by Lisa Clancey
Chapter Thirty-One
I cleaned my face and changed out of my bloody clothes after being checked out by the doctor. I was going to stay overnight to make sure everything was fine since I had a slight concussion. This was my second concussion in four days. And the third time in the hospital in about a week. My insurance company was going to get suspicious. I may have to get the hospital to write a letter telling them I wasn’t hurting myself. I hate to think how mental someone would be to beat themselves up. But one never knows does one?
I wasn’t given anything for pain because of the concussion thing, so I was chillin’ in the ER examining room waiting for a room while watching TV when Cody came in. He smiled warmly gave me a big hug and asked, “What did the doctor say?”
“I’ll live.” I smiled. “Nothing’s broken.” I shook my head amazed. “I don’t know how junior did it. But he didn’t break my nose or any face bone. At least the doctor didn’t think so. I’m waiting on the x-ray.”
“Good. That’s great, I mean, that no bones are broken.” He hesitated. “So…did you call your parents?” Note, he said, ‘your parents.’ He really didn’t want to call them. That was okay. I was ready for him.
“No, I didn’t. I thought you would call them since I’m in a weakened state and all.” I grinned painfully since my face was so swollen. “Besides, you know Mama will go ape shit when she finds out I’m in the hospital. Again.”
“Yeah, but you should call so she’ll know you’re okay. She might think I’m exaggerating and you’re worse off than what I’m telling her.”
“This is so sad,” I said, shaking my head. “Neither one of us wants to call.” We looked at each other, and I caved. “Give me my damn phone,” I growled. He grinned and gave me my phone that was sitting on the small table near the bed. I explained to my mom about getting hit a few times, but the bad guy was in police custody. On the bright side, we found what I was looking for. She and Daddy were coming. Joy.
“So…Rick says ya’ll have been seeing each other for about a week.” He wasn’t smiling anymore.
“Actually, I just admitted we were dating Sunday. Before that, we were just sort of…I don’t know what we were doing.” I rolled my eyes. “He says we’ve been dating. But we didn’t actually go anywhere. He brought me Chinese takeout the evening of the explosion, and then pizza, and we went from there.” I took a deep breath, leaned my head back on the pillow and said, “I don’t know how to explain it, Cody.”
“He says he loves you.”
“Yeah. He told me that too.”
“And?”
I looked at him and smiled painfully since my face hurts, and my mouth was cut up, so my lips were swollen. “I love him too. I don’t have any idea why he loves me.” He looked at me with his mouth tight and eyes unblinking. “Don’t look at me like that. I know I’m a mess. Figuratively and physically.” I started crying. “Look at me. I’m battered. I’m moody, I’m sarcastic, I’m…what kind of man falls in love with me?”
“Evidently, a man like Rick,” he said with a shrug. “I told him the same thing, and he said he already knew that.” He rolled his eyes and continued, “He…”
“Wait a minute,” I cut in, “you told him I was moody and sarcastic?”
“Yes, we talked about you,” he said looking at me like, ‘you idiot.’
The nurse walked in and said, “It’s only supposed to be relatives in here, but there’s a man in the waiting room that’s well…scaring the security guards.”
“Is he tall, dark wavy hair with a look that says he’ll take you down and still sleep well tonight, and is sexy as hell.” I grinned. Painfully, my face still hurt.
“Yes. He is,” she said fanning herself. “But he really is scaring the security guards. And the cops that are with him said that if he gets to come back here, then they do too.” She laughed and added, “They said they have to stop the blood bath that’s bound to happen since you’re the sister of killer’s partner.”
I told her they could come in and thirty seconds later the curtain was pushed back, Rick, Lt. Anders, Rosy and Dick Weed came crashing in.
Rick smiled, but it was Rosy who said, “Hey, beautiful.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “Define beauty.”
“A survivor,” Rosy laughed.
Rick took my hand and asked, “What did the doctor say?”
“Nothing’s broken. He hopes. We’re waiting on the x-ray. I have a slight concussion with an overnight stay.” I made a face. “You know, same ol’, same ol’.”
“Good. Not good you have a concussion, but good nothing’s serious,” Lt. Anders said quickly, smiling.
No one said anything for a minute or two, and then Cody said, “Okay. I have to know. Why didn’t either one of you tell me about this relationship.”
Rick looked at me with a tight mouth and shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. “He wanted to, but I told him not to because I wanted to tell you.”
He looked at me with a surprised look and asked, “Were you afraid to talk to me? Since when are you afraid to tell me anything?”
I gave him a hard look with narrowed eyes and said, “I’m not afraid of you Cody. And don’t talk to me about not talking to you.”
“I’m not sure that was a sentence,” he said, shaking his head. “It must be the brain damage.”
“Yeah. Let’s blame it on brain damage,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Cody, do you remember who Morgan was dating when you met her?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah. And for those of you out of the loop, it was Johnny. My ex-fiancé. Johnny had that can’t keep his pants zipped disease. Morgan wasn’t his first. We had broken up before she started seeing Johnny. But she was the one going out with him when Cody came home from the Marines on leave and ran into him at the mall.” I looked down at my hands, Rick was still holding my right hand, and I started crying. I haven’t cried over Johnny in a very long time, and I was sure I wasn’t crying over him now. I was very emotional. Go figure.
