Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set)

by Edwards, Scarlett

  I close my eyes for just a moment. The darkness that comes feels so very comforting.

  “Stay with us!” the man commands. I hear him. But, I also hear the darkness calling me. I try to open my eyes. The effort is too great.

  Why struggle? The black beckons me. I know I’ll be safe there. Safe, and away from bright lights, loud noise, and pain.

  I surrender to it and let the world fade away.

  Chapter Twelve

  I blink and open my eyes.

  Silence surrounds me. The headache is gone. I’m in a room with a white ceiling. I move my arms and legs. Everything seems to work.

  I take a deep breath—and almost cry out from the pain that shoots through my side. I start coughing, unable to contain it. Each time I cough, the pain intensifies. It gets so bad so fast that tears stream from my eyes.

  “Hey!” A warm hand covers mine. I look to the source of the voice and find Rich smiling at me. The coughing fit subsides as soon as I see his face. “Hey, you’re up.”

  Rich looks so earnest, so concerned. I feel weak. But, seeing Rich there energizes me. I start to push myself up, and then notice a tube connected to my arm. What the hell? I frown down at it, then notice the light, polka-dot gown I’m wearing. What happened to my clothes?

  “Hey, hey, easy there,” Rich cautions. His grip tightens on my hand. “Don’t move. The doctor’s going to be here soon.”

  “Doctor?” I start to say, confused—and then everything comes rushing back: The fight in the restaurant. The car honking behind us. The violent collision. Blacking out, and coming to with all the sirens and lights…

  “You’re all right!” I exclaim. I try again to get up and hug him. But he holds me down with a hand on my shoulder.

  “Yeah, I am,” Rich says. “At least, I’m in better shape than you are.” I notice his kind smile. “You were out for a couple of hours. The nurses have been keeping an eye on you.” He motions at the machines around the bed. “They said everything looked good. They told me you’d wake soon. But, as I waited…” Rich’s voice cracks and he looks away for a second. When he turns back, the most relieved smile I’ve ever seen brightens his face. His stunning, grey-green eyes shine as he speaks. “I never gave up on you, Penny. I knew you’d come back.” He laughs and strokes my hand. “You said you’d never let me leave you. Remember? Well, I wasn’t going to let you leave me, either.”

  “Rich…” I smile at him. Why does he sound so emotional? I remember what the paramedic told me: minor body injuries and a concussion. Nothing life-threatening. “I’m fine. You’re right. I wouldn’t let you get away that easily. What’s up with this?” I lift my free hand to him. “Why am I hooked up to an IV?”

  “They’re pumping pain killers into you,” he explains. “You have two cracked ribs. Without the drugs, each breath you take would be agony.”

  I take my hand away from his to feel under my armpit. My fingers brush against a hard cast. The pain that shot through my body originated from that spot. And Rich is probably right about the drugs: I do feel kind of… float-y.

  He chuckles at my exploration of my own body. “Yeah, right there. They say you’ll be able to stand and walk as soon as tomorrow. Unfortunately for both of us, no strenuous activities for a few weeks.”

  I smile. “Maybe I’ll be able to push through. What about you?”

  “Take a look,” Rich says, moving away from me. I blink in confusion when he doesn’t stand. Instead, his seat moves with him.

  Then it hits me. He’s in a wheelchair!

  “Oh my God, Rich!” Once more, I try to push myself up. The sharp pain from under my breast makes me fall back into the pillow. My mind whirls with the horrifying possibilities. Did he break his back? Is he paralyzed?

  “Whoa, whoa!” Rich soothes. “I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he says as soon as he picks up on my distress. “I told you, I’m not that bad.” He lifts his left leg up. I see his foot contained in a thick cast. “Just one small broken bone.” He shrugs his shoulders and cracks his neck. “As well as a bit of whiplash. I got away pretty much scot free. They want the bone to set, and tomorrow I’ll be able to put weight on it. I might even be able to walk without crutches.”

  “Thank God,” I exhale in relief. “When I saw you in the wheelchair, I thought…” I trail off, shaking my head. I can’t fathom giving voice to my fear.

