by Mia Carson
Reider sagged, and the two cops held him upright as the paramedic rushed over to the ambulance to tell the others. Someone yelled Reider’s name and he turned, searching for the man it belonged to. “Freddie?”
“Let me past! That’s my sister and brother-in-law,” Fredrick ranted.
The cops let him by, and he rushed to Reider. “I don’t know… she’s hurt badly, man,” he muttered.
“We need to get him to a hospital,” one of the cops said.
Fredrick nodded and took one side of Reider as the cop took the other. “Ride with her, alright? I’ll call our parents and yours,” he said, but Reider didn’t respond. “Look at me, man! She’s going to make it. You both are.”
Reider lifted his hand to wipe the tears from his face, but the paramedic stopped him. “Too much glass. Let’s go,” she said, and Fredrick helped him into the ambulance. The woman told Fredrick where they were going, and after a quick, horrified glance at his sister, he backed away and the doors were slammed shut.
The ambulance bounced down the road. Reider pushed the woman aside as she tried to work on his face. “I need to get the glass out,” she said sternly, but he shook his head, his eyes glued to Johanna.
The other two men cleaned the wounds they could and set up an IV in her arm. They placed an oxygen mask on her face and checked her vitals, but the amount of blood oozing from her wounds twisted Reider up inside until he clutched at his chest, unable to breathe. The woman said something, and Reider was leaning back against the sidewall as the woman scolded him and checked his vitals. He said he was fine and asked about Jo, but the woman said nothing.
Reider closed his eyes, his heart thundering in his chest when Jo gasped for air and struggled against the paramedics. They tried to talk to her as Reider leaned forward, reaching for her hand, then suddenly she went still.
“Damn it,” the man snapped and reached for paddles. He yelled ‘clear,’ and Reider dug his nails into his palms until blood oozed from the fresh wounds. Jo’s body jerked, but her heart didn’t start. “Again!”
He whispered under his breath, praying she would live. “Jo, please… come on, Jo,” he whispered, watching as she was hit repeatedly with the paddles. The space inside the ambulance shrank, and his heart shattered. Tears streamed down his face until the man announced he had a pulse. Reider slumped in relief, and the world went dark for a few moments. When he opened his eyes, they were at the hospital. He was taken out and led to the ER, but they wheeled Johanna away and out of sight.
“I have to go with her… Where’s she going?!” he yelled, but two nurses held him back. “No!”
“Sir, please, we need to see to your injuries, too,” the older nurse with a kind, soothing smile and wrinkles told him. “We’ll let you know how your wife is as soon as we know anything. Please, sit down.”
Too long… it took too damn long for them to stitch up the cuts on his arms and remove the glass shards from his face and neck. When he was bandaged and declared fit enough to leave the ER for the waiting room, he paced around it and stopped every doctor who came near, demanding to know about his wife.
“Reider,” Fredrick called as he arrived and after another nurse told him he needed to sit down. “Where’s Jo?”
“They took her into the back. I haven’t seen her yet,” he muttered, rubbing a hand down his face. Fredrick embraced him tightly, and Reider leaned into the man who was once his enemy because of their parents and grandparents, because of a decades’ long feud no one even cared about anymore. “I don’t know if she’ll make it.”
“Where is she?” a woman shrieked, rushing into the waiting room. “Where is my daughter?”
Reider and Fredrick turned to see Lucy, Ben, Izzy, and Frank hurrying towards the waiting room. Rosaleen and little Travis stepped quickly out of the way to let them pass, but the second Lucy’s gaze locked onto Reider’s, she slid to a stop.
“You. What the hell are you doing here? What’s going on, Fredrick?” she yelled.
“Mom, calm down,” Fredrick snapped and held out his hand for Rosaleen when she looked worried. “There’s a lot to talk about, but right now, you need to sit down.”
“No, I will not. Why is he here? Is he involved?” Lucy snapped and charged forward and raised her hand to slap Reider again, but Fredrick and Izzy moved between them to stop her. “Why are you protecting him? He hurt your sister!”
