by Lietha Wards
Colt found him like that forty-five minutes later. “Hey bro. I got you coffee. Strong as shit and thick as tar.”
Lance sat up. “Thanks.”
“How are you holding up.” He handed his brother the Styrofoam cup.
“I’m going to say good because I haven’t had someone come tell me she’s dead.” He sighed emotionally and looked at the ceiling. “Fuck Colt, I can’t go through this again.”
“She’s going to make it.” Colton knew he was talking about his friend Riley and his family that were murdered five years ago.
Lance nodded.
A half an hour after that Jacob showed up smiling.
Lance stood. “She’s good?”
“Yes. The surgeon said a few cracked ribs, and a ruptured spleen. He removed the spleen and said she’d recover a hundred percent. She’s really tough.” He laughed. “She’s out, but in recovery. They’ll let you see her in about an hour, but she’s going to be fine. Duncan needs to speak to her first. I told her you were here. She’s fuzzy, but coming around.”
“Thank God.” He grinned at Colt, who patted him hard on the shoulder.
Tammy was doing her best to tell Duncan, the chief of police, what she could remember. All she knew is she was hit by a car, and was able to jump out of the way enough not to get killed. The surgeon told her he’d removed her spleen and the pain in her chest was from a couple of cracked ribs on her left side. She was very relieved. People can live without a spleen, but not other vital organs.
The front fender clipped her middle when she jumped out of the way. She flew into the sidewalk banging her head, which now hurt like a damn. According to Duncan there were tire marks on the sidewalk, so this was deliberate. She would have never thought that someone was capable of that in this town.
“Car color?”
“Sorry Duncan. It was dark and the headlights were on. I didn’t see anything.” Her voice was groggy. She was doing her best to remember, but her body started to hurt.
“You’re lucky Tammy. It could have been worse.”
“Is Lance here?”
“Yes. I’ll send him in.” He squeezed her hand. “Take care honey.” Duncan left.
She smiled and shut her eyes and might have even drifted off when she was woken by a familiar voice.
“If this is your poor attempt at trying to delay the wedding, it won’t work.”
Lance.
She opened her eyes, turned her head, and saw him standing in the door. He was teasing, but there was no trace of it in his expression. He looked horrid. His hair was in disarray and there was definite worry in his expression. She lifted her hand and he rushed over in a few long strides taking it in his and kissing it.
“You scared the shit out of me.” He turned his face into her palm and closed his eyes.
“Me too.”
“How are you doing?”
“I should ask you that.”
He finally smiled. “That figures.”
“My chest hurts and my abdomen where they cut into me, but it’s not bad yet. They’ll keep me happy on pain meds.”
“Tsk tsk, joking?”
“I know, but it’s better than feeling sorry for myself.”
“Honey, can you think of anyone that would want to hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, no and Duncan already asked me.”
“I know. He told me.”
“I know it was a car. That’s it. The doctor was saying if it was a truck I probably wouldn’t be here.” She felt a shudder go through him. Gosh he really did love her.
He swallowed hard and stared down at her. “I need to tell you something?”
“Please don’t call off the wedding. I’ll be fine.”
He caressed her cheek with his fingers and smiled. “Never even crossed my mind. Marianne came to see me.”
“Here?”
He nodded. “Her last effort to try and get me back. I told her to leave. She was driving a car, but I can’t see her doing this. She’s a lot of things but not a murderer.”
“I don’t know her as well as you but I’m going to agree with you Lance. I trust your judgment. I mean you’ve made a career out of reading people.”
“Get some sleep.” He bent down and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be close by.”
She didn’t protest. It wasn’t long after that she fell asleep.
***
Tammy remained in the hospital for another week. Lance tried to get her to move home with his family so they could look after her, but she refused. They were currently at the entrance of the hospital. She was sitting in a wheelchair, which she didn’t want, but it was policy to escort patients out that way. She stood up and let the nurse take the chair. Lance helped her into the truck still arguing with her. “It’s only for a few days, so I know you’ll be fine.” He shut the door and walked around to get in behind the wheel.
“I either take a cab home or you drive me.” This argument started in her room and he was like a dog with a bone. He was not letting it go.
He clenched his jaw in anger. “You need family around you. Besides, Jake’s a stone’s throw away from the ranch. The hospital is forty five minutes.”
“It’s not proper that I live with you before the wedding.”
“Are you kidding? We were sleeping together in my penthouse and you were staying with me.”
She blushed but stood her ground. “Need I remind you that this is a small town. I will not do that Lance.”
“God dammit Tammy—“
“Don’t you curse at me,” she scolded back.
He started the engine. “You are coming home with me, or you can bloody well live by yourself for the rest of your life.”
Her jaw slacked.
He pulled out of the parking lot.
“Lance?”
“I mean it Tammy. I won’t have your life put in danger anymore. I can’t go through that again. Don’t you realize that someone tried to kill you?”
“Yes,” she answered quietly.
“How the hell do you think that makes me feel?”
Gosh she didn’t even think of that. He felt so powerless when Riley was murdered, she couldn’t imagine how he felt when it came to her especially if he loved her as much as he said he did. “You’d leave me?”