“Every time I saw her with you, I thought about Johnny. I wasn’t jealous. I was way over him. But I couldn’t help but think about him. The way I loved him. The way he hurt me. Not physically. He’d never do that. But he did hurt me emotionally. He made me feel inferior.” I looked up at him still crying. “Did you ever once ask me how I felt about you going out with Morgan? It’s silly now, but I really thought I loved him. It crushed me when we broke up. Did I say anything to you? No. Because you fell for Morgan almost instantly and I was happy for you.” My head was hurting so bad it was throbbing. I felt sick but was not going to throw up. I laid my head back and let the room spin around me while taking deep breaths.
“I’m sorry, Chloe,” Cody said softly, holding my other hand. “I didn’t know. I knew you were hurt. That’s why I went after Morgan in the first place because of revenge. But then I fell in love, and it didn’t cross my mind I might be hurting you.” He squeezed my hand and added, “I would never hurt you. Hurting you is like hurting me.” He smiled sadly, “Morgan and my kids are number one in my life, but you’re me, and I’m you.” He laughed and continued, “It’s always been that way. When I was in the Marines, I would tell the guys about my twin sister.” He looked at Rick and smiled. “Several wanted to marry her without even meeting her.” He looked down at me. “The closest they ever got to meeting you was your picture. There was no way those fools were going to meet you.” He shook his head and said softly, “I’m sorry. All I can say is that I apologize for…well, you know…everything.”
“I know, and it’s all good. And I got over all those feelings a long time ago. I think I fell for Morgan along with you.” I laughed through my tears which made my head hurt if at all possible, worse.
No one said anything. Cody and I smiled and didn’t say anything. We didn’t have to.
“Okay, I guess we need to meet and have a discussion in my office with the two of you,” Lt. Anders said, looking from Rick to Co
dy.
“Actually, sir there’s no need,” Cody said. “We’re good with this. I really don’t wanna train a new partner.”
“We work well together,” Rick said nodding. “Maybe it’s because we were both in the military. We think alike.”
Cody narrowed his eyes and grumbled, “Besides, if he hurts Chloe. I’ll kill ‘em.”
“What if she hurts me?” Rick asked, grinning.
“Then I’ll still kill you because you probably did something to make her hurt you,” Cody said with a tight grin.
Rick gave him a crooked grin and said, “Cody, you have met Chloe haven’t you?” What does that mean? I should throw up on both of them.
“Right. Right.” He looked at Rick apologetically and said, “I’d have to at least hurt you. She is my sister.”
“Fair enough.” They put their hands out and shook.
“Works for me. I didn’t want to have to do more paperwork,” Lt. Anders said with a grin.
I looked around the room at the smiling men like they had just shaken hands on the agreement of a life time. Was there something else going on here I didn’t know about? I really didn’t think so. I was pretty sure they just agreed to stay partners even though Rick and I are in a relationship but still…
“Is this how women felt in the eighteenth century?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “You know, like women didn’t exist. A man and woman could only court if the men in the family agreed.”
“No. I think Cody just agreed not to go after Rick’s throat because you’re sleeping with him,” Dick Weed said, laughing. “And Rick agreed not to block the attack if you should do something stupid and ya’ll break up.” If I should do something?
“Wait, a minute. What?” Did Cody give his permission to allow Rick to sleep with me? Huh?
“Jeez Louise, my head hurts,” I said, putting both hands on my head and closing my eyes.
The curtains burst open, and my parents came waltzing in with concerned looks on their faces. Great. Now I could hear my mother complain about the things I put her through. It wasn’t enough that her son was a cop and she worries about him every day. My head just jumped to turbo throb.
“Chloe, Chloe! What happened to you? Your beautiful face,” my mother said rushing to my side. My father pushed Rick out of the way so he could be on the other side.
“I’m okay. Really. I’ll just have to stay overnight,” I said, smiling. Or at least I tried to smile.
“Would someone please tell me what happened? You told me you were hit a few times,” Daddy said, glaring at Cody. Good, he was taking it out on him. My turn was coming, but it was fun to watch someone else catch the heat for a while.
Cody took a deep breath and said, “Chloe went to the Shloe farm early. Rick and I were gonna meet her there, but the nut case who was after the painting followed her to the farm and got there before we did. He got rough trying to get her to tell him where the painting was.” He hesitated and added when no one volunteered to finish the story for him. He was doing well. Why stop his flow? Even though I think he just said it was my fault because I left Alexandria early. “She…uh…stalled him until we could get there. Rick shot him. He’s not dead, but he’s not gonna hurt Chloe again.”
“Chloebeth, I love you, sweetheart,” Mama started in, “but why do you put me through this? Cody’s a cop, and I worry about him every day.” Yeah. I’ve heard this before. When I was a girl, she would say, ‘Cody’s a boy. He’s supposed to get banged up. You’re a girl. Act like a girl.’ Please keep me from strangling her.
‘Yeah, Mama, I actually told Frank to beat the pulp out of me just to make you mad.’ No. I didn’t say that. I thought it. In fact, I didn’t say anything. I just looked at her like…’what?’
