention in the plot to kill you.”

  Kate gripped Jay tighter as she felt her shudder. In her ear, she whispered, “It’s okay, love. It’s all over now.”

  Jay put her head down gently on Kate’s shoulder.

  To Peter, Kate said, “That’s pretty impressive, getting the goods in their own voices.”

  Peter buffed his nails on his shirt. “Yeah, well, all in a day’s work.”

  Jay chimed in, “You’re so modest, too.”

  “Yeah, I’ll have to work on that.”

  Kate snorted.

  “With solid proof like that, it was easy to get an arrest warrant for the two of them. The governor relieved them of duty, and they were taken into custody along with an officer they had working on the inside and the eight inmates who were involved in the plot.”

  “Good,” Jay said vehemently. “I hope they all rot in hell.”

  Peter answered, “I have something worse in mind for them—like a stint in one of their own jails.”

  “You always did have a wicked streak,” Kate said. Then she paused, a thought occurring to her. “So who’s in charge of DOCS?”

  “The governor’s named Randy Garston the new commissioner.”

  Kate tried to whistle, but the effort was thwarted by the pain in her cheek and jaw. “Wow,” she said. “That’s a good choice.”

  “Yeah, I think so too. That’s why I recommended it.”

  “I should have suspected as much,” Kate said.

  At that moment, there was a knock on the door and the governor stuck his head around the corner. “Can I come in?”

  “Of course, sir. Please come in.” Jay hopped off the bed.


  Lynn Ames

  “You didn’t need to move on my account, Jay. You looked comfortable there.”

  “That’s okay, sir.”

  “Kate. How are you feeling?”

  “Much better now, sir.”

  “I bet. Listen, I want you to know how sorry and appalled I am at what happened.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, sir.”

  “That may or may not be, but I bear the ultimate responsibility for what goes on under the auspices of my administration. Had I known about the situation, I would have taken action much sooner.”

  “I know you would have, sir.”

  “Are you getting good care in here?”

  “Yes, sir. It’s not exactly a five-star hotel, but it’s better than my most recent accommodations.”

  “I want you to know, Kate, that I have great admiration for you. I always did, but now—well, let’s just say I don’t know if I could’ve handled what you did quite as well. You have my deepest respect.”

  “Thank you, sir. Coming from you, that means a lot.”

  “If you need anything, anything at all, you just say the word.”

  There was an awkward moment of silence before the governor said,

  “I need to get back to Albany. I want you all to know that I will personally see to it that Redfield, Breathwaite, and their accomplices are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

  Kate said, “Thank you, sir. And thank you for sending in the best.”

  She nodded slightly in Peter’s direction.

  “I was lucky he was available.”

  “Actually, Governor, I was the lucky one.”

  Michael Vendetti ran his fingers through his hair nervously. “What are we going to do now? What the hell happened? Who authorized that?”

  “Nobody, Michael, obviously,” Bob Hawthorne replied shortly.

  “Calm down, you’re giving me hives. I would guess Mr. Breathwaite set that up on his own. I can’t imagine Bill being a willing party to such an ill-conceived and messy undertaking.”

  “We’ve got to cover our tracks, fold the operation.”

  “Michael, shut up. This unfortunate incident may have accomplished the goal for us. We may not have to do anything more.”

  Vendetti stared at the chairman as if he’d grown four heads.

  “Look,” Hawthorne lectured impatiently, “our boy Charlie went out to Attica, presented himself as a tough, no-nonsense governor, and got the hostage out in a daring rescue. We ran polling data immediately The Cost of Commitment

  afterward—his numbers were through the roof. Very presidential stuff, all agreed.” Hawthorne puffed his chest out like a peacock.

  Vendetti’s color improved from a pasty white to a more normal shade of tan. “Then our work is done, right?”

  “For the moment, I think it would behoove us to lay low. If the situation warrants again, we may have to step in.”

  Vendetti’s groan was audible.

  “But for now, we’ll consider ourselves adjourned.” Hawthorne rose and moved to the door. “I would have thought you would have had more stomach for this sort of thing, Michael. You disappoint me.” He walked out without waiting for a response.

  Kate had fallen back to sleep, her injuries and ordeal getting the best of her. Jay sat at her lover’s bedside, writing her story on Native American healing rituals for Time on a pad of legal paper. When she had called the office to give Trish the update, the editor had tried to talk her out of writing the story.

  “It can wait, Jay. It’s not like it’s breaking news. Why don’t you take a little time, come back after the holidays rested, refreshed, and ready to go.”

  “I’ve just come off two weeks’ rest, as you might recall, and I don’t want to let any more time pass before I put out a story. I have to get back in the game. Besides, this is a great story and it deserves to be told.”

  “And it will be. I’m just suggesting it doesn’t have to be told today.”

  “I appreciate the flexibility, Trish, really I do.”

  “But, stubborn thing that you are, you’re going to write it anyway.”

  “Yep.”

  Trish sighed in exasperation. “How did I know that? All right, kiddo.

  The choice is yours. But if you’re planning to write it for next week’s edition, I’ll need it by tomorrow at the latest.”