“No, he didn’t!” Fredrick yelled, and Lucy’s mouth clamped shut in surprise. “They were in an accident, running away from you and the rest of the family.”
Lucy’s mouth moved but no words came out, and Reider glared fiercely at her from between her two children. Anguish filled him because Jo might be dying, along with their unborn child if she were pregnant, and her mom was still holding onto the grudge between the families.
“They wouldn’t run away,” Lucy muttered. “She wouldn’t do that to me.”
“We love each other,” Reider said and moved Fredrick aside gently so he could speak to her. “We want to be together. We were leaving tonight, once we saved Izzy from you, too.”
Lucy’s eyes darted to her youngest daughter, her head lowered and cheeks burning red. “Isabel? Is this true?”
“Yes,” Fredrick answered for her and placed a hand on his little sister’s shoulder. “She was going to come live with me and my fiancée and our son.”
Lucy gasped, covering her mouth in shock, and Ben said, “Your what?”
“Rosaleen,” Fredrick called and held out his hand for the redheaded woman to come over, carrying the little boy. “Mom, Dad, this is my fiancée, Rosaleen, and this is our son, Travis. We’ve been together for two years, and I thought it was time for you to meet.”
“No,” Lucy muttered and stepped away from Rosaleen’s outstretched hand. “No, this isn’t happening. You’re all turning against us. It’s all lies, and Johanna—my Johanna—is not going to be with a damn Marquette!”
“Too late,” Reider said and crossed his arms over his chest.
“What do you mean?” Ben growled. “What are you talking about?”
Reider was ready to tell him when his parents rushed around the corner, and he groaned. Janet and Peter hurried to their son’s side. When they spotted the Chadwicks, they stopped in their tracks. “Why are they here? What’s going on?” Peter asked. “Reider?”
“Your son was in a car accident with our daughter,” Ben muttered and stood toe-to-toe with Peter. “Explain what the hell your son was doing with his hands on my girl?”
“Your daughter manipulated him,” Peter argued.
Up and down the hall, people stopped to watch, and Reider cursed. Izzy pulled out a cell and called someone, stepping to the side. Reider had a feeling he knew who it was, and the sheriff couldn’t get there soon enough. The two men continued to snipe at each other while Lucy and Janet eyed each other darkly. No one else visibly cared that Johanna was back in surgery and had nearly died. He had no word yet on how she was doing—whether she would live, if she would ever wake again. The love of his life, the woman he married, was in danger of disappearing from his arms forever, from this world forever, and these damn people were too busy biting each other’s heads off and placing blame to notice.
Reider’s hands covered his ears, and he muttered curses under his breath. Rosaleen and Izzy moved closer to him, asking if he was alright, but Reider moved past them. He raised his head, the angry voices filling him with rage, and he screamed at them to shut up.
“You all are pathetic,” he went on, glaring from his parents to Johanna’s. “Do you even realize why we’re all here tonight? Why this happened? You told us for so long we couldn’t like each other, either side of the family, so when two of us happened to fall in love, we had to hide it. Or we met someone you don’t approve of, and we hid it,” he said, motioning to Fredrick and Rosaleen. “Too damn scared to tarnish the family legacy.”
“Reider, really,” his mom said hotly, but he shot her a glare so filled with anger, her lips
shut with an audible pop.
“I’m finished being scared of what you might think or what you might do to me,” he growled. “I am in love with Johanna Chadwick and she with me, and before you open your goddamn mouth, Dad,” he warned, “or you, Ben,” he added when the man stepped forward, “nothing you say will change that.”
He moved to the corridor and pointed at the doors leading to the surgeries. His heart ached for his love, and for a moment, he was too overcome with emotion to say anything until Fredrick gripped his shoulder in support.
“That woman down there is no longer just your daughter, she is my wife, and I don’t know if she’s going to live or die tonight,” he whispered harshly. “I don’t know anything besides the fact I love her, and you should be here supporting her instead of blaming her!”
Both sets of parents glanced at each other, faces crinkling with disbelief before Peter finally said, “She’s your wife?”
