How About No

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  The girl didn’t wait for a reply. I didn’t give her the time of day.

  My mind was now completely on Landry.

  “You’re okay here?” I asked Castiel.

  I trusted the man with my life.

  Castiel nodded once. “Yes. I’ll keep you updated.”

  With that, I took him at his word and walked quickly to the elevator, not sparing those two obviously stupid women even a backward glance.

  I didn’t turn around until I was in the elevator and all of the men traipsed on with me.

  “Your wife,” Rome said softly. “She’s a tough cookie. She’ll be just fine.”

  Unfortunately, his words couldn’t be further from the truth.

  Chapter 19

  Whatever sprinkles your donut.

  -Coffee Cup

  Wade

  “The bullet entered here,” the doctor said, going over an x-ray that was taken sometime yesterday when she’d been brought in. “When we did surgery, we found that the liver lost blood supply for quite a while. Unfortunately, parts of the liver were already dead, and we had to do a resection. We’re also not sure if what we were able to save will, in fact, survive. The first forty-eight hours is going to be the deciding factor. If she makes it through then, she’ll likely have a very good chance of making it. Though, I think we should still get her on the donor registry…just in case.”

  “What does that mean?” my mother asked softly.

  My mother and father had arrived in the middle of the night and had come straight here the moment they’d heard the news.

  My mom and dad were sitting on the small loveseat in the corner of the room while I stood beside Landry’s bedside, holding her hand.

  Landry had been asleep on and off since she’d woken from surgery a little over seven hours ago. This was actually the first time the doctor had been back since I’d spoken with him briefly after the surgery.

  “It means,” Dr. Tibil said quietly. “That we need to get her on the transplant list in case the part of the liver we were able to save fails.”

  Those words hung in the air.

  “Livers can be split in half, right? If one of us were matches, we could donate to her, correct?” my mother asked, sitting forward in her seat.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “But with all the damage that her body has gone through after losing her right kidney as well, her body is very weak. If she doesn’t have a perfect match, then it’s likely that her body will just reject it.”

  I closed my eyes and felt that there was only one thing that I could do.

  It was Landry who stopped me. “Don’t you dare.”

  I looked down at my wife, who was watching me with knowing eyes.

  “Don’t I dare what?” I asked, knowing she knew me better than I sometimes knew myself.

  “Ask her,” she whispered. “Don’t. Please don’t.”

  I smiled. “We’re going to get tested first. Then, we’ll explore other options if there’s not a match. But baby, we may not even need it. You may be just fine.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t want to ask her for anything.”

  “Now, I’ve put in a request to have more blood, AB negative, delivered to the hospital. Have you all been tested to make sure you’re not a match?” the doctor asked.

  “Yes. We did that one by one just a few hours ago. None of us are matches. Castiel was O negative and was able to donate two pints. I believe that’s what you got while you were in surgery.”

  The doctor nodded at my words. “Put the word out.” He looked at Landry. “She could use some more.”

  With that he left, leaving my heart in my throat.

  ***

  I felt no such compunction.

  Walking up the front walk to Landry’s parents’ home, I knew that this meeting wasn’t going to go well.

  Not after what I’d learned about her parents once Landry opened up to me when we’d found out that we were still married.

  I knocked sharply, unwilling to stop myself from taking this step despite the fact that I knew it would piss Landry off greatly.

  The big red doors didn’t even flinch at the pounding of my knuckles against the expensive wood.

  Lina was surprisingly the one to answer the door.

  Honestly, I’d been expecting a butler or something with how big the place was.

  “Wade!” Lina grinned. “How are you?”

  Her smile faltered as she took in the expression on my face.

  “Not good, Lina,” I said softly. “Landry was shot last night.”

  Lina’s mouth dropped open, and the open devastation on her face wasn’t altered or faked. It was real. There was no doubt in my mind about that.

  “What happened?” she whispered, her eyes filling with fear.

  I looked down at my hands, unwilling to be swayed to her side this time.

  “I know you may hate your sister,” I started. “But she’s given you a lot. So fucking much. She donated life to you six times.” I paused. “Now it might possibly be your turn.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about? And, of course I don’t hate her…she hates me. Despite that, I’d do anything for her.” She looked away. “She’s just never asked.”

  The bad thing was, this was what got me the first time. The pure sincerity in her voice let me know that she really felt what she’d been saying to be true.

  She sounded like she meant every word she said.

  And honestly, it was too good to be true.

  But while she was feeling charitable, I was going to grab the bull by the horns…or the sister by the hand. I was getting her the fuck out of there before she changed her mind.

  Chapter 20

  Don’t use a Zodiac sign to justify your behavior. Let’s face it, you’re just a douche.

  -Wade to a suspect

  Wade

  “I used to write her letters,” Lina hiccupped. “God, I used to pray that she’d come play with me. Something…anything. But she never came.”

  I turned my attention from Landry, who’d been asleep since we’d gotten there, and Lina.

  “From the stories that Landry has told me, she didn’t have a choice. Your mother wouldn’t let her anywhere near you.” He paused. “Landry always told me that you didn’t like her, not the other way around.”

