"It's going to be okay now that you’re safe."
We both stared at each other saying way more than the words coming from our mouths. We were all each other had.Eventually, I needed to ask the questions I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answers to.
"How bad did they say the burns are?"
He had parts of his arms and chest covered in bandages.
"They told me they are mainly second degree with some spots being third. The back of my arms are the worst."
Relief flooded me. "Are you in a lot of pain?"
"Not really. It kind of stings but otherwise I'm ready to get out of here. I spent too much time here as a kid when my mom would get a beating...."
"Well, thank goodness you finally calmed down."
A nurse who looked no older than Canyon walked into the room interrupting him and headed straight for the machines beside his bed. "You must be the infamous Ari?"
My face turned bright red when Canyon answered, "The one and only girl for me."
"Is he always this sweet or is it the pain meds talking through him?"
"It might be a little bit of both."
She looked down at Canyon. "Well, all I can say is God is for sure on your side. You could be discharged by tomorrow if you keep responding like you've been."
"What do you mean responding?"
I wasn't sure what he needed to do but the sooner he could get out the better.
"Well he's got a med button that he's barely pushed, he came off of his tube talking away and..."
"I'm a man. We don't lay around all day and whine about something hurting. I'm going to be fine, so the sooner you can get me out of here the better."
I looked up to see the nurse smiling. "See what I mean?"
I laughed at the same time I grabbed his hand and looked in his eyes. "No one is doubting you're a man. But you need to stay in here until you're better."
The nurse typed a few things into the computer and then turned back to us.
"I'm done here for now. If you need anything, just hit the button, okay?"
"Will do. Thank you."
"You're welcome. It's nice to meet you, Ari."
"Nice to meet you too."
When we were alone again I sat down on his bedside and just stared at him.
"What are you looking at me like that for?"
"I love you, Canyon."
"I love you too now tell me what's got you wearing that I'm keeping secrets again look."
"It's not anything you won't find out but right now I don't want you to worry about anything other than getting better."
"I thought we were done with keeping secrets. Stop protecting me."
I didn't know how to bring it up without upsetting him and it weighed heavy on me. I just decided it was best to be honest.
"They asked me today who could have done it."
He lost all the color in his face. "What did you say?"
"Do you know a Hilary Michaels?"
His body went stiff. "How does Hilary have anything to do with this? She would never in a million..."
"She drove me home after I rode here in the ambulance with you. Don't worry, she's on our side. They don't think she had anything to do with this."
"Then why did you bring her up now?"
"She told the arson investigation guy that David could have done it and..."
"That son-of-a-bitch!"
He tried to sit up quickly but then winced from the pain.
"Canyon, calm down. I don't know that it was him. John said something the last time I saw him and..."
His body flew back against the bed before he said, "Are you kidding me? Why? Why would anyone hate me so much? I didn't do anything wrong!"
He began to shake as tears poured from his eyes. I climbed into the bed with him, careful not to lay on his arm but I needed to be as close to him as possible. There isn't anything worse in the world than watching the strongest man you know crumble.
My own tears soaked the sheet under my face as I buried it into the crook of his neck. We cried until our bodies no longer had tears to shed. After that we just laid there in silence. What could be said to make any of this better? Instead what found us was sleep.
I was awoken by the sound of someone clearing their throat. When I lifted my head I saw a man standing at the end of the bed. Nervously, I worked until I gained focus, coming to realize it was the doctor from the lobby.
"Sorry to disturb you but I need to assess my patient."
I sat up and slowly scooted off the bed while Canyon continued to sleep.
"Thank you for letting me see him."
"There was no other way to get him to calm down. He's finally doing what he needs. Sleep is the best thing right now for his body to heal."
"He's very lucky, isn't he?"
"All I can say after reading the report is it's a miracle. He should have died, there's no question about that."
I already knew that, but hearing it out loud still felt like a knife was being shoved into my chest.
"He keeps telling me he's okay but it's too hard to believe. I know those burns have to be bad."
"He's telling you the truth. He will have minimal if no scarring at all. When I claim a miracle, this is what I mean by one."
I wiped my tears before saying, "How long before he can come home? He hates hospitals."
"I want to keep the dressings clean so I would say at the earliest, tomorrow evening."
The nurse was right. That meant I had to get ahold of the Jeff guy soon. I wanted all of the debris cleared before he came home. It was hard enough for me to see. I couldn't imagine Canyon having to relive it also. I know he said I protected him and that he could handle it but I would always want to protect him. He was my everything.
"That would be amazing, thank you so much."
"I think what's best is you give us the help we need to treat him."
"How?"
"Give him time. Don't push too hard to get him back to health. He needs to rest."
"Yes, sir."
"Can you give me a minute so I can treat his wounds?"
"Sure. I'll just be out in the hall."
