"Courtney," Jack yelled. "Don't go anywhere, honey. It’s not what it looks like."
Quick, even at six months pregnant, she made it to the car door but no farther. A large hand grabbed her from behind and whipped her around.
Her husband.
He grasped her face into his hands and held on firmly. Determination and anger riddled his features. "Don't do this. Calm down. This is not what it looks like. I promise you."
She pushed away from him with all her strength and slapped across the face.
"You!" At a loss for words, she couldn't express her anger. "You!"
"Courtney, calm down."
"Fuck you, Darren!" she screamed. "You tell me that if I ever cheat on you, you'll have me‒" she bit her tongue, "and here you are fucking around at the bar while your wife, the woman you supposedly love more than anything else in this world, is home alone and pregnant carrying your child!" Hysteria set in. "The child you just had to have!"
Darren's staff joined him, surrounding the couple to create a human barrier.
"Courtney," his voice soothing, trying to remain the calm one, "I promise you I would never cheat on you. You walked in on something you—"
"You're goddamn right I did. I just happen to catch you before you kissed her. I saw you, Darren! I saw her lips on you. I saw you holding her, your arms wrapped around her," she screamed, her face bright red. She felt her blood and body run hot but ignored the sensation. "That's supposed to belong to me. Me! Only me. That's what you said. That's what those vows were that you spoke. If you didn't mean them then you should have never asked." She finally took a breath. "I want out!"
Wheeling around she reached for the car door handle.
Darren grabbed her from behind again but this time yanked her into his body. He growled into her ear so only she could hear his dark words, "There's one way out, Courtney."
In one fluid motion, she spun and pushed away from him. "What the hell are you saying? Are you threatening me?"
He took a menacing step towards her and placed a possessive hand on her stomach. "You belong to me, along with this baby. There is no one else that will ever have you. You will never leave me. I won't allow it."
Quick as lightning, she slapped him again. Taken of guard he didn't block it or prepare for the hit. She continued her tirade, "You have no right. You're fucking around on me and you tell me I can't leave. What if the rolls were reversed? What if I was out until two in the morning, and you found me in another man's arms with him kissing me? What would happen?"
His silence was enough of an answer.
Suddenly her world titled. Stumbling backwards, she fell against the car. The sounds of the bar, traffic, and people grew muffled. Her vision flashed blurry.
"Courtney," Darren reached out for her, "your blood pressure."
"Don't touch me!" Hysteria settled in. She grabbed her head, turned and fumbled for the door handle, but her hands refused to work properly.
"Courtney, you can't get in that car," he warned.
Jack, who'd snuck up behind the car, stepped closer.
"I hate you," she screamed, throwing the knife straight into Darren's heart. "I want out. You don't love me. You used me for this." She motioned to her stomach.
She took a hard step towards her husband then her world went black.
Chapter 8
Darren
"Court!" Darren bellowed. He managed to catch her before her head bounced off the gravel. "Call an ambulance," he barked to his men. "Courtney, baby, please, please, please, don't do this," he pleaded, pulling her limp body tight against his, rocking her back and forth. He brushed her hair off her pale face to see her clearly. He couldn't lose her. Not over the undercover female agent he intended on killing. He hadn't paid attention to the time. He should have known Courtney would worry and might search for him, especially given her new knowledge of his world. No doubt she'd been worked up the entire night, her blood pressure so high because he didn't call to reassure her he was all right. Fuck.
Darren held his wife, quietly coaxing her to stay with him the entire time he impatiently waited for help to arrive. After eight of the longest minutes of his life, the ambulance and medics arrived and rapidly placed Courtney onto a gurney to work on her. Her blood pressure registered the highest to date. Darren overheard a paramedic say something about heart attack range. He panicked. Save her.
Meanwhile Darren's men continued to maintain the human barrier to keep witnesses to the horrendous show to a minimum. While scanning the area for Jack or Carl, Darren caught the eye of the female agent. John Marshall conveniently stood nearby. That fucking asshole brought his wife into the bar and set him up. One slight nod towards Jack and then the couple, a nod no one else noticed, Jack understood what Darren wanted.
