by Sable Hunter
The antiseptic smell was strong and the colors of the walls were a soothing blue, but Revel’s heart was hammering ninety-to-nothing as he entered the door that Kane was holding open.
“Willow, he’s here.”
Revel’s eyes bypassed the small pretty woman wearing a white coat with a stethoscope around her neck. All he could see was his beautiful Harper lying in the bed. “Oh, baby,” he whispered, seeing her bruised face, the cut on her lower lip. “How is she?”
“She has a concussion, she’s dehydrated and malnourished.” The doctor stepped near Revel. “We’re giving her IV fluids and appropriate medications. I’ll go over her chart with you…”
Revel didn’t let her finish. “Malnourished, how can that be?”
“We’re not sure.”
“Tell me she’s going to be okay. Will she wake up?”
Willow placed a hand on her arm. “I think so, yes. She spoke once, so she’s been in and out. Basically, her weakened condition made the beating she received much more serious.”
The wording she used almost brought Revel to his knees. A harsh chill passed through his body. What if she hadn’t been mugged? What if this was related to those damn clubs she went to? What if this was another episode like the one he’d had to hear about from McCoy, when that fucker Ajax had beaten her because he thought she was involved with Noah’s brother Isaac. A bitter taste filled his mouth. How could she let herself get into situations like this? He said nothing, asked nothing, he just stepped closer and covered her hand with his.
“She’s said your name a few times,” the doctor offered.
Revel looked up at Willow Saucier. She was indeed a striking woman. “Thanks for telling me. What can I do?”
Willow’s face softened. “I’m sure your being here will be better than any dose of medicine I can give her.” She patted Revel on his shoulder while her brother looked on. “Just be with her and if she wakes, press the button.”
“I will.” As Willow left, Kane stepped forward and handed Revel his card. “If she comes to, call me. I’d like to ask her some questions about who did this to her.” He motioned to her face. “I know what she was into…”
“Do you think that’s what this is?” Revel asked. “Do you think this happened at one of those clubs?”
“I have no way of knowing,” Kane admitted. “Only she can tell us that.” He held his hat in his hand. “Noah and Skye are coming to check on her tonight. I hope that won’t be a problem.”
“No, it won’t,” Revel said. “I’ll be glad to see them. And I’ll call you if anything happens.”
With that assurance the sheriff left, leaving Revel alone with Harper. Laying his head next to hers, Revel whispered, “I’m here, Bright Eyes. Come back to me. Wake up, I love you.”
* * *
Mistakes, she’d made so many mistakes. Her mind swam with regret. Her dreams were nightmares. She tossed her head, groaning. Usually a person could pinpoint a place and time that they wished the clock could be turned back to, a point where they could start over, prevent disaster from happening. But she couldn’t. Her whole life had been a catastrophe.
Except for that brief shining time with Revel—before he discovered the truth about her. Every time she closed her eyes she could still see the love-light shining in his.
She was walking…walking. A car horn blasted and she abruptly stopped. Her heart hammered, she’d almost stepped out into a busy street. The memory of how Revel’s face had changed when he realized she was different...that she needed things he couldn’t give her would always haunt her.
Harper walked along the busy street, her eye set on the fast food restaurant ahead. If she could just get a bite to eat, she’d feel better. Maybe she could sketch a few more pictures, another of Revel’s face, she had a whole pad of those.
From out of nowhere, a hand grabbed her arm and she screamed. Roughly, it was twisted behind her. “So, what do we have here?”
The voice was cold, the man’s words were slurred and his breath smelled like rotten eggs. Sulphur-breath? “I don’t have much money.”
“Who says I want money, bitch?”
Harper realized she was in trouble. Scared to death, she looked around. Yea, she craved pain when she was desperate, but not at the hands of someone who would have no compunction at either killing her or leaving her for dead. “Let me go!”
“I don’t think so.” He grabbed her by the hair and yanked backward, exposing her neck. Harper shivered, afraid he was going to slit her throat. Instead, he collared her with both hands and began to squeeze.
