Cancer

by WL Knightly

  “We were all questioned. Your friend, Darek, he talked to them, but he said they didn’t have anything this early.”

  Still a little out of it, he sat up and was about to move to the edge of the bed, but she stopped him. “Whoa. You should rest, Justin. Besides, you’ve got quite a few tubes coming out of you.”

  He looked down, seeing the catheter tube coming out of the side of the sheet beside him. “Shit, are you kidding me?”

  “No. That and your IV. You need to just lay down for now.” She fluffed his pillow and then encouraged him to lie down.

  He did but gave her a hard glare. “Get someone to come and get this thing out of me.” He tugged at the IV on his arm, but it hurt too bad.

  “Stop!” Her voice raised, and she pushed the nurse’s button. “They are there for a reason. You need to be a good patient.”

  “There’s no telling what they’ll pump into me!” He wasn’t having them poisoning him. He thought of every conspiracy he’d ever heard concerning the hospital. “Are you sure they didn’t harvest a kidney while they had me ripped open? I mean, they could have, and I’d never know, right?”

  “Oh no, don’t start with your conspiracy bullshit. I swear, Justin. If these people wanted you dead, they’d have let you die on the table or lobotomized you when you were knocked out.”

  “You think it’s all a bunch of shit, I get that, but you have no idea what they do to people in these places. I’ve read things that will make your skin crawl.”

  “I know what they do with people here, Justin. They heal them. Just like they did you.”

  About that time, a nurse stuck her head in the door. “How are we doing here?” As she stepped into the room, she realized that Justin was awake. “Oh, well it’s good to see you’ve woken up.”

  He pulled the covers back, showing his tubes. “I need this thing out of my dick and this one out of my arm.” He wasn’t going to play nice.

  The woman gave him a stern look, and even though she was nothing compared to his six-foot-three, two-fifty frame, she didn’t seem the least bit intimidated. “Not going to happen, honey, and I wouldn’t recommend jerking either one out on your own. But don’t worry. It won’t have to be in there too much longer.”

  “Then take it out now!” His voice boomed out and echoed off the walls and down the corridor.

  The nurse put her hands on her hips and narrowed her dark eyes. “It comes out when the doctor says. But the more you fuss, the more we drag our feet.” She walked over and checked his vitals on the machine, and then without another word, she walked out.

  “Fuck!” He closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath. “How could this have happened? I have to get home to my store, to my house. I shouldn’t have come here to this place. I should have talked Corey into staying out of it.”

  “Out of it? You mean the reason you came here? Does this all have something to do with your dark past? The part of it where you knew Corey from before?”

  He had told her he’d been involved in some dark shit with Corey but given her no details. “Yeah, and I told him you should have stayed home. He said we could both take care of you here. That you’d be fine, but I shouldn’t have listened.” He wanted to put this fist through a wall thinking of how badly things could have gone.

  “I wanted to come, Justin. I love him. I was planning the rest of my life with him. I didn’t want to be apart.” She started to cry and turned toward the window as if Justin couldn’t see her wiping tears.

  “I’m sorry. Don’t cry, okay.” He cared too much about her to see her upset. “You’re going to spend your life with him, all right? It’s all going to work out.” He felt so helpless in his stupid bed. He couldn’t get up to hold her or offer her comfort, and the words just felt cheap.

  “I just have a bad feeling, Justin. This is going to change everything.”

  He had to think of who could have done something like this, and he knew the possibilities were endless for motive. With Darek and Bay being involved deep in the Zodiac case which had left so many victims in its wake, anything was possible. He should have told Corey to keep driving when he came around, and then they’d not be in this situation at all. There were lots of things he’d done that he would change.

  He had been done with the fucking club for ages and couldn’t believe that the one time he decided to meet up, he was caught in a goddamned firestorm of bullets. “What else did Darek say?”

  “I don’t know. I was so out of it, so worried about you guys. I overheard him talking to Mia’s mother. Something about the shooting being random.”

