by Jodi Kae
“Baby, I just got off the phone with your dad, and he is coming in on the first flight he can get.”
I look to Derek, and he nods his head, letting me know he took care of things by the cottage.
“Ren, I don’t want you to panic at what Jax is going to tell us next. The problem has officially been dealt with, so you don’t have to worry.”
“The only information I have is somehow Sully survived the explosion of The House, and he came searching for you both. I am assuming that when he was pretending to help your dad, he found out about the house in Destin and came here hoping to find you.
Tori went to the store with my sister, and he took her from there. The store’s security cameras caught them leaving the loading dock and him shoving Tori into a trunk. Luckily, she had my sister’s phone, and we were able to track it to a motel and then to your house. I believe he was trying to recapture both of you. I was able to sneak up on him and take care of him for good. That is how I ended up at your door with Tori. He had tortured her and slit her wrist, letting her bleed out in the back of the sedan. Tori might have more information when she wakes up.”
“Mr. Wilson, your wife is out of surgery and stable. She has suffered trauma to her head and is still unconscious. We have tried to rouse her but I’m afraid it may be a few days before she comes to. All of her vital signs are good, so now it is just a waiting game. We are moving her to room 301, and there is a sofa bed available for one person to spend the night.”
This doctor just became my new best friend. “When can we see her?”
“They should have her transferred in about five minutes but please keep in mind, she needs her rest to heal quickly. I will let the three of you back there now but in an hour, two of you need to leave.”
Derek and Serenity are staring at me with a shocked expression. I’m sure over the wife comment. As the doctor leaves the room, I put my hands up to halt the barrage of questions and just clear the air. “We are not married, yet. I plan to take care of that at the first opportunity if she says yes. I had to tell the doctor that in order to stay with her in the ER. I love her and I plan on spending the rest of my life making this up to her. I respected Derek and his situation with you so I hope that you will not try to sabotage this for me.”
“I should be the one staying with her, Jax. I am her sister.”
Derek speaks before I do, saving me from being the ass.
“Ren, I am not about to let you stay here alone and they said only one of us could stay. Where you go, I go, and they may just kick us out if I have to fight with them about it. We are only five minutes away if we stay at the cottage, or we can sleep in the waiting room. Although I don’t think your dad should be left alone right now and I don’t think he will be comfortable sleeping in a chair in the waiting room.”
Thank God, Derek is on my side. I really didn’t want to get myself kicked out of here for throwing a fit. All three of us go to her room and when we walk in my knees buckle. I knew she looked bad but I was in survival mode and didn’t notice how badly her face was beaten. Serenity gasps and bursts into tears while Derek holds her tight. She has stitches just below her right eye and that eye purple and swollen shut. The left side of her face is one massive bruise and the corner of her lip is cut. Her arm, from elbow to fingers, is completely wrapped up, and her neck is a mass of bruises as well. That dead son of a bitch tried to choke her to death. I am going to piss on his grave every chance I get.
Pulling a chair to the side of the bed, I sit down, grab her uninjured hand and rest my head on the bed. I will stay like this, offering silent comfort until everyone has gone home. Then I will climb into bed with her and whisper myself in her ear.
Serenity is the first to speak.
“Oh Tori, I’m so sorry I left you behind. I’m sorry I took you to that club. I love you so much and would trade places with you if I could. I’m sorry. Please wake up and talk to me.”
I don’t look up but I know Serenity is on the other side of the bed, her heart breaking for her sister. I feel a little guilty about keeping Tori away, but I also know it was for her own protection. Today just proved that I let my guard down too soon and didn’t protect her enough. I don’t think I will ever get over the feeling of pure terror when my sister told me she was gone.
The constant beep of the monitors lulls me to sleep and only slight nudging gets my attention.
“Hey, Jax..........We are going back to the cottage. Nicks flight lands in two hours and Ren wants to get her bearings before we pick him up. We won’t bring him back here tonight because it’s after visiting hours, but we’ll see you first thing in the morning.”
Derek hands me his cell phone and pats me on the back.
“The cottage number is in the contacts under Cottage. Call if you need us to bring you anything tomorrow; clothes, food, you name it. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Captain Mitchell is going to contact you in two days. He said he’d give you a few days to recuperate. I forwarded all the pictures I took of the crime scene over to him and gave him the backstory on Sully, so we are covered.”
I can’t seem to do anything more than nod my head. Derek and Serenity file out and nurses file in. They look at me with sympathy and that just pisses me off. Do they think she won’t wake up? Is there something they aren’t telling me? They check all the monitors, take notes, and check her wounds. Once they are satisfied, they leave us in peace.
I climb on the bed and spoon my body to her side, kiss the only uninjured part of her face, her forehead, and settle in for a long night. I whisper to her of my short-lived baseball career when I was ten. I only played for one year before I was kicked off the team. Billy Smith, the neighborhood bully said the wrong thing one too many times, and apparently, throwing a baseball into his gut was not acceptable.
