by C. D. Gill
“He’s alive, right? He’ll be okay. You think it was an accident?”
Joey pursed his lips and shrugged. “We won’t know until we hear about what happened from Xander.”
“He was driving my car. It could’ve have been meant for me.”
“Or it could have been an accident,” Joey said. “A very, very poorly timed hit-and-run.”
Joey swung the car into the emergency room drop-off area stopping at the curb to allow Gia to jump out while he left to park. Her job, her house, her life, her car, her family. Every area of her life had been attacked. She was afraid to ask, but what else was left?
A nurse greeted Gia at the front desk. Once she found Xander’s information, she escorted Gia to a triage room. A pungent lemon scent seared her nostrils where it’d been applied too liberally to the stench it was intended to cover. The nurse drew the curtain behind Gia in a show of privacy. The whole hallway could hear their conversation from behind their flimsy plastic curtains.
Xander lay on a bed with his eyes closed. He looked awful. The scene was all too familiar, except the last hospital visit had been Uncle Angelo and he hadn’t been breathing on his own. Xander’s bare chest rose and fell in shallow breaths—no small miracle considering the bruises already forming on his body. His skin was pale and marked with angry red gashes and purple discoloration across his face, chest, and arms. In two steps, she hovered over his bed and stroked his arm. He didn’t open his eyes.
“Please be okay.” Her whispers sounded too loud.
After scooting the chair beside the bed, she settled in, leaving her hand on his arm as if in his sedated state her touch would comfort him. Joey pulled the curtain aside and took a seat in the room without a word. A few minutes later, he shoved away from the chair and ambled out. He returned with two bottles of water in hand. At the same time, a petite nurse appeared with a clipboard.
“Hi, I’m Carmen. Are you Alexander’s family?”
Gia tightened her grip on Xander’s arm. “Close friends.” They’d have to drag her out if they wanted her to leave. “How is he? What happened?”
“A car hit Alexander’s vehicle which pushed his car into the side railing. He doesn’t have any broken bones except his nose and maybe his ribs. When the EMS team approached the car, he panicked and they had to sedate him to get him into the ambulance. He’s been sleeping a while but should be waking up soon.”
“Did anyone catch the license plate of the person who hit him?” Gia said.
Carmen pursed her lips. “You’ll have to ask the police. He hit that railing hard. It’s a miracle the crash didn’t cause any more damage.” She inhaled as if she were about to continue but stopped and blinked. “I’m going to check his vitals quickly.”
Xander groaned as he stirred under Carmen’s stethoscope pressed against his chest. A huge smile broke across Carmen’s face when he opened his eyes. “How do you feel, Alexander?”
“Sore.” His voice came out in a croak. He rolled his head to the side. Gia smiled at him when their eyes met. She squeezed his arm. “Gia.” He inhaled. “I’m so sorry.”
Carmen glanced between the two of them with a knowing look and wrote on his chart. What could she know if he’d been sedated ninety-five percent of the time she’d been with him? Unless he talked in his sleep. Gia gripped his arm and smoothed her thumb over his skin. “The accident wasn’t your fault. A car is replaceable. You are not. I’m glad you made it out okay. The safety ratings were one of the reasons I bought it in the first place, so I guess it did the job, huh?”
Xander’s eyebrows flicked up as he grunted.
“Alexander, I have paperwork for you to fill out while you wait for the doctor. He’ll come see you and give you a thorough exam and talk through the injuries with you.” Carmen’s fingers lingered on Xander’s hand.
Gia forced herself to look away. Her frown deepened at the stupid smirk on Joey’s face. The ever-silent observer noticed far too much for his own good. She stood, grabbed Joey’s wrist, and yanked him into the hallway. They faced one another against the wall-papered wall where the cart-pushing, speed-walking nurses were most unlikely to crash into them.
“Why are you smirking?” Gia crossed her arms.
Joey shrugged. “It’s been years since I’ve seen you be jealous of the attention another woman paid a guy. I find it...” He waved his hand in the air as if sifting through words for the right ones. “Charming and sweet.”
