Cole: A Romantic Thriller Novel (For The Love Of A Good Woman Book 2)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Hey now. I said take small sips.” I rolled my eyes and she narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Alright, alright.”

  She brought the straw back to my mouth and I took a few small sips. The nurse walked in and pursed her lips at my mother. She was a young, petite girl that looked like she hadn’t even graduated high school yet. I could tell right away that she was going to start sassing my momma and she didn’t deal well with sass. I tried my best to hold back my smile as she walked further into the room and over to the machines to check my vitals.

  “You can’t just give him water. You need to wait for me to say it’s alright.”

  “Excuse me, young lady, but I already talked to his doctor and got approval on what he could and couldn’t do. I’m his momma and I always make sure I know what’s best for him. This is a hospital, a place for healing, so if you are going to have your crappy attitude in here, you can just leave right now or I’ll report you. Do you understand me?”

  The nurse had enough common sense to look properly chastised even though she snarled at Momma when she turned back to me.

  “Momma, don’t start getting me on the nurse’s shit list,” my old nickname for her slipping off my tongue.

  She looked at me with a startled look on her face and I tried to think of what I had said to put that look on her face. I saw tears in her eyes, but she blinked a few times and they were gone. She straightened her back and started fixing the blankets around my legs. She wouldn’t look me in the eye and I think she was trying to hold back more tears.

  “You haven’t called me Momma in years.”

  I thought about it and realized she was right. I hadn’t called her that since I first joined the military. It used to be the only thing I called her, but when I went off to war I’d stopped. I had been talking to her on the phone when I was deployed overseas and a few of the guys started giving me shit when they heard me call her momma. I had never called her that since, and I hadn’t realized how much it bothered her. I grabbed her hand and held it for a minute. I didn’t know what to say, so I just squeezed her hand. She smiled at me.

  The nurse walked out the door saying that the doctor would be in soon to talk to me.

  “Do you need anything? Can I get you something to eat?”

  “I’m kinda hungry, but I really need to see Alex. Where is she?”

  The smile fell from her face and she looked over at my dad who hadn’t said a word yet. He was staring out the window and I found it odd that he hadn’t said anything yet.

  “Um, she’s down the hall in her own room. She hasn’t woken up yet, but the doctors say it won’t be too much longer.”

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  A look of pain crossed her face as she answered. “She has a few broken ribs and a shattered cheekbone. She’s gonna need surgery, but they have to wait until the swelling goes down. They think it will be about a week or two before the surgery. When she wakes up, we can discuss it with her, but I think it would be best for the two of you to come back to our house where I can look after you and take care of you.”

  “Like hell she will,” my dad growled. “She isn’t stepping one foot in our house.”

  He turned and looked at us and his anger was palpable. I didn’t understand what he had against Alex, but anger surged inside me and I exploded.

  “What do you mean she isn’t stepping in your house? You’ve never even met her. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “She almost got you killed and you willing put yourself in danger to save a woman you barely know.”

  “I love her. Is that not a good enough reason to protect her?”

  “Love her? You just met her and all she’s caused you is trouble. You were on the road to recovery and she dragged you into some shitstorm that almost got you killed! Now you expect me to welcome her with open arms?”

  He was spitting while yelling which was a good sign that he was good and truly worked up. Then I caught what he had said. He was worried she was going to cause me to have a setback.

  “Dad, I’m not gonna lose it and end up how I was after the war. She makes me better. I’ve only had one nightmare since she’s been here. Besides, none of this shit was her fault. She was being hunted by a psychopath.”

  I didn’t know what else to say to him, how to make him understand. He stared at me for a minute before nodding his head. I knew he didn’t agree, but he wasn’t going to argue any further for now and I would take it. I relaxed back into the bed and felt suddenly tired.

  “You look tired, sweetie. Why don’t you close your eyes and sleep. I’ll call the nurse back to get you some food.”

  “You know they have a phone that you can order from?”

  “I know.” She smiled deviously and turned to head out the door. I felt my eyes start to droop and moments later I was out.

  When the doctor came in later, he showed me how to use the breathing spirometer to exercise my lungs so I wouldn’t catch pneumonia. After that, they brought me my dinner and told me a nurse would be by later to get me up and moving around. Sebastian, Ryan, and Logan stopped by to see how I was doing, but they didn’t stay long. I was too anxious to see Alex. When the nurse came in, I told her that I needed to see Alex. She didn’t think it was a good idea, but when I explained that she was my fiancé, she would be soon, she conspired with me to get me in to see her.

  The nurse helped me down the hall to Alex’s room and I sat down beside her. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but her face looked like hell. She was completely swollen and bruised on the right side of her face. I put my hand over hers and felt that it was cold so I wrapped my hand around hers and held tight.

  I sat with Alex for about an hour before I was finding it too uncomfortable to be in this chair anymore. I got up and gingerly leaned over, placing a kiss on her forehead. I heard her breathing change and looked at her face for any sign of change. I saw her eyes moving under her eyelids and my heart sped up.

