It was a punch in my gut. I wanted the conniving bitch out of his room. Nurse Lisa must have either sensed my anger, or else she didn’t like the rules broken.
“Doctors orders. You have to leave now, miss,” she commanded sternly. Texanne shrugged her large Louis Vuitton messenger bag over her shoulder and pushed between us to exit Liam’s space, jerking the curtain as she left.
Nurse Lisa turned, placing her hand on my arm. “I’ll leave you with him. If you need anything, just call me,” she said, smiling to assure me she had my back.
“Thank you.,” I said, relieved as I turned back to Liam.
His eyes were closed once more. I stood watching him, taking in all the tubes still attached to his body – chest tube, oxygen, catheter, heart monitors and IV’s. It seemed he needed a road-map. The man who held my heart, who held my whole world, was at that moment in such a fragile state, it seemed it would take but one violent motion to break him.
“Baby.” His voice was but a whisper. I moved closer to the bed, sinking down into the chair beside his head. He didn’t open his eyes, but sensing me beside him, he reached his hand out and opened his palm, inviting me to place my hand in his. At my touch, he closed his fingers around mine and held firmly. I looked back up into his eyes to find them open and gazing at me.
“You look tired. You need to get some rest,” he rasped out.
“I’ve been resting in the waiting room. What I need is to be here with you,” I replied, choking back tears that formed the minute I heard him speaking to me. “It seems I’ve waited years to hear your voice again. I’m relieved you’re finally awake.”
“I’m okay,” he managed, his voice shaky. “The Doc was in here with Mom and Dad. Said I had surgery, but I’m almost out of the woods, now.” He winced, trying to cough as he talked.
“Shh. No talking, just now. You need to rest. I can tell you’re fighting the meds to stay awake. Just sleep,” I urged, fighting my need to cry and trying to keep my voice as strong and soothing as possible.
“Sunni okay?” Liam asked, his eyelids closing as he started to lose his battle to stay awake.
“She’s going to be fine. She was only hit in the shoulder, and they released her yesterday.”
“Mmm,” was his only reply, sleep taking over. I sat by his bed, watching his heartrate even out as he slept peacefully. I caught myself watching the clock again, willing the hands of the clock to move around, wishing for two or three days to pass so I would have the knowledge he was well on his way to recovery. After a while, I placed my head on the edge of the bed beside his pillow.
The next thing I knew, Ethan was shaking me awake.“Kel, you’re gonna have one hell of a crick in your neck if you keep sleeping in a chair.”
I sat up and rolled my neck. A hand at my shoulder made me turn the other way to catch Tana’s smile.
“Come on, Cat. I’m taking you home for a while,” she urged, pulling me from the chair.
“I can’t go, I need to talk to Davis about security,” I argued, remembering Texanne’s unauthorized visit.
“The nurse already informed Dad. He’s talked to Scott, and one of our people will be stationed at the ICU doors until they move him to a regular room. No more Texanne or anyone else but family, I promise,” Ethan said sternly, glancing over at his brother.
“I don’t want to leave him.”
Tana pulled me to her side and wrapped her arms around me. “I know you don’t. But you need to go home and shower, see the baby, and eat a good meal. Then you can come back here refreshed in the morning. Don’t make us get muscle involved,” she scolded, nodding her head over to Sean, who stood outside the curtain.
My choices taken from me, I gave in and let Sean and Tana lead me from the hospital. When we pulled into our driveway, I realized I didn’t even know whose car we were in. I didn’t care.
I showered, cuddled with Masen, fed him his supper, and then picked at my food while Tana and Sean moved around me. Angela and Miranda were taking turns staying at the house with Masen and several security guards permanently assigned to the house.
“Here, Cat. I put your phone on the charger when we got here, and it’s fully charged,” Tana said softly as she sat down on the bed beside me. “What else do you need?”
I closed my eyes, the tears flooding at once. “Just word Liam is going to be okay and he’s out of ICU. I feel helpless…out of control,” I choked out, admitting my weaknesses to her.
“Oh, sweetie. He’s going to be okay, I know it. By the time you get back in the morning, everything will be one-hundred percent better than it is now. He’s going to continue to get stronger. You will feel much better after a good-night’s sleep,” she assured me, running her fingers through my hair and moving it across my forehead.
“I’m losing him,” I whispered, thinking for the hundredth time about Texanne’s being there for him when he woke up and not me. “He took up for her, when the nurse tried to run her out,” I clarified, as her eyes widened in understanding.
“You’re not losing him. He was being nice, and he’s highly medicated. Don’t let her get to you,” she added, glancing up at Sean as he came into the room.
“I brought you something mild, to help you sleep,” he offered, handing me two pills and a glass of water. “Chelsea said they would be fine to take with the baby.”
I took the pills from him, threw them back with a swallow of water, and then handed the glass back to him.
He smiled the kindest smile at me. “Got to take care of you, now. Liam will kick my ass if you let yourself get run down while you’re trying to take care of him.”
“Thanks, Sean. You’re a good friend,” I murmured, snuggling down under the covers. Sensing he remained beside the bed, I opened my eyes.
