Three more joined them. “Where’s the woman who brought him in? One woman kills herself over him, and he’s already got her replacement lined up? Who is she?”
Raina held her breath.
Eldred shot a worried glance in her direction. “Don’t know. Now, get on back to work. We’ve got injured folks needing attention, and you’re in the way.”
The group didn’t disperse, though. Instead, others in the waiting room joined them, voices rising as news spread. Two of them spoke into cell phones. The excitement was palpable.
Raina jammed the door closed, heart beating double-time.
That girlfriend of his had drug problems. Killed herself.
His anguished cry. She can’t be dead.
His contempt. Where I come from, people swallow narcotics for a hangnail.
Now another woman with a fondness for pills had endangered his life. Complicated it. He’d be grateful, no doubt, to see the last of her.
She took a deep breath and opened the door a tiny bit. The lobby was filling with crying relatives and chattering bystanders craning for a look into the emergency room.
In the midst of the chaos, Raina slipped away.
Chapter Twelve
The odors hit him first, pungent and biting. Acrid antiseptic. Overcooked food.
Around him, Liam heard hushed conversation. Muffled laughter. The squeak of shoe soles on waxed floors.
He opened his eyes. Piercing brightness flooded in. He squeezed them shut.
Groaned.
“I told them my little brother was too ornery to die.” Beyond the amusement, worry was the bass note.
Liam squinted at the brother who was as dark as Liam was fair. “Alex? What the hell are you doing here? Where am I?”
“In a hospital in Asheville. You’ve got a stab wound and a light concussion, along with a lot of bruising, but the doctors told us you’re going to be fine. Want to explain what the hell happened to you?”
Out of the flood of memories, Liam picked out one word. “Us? Raina—is she okay?” He tried to rise, but Alex restrained him.
“Is Raina the woman who brought you in?”
Liam could barely recall the trip, lost in a haze of dizzy, pounding headache and the burning in his side. One image stood out, though—the feel of her thin body supporting his. “Yeah. She was hurt, too. Has she been looked at?”
Then it hit him. “Oh, hell. If you’re here, then—” He closed his eyes. “She must know who I am.”
Alex was saved from answering when a nurse bustled through the door. “Well, our star is awake. I’ll notify your doctor. How are you feeling, Mr. Sullivan?” The woman slipped a sleeve over the thermometer, crisp and efficient, but her eyes sparkled with female interest. “I’ll bet you’ve got quite a headache.”
Liam shrugged. “I’ll live.”
“Millions of women will be happy to hear that.”
“Where is—”
She slid the thermometer into his mouth before he could finish.
He jerked it back out. “Where is she?”
“We need to take your temperature, please.”
“Not until you tell me where she is.”
“Who?” But she cast an odd glance at Alex.
“The woman who brought me in. Has she been examined?”
“Please don’t get excited, Mr. Sullivan. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Alex?” His brother’s solemn expression wasn’t unusual. A smiling Alex was.
“Let her do her job,” Alex said. “Then we’ll talk.”
Liam gripped the thermometer. “Tell me what’s wrong. If she’s badly hurt—if that bastard—”
Alex crossed his arms over his chest, every inch the federal agent, the inscrutable big brother calling the shots. “She’s not. Now, let the woman finish.”
Liam glared at his brother. “Damn it, Alex—” His brother had been a hostage negotiator for years. He couldn’t be manipulated; he’d talk when he was ready and not before.
So Liam suffered through the checking of vital signs and the notations on the chart, but through the partly opened door, he could see several people just standing around, glancing inside. Every word he said, every move he made, would be reported to the press. He read the woman’s name from her ID card and summoned a smile. “Thank you, Verna. I appreciate your help.”
A faint blush stained her cheeks. “You’re very welcome. Is there anything I could do to make you more comfortable?”
He turned on the charm that had always worked—until Raina Donovan. “Your smiling face is plenty. Thanks.”