  “Nah.” Rich wheels back to me and takes my hand again. “Sorry for the scare.”

  “It’s okay,” I say. “I’m not mad at you anymore, by the way. I know when we left the restaurant—” I cut off, suddenly remembering something. These damn pain killers must be making my thinking so slow! “Oh my God, Min. How’s Min?”

  Rich’s face falls. He turns away from me and doesn’t speak. A sinking feeling forms in my stomach again.

  “Rich?” I press. “Rich, what’s the matter? Is she okay?”

  Slowly, he shakes his head. “No. No, she’s not, and it’s my fucking fault.” I can hear the tears in his voice. “If I hadn’t gotten angry with her, if I hadn’t gotten into that stupid fight, everything would have been different.”

  “Is she… I mean, she’s not…” I can’t finish the sentence without choking up. Dead?

  “She’s alive,” Rich says. “Thank God for that. She’s still alive. And her condition’s stable, but her injuries…” He trails off, looking away.

  I force myself up, fighting through the screaming pain that fills me. I reach out and place a hand on Rich’s shoulder. He tilts his head toward it, then rubs his warm cheek over my fingers. “Tell me,” I ask him gently.

  Rich picks up my hand with both of his. He turns to face me. I can see the despair and overwhelming guilt reflected in his eyes. He does not say anything for a long time. He just looks at me, maybe even through me. I’ve never seen him so lost.

  “Whatever happened, it can’t be your fault,” I tell him. I know he needs me now. Even if I don’t have any strength left, I can fake it. For him. “Now, tell me about Min’s injuries.”

  “A concussion,” Rich begins. “Three broken ribs. One punctured lung. Two cracked vertebrae in her neck. A shattered hip bone. All three bones broken in her right arm. Some internal bleeding, but it’s subsided. Various cuts and lacerations, the worst of which goes across her stomach for a good six inches. They’ve got it stitched up.” He recites the list with absolutely no emotion in his voice. He sounds exactly the way he looks. Empty.

  I know it’s his way of coping. If he lets himself feel, the pain will be too much.

  “Where is she?” I ask him softly.

  “They’re still monitoring her in the ICU. They won’t let me near. I haven’t seen her yet.”

  “Oh, Rich…”

  “Don’t tell me it’s not my fault,” he barks. “Don’t, Penny!”

  “I wasn’t about to—”

  “Don’t you get it?” he continues over top of me. “I promised I’d take care of her. I failed. I…”

  He slams a fist against the arm rest. His tears are gone. Only stark anger remains. “I could not be the brother she needed. I chastised her for living her life, and then I failed her again. Time and time again, I fail her. I wasn’t there when she broke up with Joey. I wasn’t there when she gave birth. I wasn’t there when our father got thrown in jail. And this time, it’s the fucking worst. I’m the one who caused her injuries. If it wasn’t for me—”

  “Rich, that’s ridiculous!” I interrupt. “Being worried about her is one thing, but blaming yourself like this is entirely another. It’s nobody’s fault except the other driver’s!”

  “Oh, yeah?” Rich counters, his eyes blazing. “Think about it, Penny. If I hadn’t gotten mad in the restaurant, we wouldn’t have left early. The driver wouldn’t have been behind us. There’d be no accident!”

  “And, if I stayed with her longer in the restroom, we would have been delayed, too,” I rationalize. “I’m terrified for her, Rich. But, I’m not blaming myself for it! You can’t live
with regret, always asking yourself, ‘What if?’”

  “No,” Rich says. “Everything about this is my fault. Do you know why Min is in the worst shape of all three of us? Because she sat in the spot of direct impact from the other car. It totaled the right-hand passenger door. Ask yourself: Would anybody have sat there if it weren’t for me? No. Min climbed in the back first, behind the driver’s seat! If I hadn’t been angry, you would have sat up front with me. We would have all escaped with relatively minor injuries. Now, my sister is going through hell in some fucking room I can’t even get into!”

  My eyes widen with realization. What Rich said just cast a new light on things. Except, he’s not the guilty party.

  I am.

