STEAL (Right Men Series Book 2)

by Mayra Statham

  “Don’t hate me.”

  “I could never,” I told her honestly. Kelly was an amazing nurse and boss.

  “I know you asked for a one o’clock lunch, but I think I have to bump it back some,” she shared. I nodded in understanding. It was the life of an emergency room nurse. “I’m sorry, Val, it’s just really busy and I’m short two nurses and an MA.”

  “I get it…” I nodded. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll call my lunch date and let him know,” I told her, and Kelly mouthed sorry as she walked away to talk to a doctor who was calling her.

  Patting my front pocket, I realized my phone wasn’t there, and I had no idea where it could be. I was about to head to the locker room to see if I had left it there when I got called by a doctor to assist him on a critical call. All thoughts about my missing cell were soon forgotten.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  BRYAN

  “Hey, Val. I am pulling up to the parking structure now. Look, Ty’s with me, hope it’s okay if he comes with us. The asshole is always hungry.”

  “Hey!” Ty argued in the background, and Bryan simply laughed.

  “Call me back, gorgeous.” He ended the call. “I’m gonna go get her. Stay here and behave,“ he teased Tyler, not missing how his partner rolled his eyes.

  “Fine. I didn’t wanna go with you, anyhow.” Ty sat back in his seat, his hands moving to behind his head.

  “Great,” Bryan grunted, shaking his head. He slipped out of the car and started walking through parked cars and toward the elevator in the semi-busy parking structure.

  His phone rang and he grinned at Val’s beautiful face on his screen. “Hey, gorgeous.”

  “Hi, baby.” He stopped dead in his tracks at the feminine voice on the other line. The very clear voice that wasn’t his girl.

  It was his ex-wife. Courtney.

  “Court?”

  “I liked it more when you called me gorgeous,” she said, a clear smile in her voice. He took a deep breath. How did Court get a hold of Val’s phone? “You really shouldn’t frown like that, baby.” He looked around trying to see where the hell she was, but he couldn’t see her anywhere.

  “What do you want, Court?” he asked trying to keep his cool, but thoughts of her hurting Val set him on edge.

  “I think you know what I want.”

  “Clear it up for me,” he pushed looking around.

  “I think you owe me another chance.”

  “Another chance?” His eyes searched, but he couldn’t make her out. Turning, his stomach dropped as he saw her.

  Courtney stood right behind him, but she didn’t look like herself. No longer a brunette, her hair was blond. The look in her worried him. Even more than the knife she had in her hand. Putting his hands up in front of him, he took a step back.

  “Court, what are you doing?”

  “Oh. Surprise, surprise, now I’m Court, huh? Now you have time to talk? Huh?” she asked as a crazy smile played over her face. His heart raced. “You thought she was me.” She shook her head, her eyes slightly turned away. “I was her?” she asked, meeting his eyes, and he swallowed.

  “Court, you’re not making any sense.”

  “She has all sorts of pictures of you!” she yelled, throwing Valerie’s phone to the ground, smashing it to bits against the concrete.

  “Courtney, she’s my girlfriend.”

  “Was,” she shrieked, and his heart froze in his chest. What the fuck did that mean? Was? “She was your girlfriend.”

  “Court, what did you do?”

  “I’m just telling you that enough is enough. I’m telling you, whatever you had with her, I forgive you. Wild oats and all that. But we are moving on. Together. Better than…” she kept spouting off on her crazy, while he prayed Valerie was okay.

  “Are you even listening to me?” she shouted. He put his hands up, taking a cautious step toward her. He could easily take her down, but she was unpredictable.

  “I am. I’m listening.”

  “Don’t patronize me, Bryan,” she warned him, and he didn’t miss the way her eyes fired up.

  “I’m not, doll. Look, give me the knife, and we’ll talk, okay?” he suggested, but he knew he wasn’t getting through to her when she started to laugh in a way that made his blood run cold.

