Chapter 29 #2
“But my family doesn’t know. I haven’t told them—ah!” she screamed again, this time louder than before.
“Liam!” I shouted into the phone, getting his attention immediately. “I’m taking your sister to the hospital. Something’s wrong. I need you to call Maverick and tell him to get his ass in front of me and clear the road.”
“On it.”
He hung up without another word, and within seconds, Maverick was passing me, clearing the traffic from the road.
Every time I looked over at Lizzy, her face was twisted in pain.
I didn’t know what to do or how to help.
I was shit at anything emotional or personal, but I could drive fast, and I knew how to protect her.
That was pretty much all I was good for.
By the time I pulled into the hospital, nurses were already outside with a gurney, rushing to take her inside. Liam pulled up just a minute after I parked the truck and rushed over to me, his face frantic with worry.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. She bent over and cried out in pain.”
“What was she doing?”
“Working. She was carrying a tray.”
His eyes widened in shock. “At the bar? What the fuck was she thinking?”
“Probably that she has a business to run,” I snapped, turning to the hospital entrance.
“And where the fuck were you?” he snarled, grabbing my sleeve. “You should have fucking been there!”
“I was late!”
“Because you were fucking some woman when you were supposed to be at the bar! This is your fault!”
He swung without thinking, his fist connecting with my jaw and knocking me back a step. Glaring at him, I stormed forward, but was stopped when Maverick stepped between the two of us, shaking his head minutely at me.
“Get your asses inside and behave. This isn’t the time or place.”
The last thing I wanted was to go anywhere with this guy, but I needed to make sure Lizzy was okay. It wasn’t that I cared. Not really.
Not at all.
Yet, I walked inside and took a seat far away from Liam, pretending not to worry about the woman I just drove to the hospital.
It wasn’t her. None of this was her, and yet…
I rubbed a hand across my eyes, trying to clock out the images. I had been so young, but Lizzy was not my mother. She wasn’t.
“Momma, what’s wrong?”
The image of me as a kid rushed through my mind, and I squeezed it to the dark recesses of my brain. But it refused to stay.
Curly blonde hair fell over her face as she bent over, gripping her large stomach. Screaming in pain, she gripped the sofa, trying to stay upright. The screaming was so loud it hurt my ears, and I had to put my hands over them to muffle the sound.
“JR, honey. Momma needs you to call for help.”
I ran away from her, searching for the phone, but it wasn’t on the cradle. “Momma! I can’t find the phone! Momma!”
A loud thump had me rushing back to the living room to find Momma laying on the floor. She wasn’t moving, and there was a puddle of something red and sticky underneath her.
“Momma?” I whispered.
But she didn’t answer.
“Momma?”
My head jerked up at the roar coming from the entrance of the ER, bringing me out of the past.
“Where is she?” Lizzy’s dad shouted, storming into the emergency room.
Liam reached him first, stopping him before he could rant at the staff. “She’s in the back.”
“Why? Why is she in the back? What the fuck is going on?”
I looked from Liam to his dad, and then to his mom. They were both clueless. Why hadn’t Lizzy told them?
But to make it all worse, Liam’s eyes flicked to mine, and that was the point they noticed me standing there.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously on me.
“I brought her in, sir.”
“What happened?”
“She was in pain.”
“She was in pain, so you rushed her to the ER?”
Any way I answered would only lead to more questions. This wasn’t my place to say a damn thing, but when I glanced at Liam, he just shook his head.
“Yes, sir.”
“What kind of pain? Did she injure herself?”
“I don’t know. She was carrying a tray and talking to me, and then—”
“Pop, I think we should wait to hear what the doctor has to say,” Liam cut me off.
His eyes shot to his son, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly what Liam was doing. “And then what?”
I stayed silent. It wasn’t my place to say a damn thing. And if I told him what happened, he would guess.
Taking a step back, I decided to remove myself from the situation. “I should get back to the bar.”
“Tell me what the fuck is going on with my daughter!” he shouted, chasing after me.
“Pop!” Liam shouted.
I was almost at the door when his father grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around, slamming me up against the wall.
“What the fuck did you do to her?”
“Nothing!”
“Then why the hell do you have a bruise on your face?”
Again, I didn’t say anything.
“If you hurt her, I swear to God—”
“She’s pregnant,” I blurted out, unable to keep the man in pain for any longer.
His eyes widened as he slowly released me, taking a step back. The silence in the waiting room crackled through the air, and for the second time, I didn’t see the fist coming until it was already hitting me square in the jaw.
My head snapped back against the wall, but I was ready the second time and ducked just as his fist came flying at me again.
“Pop!”
“You son of a bitch! You came into town and got her pregnant?” the father shouted.
“What?”
I barely got the thought out when he swung again. I was getting really tired of being used as a punching bag, and even though the man was older, he still packed one hell of a punch, one that I didn’t feel like taking again.
Grabbing his fist as he swung at me, I jerked his arm up behind his back, shoving him up against the wall.
“I didn’t get her pregnant,” I hissed in his ear, hoping to calm him down. “I knew she was pregnant, but that’s it.”
“They why the fuck didn’t she say anything to me?”
“That’s something you’re going to have to ask her.”
He was still riled up, still on the verge of losing his shit, but it didn’t feel like it was directed at me any longer. Slowly, I eased my hold on him and stepped back.
“Are we good?”
When he nodded, I released him and removed myself from his vicinity. An argument immediately ensued between father and son, but I didn’t stick around to find out how it would turn out. I’d already put myself too firmly in the middle of this family drama, and I wanted nothing more to do with it.
“JR!” Maverick shouted as he chased me out of the hospital.
“I’m gone,” I called over my shoulder.
“Just wait!”
But I didn’t listen. I couldn’t. Not when the memories were still too close and threatened to pull me under. I hadn’t thought of that time in my life for so long, and I wasn’t about to go back there again tonight.