“It was almost midnight and Alex had been gone at least ten minutes to get more alcohol out of the storeroom. One of the bartenders had told me she was back there. I was on my way to go find her when the fire alarms went off. It took me a while to get back there and when I did, the smoke was so thick I could hardly see or breathe. The storeroom door was shut, so I pushed it open and saw that fucker swinging a bottle at her head. She was already passed out.”
I had to stop and take a deep breath to calm myself. Mom handed me some water because my throat was rasping from the effort of talking.
“He had her wrists tied behind a post and she was on her knees hanging from the post. He had a few broken bottles on the ground that I’m assuming he had already hit her with. I attacked him right after he hit her in the head. He fought me and tried to kill me, so I killed him first.”
I heard Mom gasp when I told Sean about her being beaten with a liquor bottle. She had come to love Alex and it would break her heart if she didn’t survive.
“Well, it certainly sounds like self defense, but when you give your official statement, try not to sound so happy about killing him. Any word on how Alex is doing?”
“She got out of surgery and now we’re waiting for her to wake up. The doctor said it could be a few days because they put her in a coma to help her recover,” Mom said. I was glad she answered because I didn’t know if I could say those words without breaking down.
“When do you get released?”
“I have to stay for twenty-four hours for observation.”
“Call me if you hear anything about Alex. I have to get down to the station, and please remember to keep your cool when you give your statement when the detectives come by.”
My head hit the pillow like a lead weight. Reliving last night was taking a toll on me emotionally. Tears were constantly threatening to spill over and I had to fight the urge to break down and lose control. I needed to stay strong for Alex. I didn’t know what condition she would be in until she woke up and I needed to prepare for the fact that she might not be the same woman anymore. She had been through so much. How much more could she handle?
The rest of the guys all came by to visit me throughout the day. Cece, Logan’s date had been shoved to the ground while trying to get out and she had some bruising from being stepped on, but overall she was okay. Everyone else had gotten out okay and I was grateful to not have anyone else to worry about. I was released the next morning after passing all the necessary tests and the first place I went was down to Alex’s room. I asked Mom to bring me some clothes and I showered in her bathroom. I sat by her bed day and night for a week and every day was disappointed when she didn’t wake up. I never left her hospital room, even to grab food. I stayed with her and held her hand. I talked to her about what our future was going to be and Mom even brought books for me to read to her. She really liked fantasy books, so I continued reading Harry Potter to her. It was a killer on my throat, but if it got through to her, I would read until my throat bled.
The doctor updated me every day on her condition and was hopeful that she would regain consciousness and go on to live a full life. After a week though, he warned me that every day she stayed in a coma her prognosis worsened, but that after an injury like hers, the coma was helping her body heal faster. The nurses were kind to me and never asked me to leave her side. I got a lot of sympathetic looks that made me want to punch someone. It was like they were telling me they were sorry that she wasn’t going to wake up. My favorite nurse was an older woman named Carmen. She was sassy and told me that I just needed to wait a little longer, that no woman in her right mind would leave a handsome man like me. Although I knew that wasn’t how it worked, the fact that she wasn’t pitying me was a relief.
On the tenth day, she finally opened those beautiful eyes. I was so excited to see her that I kissed her silly, and only then thought to ask how she was feeling.
“Sweetheart, how are you feeling?”
She looked at me a little confused and I had a flashback to the last time she was in the hospital and looked at me that way. I didn’t know if I could stand to go through that again. She looked down at her blanket and then started moving her lips as if to say something, but nothing was coming out.
“Mmmehh. Ddrraaann.” I didn’t know what was happening. She was trying to speak, but the words weren’t forming clearly. I hit the nurse button and ran my fingers through her hair hoping to soothe her. She had started crying and the monitor started beeping because her heart rate was increasing.
“Shh. Calm down, sweetheart. It’s okay. The nurses are on their way and we’ll get this all worked out.”
She nodded, but it was all wobbly and her head moved in all directions. Carmen came in and took her hand, explaining that she was in the hospital and she’d had brain surgery.
“It’s alright, sweetie. The doctor will be here in a few minutes to look you over and everything will be fine. Just stay calm okay?” Then she smiled and glanced over at me, then back down at Alex. “This handsome man hasn’t left your side the whole time you’ve been sleeping. Quite a man you got there.”
Alex tried to smile, but her face wouldn’t shape quite right. The doctor walked in with a smile on his face and that eased some of my nerves.
“How’s the patient this morning? You gave us all a little scare.”
“She’s having trouble forming words and it’s like her body isn’t working right.”
“Okay, well let’s check that out. First, let me check your head and eyes and we’ll go from there, okay?”
The doctor examined her and determined that she was looking well and would soon be on the road to recovery. He asked her a few questions and all her answers came out in a jumble of letters that didn’t mean anything. Then he asked her to squeeze his hand, but instead she wiggled her feet. I was starting to panic, but I tried my best not to let anyone see.