  “Random?” He laughed. “It has to be related to the trip. One of those bastards had this arranged, and I’m going to find out who if it kills me.”

  “It just might if you don’t calm down. Don’t make me get that tough nurse back in here. I’m not in the mood to deal with this stress, and you’re only making it worse. Besides, Darek has been talking to the cops. If it had anything to do with your past, however dark you think it is, he wouldn’t bring them into it, right?”

  “He’s a cop, Brandy. Of course, he’s not afraid to involve his pig friends. He’s probably catching them up to speed on his plans. They probably already knew this would happen.” His jaw tensed, and suddenly, his head hurt so bad that he thought he might pass out as he collapsed against his pillow. “Fuck.” He didn’t dare move until the pain passed.

  Brandy walked to the window. “You big jerk. That’s what you get for trying to be all tough. You need to let your body heal. If you try to fight it, then it will lash out at you, and it won’t be pretty.”

  “I’m frustrated, okay. I don’t like being away from home, and I don’t like being in the goddamned hospital. Plus, you don’t know about my past, what I’ve been through. And yes, it was fucking dark, okay? Damaging fucking dark.”

  Brandy walked back over to the bed. “Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to start a fight, but I need you to just settle down, or I’ll have them come in and give you a sedative. Something that will knock you on your ass.” She gave him a warning glare.

  “Try it,” he said with a sneer. “I’ll be out of this hospital soon enough.” He tried not to smile, but she had that effect on him. She always had. He hated to see her in pain. Corey had come along and won her heart, and while he’d tried to do the same in the beginning, she just never had seen him that way. He wondered if she ever could.

  “Or what?” she asked with narrowed eyes, holding back a smile. “I’m not afraid of you, Mr. Finch. Boss or no boss, landlord or not. But don’t worry. I’ll keep my ears open when Darek’s around. Maybe if he thinks I don’t know what’s going on, he’ll slip up and say something.”

  “Bay might know something too,” said Justin. “Keep an eye on him too if he’s not already halfway back to New York.”

  Brandy gave him an apologetic look. “Bay was shot in the shoulder.”

  “Which shoulder?” Justin wondered if the fucker got lucky enough to have his mark shot off.

  “Left.” She shrugged and pointed to the outside of her arm.

  “Asshole,” said Justin. “How is he?”

  “He’s just down the hall. Mia is with him. She’s worse off than he is.”

  “Anything else I should know?” he asked. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t told him about Bay sooner, but then, she had a long night, and he hadn’t asked.

  “No, sorry. I was so worried about you and Corey, and besides, that dude seemed like a real asshole at dinner.”

  “He is. Well, he can be. He’s kind of our ringleader.” Justin had known the kid since he was nine years old.

  “Oh, I should have known.” She looked at her watch. “Hey, it’s almost time for a trip to the ICU. They only let me go in for a half hour at a time, and if someone else wants to come in, I have to step out.”

  “I want to go see him.” He knew he probably wasn’t going to get to with all the tubes he still had sticking out of his body.

  She sighed. “Oka
y, I’ll see if I can get that catheter removed soon so you can go down there with him.”

  “Good. Maybe by the time he wakes up?”

  “I’ll try.” She crossed her arms. “I don’t want you saying anything about your theories that might upset him.”

  “I won’t, but he came here looking for answers, and if this is something organized by those we trust, he needs to know. The meeting we had was about trusting one another, and I’m sorry, but after this, I don’t. I trust Corey, but the others? They can go to hell.”

  Chapter 3

  Bay

  Bay’s throat was so dry, he thought for a split second he’d inhaled a mouthful of dirt. Have they buried me alive? He opened his eyes to see the room around him, which was painted an ugly mauve. “Water,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. He suddenly coughed and felt the pain in his shoulder. “Water.”

  “Just a minute,” said Mia. “Hey, he’s waking up.”

  She walked into his line of sight, and he couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d been out and who else was in the room. “Mia?”