Once the medics had Courtney ready, they loaded her into the back of the ambulance and rushed her to the hospital. They refused to allow Darren to ride along, needing to continue to work on their patient. Rushing to his car, Carl jumped into the driver’s seat to get his boss the hospital.
"This was a fucking set up," Darren spat. "That woman. I knew it. I fucking knew it, but the guy...he...shit! He brought my wife to walk in on something that wasn't there." He threw a hard fist into the dashboard. "I'm going to kill both of them!"
It all started three months ago when he'd been approached at his bar by a brazen female. Red flags went up around him but he'd let her play out whatever game she was up to. Everyday he met her at the bar under the pretense of starting a relationship. Her attraction towards him was obvious. Her trying to bed him was blatant. She was the touchy feely type, constantly running her hands through his hair, caressing his biceps and chest, touching his face. She loved to lean in and whisper into his ear to get even closer. And her eyes gave away her hunger for him, zeroing in on his mouth, indisputably wanting a piece of him.
Tonight was supposed to be the night they trapped her. He spent the entire evening setting her up, but it had taken longer than it should have. He'd fed her drinks nonstop. By the time she suggested a dance she could barely stand. Briefly he'd thought he'd blown their operation, especially when he had to hold her vertical while they danced. When she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, she confessed that it was a shame she was to turn him in to the FBI. Then she suggested she could become his mistress if he would have her. She offered to turn her back on her job and give him information. Perfect. When he pulled back from her guaranteed assault on his lips, he saw red. The ballsy woman suggested she would make a better wife than Courtney. Blasphemy.
He'd been about to lean down and whisper into her ear that she was a dead women when he felt something go through him. The clear explanation was he felt Courtney's devastation. That was how in tune they were with each other. He literally felt her heart break. When he looked up into her wide, devastated eyes, everything inside of him went numb.
"We'll take care of them, Boss," Carl said short. Fury radiated from his own body.
All of his men loved his wife. Who wouldn't? She was everything a man could want or desire in a partner. Loving, supportive, beautiful and never asked a single question.
Ten minutes later Carl pulled up to the emergency room. Darren jumped from the car before it had come to a complete stop. The ambulance arrived two minutes before they had and the staff was already working on his wife. Not permitted past the waiting area, instead Darren was forced to fill out fucking paperwork he didn't give a shit about.
Twenty minutes later an older male doctor came out to the waiting area. "Mr. Murphy?"
Darren rushed him. "My wife."
"We have to take her up to surgery, Mr. Murphy. She has internal bleeding," the doctor bluntly explained.
"What?" he gasped.
"Her blood pressure spiked too high. There was too much strain on her and the baby. We are trying to stop the labor and find out where the bleeding is coming from," the doctor said. "The surgical waiting area is on the third floor. We'll come out to you when we have news."
The doctor briskly turned and left Darren standing alone in complete shock and horror. His mind went blank with his worst possibly nightmare come to life.
***
Four hours since the doctor had informed Darren his wife needed emergency surgery and not one word from the hospital staff updating her condition. Four fucking hours. Even though the waiting area was filled with Darren's staff along with his brother, parents, Courtney's parents, and Diane it remained silent, saturated with anxiety. Darren's and Courtney's parents went to the hospital chapel to pray for Courtney and the baby. Derrick mutely stared out the hospital window in his own bout of despair, not able to console his brother. Diane sobbed in the corner but tried to do it quietly, not wanting to upset her brothers, who marginally clung to their sanity. Darren refused to leave the waiting area. He couldn't. Yet, he couldn't pace, couldn't stand, couldn't do anything except pray in the grungy hospital chair he was seated that his wife wouldn't be taken from him. He could not live without her. What a fucking nightmare.