  “Please!” She shook her head. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

  “No… No, I don’t, babe… Come on, let’s talk—“

  “Don’t you think I know how this shit works, baby? How you work?” she asked with a crazed look on her face. He took a slow step toward her, hoping to close the space between them. “I give you this and BOOM!” she hissed. “We stop talking and you go right back to that piece of trash of yours!” she yelled, waving the knife back and forth.

  “Court, come on, baby… talk to me…”

  “He left me. He left me for some random twenty-one-year-old he knocked up during some one-night stand! He was tired of me and—“

  “Hey, look at me,” he ordered. She looked at him, and for a small moment, he could see the girl he used to know. “Come here.”

  “You always loved me,” she spoke softly, her big, brown eyes wide on him. “You loved me for me. I knew if I came back here, you would see I can make you happy I…” He took a step toward her; he was only a step away when Ty yelled.

  “Put the knife down, lady!” Tyler ordered, and Bryan shouted at him to stop, to put his gun down.

  But it was too late.

  Courtney turned, while he took a step toward her to grab her wrist, take her down, and end this shit once and for all. But things don’t work the way we plan them.

  Hell, he knew that firsthand.

  The moment he took a step forward, he realized his mistake. He watched it unfold in slow motion, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

  With a gun pointed at her, Courtney took a step back, toward him. By the look on her face, he knew she thought he was going to protect her. And he would have. But the timing was all off and her hand wavered as she tripped on her own two feet. He winced the moment he felt it.

  Hot, searing pain. The knife slicing through flesh, going through his side. Falling right through his side as she came down with him, only pushing the knife in deeper.

  “Bryan!” she yelled, her hand still on the knife, and he blinked, looking at her. The pain at his side so sharp breathing was close to impossible.

  “Step away from him!” Tyler yelled, and Bryan blinked again. Staring at Courtney’s panicked face, he looked away. Warmth leaked out from his side and all the voices and commotion around him started to fade away as his breathing labored.

  “Val,” he said out loud, knowing that it was a bad sign it exhausted him to say her name. “Val,” he called out again and again. But the last time, he was so tired and everything around him was fuzzy, he wasn’t sure if he’d said it.

  Blinking slowly, he smiled.

  He could see her standing there by the parked white Toyota Corolla, but he knew she wasn’t real. It was his mind playing tricks on him. She was in that fucking towel, just like the day they had met. His fingers tapped against the concrete of the floor, wanting to reach out for her, but he couldn’t. It hurt too much to move. Wetness splashed against the tips of his fingers. In the back of his mind he knew it couldn’t be good he was bleeding out that much, that quickly. Really fucking bad.

  “Handsome.” The image of Valerie in that lucky-ass towel called to him and he looked at her.

  “Val,” he murmured, fighting to keep his eyes open, so he could keep looking at her

  “Fight,” she ordered, now in the tank top and shorts she had been wearing before he had left for work this morning.

  “I—“

  “Fight, handsome,” she ordered again. His eyelids were suddenly heavier than they had ever felt.

  “I’m tired, Val.”

  “Close them for a moment. But don’t stop fighting. Fight for us…”

  And just like that, everything went black.
<
br />   VALERIE

  “Val!” Kelly shouted, and she turned and watched her boss approach.

  “What’s up?” I asked, exiting room two. “Want me to handle room three?”

  “Honey…” And just like that, I knew something was wrong. Kelly’s face was pale and worried, and my gut clenched.

  “What is it?”

  “There was some sort of altercation in the south parking structure,” Kelly started to tell me. I stood still. Something about the way she was telling me I just knew.

  “Kelly?” I asked, breathing suddenly hard. My heart was numb.

  “They are bringing in a Pasadena police officer. Stab wound to the—“

  “Oh, my God,” I whispered, my ears suddenly buzzing. “No… no…” I started to shake my head and took a step toward the patient bay he would be coming from, but Kelly stopped me.

  “You can’t help him, Val.”

  “Is it him? Is it Bryan… I mean, Bryan Wright, he’s a detective and thirty-four. There are a ton of Pasadena police officers, I mean, it could be someone—“ I was reaching for straws, but I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t face the possibility of losing him. We were just starting.

