“Eve! Damn it! Don’t you die!” Lainey bent to kiss Eve’s lips. “I know,” she whispered in Eve’s ear. “I know how you feel. I know you love me. Please, don’t leave me.”
Lainey paced the waiting room of the hospital, waiting for someone, anyone to come out and tell her what was going on. Eve hadn’t regained consciousness during the ride to the hospital, and Lainey was terrified that she never would. She couldn’t still her hands that were still covered with Eve’s blood. Her heart raced as she could see how the blood gushed from Eve over and over in her mind.
“Lainey?”
Lainey spun around at the sound of her name and saw Adam standing at the door, his hair disheveled, the rims of his eyes red. His face was lined with worry. She had called him from the ambulance and told him about Eve. By the time the ambulance had arrived, camera crews surrounded the gallery, cops and investigators filed in and out, and the coroner stood by waiting to take Tony’s body away. She hadn’t wanted Adam to hear about the shooting on the news, but it was one of the hardest calls she had ever had to make. Now Lainey’s heart broke for him.
“There’s no news yet,” she told him. “No one will tell me anything.”
Adam pulled her into his arms, and held on tight. “She’s going to be okay,” he whispered.
“Lainey?”
Lainey broke away from Adam and faced her husband.
“Come here,” he said softly. Jack could see how much she was hurting, and it was painful for him. He held her in his arms, and watched Adam pace away. Lainey had told him that Eve and Adam were no longer together, but one look at the man and Jack knew that Adam was in love with Eve. He could see the pain and fear in every move Adam made. “Is he okay?” Jack asked.
“He’s scared. So am I, Jack.”
“I know, honey.” He brushed Lainey’s cheek with his hand, unable to hide the fact that he was trembling.
When she had called him about the shooting, he had been alarmed and relieved at the same time. She was calling him, which meant she was okay, but he had been so close to losing her. He’d never been so frightened – or thankful – in his life.
“She saved my life, Jack.” Lainey’s voice shook. She couldn’t help feeling guilty for what Eve is going through now. If she died, Lainey didn’t know how she could live with herself.
Jack heard the guilt in Lainey’s voice. “It’s not your fault,” he told her. “She cares for you; she did what she had to do.”
Silently Jack thanked Eve for the sacrifice she made. He was sorry about the outcome, but his wife and mother of his children was safe, in his arms. The feeling of relief was overwhelming.
“Lainey Stanton?”
Lainey’s pulse jumped painfully as a doctor in green hospital scrubs walked into the waiting room. “Yes?”
“I’m Dr. Roman.” He glanced at Jack. “Are you Adam?”
“No. I am.” Adam hurried to Lainey’s side and fixed his eyes on the doctor.
Dr. Roman nodded. “Eve mentioned both of you briefly when she woke up. Does she have any family? Someone you can call to be here?”
Lainey’s heart plummeted. “No,” she answered quietly. “Just us. We’re her family.” The only family she has left, Lainey thought silently.
The doctor looked from one of them to the other. Hospital policy was to speak only with immediate family when cases like this came in, but he decided, seeing the anxiety in their faces, that hospital policy was not going to apply here.
“Eve is going to be fine.”
“Oh, thank God.” Lainey held on to Jack for support as relief washed over her. She placed a hand on Adam’s arm and squeezed.
Dr. Roman smiled. “She’s a very lucky woman. The bullet missed every major organ and made a clean exit. No internal bleeding, no surgery.”
“Can we see her?” Adam was having a hard time holding back tears of happiness. All he wanted to do was see Eve. He wanted to make sure for himself that she was okay.
“Not before we do.”
They all turned and saw Detective Harris and Detective Carter entering the waiting room, holding their badges up for the doctor to inspect.
“We need a statement from Ms. Sumptor,” Carter said peremptorily.
Lainey heard the contempt in his voice. This was no friend of Eve’s. She was certain of it.
“Not tonight you don’t,” Dr. Roman told them.
“This is police business, doctor. You have a murderer...”
