by Diana Palmer
“Okay.”
He went out and joined Matt in the waiting room. The older man’s face was drawn, tormented. He barely glanced at Ed before he turned his attention to the trees outside the window. It was a dismal gray day, with rain threatening. It matched his mood.
Ed leaned against the wall beside him with a frown. “She said Carolyn phoned her last night,” he began. “I suppose that’s why the phone was unplugged.”
It was Matt’s turn to look puzzled. “What?”
“Leslie said Carolyn told her the two of you were laughing at her,” he murmured. “She didn’t say what about.”
Matt’s face hardened visibly. He rammed his hands into his pockets and his eyes were terrible to look into.
“Don’t hurt Leslie,” Ed said suddenly, his voice quiet but full of venom. “She hasn’t had an easy life. Don’t make things hard on her. She has no place else to go.”
Matt glanced at him, disliking the implied threat as much as the fact that Ed knew far more about Leslie than he did. Were they lovers? Old lovers, perhaps?
“She keeps secrets,” he said. “She was shot. Who did it?”
Ed lifted both eyebrows. “Who said she was shot?” he asked innocently, doing it so well that he actually fooled his cousin.
Matt hesitated. “Nobody. I assumed…well, how else does a bone get shattered?”
“By a blow, by a bad fall, in a car wreck…” Ed trailed off, leaving Matt with something to think about.
“Yes. Of course.” The older man sighed. “Dancing put her in this shape. I didn’t realize just how fragile she was. She doesn’t exactly shout her problems to the world.”
“She was always like that,” Ed replied.
Matt turned to face him. “How did you meet her?”
“She and I were in college together,” Ed told him. “We used to date occasionally. She trusts me,” he added.
Matt was turning what he knew about Leslie over in his mind. If the pieces had been part of a puzzle, none of them would fit. When they first met, she avoided his touch like the plague. Last night, she’d enjoyed his advances. She’d been nervous and shy at their first meeting. Later, at the office, she’d been gregarious, almost playful. Last night, she’d been a completely different woman on the dance floor. Then, when he’d taken her home with him, she’d been hungry, sensuous, tender. Nothing about her made any sense.
“Don’t trust her too far,” Matt advised the other man. “She’s too secretive to suit me. I thinks she’s hiding something…maybe something pretty bad.”
Ed didn’t dare react. He pursed his lips and smiled. “Leslie’s never hurt anyone in her life,” he remarked. “And before you get the wrong idea about her, you’d better know that she has a real fear of men.”
Matt laughed. “Oh, that’s a good one,” he said mockingly. “You should have seen her last night when we were alone.”
Ed’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean she’s easy,” Matt said with a contemptuous smile.
Ed’s eyes began to glitter. He called his cousin a name that made Matt’s eyebrows arch.
“Easy. My God!” Ed ground out.
Matt was puzzled by the other man’s inexplicable behavior. Probably he was jealous. His cell phone began to trill, diverting him. He answered it. He recognized Carolyn’s voice immediately and moved away, so that Ed couldn’t hear what he said. Ed was certainly acting strange lately.
“I thought you were coming over to ride with me this afternoon,” Carolyn said cheerfully. “Where are you?”
“At the hospital,” he said absently, his eyes on Ed’s retreating back going through the emergency room doors. “What did you say to Leslie last night?”
“What do you mean?”
“When you phoned her!” Matt prompted.
Carolyn sounded vague. “Well, I wanted to see if she was better,” she replied. “She seemed to be in a lot of pain after the dance.”
“What else did you say?”
Carolyn laughed. “Oh, I see. I’m being accused of something underhanded, is that it? Really, Matt, I thought you could see through that phony vulnerability of hers. What did she tell you I said?”
He shrugged. “Never mind. I must have misunderstood.”
“You certainly did,” she assured him firmly. “I wouldn’t call someone in pain to upset them. I thought you knew me better than that.”