“What do you want?” she asked, panic tumbled over her spirit like an avalanche. “What can I give you?”
“I thought you didn’t have money,” the voice grated in her ear. “What can you give me? Drugs? What’s your life worth to you, princess?”
“I don’t have anything,” she cried.
“Oh yes, you do,” he sneered, turning her so for the first time she could see his face. He looked like a skeleton with skin. Sunken eyes, bad teeth.
With horror, Harper realized he meant sex. And as perverted and kinky as she was purported to be by the ones who loved her best, she didn’t want this. She didn’t want this at all. “No!” she screamed as long and hard as she possibly could.
“Shut up!” He slapped her. “I’ll kill you, you motherfuckin’ slut!”
“Help!” Harper fought with everything she had—until he hit her. He balled up his fist and started pummeling her in the face and in the chest. “Revel! Revel!”
“Revel! Revel!”
Her voice broke the silence and Revel jerked upright. He’d been holding her hand, touching her arm, willing her to be okay. “Harper, baby, I’m right here. I’m right here.” Putting his arm across her small body, he kept her from jerking up and possibly pulling the IV out of her arm. “Easy, sweetheart, you’re okay. I’m here.” He didn’t know how reassuring his presence would be to her, but he gave it, he needed for her to know he would do anything…anything. “I am so glad to be with you,” he whispered as she quieted a bit.
He leaned forward, touching her cheek, running his finger down the soft skin, hating whatever bastard bruised the tender flesh. “Wake up, sweetheart. I want to see those Bright Eyes so much.”
Harper was dreaming, she knew she was. Revel was here. He was whispering to her. When she had these dreams, they never lasted long enough. She could never hold on to him long enough, never long enough. Moving her fingers felt like she was moving through concrete, it was so hard to make her muscles react. “Revel, don’t go, don’t go.”
Revel’s heart was thundering in his chest. She was talking to him. “I’m here, Harper. And I’m not going anywhere without you, I promise.”
A kiss, a sweet kiss settled on her cheek and Harper’s whole body shivered. Too real. This was torture. “No, no.” She fought to wake up, to open her eyes. Her head was pounding, shards of white pain seemed to pierce the back of her eyes. “Revel?”
Another touch, another kiss.
A low moan slipped from her lips and Revel captured it, covering her mouth with his, taking what he’d so often dreamed of claiming. When he raised his head, their eyes met. She was awake. “There you are, I was so worried.”
Harper trembled. “Revel?”
“Yes, it’s me.” He kissed her again, a gentle kiss, one specifically designed to let her know she was cherished. “I’m so thankful you’re okay.”
Her voice was hoarse, her throat was raw from screaming. This wasn’t a dream. “How? What are you doing here?” She couldn’t believe her eyes. He looked so dear, so good. “Why?”
Revel smiled, pushing a strand of dark hair from her forehead. The blonde was gone, her beautiful tresses were dark once more. “You asked for me. Sheriff Saucier recognized you.” Revel cleared his throat. “He’s a friend of the McCoys. So, when you asked for me, he called Noah and Noah gave him my number.”
Flags of red flushed her cheeks. Harper was embarrassed.
Knowing that Revel knew what she’d done, what she’d been through—who she’d been with—mortified her. Yes, most of it was by choice, but it was a choice born out of desperation and despair. “He shouldn’t have. You shouldn’t have had to come and…see me like this.”
When she turned her head away from him, Revel put a gentle finger on her chin and pulled her face back. “Let’s get one thing straight, Harper Summers. Where you are is where I want to be. You might not know it, or you might have forgotten. But you belong to me. When you asked for me, do you honestly think I could have stayed away?”
“I didn’t know what I was saying,” she mumbled, looking down, trying to avoid his eyes.
Revel’s emotions were careening from one extreme to the other—from joy to remorse, from exhilaration to sadness. “Oh, I think you knew exactly what you were saying. Or your heart did.” He let his thumb rub softly across her lower lip. “You came to see me when I was in the hospital, don’t you think I owed you the same courtesy?”
