by Goda, Julia
At the word “whore” being directed at me, I struggled to get free of Cole’s hold, but he only tightened his arms around me and pulled me back a few feet. Then he kissed the top of my head and murmured, “Calm, baby. She’s just looking for a reason to get you in trouble. She won’t hesitate to have you arrested if you so much as touch her. Don’t let her get to you. Think about what I said in the car.” His calm and soothing tone did wonders in helping me breathe through my fury. When I opened my eyes again, I saw that Cole’s father was standing now, though he hadn’t moved closer to his wife, which was surprising since I had almost attacked her. George was also still standing, but he had moved closer to me. Almost protectively. Courtney and her mother were missing from the room. I didn’t give a rat’s ass where they had disappeared to, I was just glad that there was now only one hateful woman to deal with.
“Richard, I think it’s time you control your wife before something happens.” Richard, Cole’s dad, was standing a few feet away from the table, a little off to the side, as he took in the scene. His head started to shake when his eyes landed on his wife. “Jesus Christ, Claire. I knew you always had it out for that woman and her daughter, but don’t you think this is a little ridiculous?”
“Ridiculous? Did you just call me ridiculous?” Cole’s mother hissed at her husband at the same time Cole asked him, “So you didn’t know?”
Cole’s father looked at his son. “Yes, I knew. Everyone in our social circle knows the connection between George and Walter and what preceded George’s and Ann’s marriage. Everyone knew about the woman Walter cheated on her with and the daughter who resulted from that affair. But I stayed out of it. You know me, I try to not be around your mother too much if I can help it.”
God, these people were unbelievable!
“Yeah, dad, how could I forget? Staying out and staying away has always been your solution to everything that had to do with mother and me,” Cole replied disdainfully. Cole’s father just stared at him and shrugged his shoulders, seemingly not giving a shit about what his son thought about him, not caring about anything really. I felt pity for him. He had lost out on getting to know his son, his amazing and wonderful son. I looked back at Cole’s mother, thinking the same. She had no idea who her son was, never tried to get to know him, never supported him and his dreams, never encouraged him to be a good person, never showed him any love. It clicked for me then. These people really didn’t matter. What they thought about me didn’t matter. They were pitiful and sad. Miserable. They were rich in money and possessions, but poor in love and meaning relationships. I pitied them, all of them: Cole’s parents, Courtney, her mother. The jury was still out on George, since he at least regretted his mistakes and was trying to redeem himself in some way.
I turned in Cole’s arms and rested my hands on both his cheeks, cupping his face. “You know how much I love you?” I whispered. This man, this caring and loving and protective and kind man, had grown up exposed to nothing but viciousness, bitterness, and indifference, and had come out the other end the man he is today. No, he had always been that man, even when he was a little boy. Yes, he could be brutally honest and should not be proud of how he had treated women before he claimed me as his, but he was not evil, or hateful, or bitter. And I loved him all the more now that I realized the enormity of that fact.
“I do. You know I love you just as much? Probably more?” he asked, his confused but happy eyes studying me. I nodded, then placed my lips on his and kissed him softly and lovingly. When I ended the kiss I could see George standing close, his eyes sad.
“I know this is a lot to ask, but once you’ve wrapped your mind around everything you learned today, I would like to meet with you, get to know you, tell you about your dad, show you some pictures maybe.”
I gave him a small smile. “I would love that.” He returned my smile, relieved if hesitant.
“Over my dead body! I didn’t let her have Walter, and I won’t let her have you!” we heard screeched from the other side of the room.
It was Ann.
I turned my head just in time to see her holding a revolver. In the next moment, a deafening noise exploded in the room, like a bang, and seconds later, I landed on the floor.
Then everything went black.
Chapter 22
Cole
“Lizzy? Lizzy!”
No! No, no, no, no, no!
She wasn’t moving.
Fuck! She isn’t moving!
This isn’t happening! No! No, Lizzy!
