Be Here Now: A Cedar Creek Novel (41 page)

“Don’t be stupid.” Jason felt a hand in his chest holding him back from advancing on the scumbag who had hurt his wife. He looked up to see Rick in front of him. “Don’t be stupid,” he repeated. Jason said nothing as he glared at Rick.

“I’m taking him in. A car is already on the way.”

“Why the fuck was he out in the first place? And why the fuck did nobody tell us?” Jason roared in his face.

Rick shook his head. “I don’t know. It was my day off and nobody informed me that he had been released,” Rick didn’t sound happy to admit. He sounded furious.

“I want him to pay for what he’s done. Everything you’ve got, and make sure it sticks this time. Or I swear to God, if he gets out again, I will hunt him down and I will not stop until I’ve had my revenge.”

Rick ground his teeth. “You have my word.” They stared at each other for long moments before Jason turned around and went back to his wife. The ambulance had arrived and two EMTs were lifting Loreley onto a stretcher. Cal and Chris were standing close, both with murderous and worried looks on their faces. Ivey was huddled into Cal, crying. Jason walked right to the stretcher and took Loreley’s limp hand in his. She was still unconscious and seeing her like that tore at Jason’s heart.

“Tell me she’ll be okay.” He didn’t make eye contact with any of the EMTs, but they knew he was talking to them.

“We’ll be able to tell you more once we’ve done some tests, but she is stable for now. She has sustained a severe trauma to her head and that comes with some risks, but her eyes look good and we’re optimistic. I assume you’re coming with us?”

Jason nodded absentmindedly, still stuck on the words
severe trauma.
He wasn’t about to leave her and let them take her from him. There was no way he would leave her side even for a second. She was his reason to breathe, his reason for existing. She had to be okay.

He didn’t let go of her hand as they loaded her into the back of the ambulance and he climbed in with her. He never let go of her hand as they drove to the hospital, he never let go until he absolutely had to when they took her in for tests, and even then they had to pry his hand off of hers.

LORELEY

I woke up with the worst headache I had ever experienced. It was so bad that I wanted to fall back into unconsciousness. I knew by the smell that assaulted my nose that I was in a hospital. I opened my eyes a crack. The brightness of the lights blinded me, shooting sharp pains through my head, making the throbbing pain even worse. I closed my eyes again and groaned.

Whose bright idea was it to put blinding ceiling lights in hospital rooms anyway? Whoever it was, he should get fired.

I felt pressure in my hand right before I heard a soft voice calling my name. “Loreley? Baby, you awake?”

It was Jason.

I turned my head towards his voice and groaned again at the pain that movement caused.

“You can hear me, can’t you?” I wanted to nod to tell him that, yes, I could hear him, but was afraid it would hurt too much. I opted instead for giving his hand a slight squeeze.

“You can hear me,” Jason semi-repeated. He sounded tired and relieved. How long had I been out? “Please, baby, try and open your eyes for me. Let me see those beautiful green eyes of yours.” I wanted to see him, too. So badly. I tried and pried my eyes open another crack. My eyelids were heavy, but I won the fight and managed to keep them open long enough to focus on Jason. He looked unbelievably tired. His eyes were red-rimmed, had black circles under them, and he looked like he hadn’t shaved in a few days.

“Hey,” he whispered softly. “Welcome back.” I saw him reach for something and assumed he was calling a nurse. I was grateful. The pain was so bad I needed them to give me something.

“Hey,” I croaked. My tongue was dry and thick and my throat felt like someone had shoved barbed wire down it.

“You want some water?”

“Yes, please,” I replied on a whisper, my voice sounding raspy and weak.

Jason reached for something and came back with a cup of water that had a straw in it. He held it to my mouth and helped me with the straw. I took a tiny sip and flinched when the water hit my throat as I swallowed.

“Easy, baby. Small sips.” I took another one and this time it hurt a little less.

“What happened?” I asked when I was done.

Jason put the cup back on the tray. “You don’t remember?” I thought about the last thing I remembered. We were at a party at the bar. Our party. I went to the restroom and then…Brad. It all came back to me in an instant. “Brad. He grabbed me when I came out of the restroom.”

