by Adam (lit)
“Kara, no! Kara!” Adam’s shout startled her.
Wondering why he was yelling at her when she hadn’t moved from the spot, Lyn turned. There was time only to throw up her hands with instinctive protection of her face before the car hit her. Tires screeching, bone crushing pain, sounds of shattering glass, people shouting, and blackness engulfed her.
* * * *
Adam watched the rear view mirror as much as he searched for a parking space. The parking lot had been cleared recently, but snow continued to cover the pavement. It would still be slippery. Ahead of him, a car left, and he pulled into the spot. He was out of the car, locked it, and moving because he didn’t trust Kara. Not by a long shot would he trust her, even if it would be very nearly impossible for her to get away from him. She was just idiot enough to try.
When he was within twenty-five feet of her, a car moved in front of him. He swore at the driver without taking his eyes from Kara. It took only a split second for him to see what was happening, and the picture developed right before his horrified eyes. His heart stopped an instant before he shouted her name. She turned to look at him, her expression carefully blank. And saw the car.
Adam screamed her name as he sprinted past the stalled car and saw Kara pinned against the glass wall. The car drifted backward, and Kara’s body slid to the ground.
He skidded to a stop and for a moment, he was paralyzed, unable to move. He heard someone calling Kara, finally realized it was his voice. Stunned, he watched her slender body crumple. It took forever to reach her.
“Call 911,” he shouted to the man who had been smoking. He was on his knees beside her, calling her name. She didn’t answer. Her eyes were closed, and blood streamed down her face, matting her hair and the hood of her jacket.
“Yes, Sir.” The man was dialing before Adam finished speaking. A moment later, he said, “They’re on their way.” He knelt by Adam and handed him his coat. “You could put this under her head.”
Adam shook his head. “She’s bleeding and ....”
“Hell, man. I don’t care. Take it.”
“Thanks.” He lifted her head enough to slip the jacket beneath it. He couldn’t tell where the blood was coming from. There was so much of it. He ran his hands over her but couldn’t tell if bones were broken. How could they not be when she’d been hit by a three-thousand pound car?
“The driver of the car?” Adam didn’t look away from Kara but he wanted to know.
“A woman, Sir.” The man speaking was the security officer who had driven past them. “Heart attack or some kind of seizure. She’s passed out.”
He didn’t have time to worry about the other woman. “Kara. Honey.” He lowered his head to the hand he held between both of his. It was bloody.
“The medics are here, Sir. If you’ll let them see to her.”
Adam looked up at two men and a woman, bundled in insulated clothing, but they were definitely ER personnel. The two men pulled a gurney; the woman had on rubber gloves and was using something to wipe the blood from Kara’s face.
“Sir, if you’ll just move back.” She gave him a sympathetic look. “Is she your wife?”
“Sister-in-law.” Lover. Sweetheart. He stared at the pale face, the ridiculously curly lashes emphasizing the colorless features. He didn’t want her to hurt. He couldn’t lose her. Lose her? She wasn’t his to lose; she belonged to Aaron. The cold hard truth straightened his back and ground his teeth together. The cold hard truth was: He wanted Kara for his. The first thing he’d ever envied that belonged to his brother.
“Will she be all right?” He was afraid to ask, even knowing the woman couldn’t give him a good answer.
“We’ll do our best.” She turned to the two men. “Careful. I can’t tell how many bones are broken or which ones.”
Adam backed off to give them room to move Kara. He wasn’t about to leave her and trust them to be gentle with her.
“Careful.” He couldn’t keep from saying it.
“Yes, Sir. We’ll be careful.” One man looked at him. “You can follow us. It’s only about ten minutes to the Medical Center.”
Adam swiped his hand across his face. The temperature must be thirty and he was sweating. “I’ll follow you. I know where it is.” He watched them place Kara inside the ambulance and hurried to his car. He called Garth.
“There’s been an accident. Kara’s badly hurt.”
“What?” The exclamation from the other end echoed on the line.