  “Thanks, Trish, you’re the best.”

  “Um, Jay?”

  “Yes?”

  Trish hemmed and hawed uncharacteristically. “I’ve put Alex on the Attica story. I wanted you to know that we’d be running something on it.”

  “Oh. I—I guess I got so involved that I never thought about it from a story angle.” The idea of her lover’s harrowing experience being the fodder for a magazine story made her stomach turn. On the other hand, if she looked at it objectively, if the incident had happened to anyone else, she would have expected it to get ink. “What do you need from me?”

  Lynn Ames

  “Nothing. I’ve instructed Alex to leave you out of it and to treat it like any other story. I promise you he won’t come looking for any insider information.”

  Jay had to smile at the protective tone in her voice. “Alex is very good. I’m sure he’ll write a great story. I will give you one thing, though, that nobody else seems to have picked up on yet.”

  “Oh?”

  “The commissioner of DOCS and the former spokesman have been arrested. They’re to be arraigned this morning on charges of plotting to have Kate murdered.” Sharing that bit of news brought Jay a measure of grim satisfaction.

  “You’re kidding?”

  “Absolutely serious.”

  “Oh, kiddo. I’m so sorry about this whole horrible mess.”

  “Yeah, me too. I’m just glad it’s over now.”

  “When are you going back to Albany?”

  “They’re planning to airlift Kate later today if her vital signs remain normal.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  “She’s beaten, literally and emotionally, and exhausted. I think she’s still in a little bit of shock. She’s been having nightmares the last few times she’s dozed off, although she won’t talk about it.”

  “Give her time, Jay. Time heals all wounds.”

  “I hope so, Trish. I guess we’ll find out.”

  “Sleeping sitting up these days?”

  “Barbara!” Jay jumped out of her chair and ran to her friend, enveloping her in an emotional hug. “Thank you for coming. I’m so glad you’re here.” She clung to her as if to a lifeline.

  Barbara pulled back slightly to have a good look at Jay. “Hey, it’s going to be okay, sweetie. I’ve already been in touch with the doctors here. They’ve been doing a great job. Kate’s strong and in wonderful physical shape. She’ll recover from her injuries quicker than you think.”

  “I know,” Jay sniffled, “but I hate to see her in such pain. I’m afraid to touch her because I don’t want to hurt her.”

  “She’s not that fragile, Jay. She needs your touch—it will ground her and remind her she’s loved and wanted.”

  “I woke her once, a little while ago when she was obviously having a nightmare. She flinched and shied away from me.”

  Barbara nodded sagely. “Honey, she’s been through a lot in the past few days. It’s going to take her some time to readjust. That wasn’t about you—she was still back wherever her nightmare had taken her.”

  “I don’t want to make it harder for her.”

  The Cost of Commitment

  “Jay, your presence and your love are the most important ingredients in her healing process. She needs you now, more than ever.”

  “I was—I was afraid I’d lost her in there, Barbara. I can’t imagine my life without her by my side.”

  “The great thing is, you don’t have to.”

  “It’s like every minute with her has become so precious, such a gift.”

  “Don’t tell me that—tell her.” Barbara indica
ted the form in the bed.

  “Tell me what?” Kate asked groggily.

  “Tell you to get your lazy ass out of bed, you slacker,” Barbara rejoined lightly.

  “Yeah? Come over here and say that.”

  “What do you think I am, stupid? I remember exactly how long those arms are. And, with a cast for a club, I’m not getting anywhere near you.”

  “I always said you were a smart woman.”

  Barbara looked at Kate with a practiced eye. “You look like hell.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

  “Don’t I know it. Okay, sugar, fun time’s over. Now let’s get down to business.”

  The doctor proceeded to evaluate Kate thoroughly, making notes on a portable dictation machine she had pulled out of a briefcase. When she had finished, she gave her friend an affectionate hug. “I don’t know how to break this to you, but you’re going to outlive us all.”

  “Good to know.”

  “How’d you like to go home?”

  “Home, home?”

  Barbara smiled. “No, Albany Med home. We’ve got some work to do to make you beautiful again.”

  “Ah, a reclamation project. Sounds like fun.”

  “Tell me that afterward.”

  Jay, who had been standing quietly in a corner, asked, “What has to happen?”

  “They’ll have to operate to repair that wrist, and we’ll have to see about the cheekbone, too. There’s not much we can do about the ribs, as long as they’re not displaced. The x-rays don’t indicate that they are, but we’ll do further tests to be sure.”

  “Sounds like more fun than one woman should be allowed to have.”

  Kate tried to smile, but the action was just too painful.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Why don’t you guys wait here, and I’ll see about checking you out into my care.”

  “Have I said thank you yet today, Dr. Jones?”

  “I don’t believe you have.”

  Lynn Ames

  “Where are my manners? Thank you, Barbara, for hauling your butt out here to personally oversee my care.”

  “I’m just in it for the publicity, babe. I’m going to be able to write a book about you and your exploits someday, and how I was the one who got to piece you back together and send you back into battle each time.”