Chapter Twelve
I awoke in a bed, my head pounding like a drum. I knew pain was a good indication that I was still alive and I opened my eyes to look around. Pea-green walls; I was in a hospital bed. I was even wearing one of those funky, butt-revealing gowns. My budding fashion sense cringed.
I slowly stretched, beginning at the top and working my way down. My head hurt and had bandages around it. My right hand was encased in bandages and my ribs ached. I sat up slowly and looked down. Now here was my first obstacle. Getting out of this bed was going to be difficult with my leg in a brace. Getting up was my first goal. Second, and only by a fraction of an inch, was finding Sean. I was standing by the side of the bed trying to figure out how I was going to get from the bed to the door when Mike walked in. He swore ripely in two languages when he saw me. Crossing his arms over his chest he leaned back against the door. Damn, another dragon at the gate.
“You going somewhere, Laney?” he asked, a smug look on his face.
“I’m going to find Sean.”
“No, you are getting back in that bed.”
“No. I’m not.” It was difficult to look defiant with a hospital gown on and being bandaged all over, but I was trying for it anyway.
“Do I have to put you back in that bed?” Mike took a step toward me.
“Hey, I’m not in the mood right now for that but maybe later.”
“Damn smartass woman.” He glared at me, turned and walked out. In a moment he was back pushing a wheelchair. “Get in.”
I lowered myself down into the chair and he grabbed the blanket off the bed to cover me. “Nice backside there, darling.” He laughed as he knelt down on the floor to raise my right leg up. I bit back a cry of pain but he saw it. “I’d try telling you this was stupid, Laney, but I know it would be a waste of my breath. Besides I know damn good and well I’d be doing the same thing.” He rose up and put his head to mine. “Part of me wants to ring your fool neck for not allowing us to help sooner. But I understand. Do it again and I’ll kick your ass.”
Mike peeked out of the door, checking out the hallway before wheeling me down the hall to Sean’s room. As we rolled in, Dr. Peter looked up from beside Sean’s bedside. He glanced at his watch and handed a five-dollar bill to Chase, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. “You nailed it. Right on time, Laney.”
“How is he?” I tried to push myself forward to the bed. If I didn’t know it was Sean I might not have recognized him at all. His face was bruised and puffy, eyes swollen completely shut, one eyebrow with stitches running along it. His right arm was encased in plaster as well. I bit my lip hard to keep the tears back.
Dr. Peter put a hand on my shoulder. “His lung collapsed as they were bringing him in. He is doing better today than yesterday but he has not come around yet. We did a head CT and there seems to be no damage. Apparently, a thick skull is a prerequisite to work for Woo. Now you can sit here with him for awhile but you need some rest too.”
I only vaguely heard what Dr. Peter was saying. I wasn’t moving from this spot even if I had to handcuff myself to the damn bed. I took Sean’s hand in mine and held it. I knew Chase was still in the room. I could hear the shuffling of papers. My head still throbbed and my ankle was now screaming in protest but it mattered not one whit. I was not going to move until Sean woke up. I should have told him how I felt about him. What if he died? I shut that line of thought off quickly. He would not die. Even if I had to go to heaven and kick some ass, Sean was not going to die.
The hours passed. Daylight gave way to night as I talked to Sean off and on when thoughts passed through my head. I even prayed again. Wow, twice in one week. I wondered if that shocked God as much as it did me?
I fell asleep with my head on our joined hands. Not easy to do from a wheelchair, but I was too damn tired to care. I was not budging. I guess everyone knew that because I was pretty much left alone. Movement. I felt something touching my face. Sean? “Sean?” I jerked my head up against stiff, protesting muscles.
He squeezed my hand. He whispered something but I could not hear it. “What? Sean I didn’t hear you.”
He tried again. By the third time I heard. “Stupid.”
He fell back asleep and I laid my head down on his hand and cried. I must have cried myself to sleep because I woke up back in my own hospital bed with sunlight streaming in and Mason sitting in a chair nearby, flipping through a magazine. “Hey.” I mumbled.
“Hey yourself. How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been hit by a train. How’s Sean?”
“He was awake and asking for you when I saw him an hour ago. He wouldn’t believe us at first when we told him you were fine. He thought he had dreamed you holding his hand. You know, all this mushy stuff is enough to turn one away from sweets,” she said with a smile.
“Laney, there are a couple of things I need to talk to you about. The first is that you’ll need to make a statement to the police sometime today. Chase has quite a bit of pull so we’ve been able to hold them off for a while, but they need to know what happened. I’m an attorney, so I’ll be present when they question you. Detective Sweeney, my brother, has your knife.” Mason arched an eyebrow at me. “Nice one, too. Big. I doubt you’ll get it back since, a blade that big is illegal to carry concealed in California.”
