by Jamie Begley
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong.” Holt was so angry he was clenching and unclenching his hands as he talked. “I heard over the scanner they arrested the person who kidnapped you.”
Jessie’s head swam, feeling as if she was about to faint.
“Who was it?” she managed to get out through trembling lips.
Asher steadied her with a hand. “Dixon Wells.”
Holt caught her when her legs buckled.
That the older man was a deacon at her church felt like a betrayal of everything her pastor had tried to instill in his congregation. Her mind played back to the numerous times she talked to him there. He had been one of the first ones to welcome her. He had even given her a Bible after she attended for over a year. It had her name engraved on it.
Jessie felt Bliss slide her arm around her waist, supporting her. “They found out who it was?”
Holt gave her a sharp nod.
“I don’t understand. I would think you’d both be happy about finding out who it was.”
“I would have been a lot happier if I found out before the cops did,” Holt snarled.
“Oh, I can agree with you there.”
“Bliss … I don’t want my brothers going to jail.”
“I’m sure they’re smart enough not to get caught.”
Jessie shook her head. “I don’t want it on their consciences.”
“You’re wrong there. I wouldn’t have felt bad about one thing I had planned to do to him when I caught him, and if Dustin hadn’t interfered, I would have.”
“Dustin?” Jessie asked sharply. “What did he do?”
“He figured out who it was and told Knox. He’s at the police station now, making a statement. Asher and I are waiting for him to come out so we can show him our appreciation.”
“Dustin knew who it was and told Knox?”
“Yes.”
“God, I have to go see him. Bliss …?”
Bliss gave her a squeeze on her waist. “Go ahead. I’ll call Rain’s sister to come in to help for the rest of the afternoon.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Jessie ran out of the daycare, uncaring that her brothers were following with their long strides. She was so overjoyed that Dustin hadn’t taken justice into his own hands that she felt like she was running on air.
She skidded to a stop when Knox came out the door as she was about to go in, blocking her from entering.
“Holt and Asher, I’ve already told you twice that you’re not getting inside my office. Take Jessie on home. The state police are moving Dixon to Jamestown.”
“Let me have ten minutes with him before they take him. I’ll give you anything you want.”
“You don’t think I want to let you have him? My hands are tied. Go.”
“I want to see Dustin,” Jessie interrupted before Holt could ask again.
“He just left to pick up Logan from school. If you hurry, you’ll be able to catch him.”
Jessie was already running toward the parking lot before he could finish his sentence.
“Holt, you and Asher better not hurt a hair on his head!” she called out over her shoulder.
Turning the corner of the building, she spotted Dustin unlocking his car door. Jessie could feel her brothers’ angry breaths on the back of her neck.
“Dustin!” Jessie yelled, trying to get his attention before he got inside his car. “Dustin!”
When he saw her running, he started walking toward her, smiling.
Her exuberant smile widened. She was so happy at his decision to turn Dixon over to the sheriff that she couldn’t contain her joy.
“Dustin!” she called out, wanting him to hear how happy she was before she could reach him.
As she ran, he suddenly stopped, a strange expression crossing his face.
Frightened, she turned around to make sure Holt and Asher weren’t getting ready to shoot him as they had threatened. Seeing the concern in their eyes, she whipped back around toward Dustin, not understanding what was going on. Then she started running again when his features twisted into an agonizing mask as he raised his hands to his head.
Jessie started sobbing, trying to make her legs move faster. She was mere inches away when she knew she wasn’t going to make it in time.
His eyes rolled upward as his body crumbled to the ground as if every ounce of life had suddenly been sucked out of him.
In that split-second of terror, Jessie felt as if her heart had stopped beating, as if it had been ripped out of her chest, unable to be left behind without him.
“No, Dustin!” she screamed, raising her voice so the heavens above could hear her. “Please, God, don’t take him … Please …,” she pleaded helplessly. “Please don’t take him.”
33
Jessie threw herself down by his side, clutching him. While shaking him, she thought she could be having a nightmare and that he wasn’t lying in the middle of a parking lot. It couldn’t be real. She would rather relive the terror of waking up broken and exposed to the elements than be faced with the reality of losing Dustin.
“Holt! Call 911. Asher, get Knox! Dustin ….” Jessie started crying, terrified. She brought her hand up to check for a pulse, praying she was wrong about him being gone.
She was still searching for it when Knox dropped down to Dustin’s other side.
“He doesn’t have a pulse.” Knox started doing heart compressions. “Holt, run to the station and get me the AED. Hurry! Jessie, tilt his head back.”
Jessie followed his instructions, forcing herself to get in control. Dustin needed her. He had been there for her, and she would be damned if she was going to let him down now.
It seemed as if Holt was gone for an eternity before he came back with a state trooper Jessie didn’t know.
“Move,” he barked at her.
Holt pulled her away before she could get her mind to react.
Helplessly, she watched as Knox and the trooper worked on Dustin.
She had to bite down on her fist to keep from crying out when Knox used the AED on him. The ambulance arrived at the same time Knox shouted out he had a heartbeat.