Jason nodded. His eyes had turned angry in hearing Brad’s name but his face remained soft. “He was going to take me somewhere and …” I didn’t want to say out loud what Brad had planned to do to me. I didn’t need to. It looked like Jason knew only too well. His eyes turned darker. I kept talking. “I fought him and he hit me. That’s all I remember. He must have knocked me out.”

Jason’s hand came up and stroked my cheek gently. “He did knock you out. And you hit your head on the cement when he dropped you when Frank tackled him. You have a small crack in your skull, but all your tests came back clean.”

“He cracked my skull?” That made sense. My head did feel like it was split open right down the middle. Jason nodded solemnly. “Where is he? Did they get him?” He nodded again. “He’s in jail and has been refused bail. You’re safe.” That was good news. I sighed and closed my eyes, exhausted.

The door opened and a nurse walked into the room. “Hey there. How are we feeling today?”

“My head hurts,” I said with my eyes still closed.

“I bet it does. I’ll give you something for it as soon as the doctor has had a good look at you.”

“Okay,” I said, grateful.

She made me open my eyes again and checked and prodded what felt like everywhere before she left and said she’d be back with the doctor.

“How long have I been out?” I asked Jason when the nurse had left.

“Almost two days,” Jason answered, his voice heavy and tired.

“Two days?” Wow. No wonder he looked like crap.

“Two very long days. The longest days of my life.” I tried to lift my hand. I needed to touch him. My arm was so heavy it took all the strength I had to put my hand to his cheek, but I succeeded. We both sighed at the contact. Jason grabbed my hand with his and pushed it against his skin as he nuzzled into it. “You scared the shit out of me, Loreley. If you hadn’t made it…”

“Shh,” I soothed him. “I’ll be okay. You said it yourself. All my tests came back clean.”

“I know.” He closed his eyes and kissed my palm.

“You need some sleep.”

“I’ll sleep when you’re back home and lying beside me.” I smiled to myself. It might be selfish, but I didn’t want him to leave and I was grateful that he didn’t want to leave my side either.

Then the doctor came in and examined me thoroughly.

“You’ll have a headache for a couple of weeks, but everything else looks fine. Your vitals are stable and your memory seems good. Give it a couple of days and take it easy and you can go home.”

“Okay. Thank you, doctor.” He smiled at me, nodded at Jason, and left the room. The nurse came back and gave me my pain medication, making me pass out in less than a minute.

It went on like this for the next two days, me in and out of consciousness, but more alert and in less pain every time I woke up. My family visited me and talked to me whenever I was awake. Jason never left my side. He grabbed a shower in my room while I was asleep and promised me he would eat something and at least catch some shut-eye with me, but he never left.

It was the day I was finally being released. Betty had gone to my house and brought me some clothes and everything I needed to take a shower. Jason refused to let any of the nurses help me, so it was he who not only helped me in and out of the shower, but who hopped in with me and washed my body. There was no hanky-panky going on, that would have to wait for a little while until my head stopped pounding. He washed me gently and with a purpose and held me to his naked chest when I asked him to. I needed the contact and so did he. We stood like that for a good long while, until he turned off the water and dried first me, and then himself. Then he carefully brushed my wet hair before he helped me dress and sat me in the chair to wait for him while he sorted himself.

As Jason had promised me, Brad had not been released and was waiting for his trial at the Colorado State Penitentiary. Robert had called just that morning, informing us that it had been Dana who had paid bail for Brad. If you asked me, she was one fucked-up bitch to say the least. Who does shit like that? Scorned woman or not, the extremes she had gone to were just plain insane. Jason had gone ballistic and if it hadn’t been for the fact the he wouldn’t leave my side I think he would have hunted her down himself. As far as Robert could tell, Maggie had been right in her guess and it was also her who was feeding the media with all the garbage that had been published, though since my hospitalization, the tone of what had been said had changed dramatically. The few paparazzi that had been outside the bar that night, had seen enough to testify; with the pictures they took as evidence. The only one who hadn’t taken any pictures was the man who had gone inside the bar to get Jason. His name was Ajay Chowdhury. The others had run with the story, and let me tell you, it was no fun seeing those pictures of me in the news. Those people had no scruples. But it changed how the public saw me from then on. I wasn’t the gold digger and child killer they had called me at first. I was the victim of a vicious attack, who had almost been killed on top of having endured the trauma of having lost her child just a year ago. So that was at least something. In his gratitude for getting to him that night, Jason had promised Ajay an exclusive interview with the both of us once I was feeling up to it.

