I walked up to him and stroked the hair back from his face.
“Hey you,” I murmured softly as the nurse watched me out of the corner of her eye. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” he said between gritted teeth. “Just wish they’d bloody hurry and fix me up so I can go home.”
I was glad he’d said home and not work. “I’m going to take you back to my place,” I said softly. “That way you’ll get to have some rest.”
His mouth opened to argue, and I leaned forward, closing it with a well-aimed kiss. The nurse went pink and pretended not to see. I drew back with a grin.
“No bloody arguments. Doctor’s orders, and we all know those are sacrosanct, don’t we, nurse?”
The nurse nodded primly. “Yes, it’s always best to do what the doctor orders, Mr. Prentiss. Your young man is quite right.” She stood back with a satisfied smile. “I think that’s it. Remember, don’t get the bandages too wet, even if they are the waterproof ones.” She rolled her eyes. “Sort of, anyway. They’re not the greatest. And the stitches are the dissolving kind, so you won’t need to come back in to have them taken out. Wait here in the bed until the doctor says you can go.” She smiled and left the room just as Tammy came in.
She moved over and hugged Toby, her face white. “Toby, I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Toby smiled tiredly. “I’m fine, Tam, honest. Just a flesh wound.”
I huffed. “Yeah, right. That doesn’t wash with me. You’re still coming back to my place, to lie up and rest.”
Toby scowled, and I chuckled. “I’ll play doctor if you like,” I murmured slyly, and there was a gleam of interest in his eyes.
Tammy watched us worriedly. “Neil is still unconscious,” she said. “The doctor said Toby must have hit him pretty hard.”
Toby flinched, and my chest filled with anger. “I don’t fucking care how Neil is.” My voice was tight. “Look what he did to Toby. He meant to hurt him badly or, at worst, bloody kill him.” My voice caught. The thought of no Toby in my life was something I didn’t want to contemplate. It made my head ache and my stomach clench in fear. Toby was silent, but I saw the tic of his jaw and the set of his chin. He was scared, and I could only imagine he thought he’d be in trouble.
But he had nothing to worry about, surely. It had been a clear case of self-defense.
Tammy’s face went white at my words. “I saw Dave Webber coming into the hospital at the same time Lucas and I arrived. He was with Neil’s dad.”
Toby’s head swung round to face her, his eyes watchful. “Digger’s here?”
Tammy nodded. I couldn’t have cared less if the Pope himself had walked in. “Bully for them.” I scowled. “Where is Lucas, anyway? And who’s looking after the hotel with you and Toby both being here?”
“Lucas is talking to one of the doctors. I got hold of Chris, and he came in earlier to take over.”
Toby shifted on the bed, and I reached out to clasp his cold hand. He dredged up a wan smile for me, but I could tell his mind was elsewhere.
Tammy sniffed. “Guys, I have a very bad feeling about all this.” Her voice trembled. “Webber and Digger won’t let this go. They’ll try and blame Toby for it all, I know they will. We have to be careful.”
“Let them try,” I said fiercely. “The bastard attacked him. Anyone can see he came off worse.”
“I’m going to be fine, Tammy,” Toby said quietly. “Stop worrying. I can take care of myself.”
“Like you did now, Toby?” Tammy’s eyes flashed. “Neil could have bloody killed you.”
Toby’s jaw clenched, and he looked down at the floor. Just then, Lucas appeared at the door, walked over to Tammy, and laid a large paw on her shoulder. She reached up and clasped it.
Lucas looked at me and motioned me outside. I didn’t like the expression in his eyes. I looked at Toby, who was wincing now and trying to shift himself into a more comfortable position on the bed.
“You stay here. I’ll be back in a moment.” I followed Lucas out into the corridor. He turned to me and spoke quietly.
“I was talking to the doc about Neil. Thank God he’s come around at last, and they think he’ll be okay. I was worried he wasn’t going to be.”
“Why do you care?” I said angrily. By now Tammy had joined us. Lucas looked at me steadily.
