Chapter 43
To Do:
- Forgive Jack
- Google how to get blood out of sequins
- Grade the questionnaires from new prospects
The vendingmachine hummed like a fifty-year-old refrigerator in the otherwise empty hospital waiting room. It had eaten a handful of Claire’s quarters an hour earlier. Her stomach growled like a feral cat. She hadn’t even had a chance to sample a reformed penis pastry.
The surgical floor was dead this time of night, save for the occasional custodian pushing a squeaky cart. Forty-two ceiling tiles. Seventeen earth-toned squares of carpet. Eleven recessed lights. Three stitches in her side and one large wad of gauze to close the wound where the bullet had grazed her hip.
She glanced at the clock for what must have been the thousandth time since Luke had been taken away for questioning by the police. The sky outside was starting to lighten from an inky black to a deep purple. She hadn’t slept in forty-eight hours, and her visual field seemed to lag a little when she changed focus. What she would do for a nice nap. She picked up her tablet and flicked through some proposal candidates, but the hospital’s Wi-Fi was spotty, and she couldn’t concentrate anyway.
Footsteps came from the hallway, and Claire’s head snapped up.
“Sorry, they kept me forever.” Luke dropped heavily into the chair next to her. “They insisted on having a PA check me out.” He gestured to a pucker in his shirt where they must have applied gauze to his stab wound.
His dress shirt was covered in grass stains, and there was a massive tear in his pants.
“You’re okay?” she asked hesitantly.
He nodded. “Thanks to you. You jumped on the back of a knife-wielding idiot for me. Don’t ever do that again,” he said sternly. He took a deep sip from his coffee cup and winced. “Any updates on Jack?”
Guilt twisted her stomach. “He’s still in surgery. Shoulders are tricky.”
“He’ll be okay,” Luke said, sliding his arm around her. He planted a kiss on her forehead and offered her a bag of chips from an apparently less irritating vending machine.
“Did you get any good footage?” she asked over a cheddar and sour cream chip. She tucked her legs under her. Her red evening dress was soaked and in tatters, so she was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt Luke had found in his car. The ensemble didn’t really go with her gold stilettos, but hopefully no one had noticed.
“I don’t know. I had to turn it over to the police.”
Claire nodded. It figured. “So, what did they ask you?”
“The same things they asked you, I’m sure. Why we were at the event, what made me hide in the woods in the backyard, why you were impersonating someone else? They weren’t happy when I reiterated that we reported ESA to the FBI, and they neglected to follow up on it.”
She snuggled under her his arm. After the worst spring and summer in the history of time, this horrible, dark chapter of her life might just be coming to a close. “Bet they feel stupid now.”
He kissed her forehead and stroked her arm. She was home.
“Luke?”
“Hmm?” He stifled a yawn.
“There are other chapters of ESA out there.” The victims Jack had shown her had come from all over the country. How many members were there?
“I assume so.”
“Do you think the FBI will finally take care of it?”
“Probably. Unless there’s a mole in the Bureau.”
“Don’t even joke about that.” She nudged him in the side.
Footsteps came from the hallway again, and she cringed. Were the police coming back to talk to her again?
“Oh, Claire,” Tanya said as she swept into the room in a tropical-print muumuu. She gathered Claire and Luke in a tight hug that smelled like patchouli. Her eyes were swollen and red.
“The nurse said about half an hour ago that he’s still in surgery,” Claire reported dutifully. “They think he’ll be fine.”
“I’m so relieved,” Tanya said, wiping at her eyes with a tissue.
“It must be hard to be the wife of an agent.” Claire was entirely too tired for this conversation.
“But you were hurt too.” Tanya eyed the lump of gauze under Claire’s too-large shirt. She dug through her purse until she found a small stone. She placed it in Claire’s hand, and she opened it to reveal a small, sparkling amethyst.
“For healing,” Tanya said, stroking Claire’s hair.
Another woman stood a few feet behind Tanya, hesitating in the shadowy doorway.
“Brianna, sweetheart. Will you come here? I want you to meet someone.”
Claire stood. Could it be?
When Brianna walked under the recessed light, Claire almost gasped. She had seen Brianna in a couple of movies, but until this moment she hadn’t noticed that their eyes were exactly the same. Her teeth were toothpaste-commercial white, and there wasn’t a single blemish anywhere on her tanned skin. She wore a tank top with ripped jeans and flip-flops. Beachy waves ran down to her mid-back. Hadn’t she seen that same purse in Target the week before?
Tanya took their hands as though they were about to play a rousing game of Red Rover.
“This is Claire. She’s your half sister from your dad’s previous marriage,” Tanya said, gently tugging them toward each other.
“Claire.” Brianna smiled as she studied her face. Suddenly, she dropped her mother’s hand and drew Claire into a tight hug. She clearly had inherited her mother’s friendliness.
“My sister,” she said, pulling back and holding both of Claire’s arms. “I have a sister.”
Realizing that she was supposed to say something, Claire opened her mouth, not sure what was about to come out.