  A sharp knock at the door had us all turning to see who was there.

  It was the doctor, and he had a happy, pleased smile on his face.

  “You were right. Perfect match,” Dr. Tibil said solemnly. “Unfortunately, you neglected to mention that you were recovering from cancer. I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to donate any of your liver. I’m sorry.” He paused. “Your blood, however? That we can take. As long as you feel up to it.”

  I looked over at Lina who looked completely devastated. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” he said, voice filled with sorrow. “But, as of right now, she’s doing very, very well. She’s done remarkably well, and with another pint of blood in her? She’ll start bouncing back far more quickly. Trust me.”

  Dr. Tibil clapped me on the back, a sharp crack to fill the room, causing me to flick my eyes over to Landry to see if that’d woken her.

  It hadn’t.

  She looked awful, and she was starting to get a yellowish sheen to her skin and around her mouth.

  The doctor said that was normal due to the buildup of bilirubin that her liver was having a harder time filtering out, but as soon as the body was able to catch up, that yellowish tint would disappear.

  In fact, over the past few hours as he’d been observing her, he’d been pleasantly surprised with Landry’s progress.

  I felt a weird sort of questioning in my chest.

  Surely, it wasn’t that easy.

  Surely, things were about to go badly.

  Landry and me? We just weren’t that fucking lucky.

  “All right, I’ll get
a nurse in here to put you on tap, so to speak.” He left the room without another word.

  Lina turned to me, but I didn’t take my eyes away from Landry, who was lying so fucking still.

  “She’s going to kill me for asking you,” I whispered. “She’s so fucking sure that you’ve been a part of making her life hell, Lina. Please tell me that I’m not involving you just for you to turn around and hurt her.”

  Lina was quiet for a few long seconds. “I want to know my sister. I’ve always wanted to know her. I follow her around, hoping to work up the courage to talk to her, and never quite seem to find it. It’s hard when my parents tell me how much she hates me.”

  I snorted. “Funny, but it seems like both your parents are doing that to each of you at the same time. Don’t you find it odd that y’all can’t seem to get along long enough to talk it out?”

  The one and only time I’d seen the two together in the same vicinity of one another, it hadn’t lasted long because they’d both immediately gone on the defensive.

  “God,” she whispered. “It’s no wonder she hates me. I ruined her childhood, and my parents always chose my side over hers.”

  Before I could tell her that her parents had, indeed, been part of the problem, said parents walked in the door.

  They didn’t stop to knock. Didn’t stop to greet us. They walked straight in, briefly swept their eyes over a too-still Landry, and focused on their other daughter. The favorite.

  “You will not do this,” Lina’s mother ordered. “I didn’t spend eighteen years of my life making sure that you were healthy to have you throw it away now.”

  Lina’s eyes narrowed on her mother, not correcting them in their obviously misguided assumptions that she was donating part of her liver to Landry. “You think donating half of my liver to my sister is throwing my life away?”

  Lina and Landry’s mother, Vienna, lifted her lip in a silent snarl. Moments later, she turned to her husband with a disgusting scowl on her face. “You fix this. Fix it now, or you’ll be sorry.”

  With that, she walked until she was standing just outside the room, leaving Lina sitting beside Landry’s bed, and me standing in between her chair and Landry’s. Lina and Landry’s father, Albert, standing by the door, seconds away from leaving the room as well.

  He looked sad…and tired.

  “Dad?” Lina whispered. “What’s the problem here? This is Landry. This is my sister. What the hell is going on?”

  If Lina hadn’t looked unaffected by the entire debacle, I might have been in a different state of mind and forced Albert from the room just to make sure that Albert didn’t have a chance to change anyone’s mind about helping Landry.

  But Lina was so determined to help I didn’t think anything would change her mind.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” Albert said, looking at the bed Landry was lying in with a look of defeat on his face. “God, I just can’t.” He took a deep breath and blew it out harshly before beginning to speak. “Landry was a mistake,” Albert whispered. “She’s your half-sister, not your real sister. And despite what we allowed y’all to think, Landry was conceived the all-natural way…only she wasn’t conceived with your mother. She was conceived by me and another woman—your mother’s sister.”

  Out of all the things I’d been expecting him to say, that hadn’t been it.

  “Senna, your mother’s sister, died a couple years after Landry was born. We didn’t know about it until Landry arrived with a note from Senna. Senna had died from cancer, and her nanny had delivered her to our front porch. About two days before that, you were so goddamn sick…it was a fluke that y’all were matches. Kismet. That’s the only reason that your mother agreed for her to stay.”

  And then it all made a sick sort of sense.

  Why Landry was hated so much by her mother. Why Landry had been treated like a stepchild. Why Landry had been kept away from her sister.

  Why, ultimately, she was treated like she didn’t belong.

  “Get out,” I said to them both. “Get out, and don’t come back.”

  “You can’t kick me out of my own daughter’s hospital room,” Albert stiffened.

