Chapter Twelve
An hour after the minor surgery to his leg, Gage was wheeled in to see Hope in the ICU.
Tears fell from his face as he prayed that she’d survive.
Nothing was more important than her return to him.
His chest burned as he held her hand, praying and begging.
“Hope, you have to wake up for me. I can’t lose you.
” He gripped her hand and squeezed it as he cried.
Never in his life had he felt so helpless and lost. Without her, he didn’t know if he could go on.
“Gage. Gage.” Her voice was so weak it could barely be heard above the sound of the machines. That had been the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.
“Hope. You’re awake,” he choked out. He reached down and buzzed the nurse.
“She’s awake.” His voice practically sang, catching the nurse off guard. Two nurses and the doctor on call came into the room and started looking her over.
“Hope, Mrs. Gibson, can you hear us?”
She nodded gently, her eyes drooping again. “Do you know where you are?” Again, she nodded, but she didn’t speak.
“So far, she’s improving.” They checked her vitals and smiled. “We need to take this slowly. We’re going to let her rest for now. You need to do so as well, Mr. Gibson.”
Gage shook his head, glaring at the physician. “Not going to happen. I’m not leaving her.” She was out cold and he couldn’t leave her unprotected, alone, and afraid. He leaned heavily onto her bed without touching her.
“We can put another bed in here if you’d like,” the nurse offered.
“That’s fine.” He grabbed Hope’s hand again and she moaned his name.
“I’m here, baby. I’m not going anywhere.” The doctor and nurses watched in amazement because her vitals improved with his voice and touch.
After watching the scene before them the hospital staff decided to give them some privacy. “We’ll back in a little while with the bed and equipment. Your leg should be up,” the doctor scolded him before he left the room.
As he watched Hope, thoughts of getting even with everyone who hurt her ran through his head.
“Gage…what happened?” Hope looked up at him through blurry eyes. He had a large white bandage on his forehead.
“We were forced off the road. They’re working on finding those who did it.”
“The baby?” She clutched at her stomach.
“Relax, my love. He’s okay.” Hope closed her eyes and smiled gently. “Oh my goodness. What about Ethan? They could be going to the house.” Gage wondered about all that too, but hoped to God that the men at the Ranch were guarding his family.
Five minutes later the bed was brought in with the equipment needed to monitor Gage.
He was placed in his bed which was moved next to his wife as close as they could allow for safety reasons.
They rested for about ten minutes, but their minds were on their family.
“I don’t have my phone,” Gage grumbled. “I feel so damn useless. I have to know what the fuck is going on with my family.” He slammed his hand down on the bed.
A knock at the door turned Gage’s cheeks red. “I wonder if they heard my complaint,” he said.
“Knock, knock.” Alex Savage came into the room, looking a bit worse for wear, damp and dirty.
“I’m glad to see you both awake. I would have been in here sooner, but they wanted you to rest.” The look on his face was a mix of concern and something else that disturbed Gage.
He’d been a prosecutor for a long time and understood what happened when someone had to break bad news to a family.
“Thanks. Any news for us? Please tell us our baby boy is safe.” Even as Gage asked the question, he feared the answer. He could practically smell the guilt rolling off Alex’s skin that he had to ask.
“A lot of news.” He grabbed a chair and sat on the opposite side of Hope and then began. “First, Ethan is safe.”
“That’s good, but I feel there’s a major but coming.” Hope squeezed Gage’s hand, attempting to calm him down. He put his hand up and then paused as he took off his hat. His fingers pinching the rim.
“There is. Cummings is dead.” Hope released a sigh of relief so loud that they both turned to her with bemused expressions.
“How? When?” Gage asked.
Gage knew then why Alex was upset. “Cummings got into your home. He attacked and there was a standoff between him and Mike.”
Gage’s heart rate skyrocketed and set the monitor off. “What about my mother?”
“Calm down, my friend. She’s going to be okay. She was roughed up, but thankfully, she’s tough. They claim she’s refusing treatment.”
He chuckled as his heart moved back into a manageable range. “Sounds just like her.”
Alex went over everything he’d learned before he came to see them. Extra guards were outside their room with photos of the three missing actors: Sparks, Grieg, and Moran.
Another knock on the door brought Mike and Ethan. “I thought you two would want to see him.” Both of their heart rates jolted again as they saw their baby boy. This time it was from joy, so the nurses just monitored them from the nurses’ station.