If anything, she brightened. “I’ll be back in a little bit. You must be glad your brother was able to make it so quickly.”
Liam nodded. “I sure am. Having family here is a real comfort.”
“We’ll make sure that the rest of them are brought right in when they arrive.” With that, she left, closing the door behind her.
“The rest of them?” Liam’s eyes whipped to his brother’s. “Tell me Mom’s not on her way here.”
Alex’s somber gaze lit. “You think anyone could stop her?”
“You could, if you wanted. There’s no reason for her to make the trip—” He started to sit up, then gasped and sagged back to the mattress.
Alex looked worried and studied him. Finally, he spoke. “They’re not on a plane yet. I got them to agree to wait until I could talk to the doctors. I called them an hour ago.”
“And?”
At last, Alex smiled. “If they get to talk to you, they just might hold off for now. If not, Rafe’s coming, too.”
“Oh, man…” Liam went silent, too, pondering the months when their eldest brother’s hold on life had been so precarious, then the many months more when it appeared he’d never walk again. “And now you’re missing your visit.”
Alex’s eyes were far away, and Liam was reminded that his second brother had seen more than his share of woes. “I’m sorry you’re not there. You don’t have to hang around. I’ll be fine.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “You’re kidding, right? Mom would kill me if I left. Anyway, I’m here to guard the gates until your staff arrive.”
Liam groaned, and physical pain was the least of it. “Hell. How bad is it out there?”
“Could be worse.” Alex shrugged. “There’s talk of a candlelight vigil, but at the moment only about five hundred people are gathered outside the front door of the hospital—most of them with cameras. One satellite truck so far.”
“Shit. Annie will have a cow.” Liam scrubbed his face and hit a bandage on his forehead, instantly reminded of Raina. “Where is she, Alex? Swear to God she’s all right?”
No matter how he might want to avoid it, his brother could be counted on to tell the unvarnished truth. “I don’t know.”
“Why not?” Liam bolted up again, grabbing his side. “You said she wasn’t badly hurt.”
“Settle back first, and I’ll tell you what I can.”
Woozy and aching, Liam complied.
Alex took a deep breath. “She’s gone.”
“Where?”
Alex held up his hand. “No idea. She wouldn’t let anyone examine her, but the admissions clerk and the security guard who talked to her said she seemed very tired and upset over you but that she left under her own steam.” He frowned. “She was battered, though. You gonna explain what happened to you two? I’m holding off the local cops, but I can’t do it forever.”
“In a minute. Tell me she took my car.”
“She didn’t.”
“What?” Liam’s hand clenched on the bed rail. “She doesn’t have any money, and there’s damn sure no taxi service to that mountain.” He started to lever himself up again. “I have to find her.”
“Forget it,” Alex snapped.
“I can’t—” Liam shoved against Alex’s hand, but he was ridiculously weak.
“If I have to kick your ass, I will, Liam.” Alex opened the drawer of the bedside table and pulled out
a brown envelope which Liam recognized. He’d thrown it into the car. It contained mail he’d brought from his loft. “Look in here. Maybe there’s a clue.”
Liam’s protest died. On the front, the previous address had been scratched out. Just above it, feminine handwriting said simply Liam Sullivan. The already torn flap had been folded down several times.
He paused for a minute. “How did she find out?”
“The clerk wanted insurance information. It wasn’t on you. Raina searched your vehicle and found your wallet.”
“How did she handle the news?”
“Not well.” Alex’s terse response said volumes. “The clerk got all excited and ran off to tell everyone. The security guard said Raina seemed as though someone had knocked the stuffing out of her. He was waiting with her for the clerk to get someone to look at her when another emergency rolled in.”
Liam could only imagine her distress. She’d already been stretched to her limits. “So no one examined her?”
“She said she was going to the rest room. Next thing he knew, she was gone. That—” he pointed to the envelope “—showed up on the admissions desk.”
Liam peered inside. Car keys and cell phone. He shook it out, hoping for a note.