“Because Neil’s dad is convincing him to lay a charge of GBH against Toby. Neil says Toby started it, came on to him, wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Neil defended himself. And if Neil hadn’t come around, I imagine the charge might have been a higher one.”
My mouth dropped open, and Tammy gave a small cry of distress.
“It’s the bloody Landon shit all over again!” I spluttered. “How the hell can they lie like that?”
Lucas sighed. “I was talking to the doc, so I heard what was being said between Webber and Neil’s dad. I eavesdropped… that’s why I was gone so long. They had no idea who I was. I know they probably won’t get it to stick, but it could make things really uncomfortable for Toby.” He went quiet. “Rain, you won’t want to hear this, but Toby’s got form.” His use of the English vernacular to tell me that Toby had a previous conviction with the police was a little startling.
I shook my head vehemently. “Toby doesn’t have ‘form.’ He had that incident with an ex-boss that went bad, but the charges were dropped. So, they can’t hold that against him.”
Lucas looked a little more uncomfortable, and I groaned. “What else do you know?”
“I heard Dave Webber talking to that huge bloke. I think he’s Neil’s dad?” He looked at Tammy for verification, and Tammy nodded. Lucas sighed. “Apparently Dave Webber looked up all the stuff on Toby when the last incident happened when he smacked his boss with a saucepan. He found out that Toby had a juvenile record from when he was fifteen, for arson.”
I sat back, stunned. “Arson? What the hell did he set on fire, then?”
“A house with three of his fellow foster brethren in it.”
There was a deathly silence in the room. Tammy and I looked at each other.
“He set a house on fire with people in it?” My voice was just a whisper.
Lucas shrugged. “That’s all I heard on that one.” The tone of his voice left no doubt there was something else.
“Jesus, Lucas, what else did you hear?” I could hear the fearful note in my voice.
Lucas looked over at the ward where Toby sat. “He had an altercation when he was sixteen with some guy at a pub he was living in. Chap called Ricky Smith. The police got called to the scene, and they found Ricky at the bottom of the stairs with a broken leg and a head injury. Toby was at the top of the stairs. They thought he’d pushed the guy.” His voice went quiet.
I thought dazedly I might just have fallen down a long rabbit hole. It was all so surreal that the man I’d been making love to all these months could have that level of anger and violence in him when he’d never shown it to me.
Lucas carried on, his voice sympathetic. “But this Ricky guy wouldn’t press charges. He said he’d tripped and fallen. It just went on Toby’s police file. But according to Webber, the juvenile conviction for the arson is spent, which means they can’t use it. He sounded really disappointed.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t profess to know the ins and out of the UK justice system, but it looks like Toby’s history is all old hat, thank God. But the way they were talking, that doesn’t mean they’ll make life easier for him. They’ll drag anything out of the old cupboard if it means they can get back at him somehow.”
My head spun. Toby had so many secrets about his past. On the surface he was just Toby, but underneath he was turning out to be a really complicated sod.
Tammy’s face was even paler. “I knew about the thing with his ex-boss. And I knew that he’d done something bad when he was fifteen and ran away. But I didn’t know the full story. Toby just said he got into trouble with the police when his foster mates hazed him, and he hurt one of t
hem. He was arrested but then let off. I just thought he’d been in a fight or something, not that he’d set fire to a house.”
All three of us looked at each other somberly. Lucas took Tammy back to the hotel, promising to call me later. I went in to see Toby lying back, his eyes watchful.
“What was the secret huddle all about?” he asked, his eyes searching my face.
I shrugged. “Lucas was just telling me that the posse’s arrived to try to discredit your story. But don’t worry. We’ll sort it all out.”
His lips thinned. “How’s Neil?”
I sat down. “He’s awake. I’m not sure how healthy he is, because apparently you whacked him really hard, but I think he’ll survive.”
“I lost it, Rain,” he said softly. “I thought I might have killed him.” His voice cracked.
I reached over to clasp his hand. “He’s going to be fine. And you had every reason to fight back, Toby. The man had just tried to skewer you.”
