43. Chapter Forty- three
Chapter Forty- three
Blue
A gasp rips me awake.
Libby!
Frantically, I look around at the monitors and wires, desperate to find her.
Then I see her, curled in a blanket at the foot of my bed, wedged between my ankles.
Shit, it hurts to move.
I feel like I was hit with a sledgehammer to the chest.
My bandages crinkle when I try to reach for her.
“Rebel?” I croak hoarsely. Fire burns in my throat.
Why am I so damn thirsty?
Groggily, her pretty blue eyes open. Then she sits up quickly, her hand clenching my calf. “Blue! Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” She slides her legs down, then moves up to press her cool palm against my cheek.
“For what? Are you okay? The baby?” My mind races at all of the terrible possibilities .
She shakes her head. “I’m fine, so is our baby.” Her hand moves to her belly. “I got to see the heartbeat for the first time,” she says in awe.
I can see she’s reserved, withdrawn.
“Libby,” I growl, my voice coarser than I intend. “Don’t hold back, remember? What’s going on?”
Tears well in her lower lids before they sneak down the hollow along her nose. “I shot you,” she whispers.
I can’t control the laugh that breaks free, even if it makes my shoulder erupt in agony.
“You were about to be hit by that car. You can shoot me a million times if it still means I get to save you.” I can tell my answer didn’t help.
So I drop the smile, and tug her fingers to my lips. “Did you mean to?”
Her brows furrow. “Of course not! I was trying to stop the driver.”
“That’s my girl.” I’m proud of her for fighting back.
I just hate that she stood there taking aim instead of trying to protect herself.
Reckless. Wild. Like through sheer force of will she was going to win.
I wouldn’t doubt she could.
“I’m quitting my job,” I announce quietly. “I don’t want you there alone.”
Her head shakes. “I’m not. Devon is—”
“He’s a kid,” I grunt.
“—and Dad will be back. I won’t be by myself.” But worry tightens her cheeks.
My gut rolls.
“No, he won’t be.” I grip her fingers, wanting her to see the truth before I have to prove it.
“What? Yea, he just took a trip. He won’t stay gone forever.” Her free hand flips in the air until she sees my face.
“Blue?” Worry rolls her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Hand me my phone.” I gesture towards the pile of my clothes on the far chair.
I got the text I was dreading last night.
Her cheeks pale as she hands it to me.
“He sent me this the other day. Told me not to share it until I got the news. His friend messaged me yesterday saying that it was done.” I feel like I’m going to puke as I roll through the last few days, then highlight the note he sent me before I left for Billings.
“Here.” I flip the screen to her.
Her lips move as she reads it.
I have it memorized. It guts me every time I think about it.
Don’t tell Libby until I’m gone.
My cancer isn’t in remission.
I’m dying, Blue .
I fucked everything up. I love Libby and Devon so much, I didn’t want them to struggle like I did.
But I pushed them both away.
I know how much they missed their mom. She was a damn saint dealing with my bullshit for all those years.
The only good I could do was make sure they hated me enough they won’t be sad that I’m gone.
She loves you, I can see it. And I can tell you love her too.
That makes me proud that the only decent thing I did in this life was make you cross paths.
Take care of my little girl. I’m not going to live long enough to see my grandbabies, so make sure you give them the best life.
Or I’ll haunt your ass.
Clay
She crawls into the hospital bed with me, nestling into my good shoulder, and cries.
We both fall into an exhausted nap when Wade shows up.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but wanted to fill you in.” His dark eyes are sunken as he twists his hat in his hands.
“What does that bastard have to say for themselves?” Anger rages through me at how close they were to hurting my wife .
“She.” Wade pauses. “It’s a woman.”
“A woman rigged a charge to blow up a storage tank? Poisoned cows and killed others? What the fuck is wrong with her?” My fist bounces against my forehead in frustration.
He shakes his head hard enough one of his russet curls falls over his forehead. “I think there’s a bigger figure in the background pulling the strings. She didn’t know about the shit with Black Gulch, she was just hired to deliver packages.”
“Like you believe her?” I hiss, struggling not to wake up Libby.
She’ll find all of this out later, but for now, she, and our baby, need whatever rest they can get.
But when he nods, it pisses me off.
“How can you be so fucking sure that the person who could have killed my wife and child wasn’t behind this?” If I could stand, I’d be pacing.
Wade’s brows lift as he glances at Libby’s sleeping form. “Well, congrats on the rugrat. But I just know, okay?”
Anger is hard to control when it’s this volatile. This fucking intimate to everything that’s important to me.
“Give me one good reason why I should believe you?” I’d be tempted to pin him to the wall by his collar if I could.
He lets out a long, painful sigh. “I owe her to find the truth. It’s the least I can do. She’s being blackmailed, and I need to find out who it is. ”
I force my breathing to even as my palm covers my eyes. “Wade. I’m going to ask you one more time. Why in the fuck aren’t you throwing the book at her? It’s on camera.”
His shoulders shake with a ragged inhale. “Remember about twelve years ago?” he asks quietly.
My mind races, struggling to get past the chaotic events of yesterday.
But the moment slowly dawns.
A midnight meeting.
Me and Ford with shovels in a distant patch of ground at Black Rock.
Digging for hours to bury the truth.
“Yea. I remember.” There are a lot of skeletons buried on that ranch.
That was one of them.
“It’s her, Blue.” Wade’s walnut colored eyes darken. “I killed her father. That’s why I owe her.”