As the paramedics stabilized him, Knox shot out, “Holt, drive Jessie to the hospital. If you go now, you can beat them there.” Knox reached down, picked up Dustin’s car keys, and handed them to Asher. “Go to the school and pick up Logan. Bring him to the daycare. I’m going to get Holly and take her to the hospital. I’ll radio Greer and call Tate from my car. Go!”
Jessie and Holt were already running to their truck. She didn’t want to leave Dustin, but she knew they wouldn’t let her in the ambulance in the condition he was in.
She prayed all the way to the hospital.
Holt turned on his emergency lights, flooring it through the traffic lights. She was sliding out of the truck when she saw the ambulance pull into the emergency entrance.
When they brought Dustin out of the ambulance, she knew she was going to lose him. She had known deep down when she had seen him grab his head.
With aching clarity, she now understood the melancholy expressions on his face she had witnessed last night. The way he had cupped her breasts, had lovingly touched her belly, as if imagining her pregnant. Innocently, she had believed he was thinking about building a future with her, when in reality, he was imagining what he was going to miss. That was why he didn’t want to get married, why he had stopped building the house for him and Logan. Dustin must have known he was sick, and not only that he was sick, but that he was dying and hadn’t wanted anyone to know.
Powerless, she was able to touch him for a moment as they rushed him by her and into the private entrance where the staff were already running to greet him, racing the gurney inside as fast as they could.
Jessie let Holt lead her inside the hospital. When he would have turned her to the chairs, she shook herself free and went to stand by the hospital personnel only door. The first one who would come out, she would beg them to take
her to see Dustin.
She was standing in the same position when Holly and Knox came through the door.
Jessie turned her head as Holly approached. Her ashen face had tears running down her cheeks.
“Do you know anything yet?”
“No.” Suddenly, Jessie remembered someone Knox had forgotten to mention about calling. “You should call Rachel.”
“Knox called Cash. They’re on their way. She just called us to say that Jo had gotten there to watch Mag and Ema.” Holly started crying again. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. He was walking across the parking lot and just stopped and grabbed his head.” Jessie started crying alongside Holly. Jessie didn’t tell her that Knox had had to shock Dustin’s heart to get it to beat again. She didn’t think she would be able to get the words out.
“I told her how grave the situation is, that I had to use the AED. I told his family when I talked to them,” Knox told her, coming from the front as he heard the last words she had said. “Dr. Price is working on Dustin. He’ll be out to talk to you when he can.”
Holt had been stoically standing by her side the whole time. When he motioned toward the doorway, Jessie saw Rachel and her husband, Cash, come through the door at the same time as Tate and Sutton. The two couples made a beeline to where they were standing in the hallway.
“Where’s Greer?” Tate asked Knox abruptly.
“He was in Jamestown. He should be here in a minute,” Knox answered.
“What happened?”
Jessie repeated what she had seen to Tate. Dustin’s brother looked like he had aged ten years since she had last seen him at the barn raising. Rachel didn’t look any better. Cash was holding her by his side, softly murmuring to calm her down.
Holly went to the desk to ask how much longer before the doctor would be out, while Cash moved Rachel to the wall so the hospital employees could walk past. The whole time, Cash kept talking to Rachel.
“Remember the baby, Rach. Keep calm. Breathe, Vixen.”
Jessie felt her eyes fill with tears. Her fear for Dustin was tearing her apart. Her fear of losing him had been the uppermost thought in her mind until she looked at Rachel, remembering when Dustin had told her about Rachel losing her last baby. She understood that Cash was terrified he was going to lose another one.
One of his arms was holding her close while another was on her abdomen, stroking it through her dress, as if he was soothing the child inside.
Jessie’s heart leapt expectantly when the door opened next to Knox, and Dr. Price came out. His face wasn’t reassuring, and if she hadn’t wanted to keep Rachel calm, she would have broken down. His grim manner was already telling them it wasn’t going to be good news.
“Follow me. I’ve requested a room where we can talk privately.”
As Dr. Price started to lead the way, Holly started crying.
The swishing of the hospital door opening had everyone glancing around to see Greer running inside. He didn’t try to talk to any of them, giving the doctor his attention.
“I want to see Dustin. Now,” he demanded.
The doctor’s face became even grimmer. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible, Greer. I was about—”
Jessie gave a startled gasp when Greer shoved the doctor against the wall by his medical coat.
“You better not tell me you let my brother die before I could get to him.” Greer’s grief was so tangible that it took Holt and Knox to pry him away.
The doctor straightened his coat. “Follow me. We’ll talk in private. And Greer, if you touch me again, I will have you escorted off the hospital’s property.”
Jessie started to get in the line to follow behind the doctor, expecting Holt to come with her.
“I’ll wait here.”
She nodded, hurrying behind Rachel and Cash, praying they wouldn’t leave her out of the discussion. She was the last one to step into the room. The doctor was still standing outside the door after directing them inside.
Staring at the group as they each took a seat, he said, “I’ll be right back.” Then he closed the door.
Jessie started wringing her hands, waiting for him to come back. The wait seemed interminable.