Harper’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
Revel smiled. She wasn’t denying it. Harley LeBlanc had been right. “You kissed me. You told me you love me and you told me I would always be on your mind.” A shadow crossed his face. “Just like you did the day you left me in Natchitoches.”
Harper kept her lips pressed together. She felt sick. Not just from the attack she’d survived, but from the knowledge that she was going to have to hurt him all over again. If she’d been bad for him before, she was poisonous now. “Revel, I’ve made a mess of things. We can’t go back and God knows we can’t go forward.”
Shaking his head, Revel disagreed. “Answer me one question and please, be honest. That’s all I ask of you. One question, the complete truth.” He watched her precious face, a tear welling from her eye and slipping down her cheek. Revel caught it with his lips. “Do you love me?”
A ragged sob escaped Harper’s mouth. Did she love him? “I…” She tried to lie. She tried to give him the gift of deception…but she couldn’t. Harper found she couldn’t lie to him about this, the defining truth of her life. “Yes, I love you.” Seeing the relief, the elation on his face, she had to clarify. “But sometimes, Revel, love isn’t enough.”
“Oh, baby, you’re wrong.” He laughed from sheer happiness. “Love makes all the difference. There’s nothing we can’t conquer if we love one another, no mountain too high, no valley too low.” He knew he was sounding like a song from the ‘70s, but no one could imagine the absolute relief he was feeling.
Harper didn’t feel his same confidence. “Nothing’s really changed. I’m still broken. I’m still…different.”
She didn’t understand, she looked so worried. Revel eased closer to her, trying to infuse her body with his warmth, with his avowal that this time things would be different. “I’ve changed, Harper. I’ve changed.” He was about to tell her how, what he’d done to ensure that he understood what she needed when a knock sounded on the door.
Harper’s eyes cut to the entrance, expecting to see the doctor. She’d felt a moment of reprieve, time to find the right words to make Revel understand what a bad idea this was—she could never make him happy, not in a million years. But who she saw standing in the door was almost worse. “Noah.”
At her exclamation, Revel stood, facing the man who’d been in Harper’s life almost as long as or longer than he had. Even though he’d known McCoy was coming, he was hit with a wave of jealousy so powerful it almost brought him to his knees. The only stabilizing force he could find was the pretty Native American woman standing at Noah’s side, their hands joined, their fingers intertwined. She carried a beautiful bouquet of flowers in the crook of her free arm. It was obvious that Noah had moved on…but had Harper? He knew she said she loved him, but there were many kinds of love. “Come in, come in.” He stepped away from the bed so the couple could have a better view of the patient.
Harper’s discomfort accelerated. “Noah, Skye, I can’t believe you came. Thank you for the flowers.” After this, when she got out of this hospital, she had to move far away. That way, when something stupid happened to her like getting mugged, the local police force wouldn’t recognize her face.
“Of course we came,” Noah said, shaking hands with Revel, then taking the vase from Skye and placing it on the table by Harper’s bed. “I wanted to make sure you were okay and see if you needed anything.”
Revel’s gut eased, Noah McCoy was a good man. “I got here as fast as I could. I’m taking Harper home to Louisiana as soon as she’s able.”
Everyone noticed Harper’s look of surprise, but no one said anything. She cleared her throat. “I’m good. I’m feeling better.”
“Don’t let her fool you. She just opened her eyes a second ago. I haven’t even had a chance to alert the nurse or the doctor.”
“Well, you probably should do that,” Skye spoke up. “We don’t want to be in the way.”
Harper’s southern upbringing emerged. “No, you’re not. I’ll call the nurse and you all can visit while she examines me.” She pressed the call button.
When the nurse answered, Revel stepped up and answered before she could. “Miss Summers is awake. Could you let Dr. Saucier know?”
Harper folded her arms, liking and disliking Revel’s possessive actions. She couldn’t help notice Noah and Skye exchanging amused looks. They moved to a couple of chairs at the back of the room to be out of the way. Harper’s breathing was so hard, she felt like she might be having a panic attack. Clenching her fists, she sank her nails into her palms, needing pain to take the edge off. Oh God, how was she going to survive this? Survive Revel? “Thanks,” was all she could manage. He stood by her, the stubborn brute, until first the nurse, then the doctor arrived.