“I haven’t told you how much I appreciate all you did for us the night of the shooting,” I said.
“Yeah, you have,” he murmured, reaching to caress my cheek.
“Not enough. You were amazing, staying calm, taking control, working on him till the ambulance got here. The doctor said getting him to the hospital and into surgery within forty minutes of the shooting was critical. He also told me you did absolutely the right thing treating his wound. And you kept me calm and together.”
He grinned at me, his smile every bit as devastating as Liam’s. “It’s my job. Quarterbacks have to be cool under pressure,” he quipped, his dimple appearing with his cocky grin.
“It was more than that and you know it. I want you to know how much I appreciate it.”
Tana crawled over me and settled behind me, spooning my back.
“I’m gonna make sure she rests,” she told Sean.
Fatigue finally winning, I was already drifting off as Sean leaned over to kiss both of us on our foreheads.
* * *
I gave in to Liam’s family, and agreed to start going home every night to rest instead of staying at the hospital. Ethan, Davis, or Ellen alternated staying during the night so I would rest. On the morning of the third day after they’d moved him to a regular room, a loud “ping” from my cell phone brought my eyes open. Alert at once, I realized I’d slept a long time as my eyes adjusted to the light in the bedroom. It had to be at least eight in the morning for that much light to shine through our bedroom windows. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I sat upright, grabbed my cell from the nightstand, and swiped the screen to view the message.
It was my unknown caller.
You’ve been busy, but we expect progress.
We are watching and impatient. This is the
final warning. You’d better hope no videos
surface during any news reports while the
good Senator is on the mend…
I closed my eyes as Tana entered the room.
“Everything okay? Is that news from the hospital?” she asked, moving toward the bed with a tray laden with eggs, toast and orange juice.
“No, everything’s fine. I haven’t heard from the hospital.”
&nb
sp; I sounded like a robot.
“Sean is on the phone now, talking with Davis. Liam had a good night. So eat up, and then let’s get you dressed.”
I dressed methodically, having no conscience thought as to how I dressed or what I put on. I was running scenarios through my mind on how and when I would leave Liam. Could I tell him the truth…that we had to make it appear I was leaving him? Could I show him the video now he was on the mend? Did I do this by the book, and give in to the blackmailer’s demands…hoping Liam would forgive me when it was all over?
Or was my marriage and happy life over?
I couldn’t accept the finality of that outcome. Somehow, I had to leave to protect everyone. No video could be leaked, no matter what his family believed. I had to leave him.
The problem was, I had to figure out how do to that, and when.
Once I made it back to the hospital, I stood silently outside his room. I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes, remembering my promise to God. Liam looked good. No, Liam looked amazing. Reclined against the pillows, the sheet drawn up around his hips – except for the bandage, you’d never know anything was wrong with him. For the first time since the shooting, just the sight of his naked chest had my pulse quickening. He was still the sexiest man alive.
I wanted him badly, and I could hardly breathe. It hurt my heart and caused a real, physical ache to begin in my chest thinking about leaving him.
And I was sooo done with the way our life was. I had true happiness within my grasp, but hadn’t been able to enjoy it because of the threats hanging over us.
The ping of my cell phone brought me out of my musings. I walked back toward the entrance, and paused in the hallway, swiping the screen to look at the display. The e-mail message from “unknown” popped up.
I’ve attached a video. You’d better watch it.
With your sex tape and then this going
viral, his career will be over. Sad.
What now? Against my better judgement, I sank down on a bench outside the hospital as I tapped the paperclip icon. My gut clenched in a familiar way as the video appeared.
It was Texanne, tucked into Liam on the side of his hospital bed.
“Baby, I’m relieved you’re better. I need you so much,” she whined, leaning closer to him.
“You okay?” he murmured, reaching his hand up to touch her, then dropping it.
“No, Baby. I won’t be, until you are out of here and can hold me again. I love you so much.”
“Can hold you now, babe,” he murmured, reaching back up behind her neck and pulling her down to him.
My heart hurt. A physical pain I’d never felt tugged in my chest as I watched Texanne’s mouth close over Liam’s lips. As I watched Liam kiss her back, his eyes closed, his moan audible on the video, I closed my own eyes, clutching the phone so tightly in my hand I thought it would shatter under the pressure.
I saw it with my own eyes. I heard him ask her if she was okay. I saw him pull her down to kiss her. I heard the painful sound of his moan as she kissed him. I heard her tell him she loved him.
I lost my breath, and it took me to my knees.
It was the hardest I’d ever cried silently. The tears fell, my vision blurred by them. It was a miracle I could navigate the Austin traffic to find my way home. Once there, I stumbled out of my SUV and into the foyer of the house.
Not once did I notice Scott following me silently out of the hospital, watching over me as I sat and listened to the video. I never caught sight of him trailing me in the Escalade or sensed him hovering as I went in the house. I wasn’t aware of his presence until I turned, my empty suitcase on our bed in the master bedroom.
“Kelly, what can I help you do?” Scott asked, his voice soft.
Never once had I heard such concern from him. I’d grown used to him hovering over me while Liam was in the hospital, but this was different. It was as if all his walls were down, and he was feeling real emotions. I stopped, and fully engaged in studying his demeanor. His voice had broken through the numbness I’d let envelope my shattered heart.