“I’m not jealous. I’m suspicious of that nurse.”
Joey glanced around and leaned toward Gia. “Sounds to me like Xander’s angels did their job.” He cleared his throat. “Speaking of angels, who is paying for all these hospital bills that will be coming in?”
“That would probably be me, since he has no money or insurance. We’ll have to see what my car insurance will do for us.”
“That will depend on the investigation. Luckily for us, here come the cops,” Joey said as he nodded to what he watched over her shoulder.
Lovely. More interrogations and statements and interviews. The cops stopped next to them outside Xander’s room as if waiting for an invitation to enter the room. When Detective James appeared at the end of the hallway, their behavior became very clear.
“Ms. Carter, I’m sorry to have cause to see you twice in a week.” Detective James stuck his hand out and shook Gia’s hand then Joey’s. “My colleagues were kind enough to give me a call when your name came up in another case. Do you have time to talk to us?”
Gia pasted a smile on her face and motioned the group into the room. No need for a scene in the hallway, not that the curtain room made much of a difference. Xander opened his bleary eyes when they filed in but didn’t make a sound.
“Mr. Reinerman, I’m sorry about your accident.” Detective James withdrew a notepad from his pocket and scribbled on the open page with his pen. “The officers and I would appreciate you telling us anything you remember starting with where you were coming from.”
The rise and fall of Xander’s chest was the only visible movement. Her heart hurt for him. A few more silent moments passed before he responded.
“I had an appointment at Weathersfield and was driving back to Gia’s when a black car came into my lane. I swerved to avoid hitting it but the car ran me into the railing. I didn’t catch the license plate numbers, but from what I hear the driver didn’t stop.”
“Can someone at Weathersfield verify your presence?” Detective James said.
Xander nodded.
“Ms. Carter, reports say this was your car. Did you give Mr. Reinerman permission to drive your vehicle?” Detective James didn’t bother tearing his attention away from his notepad.
“The car he normally drives is getting work done, so I offered for him to drive mine,” Gia said. None of the officers appeared too convinced. “Xander isn’t at fault here. Give him a break. Someone’s been coming after me recently and, unfortunately, he’s the victim this time, not me.”
Detective James granted her a grunt as he shoved his notepad into his pocket. “I’ll call you when I know more.”
That’s all the detective gave her as he strode from the room with his cop buddies behind him. Wasn’t he supposed to provide her some measure of comfort that they were doing everything in their power to find the people responsible for the wreckage her life had become? The cops on the cop shows seemed to have better manners than the actual real deal.
They waited for over an hour for a doctor to stop by and speak with Xander. It couldn’t be life-threatening if they didn’t come very quickly. After he gave the go-ahead to be discharged, Xander swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed to his feet. He cringed as he lifted his shirt over his head and swayed left.
Gia’s hand shot out to steady him, her fingers splaying across his warm skin. When he stilled, she dropped her hand. There under her fingers was a long scar that trailed from his shoulder to his hip. She’d missed that when he’d been jogging by shirtless. With mumbled thanks, he tugg
ed his shirt all the way on and grabbed his wallet and phone from the plastic bag on the desk. Gia trailed Carmen who chattered like a perky cheerleader while she pushed the wheelchair to the front door. Joey waited outside the front entrance with the car door already open. Xander sank into the seat and Carmen leaned in after him to secure him.
With Xander buckled in, Carmen waved them off and Gia exhaled long and hard. What next?
“Gia, if you don’t mind, I’d like to still go into the office for a few hours,” Xander said.
“You need to rest.”
“I don’t have money to pay the medical bills.”
Gia twisted in her seat. “Don’t worry—”
“No. You aren’t paying for the bills. I’m an adult. Now that I have a way to make money, I can pay them myself.”
“You’re stubborn.”
“I’m also not a leech.”
Joey dropped them off with a promise to return when Gia called for a pickup and Xander disappeared upstairs without a backward glance. The pile of mail heaped on her desk begged to be sorted and her email was in no better shape. An email from Senator Johnson’s office popped into her inbox.