My father squeezed my hand, smiled and said, “Thank God, you’re alright.”
“Cody and Rick saved my life. I just had to keep him from slicing me up or raping me until they got there,” I shrugged. “All in a day’s work.”
“Oh, Chloebeth! How can you talk like that? You make it sound like it wasn’t a terrifying experience,” my mother said with her eyes wide and bulged. “Your daddy and I care about what happens to you, even if you don’t.” God help me!
It’s time to calm her down and have her think of something else. I was so good at this. It was an art.
“Mama, you remember Rick?” She nodded, so I continued, grinning, “We’re dating. Going out. In a relationship.” I turned to my father and said, “I’m sorry, Daddy. I had to do it. She was starting to freak out. I had to remind her of her mantra or slap her.” I looked up at Rick who was looking wearily at my father. “Her mantra is, ‘Chloe date. Chloe get married.’ I’m just trying to put a little peace in her life.”
My father looked at Cody questioningly. Cody nodded and slightly smiled and said, “Yeah. I just found out too. It’s alright. He’s a good man.” Great. Now Cody’s giving my father permission to let me see Rick.
My father turned to Rick and shook his hand, “Son, I don’t know you that well. But I do know Chloe.” He laughed and continued, “And if she likes you…” He shook his head and didn’t say anything more.
I narrowed my eyes at him and thought about saying something, but all I did was open my mouth a couple times and then closed it. I was doing my fish out of water imitation. I eventually said, “I don’t know if I like what you just said. I like myself just fine thank you very much. Are you implying there’s something wrong with me?”
“And I love you, Chloe, just the way you are,” my father said and winked.
“What? How long has this been going on?” Mama didn’t know if she should be pleased or mad because Daddy was laughing.
“Probably since the day he gave her a ride home, and she held a gun on him so he wouldn’t try anything,” my father said laughing.
“What?” Mama was floored.
“I’ll explain later,” Daddy grinned at her. I often make my parents laugh, but it’s my father who takes the things I do in stride. Most times.
“Well, not quite,” Rick grinned, “but I knew I had to get to know her. Any woman that would do that was a woman worth knowing.”
####
I was brought up to a room, and I sent my mother home. I told her that if she stayed, I was signing myself out and taking a cab back to my apartment. Rick had taken my truck to the police station and locked it up in impound, so I was truckless.
My friends were visiting me when Rick came back carrying a duffle bag, and they went home soon after. It was about nine, and the hospital staff frowned on visitors staying long after that.
“Didn’t I say I didn’t want any one staying?”
“Yeah. But I thought you just meant you didn’t want your mother staying.” He grinned his sexy grin.
“Don’t you have work tomorrow?”
“Nope. I told Lt. Anders I wasn’t feeling well and he said I looked as though I was coming down with something.”
He stood on the side of the bed with a concerned look, and I asked him, “Why did Frank kill Jason Sr.?”
“Frank was searching for the painting when Jason Sr. came home.” He shook his head, and continued, “Jason surprised him while Frank was in the bedroom and he dropped his shotgun, it went off, and it hit Jason.”
“Oh my God, it was an accident. He’s a doofus, but it was still an accident. What about T-Jake?”
“That one wasn’t an accident. T-Jake owed Frank two thousand dollars, and he told Frank about the painting which was why he was searching senior’s house. Frank got tired of waiting.” He gave a humorless chuckle and added, “Frank thought since T. Jake’s father was shot, people would think it was the same person that shot his father and not the person he owed money to.” He paused and continued, “We did think it was the same person we just didn’t know who he owed money to.”
In a way, that gave Frank more credit than I was giving him. He took a deep breath, shook his head and said with a tight mouth, “Frank can’t aim worth a damn.
He was trying to wing T. Jake, not kill him. Frank said,” Rick said with a laugh “that you messed up his aim.”
“Good excuse but now I know why he threatened Petunia.”
“Yeah. He was trying to scare her into telling him where the painting was.”
I nodded and started shaking and crying. He pushed the button so the bed would lay back and he lay beside me holding me tight against him. I sniffed a few times and fell asleep.
Yeah, I was glad he stayed the night instead of my mother. And I was right about him moving me over so he could share my bed although he didn’t stay there. He eventually moved to the couch.
The next day I was able to go home, and he brought me to the Shloe Parish Sheriff’s Department to sign a statement. Oh, the fun we had. The detective hit on me. I would have had some one beat me up a long time ago if I would have known it would have gotten me dates. Rick glared and took the detective’s card and told him he would contact him if I needed him.
“You need a leash,” he mumbled and laced our fingers together while we walked out of the building.
I stopped short, and he jerked back. “Are you calling me a dog?”
His eyes were wide, and he said, “No. I need to keep an eye on you.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“You, I trust. It’s other men I don’t.”
About the Author
Lisa lives in South Louisiana, but grew up in Alexandria, LA. She’s been married forever has a son and daughter and a black lab mix. The dog is better trained than her kids. Gotta love them they give her a lot to work with.
Hope you enjoyed the book another is on the way.
You can contact me on face book [email protected]