“I do.” He was seething. So now it seemed that Miss Murry was making up lies about Carolyn. Had it been to get even with him, for not giving in to her wiles? Or was she trying to turn his cousin against him?
“What about that horseback ride? And what are you doing at the hospital?” she added suddenly.
“I’m with Ed, visiting one of his friends,” he said. “Better put the horseback ride off until next weekend. I’ll phone you.”
He hung up. His eyes darkened with anger. He wanted the Murry woman out of his company, out of his life. She was going to be nothing but trouble.
He repocketed the phone and went outside to wait for Ed and Leslie.
A good half hour later, Ed came out of the emergency room with his hands in his pockets, looking worried.
“They’re keeping her overnight,” he said curtly.
“For a sore leg?” Matt asked with mild sarcasm.
Ed scowled. “One of the bones shifted and it’s pressing on a nerve,” he replied. “Lou says it won’t get any better until it’s fixed. They’re sending for an orthopedic man from Houston. He’ll be in this afternoon.”
“Who’s going to pay for that?” Matt asked coldly.
“Since you ask, I am,” Ed returned, not intimidated even by those glittery eyes.
“It’s your money,” the older man replied. He let out a breath. “What caused the bone to separate?”
“Why ask a question when you already know the answer?” Ed wanted to know. “I’m going to stay with her. She’s frightened.”
He was fairly certain that even if Leslie could fake pain, she couldn’t fake an X ray. Somewhere in the back of his mind he found guilt lurking. If he hadn’t pulled her onto the dance floor, and if he hadn’t jerked her to her feet…
He turned away and walked out of the building without another word. Leslie was Ed’s business. He kept telling himself that. But all the way home, his conscience stabbed at him. She couldn’t help being what she was. Even so, he hadn’t meant to hurt her. He remembered the tears, genuine tears, boiling out of her eyes when Lou had touched her hair so gently. She acted as if she’d never had tenderness in her life.
He drove himself home and tried to concentrate on briefing himself for a director’s meeting the next day. But long before bedtime, he gave it up and drank himself into uneasy sleep.
The orthopedic man examined the X rays and seconded Lou’s opinion that immediate surgery was required. But Leslie didn’t want the surgery. She refused to talk about it. The minute the doctors and Ed left the room, she struggled out of bed and hobbled to the closet to pull her pajamas and robe and shoes out of it.
In the hall, Matt came upon Ed and Lou and a tall, distinguished stranger in an expensive suit.
“You two look like stormy weather,” he mused. “What’s wrong?”
“Leslie won’t have the operation,” Ed muttered worriedly. “Dr. Santos flew all the way from Houston to do the surgery, and she won’t hear of it.”
“Maybe she doesn’t think she needs it,” Matt said.
Lou glanced at him. “You have no idea what sort of pain she’s in,” she said, impatient with him. “One of the bone fragments, the one that shifted, is pressing right on a nerve.”
“The bones should have been properly aligned at the time the accident occurred,” the visiting orthopedic surgeon agreed. “It was criminally irresponsible of the attending physician to do nothing more than bandage the leg. A cast wasn’t even used until afterward!”
That sounded negligent to Matt, too. He frowned. “Did she say why not?”
Lou sighed angrily. “She won’t talk about it. She won’t listen to any of us. Eventually she’ll have to. But in the meantime, the pain is going to drive her insane.”
Matt glanced from one set face to the other and walked past them to Leslie’s room.
She was wearing her flannel pajamas and reaching for the robe when Matt walked in. She gave him a glare hot enough to boil water.
“Well, at least you won’t be trying to talk me into an operation I don’t want,” she muttered as she struggled to get from the closet to the bed.
“Why won’t I?”
She arched both eyebrows expressively. “I’m the enemy.”
He stood at the foot of the bed, watching her get into the robe. Her leg was at an awkward angle, and her face was pinched. He could imagine the sort of pain she was already experiencing.
