Skin and bones. Now there was a description I never thought I’d hear in regard to myself. I had lost weight since the accident. I wasn’t sure how much, nor did I care, but my clothes were beginning to hang on me. I took the bread and placed it on the counter by an arrangement of yellow roses. “I’ll eat some a bit later,” I told her. “I promise.”
“Good,” Mom said, “because I’m gonna check.” She put her purse down. “Oh, by the way,” she said as she lowered herself into one of the visitor’s chairs, “on the way in we bumped into Mike Steele. He’s with some other guy, and he said they need to see you. I told them I’d fetch you.”
I glanced at Greg, and Holly noticed. “Don’t worry, Odelia,” Holly said. “We’ll keep an eye on Greg for you.”
Mike Steele and his wife, who is a doctor, had been to see Greg several times since the accident, so I was surprised he hadn’t come straight to the room. It was still strained between us, but I knew how much he loved Greg so I put our differences aside. But when I came into the waiting area and saw who was with Steele, I knew why he’d hung back. With him, portly and self-important, was Joe Templin. They were in the far corner of the waiting area, away from the other visitors.
Templin held out his hand to me when I approached. “Hello, Odelia. How is Greg doing?”
I looked down at the offered hand as if it were a coiled rattlesnake. “Why are you here? I have nothing to say to you.”
“We come in peace, Odelia,” Templin said, giving me a meaty smile. “In fact, we come with an offer.”
“Seth Washington has already negotiated my severance package. There’s nothing more to discuss.” I turned to leave.
“Odelia, please hear us out,” Templin said.
I looked him up and down in disgust. “Us as in you and Steele, or just you?” I glanced at Steele, who was standing a step or two behind Joe Templin. I could have sworn he gave me a small wink.
“Me,” Templin admitted. “I knew you wouldn’t see me unless Mike was with me.”
“You got that right, and now I’m going back to my husband.”
“Wait, Odelia,” Templin said. “It’s in your best interest to hear what I have to say.”
In silence I stood before him, waiting. My jaw was so locked, it hurt.
Templin cleared his throat. “After careful consideration, we want you to come back to Templin & Tobin.”
“Are you out of your mind?” I said, my voice raised. The other people in the room turned to stare at us. “You threw me out of there,” I continued, my voice lower out of consideration to the others. “You paid me to leave.”
“You can keep the severance,” Templin told me. “Think of it as a bonus.”
“What in the hell are you smoking, Templin?” I asked. Behind him a tiny smile crept across Steele’s face and disappeared. “You fired me because of Kelton Kingston, the very man who is behind my husband being in a coma.”
“You have no proof of that, Odelia, and you’d better be careful about making such accusations,” Templin warned. “Mr. Kingston feels bad about what he did over that dog. He’s had his own tragic loss, you know.”
“Bullshit,” I hissed. “I have no doubt he was behind the deaths of his wife, Burt Sandoval, Doris Hoffman, and the attempt on my life and Greg’s. It’s just a matter of time before that hitman spills his guts. He doesn’t look like the type to survive jail for too long. You’re trying to hire me back to keep me quiet.” I put my hands on my hips in defiance. “You’re throwing money at me like you did those other people Kingston hurt. Well, I’m not for sale, and neither is my husband.”
“You have to understand, Odelia,” Templin said, his voice low and calm, as if talking to a crazy person who might explode. “The firm’s first duty is to its clients. Kelton Kingston is one of our longest and most active clients. I am merely his agent.”
I stared at Templin. “But I thought T&T was offering me my old job back. You make it sound as if Kingston is offering me a job.”
“Let’s just say Mr. Kingston no longer has a problem with you being employed by us,” Templin said, smugness tattooed on his face.
“Oh, he doesn’t, does he?” I said, mocking Templin’s imperious tone. “How magnanimous of him, especially considering that he’s currently under all kinds of investigations for murder and fraud, as well as the civil suits probably coming his way, including one from us. I hear people he’s injured in the past are coming out of the woodwork.”
“Odelia,” Templin said, “I’ve really run out of patience with you. You can take this very generous offer of gainful employment at a higher salary, something a soon-to-be widow should seriously consider, or you can go off and let your anger send you on a fool’s journey.”
Soon-to-be widow.
Without a second thought, I pulled back my good right arm and let my fist fly forward and up, catching Joe Templin on his jaw with a solid punch. It knocked him to the ground, less from impact and more from surprise.
I stood over him. “Now you really have something to fire me for.”
Steele approached. I thought he was going to help Templin to his feet, but instead he pulled an envelope out of his inside jacket pocket. He tossed it down on top of Templin. “That’s my resignation, Joe. Effective immediately.”
“Odelia, come quick!” It was Holly. “It’s Greg!”
Steele and I ran to Greg’s room. Inside, several doctors and nurses surrounded Greg’s bed. One doctor was examining Greg. Mom shuffled over and wrapped her arms around me. She was sobbing. I expected the worst.
“No!” I cried out. “Please, no!” I clung to my mother.
“No, Odelia, it’s good,” Holly said. “Really.”
I disentangled myself from Mom and slowly approached the bed, truly scared for the first time in my life. The doctor hovering over Greg stepped back and gave me a weak smile. I looked down at Greg. His eyes were fluttering. One of his hands on the bed moved. I grabbed the hand and hung on to it, my sobs turning joyful. I looked over at the door and saw Steele supporting both my mother and Holly, the three of them willing Greg back from the brink.
Soon Greg’s eyes stopped fluttering and opened. He looked around, confused and dazed. Then his gaze fell on me and his lips turned up into a small smile.
“He’s finally come out of the coma, Mrs. Stevens,” the doctor told me. “It’s still too early to speak to the damage caused by the bullet, but it looks promising.”
“Hi, sweetheart,” Greg said, the words coming slow and barely audible.
I pressed his hand to my lips and didn’t let go.
I was going to hold the universe to those promises.
the end
Too Big to Die Page 24