Her eyes were closed and her body was limp in my arms. Frantically, I started searching for blood, for a wound, my heart beating in my throat at a rapid pace, my breath coming out in labored pants, the panic over losing her threatening to overwhelm me as I ran my hands over her body, her neck, her chest, along her sides, over her abdomen, her legs, the back of her head. Finding nothing, I carefully turned her to look at her back to repeat my frantic search.
Nothing.
I couldn’t find anything.
No wound.
No blood.
No nothing.
She was okay.
She was just knocked out.
She was okay.
I lifted her limp upper body and pulled her into me, cradling her, tucking her face into my neck and mine in hers, breathing her in. Now that I knew she wasn’t shot, I could feel her strong pulse beating against my lips, her breath against the skin on my neck. I closed my eyes and kissed her smooth skin as relief washed over me.
She was okay. Lizzy was okay.
God! I can’t ever lose her.
I placed another kiss over her pulse point and softly ran my fingers over the back of her head.
There.
A bump was forming where she must have hit the floor.
I kissed her forehead, murmuring, “You’re okay. We’re okay. Everything will be fine. I love you so much, baby.” Then the commotion going on around me started to penetrate. There was shouting and screaming.
And groaning.
Someone was groaning in pain.
Someone close to me.
I turned my head to see George lying not three feet from me, blood seeping out from somewhere in his torso. Ever so carefully, I placed Lizzy’s body back onto the hardwood, onto her side, so as not to put any weight on that bump. I crawled over to George and grabbed his hand. His eyes opened as he groaned once more, then his breaths started coming in pants.
“Fuck, that hurts,” he said on another moan. “How is Lizzy? Is she okay? She didn’t get her, did she?” He rolled his eyes to the side, trying to find Lizzy. I squeezed his hand.
“She’s fine. Just bumped her head.” My eyes went to her as well. She still wasn’t moving. If she didn’t wake up soon, I would lose my mind again. I needed to see her gorgeous green eyes, needed proof that she was truly fine.
Another pained groan snapped my eyes back to George. He was in bad shape. There was a lot of blood. It needed to be stopped. I ripped open his shirt to find the wound. “Shit,” I swore under my breath. His whole torso was covered, but I could see the wound as it steadily seeped blood onto the floor.
He had been shot in the gut.
I took off the sweater I was wearing and whipped my t-shirt over my head, then scrunched it up and pressed it to George’s wound, trying to stop the flow. “Hold on, George. Don’t die on me.”
“It’s okay. Fine. As long as she’s safe. As long as I saved her.” He was in a lot of pain. His eyes were closed once again and his face was scrunched up in what could only be agony. His breathing was labored. But at least he was still conscious. I took that as a good omen.
“You did. And she is.” He nodded his head weakly in acknowledgement.
High-pitched shrieks made me look to the other side of the room, finding Ann on the floor, on her stomach, her hands behind her back. She was struggling, kicking, fighting whoever was restraining her.
Max.
Max was here. Thank God.
“Max!” I called a
cross the room. His head whipped around and his eyes landed on me, roaming first over my body then over George before they came back and stayed on me.
“You good?”
“Yeah, it’s not my blood. But George needs an ambulance.”
“It’s on its way. Our girl?” Despite the circumstances, my lips twitched at his reference to Lizzy as ‘our girl’.
“She’s fine.”
Relief washed over his face before he turned back to Ann, who was still screeching at the top her lungs, spouting some nonsense about filing assault charges. That woman was unbelievable. I scanned the room and saw my parents off to the side as they surveyed the scene in utter shock. My mother had her arms wrapped around her middle, her eyes wide with bewilderment and disbelief. Good. Maybe this shook her shit up. My father’s eyes were on me, shocked just like my mother’s, but I could also see remorse there. And sadness. I would deal with that later. Now, I needed his help.
“Dad, come over here and keep the pressure on George’s wound. I need to see to Lizzy.” He flinched as if woken from a daze, then strode over without hesitation, his face now alert and focused. He took over pressing the shirt against the wound and grabbed hold of George’s other hand.