No such luck. “Alex, she’s not safe up there.”
“Tell me where the cabin is, and I’ll start a search.” Alex paused. “Mom explained why you didn’t reveal who you were, but—” His piercing dark gaze showed his disapproval.
Liam clutched the envelope. “I thought I’d find the right time or—”
Alex’s eyebrows lifted. “Or?”
“I’d be gone and she’d never have to know.”
“Nice, easy package, huh? You’d wave your magic wand and make everything better, then be on your way?”
“There’s nothing easy about Raina Donovan.” He stared at his feet. “Hell, I don’t know what I thought. This whole thing with Kelly, and then…I just wanted to go home. Find a little peace.”
His brother’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. “I understand.”
Liam met Alex’s eyes, so often haunted by shadows of what he’d seen in his work. “She really is in trouble up there, bro. The guy who stabbed me will go back after her. He hates her guts, and she humiliated him. I can’t just desert her.” Futility combined with exhaustion, and he exhaled sharply. “I don’t have a clue what to do for her, but she’s got no one else, and she’s in that rickety cabin, planning to spend the winter—” Liam struggled to part the heavy drapes of fatigue and pain, but weariness overcame him. Against his will, his eyes began to close. “Got to…”
“Rest now, little brother. I’ll stand guard until you wake up again. Then you can tell me where to look.”
Liam attempted to answer, but sleep wouldn’t let him.
Raina walked for hours on the dark streets and tried not to think. She just wanted someplace to lie down and forget everything. Dull fatigue had settled into her very bones, and the effort to get back to Gran’s seemed like climbing Mount Everest.
There was no one to call, no one who would help. No one who gave a damn what happened to her.
He might. Like a dandelion’s puff, the thought drifted.
Raina shook her head. The man she’d met as Hal…maybe. Out of pity, no matter what he’d said.
But Liam Sullivan, Greek god of Hollywood?
He’d forget her in an instant. Or hate her for throwing him right back into the glare of scandal.
Either way, he was better off without her, and she was better off without him. She’d known how dangerous was the allure of the knight in shining armor.
Hadn’t life taught her there were no fairy tales?
So tired. She couldn’t even summon up the energy to be angry anymore. She had no idea how she’d find her way home.
Or if home was just a mirage she’d conjured up in a dingy, bloodstained tub.
A door opened in front of her, and a man walked out, nearly toppling her. “ ’Scuse me,” he said. “Going in?”
Raina’s caught the yeasty scent of beer, the acrid smell of cigarettes. Heard the pool balls clacking, the juke box playing, the voices a bee’s drone in the semidarkness.
The man held the door. “Miss?”
She glanced at the dirty, night-dark street, the murky future stretching out ahead of her. Thought of the effort it would take to get back to the mountain, when oblivion was right here at hand.
“Yes,” she answered.
And stepped over the threshold into a world where she could hide, just for a bit.
“Well, big guy, you sure know how to keep a girl challenged.” His publicist Annie’s eyes sparkled with grim humor.
“Glad to oblige.” Liam hit the button to raise the head of his bed.
“Doctor didn’t say you could sit up yet.”
“The doctor can bite my ass.” Liam blinked to clear his vision. “Tell me what’s going on.” He looked around. “Where’s Alex?”
“In the hall. Pacing. Talking on his phone about putting out an APB on your girlfriend.”
“He can’t do that.” Liam jerked back the covers. “He doesn’t understand how she is. He’ll scare the devil out of her.”
“Whoa there, cowboy.” Annie grabbed his arm. “You’re not going anywhere.” She nodded toward the IV stand. “You’re a little tied up.”
Liam cursed. “Get him for me, Annie. Please.”
