Looking For Trouble (32 page)

Her ears were buzzing, but she was
determined not to pass out, so she sucked in one more breath and
took off out into the arena where the crowd of cowboys were
surrounding him, and she stopped when she saw a man with a
stethoscope was kneeling down working on him. "I need an ambu bag!"
the doctor yelled, then added, "And a back board and
C-collar...quick!"

One of the red-shirted guys took off for the
backstage area, and the doctor started pumping on Wade's chest, and
a wail worked its way out of Jess as she faded to her knees,
sobbing wildly. She knew what that man was doing, and it wasn't
just giving him smelling salts, because he was unconscious. Her
breathing came in short pants, as anxiety overwhelmed her and the
black dots that had been spotting her vision, closed in to a black
curtain. She heard voices from far away and then felt herself
sinking to the ground.

Something pungent tickled the bottom of her
nose and she wiggled it, then coughed as ammonia shot straight up
her nasal passage with her next breath. She coughed again then
gagged and finally opened her eyes to see some guy with a worried
frown leaning over her, then she heard a wail and Jazzie ran around
the bed and threw herself over her chest hugging her and
crying.

"Oh, god, you scared the crap out of me,
Jess..." she sobbed, then everything came back to Jess and she sat
straight up on the table and screamed and then sobbed Wade's name,
holding her stomach, because it felt like the acid in there was
eating a hole in it.

Jazzie grabbed her shoulders and hugged her,
"Shh...they took him to the hospital to get checked out...Beau can
take us," she told her brokenly.

Jess grabbed her shoulders and asked
frantically, "Did you see him when he left?"

Jazzie shook her head and her thick black
hair danced around her shoulders. "No, I was worried about you,
they were taking care of him."

Panic shot through Jess and she asked
Jazzie, "Where's Angel!" then got down off the table and her legs
almost gave out again, because she landed wrong on the cast. The
guy who'd been taking care of her grabbed her and helped steady
her.

She put her hand on his arm, and asked him,
"Did you see Wade, before they took him to the hospital?"

"No ma'am...I was taking care of you," he
said with a shake of his head.

"Gabe and Karlie have Angel, they're going
to keep her, so we can go to the hospital...let's go," she said
then they walked quickly down the long hallway and outside, where
Beau was waiting for them, by the truck. He was on the phone, and
frowning.

When they got to his side, Jess heard the
last of his conversation, and her heart about stopped. Her heart
skipped a few beats then she asked, "Someone intentionally hurt
Wade?"

Beau's eyebrows drew together and he told
her in a sympathetic voice, "Looks that way, sugar...they cut the
strap on his saddle. It's a miracle it didn't break while he was
riding, that's what the other cowboys and officials who looked at
it said. I have it in a bag in my truck for evidence. We arrested
Cam Jessup...the judges and administration disqualified him too.
Wade won the competition, and they have his check when he gets out
of the hospital."

Jazzie had put her arm around Jess's
shoulders, and Jess shrugged it off then got in Beau's face and
demanded, "Where is that sonofabitch, I'm gonna kick his ass from
here to next Sunday!"

Beau took her shoulders and told her, "Calm
down, Jess...he's going to jail, honey, that's basically attempted
murder, if the prosecutor decides to go that route. There were
witnesses...and he bragged about it to a few people, and I'm hoping
that saddle might have his fingerprints on it. I got his knife too,
and I'm sending it to forensics with the saddle."

Jess huffed out a breath, then her shoulders
wilted. "Thanks for doing all that, Beau, I hope they lock him up
and throw away the key."

"If they don't, there's a line of people who
want to kick his ass...he'll be safer in jail," Beau said with a
chuckle.

All she cared about was Wade, and she needed
to get to him now. "Can we go to the hospital now? Have you heard
anything about Wade?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"I haven't heard anything, I've been working
on gathering evidence and getting that bastard where he should be,
sorry..." he told her with sympathy in his eyes.

"Don't be sorry--that needed to be done, but
I'm so damned worried about Wade, I wanna be sick," she told him
and clutched her stomach that felt like someone was shoving hot
knives in it.

"Hospital isn't too far, hop in," he said
and she and Jazzie ran around the truck and got in.

When they got to the hospital, he let her
and Jazzie out at the door of the emergency room, then went to park
the truck. She ran through the door, then looked around, and ran to
the admitting desk, where a nurse was sitting. "Please tell me
where Wade Roberts is...how's he doing?" she asked frantically,
leaning over the desk.

He's in ER-5, but you can't go back there
unless you're a relative, the woman told her. "I'm Jess Sparks, his
fiancé, and the mother of his daughter," she lied, not caring about
their damned rules. She couldn't very well say, "I'm his lover, and
we're playing house," because that was about the extent of their
relationship right now.

"Some of his friends are here in the waiting
room, over there," she pointed out the room, then said, "But I'll
show you to the examining room, so you can talk to the
doctors."

"Thank you," she said with a relieved sigh
and followed the nurse down the hall. When she walked into the room
and saw all the wires attached to him, Jess whimpered, then ran
over there and fell on top of him, sobbing. The nurse pulled her
off of him, and told her, "He's still unconscious, honey...they're
about to take him for an MRI on his back...maybe it'd be better if
you go wait in the waiting room with the others. I'll come and get
you when the doctor has news."

"Is he breathing on his own? I saw the
doctor at the arena giving him CPR..."

"We have him ventilated right now, you can
ask the doctor when you see him," the nurse told her with sympathy
in her eyes.

Jess's heart skipped a few beats and intense
emotion clogged her throat, as she asked the question that had been
haunting her, since she left the arena, "Has he moved his arms or
legs?"