“Murderer? That’s bullshit!” Lainey confronted Detective Carter angrily. “I was there, Eve did not murder anyone! It was self-defense!”
Detective Harris stepped between Lainey and his partner. “My partner misspoke, Mrs. Stanton. We’re not accusing Eve of murder. We just need to get her statement. We’ll need yours as well.”
“I’ll tell you everything, but right now I need to make sure Eve is alright.” Lainey’s eyes pleaded with him.
The detective turned back to the doctor. “How long before Eve is strong enough to talk to us?”
“She needs to rest tonight. I suggest you come back in the morning.”
“Tomorrow isn’t good enough,” Detective Carter began.
Harris held up his hand, cutting off his partner’s tirade. “We’ll come back tomorrow. She’s not going to be much help to us tonight anyway. We can get your statement tomorrow as well, Mrs. Stanton. When you’re done here, go home and get some rest. You’ve been through quite an ordeal.”
An ‘ordeal’ doesn’t even begin to explain it, Lainey thought as she watched them leave. She was emotionally exhausted by the time she was able to see Eve.
She was in pain, but she was alive. She had won. “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she said quietly in the empty room. Tony was down, but there were more players in this game. She shifted her position on the hospital bed, and winced as the pain shot through her stomach. The first thing she needed to do, she thought, was get out of here. Hospitals made her anxious. All she wanted was to go home, call Lainey and Adam to make sure they were okay, and then sleep for hours. Eve laid her head back, and closed her eyes.
“Eve?” Lainey whispered from the doorway.
Eve opened her eyes. “Hey,” she said. Her smile was slow, and her voice was weak.
Lainey tried to hold back the tears, but seeing Eve lying there, so pale, so fragile it was too much for her.
“Don’t cry, honey. I’m okay. Come here.” Eve lifted her hand for Lainey to take. Although it hurt her to move, she didn’t flinch for Lainey’s sake.
“You scared me,” Lainey told her quietly.
“I know. I’m sorry. I would have preferred not getting shot myself. Are you okay?” Eve shifted again, and couldn’t keep from flinching this time.
Another tear fell down Lainey’s cheek. She hated seeing Eve in pain, and wished there was something she could do to take it away.
“Hug me,” Eve whispered. “That would help a lot.”
Lainey made a noise between a laugh and a sob and bent down to hug Eve. “You read me so well,” she whispered in Eve’s ear.
“I’m sorry, Lainey.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Eve.” Lainey lifted her head until their eyes locked. “You saved my life.”
“It was the least I could do for putting you in that situation in the first place,” Eve said with a grin. It wasn’t a subject that should be taken lightly, but Eve couldn’t dwell on ‘what might have been’. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to finish what she had to do.
“I hated what you had to do. I couldn’t stand watching you...” She broke off shuddering. “I could have killed him for touching you, for what he’d done to you.”
“Shh. It’s over now.” Eve lifted a hand to Lainey’s cheek and pulled her close. Without thinking, she kissed Lainey gently on the lips.
Though Lainey loved the feeling of Eve’s lips on hers, she glanced nervously at the door.
Eve saw Lainey’s uneasiness. “I’m sorry.”
“No,
please don’t be. I love the way your lips feel,” Lainey confessed and then sighed. “Eve, Jack is here.”
Eve dropped her hand from Lainey’s cheek. “I see. Is everything all right?”
Lainey hated the tension that filled the room. “Yes. He’s just happy that I’m okay. Not that he’s happy that you were hurt,” she said quickly.
Eve smiled. “I understand.”
“You were right, Eve.” Lainey pulled a chair close to Eve’s bed and sat down. “I am in love with my husband. Tonight, when all that was happening, when I knew I might die, I thought of Jack and our sons. I wanted to be with them. I wanted to tell them how much I loved them. I was afraid I’d never have the chance to do that again.” Lainey tucked Eve’s hair behind her ear. “That’s not to say that I don’t love or need you, Eve.”