“Well, I’m glad to see you’ve come around.” Willow Saucier checked Harper’s chart and looked into her eyes with a tiny beam of light while the nurse checked her vitals. “How do you feel?”
“Like I was hit over the head.” Which she had been.
“Follow the light.” Willow instructed as she moved it from side to side, watching Harper’s reaction. “The results of your MRI show no broken bones and only a slight concussion. How’s your memory?”
“Perfect.” Revel chimed in and Willow smirked, winking at Harper.
“Good.” Backing up, she surveyed the room, speaking to Noah and Skye. “How are you two doing?”
Great, Harper thought, everyone knows and loves everyone else.
“All of your blood tests and lab results came back clear.” Dr. Saucier looked back at Harper pointedly and she understood the doctor was telling her there was no problem with pregnancy or STD’s.
“I told you I was mugged, not attacked any other way.” Why that information seemed so hard for her to say—she didn’t want to think about.
“I understand, we were just being safe. I’ll want you to stay the night and then you need someone with you when you leave. Is that going to be a problem?” Willow asked, looking straight at Revel.
“No, it’s not. She’s coming home with me.”
Harper didn’t argue, but she had other plans.
The doctor nodded, jotted down a few more notes while the nurse changed the IV bag. “All right, we’ll let you visit and check back a little later. I’ve called my cousin, he’s going to need a statement from you,” Willow told Harper.
“All right.” She didn’t have much to say, but she’d tell him what she could.
As soon as the medical professionals were out of the room, Noah spoke up. “What happened, Harper?”
Harper could tell by looking at Noah exactly what he was thinking. He’d been a victim of Ajax as well as she had.
“Noah, don’t interrogate Harper, she’s been through enough.” Skye laid a calming hand on Noah’s arm.
“I was mugged,” Harper stated flatly. When she saw the flicker of disbelief cross all their faces, Harper felt like throwing up. “I wasn’t in a club, I was mugged!”
Seei
ng that she was getting upset, Revel went to her. “It’s okay, baby. We’re just glad you’re all right. The sheriff will come and ask you some questions. We’ll do what we can to find out who’s responsible for this.”
“He wanted money, but I didn’t have any,” she said on a sob, not wanting to know the whole story, how stupid she’d been walking alone at night. But what other choice did she have? She was alone.
Skye stood. “Why don’t you two go get some coffee and let Harper and I get better acquainted. She needs some water and a cold compress.”
Revel looked uncertain, but Noah did as Skye suggested. “Sure, I could use something strong and sweet. Can we bring you back anything?”
Both girls said no. As soon as they were gone, Harper sighed. “I’m so sorry. You must think I’m terrible.” She didn’t know how much Skye knew about her past, but she bet Noah had told her enough.
“Nonsense,” Skye assured her, getting a fresh glass and filling it with water, then a wash rag from the bathroom that was damp and cool. “I think you’re beautiful. Noah thinks the world of you. When he found out you’d been hurt, he was concerned. Nothing would do him but that we come see about you immediately.”
“I did things Noah didn’t approve of.” Harper twisted the sheet in her fingers.
Skye pulled a chair up close to Harper. “So did I. Believe me, I had my doubts if we’d ever get together.” Seeing that Harper looked disbelieving, Skye continued. “I had secrets too, you know.”
“Really, not as bad as mine I imagine.”
“I don’t know.” Skye shook her head. “I was raped, I killed my attacker and I spent time in prison for it.”
If Harper hadn’t been in the hospital bed, Skye’s words might have knocked her down. “I don’t believe it, you’re so…so perfect.” She gestured toward the beautiful woman.
Skye laughed. “Hardly. And you know how uncompromising Noah is, I was positive he’d want nothing to do with me.” As she made the statement, the knowledge that Noah had done that very thing to Harper crossed both their faces. “He’s different now, Harper. This thing with his real mother has made him realize that everyone can have something in their life they wish they could change.”