  “Sweetheart, open your eyes. I’m right here.”

  Her eyelids started to flutter, but she could only open her left eye. She winced at the light from the room and I shut it off as quickly as I could. The pain in my side was intensifying, but I wouldn’t leave her side now for anything. I smiled down at her and she looked at me in confusion and a little fear. I reached out to touch her and she flinched back from me. Her breathing was increasing and the monitors attached to her started to go off. Two nurses came running into the room telling me to stand back, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was scared of me and it was as if she didn’t recognize me.

  The nurses calmed her down and looked over to me, their looks urging me to step forward.

  “Sweetheart, it’s okay. Do you remember what happened?”

  She shook her head and tears started to run down her cheek. She reached up to hold the other side of her face and the nurse quickly took her hand.

  “Honey, your cheekbone is shattered. It’s best if you don’t touch it. We’ve given you some pain medication and the doctor will be in to talk to you later about surgery.”

  She still hadn’t said anything, so I stepped closer and took hold of her hand. She flinched again, but didn’t move away.

  “I’m so sorry this happened to you, sweetheart, but I promise I’m gonna take care of you.”

  “Who are you?”

  I froze in shock. The nurse that had helped me down here earlier pursed her lips at me as if I had duped her. I looked back at Alex and looked intently at her.

  “You don’t recognize me?” She shook her head. I faintly heard the nurse telling me that I had to go. “Alex, I’m Cole. I found you outside my house and …”

  She started shaking her head again and tears were coming. I had to make her remember me. How could the one person that meant so much to me not remember a thing about me?

  “I fought in the war and haven’t been the same since I returned three years ago. I met you and fell in love with you. You brought me back. We made each oth
er better.”

  She was sobbing and the nurse was now trying to shove me out the door. I tried my best to push back against her, but my energy was quickly fading. We were causing such a commotion that security came over and started pulling me back. I could still see Alex on the bed with her head in her hands. The nurse had a syringe and was about to inject her with something. I started to panic and fought harder to get back to her. One of the security guards wrapped his arms around my chest, pain exploding as he put his arm over my wound, and threw me to the ground. He pinned me on my stomach and twisted my arms behind my back. The pain of having my arms wrenched back was excruciating and I vaguely heard a nurse yelling at the guard to get off me before I passed out.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I was in the hazy fog again and I could hear the voices of my mom and dad, Sean, and a few other unfamiliar voices.

  “We are terribly sorry. The guard should not have attacked your son the way he did. Protocol is to sedate patients that get out of control. However, the guard felt that your son would injure a worker and took it upon himself to control the situation. As for his fiancé, we can’t have him going around scaring other patients. Imagine what it was like for her to wake up and not know where she was and who he is? That had to be traumatic for her and he wasn’t making it any better.”

  “Can you imagine what it was like for him to wake up and realize his fiancé didn’t recognize him? She’s not the only one that has suffered here and you can’t lay all this on him. So how about we displace the blame for now and figure out how to make this easier for both of them.”

  Mama always fought my corner. I heard a grunt leave my mouth as I tried to tell her thank you. I pried my eyes open and saw Mom, Dad, Sean, and some hospital workers. Mama came over to me and started fussing. She gave me some water and it helped to clear my head.

  “Tell the nurses to stop giving me drugs. It makes my brain foggy.”

  “Sir, the hospital administers drugs to help patients heal.” This was the woman that had been speaking earlier. She had a high, tight bun in her hair and glasses that gave her a very severe looking face and a bitchy attitude to match. She looked every bit the hospital administrator and not at all someone who would understand patient needs.

  “Well, next time you end up in the hospital with a collapsed lung from a knife wound, you tell them to give you as many drugs as you need.”

  “Perhaps you need to think of changing your extra-curricular activities to something less dangerous and you won’t end up needing the hospital to save your life.”

  Obviously this woman hadn’t been told the finer details of what had happened or she would have kept her mouth shut. Sean stepped in and took care of informing her of the situation.

  “First of all, I don’t think it’s your place to talk to patients that way. Second, this man saved his fiancé from a psychopath that was trying to murder her and several others. That psychopath is dead now because of him, so before you start saying shit, how about you get your facts straight. Now, the man would like to be able to see his fiancé and try to help her recover her memory. Are you going to help us or not?”

  The woman gave a huff and turned to the nurse.

  “Please inform Ms. Petrov that her fiancé would like to see her and help her remember, but if she becomes agitated, he is to leave.” With that, she turned on her heel and left the room. The nurse had a grin on her face and came over to check my IV.

  “Nobody likes her. Alright. You’re all set here. The next time you decide to go for a stroll, make sure you come back on your own feet.” She smiled at me and left the room.