“Suit yourself about the operation,” he replied with forced indifference, folding his arms across his chest. “But don’t expect me to have someone carry you back and forth around the office. If you want to make a martyr of yourself, be my guest.”
She stopped fiddling with the belt of the robe and stared at him quietly, puzzled.
“Some people enjoy making themselves objects of pity to people around them,” he continued deliberately.
“I don’t want pity!” she snapped.
“Really?”
She wrapped the belt around her fingers and stared at it. “I’ll have to be in a cast.”
“No doubt.”
“My insurance hasn’t taken effect yet, either,” she said with averted eyes. “Once it’s in force, I can have the operation.” She looked back at him coldly. “I’m not going to let Ed pay for it, in case you wondered, and I don’t care if he can afford it!”
He had to fight back a stirring of admiration for her independent stance. It could be part of the pose, he realized, but it sounded pretty genuine. His blue eyes narrowed. “I’ll pay for it,” he said, surprising both of them. “It can come out of your weekly check.”
Her teeth clenched. “I know how much this sort of thing costs. That’s why I’ve never had it done before. I’d never be able to pay it back in my lifetime.”
His eyes fell to her body. “We could work something out,” he murmured.
She flushed. “No, we couldn’t!”
She stood up, barely able to stand the pain, despite the painkillers they’d given her. She hobbled over to the chair, where her shoes were placed, and eased her feet into them.
“Where are you going?” he asked conversationally.
“Home,” she said, and started past him.
He caught her up in his arms like a fallen package and carried her right back to the bed, dumping her on it gently. His arms made a cage as he looked down at her flushed face. “Don’t be stupid,” he said in a voice that went right through her. “You’re no good to yourself or anyone else in this condition. You have no choice.”
Her lips trembled as she fought to control the tears. She would be helpless, vulnerable. Besides, that surgeon reminded her of the man at the emergency room in Houston. He brought back unbearable shame.
The unshed tears fascinated Matt. She fascinated him. He didn’t want to care about what happened to her, but he did.
He reached down and smoothed a long forefinger over her wet lashes. “Do you have family?” he asked unexpectedly.
She thought of her mother, in prison, and felt sick to her very soul. “No,” she whispered starkly.
“Are both your parents dead?”
“Yes,” she said at once.
“No brothers, sisters?”
She shook her head.
He frowned, as if her situation disturbed him. In fact, it did. She looked vulnerable and fragile and completely lost. He didn’t understand why he cared so much for her well-being. Perhaps it was guilt because he’d lured her into a kind of dancing she wasn’t really able to do anymore.
“I want to go home,” she said harshly.
“Afterward,” he replied.
She remembered him saying that before, in almost the same way, and she averted her face in shame.
He could have bitten his tongue for that. He shouldn’t bait her when she was in such a condition. It was hitting below the belt.
He drew in a long breath. “Leave it to Ed to pick up strays, and make me responsible for them!” he muttered, angry because of her vulnerability and his unwanted response to it.
She didn’t say a word, but her lower lip trembled and she turned her face away from him. Beside her hip, her hand was clenched so tightly that the knuckles were white.
He shot away from the bed, his eyes furious. “You’re having the damned operation,” he informed her flatly. “Once you’re healthy and whole again, you won’t need Ed to prop you up. You can work for your living like every other woman.”
She didn’t answer him. She didn’t look at him. She wanted to get better so that she could kick the hell out of him.
“Did you hear me?” he asked in a dangerously soft tone.
She jerked her head to acknowledge the question but she didn’t speak.
He let out an angry breath. “I’ll tell the others.”
He left her lying there and announced her decision to the three people in the hall.
“How did you manage that?” Ed asked when Lou and Dr. Santos went back in to talk to Leslie.
“I made her mad,” Matt replied. “Sympathy doesn’t work.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Ed replied quietly. “I don’t think she’s had much of it in her whole life.”
“What happened to her parents?” he wanted to know.