“I’ve got him, son. Go and look after your girl.” He hadn’t referred to me as ‘son’ in years, but I had bigger things to worry about, so I ignored it for now. I hurried back to Lizzy and took her hand gently in mine, stroking my thumb over her knuckles. My other hand went to her cheek, cupping it softly and lovingly.
“Lizzy, baby? I need you to wake up now. Can you open your gorgeous green eyes for me? Please, I need to see them.”
Her eyelids fluttered and she moaned. I squeezed her hand. Then it happened.
She opened her eyes.
Lizzy
I felt a hand squeezing mine.
A voice calling to me.
Cole’s voice, asking me to open my eyes.
I tried, but it was hard. My head was pounding, and there was so much noise. Someone was screaming. Someone else was shouting. Then there was another someone talking in a low murmur. So many voices, I couldn’t make them all out.
What is going on?
The last thing I remembered was kissing Cole.
I tried again to open my eyes and this time, I was successful, even though it hurt like a bitch. The first things I saw were Cole’s eyes. They were filled with concern and relief as they held mine.
“Hey,” he whispered through a small smile.
“Hey,” I whispered back.
“How are you feeling?” His hand gave mine another squeeze.
“Groggy. Confused. My head…” I turned my head to better see him. “Ow,” I moaned.
“Easy, baby. You hit your head when we went down. You’ve got quite the goose egg.”
“What happened?”
“Do you think you can sit up?” Cole asked.
I nodded then flinched. He reached for me and held me by my shoulders, supporting me as I sat up, then sat next to me, holding me to his side. I could see the room now. It was filling with even more noises, more people. First with cops, then with a group of EMTs. And Max was here. What was he doing in Cole’s parents’ house? Then I saw George. He was lying on the floor close to me, with Cole’s dad talking to him quietly as he pressed something against his abdomen.
My confused and now panicked eyes found Cole’s when he started to explain. “It’s okay. He’ll be fine. Ann had a gun and was about to shoot you, but she hit George instead. He got shot in the gut, but he’s conscious and the EMTs are here now to help him. It seems like I owe your cousin. He saved your life when he threw himself in front of that bullet.”
“He threw himself in front of a bullet?” I asked in astonishment.
“Yeah. He saved you. She would have shot you in the back, could have possibly killed you and me. He saved both our lives.”
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt?” My eyes started roaming his body. He was shirtless. And there was blood all over his hands and arms. “Cole,” I whispered, another completely new wave of panic hitting me.
“Shh, I’m fine. It’s not my blood. I’m not hurt.” Relief washed over me as I leaned my head against his shoulder, forgetting once more that it was not a good idea to move said head.
“Ouch,” I groaned once again.
“Easy, sweetheart. We need to have you looked at.”
“I’m fine.”
“Lizzy.” Cole’s voice was stern as he lowered his head to give me a reproachful look. “You are letting the EMTs look at you. You bumped your head hard and were unconscious for several minutes. I want you checked out. No arguing.” Yes, his voice was stern, but it was that way because he was worried about me, worried that I was more hurt than I seemed. It was written all over his face. I lifted my hand and cupped his cheek. “Okay, honey. I’ll let them look at me,” I gave in instantly.
“Thank you.” He turned his face into my hand and kissed my palm, murmuring, “You scared the shit out of me. Don’t ever do that again.” I moved my hand to hold the back of his neck and pulled him toward me, placed my lips against his, and whispered, “I won’t.” Then he kissed me, oh so gently and carefully.
“Ma’am? I was told you needed looked at?”
We broke the kiss and looked up to see an EMT standing next to Max. Both of them were looking at us, smiling. Well, smirking in Max’s case, though I could see the worry etched in his face nonetheless.
“Yes. She bumped her head when she fell and passed out. There’s a big goose egg on the back of her head and she’s in pain,” Cole explained as he shifted me away from him slightly so the EMT had enough room to check me out.