  I laughed. “Is she your daughter? Because honestly, to me, it seems like you treated her more as a person that held the key to keeping your wife happy. As long as Landry was useful to have around, she was allowed to stay. The moment she became not useful to you, she was tossed aside, treated as if she wasn’t worth the effort.” I snarled. “Well let me tell you something, mother fucker. Landry’s worth it. You’ve missed out on everything, and you have nobody to blame for it but yourself.”

  Albert took a step back at the vehemence in my voice.

  Vienna snorted from the hallway through the partially open door and called out. “We’ll go. Come, Lina.”

  Lina shook her head. “Not this time, Mom.” She paused. “What did you do with my letters that I wrote to Landry?”

  Vienna scowled as she poked her head back in the hospital room. “Put them somewhere that wouldn’t disrupt the system. Now, you either come with me, or everything changes for you. You can find someone else to pay for your medical bills, and someone else to make sure that you’re always safe. If you let that girl in your life, you are no longer my blood.”

  I felt like snarling. I was seconds away from beating the shit out of an older woman.

  What kind of cop and man did that?

  One who was supremely pissed off and wanted the trash out of his wife’s hospital room.

  “She can stay with us,” Castiel said, surprising me. “I’ll take care of her.”

  Lina looked over at Castiel like he was a leper. “No way am I staying with you, death angel. Not after what you accused me of a week ago.”

  I frowned, wondering what it was that they were speaking of.

  “Alright,” a nurse came in. “You and you, leave. You, sit down so I can start. You, why are you even here?” that was directed at Castiel, who’d arrived somewhere in between the explanation from Albert. “You, go to the corner of the room and stop being such a big space taker.”

  I did as I was told, and watched quietly as Lina donated a pint of blood for her sister.

  Chapter 21

  A large group of people is called a ‘no thanks.’

  -Coffee Cup

  Landry

  “Funny, I don’t remember consenting to that!” I snarled.

  It was a pitiful snarl, of course, but it was a snarl nonetheless.

  “Funny, I don’t remember giving you a choice,” Lina retorted. “Now, shut up and enjoy my blood. I’m trying to sleep.”

  Unfortunately for Lina and for me, after she’d donated the pint of blood, she’d gotten woozy and hadn’t been able to get up from the couch where she’d planted herself afterward. Every time she tried to get up, she became dizzy and so nauseous that she threw up. At least, that was what Castiel and Wade had informed me.

  “Why are you so calm about this?” I finally growled. “You ruined my childhood, and you were going to casually give me half your liver like you weren’t the worst sister ever?”

  “Me?” Lina asked. “I wasn’t the worst sister ever! You were! Would it have hurt you to come visit me every once in a while?”

  I frowned at that. “What do you mean? You told me not to visit you. I especially remember that when we were older. In fact, the last time you told me to leave and never come back was before you graduated from high school. You screamed at me. Sister or not, you can’t come back from that.”

  Lina got this funny look on her face. “I told you not to come back because you were giving me a pity visit. The only reason you came in there was because my mother asked you to bring me something. Would it have killed you to walk in there and say ‘hi’ when you weren’t asked to?”

  I frowned. “Mom told me that you didn’t want me there.”

  Lina laughed, and the laughter contained zero trace of humor. In fact, she sounded quit
e pissed.

  “My mother is a dick wad,” Lina said.

  “Why do you keep referring to her as your mother and not ‘our’ mother?” I finally asked. “You’ve decided to no longer allow me claim to her?”

  I mean, technically, I didn’t really want all that much to do with her anyway, but still, she was all I had.

  Not that it was a good thing to have most of the time. But it seemed to piss our mother off when I spoke of her as being related to me, so I was going to keep that and own it—just to piss her off more.

  “Landry,” Wade said softly, bringing my gaze to his face. “I think it’s time we had a talk. Since you’re well enough to hold a twenty-five-minute never-ending argument, I think it’s time you hear what we have to say.”

  I frowned.

  Wade had been asking me if I was ‘alert’ all day long. If I could understand where I was, and what had happened.

  All of those answers had apparently not been enough for him, which I hadn’t really cared about since I’d been so tired and weak. However, after getting some apple juice and some beef broth in me, I felt like a new woman.

  A new woman that had her sister in her hospital room with her that also so happened to have apparently given me blood that had caused her to pass out and not move for hours.

  I didn’t want her blood in me! I’d take anybody’s blood but hers!

  The look on Wade’s face made me pause in concern.

  He was looking at me like I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  “Anyway, I’ve learned some interesting things over the past forty-nine and a half hours,” he started, causing Lina to snort in amusement.

  I glowered at her before returning my gaze back to Wade’s face.

  “And?” I said impatiently.

  My side was starting to hurt with all this talking—as the nurse had said it would—but I didn’t stop myself. Only continued to stare at the man sitting in the chair beside my bed.

  “And when I went to ask Lina if she’d be willing to donate half her liver—” I couldn’t let that go without a derisive snort. “She came straight here. Unfortunately, the doctor denied her because of her cancer background. Her mother, however, learned that she was here as well…” I groaned at his use of ‘her mother’ as Lina had been saying over the last hour. “And she came up here and confronted us.”