  “It’s him, Val. Tyler Thorne called it in. I need you to take the other patient coming in.”

  “Other patient?” was all I could get out as Kelly ran off when two gurneys were rolled in. I ran toward them. The sight of Bryan on the table whizzing past me, his shirt torn open, paramedics working on him as they rolled past me, made my heart beat frantically yet my feet were planted to the ground. My entire world was on that table. I love you for keeps, his voice played in my head and tears burned behind my eyes.

  “Duncan! Need you in here!” Emerson, a new nurse. snapped me out my moment, and I rushed over to her.

  “Let me go!” she shrieked, lashing her limbs out. “I need to see my husband. Baby!!!” she yelled and kept fighting the nurse and attendants. Having just seen Bryan bleeding on a gurney and watching her lash out like a lunatic, fear diminished into anger.

  Taking the sedative from Emerson, I walked over to her and lifted the skirt of the dress she was wearing. I tried to ignore the blood-soaked fabric, knowing that blood was Bryan’s. Without thinking or hesitation, I jammed the needle into her thigh. She gasped, her eyes narrowing on me.

  “This is all your fault,” she shouted, and I shook my head.

  “I didn’t do anything to you,” I pointed out and looked at the medic who immediately ran down her injuries. Ty’s stone-masked face stared back at me, his shirt and hands bloodied as he stood at the door of the room.

  “She bumped her head. We need her checked for head injuries. She’s got a gash on her leg,” The medic shared, and I stopped staring at Ty, hating the sinking feeling that took hold of me.

  “Got it.” I looked away and to the medic’s young face. “Thank you. She’ll calm down soon.”

  “Fuck you!” Court spat, fighting the restraints the attendants had placed on her. “You fucking homewrecker!”

  “Ignore her, Val.” Ty took a step forward, but I had to put an arm out and he stood in his place.

  “You did this! You!” Her shrill tone shook. “I loved him. I loved him…” she spouted off, slowly starting to slur her words, her tone dying down to a whisper until she fell asleep.

  Ignoring the speculating looks from co-workers, I ordered the tests that needed to be done before moving out and past Tyler, straight to the OR. The only thing running through my head was how much blood Bryan had lost and how it couldn’t be good.

  So much blood.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  VALERIE

  They didn’t let me in.

  Kelly had security posted at the door, waiting for me. With sympathetic eyes, they made it clear I couldn’t go further. I liked my boss. I respected her and in the back of my head, I logically understood where she was coming from.

  But it still pissed me off.

  No. That wasn’t true. I wasn’t pissed; I was scared. The image of Bryan on that Godforsaken gurney, bleeding, people frantically working on him, was imprinted on my mind.

  I was terrified I had just found my little bit of beauty in life and like grains of sand through my fingers, it was slipping away. Is he slipping away as I stand here?

  I tried to shake the negative thoughts away. I stopped trying to persuade the guards and made my way to the waiting room. Just the thought of having to stand in a waiting room made my gut burn and my throat constrict.

  Reaching the stark room, I shouldn’t have been surprised at his partner standing there, but I was. I wasn’t used to having people who cared. I was used to dealing and facing things alone.

  His face was serious and set like stone; at a first glance, he didn’t give anything away. But as I got closer, stopping a foot away from him, my knees threatened to buckle. His eyes gave away the gravity of what had happened. They were filled with everything that was swirling inside of me. Panic and worry.

  An ice-cold shiver ran though me and I wrapped my arms around my waist in an attempt to somehow protect myself from whatever Tyler was going to share. How the hell did Courtney stab Bryan? Tyler’s hand reached out, probably to comfort me, but I shook my head.

  “Don’t,” I snapped harshly. I was afraid if anyone touched me, I would lose it, but that was no reason from me to be a bitch. “I can’t hold things together if you touch me,” I tried to clarify, and his hand dropped.

  “Val.“ Tyler’s voice was like gravel, and I took a step back, needing space from him, from reality.

  “If you get close to me right now, I’m going to lose it and cry.”

