Chapter 29 Angel
I came to with a crick in my neck, a pounding headache, and a throbbing face. I remembered the blow that knocked me out. I remembered the second blow that took me out the second time. I just didn’t know who kept on hitting me.
His back was to me as he drove, and when I tried to move, he sat up in the seat and peered at me in the rearview mirror. “Stay down,” he bit out harshly.
“Who are you?” I asked as I touched my cheek. Ow. That hurt badly. What the hell had he hit me with?
“Don’t matter who I am, all that matters is what I’m owed.”
Owed? He wasn’t a player. He wasn’t Will. He was too old to be Ronnie.
“I don’t owe you anything,” I told him as I struggled to sit up and the world swam.
“Lay down, your head’s cracked open.”
My fingers probed at my head, and I felt something sticky coating it. “Why do you keep hitting me?”
“You’ll be fine,” he said as he made a turn. “Lay back.”
“No.” Struggling against the nausea, I sat up and looked around. I was still in Nashville, but we looked to be heading south. “Who are you?” I asked him as I tried to move so I could see him.
“Name’s Burt,” he said gruffly. “You took my boy.”
“Will?”
When Ronnie Christie had told me Will Hershman had him, I had run out of the house like it was on fire. I knew that if Onyx got to Ronnie first, he’d make a terrible mistake. I needed to get to Ronnie, and I didn’t trust Onyx to listen to me.
“He’s helping me.”
“Helping you do what? Burt? I don’t know you or your boy.”
He turned then to look at me, and I saw the likeness — dead in the eyes, which were the same light brown and held the same intensity, as if they were indeed owed something.
“You’re Judd’s father,” I realized as I sat back.
“And you’re the bitch that killed him.”
He made a sudden stop, and I jerked forward, which was too much for my poor body to handle as I threw up in the back seat.
I heard him cursing, and then I was being pulled out of the car by my hair, and I struggled as he dragged me.
He knocked me to my knees, and my stomach protested once again as I emptied the contents.
“Stop it,” he snarled, and he kicked me in the side, knocking me over, as my body twisted in on itself, still trying to vomit.
My hair was in the small puddle of bile. On my hands and knees, I tried to push myself up, but my head was spinning, and I couldn’t focus on which way was up. I felt another sharp kick and landed flat on my face.
“Get up!” he ordered. “Stupid bitch, lying on the ground, get up.”
“Stop hitting me,” I slurred as I tried to move. “I can’t get up if you keep,” my body convulsed as it retched again, “if you keep hitting me.”
A strong hand grabbed my hair, and I screamed at the tearing pain.
I was dragged by my hair to my feet. Burt Christie brought his face close to mine.
“Will said you were a stuck-up bitch. He said he couldn’t wait to fuck it out of you, loosen you up.
” Burt drew his head back and spat on me.
“That’s what I think of you, bitch. You killed my boy. Now give me his money.”
Nothing made sense. My face was on fire, my head was mush, and I felt like I was floating. Consciousness was coming in and out.
“I didn’t.” There was another piercing pain, and then blackness took me.
When I came to, I heard voices, voices that I knew.
“Onyx?” I groaned.
“I’m here, I’m here,” he soothed. His hands gently touched my face. “Help’s coming.”
“Aren’t you the help?” I asked him, but my throat was scratchy, my body weak, and I don’t think he understood me.
“You can’t pass out again,” he told me, and I felt my body move. “I’ve got you, but you need to talk.”
“Sleep first,” I mumbled as I grabbed for him. “Stay.”
“I’m here. Don’t sleep, Angel.” Fingers curled around mine. “Cooper? I need that fucking ambulance!”
“Get car,” I mumbled. “Don’t need . . . ambulance.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Cooper,” I groaned. “I need to sleep.”
“Not yet, babe, soon.” I felt movement, and a different pair of hands held me, Cooper’s, I think.
“I called them, Onyx. You’ve got some time, so make it count.
” As Cooper tried to keep me awake, I heard grunts coming from beside me.
Voices were raised, but the words were jumbled.
I tried to turn, but Cooper told me I had to keep my head steady.
When I thought sleep was coming, he poked me awake.
“That’s enough,” I heard Cooper call. “Stop. I said stop!”
“What is it?” I started to cough, and I heard Cooper cursing above me.
“I hear them. Do the car,” Cooper bit out instructions, and nothing made sense.
“So tired,” I groaned.
“I know, babe, but just a little bit longer. You’re tough, hang on.”
I didn’t think I was tough because I woke up in the back of an ambulance, a young medic looking at me, who gave me a smile. “Hey there.”
I tried to speak, but he shook his head.