We’re delighted that you and one guest will be attending the Senator’s Ball this Saturday. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served at 6:00 PM. Dinner begins at 7:00 PM. We anticipate a fabulous evening.
Gia dropped her head into her hands. Senator Johnson sent out the invite two months ago and she’d responded assuming Grant could go with her or at the very least she could take Lucy with her. Now in the middle of all her issues wasn’t the best time to have to put on a happy face and make small talk with Senator Johnson and his vast network of donors. Joey would go with her if she asked. He looked great in a tuxedo, but Xander probably looked better. When was the last time he had a reason to clean up and go somewhere in a penguin suit?
Trudging up the stairs, Gia mentally sorted through her dress options. None of which were smoke-free at the moment. Her green floor-length gown combined the perfect amount of elegance and class without being overstated. Lucy could do her hair and help with her makeup, then she’d be set. Ma had made sure Gia had appropriate attire to go along with the proper manners for every occasion. This was her first reason to don a gown since moving to Golden.
At the top of the stairs, Gia turned into the main room where Xander sat on a small stool piecing together another kids’ plastic bucket bench. Carlos said the parents loved the bench because it was virtually indestructible under the abuse of kids. In her opinion, both the bench and the bench builder were more durable than she’d expected.
“I never pictured myself doing this,” Xander said as he secured the final leg in place, wincing. “My five-year plan included positioning myself to take over a university soccer team. Yet here I am somewhat self-employed, re-purposing trash, and digging into who set me up and why. The irony of reality can be painful, can’t it?”
She leaned against the door frame and smiled. “Having a hands-on impact on saving the environment and keeping a major construction company from a lawsuit are two massive successes. You should be proud of your work.”
Flipping the bench right side up, Xander motioned her over. “Be my test mouse. Take a seat.”
“Is there a weight limit on it?”
Xander eyed her, his gaze traveling from her head to toe. “Of course, but I figure it’s at least three times your weight.”
To hide the blush creeping into her cheeks, Gia put a fraction of her backside on the bench, keeping her weight on her legs. Xander’s hands covered her knees and shoved her into the seat the whole way.
“That’s better. Bounce around a little bit, will you?”
“Are you crazy?” Gia held on to the edge of the bench.
Xander smirked and shrugged. “It has to withstand rambunctious kids. We don’t need another lawsuit on our hands because our bench collapsed on little humans.”
After the last month she had, a lawsuit over a bench wouldn’t surprise her. In fact, the person coming after her must have overlooked that small possibility in the plan of ruining Gia Carter’s life. The thought would normally have provided her some relief, but she had a feeling the grand finale was yet to come. That was a worry for another day.
“I’ll do it on one condition,” Gia said.
“Go on.”
“Saturday is Senator Johnson’s ball. It’s a big fancy event where the elite of Denver gather for food and dancing and planning out their scheme for staying on the Senator’s good side for another year. I got invited to go this year and I responded two months ago saying I’d bring someone.” Xander’s expression darkened as she continued. “I figure we both could use a little break from life and find out what Denver’s elite society does for a night, so would you go with me?”
His silent stare was all the answer she needed, but she pressed the issue anyway.
“Don’t worry about what you’ll wear. I’ll take care of that.” More silence. “We both know I’m not interested in taking Tommy. Please, don’t make me take Joey and have to explain to everyone why I brought my cousin.”
At that, Xander cracked a smile and nodded. “Yes. I’d be happy to.”
Chapter 21
Xander spent the rest of the week working and sleeping, or rather, attempting to sleep through the pain. Chachi and the bedroom remodel lost Joey and Tommy’s interest, so they joined Xander at the office every day from dawn until dinner—dumpster diving, tripling Xander’s output of re-purposed items, and selling them at Carlos’s store faster than they could make them. Birdhouses, dollhouses, bases for skateboards, small tables—the internet had a wide variety of ideas for how to reuse plastic and wood and the rest they supplied with their imaginations.