Adam gave Garth a brief description of what had happened. “Meet me at the Taos Medical Center,” he said and disconnected.
* * * *
Garth found Adam pacing in the hallway outside the emergency waiting room.
“Where is she?”
Adam swung around and for a moment, wondered at that first question. It wasn’t like Garth to worry about anyone but Adam and Hana.
“She’s in surgery. They won’t, or can’t, tell me anything.”
“What about the woman who hit her?”
“She’s in surgery also. Someone mentioned blood clot, but I don’t know anything about her either. She was unconscious when they removed her from the car.” He ran both hands over his face. He was sweating.
Garth held out a white handkerchief to him, and Adam gave him a brief smile of thanks. He hadn’t thought of using a handkerchief. He wiped his face and his hands, smearing the white cloth. “Damn. I need to find a restroom and wash my hands. I hadn’t even noticed the blood.” He went to the nurse’s station and asked where the restrooms were. She gave him directions, he waved at Garth, and walked down the hallway and out of sight.
My boss is in a bad way, Garth thought. He’s crazy in love with the woman and hates himself for it. Adam hadn’t fallen for a woman in years, and to think, he’d been around this one only a few days. Besides the fact that she’s his brother’s wife. The situation boded ill for all, was his conclusion.
Adam came back, and they sat on the hard plastic seats. They waited and waited and waited. It was two and a half hours before a doctor found them. When he stopped in front of them, Adam and Garth rose quickly.
“Doctor?”
“Mr. Mabry.” He dropped the mask onto his chest. “Mrs. Mabry’s injuries are serious, painful and many.” He smiled. “Right now, she’s critical but stable. She has cracked ribs, a bruised lung, several painful lacerations where glass became imbedded in her, and a concussion.”
Adam found it hard to believe she was still alive with all those injuries. He cleared his throat. “She’ll recover?”
“We’ll do our best. She’ll be in recovery in about half an hour. You may see her for five minutes every two hours.” He glanced at Garth. “Only one of you at the time.”
“Where is the recovery room?”
“As soon as she’s moved to a room, a nurse will come and tell you.” He held out his hand to Adam, and Adam shook it. “I’m sorry she’s badly hurt, but it could have been worse.” He hesitated. “The lady who hit her died.”
“Oh, hell. I’m sorry.” Adam ran his hand through his hair and in spite of the situation, remembered Kara’s hands doing the same thing. In a hospital with death and disease and traumatic injuries all around him, he had a fully developed arousal. For his brother’s wife. How bizarre was that?
The doctor turned to leave.
“Has the lady’s family been notified?” Adam said.
“They’re on their way here.”
He couldn’t imagine his reaction if they had told him Kara was dead. He shivered and something inside him became settled and serene. She was alive, and she would be home soon. Maybe by then the detective searching for Aaron would have an answer. He’d almost given up on finding him and kept thinking Kara would break down and tell where he’d gone and why. He refused to think about when Aaron did come home, he would lose Kara. She wasn’t his to lose; he’d better remember that.
Was it possible she actually didn’t know where Aaron was? It wasn’t possible that she wasn�
��t Kara, of course. He had dismissed that idea from the beginning. All the identification she carried pointed to Kara, and the picture was enough like her. Not much difference except for the hair length. He imagined nurses could handle short hair a lot better than the shoulder length style Kara usually kept hers.
Garth and Adam took turns walking the floor. It was nearly four in the afternoon when a nurse came.
“Mr. Mabry?” A thin Hispanic woman stood in the doorway.
Adam was on his feet. “Yes.”
The woman, her name tag read “Maria,” smiled. “Mrs. Mabry is in recovery, but she isn’t conscious. You may see her for five minutes.” She glanced at Garth. “I’m sorry. Only one visitor every two hours.”
Garth smiled. “That’s all right, but I’ll be here.”
“Yes, of course.” Maria motioned Adam to follow her.