  After that, Mom ordered me some soup saying that soup makes everything better. What I really wanted was a steak, but apparently that wasn’t allowed yet. I ate and waited not so patiently for the nurse to come back and let me know that Alex was ready to see me. It was a few hours later when she returned.

  The nurse wheeled me down to Alex’s room and I watched her for a few minutes from the door to her room. She was staring out the window and she must have sensed my presence because she looked over at me.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure.”

  She tried to sit up more, but winced in pain. I walked over to her and helped as best I could.

  “Thank you. So, the nurse said that you want to talk to me. She said that you’re my fiancé.” I nodded. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you. The doctor said that I have dissociative amnesia.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Apparently, it’s when you get amnesia after a traumatic event to protect your mind from things you don’t want to remember or can’t process. He said that my memory could come back or it might never come back.”

  I nodded and held out my hand. “I’m Cole Reynolds. It’s nice to meet you.”

  She smiled and held out her hand to me. “I’m Alex Petrov. It’s nice to meet you too.”

  I waited for her to make the first move. I had so much I wanted to say, but I thought I would see what she would do first. I didn’t have to wait long.

  “So are we really engaged? Because I feel like that’s something I would remember.”

  “Technically, no.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, I hadn’t asked you yet. I wanted to wait until this mess was resolved. I didn’t want you to think I was proposing out of some sort of obligation.”

  I could tell that she wasn’t taking this news all too well. It had to be a shock to learn that you had a relationship you couldn’t remember.

  “How did we meet?”

  Her eyes were pleading for it to be a good story and I wished I could give it to her. “I was out running and I saw you by my house. You had run out of the woods and you collapsed soon after. I brought you to my house because you didn’t want to go to the hospital. My mom came over and helped me get you healthy again.”

  “Well that’s not exactly the story I had been hoping for. Why was I running out of the woods? Did it have something to do with why we’re here?”

  “Yes, but I’m not sure you want to hear about all this now. It’s a lot to take in. Did anyone tell you what happened to us?”

  “No. They said that I had been attacked, but I assumed it was like a mugging.”

  My jaw clenched at the thought of what had happened to her. I could feel the anger build and I looked down to avoid her eyes while I got myself under control. I changed the topic because I didn’t know if I could control myself talking about this right now.

  “We need to talk about where you’re going when you’re released.”

  “They said I could be released tomorrow. I don’t…you already know I don’t have family.” She huffed out a laugh. “It seems at the moment that you know more about me than I do.”

  “Only about recent events. How far back does the amnesia go?”

  “I remember moving to my new apartment and I know I was working for a while. I don’t remember anything in particular that happened. It feels like it just happened yesterday, but the memories are faded, like I can’t really remember anymore what happened.” She thought for a minute and then shook her head. She turned to me and smiled slightly. “So, I don’t really know how long ago that would be. I guess my time frame is all messed up.”

  “Okay, well for now, why don’t you consider coming home with me. I have stuff for you at my house and we can work on retrieving those memories, if you want. You may not want to.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  I shut down my emotions. I didn’t want her seeing on my face how horrible it was, but I wouldn’t be dishonest either.

  “It’s not pretty, I’m not gonna lie. We had worked through all that stuff. There were things we were both dealing with and we seemed to be just what each other needed.”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to come home with you. You’re healing yourself. What did happen to you?”

  “I was stabbed and my lung collapsed.”

  “How did that happen
?” she said with shock all over her face.

  “Someone was trying to attack you. You defended yourself and when I came to help you, he got me. He’s dead now.”

  She blew out a slow breath. “It seems like you just glossed over a lot of information.”

  “I did. I’ll tell you when you’re ready and you’ll know when that is, but I don’t think dumping everything on you right now is going to help you. Let’s just take this one day at a time.”

  “Sure. That sounds good, but I still think I should find somewhere else to go. You can’t be expected to take care of me when you’re healing from a knife wound.”

  “Well, actually, Mom wants us to go to her house. She thinks it would be good for you in particular. It would make you feel a little safer with other people in the house. Plus, my mom loves nothing more than having someone to fuss over.”

  “Okay. It does sound like my only option. Do I even have a bank account or an apartment to go home to?”

  “When you were staying with me, you were pretty sure that your landlord would have gotten rid of all your stuff.”

  “Why? Why would he get rid of all my stuff?”

  I paused as I thought about how to phrase it, but then I just blurted it out. “You were missing for over five months.”

  I could see the shock on her face and I wished there was an easier way to put that, but it wouldn’t help her if I sugar coated everything for her. She needed honesty if she was going to put her trust in me.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Alex

  I could hardly breath, I was running so hard. Branches whipped at my face and I could feel scratches all over my body. He was chasing me and if I stopped for even one minute, he would catch me. My legs were starting to give out and I was tripping over my own feet. I couldn’t take much more. My body was beaten and tired. My brain was muddled and I couldn’t make out what was real. I fell to the forest floor and the haze of fog settled around me. I couldn’t see which direction I had come from and I knew I would die out here.