“Ma…ma…ma.” Mike handed him off to Gage who held him close before bringing him to Hope for a kiss. He didn’t let her take the baby because he was too heavy for her right now and she was barely conscious.
“Thank you, Mike. We truly can’t thank you enough for protecting our family,” Hope said with tears in her eyes.
“Just doing my job.” A subtle blush filled his cheeks.
“How’s Denver?” Alex asked.
“They’re going to release him in about twenty minutes. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and he’s refusing to stay in bed.”
“It seems none of you can behave,” the nurse remarked, coming into the room. “Ooh, who is this little cutie?”
“I’m Mike,” he teased, giving the nurse a wink.
“I was talking about the baby.”
“He’s our son, Ethan,” Hope said.
“So adorable. I’m sorry to break up the party, but my patients need their rest.”
“I’ll take care of the baby,” Mike offered.
“Willow and I will check in as well,” Alex offered. Willow had stopped by a couple of times over the past few months when she wasn’t busy and she loved babies even though they didn’t have any of their own yet.
“How long until we can get out of here?” Gage asked.
“As far as we can tell, you can leave tomorrow. However, Mrs. Gibson will need to stay until at least twenty-four hours for monitoring.” Hope let out a sigh and her shoulders dropped.
“Don’t worry, we’ll bring him tomorrow. Gage and Hope gave Ethan another kiss and he didn’t want to let her go. She gave him another big squeeze before Mike took the baby and said goodnight.
“Come on, little man. Say bye, bye.”
“Bye,” he babbled.” The room gasped and cheered, accidentally startling Ethan. Mike gently soothed him.
“Someone is ready to be a father.”
“Whoa, hold your horses on that one, Savage,” Mike exclaimed.
“I’m cool with the temporary babysitting thing.
” He was taking Denver too and they were going back to the ranch.
While they were at the hospital, the rain had stopped and the power line had been fixed.
All of the security systems were up and running.
****
“What are you two idiots doing here?” Judge Rivera roared as Grieg and Moran entered his garage where the judge had been working on his classic 1962 Corvette.
“Sorry, we’re in trouble and you haven’t contacted us. We need money. They didn’t die and that bitch Sparks tricked on us. They are ready to kill on sight at this point.”
“Well, who the fuck told you to run in the first place?” The judge had bigger problems if the fools had gotten caught at his home, but had no idea there were already eyes on him.
“You’re not the one who got shot. You got to sit there and act like you’re all fucking high and mighty. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll make a call and tell them that you paid to have Gage Gibson killed and even had the evidence for Cummings destroyed,” Grieg sneered.
“Are you blackmailing me again? That’s how we got here the first time.” He’d been too careless with his extracurricular activities, and the blunder left him a victim to two corrupt former cops turned equally dirty PIs.
“Well, that’s because you’re into underage girls. If only your wife knew…” Moran added.
“I’ll kill you.” Rivera clenched his teeth just as he whipped out his gun from the back of his waistband and so did Grieg and Moran.
“Try it, you old bastard. We’ll take you out before you can take your next breath,” Moran said, having been an expert shooter in the US Army.
Without them realizing it, Mrs. Rivera had called the cops.
She had heard her husband’s voicemail message from Grieg two days ago, and knew he’d betrayed her in the foulest way.
This morning she had set up recording devices throughout his favorite spaces, including the garage and his office.
She listened to them as they spoke about the girls and she could barely stomach it.
Grabbing one of Oscar’s guns, she moved toward the garage, ready to put a bullet in each one of them, but as she reached the door she heard the Austin SWAT team burst through the garage and side door.
Voices were shouting. Not a moment passed before bullets flew.
She took cover in the house far from the garage and prayed that she didn’t become a victim of his foolishness.
Even though it felt like forever to the older woman, the confrontation was over within two minutes, and Grieg, Moran, and Judge Rivera had been killed. The officers searched the house to find a tearful Mrs. Rivera, shaking on the floor with a gun in her hand.
“Put it down. We’re not here to hurt you.” She did so without an issue. They took her to the hospital for shock.
Over the next twenty-four hours, the story evolved and exploded. Everyone learned of the judge’s corruption, which made national news. Austin and the state of Texas had a lot of damage control to deal with, and that included trying to get Gage and Hope to play ball.