“All right, then. Let’s take a look. My name is John, by the way.”
“Hi, John. I’m Lizzy. This is Cole and the big, burly guy standing next to you is Max.”
“Nice to meet you, Lizzy,” John murmured through a smile as he prodded my head gently until he found the bump. Yeah, it hurt. My head was throbbing, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as after that punch in the nose by Jesse’s and Chloe’s father a few weeks ago. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Cole shaking his head.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing, baby.”
I rolled my eyes at him, making him and the two other men surrounding me chuckle.
“All right, roll those pretty eyes back down so I can look at them.” Cole’s body tensed next to mine.
“Less flirting, more working. She’s taken,” Cole told John. Now it was my turn to shake my head, which uh…was a bad idea.
John’s smile faded when he saw me flinch. “That hurt?”
“Yeah. I need to remember to not move my head so much. It’s not that bad, though. It’s gone already.”
“Any blurriness? Dizziness? Feeling nauseous?”
“No. None.”
“Good. As your friend here said—”
“Fiancée,” Cole interrupted him. I shoved my elbow into his side and he tightened his hold on me.
John started over. “As your fiancée said, you have a nasty goose egg on your head. But your eyes look fine and you’re not dizzy or feeling nauseous, so I’d say you’re probably okay. But just in case, I would like to take you in for some x-rays.”
“Thank you, John. I don’t think that will be nece—Hey!” One minute I was sitting on the floor, the next I was up in Cole’s arms and he was striding toward the front door. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m taking you to the hospital and you won’t say a single thing about it. Now, do you want to ride in the ambulance or my car?” There were a lot of things I would have said to him under normal circumstances for hauling me around the room and making decisions for me, but I bit my tongue. Cole wasn’t acting out of his usual bossiness. He was genuinely concerned, and I needed to keep my pigheadedness in check. This time at least. He needed this, needed me checked out thoroughly for his own peace of mind. So I would give it to him.
I sighed in de
feat. “Fine. Let’s take your car, though. I don’t want to have to come back here.”
“Fair enough,” he said and walked us to his car, opened the passenger door while still carrying me, then deposited me gently in the passenger seat.
Low voices woke me. My left cheek was resting on Cole’s thigh while I was curled up in a chair in the hospital waiting room.
After the doctors had re-examined me and the x-rays and CT scan—yes, I had agreed to undergo one for Cole’s sake even though I knew I was fine—had been performed, and luckily showed that nothing was fractured or swollen or at all concerning inside my head, I had refused to go back to the hotel to rest. I wanted to wait and hear about George’s surgery. That man, no matter how deeply he had been involved in the deceit that had controlled my and my mother’s life for so long, had saved my life. I could be dead if it weren’t for him. So I had insisted on waiting, had marched right to the waiting room and planted my butt in a chair. Cole argued, telling me I needed my rest and promising me we would come back first thing in the morning to check on George. I had dug my heels in. Seeing that there was no way he would win that argument, he had begrudgingly given in under the condition that I would try to get some sleep here. Which at first didn’t happen since the police had come to the hospital to get our statements. So we did that. It took longer than you might think, since we had to explain the relations in our oh so happy little family, which was difficult to do since I had a hard time figuring that part out for myself, let alone come to terms with it.
I have to admit that after we were done and the cops had left, I had been more than a little tired. I didn’t even have enough energy left to give Cole the evil eye when he got me a pillow and a blanket and ordered me to lie down. I forewent the pillow, though, and used his thigh instead. It didn’t even take me two minutes to fall asleep when his fingers started running soothing circles on my shoulder and upper arm.
Which brought us to now.
I opened my eyes to see Cole’s father sitting in the chair across from us. He was alone. Cole’s mother wasn’t there. They weren’t really talking. Richard was wringing his hands as it seemed like he tried to find the right words. He wasn’t very successful in that endeavour.