Jason was going to sue Dana, not for posting bail, since she couldn’t be sued for that, but for releasing information that she garnered while she worked for him. It was a little tricky to get the proof on that, but Robert was optimistic that he could get his hands on something they could use in court. He promised us that she wouldn’t dare show her face ever again once he was done with her. I still wanted to bitch-slap the shit out of her, but unfortunately, it looked like I’d never get the chance.

We signed the papers and Jason took me home. Well, to Cal’s rental. Jason was a little paranoid about my safety right now, and I couldn’t blame him.

“I want us to stay close to Frank and there isn’t enough room at your house.” I didn’t fight him on it. It’s what he needed. I understood. I was okay with it for now, but we couldn’t stay here forever.

“I’ve paid the rent for the next few months, baby. Don’t worry about it.” We were lying on the lounge chair on the back deck, Jason on his back, me on my side snuggled into him. I had been released almost two weeks ago now and felt better every day.

“That’s not it, Jason. As much as I love this house it’s not ours. It’s not home.”

Jason sighed, frustrated. This wasn’t the first time I had brought it up and he was getting annoyed with me. “You said you understood. Your house is too small, especially if it turns out that you’re pregnant. And I can’t make it safe enough for our family without some major renovations. I don’t want to leave you right now to deal with any of that, so it’s gonna have to wait.”

My hand went to my flat stomach. I was late, but the doctors had said my body might skip a period because of the trauma and stress it had endured. I wasn’t worried yet. Not that I would be worried if I was pregnant. I was actually hoping I was.

Jason’s hand joined mine on my stomach and he smiled a proud and loving smile at me. He was smug. I shook my head at him, smiling, before went back to the topic at hand. “Then buy us a new house.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. He had thought I wouldn’t want to leave the house I had raised Jesse in, nor did I like him spending that kind of money. But that didn’t matter to me anymore. The memories would always stay with me, no matter where we lived. And I’d have to get used to us being rich at some point. “You’re okay with me buying you a new house?”

“Us. You’d be buying
us
a new house. You and me. And possibly our new baby. And Frank of course.” I smirked at him teasingly. I expected him to hug me or kiss me, but to my surprise, Jason got up and pulled me up with him. “What are you doing?”

“We’re going to look at houses,” he said in a duh-like fashion as he walked us inside.

“What? Now?”

“Of course now. My wife wants a home and she’s not arguing with me about spending too much money on it, so I better seize the moment and buy her one.”

“You’re insane,” I whined.

He stopped and pulled me into his embrace. “I’m insanely in love with you,” he said, melting my heart. “Now, get your pretty tush in gear and stop whining.” He kissed the tip of my nose and pushed me towards the stairs, telling me to get dressed in something else than short-short pajama pants and a tank top, another point of discord we’d had over the past week. He thought they were too short for company, but they were the most comfortable clothes I had. I got my way and kept them on while we were in the house, even when we had visitors, but when we left, I had to put on something that covered me up a little more. Little did he know I’d never leave the house dressed in my pajamas anyway, so I was pretty smug about my victory.

I came back down dressed in my short jeans skirt, a loose fitting beige t-shirt with a longhorn printed on it, and my flip flops.

“Ugh,” Jason groaned when he saw me. I grinned at him and threw him a kiss. “How’s your head?” He asked as he walked slowly towards me. His voice was low and sexy and very suggestive.

“Good,” I answered, a little breathlessly. Jason hadn’t touched me since I’d been released from the hospital. Not like that at least and I missed him. The doctor had given us the okay during my last check-up two days ago, but Jason had still been hesitant. He didn’t want to hurt me.

“Just good?” He had reached me now and stroked his finger down the side of my face, stopping at my bottom lip.