“Have the police been called? I imagine they’ll be lurking around somewhere.”
I took a deep breath. “Yes, I—”
“You fucking little wanker!” The strong Northern tones of a man blared stridently into the room as we both looked up in alarm to see a bald man built like a wrestler at the entrance to Toby’s room. “You hit my son such a hard one you fractured his bloody skull! They should bloody lock you away!”
I stood up and glared at the man, who I imagined was Digger. Another man, Dave Webber, appeared behind him. “Your son shouldn’t have been trying to use Toby for target practice, then, should he?” I snarled as Toby’s face whitened. “It was he who started it all.”
“This little bastard is a menace to society,” spat Digger. “He’s got form, he has.”
“I can tell you his form is a damn sight nicer than yours is, you shaven Neanderthal.” I was getting more riled. “Besides, I understand that any previous fucking ‘form’ is not relevant, so fuck off and go try your bully tactics somewhere else. Leave my boyfriend alone.”
Dave Webber stepped into the room, his face bland. “Now, now, chaps. This is a hospital. Let’s have a little bit of civility here.” He looked at Toby with a false smile. “Prentiss, obviously Digger here is a little upset that you fractured his boy’s skull. You seem to make a habit of that, don’t you? Burning down houses with people in them and pushing old geezers down the stairs.”
I saw a flash of pain cross Toby’s face as I glanced at him sharply.
Webber saw it and raised one eyebrow, grinning nastily. “Your ‘boyfriend’ here seems well-informed on some of the details of your rather nefarious past but not all of your sordid antics. Pillow talk, was it? I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that one.” His expression of disgust said otherwise. “Neil wants to lay a charge of GBH against you. He says you came on to him, and when he said no, you got mad, he fought back and had no other choice than to use the bottle to stop you beating on him.”
“That wasn’t what happened.” Toby’s face was stark, his eyes flinty.
“No? Any witnesses to say otherwise?” Webber’s voice was satisfied. He’d known that there had been no one in the area when Neil had been trying to flatten Toby.
I jumped in. “Christ, look at him.” I waved at Toby. “You’re trying to tell me all that was the result of Neil ‘fighting back’? Any arsehole could see through that in a minute.”
“Well, we’ll have to see, won’t we? I—” Webber turned in annoyance at being interrupted as a loud and excited voice shouted down the corridor of the hospital. Whoever it was wasn’t speaking in English. Toby lay back on the pillows, exhausted, as I went outside to see what was going on. Lucas was there with a tiny Japanese man and a taller Japanese girl. He was standing at the nurses’ station, trying to placate the little man, who was waving his hands frantically and obviously speaking Japanese. I looked over at Lucas, and he winked at me. The other reassuring thing was the presence of another policeman that wasn’t bloody Dave Webber at Lucas’s side, wearing a long-suffering expression on his face.
Webber and Digger left the ward and headed over to the nurses’ station. Lucas left them all there and ambled over to me.
“What the hell is going on?” I said in confusion.
My friend grinned. “Mr. Miyamoto wants to see how Toby is, or as he puts it, according to the translator, who’s the little lady there”—he waved at the small Japanese woman trying to calm down her diminutive charge—“How that nice young man is after he was stabbed for no reason by some cowardly thug in a hood.’”
I felt a frisson of sheer excitement. “He was a witness?”
Lucas nodded, a big smile on his face. “Yep. He and about three others who were standing on a balcony at the time and had a great view of the whole thing. One of them even filmed it all on his mobile phone. Apparently they’re all prepared to give statements and say that Toby was attacked first and that he only hit back in self-defense. I thought I’d bring Mr. Miyamoto down straightaway before he had a heart attack. He’s an excitable little blighter. He was making such a fuss at the police station when I took him down there that Sergeant Parker there decided to come with him to the hospital so he didn’t do too much damage.” His eyes grew stony. “And now maybe we can tell that bastard Dave Webber and his shaven friend to back off before we decide to press charges ourselves.”