Ed was careful about the reply. “Her father misjudged the position of some electrical wires and flew right into them. He was electrocuted.”
He frowned darkly. “And her mother?”
“They were both in love with the same man,” Ed said evasively. “He died, and Leslie and her mother still aren’t on speaking terms.”
Matt turned away, jingling the change in his pocket restlessly. “How did he die?”
“Violently,” Ed told him. “It was a long time ago. But I don’t think Leslie will ever get over it.”
Which was true, but it sounded as if Leslie was still in love with the dead man—which was exactly what Ed wanted. He was going to save her from Matt, whatever it took. She was a good friend. He didn’t want her life destroyed because Matt was on the prowl for a new conquest. Leslie deserved something better than to be one of Matt’s ex-girlfriends.
Matt glanced at his cousin with a puzzling expression. “When will they operate?”
“Tomorrow morning,” Ed said. “I’ll be late getting to work. I’m going to be here while it’s going on.”
Matt nodded. He glanced down the hall toward the door of Leslie’s room. He hesitated for a moment before he turned and went out of the building without another comment.
Later, Ed questioned her about what Matt had said to her.
“He said that I was finding excuses because I wanted people to feel sorry for me,” she said angrily. “And I do not have a martyr complex!”
Ed chuckled. “I know that.”
“I can’t believe you’re related to someone like that,” she said furiously. “He’s horrible!”
“He’s had a rough life. Something you can identify with,” he added gently.
“I think he and his latest girlfriend deserve each other,” she murmured.
“Carolyn phoned while he was here. I don’t know what was said, but I’d bet my bottom dollar she denied saying anything to upset you.”
“Would you expect her to admit it?” she asked. She laid back against the pillow, glad that the injection they’d given her was taking effect. “I guess I’ll be clumping around your office in a cast for weeks, if he doesn’t find some excuse to fire me in the meantime.”
“There is company policy in such matters,” he said easily. “He’d have to have my permission to fire you, and he won’t get it.”
&n
bsp; “I’m impressed,” she said, and managed a wan smile.
“So you should be,” he chuckled. He searched her eyes. “Leslie, why didn’t the doctor set those bones when it happened?”
She studied the ceiling. “He said the whole thing was my fault and that I deserved all my wounds. He called me a vicious little tramp who caused decent men to be murdered.” Her eyes closed. “Nothing ever hurt so much.”
“I can imagine!”
“I never went to a doctor again,” she continued. “It wasn’t just the things he said to me, you know. There was the expense, too. I had no insurance and no money. Mama had to have a public defender and I worked while I finished high school to help pay my way at my friend’s house. The pain was bad, but eventually I got used to it, and the limp.” She turned quiet eyes to Ed’s face. “It would be sort of nice to be able to walk normally again. And I will pay back whatever it costs, if you and your cousin will be patient.”
He winced. “Nobody’s worried about the cost.”
“He is,” she informed him evenly. “And he’s right. I don’t want to be a financial burden on anyone, not even him.”
“We’ll talk about all this later,” he said gently. “Right now, I just want you to get better.”
She sighed. “Will I? I wonder.”
“Miracles happen all the time,” he told her. “You’re overdue for one.”
“I’d settle gladly for the ability to walk normally,” she said at once, and she smiled.
Chapter Six
The operation was over by lunchtime the following day. Ed stayed until Leslie was out of the recovery room and out of danger, lying still and pale in the bed in the private room with the private nurse he’d hired to stay with her for the first couple of days. He’d spoken to both Lou Coltrain and the visiting orthopedic surgeon, who assured him that Miss Murry would find life much less painful from now on. Modern surgery had progressed to the point that procedures once considered impossible were now routine.
He went back to work feeling light and cheerful. Matt stopped him in the hall.
“Well?” he asked abruptly.
Ed grinned from ear to ear. “She’s going to be fine. Dr. Santo s said that in six weeks, when she comes out of that cast, she’ll be able to dance in a contest.”