“Well, it’s perfectly normal for speech and motor functions to be a little wonky after brain surgery. We’ll monitor how you’re doing over the next few days and then we’ll take it from there. Sometimes, the brain just needs to heal and reset itself. You are doing great and if in a few days we aren’t seeing improvement, I’ll refer you to a specialist, but we just have to take it a day at a time. However, I think that even if you do have to see a specialist, you should be completely recovered within a year. Remember, your body has been through a lot and this will not be a fast process. Just have patience, okay? In the meantime, a physical therapist will be up to help you work on getting your muscles back in working order.”
Alex smiled at the doctor and I shook his hand.
“Please don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions at all.”
He handed me his card and walked out of the room. The nurse asked if there was anything else we needed and Alex shook her head. I thanked her and she left. I sat back down next to Alex and held her hand in mine.
“Whatever happens, we’ll get through this. I don’t want you to worry about any of this because I will be with you every step of the way. Besides, you have other things to worry about.”
She gave me an inquisitive look and I smiled back at her. “We have a wedding to plan.” I took her engagement ring out of my pocket. They had given it to my parents when she was taken in for surgery. I took her hand and placed it on her finger, then kissed her hand. “There is nothing that would keep me from marrying you. We’re going to knock physical therapy out of the park and then we’re going to plan our wedding and get married. We’re going to have a house full of kids that drive us crazy and it will be perfect.”
She smiled back at me and something eased in my chest. I knew it was going to be a long road, but we would get through it one day at a time. There was nothing we couldn’t do if we had each other.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Epilogue
It had been ten months since the fire, since Alex was assaulted and almost taken from me. She was almost recovered now and it was a long and
difficult road. She wasn’t getting better after a few days with regular physical therapy, so the doctor called in a speech therapist and a physical therapist that specialized in patients with brain injuries. They explained that they needed to retrain her brain to do things that used to be second nature to her.
The speech came a lot faster than the motor function. She was able to tell me what she needed within a few weeks of starting her speech therapy. It was frustrating for her at first because she couldn’t even signal what she needed since her body wasn’t functioning properly. Mom came to help me with her during the day. I had wanted to hire a nurse because I felt a nurse would better understand how to care for her, but Alex got upset at the idea of having someone else coming into our home all the time. She was scared after what had happened and didn’t want a bunch of strangers around. After a few months, you couldn’t even tell that she’d had any speech issues.
Her physical therapist came to the house three times a week to work with her and gave me instructions on exercises to do with her when he wasn’t around. I stayed in the room with her every time since she was uncomfortable with anyone else. Once we got her more mobile, we started going to a physical therapy center where we could use equipment that would help build her strength. There were a lot of tears on my part, and hers. Mostly me though. It was frustrating to see the woman I love go through all this and not be able to take away her pain. I wished it was me that it had happened to, but wishing it wouldn’t make her suffering go away, so I had to be strong for her.
Alex encouraged me to get back to work with my dad, insisting that my mom could take care of her during the day. She felt it was important for me to get back in a routine that didn’t include her care. Logan had talked to me some more about designing furniture for VAS and I met with the director to see what they had in mind. We were hired to make most of the furniture and then I was hired on to work with the veterans when the center opened.
Harper and Anna came over a lot to have girl time with her. They painted her nails and did her hair and makeup to help her feel more like herself. They would sit and gossip for hours and while I wanted her to myself, I could see her spirits lifting when they came around. I would be forever grateful for the gift they were giving my girl. They were over here now and I was kicked out of the room because they were finally getting around to planning our wedding. Alex wanted something low key even though I told her that the sky was the limit. She had decided she wanted to do a destination wedding, so we chose to go to Hawaii to get married. The only people attending would be my parents and our friends.
Though Alex was recovering well, we still had to be careful to keep stress to a minimum. If she started to stress over things, her speech would start slurring and she would have trouble forming words again. Then she would start dropping stuff because her hands wouldn’t function properly or she would have trouble walking. It was like her brain was having a freakout and started to malfunction. Those days, she would end up in bed resting to recharge. The physical therapist assured us that as time went on, these symptoms would ease up, but it was best to keep it as stress free around her as possible.
All that we had gone through in the past year and a half was the stuff of nightmares and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Alex told me one night that she wouldn’t trade any of it for a normal life because it brought her to me and that I made her life better. It was an amazing feeling what those words did to me. They healed old wounds that I had carried around with me from the war and allowed me to finally accept the man I had become. I vowed that from that moment on, there was nothing I wouldn’t do for the love of this good woman.
If you enjoyed this book, please write a review on Amazon and watch for upcoming books in the series For The Love Of A Good Woman.
Also in this series:
Jack: A romantic comedy
Cole: A romantic thriller
Logan: A revenge novel
Drew: A second chance romance (release date TBA)
Sebastian (release date TBA)
Sean (release date TBA)
Ryan (release date TBA)
Cole: A Romantic Thriller Novel (For The Love Of A Good Woman Book 2) Page 24