“I know, honey.” Eve kissed the inside of Lainey’s palm. “I understand everything you’re saying to me. When that gun went off, you were the first thing I thought of. I knew I had to make sure you would be safe, for your husband, your sons, for me. So I kept fighting.” It was such a relief to speak from her heart. She had kept her emotions hidden for so very long, reserving her spontaneity for sex. And now she could say exactly what she felt. “Once it was over, and I knew Tony was no longer a threat to you, I found myself thinking of Adam. Lainey, the last time I saw him, I told him goodbye and I regretted that more than anything. I was afraid he’d never know how much I really need him.”
“But a little of the jealousy is still there, isn’t it?” Lainey asked her. “I’m still a little envious of Adam. Are you of Jack?”
Eve smiled. “Yes.” She rubbed the back of Lainey’s hand with her thumb, and her smile faded. “You know this is what’s right. It’s what we need.”
“I know, but I don’t want to lose you, Eve.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I think we both know that we’ll always have something special between us. Nothing will ever change that.”
Lainey nodded and took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to live with never making love to you again,” she said in a low voice.
“I was hoping you would say that,” Eve told her. “I’ll always be here if you need me.”
“What will you say to Adam now?” Lainey asked. “Are you ready to tell him everything?”
Eve sighed. “I’ll never be ready to tell him everything. I wasn’t ready to tell you. But, it’s time. If I want any kind of future with Adam, he needs to know the truth about me. I can’t hide from him anymore.”
“He’s here.”
“I know. I can feel him.” It still amazed her that she could feel so deeply for two different people. “Just as I can feel you when you are near.”
The quiet words spoke volumes to Lainey. “You’re not upset with me for calling him, are you? I just couldn’t let him find out from the News.”
“Of course not. I’m glad he heard it from you. How is he?”
“He’s scared, and ready to see that you’re okay for himself. Do you want me to get him?”
Eve lifted Lainey’s hand briefly to her lips. “Yes. Will you get Dr. Roman for me as well?”
Concern lit Lainey’s eyes. “Are you in pain? Do you need something?”
Eve smiled. “I’m fine. Really. Now go!” Eve closed her eyes again and tried not to focus on the pain. Her heart pounded in her chest when she thought of seeing Adam. Would he understand? Would he be able to handle Eve’s past? She drew in a breath and winced at the pain it gave her.
“I hate seeing you hurting,” Adam said quietly.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw the strain and the fatigue. She was the one who had done that to him, and the realization of that hurt.
“I’m okay,” she told him, her voice low and soft.
He kept his hands at his side, afraid to touch her, though he wanted to so much. “You’ve been shot, Eve. It’s okay to let people know that you’re human and can feel pain.”
If you only knew how I felt when I lost you, she thought. He was so close to her, yet she felt an enormous distance between them. “I’m in a lot of pain,” she confessed. “I’m in pain because I had to hurt you. I’m in pain because of things in my past that haunt me every day. I’m in pain every time I watch you walk out of my apartment after we’ve made love.”
He was shocked to see tears in her eyes. In the two years they had been together, he had never seen any kind of emotion from Eve except passion.
Eve caught his hand and brought it to her lips. She pulled him closer to her until his face was inches from hers. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered.
The sentiment of the words rang in his ears and, although he thought it impossible, he fell in love with her even more. “I’ve missed you,” he replied, gently kissing her lips, savoring the electricity that passed between them. “You should have told me what you were going through, Eve. I would have been there for you. Let me be there for you now.”
“I want to. But there’s so much I need to tell you.”
“Later,” he said, and pressed his lips against hers. She felt that familiar need for him burning inside her. Eve wrapped her arms around his neck, ignoring the pain from her wound, and lost herself in his kiss.
“Ahem.” Dr. Roman grinned as they drew apart.
Lainey and Jack were close behind him, Jack’s arm around Lainey’s shoulders.
“Excuse me for interrupting but Lainey told me you wanted to see me.”
“Yes, doctor,” Eve said, her hand in Adam’s. “I’d like to go home.”