Both guys refused to take the commission from the work and insisted the money go toward Xander’s medical bills. Tommy was one of those quiet guys who once you got him alone and working, he never quit talking. He let it leak that the Carters were paying him and Joey to stay with Gia until things resolved. The guys would have stayed with her regardless because they were her friends, but the money added an extra incentive to bail on their daily lives and babysit. Tommy’s rambling granted insight into how close an eye the Carters kept on everything that involved their daughter. Gia might have walked away from their world, but they didn’t leave hers untouched for a minute.
Saturday evening, Xander tugged the bow tie into place and pulled the tuxedo jacket over his shoulders. In the mass of clothing donations Gia hauled in from families for her project of housing strays, a discarded tux was in a bag. Rather than toss it, she stuffed it in the back of the closet for a rainy day. Turned out today was that rainy day. He went to a tailor and had it taken in to fit him. Then she bought him shiny shoes to complete the transformation.
He had yet to see Gia.
Three hours ago, Lucy disappeared down the hall, her arms full of overflowing bags, no doubt filled with girl stuff. They needed to leave for this ball in twenty minutes, but Gia didn’t seem like the type to keep a man waiting. His facial bruises had faded to slight discoloration. He slipped his wallet and phone into his pockets and rolled his shoulders with a groan, stretching his neck muscles. The whiplash from the crash heckled his every movement. Being hunched over his workbench for hours on end made the pain worse, but therapy meant more money going out than coming in.
Joey and Tommy had sprawled in front of the TV in the family room recovering from the week. A very large part of Xander longed to be chilled out on the couch next to them. The other part of him was hopping around like a kid hyped up on candy for a non-date date with Gia. She could have asked anyone or no one, but she chose to ask him—her convict charity case. When it came to women, Xander was so far out of practice that he was convinced he’d make a fool of himself tonight. But if anyone forgave him for his social ineptitude, it’d be Gia.
She picked that moment to appear in the doorway of the family room, looking heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Her curly hair was swe
pt into a pile on her head with strands framing her perfect face. Her makeup was subtle and tasteful, highlighting her features without the caked-on look. And her form-fitting emerald green dress took his breath away.
“Gia, you look stunning,” Xander said. Tommy and Joey glanced over and sat up straighter as they stumbled over their words in agreement.
“Thank you. I think I’ll congratulate myself that the tux fits you perfectly.” Gia winked and strode to his side. He offered her his arm and she accepted.
“Knock ‘em dead, kids,” Lucy said from the hall, swiping at a tear.
Gia tossed a wave over her shoulder. “Have fun tonight. Don’t wait up. We’ll be back late.”
Xander snatched the rental car keys from the counter as they passed through the kitchen. He opened every door and kept his arm as steady as her grasp. At the gates of Senator Johnson’s mansion, Gia presented their invitation and IDs. The guard waved them through. Driving around the bend, they emerged from the treeline. Xander inhaled a long silent breath to calm his racing heart. This was not his segment of society.
An expansive front lawn extended to a sprawling estate house built from old money. Lights illuminated the stone facing accented by arches and pillars. Gently sloped split staircases swept to the front door around the cascading water feature. Sleek cars lined the u-shaped drive where valets queued at the base of the stairs. Minutes later, Xander assisted Gia from the car and escorted her up the stairs.
Gia’s hand gripped his bicep as she balanced on her heels with each step. She trusted him. He’d barely been out in the world a month and regained the stability of his delicate psyche from the death clutch of solitary. His heart catapulted into his throat at the thought, stirring nausea in his abdomen. Who was he to be mingling with high society as a pariah? Hiding in Golden was easier than pretending to belong in Senator Johnson’s good graces.
They strolled through the ornate rooms, maneuvering around clumps of stunningly dressed people who talked in low voices and sipped champagne to avoid having to fake a laugh at something someone said. Manufactured or not, they belonged. These people knew their places and their social footing wasn’t precarious in the least. Not one thought was spared for the less fortunate, not when their life held such grandeur.