Mason scooted her chair closer to the bed. “A rather enterprising reporter named Sherman Powers somehow got your name and the story hit the late edition last night and the first editions this morning. We can’t move you to a new hospital but we have you under a different name right now. Hopefully that will be enough to throw the wolves off until you get out. I’ve had run-ins with Powers before. It would give me no end of satisfaction to kick his teeth in.” I could almost hear Mason gnashing her teeth.
“Where is James?” I asked hoping he was dead.
Mason stood up and walked to the window and looked out. “We don’t know where James is. Maybe you want to tell me what happened?”
So I told her all that I could remember from James calling me, to stealing the jewelry from Boris’s apartment, to rescuing Sean.
Mason sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t expect you to be charged with anything. Even the B&E charge will probably not see the light of day. But, Laney, I have to tell you that what you did ranks up there in the top ten most stupid things anyone could have done. And I should know; I’ve done the top five on that list.” She held up her hand to hold off any of my comments. “Now hang on. Most likely, given the situation, I would have done the same thing. But why didn’t you ask for help?”
I had no answer for her right then so I drank some water and waited for more of the lecture. Mason just shook her head and headed to the door. “My brother Connor and his partner, Detective Nathan Bridger, are waiting outside to talk to you.”
I nodded to her and tried to bring my brain around to focus on the here and now. I was having trouble getting past the fact that after all that had happened James was still out there.
Detective Sweeney and his partner came in, as Mason sat back down and pulled out pen and paper. I couldn’t see any resemblance between Connor and Mason at all. I wondered if she looked like her other brothers. Connor took out a small notepad and pen. “Laney, we need to ask you some question in regards to James Prescott and June 12. I need you to tell us everything that happened.”
I told them everything. From James’s abuse of me, and the possible abuse of a neighbor girl, his phone calls, blackmailing me to break into Boris’s, office and what happened at the house in Point Reyes. “I saw James in the woods. He was the one who set off the bomb. There were two men helping him too. They drove a black SUV.”
“Two men?” asked Detective Bridger. “Can you describe them?”
“One was about five foot six, late forties, Caucasian, maybe two-fifty or more, scar across his left che
ek, balding. The other one had the gun. He was six-two or better, younger than the other guy. He might have been late twenties or early thirties. He had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Nothing else that I recall about him.” I caught a look passing between Mason and Connor.
“What? What’s wrong?” I could see they were holding something back.
“When we arrived on the scene we found an SUV parked off to the side of the driveway. Both men in it were dead. Both shot in the head,” said Detective Sweeney.
Detective Bridger handed me two photos of the men. Morgue shots. I nodded. “Yes, that’s them.”
I lay back and beat the bed in frustration. James had gotten away scot-free. No trails led to him. Nothing but me — and who would believe me?
“Boris’s girlfriend was found dead too. It wasn’t pretty. She’d been tortured to death. We’ll be back if we have more questions.” They nodded and went out the door. Mason stepped out with them so I took the opportunity to try and get up. I think every bone in my body ached, but I sat up anyway and threw the covers off just as Mason came back in. “If you give me a moment I can arrange to get you cleaned up a bit and something a bit more on the tasteful side than that gown.”
I looked at her. “James is still out there. We have no proof that he was involved in this, do we?”
Mason shook her head. “Other than your word? No. Not yet.”
“So he might not be done with Sean.”
“That’s true. Nor with you, for that matter.”
“Okay.”
“Laney, I know this is a lot to hit you with. But I need to talk to you about something else. Because of all this attention by the press your name did get out and I was contacted by an attorney for William’s estate.”
Estate? William didn’t have an estate. We had a beach house in Santa Cruz but I figured his folks took that. I knew there might have been something left to me from William, but his family could afford to take it away from me. I couldn’t afford to hire anyone to help me and at the time William had died, I couldn’t have cared less about anything but William. “Mason, William didn’t have an estate. We had a house but his folks took it, I’m sure.”
“Laney, it wasn’t theirs to take. William had his own inheritance left to him by his maternal grandmother. He used some of it to buy the house and a half share in the fishing boat — and he invested some — but the bulk of it was untouched. He left it all to you. William’s attorney was misinformed that you were dead, so he’s been trying to find your family. He found your Aunt Katherine and she told him you were dead as well. Since there was no death certificate and no proof of your demise he could go no further. The will stipulates that if you are dead, then the money is to go to several specified charities, but William’s family has been attempting to block the transfer of any money to the charity. The attorney hired a private detective, who discovered that you were alive about the same time your name hit the papers three days ago, then contacted Woo. I met with him. He would like to meet with you and settle some details before he goes back to Los Angeles and appears before a judge to settle the case.”
I lay back in bed and ran my hands over my face. Mason reached into her briefcase and handed some papers to me. Most of it made no sense to me, all legal mumbo jumbo, party of the first part crap. Mason then handed me the financial documents, which listed all the assets.
