Chapter 28 #2
“You wouldn’t listen to me!” Connor snapped, grabbing her by the arms and giving her a shake, not hard enough to hurt her, but it was enough to stun her.
“I told you to get your ass back in the bar, but you wouldn’t listen!
You should have fucking listened to me, Rory!
” Another shake. “Do you have any idea how close I came to losing you that night? Do you?” he practically roared in her face as he pushed her back up against the wall and got in her face, clearly done with avoiding this subject.
“I begged you to go inside, Rory, but even drunk, you’re a stubborn pain in the ass!
” Connor snapped, glaring down at her. “When that asshole pulled out a knife, you got pissed and went to punch him. I almost didn’t get between you in time!
Do you have any idea how close that piece of shit came to stabbing you?
Do you?” he demanded, sounding angrier with each passing second when all she could do was stand there, desperately trying to catch her breath as his words sank in.
“How did he get stabbed, Connor?” Rory asked, reaching out and grabbing onto him as a wave of dizziness tore through with the knowledge that she was the reason the man ended up in the hospital having one of his kidneys removed.
“He fell on the knife when I tackled him to the ground,” Connor said, his tone gentler as his grip on her arms turned supportive.
“But in the police report, he said that you’d attacked him,” Rory mumbled, desperately trying to wrap her mind around everything he’d told her and figure out how they’d gotten off when it was the other guy who’d ended up in the hospital when there hadn’t been any witnesses to back them up.
She’d tried to get her hands on the police report a few times over the years, but because the case was closed and she wasn’t a Canadian resident, her request had been denied.
“I know what he said, Rory, but his story didn’t add up,” Connor explained softly.
“What are you talking about, Connor? There were no other witnesses and he’s the one that got hurt. How exactly didn’t his story add up?”
Locking his eyes with hers, Connor gently took her good hand off his arm and placed it on the left side of his chest. When she opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, he glided her hand over his chest. It took her a moment before a small, raised line registered, and when it did, she shook off his hand and traced her fingers over the three-inch scar that she’d never noticed before.
Not that anyone would have really had a chance to see the scar with his tattoo covering it.
When he raised his left hand, palm out, her eyes landed on a long thin scar that ran across it. Without a word, she reached up with a shaky hand and traced the thin scar that ran across his palm that she’d always assumed was from working in construction.
“Defensive wound,” Rory said numbly as she dropped her hand.
“Yes,” Connor said, pushing away from the wall. When he sat down on the edge of the bed and dropped his head in his hands, it surprised her how badly she wanted to go to him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Rory asked, leaning her head back and looking up at the ceiling, desperately trying not to lose it as something occurred to her.
He hadn’t ruined her life.
That was all her. She’d ruined her life by getting drunk and going off with some asshole. She’d put them both in that situation and because of her, Connor had been hurt.
“There was no point in telling you, Rory. It was done.”
“You were in the cell with me the next morning, Connor. How did you manage that if you were injured?” she asked, trying to find a hole in his story and instinctively knowing that she wouldn’t find any. For all his faults, Connor wasn’t a liar.
“I let them stitch me up and then left against medical advice when they wanted me to stay the night,” he explained softly.
“Why?” she found herself asking even though she wasn’t really sure that she could handle anything more tonight.
“I couldn’t stomach the idea of you being in a jail cell like that, Rory. By the time the ambulance came, you were already having problems. I made them bring you to the hospital, but they only kept you there long enough to give you some fluids before they released you back into police custody.”
“Why did my father hit you?” Rory asked, wondering if her father knew Connor’s role in everything. She doubted it. Her father would never strike someone that protected one of his children.
“He didn’t know what happened. The only thing that he knew was that I followed you to Canada and that you were arrested, facing some pretty serious charges.”
“You could have corrected him on that,” Rory said, feeling her eyes tear up once again. She hated crying, didn’t want to do it, but damn Connor, if he didn’t have her close to crying again.
“You had enough to deal with, Rory. It was simpler for me to take the brunt of his anger.”
Taking a slow, steady breath, Rory dropped her gaze to Connor, and for the first time in years, she didn’t know what to feel when she looked at him.
She couldn’t hate him, wanted to, but she couldn’t.
He’d saved her, cared for her, and protected her, and she’d been an absolute bitch to him over the years, not that he hadn’t deserved some of it, but there was no way that he’d deserved all of it.
“Why did you come after me, Connor?” Rory whispered, praying that he wouldn’t say or do anything else that would rock her world. She really didn’t know how much more she could take.
“In the top drawer,” he said, tilting his head to the side so that he could watch her.
Heart pounding in her chest, Rory walked over to his bureau. She threw him one last look to find him sitting there with his head once again in his hands and she couldn’t help but wonder just how bad this was going to be. After taking a fortifying breath, she reached up and opened the drawer.
It slid out easily, but that wasn’t exactly surprising since there wasn’t much inside. In the middle of the drawer sat a small velvet jewelry box.
“What’s this?” she asked, swallowing nervously as she picked it up.
“Your birthday gift, Rory.”
Her hands shook so badly that she almost dropped the box twice, but after a minute, she managed to open it.
Her chin trembled as she traced the tiny diamond with the tip of her finger.
It was the smallest diamond ring that she’d ever seen, but it was without a doubt the most beautiful one that she’d ever laid her eyes on.
She pulled the ring out of the box for a closer look when something inside the ring caught her eye. Swallowing hard, Rory turned the ring over until the dim bedroom light hit the inscription just right, and when it did, she almost dropped it as she read the three letters engraved on the ring.
LRJ