Reider nodded. “I will not be taken from her side again.”
“How dare you do this to us?!” Janet shrieked. “She’s a Chadwick!”
“Yeah, and I don’t give a damn,” Reider yelled. “Is that really all you care about?”
Frank rushed forward suddenly, his fist aimed at Reider’s face, but Fredrick was there and decked his twin first, sending him staggering to the floor. “Enough, Frank.”
He glared up at his brother and spat blood from his mouth. “You traitor.”
“Traitor to what?” Fredrick argued. “To greed and power? Take it all, I don’t want any part of it, and I sure as hell won’t have my fiancée or son around it either.”
“You see what you’ve done to us?” Reider snapped at his parents. “This is all because of you.”
Frank scrambled to his feet, looking ready to fight anyone he could get his hands on, when two cops rushed forward from the end of the hall and pinned him against the wall.
“I think that’s enough of that,” Sheriff Princeton called out, hefting up his belt as he walked.
“Sheriff,” Lucy said and aimed an accusing finger at Reider. “Arrest him. He kidnapped my daughter and nearly killed her!”
Princeton’s lips screwed up to one side as he nodded slowly. “Is that right?”
“Yes, it is. I want him arrested!”
Princeton glanced over his shoulder at Frank, struggling against the officers, and the sheriff leaned in real close. “Thought I told you to behave yourself, Frank. Cuff him. He’s wanted for questioning anyway in relation to the car accident that killed the Marquettes.”
“What? What are you doing?!” Ben yelled and moved to stop them, but Princeton stepped in his path. “How dare you! You work for us!”
“Since when? Because you donate money to the department two times a year?” Princeton said gruffly and laughed. “You got some nerve, Chadwick. All of you do. Now, the way I hear it, Reider and Johanna got in an accident. Reider, you okay, son?”
Reider nodded once. “But Jo… I don’t know…” He trailed off, unable to finish as pain choked him. He hung his head, hating to think of his life without Jo in it.
“She’s strong,” Princeton said encouragingly. “She’ll be alright, you’ll see.”
“She might be pregnant,” he said. Peter cursed loudly, and his mom muttered something about whores under her breath as Lucy cried. “Don’t you dare insult my wife,” Reider raged at his mom. “Don’t. You want to lose your son tonight, too?”
“Reider, please, see reason,” she sputtered. “This is young love. It’ll fade. She’s using you like Chadwicks always do.”
Reider leered at her bitterly. “Right, course they do. You’re a bitter old woman, you know that? I’m sorry you never found happiness, but I’m not going to lose this chance at mine.”
Silence fell over the waiting room until a man in surgical scrubs cleared his throat. “Are you all here for Johanna Chadwick?”
“Yes,” Reider said the same time Lucy did. She scowled at him and raised her chin, walking to the doctor.
“She’s my daughter,” she said. “How is she?”
The doctor frowned and glanced at Reider. “Are you the husband?”
“Don’t you dare talk to him,” Lucy yelled. “She’s my daughter!”
“And she’s my wife, you bitch,” Reider snapped. “You do not control her life, and unless she says so, you will not be a part of it, not anymore.”
Lucy’s mouth hung open. The doctor cleared his throat again, motioning for Reider to follow him. Fredrick and Izzy said to give her hugs from them, and he promised he would. His heart pounding with trepidation, he waited for the doctor to tell him something—anything—but the man waited until they were at the doors leading to the ICU.
“She’s stable,” he said and Reider’s shoulder relaxed in relief. “She’s banged up, has a concussion, and has a few broken ribs and some minor internal bleeding, but she’ll pull through.”
Reider nodded frantically. “And the baby?”
The doctor hesitated, and Reider leaned back against the wall, tears in his eyes, until the doctor reached out to steady him. “The baby is fine as far as we can tell,” he said. “She’s not far along at all, but so far, so good. Your wife and child are going to be fine, Mr. Marquette.”
He clung to the man’s arms, thanking him repeatedly. “Can I see her?”