  “I’m right here.” She hurried to pour him a drink of water from the small, mauve pitcher beside the bed. “Here.” She walked over and raised his bed. “Don’t try and sit up.”

  Once he was in a sitting position from the movement of the bed, he looked at Mia and reached out for her hand with his good side. “What happened to me?”

  “You were shot in the shoulder, but the doctor says you’ll be fine. You won’t have any permanent damage.”

  He had remembered a little bit of what the doctor told him in recovery, but he hadn’t been completely alert at the time.

  “Lila’s worried sick, and Rose Marie is threatening to come home.”

  “Tell them both to stay put.”

  “Tell them yourself.” She passed the phone to him.

  He let out a big sigh. “Stay put, Lila.”

  She gave a loud wail through the phone. “I’m just so worried about you, Bay. The baby needs its father, and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “It’s okay. My money spends the same whether I’m dead or alive.” He didn’t have time for her bullshit. “Tell Rose Marie to stay put too. She’s more valuable to me there with you than here as a target.”

  “I’ll tell her, but she’s been just horrible since Mia called and told us what happened.”

  “She’s just as worried as you are, probably more, so just stay clear of her, and both of you stay put. I mean it. I’ve got a whole new set of worries here, and Mia is looking after me.” He passed Mia her phone back. “Hang up.” He didn’t need the fucking drama.

  “He’s tired, Lila, and the nurse just came in. I’ll call you back.” She ended the call like she was told and sat at the foot of his bed. “I was so scared and worried. I didn’t know if you’d make it for a moment there. There was so much blood. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “You did fine. Thanks for staying with me.” Bay was glad that Darek and the others had been around to take care of her.

  “I only left after your surgery. The nurse came out and told us if we needed to clean up, we should do it while you were in recovery. Lane took me to check out of the hotel, and we’re all staying at his place. It’s nice. He has plenty of room and is letting us all borrow the car to go back and forth.”

  Before she could say more about her accommodations, there was a knock on his door, and Mia got to her feet. She walked around where she could see. “Oh, come on in, Darek.”

  “Thanks. Is he awake?” Darek walked in where he could see around the corner and answer his own question. “How are you feeling, man?”

  “Like I’ve been shot in the fucking shoulder. What’s the news?”

  “Justin is doing okay. He’s in a room just down the hall, and Corey is finally stable. He’s probably going to be moved out of the ICU later.”

  “Jesus. What in the hell happened? Aside from the obvious.”

  “I wish I knew. I’ve talked to the police, but they aren’t as willing to cooperate with me as you’d think. So, I’m afraid without calling in favors, I’m just as in the dark as you are at this point. They just keep telling me it’s too soon to know anything.”

  “Calling in favors is a bad idea?” He knew Darek was walking a fine line, but he wanted answers.

  “Yeah, when they start digging into it and find out that not only am I involved in the Zodiac case, but I was out to dinner and involved in a shooting with three men who all showed up in the hospital with brands on their shoulders that link them as either potential victims or possible killers, yeah, calling in anything is a bad fucking idea.”

  “Got it.” He knew Darek had a point. “So, what do we do? What do we know?” He used his good hand to move himself up a little in the bed and despised feeling so vulnerable.

  “We hope everyone heals.”

  “What about the girls? The others, were they hurt?” He wondered if they’d walked away unscathed.

  “Raven was hit in the wrist. She didn’t have much damage, and other than an ugly scar, she’ll be fine. I’m a little worried about what this does for us, but it’s not like we were a thing anyway.”

  Bay sighed and looked away. “Whatever, man. I need to know how we figure out who did this to us. My bet is on our religious friend. He thinks he’s so fucking close to God. What’s to stop him from pulling some shit like this?”

  “You really think Carter is capable?”

  “He knows that nutbag that you locked up. And whether he wants to admit it or not, I think they are a lot closer than he lets on.”