I whisper to her about being in a band at fourteen and that we weren’t good at all, but we practiced every day trying to get better. That day never came. I tell her of my years as a Seal but only the good parts and about working for the FBI. I whisper that I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to be a dad until I held Alissa for the first time. “I want to have babies with you. I want to get married and live happily ever after. I need you to wake up, Love. I need you to see me.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Recover:
*return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength. *be well again. *find or regain possession of something stolen or lost. *regain control of oneself or of a physical or mental state. *make up for a loss in position or time.
Day 2
My face hurts, my head hurts, my arm hurts, hell, my whole body hurts. I can’t open my eyes to see where I am but there is an annoying beeping sound that is driving me crazy. Something keeps squeezing my right arm and my left arm is throbbing but I can’t move it to get relief. I can hear voices, although the only one I recognize is Jax. Does that mean he saved me from Sully? Why can’t I move? Did Sully do something so horrible to me that I am now paralyzed? I remember my eye swelling shut but why can’t I open the other one? Did Sully get to my sister and hurt her too? I can’t stand not knowing what is going on. The beeping noise is getting faster and I feel like crawling out of my skin.
“Love......Can you hear me? Tori, you need to calm down. You are safe and I am staying by your side until you recover.”
Instantly I feel calm. His touch to my hand warms me and helps me to relax. His mouth to my ear reminds me of a more pleasant time. Recover from what? Other than the swollen eye and slit wrist, what else did sully do to me?
A woman’s voice cuts through all the annoying beeping that echoes through the room.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Wilson?”
“No, not now. Her heart rate was going crazy but she seems to have calmed down. Is it time for more pain meds. I think she’s in pain.”
From the annoying sounds and the antiseptic smell, I assume that I am in a hospital and Jax is being his bossy self with the nurse.
“Yes, they are bringing those in
now. Has she woken up to tell you that she’s in pain?”
“No, I just want her comfortable and she was scheduled to have them a half an hour ago. Can you please make sure they stay on schedule? I know I’m pushy but I just need to make sure she’s okay.”
“Yes, Sir, we were warned about you from the night staff. She is very lucky to have such a loving husband.”
The room becomes quiet again except for that beeping. Did the nurse say that Jax was my husband? When did this happen? I’m pretty sure I remember everything that has happened to me, and getting married is not one of them. Maybe Australians think you are automatically wed if you have sex. Maybe I just misunderstood and it’s just wishful thinking.
In comes another voice asking Jax how he’s doing today. Her touch is different from Jax’s so I know it’s her removing the band that squeezes my arm and fumbling with tape in the crook of my elbow. Within minutes, I feel a warm rush seep through my body and I drift off into nothingness.
∞∞∞
“Any new developments, has she woken up yet?”
I look up to see Serenity, Nicholas and Derek walk in. “No, sorry Serenity, we had a rough night with the monitors going off every ten minutes and the staff rushing in, but I think it was more faulty equipment than anything else.”
“You can call me Ren. I’m pretty sure we are practically family. Oh, and this is our dad, Nicholas James. I forgot you haven’t met. Dad, this is Jax. He is the man Derek spoke of and the one who rescued Tori, twice.”
I stand to shake Nick’s hand and he pulls me into a back-slapping hug. His eyes are green like his daughters’ and they are wet with tears. I can’t imagine being in his shoes. 1. Having his daughters taken. 2. Almost losing his own life. 3. Seeing Tori in this condition just adds a visual to this kind of terror. Shit! Just last night, I whispered to Tori that I want to have babies with her, but seeing the look on Nick’s face has me second-guessing that idea. The way he stares at her in her condition makes my heart ache for him. These types of tragedies are not supposed to befall fathers. Are they? How would I handle it if something happened to my own child?
“I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for Tori. I know Ren was angry with you for keeping her sister from us, but I now understand the danger they were in and I thank you for saving her. Derek told me she was in good hands and I trust him so now I trust you.”
We sit around for several hours catching up. I put Nick’s mind at ease with the information that Tori was not violated in The House and the only trauma she suffered was emotional. I can’t imagine what I would have found if things were different. Serenity tells me of The Safe House and she is so animated about all the good things they will accomplish. I’m sure Tori will want to be a huge part of that. I have a home in Boston near Derek’s but I consider the village house my home. Tori thrived there with the children and I hope that is where she will want to stay.
Later that night everyone goes home, and I climb back into bed with Tori and whisper myself into her ear. The monitors are calm, and the staff lets us sleep in peace.
∞∞∞
Day 3
I still can’t open my eyes or move a muscle. I have been willing my fingers and toes to twitch but still nothing. I wonder if this is how comatose patients feel. Can they hear everything going on around them but can do nothing to communicate? I feel trapped inside my head. I used to retreat to my happy place or panic room as Jax called it, however, I could come out to play whenever I wanted. Jax used to force me out with extreme pleasure; that would be nice right about now. Now the doors are locked, and I want so desperately to scream, “hey, I’m here, open the door,” unfortunately my mouth doesn’t work either. Maybe Jax will get so desperate for me that he will take advantage of his aware, but not conscious, pretend wife and lure me awake. Laughing inside my head at what a picture that would be if the staff came in to see Jax molesting their unconscious patient. Even thinking of the possibility is turning me on. He has woken me up before already buried inside me, and that was the best wake up call I’ve ever received.