  “Oh my God,” I whisper. A sick feeling forms in my gut. I feel like I’m about to hurl. “You’re right. If I sat up front with you, Min wouldn’t have… I mean, she still would…” I swallow a sob. “It’s my fault!”

  “What?” Rich’s eyes snap to me. “Don’t be stupid. It all started with me.”

  “She trusted me. She told me the story about Joey. Oh my God, what have I done?” The next sob comes out as a hiccup. I hate it when I cry. But, the accumulation of stress, my injuries, and the news about Min is too much. I feel tears falling before I can stop them. Sharp pain jolts through my body as I struggle to contain myself.

  It’s no use. I’m too weak to fight my emotions. If I’m in this much discomfort with one cracked rib, how bad must Min be feeling right now? Oh, God…

  “Penny, stop it. Stop crying.” Irritation seeps into Rich’s voice, even if I do hear his concern. “Dammit, Penelope! I won’t have you berating yourself for something that wasn’t your fault!”

  “I… I can’t. I can’t stop.” I want to laugh at how pathetic I sound. But that feeling is overshadowed by my guilt, my blame, my worry over Min. I turn away from Rich. I hate him seeing me like this. Right now, I am not the person he fell in love with.

  I hardly recognize myself, or the way I’m reacting. Strength and perseverance have been my two guiding words through life. Now, all that has left me. It’s fallen by the wayside over my concern for a friend.

  “I’m not going to have you uncomfortable with me, either,” Rich mutters. I feel the bed shift, and the next thing I know Rich is right there beside me.

  We’re squished together on the tiny mattress. He puts an arm over my shoulder and gently steers me toward him. I melt against his hard body and bury my face in his chest. I let the tears come. The guilt eats away at me. I feel worse than useless. I hate the way I’m acting. My friend is probably fighting for her life in this damn hospital, and all I can do is feel sorry for myself?

  “Penny.” Rich’s finger guides my chin up. I meet his eyes. They’re dark, clouded, and impossible to read. “Listen to me. I’m the one who put this stupid idea in your head. I shouldn’t have said anything. It just burst out of me. But I will not have you feeling guilty about something over which you had no control.”

  “Hypocrite,” I accuse him.

  Rich manages a weak smile. “Maybe. But I’m allowed to feel guilty. It fuels my anger at the rat-bastard who rammed us. It makes me more determined to find him. But you,” he wipes a tear away with the pad of his thumb, “only get sad. And I can’t stand to see you like that—especially when it’s completely unwarranted.”

  “Unwarranted? What do you mean? You said it yourself. If I sat up front—”

  Rich silence me by pressing a finger to my lips. “Stop it, Penny. No, it wasn’t your fault. Yes, you’re allowed to feel sad, but not over that. You said it, remember? No regret.”

  “But—”

  “No ‘buts’, either.” Rich lets me settle into the crook of his arm. “Min needs your strength right now. I will lend her all I can, but her recovery is going to be long and grueling. She needs both of us.”

  I nod. “You’re right.” Deep down, I know we will get through this. The difference lies in what path we take. I don’t have much strength right now, but I can rely on Rich’s. He can be my bastion.

  I don’t want to wallow in self-pity. I want to own up to my mistake and do all I can for Min to correct it.

  Something else Rich said sticks in my mind. “They don’t know who hit us?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “No. The coward hit and run. The cops say they’re looking for him, but an accident like this is a tiny blip on their radar. For me, however, there’s no question. I will find the person responsible. I will make him pay.”

  Make him pay. The way Rich says that, almost like a vendetta, worries me. “Just don’t do anything without consulting with me first.”

  Rich smiles into my hair. “Of course.”

  I push against his chest to look into his eyes. “Rich, I’m serious. I don’t want you to do anything you’d want to take back later. I don’t want you in jail. Don’t do anything Min wouldn’t approve of.”

  “Min… would want me to find the person responsible.”

  “Maybe eventually. Right now, I’m sure she’d prefer to have you with her.” I think back to her story about Joey. “You and I are all she has.”