I closed the door behind me as I walked back towards the waiting room. I had so much to be thankful for but I couldn't stop thinking about who would do this. I glanced down at my phone and decided to call Jeff again. This time he answered. I went over who I was and what we needed. The one thing going in our favor was he had already heard from the arson team which meant the investigation was complete. It was no longer a crime scene and he could clear it out.
The plan was to start the following morning and take the better part of two days to complete. It wasn't what I wanted to hear but it was what it was. If it meant Canyon could start over than that was what we needed to focus on.
The doctor came out to meet me, tapping my shoulder to bring me out of my thoughts.
"I gave him a sedative to keep him asleep for the next few hours. If there are things you need to take care of you have time to do it before he's awake again."
I knew one thing I was going to do and that was have a visit with John. I would know immediately if he had done it. He was never good at holding back the smirk he wore when he was able to hurt me.
"Thank you. So what do you think? Three hours?"
"More like five."
"Okay. I will be back."
"I'm counting on it. I don't need the same experience as we had earlier if you know what I mean."
"I do and I promise that was all worry talking. Now that he knows I'm safe he will be fine."
"Let's just not test the theory."
He smiled and then walked back down the hall.
When I got in my truck I wasn't sure if I should go by the police station and see what they'd found out or just head straight to John's. My anger won out as I got closer to town. I had to know the truth. If it was John I was ready to see him go to jail once and for all.
When I pulled into the driveway something felt off. I can
't explain it but I knew to prepare myself for anything as I approached the house. I knocked a few times and when no one answered, I let myself in. Standing on the other side of the door was a raging mad John.
Not a word was spoken before I was being spun around and slammed against the wall behind me. His right hand came up and locked itself in the front of my hair before he pulled forward and then thrust my head back into the drywall behind me over and over again.
I tried with all my strength to push him off of me and when it didn't work, my hands found his face. I dug my nails as hard as I could into his skin and wouldn't stop until his screams matched my own and the hold on me let up.
It was hard to see but I could make out for the most part John grabbing his face while he continued to scream. I looked down at the blood on the tips of my fingers and realized what I had done, for the first time feeling no remorse.
"Did you do it, you son-of-a-bitch? Tell Me! Did you do it?"
He was bent over but instead of standing up, he began running straight at me, tackling me to the ground. I kicked and threw my arms around, anything I could do to keep him from climbing on top of me, but it didn't work.
My arms were pinned under his legs as he backhanded me directly across the face.
"You gave them my name? My fucking name!"
SMACK!
"Are you crazy?"
SMACK!
"You stupid little bitch."
SMACK!
"You got everything you deserved."
SMACK!
It was getting harder and harder to hear him over the ringing in my ears and my sight went blurry before everything went white. One thing was for certain though. I knew he didn't do it before I completely blacked out.
The next thing I knew someone was lifting my head to put something under my neck. Voices were talking all around me while I was lifted off the ground and carried out of the house. Lights were coming from every emergency vehicle possible parked in the driveway. I tilted to the side and saw John's head being pushed down before he was shoved into the back of a police car. It all seemed like a weird dream until I thought about who could have called them to come find me and my mind flashed to Shelby bringing me back to reality.
"SHELBY!"
"Calm down, ma’am."
"SHELBY!"
"Ma’am, you need to calm down. There is no one here by that name."
"My little sister. Bright red hair?"
"No kids around here for what I can see."
"Who called this in? She has to be hiding somewhere. Find her, she's scared!"
"Duncan! Hey, can you come over here for a second?"
The emergency responders stopped moving me when a man with silver white hair and black rimmed glasses came to stand over me. The very same man that had been at the hospital questioning me.
"What's the problem?"
"She thinks her sister might be here and hiding somewhere."
"No, your mom took her earlier when I came by."
"So who called?"
"Called?"
"To report this."
"No one. I had just left and passed you on the road. Something made me turn back and thank God I did. He was going to kill you."
"Thank you for coming back."
"What made you want to come here anyway?"
"I had to know if he set the fire...."
"And?"
"He didn't."
I fought and lost the battle. They demanded I be taken to the hospital to check for skull fractures. The last thing I wanted was to show up in an ambulance but again I lost. The only thing that came from any of this worth a crap was John was now in jail. I would do anything to keep him there forever.
On the way there the paramedic was constantly checking my vitals and putting a light in my eye. I was just about to tell him I was fine and to stop it, it was annoying, when a sharp pain hit my chest and I heard, "She's crashing!" before everything went white again.
Chapter 30
I woke up this time in the hospital. Several nurses were shuffling around when I realized something was in my nose. My hand came up to my face where I found tubes.
"Those are nasal probes. Please don't try to pull them out."
I let my hand drop back down to my side but there was still pain coming from my chest.
"What happened?" My words didn't come out as clear as they should have and the volume I normally maintained was minimal at best.