He flicked her a glance before concentrating on the road. “I know I hurt you by saying that, but I can’t think of any other way to get you to listen. You’re too damn stubborn, and I’m really serious about having you with me. I couldn’t live with myself if I lost you. I swear on my mother’s grave, I couldn’t handle that.”
She reached over and touched his arm. “I’ll go to the ranch.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything else.
She knew he was tortured with guilt over his friend and never put any thought into what he’d gone through near losing her. It brought up emotions that he tried to leave in New York. “I’m sorry.”
“You honestly don’t have to be,” he said after a long stretch of silence. “Remember, alpha male.”
She laughed. “That’s hard to forget.” He glanced at her again and she could see that the anger was gone.
“Some good news for you. The wedding invitations are here.”
Oh lord, there was a reality check. She was so deeply in love with this man and he seriously was going to marry her. She kept playing things over and over in her head. She felt that she didn’t deserve him.
“I love you Tam.”
She popped her head up not realizing she was wringing her hands. She smiled wide and he returned it. It was a long wait, but her dreams were finally coming true. Then everything erupted into chaos. The last thing she remembered was the horrible sound of crushing metal and shattering glass—then an impact. All went black.
She smelled gas. Then she could detect the coppery taste of blood in her mouth. She opened her eyes. Her chest was in agony, her ears were ringing and everything was hazy. After a moment of looking around she realized that she
was hanging upside down.
Lance!
She looked over at the driver’s seat and he was there upside down and bleeding. There was blood pouring down his face and dripping off his hair. She reached over. “Lance!” and squeezed his arm. God her chest hurt!
No response.
She sobbed. “Lance please wake up. Please be alive.” She fumbled for her seatbelt. Surprisingly it popped out despite the tension on it. She hit her head when it released and yelped in pain. It really hurt when she folded up on the ceiling of the truck. It was caved in. She did her best to straighten out and started to shake Lance. She knew it was something you should never do in case of a neck injury, but she could still smell gas. “Lance, wake up!”
He groaned.
Oh thank God!
“Please, please be okay.”
“I’m alive,” he murmured opening his eyes. Then he swore—a lot. “Tammy get out of here.”
“No. I’m not leaving you.” She turned and crawled out through the broken glass of her door, around the front of the truck, to the driver’s side.
She spent the next five minutes trying to pull open his door. Her hands were getting cut on the broken glass, but it finally popped open.
Lance managed to undo his own seatbelt and crumpled like she did onto the roof of the truck. He cursed again.
“Is anything broken.”
“I don’t know. I fucking hurt everywhere.” He reached for her and she helped him out.
Surprisingly he was able to stand, unsteadily. “Can you stand?” he asked.
“I think so.” She cried as he helped her up. Her incision was bleeding and her ribs were killing her. Being restrained by a seatbelt during a crash certainly didn’t help the healing fractures of her ribs.
He framed her face in his hands and studied her. “Are you okay baby?”
“I think I look better than you.” Lance’s face was covered in blood. He had a large laceration over his left eye. It was probably glass from the windshield because both front airbags and the side impact ones deployed. “There’s a laceration about two inches long over your left eye.”
“Well, I don’t feel it yet. At least we’re alive. I will never doubt airbags, ever.” He took her arm. “Let’s get away from here before this thing blows.” He ended up helping her up the edge of the ditch to the gravel road. Once there, he searched for his phone, pulled it out and called emergency services.
“Lance we need to stop your bleeding.”
He nodded, and while on the phone, managed to remove his suit jacket, and then his shirt. He gave it to Tammy who tore a piece from the cotton material to wipe blood from his eye and forehead. Then she balled a bit up in her fist and held it over his eye. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Just jolted my ribs.” She lied. She was in agony.
He studied her for a moment, and his expression told her he didn’t believe her, but he nodded and continued speaking into the phone.
“Lance?” Tammy pointed to an object a hundred yards past the totaled ranch truck. It was a van, on its roof, like the truck and smashed to hell. The rear wheels were still spinning. She made to go toward it and he gripped her arm shaking his head while still talking on the phone. He gave the dispatcher information on the second vehicle.
“Someone could be hurt.”
“You are not playing rescuer to whomever is in there. They tried to kill us,” he said tersely.
She never stopped to think of the circumstances that led to the crash. “Do you think?”
“I know. They can burn to death for all I care. Your well-being comes first. The ambulance and cops can deal with whoever that is. He came out of a side road behind the trees over there.” He waved his hand toward the trees guarding the entrance of a scarcely used side road. “He purposely waited for us.”
She certainly couldn’t let someone perish no matter who they were, or what they did. As she was thinking that, she saw someone crawl out from around the van.
“Oh my God!”
“Jesus,” Lance said beside her.
There were sirens in the distance now. It would only be a few minutes before they reached them.
“That son of a—”
Tammy scrambled in front of Lance and grabbed and clung to him. “We’re alive. Can we please let it go?”
“I should have killed him when he hit you.”
“No Lance, he’s—” She suddenly felt very faint and started to sway.