It was Lainey who began to protest, but Dr. Roman cut in. “I don’t recommend that, Eve. You’ve lost some blood. I think you should stay here overnight for observation.”
“Is there a possibility that I might die, doctor?” She felt Adam’s grip tighten, and knew in her heart that he was scared of the answer. A glance at Lainey revealed the same fear.
“No. I don’t feel that is a possibility, however...”
“Will I slip into a coma, or hemorrhage?”
“No.” He knew what she was doing, and couldn’t blame her. Being a doctor, he knew how horrible being in a hospital could be, especially if you were the patient. But, he couldn’t, with a clear conscience, let her walk out of here without knowing the potential dangers. “There’s a possibility of infection, of an allergic reaction to the medicines that we’ve given you. I feel it’s necessary that you have someone with you at all times for the next twenty-four hours.”
“I will have someone with me,” she said quietly and looked up at Adam, the question in her eyes.
Adam felt a jolt inside him. She was asking him to stay with her. After all this time of him asking her to let him stay, now she was asking him. “I’ll be with her,” he said.
“Very well,” Dr. Roman said. “You’ll have to sign a release form stating that you are leaving against my advice.”
He saw Eve’s satisfied smile and shook his head. The woman certainly knew how to get her way.
“Come with me,” he told Adam. “You’re going to need instructions on which meds to give Eve and when.”
“Yes, of course.” Adam bent and kissed Eve gently. “I’ll be right back.”
“You should take your wife home, Jack,” Eve said as soon as they had left. “She’s had a very rough night.”
“You’re right,” Jack replied. He looked exhausted and undone in his khakis and t-shirt that he must have thrown on in a hurry after receiving the call from Lainey.
“Don’t thank me, Jack,” Eve told him, reading his mind. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she looked incredibly young. “You know as well as I do that your wife wouldn’t have been in that position if it weren’t for me.”
“Eve...”
“It’s true, Lainey.”
“Maybe so, Eve,” Jack said. “But, you more than made up for that by sacrificing yourself for her. I’ll never forget that.”
Eve turned her head on the pillow. Jack should hate her for bringing
Lainey into this mess, but instead he was grateful to her. It was something she didn’t know how to respond to.
“Let me help Eve get ready to go home,” Lainey said, seeing Eve’s discomfort. “And then we’ll go.”
“Of course.” Jack planted a kiss on Lainey’s cheek. “You should know that the press is everywhere. You may want to ask if there’s a back way out of here.”
Eve grinned. Having the press here could only help her with what she had left to do.
“You need rest,” Eve told Lainey. “Go home, kiss those two wonderful boys of yours, make love to your husband, and God willing, have a dreamless night of sleep. I’m going to be in good hands.”
Lainey took Eve’s outstretched hands and gently pulled her until she was standing. Eve’s breath became ragged as she fought the darkness that threatened to pull her under. The pain was almost unbearable.
“Eve, you shouldn’t be moving. Please stay here for the night.”
“I can’t. Just give me a minute,” she said, resting her forehead on Lainey’s, willing the pain to subside. “You know, you once told me that I was good at turning my emotions on and off. You were wrong. I’ll always need you. I’ll always love you.” The admission rocked both women to the core. Eve saw tears in Lainey’s eyes, felt her own threatening to fall. “I probably shouldn’t have said that to you, it’s not fair.”
“I’ve been waiting for that for a very long time. It was amazing to hear,” Lainey said with a watery laugh. “It makes me feel better saying this. I think you’re ready to let Adam in. You’re ready to admit to yourself that you’re in love with him.”
“Well, I’m not as confident about that as you seem to be.” Eve felt the muscles in her stomach tighten and her heart beating faster at just the thought. “But then I didn’t know I was ready to tell you.”
“Just be completely honest with him, Eve,” Lainey told her. “Trust him. I think it’s going to be hard for him to hear, but in the end, he will be there for you. Here, slip on this robe.”
Eve frowned. “Why haven’t the detectives been here to see me?”
Something About Eve (An Eve Sumptor Book 1) Page 45