I could hear William’s voice echo in my mind. “You wait, Laney my love, one day you and I will be living in style and you will want for nothing.” I always told him I was happy just as we were. Apparently he didn’t feel that way. If this was indeed mine, I would want for nothing for a very long time. Too many things to think about, so take one thing at a time. One at a time.
An hour later Mason was wheeling me down the hall to Sean’s room. Mike was sitting out in the hall outside my door. I noticed the outline of a gun under his denim jacket as he stood up.
“So I guess you drew the short straw in having to guard me?” I asked Mike as we went down the hall.
“Who said I was guarding you?”
“Your gun.”
“Your eyes still work even if your brain doesn’t. Actually I am going to share guard duty with Chase and watch over Sean. You will have Jason and Bill. I think you will find them adequate.”
I offered up a few choice words about his lineage for that comment.
“So until we have a better idea of the way things are, you are under constant care. At least until you’re healed enough to take care of yourself.” Mike stopped the wheelchair and put his face in front of mine. “You pull any crap on me or the others and I swear to you, Laney, I will tie you to your bed.”
I knew by the gleam in his eye he’d do it in a heartbeat. He owed me and I figured he’d collect one way or another. Paybacks are a bitch.
“Whatever.” I sat back in the chair. Mason didn’t even bother to stifle a laugh.
Mike glared at her and she shrugged. “Hey, Superman gets tied to a bed by a 120 pound woman … that’s funny.” Mike just took a deep breath and started mumbling under his breath as he escorted us down the hall.
Sean was propped up a bit in bed by some pillows. His left eye was just barely able to open but he smiled when he saw me. Molly got up and moved her chair away from the bed where she had been sitting next to him. She hugged me fiercely and took my face in her hands. “We will be right outside.” I heard Tommy start to protest but everyone left the room this time.
“You going to call me stupid again?”
Sean smiled a little but I could tell it hurt him. “It was stupid.”
“Bite me.”
“You know, darlin’, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do right now, but you, we, will have to wait a few days for that.”
“And everyone keeps calling me a smart ass,” I said sarcastically as I took his hand. “You talk to the cops yet?”
He nodded slowly, “I guess this mess isn’t quite over yet, huh?”
“No.” I sighed. “Mike is armed. I am assuming the others are as well.”
“Who they got on you?”
“Mike told me Bill and Jason got the honors.” Sean mulled that over in his mind a bit. I figured I had better change the subject quick before he started thinking about getting out of here too soon. “Hey guess what? I might be a rich woman.”
“Yeah? You mean I can marry you for your money?”
“Nope. I’m not getting married and it’s not mine yet. Apparently William had money that he’d inherited and he left it to me. Of course, his family doesn’t feel kindly toward that, so if I want the money I’m going to have to fight them for it.”
“Why wouldn’t you want it?”
“Sean, money has been the basis of my entire life in one way or another. My parents ran away from it so they could be together, I was tormented half my life by my other family because they had the money and the power and I was nothing to them but a bog Irish orphan. I lived on the streets with no money other than what I could beg, borrow, and — yes — steal. I have learned to live simply, albeit never easily. I’ve done without having much.”
“So then give it all away. No one is going to force you to keep it but I’m guessing you’ll still want to fight them for it.”
I nodded. “There have only been two times in my life where I have been so humiliated I wished I had never been born. James has the honor of holding the key to one of those times and William’s family has the other. There I am, standing there in my own home and with each hateful word his father threw at me I just stood there and cringed. I stood there and took it, while they took everything that was William away from me. I didn’t even have it within myself to stand up to them.”
“And now?”
“Now? I’ll take this to the mat. I don’t know what I’ll do with the money. Keep it, throw it off the Golden
Gate Bridge, or give it all away. But I will fight for it.”
Sean caressed my hand. “Thank you, for saving me. Even though the risk you took was stupid, thank you. Why won’t you get married?”
“Huh?”
“I asked, why won’t you get married?”
“Is that a trick question? Why? I don’t know. All sorts of reasons, I guess. Is it really that important?”
“Well to me it is. I need to know how hard it’s going to be to get you to marry me.”
“Sean, I realize you took a big knock to the head recently, but what are you talking about?”
“Laney, honey, I figure the best way to keep you from doing something as stupid as you just did — ever again — is to marry you.”
I sat there and looked at him. He had that damn smug look on his bruised and battered beautiful face, and I fell deeper in love, if that was even possible. But I’d be damned if I was going to tell him.
“So my rescuing you was stupid?”
“You should have asked for help.”
“And you wouldn’t have done the same thing?”
“What I would have done is not the issue here. You should have called in back up.”
“I did have back up. I took Mike’s watch.”
“Yes and from what I understand, left him tied up. Now, to be honest, I applaud that stroke of genius and hope someone took pictures. But it wasn’t the best move you could have made.”
“Oh. I see. I should have let them kill you?”
Sexy in the City Page 31