“Two, actually. My—uh, our—sister Charlie lives in Los Angeles. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve seen you act. You’re wonderful.”
Brianna flippantly waved one of her long, graceful hands. “The movies are garbage. But I’ve seen you. I mean, aside from all the Widowmaker stuff. Sorry. You do those crazy proposals, right? So romantic. I caught Dad re-playing your interview from that morning show like a thousand times. You’re amazing.”
Claire blushed. “That’s really nice of you to say. Oh, Brianna, this is my boyfriend, Luke.”
He hadn’t moved since Brianna had walked in, so Claire nudged him with her foot. “Luke.”
“I’m a big fan,” he said, his voice cracking slightly as he stood up.
“You’re too kind,” Brianna said with a friendly smile and a firm handshake.
The door to the waiting room banged open, and they all jumped.
“Claire Aurora Hartley!” Alice Alejo whirled into the room in a pink peplum top and pencil skirt.
Oh, boy. This should be fun.
Alice had had a grade-four meltdown when Claire had delivered the news over the phone. She had hopped on the first outbound plane this morning. Would the two decades of etiquette lessons she had drilled into Claire from childhood still stand when she was confronted with her ex husband’s mistress and love child?
Alice marched into the room without looking at anyone else and threw her arms around her daughter. She pulled back and gripped her shoulders.
“Hi, Mom,” Claire said sheepishly.
“Did I not tell you that you were in danger? Why do you insist on putting yourself in these situations? Am I going to need to hire a private investigator again? I still have Brian on speed dial.”
Claire cringed. She had mostly kept her promise to be honest with Luke, but she had failed to do the same with her mother. She really needed to work on that. “Please don’t. Anyone but Brian. I promise I’ll do better.”
Alice huffed and flung her purse onto a waiting room chair. She pulled out a Ziplock bag full of small glass jars. How had she managed to sneak those onto the plane?
She pulled them out and started sniffing them. “Now I know I packed a turmeric and cat’s claw poultice—aha!” She tugged at the corner of Claire’s shirt. “This will prevent an infection.”
“Mom, not now, please. We have company.” She nodded in Tanya’s direction. “This is Jack’s wife, Tanya. And his daughter, Brianna.”
Alice turned around and froze. She straightened herself to her fullest height. Her nostrils flared, and her face was so pinched it looked like she was holding in a tremendous fart.
“Nice to meet you,” she managed to say. She stuck her hand out. Tanya ignored it and brought Alice in for one of her signature bone-crushing hugs. Alice went rigid under her grasp.
“Alice, so lovely to finally meet you.” Tanya pulled back and held onto Alice’s hand with both of hers. “You have the most marvelous energy. So much light in your aura.”
Alice frowned. “Thank you.” She withdrew her hand and turned to Luke. She took hold of his arm and steered him to the other side of the waiting room. They sat down to talk in hushed whispers for several minutes. Claire sat again, leaving a chair between her and Tanya. It was a very strange morning.
At that moment, a fatigued-looking surgeon stepped into the room.
“Mrs. Hartley?”
Tanya nodded, and the doctor walked over and sat down next to the family. “Your husband lost quite a bit of blood, but he’s going to be fine. The bullet missed his brachial artery by a millimeter. He was extremely lucky. He’s awake and in recovery now. You can see him if you like.”
Tanya immediately threw herself at the doctor, bursting into tears. Luke came over and took Claire’s hand.
“Do you want to see him?” he whispered.
How could she face him after she chose Luke over him? But she had to. Blood was blood. “I guess I should thank him for taking a bullet for me.”
The family followed the doctor back to recovery, where Jack was the only patient. He was sitting up, and he looked paler than usual, but otherwise unfazed. The newspaper on his lap was open to the sports section. For the first time since he had returned to Claire’s life, he wasn’t wearing a three-piece suit. He was probably already planning to ask the staff if they had a more formal hospital gown available.
Luke and Claire stood back as Brianna and Tanya fussed over him. Alice hovered in the hallway.
“What is this, bullet wound number three? Are you trying to meet some kind of quota at work or something?” Brianna asked, nudging him in the unaffected arm. She slapped a pair of fuzzy socks and a book with a picture of a cowboy on the hospital bed. Jack smiled at her and squeezed her hand.
Tanya draped herself over Jack like a blanket and let out an indiscernible stream of cries and half-pronounced syllables. The pockets of her muumuu rattled and clacked with what was probably more crystals.
“Here—this—” Tanya finally removed herself from her husband long enough to pull out a vial of some kind of essential oil.
“Mom,” Brianna said kindly, holding her mom’s wrist, “let’s hold off on the alternative medicine until Dad leaves the hospital, okay? You know what the doctors said last time. Now what groceries do you need for the house? I’m putting an order in.”
“Well, your dad really likes this vegan cereal,” Tanya began tearfully, finally climbing off the hospital bed and following her daughter out of the room.
Brianna winked at Claire as they left. It was like a ray of sunshine had just gone behind a cloud. The awkwardness crept back in.