I gave a great shout of laughter and grabbed Lucas around the waist, planting a huge kiss on his lips. He looked very taken aback, and I thought I might get decked. I moved away quickly, even as his face flushed crimson.
“You beauty,” I crowed. “Sorry, that kiss was probably a little over the top.”
“You think?” he said drily, but I saw the spark of humor on his face. “Christ, Rain, don’t bloody do that. You’ll get me all excited.” He grinned.
I watched as Dave Webber and Sergeant Parker, Mr. Miyamoto and the lady translator all disappeared into a small waiting room off the nurses’ station.
“I need to tell Toby about this.” I turned to go back into the room.
Lucas nodded. “I’ll wait here, make sure everything goes okay.” His voice was threatening, and I pitied any poor bastard getting in his way. Toby was still sitting up, looking down at the blanket with a defeated expression. I walked over and grabbed his face, giving him a deep kiss. He responded, but he wasn’t his usual passionate self. I supposed that was to be expected. He’d been stabbed, been told he faced a possible police charge, and had his past flung up in the air for anyone to take a shot at.
“I heard you both,” he said quietly. “That’s good news that there were witnesses. Perhaps it might straighten everything out.” His good hand plucked at the bedcover. He seemed nervous, and I thought I knew why.
I sat down on the bed beside him and wrapped my arms around him, careful not to hurt him. “Toby, whatever you did in your past is just that. In the past. You don’t have to explain anything. Not to me.” Even though I was a curious as hell, I wasn’t going to push him now. He looked at me, and the desolation in his eyes broke my heart. I kissed each of his eyes in turn, soft butterfly kisses, and he sighed. We sat for a moment in silence. Then he spoke.
“I want to go home now, Rain, back to your place.”
“Toby, the doctor needs to discharge you. He needs to make sure you’re fit to go home.”
“But I can discharge myself, can’t I?” He sounded like a petulant kid.
I huffed in resignation. “I suppose so. If that’s what you really want.” I got up. “Do you want me to speak to the nurse, ask them to do whatever they need to release you?”
He nodded. Three hours later, we were home. Both of us heaved a sigh of relief.
“I’m going for a shower,” Toby announced.
I sighed again. “Is that wise? You’re supposed to keep the bandages from getting too wet.”
He pressed his lips together mutinously. “I’m showering.” He glowered as he went into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly behin
d him. I leaned over and plumped up the bed pillows and drew the covers back. Sheba jumped onto the bed, her tail wagging softly. I looked at her. There wasn’t any point in asking him if I could help when he was in independent mode.
“He’s a right brat, isn’t he, girl?” Sheba seemed to nod in agreement. I pottered about, waiting for Toby to come out the bathroom. When he did appear, all squeaky clean, his wet hair plastered to his head like the skin of a silky seal, my groin tingled. I loved the sight of this man in just a towel. He saw the direction of my glance and grinned slightly.
I raised my eyebrows. “That plaster looks soaking. Are you sure the stitches are all right?”
He huffed impatiently. “Jeez, Rain, you can be such a nag. The stitches are bloody fine.” He was going to be an impossible patient, I could tell. An overdose of sedatives in his Coke was starting to look very tempting. I tried not to stare at the state of his body, with its livid bruise across his back where Neil had punched him and the sodden plaster with blood stained across it. He was in a lot of pain, and all in all, he was a bit of a mess. But he was my mess.
Toby settled back into a familiar bed with a contented sigh, draping the covers loosely over his hips, no doubt to cover up the source of any temptation I might have had to jump his bones. Sheba shuffled closer to him, her warm back resting against his legs. He stroked her head idly.
“Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat if you want.” I was a master at anything to do with pasta.
He made a moue. “No. I couldn’t face anything.” He took a deep breath. “Rain, please lie down with me.” He patted the bed, and I lay down on the other side of Sheba. “I need to tell you about what happened. With the fire and with Ricky.”
“Who was Ricky?” I played with Sheba’s ear, stroking the silky appendage in my fingers. If a dog could purr, she would have.
Waiting for Rain Page 19