“Ah hell.” He tightened his arms around her and made her sit down. It was perfect timing for the ambulance. “Christ, Tam, you’re bleeding from the abdomen.”
“I’m okay, I just tore the sutures.”
He waved one of the attendants over. “She needs to go to the hospital quick.”
“Hey Tammy,” said one of the EMTs recognizing her. His partner went down to check on Richard who was laying belly down outside the van and not moving.
“She’s bleeding. She has two cracked ribs, maybe more from the seatbelt.” He gave her a look of disapproval.
Tammy now knew for certain that he knew she wasn’t all that truthful.
The man set a bag beside her. “Hi.” He greeted her again.
Tammy smiled. “Hi Stan.” She knew he was trying to keep her calm by talking to her.
Several police cars pulled up then, including Duncan’s. Right behind them was one of Sulphur Springs fire trucks, they had two, and a fire and rescue. Well, everyone was here now.
“Stay with her.” Lance demanded. He stood up and walked over to Duncan.
“Wouldn’t want to leave and piss him off,” Stan teased, while pulling up her shirt and looking at the wound. He clucked his tongue. “You are an accident waiting to happen.” He put a blood pressure cuff on her and checked the rest of her vital signs.
“It’s superficial.”
“I think I’ll make that call. Why’d you faint?”
“I didn’t.”
“I saw you sway Tammy—syncope.”
She sighed. “My ribs are killing me. I’m in pain. I didn’t want Lance to know.”
“Uh-huh. From the look you got, I suspect he does anyway.” He reached into his bag and drew out a package and opened it. He then retrieved a vial. “I’m putting in a line and giving you a shot of Demerol before we move you. You’ve lost some blood, and your pulse is through the roof.”
“I’m going to need it for the tongue lashing from Lance anyway. I wasn’t honest.”
He turned and looked over his shoulder at Lance. “Is that the fiancé I’ve heard about?”
She nodded and smiled. Only in a small town would rumor spread so quick. The staff at the hospital knew when she ended up in there last week, especially with Lance hovering around. Now the whole town probably knew.
“Nice catch.”
She laughed and winced. Stan clucked his tongue again while he put the IV in and gave her a push of Demerol through it. “Just enough to take the edge off.”
Oh, that worked. He grinned from ear to ear seeing the drug take effect. Her features started to relax.
“Come on Tammy, you should have a c-spine on but since you’ve been up walking around, I think we’ll just get you back to the hospital.” He helped her stand and led her to the ambulance. He made her sit on the stretcher and lay down. Lance appeared at the rear doors still holding the torn shirt over his eye. “Duncan told me I have to get stitches.”
“What about Richard?” She expected him to be angry asking, but instead he looked sympathetic.
He got in the ambulance and sat on the bench alongside Stan who was hooking up the IV to a bag of saline. “I’m sorry Tam. I know you had faith in the man, but he didn’t make it.”
“What?” Oh why was she crying? He tried to kill her.
Lance leaned in and held her. “It’s unfortunate, and I know you want to grieve for him, so you go ahead,” he murmured in her ear.
“Mr. Hartley, you might as well ride along,” Stan said. “Rob and I have to take Ta
mmy in because she dehisced.”
“She what?”
“Stanley!” She really didn’t want him to know. He would give her hell for not letting him know.
“Her sutures tore,” he answered ignoring her protest. Then he looked at her in warning. “Tammy, he’s going to know anyway, you’re bleeding all over the dressing and into your clothing.” He lifted her shirt and took another look. Then he grabbed a clipboard and made some notes.
Tammy rolled her eyes.
“Enough Tam,” Lance scolded seeing it. “This is serious.”
“I’ll live. The pain meds Stan gave me—” she stopped talking. It seems that Demerol gave her loose lips. Her eyes widened.
Lance stared at her angrily. “I see that we still have some issues to work out.”
Stan bit his lip to keep from grinning. Tammy was strong willed. “Good luck with that.” He got up and left the ambulance.
“How much pain are you in?” His expression became concerned.
“Not much now,” she answered sheepishly.
Lance leaned over and put his elbow on his knee to support the arm holding the shirt. He cursed.
At that moment Stan came back, put several bags of equipment away, checked the IV and sat next to Lance again. Rob got in behind the wheel.
Stan opened a package of sterile gauze, moistened it with sterile saline and told Lance to replace the torn shirt piece he held over his head wound. “I’d actually appreciate it if you could wear it again. I have an urge to go to the gym.”
Lance didn’t feel the humor and just turned his head to looked at him.
Stan’s smile faded and he gave Tammy he’s-a-tough-audience look.
She lifted her brows as to say what-do-you-expect? They were just about killed. It was her ex-fiancé, and she didn’t tell Lance the truth about the injuries she received. Yup, things weren’t looking up.
Once at the hospital, the doctor on call restitched the wound after he determined there was no further intervention needed. Lance got six stitches.
“I’d like to keep you overnight for observation Tammy,” the doctor said.
“She’s going home with me. Jake’s going to take the night and stay with us at the house. She needs to be around family right now,” Lance interrupted appearing in the doorway. He had a bandage over his left eye.