Claire took a step closer. Even with hours to prepare, she didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry you thought I didn’t believe you about ESA.” Jack folded his newspaper and rolled it into a tight tube. “I hoped that if you saw an officially sanctioned government agency dismissing them as a threat, you would stop investigating them. For the record, my superiors really didn’t believe me when I explained what you overheard.”
Claire frowned. “And so you let me believe that I had no choice but to save Wendy on my own.”
He nodded. “In hindsight, not the best choice. I had local law enforcement go to her apartment early yesterday morning, but she was already gone.”
“Yeah, because we preemptively kidnapped her,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let an innocent person be tortured and murdered. Not another one. Not even Wendy.”
He unfurled the newspaper and spread it over his lap. “Well, because someone sent a text from her phone and posted to her social media, they didn’t believe she was in danger and weren’t willing to dispatch officers to the event. But I was there the whole time, staked out in the woods, even though it wasn’t an officially sanctioned mission.”
It sure would have been helpful if he would have brought a couple of agent friends so the mayor of West Haven didn’t have to karate chop a twenty-year-old in the Adam’s apple.
This conversation was going nowhere. She sighed. “Thank you, Jack. For saving my life. I’m sorry you got shot by a weird, angry misogynist.”
He shrugged, then winced. “All in a day’s work. You called me Dad, by the way.”
Damn it. A slip of the tongue.
Jack smiled. “It was nice.”
“Well, we should go,” Claire said, turning to Luke. She grabbed his hand and tugged, but he anchored her to the spot.
“Claire,” Jack continued. “Before you go. I know I haven’t been a great dad. I haven’t been a dad, period. But I’d like to. If you’re open to it. Even if it’s just dinner once a month. I want to know my daughter.”
She hesitated, ready to snap at him for downplaying her fear. But he was trying. Maybe it was time she tried too. She had abandoned him to save her boyfriend, after all.
“We’ll try it,” she said somewhat stiffly in spite of the tears that welled up in her eyes. Two days of no sleep had rendered her a weepy mess. It was time for a very long nap. And probably some tacos.
A nurse walked in. “Sir, an agent’s here to debrief you.”
“Good luck,” Claire mouthed to him and walked out with Luke. “Coming, Mom?” she asked. Alice was still standing in the hallway.
“In a little bit, Clairebear,” she said, reaching over to give her a mini hug. “There are some things I need to say to your father.”
That couldn’t be good. Claire hustled down the hall with Luke at her side. They walked out into the breezy summer morning. Finally, freedom from the sterile smell of the hospital. Tinges of pink were curling into the sky, but there was still a scatter of stars overhead.
“Let’s avoid hospitals for a while, okay?” Luke pulled her close and tucked her into his side.
“Luke, in the amount of time that you have known me, how many times have we been at the hospital?”
“Good point. Let’s try to make it at least another month.”
“Deal. Hang on,” she said, stopping in the middle of the parking lot. “Do you see the stars?”
He glanced up. “I see them.”
“They’re perfect.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Are you suggesting that we star spin?”
She shrugged. “We are right outside a hospital if it goes horribly wrong.”
“Race you,” he said, spinning furiously in place and counting to fifteen.
Claire did the same, lifting her head to the heavens and laughing as the stars blurred into each other. An entire community of badass businesswomen had banded together to bring down a dozen dangerous people. She had a new sister. And for the moment, everyone she loved was safe.
“Go!” Luke said, sprinting in the direction of his car.
She followed, staggering from side to side. “I’m coming for you,” she said, arms outstretched.
She made it several feet before her gold stilettos slammed into an unseen curb. She lost her balance, grasping at the empty air before collapsing, butt-first, into a large plastic trash can.
Damn it. She wiggled her arms and legs, but she was really wedged in there. The sky was still spinning stubbornly above her. “Luke, I need help.”
“What?” he asked distantly as he bumped into a car, setting off the alarm. “Ah, shit.”
He ran back toward her, almost crashing into the tailgate of a truck, and burst out laughing.
“Hang on.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“Luke! No pictures, come on. Help me!” She laughed in spite of herself. The stars still swam above her head, but the world was starting to right itself.
Luke ignored her, snapping half a dozen photos from various angles. At least he hadn’t brought his professional-grade camera.
Eventually he grabbed both of her hands and pulled, tugging Claire out of the trash can.
“Ugh, I think I sat in some kind of milkshake,” Claire said, spinning around and trying to look at her rear. Thank goodness these were borrowed pants.
He caught her hand and dragged her to him, barely ending his laughter before he pulled her into a deep, warm, familiar kiss.
Heat crept into her cheeks when he pulled back. He gazed at her with an indescribable look in his eyes.
“What? Is there something in my hair?”
Luke reached underneath her mane of hair and pulled out a wadded-up burger wrapper. He looked happier than she’d seen him in a month.
“God, I love you,” he said, tossing the wrapper back into the trash and pulling Claire in for another heated kiss.