“Who is she, Liam? There are three twenty-four-hour cable satellite trucks in the parking lot, and the hospital switchboard shut down from the volume of calls. I’ve had to turn off my cell phone so Sal and your director will stop calling and screaming at me. Your brother is barely keeping the local cops at bay, and a clam has looser lips than his. Whatever you’ve told him, he’s not sharing with anyone.” Lines around her mouth deepened. “I love you, Liam baby, but how in the hell do you expect me to put any kind of lid on this when I have no information?”
Liam grasped her hand. “I’m sorry, Annie.” He blew out a breath. “After all you had to juggle because of Kelly, you don’t deserve this.” He squeezed her fingers. “Listen, I promise I’ll give you all the details you want if you’ll just please go get my brother and bring him to me before he does something all of us will regret.”
Annie frowned, but she complied. She returned with a scowling Alex.
“Liam, the guy who did this to you has to be caught. This woman is an accessory—”
“Sweet mother of—” Liam didn’t try to muffle his curses. “Alex, he was going to rape her. He’ll kill her next time. Don’t you dare make her out to be some kind of criminal.” Exhaustion forced him to lie back.
Alex only looked more worried. “An APB is the quickest way to get her located. If what you say is right and she needs help, that’s how I can best give it to her.”
Liam’s gut told him that he hadn’t been the only one hiding secrets. How much would it scare her to be stopped by the police?
But how was she going to get back to the cabin without his car? The prospect of Raina, injured and upset, hitchhiking, made his gut clench with fear.
He opened his mouth to respond to Alex just as Alex’s phone rang. His brother turned away and participated in an intense conversation.
“When you left New York, you only wanted to be alone and not talk to a soul.” Annie’s eyes were fond. “I might have guessed you couldn’t resist playing the savior, but who is this mystery woman and where did you find her? What do you know about her?”
“Not enough.” Alex spoke first, snapping his phone shut. “And neither of you is going to like what I just learned.”
Raina stopped next to a stool and gripped the tired wooden curve of the bar.
The man behind it, grizzled and sallow in the dirty yellow half-light, nodded. “What’ll you have?”
She stared at him without comprehension, a world-weary traveler cast onto shores unknown.
The man frowned. “You staying or going?”
Raina sucked
down a lungful of smoke, breathing in the scents of her childhood, caught in an undertow of yearning for firm ground.
“I believe she ain’t sure, Melvin,” said a nearby patron. “You there, girl. Pull up a stool and set a spell.”
Raina blinked. Saw the attention focused on her and nearly ran. Tightened her fingers on the only solid thing in her world.
Where will you go, Raina Donovan? Even if you make it back to the mountain, you’ll never belong. They don’t want you there. The only one who did is dead, and you broke her heart.
You know this world. Know this life to your marrow.
Stay. Give in. Stop fighting.
Raina dragged her vision up from the scarred floor. “Southern Comfort,” she said. “Straight.”
“Yes, ma’am,” answered the bartender. “Comin’ right up.”
She hiked a leg and settled on the barstool.
The man two stools down chuckled and lit another cigarette.
“She what?” Annie’s head drooped.
“She’s got a record,” Alex said. “Drug charges.” He kept his gaze on Liam. “Seems your lady friend had a nice little Valium habit that grew up into something really nasty, and—”
“And what?” Liam wasn’t at all sure he wanted to know.
“She got into a bathtub with razor blades six months ago.”
“Oh, hell.” He closed his eyes. Kelly all over again. Christ.
It all made sense now, how thin she was, the air of desperation that clung to her like a second skin. How she held on to herself so hard as though she didn’t dare relax—
No pills. Liam straightened. “She’s not using now, Alex. I’d swear to that. She’s—God, she’s trying so hard to make it.”
“Liam, no,” Annie urged. “Don’t even think about taking her on as your new cause. Your career can’t handle much more scandal.” She clutched his arm suddenly. “You didn’t—please tell me you haven’t had sex with an addict. Or tell me you used a condom.”
“That’s none of your business.” Liam shook her off, even as his own gut clenched. Then he remembered Raina’s terror when he’d forgotten protection.
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