“I have to leave,” I whispered.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he repeated, holding his hand out to me. “He’s my friend, has been for a long time. But I know what’s going on. Come here,” he urged.
The need to be enveloped by warmth, any warmth, was overwhelming. I rushed to him, and he folded his massive arms around me and held me tightly as I collapsed against him.
After a bit, I shook out of my mental collapse, noting Scott now sat on the bed, holding me like a child as I sat in his lap, curled against his chest.
I pushed away to sit upright. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, running my hands through the hair at my temples.
“No problem. What do you want me to do?” he asked as I unfolded myself out of his lap and to a standing position.
“Take my other suitcase,” I said, nodding to the other piece of designer luggage Liam had bought me for our honeymoon, “and empty Masen’s dresser drawers in it?”
“Sure. Where are we going?” he asked, as if it were an everyday question.
“I’m going to my grandparent’s farm in Fredericksburg. But you don’t need to come.”
“Going wherever you are. When you tell Liam you’re leaving, he’ll want you to have protection. You’re alone, the cartel will target you to get to Liam. Need protection more than ever. If he doesn’t want me for the job, do it anyway,” he said, his voice final and not to be argued with.
“Okay,” I whispered, not having the strength to argue now. I needed help getting Masen’s stuff to the farm. Once we settled, I could argue about it later.
I had to will myself to go through the motions to pack. I was zoned-out and I didn’t hear Miranda speaking to me.
“Kelly! What’s going on? Are you leaving?”
I moved out of the closet, having already packed most of my casual clothes. I would have no use for anything dressy at the farm. None of it fit anymore, anyway. I’d packed all my maternity things, and all my comfy sweats, sleep shirts, pajamas and underwear. I moved to the master bath with my empty overnight bag.
“Kelly! What’s wrong with you?” Miranda asked again, grasping my arm. My eyes moved from her hand up to her for the first time.
“I’m leaving,” I whispered.
“On a trip?”
“No. I’m moving to the farm,” I replied, pulling away to finish packing.
“You’re leaving Mr. Covington?”
“I’m almost ready. Would you see if Scott has Masen’s things ready?”
“Sure,” she answered hesitantly, moving toward the door. Pausing to watch me zip my suitcases, she then turned and left the room.
I sat down on the bed, looking around the room for the first time. There were a few of my things left from the apartment that were mine before I’d married Liam, but not many. I could fit everything I’d come into this marriage with in one large moving box. There was nothing of mine for me to take. Everything was Liam’s.
Then I moved my hand over my tummy. Marley rolling and tumbling as if she protested my leaving.
“I’m sorry, Baby girl, but I have to. We’ll sort this all out,” I breathed, tearing at the thought Masen wouldn’t have any more nights with Liam dressing him in his footed jammies. There would be no more early breakfasts, just Masen and Liam. At least, I wouldn’t be here to know if there were.
I’d never try to take Masen completely away from Liam. Liam was his father now, and I wouldn’t be that sort of mother. Both my children would spend as much time as possible with their father, no matter how I felt about him. I knew he’d love them and be a wonderful father. I couldn’t be here to see it firsthand.
“Ready?” Scott called to me from the doorway. Masen’s port-a-crib and suitcase were sitting in the hallway behind him. I nodded, rising to lift my suitcase.
“Just go to the car. I’ll load all of this,” he said. “Have you called him?”
“N
o. I want to wait until I’m in Fredericksburg.”
Scott’s jaw tensed and he nodded once—a single chin lift I’d seen him do a million times with Liam. A sign he understood and agreed.
He knew it was what I needed, and he gave it to me.
Chapter Twenty-Five
L iam picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Hellcat. Thought you were coming back to the hospital this afternoon.”
I took a deep breath. Just the sound of his voice had my insides crumbling. I imagined him saying the words to Texanne instead, and my resolve came back.
“I changed my plans.”
“Oh? I’m feeling a lot better, Baby, and doc says I might get out of here day after tomorrow if I stay infection free. He says a wound care nurse will come by the house for a few weeks or so, if I take it easy and stay at home and rest.”
“That’s great news. I’m glad,” I whispered, at a loss at how to begin to tell him.
“What’s wrong, Kel? Where are you?” Liam asked intuitively.
“I needed to be alone…I need to be alone.”
“What’s going on? You sound different. You’ve been different now since I moved to a private room.”
I’d been different? He didn’t want to go there. Not with the video of Texanne fresh in my memory. I had to calm down and do this right. I’d been looking for a reason to leave him and stop the blackmailer from releasing the sex tape This was my chance. Leaving him was going to be devastating—in a way that crushed my soul.
“You’re on the mend, and you’re going to be one hundred percent in no time. You don’t need me as much on your campaign now. I need some down time alone…so I’m going away.”
There was total silence on the other end of the line. After some time, Liam sighed.
“You can’t go anywhere alone. And I can’t go anywhere, at least until my wound is fully healed. I’ve been off the grid too long since the shooting. I need you to help me run things on the border bill and fundraising from home.”
Texas Girl Grit Page 23