The waiting room remained eerily silent for hours with occasional whispers from Darren's men, who discussed plans to get their hands on the two agents, who obviously used Courtney to try to destroy Darren. At the fifth hour a doctor and nurse entered the waiting area.
"Mr. Murphy?" the doctor asked, glancing around the full room.
"Yes." Darren stood and rushed across the room.
Derrick went to rush to his brother's side, but their father stopped him and shook his head at oldest son. "That's your brother's wife."
Derrick shot his father a menacing glare. Little did the family know how close Derrick and Courtney truly were.
"Courtney?" Darren asked, desperation and panic streaming through his tone.
"I need you to follow us so we can speak privately, Mr. Murphy," the doctor said. He turned and strode through the double doors to a private office not far from the waiting area. The nurse followed behind.
"Have a seat." The doctor pointed to a chair at a small, round table surrounded by four chairs.
"I need to know about my wife," Darren insisted, scarcely holding his composure.
The doctor and nurse sat across from him. Their solemn looks suggested the conversation wasn't going to be what he needed to hear.
"Mr. Murphy, we weren't able to stop the labor. Your wife gave birth to a boy forty-five minutes ago," the doctor said delicately.
He gasped. "But...but... the baby isn't ready."
"No, no he's not."
"He," Darren repeated. "A son. Courtney gave me a son?"
"Mr. Murphy, the baby won't make it through the night,” the doctor said. "He's too premature and underdeveloped. Some babies are able to survive when born this early, but we've found the baby hadn't developed where he should have at this stage. We are trying everything we can to stop the bleeding with your wife. What we need to know, is that if we can't stop the hemorrhaging, are you willing to sign off on a hysterectomy?"
"What?" he asked. What the hell was happening? "Is she dying?"
"We're trying to save her, Mr. Murphy. We don't want you to lose your son and your wife," the doctor stressed. "If she has the hysterectomy, she will no longer be able to have children. Every vital organ she needs to carry a child will be gone but she will be alive."
Stunned, horrified, and terrified. Those were the best terms to describe his state. He couldn't lose his Courtney. The thought of never having her in his life...well, was unthinkable. But he desperately wanted children. Specifically children that were part her and part him. Tears Darren didn't know had formed in his eyes, slid down his cheeks onto his designer suit pants. His head fell into his hands.
"Dear, God," he whispered.
"We don't have much time for you to decide, Mr. Murphy."
He'd always considered himself a rational man. Most of the time. Except when it came to his Courtney, all rationale was thrown out the window. He understood the medical staff needed an immediate answer but of all the choices in his life he must make, why this one? Why the hell was this happening?
Those fucking agents. Anger boiled in his stomach and crawled over his skin. He could feel his body temperature rise. Pissed for his wife, for himself, and for his son, who had been born too soon and would leave the world before given the opportunity to grow and flourish. His resolve to salvage something out of his nightmare took hold.
"Save my wife," he answered, sure of his decision. His wife was a fighter, something she rarely showed, but was there simmering below the surface. She'd proven time and time again. Darren might be the mob boss but his gorgeous wife was the one to be reckoned with when furious.
"All right. We'll show you to your son, Mr. Murphy. We'll let you know about your wife, hopefully soon," the doctor said.
They stood from their seats, but before departing, Darren gave the doctor a deadly warning, "Do everything you can to save her without taking away her ability to have children. If nothing else can be done, then save her."
"Of course, Mr. Murphy."
***
Darren's tiny son didn't seem real in his oversized palms. Transparent skin, patches covering his underdeveloped eyes, a tube in his nose, and less than two pounds, his son's lifespan was limited to minutes not days. A heart monitor sounded every few minutes and a nurse stayed by their side for the moment the newborn would take his last breath.
Two hours Darren held his son. Two of the longest but also shortest hours of his life. He cooed to his baby. Stroked the too soft skin. Kissed him as much as a man could in a short span. And vowed to meet up with him again in the future.