The same nurse leaned down over me to hear and then rested her hand on mine. "Your left lung collapsed. We had to drain the fluid and need to make sure that it is re-expanding. You might have a tear. The doctor is ordering an x-ray now."
I had no idea what she was saying but it hurt to breathe. How could my lung be torn?
"Just rest. It will be better for you."
She pushed a button and then the pain started to disappear as my eyes got heavy once again. All I could think about was Canyon as I fell back into sleep.
The next time I opened my eyes I could see a man waiting by my bedside.
"Welcome to the world of the living, Arianna."
"Thank you."
"Seems you're going to be just fine after all. After we checked, your lung began holding air again. Not to say you still don't need to take it easy, but you're out of the woods."
"Canyon."
"Excuse me?"
"Canyon Michaels is upstairs. Can I see him?"
"You are upstairs. We admitted you this morning."
"This morning? I came in here this afternoon."
"No, that was yesterday. You have been sleeping on and off for the last twenty-four hours."
"Oh my God! Canyon!" I still couldn't scream but I wanted to.
"You need to settle down. You have a fractured rib. That blunt force affected your lung also. We need you to stay in bed and rest."
"I've been sleeping for a day, isn't that enough? I need to see Canyon."
"Let me go see if he's still admitted. What was the last name again?"
"Michaels."
"Okay, I will go check and be right back."
I sat in bed and waited for what felt like forever before the doctor came back in.
"We located him and I spoke with his doctor. He was released last night and apparently found out you were here. Would you like me to find him?"
"Yes, please, yes."
"All right but if this means you aren't going to settle down, I will make him leave. Am I understood?"
"Yes. I just need to see him."
Ten minutes later I saw Canyon cross the threshold of the doorway led in by a nurse. As soon as my eyes came into contact with his though all hell broke loose.
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?"
Canyon was running to my side screaming the whole time while his hands softly caressed my swollen face.
"WHO DID THIS?"
"I'M GOING TO KILL THE SON-OF-A-BITCH!"
"Canyon, settle down. He's in jail now."
"WHO?"
"John."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? DID YOU GO THERE?"
"Canyon, let me explain."
"That's enough! If you can't get yourself under control I will remove you immediately."
Canyons demeanor changed in an instant followed by tears falling from his eyes. "I'm so sorry, darlin'. I'm so sorry."
"This isn't your fault. Stop it. I knew going there that he would be mad."
"Why would you go to begin with?"
"I needed to know if he did it."
"There are police for that, Ari! You didn't need to be anywhere near that psychopath."
"He can't hurt me anymore, Canyon. It's over."
"Oh no it's not. When I get..."
"Sir, I need her to remain calm!" The nurse was rude but she made her point clear before she looked at me. "Don't overexert yourself or I will make him leave. Am I understood?"
We both agreed before the nurse left the room giving us the time we needed.
"When you weren't here when I woke u
p..."
"I planned to be back by then. I'm sorry I worried you..."
"You're sorry? Don't ever say that again to me. You have nothing to apologize for. That asshole had no right touching you. What are they charging him with? What did he do? How did they get him?"
I spent the better part of five minutes going through all that I knew.
"I flipped after an hour and forced them to let me go. I took a cab home but when I didn't find you there, I drove everywhere until I came back here to see if you showed up. When I found out you were admitted the stupid bitch wouldn't tell me anything else. I've been waiting since and let me tell you, there is nothing worse. I'm going to kill that son-of-a-bitch. What was the officer’s name that came back for you?"
"Duncan something. I didn't get his last name."
"I'll go by the station and make sure they press every charge they can against him. I never want him to see the light of day."
"I don't think they can hold him for long. Aggravated assault isn't a large enough charge to keep him. He'll just get a court date to appear."
"Not if I have any say in the matter. Oh, baby, I hate this! What more can happen to us? Seriously, what else? I thought I was scared before but when you didn't come back and I had no way of finding you..."
"I'm here now."
"But look at you!"
"Do I look ugly?"
I felt a tear fall from my face and knew I couldn't hide my sadness any longer. He was right. We had gone through more in the matter of a couple days than most people have to deal with in a lifetime.
"You will always be the most beautiful woman in the world to me."
"That's not funny. What did he do to me? I haven't seen a mirror."
"You don't need to. All you need to know is I'm not joking when I say you're beautiful, breathtaking, jaw dropping, gorgeous. Now you need to stop talking. The doc said, so no more arguing."
"You did that on purpose."
"Shhh!"
Canyon came over to lay in my bed with me. He brushed the hair off my forehead to kiss it before he snuggled into my side.
"I love you, Ari."
"I love you too but I'm tired of saying this under these circumstances. Everything was finally going good for us. Why does anything I touch go to hell?"
Let It Be Me Page 27