  “Okay.” He nodded, his hands out in front of him. “I’ll stay right here.”

  “Good.” I looked around the small waiting room. I needed a plan. I needed to do something. “Did you call his family? His brothers? Someone should contact them.” I patted my front pocket and shut my eyes, remembering how I couldn’t find my phone earlier. “I have no idea what happened to my phone, or else I would—“

  “I did. They’re on their way,” he shared somberly.

  “Right. Good. Good.” Silence filled the waiting room. I couldn’t get myself to move from where I stood. Breaking the silence, I didn’t want to ask, but I needed to know. “What happened?”

  “Valerie, honey, maybe right now isn’t—“ he started to say, but I shook my head.

  “I need to know,” I blurted out softly, and our eyes met. “I need to know before everyone shows up.” I looked at him and could see he was trying to figure out whether he should or shouldn’t.

  “I see these kinds of things every day I come to work. I know what goes on in the big bad world. I need to know what happened to him. Please?” I pleaded with him and watched his eyes fill with sadness as he swallowed hard.

  “I’m so sorry.” His voice cracked and my eyes widened, my heart launched into super-sonic speed against my rib cage, but I stayed quiet, waiting him out. “We got here for lunch and he called you. He left a voicemail and then said he was going to go get you.”

  “I didn’t have my phone,” I shared, wondering where the hell it could be.

  “We know. Courtney had it.”

  “What?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know how she got it, but she did. Anyhow, he left. I was waiting in the car. A woman holding a kid ran up and banged on the window. She needed a phone, because there was a woman holding a guy up with a knife by the elevators.” A gasp escaped from deep inside me, and my eyes filled with unshed tears. The story Ty shared unfolded in front of me, and I pressed my lips together.

  “Keep going,” I pleaded, morbidly needing to know as much as I could.

  “I got closer, my gun drawn. I ordered her to put the knife down, Val. She stepped back as he stepped forward. She must have lost her footing just as he reached for the knife, and they both fell over. Fuck.” He shut his eyes tightly, and I knew he was reliving the moment in his mind. “The knife lodged into his side, dug in deep,
Val.”

  “He lost a lot of blood,” I pointed out the obvious. Tyler was wearing a lot of it.

  My man’s blood was on his shirt.

  On his hands.

  “Yeah,” Ty grunted looking down at his own hands. I couldn’t look away from them myself. I tried to hush my mind. To ignore the list of possible things a stab wound like that could cause. And for the first time since becoming a nurse, I wished I wasn’t. I wished I didn’t know what things meant or could happen.

  “Was he stable… awake, I mean?” I asked, looking away from his hands and back at his face.

  “He was, but as the medics rolled him away, he…” Tyler’s voice drifted off, and I pressed my lips together again as tears rolled down my face.

  “Did he code?” I asked, my voice cracking. My knees felt like they almost gave out beneath me. If he coded…

  “No.” He stepped toward me, but before he reached me, a large arm turned me around and pulled me into a solid chest.

  “Shh…” a deep rumbled tone hushed at the top of my head. “What the fuck, man?” Garrett growled, holding me close. I tried to pull away, but he wasn’t about to let me go. I did the only thing I could. I gave in and cried.

  “Hey, he’s going to be okay. It’s just a small little cut,” Garrett muttered into my hair, and I nodded. What the hell am I doing? I don’t lean on anyone!

  His embrace lightened and I pulled away slightly. While I wiped away the tears from my face, Garrett kindly shielded me from letting anyone see me. Protecting me, because he somehow knew I wouldn’t like anyone seeing me like that.

  His kind, brown eyes met mine, and I wished I had an older brother like him.

  “Bryan’s lucky to have you as an older brother,” I blurted, and he grinned and winked, pulling me to his side before asking Tyler what happened.

  Hearing the story again and again as his family filtered in was hard. Though, what was more difficult was the fact no one had come out to tell us anything. I was anxious, waiting for news about his condition after surgery. I felt like I was about to come out of my skin. I knew every minute that ticked by could mean bad news, and all I wanted to do was beg someone for an update.