“She’ll be coming out of the anesthesia soon, so she’ll be groggy, might not remember everything,” he said. “But I’m sure she’d be happy to see you when she wakes up.”
Reider followed him through the doors, ready to see his wife again.
Chapter 18
Screeching filled her ears and then screams. Flashing lights. Sound of crunching metal and then…nothing. Johanna tried to speak, to open her mouth and yell for help, but no sound came out. Slowly, her body erupted in pain—her head, her sides, until every nerve screamed for relief. A familiar voice whispered in her ear, and the pain was gone. She drifted in darkness again.
Images appeared before her, the face of a man she knew well. A man she loved. She reached out to it, but it slipped away and she was alone again. The darkness lasted for hours—days, maybe? Johanna didn’t know.
A rough hand held hers, she knew that much, and rubbed a thumb over the back of her hand and whispered her name. Her curls were smoothed back and something wet dripped onto her face. Someone was sad, very sad, and she heard crying nearby. Her heart twisted when she heard such cries, so she reached out and her hand held a face covered in beard stubble.
“Don’t cry,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Johanna? Jo, can you hear me?” a deep voice overflowing with worry said. “Jo?”
She knew that voice, but the name wouldn’t come to her so she nodded instead.
“Thank God. Can you open your eyes, love?”
It took a moment for her eyes to open, and when they did, she winced. The light was dim, but she made out the man’s face hovering nearby, tears welling in his eyes. She pressed her hand against his face again and grinned. “Reider.”
He nodded and kissed the hand he held. “Do you remember what happened?”
She blinked slowly a few times, her brain fuzzy with memories. “We… we got married,” she told him, and he smiled with her. “We left, and there was… there was another truck. An accident?”
Details flashed before her eyes. The truck getting hit and rolling. Hearing Reider call out to her but unable to reply. There was a flash of an ambulance and hearing yells from Reider as she was taken away. Hot tears filled her eyes, and her fingers traced the cuts and bruises on Reider’s face gently. “Are you alright? How bad was it?”
“Pretty bad,” he told her. “I’m fine. You scared me. I thought… I thought I lost you for a while there.”
Another memory nagged at her, and her hand slipped down to her belly, her eyes widening. “The baby? Did we lose it?”
His hand covered hers, and he shook his head. “You and the baby will recover.”
She relaxed
against the bed, and he kissed her forehead. “Well, this was not how I had hoped to make our getaway,” she teased, and Reider’s face darkened. “What did I miss?”
“Quite a bit, actually,” he said.
Johanna sighed and scooted over some so he could lay in bed beside her. Once he was settled, she rested against his chest, loving the sound of his heartbeat in her ear, lulling her into a sense of calm. “Everyone knows, I take it?”
“Yes, and our parents are dealing with it,” he muttered darkly.
“Have they been by to see me at all?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound as hurt as she felt.
“No. No, they have neglected to visit, and I’m not sure they will. Sheriff Princeton has been by with some good news. Izzy and Fredrick have visited, if you couldn’t tell by the flowers,” he told her with a quiet laugh.
Johanna followed his gaze and smiled at the bright yellow and red flowers across the room, vases and vases of them. A giant teddy bear sat in the chair in the corner, along with several balloons.
“Even James came by a few hours ago,” he added.
“What was the good news?” she asked and forced down any anxiety she had over her parents. Now was not the time to deal with them. She wanted to be with her husband.
Reider rested his chin against her head. “The good news is we now have access to the money in our personal accounts. Our parents will be forced to hand it over by the end of the week since the money is ours by right. I'm not sure if this other part is good news or not, but Frank was arrested and is being held for the murder of Micah’s parents. Apparently, the accident was not meant to kill them, just scare them off of accepting a new business deal.”
Johanna sighed. She wanted to feel shocked, but she couldn’t actually say she knew Frank anymore. “I don’t know what happened to him, but at least Micah should feel better.”
“He’s hanging in there but definitely better.”
She tilted her head back to study the bags under his eyes and the stubble covering his face. “I think I’m liking the beard look,” she told him. “How long was I out for?”