His heart stuttered, hesitated, and then pounded as he looked down at the figure on the bed. It didn’t look like Kara. Sinfully thick lashes covered the blue, blue eyes. No hair was visible beneath the turban-like bandage over her head. Scratches decorated her forehead and one cheek where glass had hit. Her lips were parted; her breath barely discernible. There were tubes everywhere: in her arms, her nose, running beneath the white sheet.
He didn’t dare touch her, but he couldn’t resist leaning to brush his lips over hers. They were parched and dry, but he remembered how soft they could be, how responsive they were to his kisses. He straightened and just watched her until the nurse came to the door to tell him time was up.
Garth was coming up the hallway. He’d been out for a very quick smoke.
“How is she?”
“Bad. You can’t look at her without hurting for her.”
“It’s still snowing. If you’re going home, you’d better go now.”
“I’m not going home. You go so you can take care of things should we lose power.”
“I can stay. Hana’s grandson will be there just in case.”
Adam shook his head. “No. Go on home, Garth. This is going to be a long night.”
* * * *
It was a helluva long night. At six, the next morning, Dr. Jakes came to the waiting room where Adam was dozing in one of the more comfortable chairs.
“Good morning, Mr. Mabry.”
He sat up and winced. His neck was stiff as were his legs. “Doctor. Any change?”
Dr. Jakes smiled. “Not since four o’clock when you saw her. The nurses tell me you stayed all night, although they wouldn’t have had to tell me. I can look at you and see that.”
“But can you tell any difference in Kara’s condition?”
“Sit down, Mr. Mabry.” The doctor motioned to the chair Adam had vacated and dropped into the one in front of him. He steepled his fingers beneath his chin and leveled a gaze at Adam from steel gray eyes. “In cases such as your wife’s, there could be complications, which I won’t go into at this time because it’s still an unknown. Her worst injury is the concussion. We don’t, as yet, know how bad it is, and we won’t be able to tell until she regains consciousness.” The doctor hesitated. “The bruised lung is of concern because of pneumonia. The cracked ribs are painful but with care, shouldn’t cause her any difficulty.”
Adam didn’t feel the need just then to correct the doctor’s assumption that Kara was his wife. Insurance papers he had filled out showed her as his sister-in-law and that Mabry Enterprises covered her insurance. That was as it should be.
“The bottom line, Doctor?” Adam tried to keep the impatience out of his voice.
“Is, at this time, that she’s in serious condition, but she’s young and strong and we feel she will recover completely.”
“How long will she be here should she respond favorably to treatment?”
Dr. Jakes smiled. “She’s only been here a few hours, Mr. Mabry. Try not to be impatient.”
“Sorry.”
“We’ll take good care of her, so trust us.” He stood. “You’d be better off to go home and get some sleep. Mrs. Mabry is going to sleep a lot in the next couple of days, and I’m sure she’d rather you took care of yourself while we take care of her.”
Adam wasn’t sure about that. Their last conversation didn’t indicate she gave a damn about his well-being. He wondered if he blamed her or if he was making excuses for himself.
He didn’t go home, and he didn’t sleep except for a cat nap in the uncomfortable chair. He did go to the cafeteria and get two cups of coffee. Garth called as he left the crowded dining area.
“How is she?”
“You want me to say ‘as well as can be expected?’ Adam had to smile at the quick question he got from Garth.
“Sorry, Boss. Anything new?”
“No. I’m waiting now for them to tell me I can see her. Lots of morning attention they won’t postpone just so I can look at her for five minutes.” He sipped the extra strong coffee, but it was hot and that was what he wanted: hot and strong. “Dr. Jakes talked to me earlier this morning and said the concussion worried them more than anything. Pneumonia is always a danger when a lung is bruised, but she seems to be all right in that regard.”
“I can come down there and stay till you come home and rest, change clothes.”
“Maybe after lunch, Garth. I did get a call from the detective. Nothing came of the tip he got on the northern California sighting. It was a cream colored sports car rather than light blue. And it was stolen.”
“Figures. Are you going to stick with Dover?”