  “I think he’d have way too much to lose. He’s got a whole congregation who adores him, and from what it sounds like, he’s busy with an affair or several. I think he’s more concerned with getting off than killing his past.”

  “He’s a twisted fuck. You mark my words. I knew that little shit better than any of you back in the day. His dad was an evangelist, just like him. And if you think that the pedophilia issues died with Tad, you’d be wrong. His father had a taste for young teenage girls. He used his son to be involved with youth events before he made it big and took over the church. He’s about as crooked as they come, and that little shit learned from the best.”

  “Damn. I never knew that.” Darek’s brows pinched tightly as he walked to the window.

  “I hold a lot of secrets, as I’m sure you know.”

  “One for each of us, I’d guess.”

  Bay laughed. “I’ve kept all of their secrets. You have no idea.”

  “I can imagine. But now isn’t the time for speculation. So if you have anything else, something recent that might point to Carter being the obvious organizer of this hit, then let’s hear it. Otherwise, I can’t form an accusation based on him knowing some lunatic that’s locked up back home.”

  “The only other person would be Ethan, and let’s face it. He’s really not going to jeopardize his cushy lifestyle for us.”

  “His managers might. I’ve seen it before with talent. People get worried that their big star’s involvement in certain things is going to come back to bite them in their big careers. They have mouths to feed. They like to control the game.”

  “You really think that any of those Nashville hicks that he’s running with will be bothered enough to take time away from polishing his boots and shining his buckles to put out a hit on us. Besides, our meeting was supposed to be kept under wraps.”

  “All of us had to tell someone we were leaving,” said Darek.

  “Did you tell that partner of yours? What’s his name, the one from the PD? Maxwell, is it?”

  “Yeah, I think he knew I was coming here on a trip. My point is, it doesn’t have to be someone from the group.”

  Bay glanced over to Mia, who had turned ghostly pale. “Then let’s look at the outside options since we know it wasn’t any of us. It’s not like Lane wouldn’t shoot up around his business, and those two bleeders down the hall didn’t have dick to do with it
.” Bay winced and held his shoulder. “Mia, get me something for pain.”

  “There’s a button to call the nurse.” She got up like she was going to find it.

  “Leave it, take that pretty little ass of yours down the fucking hall, and get it.” He was trying to be nice, but the last thing he needed was others listening.

  After Mia walked out, Darek turned to Bay. “You trust her?”

  “Yeah, and mostly because if she steps out of line, it wouldn’t do her wardrobe any favors.” He wondered if Darek knew about Mia’s recent indiscretions.

  Suddenly the door opened, and Bay thought Mia had come back with his pills until Darek looked toward the door and gave a nod. “Carter? I thought you were out of town already.”

  Carter Hamilton walked into the room and stopped at the foot of Bay’s bed. “I had chosen to stay in town a few days and visit an old friend. I went to the restaurant and heard what happened. Lane filled me in.”

  “Have you come to pray for us, Pastor Hamilton?”

  “That and I was wondering if you happened to know who could have done this?”

  “We’re tossing around a few ideas. Why don’t you tell us where you’ve been since we last saw you?” Bay stared him right in the eyes.

  Carter looked at them both, his eyes shifting nervously back and forth. “What? Wait, you don’t think I had something to do with this, do you?”

  “I’d start spitting out my alibis now,” said Bay.

  Carter narrowed his eyes. “I was at a friend’s house. He has stage-four lung cancer. He’s not going to be around too long, and when I called to check on him, they told me a hospice nurse was in. I go back there later if you want to tag along and see how bad off he is.” He didn’t look amused.

  Darek gave Bay a warning glare then turned to Carter. “That’s not necessary. He’s just a little wound up from the meds, right, Bay?”

  “Yeah.” He didn’t like being shut down, and he sure as fuck didn’t like the inability to stand up and be in Carter’s face while he was making his accusations. But he knew if he tried to stand, he’d most likely be a weak and unsteady mess. “So, do you offer any theories or just prayers?”