The nurse shook her head, then responded,
"No, he hasn't, but he's been unconscious, so we won't know how his
spine is, until we get the MRI results...now let's get you in there
with the others waiting to hear something, so we can get the tests
done and get you answers." The woman took her shoulders and turned
her toward the door, then led her down the hall to the waiting
room.

Jess staggered inside the room on wooden
legs, and Jazzie broke away from a group of cowboys she'd been
talking to and ran over there and threw her arms around her. The
cowboys followed Jazzie and formed a group hug around them. They
smelled like horse, sweat and dust, but she didn't care, the love
radiating around her helped soothe her nerves. They backed up after
a minute, and shuffled her to a chair and she sat down, then Jazzie
sat beside her and took her hands.

"Did they tell you anything?" she asked with
fear in her voice.

Jess shook her head and told them, "They
said they're about to take him for some tests, an MRI, and then
they'd tell us something. He's still not awake, and they have him
on a b-b-breathing ma-ma-chine," she said then felt tears scalding
her cheeks and sucked in a shuddering breath. "What am I gonna do,
Jazzie?" she sobbed then put her face in her hands.

"You're gonna sit here with us, and you're
gonna keep your chin up, Jess. Wade needs you to be strong, for him
and for Angel. You' can't fall apart, sweetie."

"I kn-know, but he looked so bad,
Jazzie...all those tubes and wires...and he hasn't woken up...that
can't be good," she wailed as misery poured through her like poison
in her veins.

"We need to go find that damned rookie and
kick his ass," one of the cowboys in the group said loudly, and the
others erupted in murmurs of agreement. The more they mumbled and
talked, the louder the rumbling got, and tension ramped up in the
room. Jess stood up and waved her hands then whistled and they
finally quieted down.

Her lip trembled as she said loudly, so all
twenty or thirty guys could hear her, "He's been arrested by the
Texas Rangers, and he's in jail, so you don't have to worry about
him right now. We need prayers--lots and lots of prayers--for
Wade's recovery, right now. Thank ya'll for being here...he'll
appreciate it, I know I do," she told them then felt tears pouring
out of her eyes again, and sat back down weakly.

Jess didn't know if it was ten minutes or
two hours later, that's how despondent she was, but a doctor in
green scrubs walked in the room and called her name. She launched
up off the chair and ran over to him, "I'm Jess Sparks...how's
Wade?" she asked breathlessly, fearing what he would say, but
wanting to hear it anyway.

"He's breathing on his own now, and he's
awake and asking for you. We're still waiting on the MRI results,
though."

"Can I go see him?" she grabbed his arm and
asked, holding her breath.

"If you don't, I think he's gonna tear the
ER down," he told her with a chuckle.

All the men in the room laughed too, and the
doctor looked around then said, "Looks like we've got a rodeo event
going on in here."

"Team prayer challenge," one of them called
out, and they all hollered and clapped.

"He could use it," the doctor said then told
them, "I'll be back to let ya'll know his status in a little
while."

They all muttered, "Thanks, doc," then he
led her out of the room and down to the exam room, then left her at
the door.

When Jess walked into the room and her eyes
locked with his, a wave of strong emotion started at her toes then
rose all the way to her head and she sobbed then ran over to him.
She stopped beside the bed and took his hand in hers, but didn't
flop down on top of him this time, because she didn't want to hurt
him. She squeezed his hand and he didn't act like he noticed, and
he didn't squeeze it back, and her heart twisted in her chest, and
she bit back the agonized wail that tried to work its way out of
her.

He swallowed a couple of times and flinched,
then said in a raw gravelly voice, "I'm sorry for getting hurt,
baby."

Jess whimpered and then sobbed and told him,
"It wasn't your fault, Wade...Cam Jessup cut your saddle
strap...Beau arrested him."

"I knew something bad went wrong when that
saddle came off...but I couldn't do anything," he told her and his
eyes filled with emotion. "I shouldn't have rode in this
competition, you were right...I'm sorry, sugar," he told her and a
single tear fell out the corner of his eye and tracked to his
ear.

She leaned over and swiped it with her thumb
and said, "Wade Roberts, don't you dare apologize to me again, or
I'm going to kick your ass. You won the damned thing, and wouldn't
be here if that asshole hadn't sabotaged your saddle."

He chuckled, then groaned and said softly,
"Yes ma'am....'

"That's more like it," she told him, then
leaned down and kissed his lips softly, then put her forehead to
his and asked him the question she needed an answer to, "Wade, are
you paralyzed, baby?" then squeezed his hand again.

After a second, he squeezed it back and she
whimpered, then he huffed a breath and told her shakily, "I can't
feel my legs, but my arms are okay...the doctor said it could be
just temporary from the jarring when I landed, but the MRI will
tell the tale."

She looked in his eyes and saw fear and
pain...but something else too, resignation. He swallowed hard then
told her with tears in his eyes, "I don't want you to stay with me,
if I am paralyzed, Jess...I want to see Angel, but you need to move
on. I knew this was a possibility when I entered that competition
and I decided then that if I got hurt...I'd let you go...you didn't
want me to enter, and I did it anyway. You deserve better than
having to take care of me, because I was stupid."

Anger poured through her and she jerked away
from him and put her hands on her hips, then told him, "That is the
most asinine thing I've ever heard...it's mighty nice of you to
decide what I need and don't need in my life, and how I should live
it. That decision is not yours to make, it's mine."

He firmed up his jaw, and his eyes glittered
when he told her, "And entering the rodeo was
my
decision,
and not a good one...all bets are off, Jess. This is about
me
, I don't
want
to be with you, if I'm
paralyzed."

The more he said to her, the more the anger
inside of her moved toward the boiling point. "Oh, so that's how
love works...we can only be with each other in the good times. If
something goes wrong, then we're free to '
move on'
as you
put it...do I have it right?"

He ground his teeth, then hissed, "That's
about it, yeah."