  Rich squeezes my hand. “I promise. I won’t let either of you down.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The nurse comes and does her rounds, checking on all my vitals and asking me how I’m feeling. I tell her that aside from the blistering headache induced by the lights and the constant reminder my ribs give me of their condition every time I move, I’m just fine.

  She ignores my snarkiness and adds some pain medication to my IV. When she returns fifteen minutes later, I feel much mellower.

  Rich asks the nurse about Min. She says nothing’s changed. Once Min is released from the ICU, we’ll be informed. I see the tension build in Rich’s neck as he’s forced to sit and wait.

  I wonder if he’s getting shades of Cody all over again: sitting here, waiting, and feeling utterly helpless.

  I don’t bring it up.

  A clock on the far wall tells me it’s nearly 2 a.m. I don’t want to sleep—not when the doctor can come at any minute and tell us we can see Min. Still, I can’t keep my eyes from drifting shut. Sleep beckons. The promise of fading away to a place where my body does not hurt wins out. I close my eyes and fall into a slumber.

  --

  A baritone, male voice pulls me from my sleep. “Mr. Blackthorne? Your sister has been moved from ICU. You may see her now.”

  I open my eyes to find a handsome young doctor holding the curtain back at the foot of my bed. He has piercing blue eyes and lush, black hair.

  I catch myself thinking those thoughts and chastise myself. Rich is right there! It must be the painkillers.

  Rich’s head pops up where it had been slumped against his chest. He’d fallen asleep, too. I glance at the clock—and am gripped by alarm. It’s half past ten! How did I sleep so long? How could Min have been there for so long?

  “Thanks, doc.” Rich pushes himself up, then grimaces when he puts weight on his broken foot. “Shit, I forgot about this.” He addresses the doctor, “Do you have any crutches I can use?”

  “I’ll ask one of the nurses to get some for you,” the doctor replies, disappearing behind the curtain.

  Rich looks at me. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Sore, but better.” The numb feeling in my left arm is gone. So is the IV. “You?” I ask.

  “Better, too,” Rich says in a kind of distracted way. I can tell his mind is on Min.

  “She’ll be fine,” I promise him. He nods absently. “She’s stronger than you think. She told me about Joey—”

  Rich makes a disgusted sound in his throat. “Please, Penny, don’t bring him up now.”

  “No, I think you should hear this.” Rich only knows half the story. Even though it might not be my place to tell Min’s secret, I don’t want the misunderstanding to darken the relationship between the two of them. Especially now. “She told me Joey didn’t abandon her. He was forced to leave by his father, who
sent him to military school. All the letters he sent Min were intercepted. His father is the one at fault for his disappearance.”

  Rich looks at me in disbelief. “That doesn’t excuse—”

  “Listen,” I emphasize. “Min was in a bad place after Grace passed away. Joey had no idea. He found her after. She told me he was the one who saved her from a path of self-destruction.”

  Rich’s features soften. I can tell he’s struggling with this new information. Finally, he whispers, “She named her daughter?”

  I smile. “Yes. And she and Joey love each other. Back in Oregon, she told me how she had to leave without a word because she did not want him threatened by the people chasing her. That story was what made me understand, really understand, why I needed to stay with you.”

  Rich shakes his head. “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth…”

  “Of course I am,” I snap. “Why would I lie?”

  “I need to hear it from her. I want to believe you. But you don’t know how much I detest Joey for what he did. Maybe if she explains it…” Rich trails off. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

  A nurse comes in to give Rich a pair of crutches. He stands up and looks at me. “Are you coming?”

  “Are you kidding?” I sit up with a grunt and swing my legs out of bed. A small wave of light-headedness makes me blink. I lean my hand against the mattress to get my bearings.

  Rich is beside me in an instant. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Just a little dizzy.” I plant my feet on the ground and stand. My knees feel wobbly, probably from all the drugs remaining in my body.

  I take a small step forward, then another one, then one more. This whole walking thing is harder than you’d expected when you’re forced to keep your ribs as still as possible.

  The young doctor returns. By his expression, I can tell he’s displeased to see me out of bed. He doesn’t say anything, though. Instead, he offers me the wheelchair. “Would you like to sit?”