Greer was starting to get out of his chair when the doctor finally came back to take a seat in front of them.
“I wish I had some good news to tell you. This is the hardest part of my job—to inform family members that they are going to lose a member.”
“We ain’t going to lose shit! I ain’t going to sit here and listen to this. I want to see Dustin right now!”
“Greer, please let—”
“No!”
“Greer, shut up.” Tate’s firm command silencing his brother had the room focusing back on Dr. Price.
“Thank you. First, I want to make you aware that I know what you’re capable of, and that’s why you’re so determined to get to Dustin. Your brother knows you very well. He told me that when this time came, you wouldn’t want to listen to me.”
This time, it wasn’t Greer who interrupted the doctor; it was Tate.
“Dustin knew something was wrong with him?” he asked gruffly.
The doctor nodded. “We found the brain tumor early this past summer when he had to get a physical. We started chemotherapy immediately, as well as Prednisone. He didn’t want to take it, because he thought that when Greer returned from his vacation, he would be cured. Dustin didn’t want to discuss your gift, but when I put pressure on him to start the medication, he told me. I also assured him that I would not discuss anything he told me, or I would lose my license. Nor would I even if I could.
“I can understand your desire for secrecy. Nothing he told me was a surprise. I had my suspicions when Logan and Holly were brought in. And I have to admit that I asked for Greer’s help then, which he was quick to tell me no. But when we found the tumor, Dustin went into detail. I talked him into taking the treatment until Greer got back, and when he came back and saw the shape he was in, we continued with the treatment, hoping that Greer would regain his strength before the tumor progressed too far.”
The doctor moved his eyes to Rachel. “He also told me that you share the same gift as Greer, but to a lesser degree. But he didn’t want you to help because you’re pregnant.”
“We don’t have to keep jabbering. I can heal my brother—”
“No, Greer, you can’t. I’m also your doctor, and I know that, physically, you’re not able to save your brother without killing yourself.
“Dustin has regained consciousness. He has maybe a week. His tumor is fast growing. I will do what I can to make his passing as painless as possible. The staff is moving him into a private room in the ICU. Once he’s situated and comfortable, family members will be allowed inside. I’m sorry to add, all except Rachel and Greer. These are his instructions, and he asked me to see that they are followed.
“I wish I had better news for you. I’m sorry. I truly wish I could have done more.
“Rachel, Dustin asked me to tell you that he loves you, but that the reason he asked you aren’t allowed in his room is because he doesn’t think you will be able to stop yourself from trying to heal him, even at the risk of losing your child, so he took the decision out of your hands.
“Tate, he said to tell you that you know where he keeps his spare office keys, and in the locked drawer of his desk, he has a letter for each of you, detailing his wishes.
“Greer, Dustin knows you’re not going to abide by his wishes, so he asked me to make sure you do. That was why I talked to Knox outside. Dustin will have around-the-clock security, ensuring you stay at least twenty feet away from him at all times.”
Dr. Price stood. “Miss Hayes, Dustin asked to see you first. I’ll send a nurse to escort you when he’s ready.”
When he left, Jessie sat numbly, taking in everything the doctor said.
All his family members looked shell-shocked. All except Greer.
“When I get ahold of him, I’m going fix him
, then whip his fucking ass!”
“Greer ….” Holly tried to touch her husband’s arm.
“No, my brother isn’t going to die. Not in a week, or a month, not even next year. My baby brother is not going to die on my watch.”
Jessie buried her face in her hands, crying, but then she looked up when she felt a touch on her arm.
Rachel took her hand, crying as hard as her. “We’re not going to let him die.”
Rachel’s declaration didn’t make her feel better. It just made the terrible situation worse.
She was reaching for a tissue when the nurse came for her.
“Miss Hayes? I’m here to show you to Mr. Porter’s room. You can stay ten minutes before we switch and let another member inside. The rest of you can come with me. I’ll escort you to the ICU’s waiting room. You’ll be more comfortable there.”
They followed the nurse, going down the long corridor before turning a corner and entering a room that had a sign on the door stating it was a waiting room for the ICU.
The room had more comfortable-looking chairs than the other waiting area; they looked like recliners that visitors could sleep on. There was a table to the side that held snacks, a coffeepot, and paper cups.
None of them made to touch the contents of the table or take a chair. They were too busy staring at Knox and two of his deputies, who were posted at the end of the large room.
“Miss Hayes, I’m going to make sure that Dustin is still stable enough to see you. I’ll be right back.”
Jessie watched as the nurse left. Then she stared in trepidation at Greer’s reaction. It was hitting him hard that Dr. Price was making sure Greer and Rachel wouldn’t be getting near enough to Dustin to jeopardize their own health.
Greer strode to the door. “Make them move, Knox. I’m going in, and I’m not going to let you stop me.”
“I can’t, Greer. I would if I could.”
“Since when in the fuck have you ever done what you’re supposed to do? This isn’t going to be the first time my brother’s life is on the line.”
“No, I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t tell me that sorry shit!” Greer tried to barge at him, fighting to reach the door handle.