At two and a half hours the baby boy took his final breath. Darren had given the hospital staff a DNR order after discussing the damage the baby would go through for the rest of his life if he survived the next few months. Those odds were slim to none. Darren couldn't imagine putting the tiny creature through such torture, and he knew Courtney would feel the same.
Silently sobbing, Darren gently handed the nurse his baby boy, wiped his eyes and left the NICU to wait for any news on his wife.
Chapter 9
Darren
"We managed to stop the bleeding without taking away the ability for her to have children in the future,” the doctor said. He walked alongside Darren into the ICU to explain Courtney’s condition. "We got her blood pressure down. We believe there won’t be any long-term effects because she is young and relatively healthy. Everything looks good, Mr. Murphy."
Taking in the information, he felt somewhat relieved but needed to see his Courtney. He had to see with his own eyes that she was all right. Disbelief coursed through him of all that his wife medically suffered. How could his healthy, vibrant, beautiful wife have her own body attack itself in such a horrendous manner? What he wouldn't give to switch places with her and take the burden.
He followed the doctor through the ICU. All the rooms were filled with patients that seemed to be in dire straights. Machines attached to the patients filled every space. Dread washed over him. Please let his Courtney be all right. Please.
They stopped at a room towards the end of the unit. The doctor slipped through the closed curtain. Numbly, Darren stepped behind him but stopped and gasped in horror at the sight before him.
His Courtney laid unconscious on a large bed that engulfed her small frame. Tubes, wires, and machines surrounded her, drowning out the stilled silence. A nurse stood on the right of the bed scribbling in a chart while the sound of a machine binged. His wife wasn't recognizable. Her skin looked grey, face sunken in with no life to her. The single sign that she was indeed alive was the heart monitor beeping.
“Oh, God,” Darren whispered. His wife. His perfect wife looked like something he couldn't even comprehend. A piece of him hoped the doctor had brought him to the wrong room.
“Her heart rate is good, Mr. Murphy,” the doctor said.
Nope, it was his Courtney. It was her room.
The older nurse looked up from the chart and gave him a warm smile. “
Come over and see her.”
She pulled up a stool for him to sit next to his wife. Without hesitation he took the seat and grabbed Courtney's left hand. He brushed his lips over her bare knuckles. Silent tears streamed down his cheeks. Tears he didn’t realize formed in his eyes. Again. Courtney was the one person on the earth who could turn him into a weeping fool or bring him to his knees.
“Courtney, honey…” he whispered, but stopped, unable to form words, afraid of subconsciously upsetting her again. Instead he clamped his mouth shut. When she had blacked out, she had been infuriated with him. Justifiably so. He would never take her anger away from her and would spend the rest of his atoning for his mistake. He vowed to do whatever it took.
When the doctor and nurse left the room, Darren laid his head on Courtney’s lifeless hand and outright sobbed. He sobbed so hard and for so long he had no idea if he would ever stop. He couldn’t lose everything at one time. Losing the baby was hard enough, but to lose his wife, who was his everything, would outright destroy him. She was the air he breathed. His sun, his life, his world. She changed him the moment he had laid eyes on her. He'd spent years revolving his world around her, going out of his way to protect from the business he created. All to sustain her innocence. He spent years loving and courting her, showing his devotion to her. The moment Courtney entered his life, other women turned into a grey history. He treated her as the most precious commodity a man would or could ever have. She deserved better than this.
“Please, please, please, Courtney. Please come back to me,” Darren quietly pleaded. He prayed somewhere in her unconscious state she might hear him and want to return.
***
Over the next week Darren, his parents, Courtney’s parents, Derrick, and Diane spent vigil by Courtney’s bedside. Still unconscious, the doctors explained her body needed an enormous amount of healing to do and might take her a while to come around. Most of the machines she'd been weaned off of except for a couple monitors. All the specialists voiced how they were pleased with her progress. They even went so far as to say they could try for children again when she was cleared to do so in a few months.
The Boss's Love Page 10