“Not yet, miss. Once we’re at the ER, okay? Your boyfriend’s behind us.”
He was? I clutched the paramedic’s hand. I had no idea who he thought my boyfriend was, and I prayed it was Onyx who was following us.
“It’s okay, you’re safe,” he soothed me. “The police took the guy. Let them worry about him, and let’s focus on you, okay?”
I nodded, but I kept hold of his hand, and he let me. Dizziness swept over me again.
“Try to stay with me, Angel,” he said. “Can you do that?”
I nodded. I think I nodded, but the pain was excruciating.
“Don’t do that again,” he scolded me gently. “It’s going to hurt,” he said with a sympathetic smile, and I huffed out a laugh, but that hurt too.
The ambulance jerked to a halt, and the doors were flung open. Bright light assaulted my eyes as I was transitioned from the back of an ambulance to a hospital in what felt like one move.
My head turned, looking for Onyx, searching for him, and finally I saw him, his face white, whiter than mine even.
His cheek was marked. Cooper stood beside him, his hand on his shoulder, like he was holding him back.
Two policemen were with them. My attention was snagged on what Onyx had wrapped around his hand.
Was he holding a scarf? Why was he holding a scarf?
A cacophony of voices erupted above me, and someone mentioned a chest tube. The lights were blinding, and I suddenly felt something sharp and probing at my side.
They spoke above me, and I felt everything moving again.
“She’s going to pass out,” someone said, and I realized I was the she and that I was.
As I fell down the hole, I realized he hadn’t been holding a scarf. It had been my hair.
* * *
“How you feeling?” my nurse Brenna asked me as she checked my vitals.
“Well, I was okay and thought the concussion was over, but then the big scary clown came in and told the Easter bunny he had to go home because Santa had an elf up his butt.”
She gave me a flat stare. “You want home, I get it, I know. You’re a terrible patient, and you’re feeling right as rain.”
“It’s almost like you think I’m lying,” I told her as she handed me my water.
“It’s almost like you forget I’ve heard every lame ass excuse in this hospital, and for your information, it wasn’t an elf up his butt, dear Lord, girl, this is Santa.” She paused. “It was a candy cane.”
“Boring.”
She laughed, and I grinned. “It could have been a really fat candy cane,” she said with a naughty wink, and we both laughed.
“Okay, Brenna,” I said seriously, “when can I leave?”
“Soon.”
“Not today?”
“Not today.” She looked around my room. “But why would you want away from all this?”
My room was filled with flowers, balloons, cards, and a teddy bear that was so big I was actually scared of it. Every day, more flowers came from my clients, my co-workers, my friends. “I’ve been lucky,” I told her.
“If you were lucky, you wouldn’t have been abducted, beaten, knocked unconscious, and suffered a punctured lung.” She shrugged. “But maybe your days are more action-packed than mine.”
“You’re a smart-ass,” I told her as I sipped my water.
“I’m a nurse,” she told me. “It’s in my job description.” Having marked everything down, she looked at me. “You’ve got a visitor.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll let him in.”
I nodded and she left the room, telling me she would be back later. Cooper came in a few minutes later.
“I swear she keeps me outside for her own twisted pleasure,” he grunted as he sat down. “You look better.”
“Thanks,” I told him. He’d been here every day for the last few days. “They won’t let me go home yet,” I said.
“It’ll be another day or two,” he said as he looked around the room. “Dunno if Nashville florists will need their flowers back before then,” he said with a shake of his head. He studied me again. “You have a better color in here.”
“Wow.” I sipped my water. “Your charm . . . is . . . overwhelming.”
Cooper grinned. “Chrissy went into labor. Jer got a boy.” He shook his head. “The kid’s like eleven pounds or something. How she forced that out her—”
“And I’m okay without the details,” I told him quickly, which caused him to chuckle. “Name?”
“Not yet,” he said. “I’ll let you know. Want to send some of these to her?” he joked as he gestured to the vases.
“Is that rude to do that to my clients? Do I still have clients?” I asked him as I looked at the flowers.
“You have all the flowers; it’s pretty obvious that your clients are going nowhere.”
“And my stalker?” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Will has been held, Burt too. Nothing changed from yesterday.” Cooper watched me. “Your parents are also coming. Your mom apparently terrified Neil when she called him to demand why the sports agent who had been hospitalized was her daughter and no one told her.”
“Because I told him not to,” I answered with a frown. “She’s going to be impossible.”
“You’re in the hospital,” Cooper reminded me. “Most people’s parents kind of expect to know when that happens.”
“My mom will hover. There’s no need to hover. I have you,” I looked at him, “hovering.”
“You love it.” He tilted his head back and closed his eyes.