∞∞∞
“How’s our patient today?”
Kara, the day nurse walks in with a smile on her face. By the end of the day, she usually doesn’t look so chipper. I always worry that their attitude reflects how good or bad their patients are doing. I want to ask, but I don’t want them to tell me they are losing hope for Tori to wake up. The doctor told me that comas were common in patients who lost a lot of blood and went into Hemorrhagic Shock. He is not surprised and says she needs her rest anyway, and this is the best way to get it and heal. He said she would wake up when she’s ready. That eases me somewhat, but I am still anxious to see her green eyes again. The swelling in her right eye has gone down but even if she were conscious; she probably wouldn’t be able to open it this soon.
“Still not talkin’.”
“Have you tried introducing something that is part of her routine? Sometimes, something familiar is what rouses patients in these conditions. Maybe bring in her pet or a favorite relative. Sometimes the smell of her favorite foods or a simple touch works wonders.”
Her only family has been here since day 1 and that hasn’t made a difference. My thoughts lean toward the village kids, but I’m not leaving her to get them and bring them here. Maybe I could reach out to Ina and have her tell the kids to write her get-well letters. I spoon her every night and whisper sweet things into her ear. That was part of our routine, but so were intimate things. When Kara mentions a simple touch, I have something more personal in mind. It worked in The House to bring her out of the inside of her head. Maybe it could work in this situation too. I feel like a damn pervert considering it, but I’m desperate to get my Tori back.
“Thanks, Kara. You have given me some ideas.” She winks at me and walks out, just as Tori’s family walks in.
“What ideas? Do you have news on Tori’s condition?
There is no way I’m telling her family what I’m going to try tonight while everyone is gone. They may have me escorted right off the property, and I’ll get arrested because I refuse to leave her. “They just said to introduce something familiar, so I’m going to see if the kids from Costa Rica can send a get well message.” That sounds believable, right?
We spend another afternoon and evening laughing and trading childhood stories. Ren tells us of Tori’s disastrous first date. No wonder she was still a virgin. Apparently, the poor boy dropped a bowling ball on his foot shattering two toes, and she was stuck in the emergency room with him for two hours listening to him whine until Serenity could pick her up. Any date she tried to go on after that just followed suit with clumsy boys who sounded like they couldn’t handle their own parts let alone any girl parts.
I finally get an insight into some of Tori’s fears when Serenity talks about Tori’s near drowning experience in a public pool. A much larger boy landed on her knocking her out, and she came to with a lifeguard giving her mouth-to-mouth. She was only twelve and quit swimming altogether after that. This explains her fear of water.
Serenity tells us of their obsession with scary movies like Freddy Kruger and Friday the 13th, but when she and Serenity watched the Airplane movie, Tori decided the movie was too realistic, and she was never going to fly. Having her thrown about the cabin due to turbulence on our way to Costa Rica didn’t help to calm her fear of flying.
I keep watching Tori’s face for any sign that she can hear us, but she doesn’t react at all.
Everyone leaves by 8:00 pm and the nurse comes in to do a vitals check, then leaves us alone for the night. I jump through the shower and dress in cotton sleep pants, no shirt. I slide into bed and carefully roll Tori to her left side so I can slide up tight behind her. The anticipation of seeing her open her eyes has me so worked up I can’t control my thoughts. I tuck my face into the crook of her neck and just breathe her in. I lightly press my lips to her neck and work my way up to her ear. “Tori........I love you. I need you to come back to me. I n
eed you to see me.”
I use my right hand to knead the muscles in her back. Starting just above her ass and working my way to her shoulders. I work my way up and down several times and end my exploration on her ass. “Love, if you don’t wake up, I’m going to paddle this ass for keeping me worried.” I rub my hand in circles and squeeze both cheeks. As I glide my hands up her back again, I feel a slight tremor in the muscles there. Shit! Is that involuntary movement, or are my touches getting through to her? I reach around to cup her breast, and I hear a slight moan come from deep in her chest. Holy Shit! I jerk my hand back, scoot over and roll her to her back. Her breathing is accelerated along with her pulse. “Love, can you hear me, can you feel me?” I take my fingers and lightly trace them down the center of her chest, past her belly button and stop right at her panty line. I slide my index finger under the waistband and run it back and forth from hip to hip. Each time I get to her hip, her body jerks a little as if I have reached a sensitive spot. I watch her face intently and see her left eye flutter a little. “Come on, Love; I know you want to see me.
“Jax.”
Her voice is so quiet; I barely hear her. I’m not even sure she said it. Maybe I’m hallucinating. Her lips have a slight space between them, and I hear little puffs of air coming through. Her lips are also a little dry, so I grab my chap stick and smother my own lips then press them softly to hers. I move my lips a little coating hers and feel her push back slightly. Pulling away I yell for help.
“NURSE......NURSE!
Kara rushes in with a panic look on her face just as I jump out of the bed.
“What’s wrong?”
She glances at the monitors and then at me.
“Nothings wrong, but I think she’s waking up. I think she whispered my name and she kissed me back.”
Her eyebrows go up, and I start thinking that maybe her touching comment and my idea of touching were not on the same page. Then she smiles at me.