“For a few more days. Maybe when Kara wakes up, she’ll feel like talking about Aaron.”
“Boss.” Garth hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Look. Have you thought any more about maybe we’re wrong, that this isn’t Kara?”
“Do you still have doubts?”
“Look, Boss. I watched her with the wine and the steaks. She really didn’t like them. And she tried to talk to Hana. Kara wouldn’t have given her a second look.”
“Kara is an experienced actress, according to Aaron. She can play any part.”
Garth was quiet a moment. “She denied pawning the rings or even having them.”
“Kara is manipulative and will swear to anything to suit her situation. The only thing I question is why she won’t tell us where Aaron is now. It’s her ticket to freedom, telling us where he told her he was going.”
“But if it’s Lyn, not Kara?”
“You’re wrong, Garth.” He thought of the last night in her arms. She’d given him everything he wanted. It had taken him longer than he thought it would to get her to give in and enjoy sex with him. She hadn’t been thinking of Aaron when they made love. He winced. When they had sex. No love was involved.
“I’ll call you if I need you to stay with her. Thanks, Garth.” What the hell is wrong with Garth? And me? He had his doubts, too, but he didn’t know what to do about them.
He threw out the cold coffee, disposed of the cup, and went back to the third floor where the Intensive Care Unit was located. In the restroom, he washed his face and hands, and wandered back into the waiting room. There were four other people there now, and he nodded to them as he took a seat near a window.
Still snowing. He was more accustomed to the heat of west Texas than the mountain snows. Snow-covered mountains were beautiful, but he loved the wide open spaces of Texas, and he was more than ready to get back to them.
But Kara. Garth surprised him by his insistence they could have the wrong woman. Could they? Restless, he got up and moved to the window, looked down at the few people moving outside the hospital. The parking lots were clear, so visitors didn’t have a problem finding spots. Of course, it’s mid-morning in mid-week. Perhaps most people were at work.
He rubbed his stubbly chin. He hadn’t actually been at work since they’d picked Kara up, what? A week ago? Ten days? He’d have to check a calendar to know for certain.
“Mr. Mabry?”
Adam turned and walked quickly to join the nurse at th
e doorway.
She smiled, but was there a touch of wariness in her eyes. “Mrs. Mabry opened her eyes for a few minutes. I’m not sure she’s awake, but you can talk to her.”
His heart speeded up. She was awake. “That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yes, it certainly is.” She stood aside for him to enter the room. “Ten minutes, Mr. Mabry.”
He didn’t hear her. He concentrated on the figure lying so still. She looked thinner somehow, a slim outline beneath the lightweight blanket. He bent over her.
“Kara?”
Long lashes fluttered, and then were still.
He picked up the hand that didn’t have a needle in it and caressed across her fingers. “Kara?”
The lashes lifted again but her eyes were only half open. “Hi.” Her whisper was so low he had to lean closer to hear.
“How do you feel?”
“A tractor ran over me.”
He almost laughed. “No, it was an SUV.”
Her eyes closed. “That explains it.”
The fingers resting in his hand moved, and he curled his around them. She squeezed ever so lightly. He waited, but she didn’t open her eyes or speak. Five minutes later, her eyes opened wide, and she stared up at him.
“Well, hello. Are you going to stay awake long enough to talk?”
“My head hurts. Really bad.”
“I’ll call the nurse.” He reached for the call button and a moment later, the same nurse came in.
“Yes, Mr. Mabry?”
“She said her head hurts. Can you give her something?”
Instead of answering, the nurse bent over Kara. “Mrs. Mabry, I’ll get the doctor. He’ll want to know you’re awake and he’ll decide what to give you for pain. I’ll be right back.”
Kara didn’t answer, and Adam thought she’d gone back to sleep.
“Where am I?”
Adam chuckled. “That should have been your first question.” He was so glad to hear her speak that he actually felt like laughing.
“I didn’t think of it.”
“You’re at Taos Medical Center.”
She frowned, and then groaned. “Taos?”