Betrayed (The New Yorker) (15 page)

Now, three days later, he sat by
Lisette’s bed waiting for her to wake up. He didn’t care she had slept with Michael,
didn’t care she had betrayed him and her sister. All he wanted was to stare
into her sunset stormy eyes and see her smile.

“She woke up the day you arrived.
Just for a moment though. She asked for you. She was so worried you were in the
car with her.” Reno stared at Rosalinda’s exhausted expression. He felt for the
woman. She had her eldest daughter lying still, as white as the sheets covering
her, fighting for her life, while her youngest was across the hall, a death
sentence looming over her head.

“I shouldn’t have left her there.”
Reno never expounded on his statement. Never, in the numerous times they had
asked him, had he said why Lisette was at the Waldorf that night. The bigger
mystery was why Lisette had been drinking—she had sworn off alcohol. He knew
there was something AJ wasn’t telling him.

“She’s strong, my little girl.
She’ll live, even if it’s just to tell you she loves you.” Rosalinda cupped
Lisette’s limp palm against her cheek. “She’ll live. She has to. I can’t lose
both my babies.”

“
Catalella
will be fine.” Reno tried to reassure her. AJ had told him that they had caught
the cancer early.
Catalella
was already on radiation,
a few sessions of that and she would get a transplant from AJ. Before they knew
it
Catalella
would be as good as new. And maybe her
new lease on life would make her realize that she was wasting her time with
Michael. Reno had done everything to hold himself back from pummeling Michael
to a pulp. He had only seen him once since he had arrived. Either the worm was
staying out of his way or he hadn’t been to visit his wife.

Reno looked up when AJ entered the
room with his supervisor. The man didn’t look like he had slept for a year. AJ
had taken residence at the hospital On-Call room. He was never too far from his
sisters whenever they needed him.

“I see she’s still being stubborn,”
AJ teased. “Hey, piggy, wake up or I’m going to shave all your hair.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Reno put in.

“If she doesn’t wake up she’s going
to end up bald.”

“Don’t worry,
mija
, I won’t let your brother do
that to you,” Rosalinda said. “How is
Catalella
?”

“She’s asking for you.”

“I’ll be right back,
piccolina
.
Reno will protect you from your
brother’s threats.” Rosalinda gave Lisette a blessing then left.

Reno saw the looks AJ and his supervisor
exchanged. There was something they didn’t want to tell Rosalinda. She didn’t
take the news of Lisette’s drinking well, so whatever they were hiding was
bound to drive her off the edge. “All right, let’s move past the bullshit and
you tell me what is really going on with her.”

“Reno, you are like my brother. I
just want you to be honest with me.” It was obvious AJ was struggling with what
he wanted to say. “Are you and my sister sexually active?”

The question hit him like a ton of
bricks. He took a step back. For a moment he thought about lying but he
couldn’t. What if Lisette was pregnant? He couldn’t claim the baby as his. When
Lisette woke up she was bound to call him out on the lie. “No, we are not.
Why?”

“I want to do a rape kit.”

“What?”

“Lisette had traces of Rohypnol in
her blood. We were so busy trying to stabilize her we didn’t look at the lab
reports. I’m so sorry,” AJ said.

“You think she was raped?” Reno
could hear the hard beating of his heart fill his ears. Had he left Lisette
alone after she had been assaulted by Michael? He thought back to that
night…she had seemed to be out of it.

But Reno had thought the surprise
of him finding them out was what had her in a daze. He could punch himself. No,
not himself, but the bastard who had done this to her. “I’m going to kill him!”

“Who?”

“Michael Mathews.” Reno dropped
into the chair his hands covering his face from the shame of looking into AJ’s
eyes. His sister had been his responsibility. AJ had entrusted him with his
little sister and Reno had let her get raped. Then he didn’t even stick around
to make sure that she was all right. He had left. And now Lisette was lying in
bed, a brace around her neck, her head and back. Lisette had fractured her
spine, had a head injury. She had a broken arm, leg, and a couple of broken
ribs, a punctured lung, and a tiny rip in her heart muscle. While he had been
away pining about his broken heart, Lisette was literally broken.

“We have to tell the police,” the
doctor put in.

“No, that’s not what Lisette would
want.
Catalella
is sick and Lisette would want to
protect her,” AJ said.

“She wouldn’t be against us taking
matters into our own hands.” Reno and AJ exchanged a look—and that let him know
AJ was on board. There was one thing he had to ask of AJ and expected the man
to go against him. “Don’t do the rape kit. I know she’ll feel violated.”

“What you mean to say is that you
don’t want it confirmed. You don’t want to upset my parents by making it
public. I’m angry at you, Reno, but I know that there are things that are taken
out of our hands.”

“She wouldn’t call me back, and
when I found Michael with her, I assumed—”

“You assumed she was cheating on
you. She hates Michael. Anyway I’m glad you gave him a beating, but he’s due
for another.”

“Agreed.
Do you
know when she’ll wake up?”

“The swelling in her brain has gone
down. We reversed the medical coma we put her in. Now it’s up to her.” AJ
stroked her hair lovingly.

“What about the body brace?”

“That will have to stay until her
spine has healed. She needs to be as still as possible, to prevent further
damage and allow her body to heal.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Reno
growled.

“It’s a good thing he is in a
hospital.”

Chapter Nine

“What’s going on here?”

Everyone was silent as
Catalella’s
terrified eyes darted around the room. With a
forced laugh she tried to mask her fear. Seconds ticked by and she realized no
one was laughing with her.

Reno’s heart shot to his throat. He
blinked back the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. He and
Catalella
didn’t have that kind of friendship where they
talked each other’s ears off. She was seven years younger than he was and
honestly not interested in the topics that he was. But
Catalella
was AJ and Lisette’s little sister and that was how he felt toward this wilting
lily
.

He looked over at AJ. His face was
an image of composure. Reno knew AJ’s fingers were balled into fists hidden in
his lab coat. He was ready to fight for his little sister. The enemy wasn’t
tangible and that killed him even more. He hated imagining
Rhyne
or Daniela in this position, but he forced himself to. His heart cracked under
the pressure of the painful emotions running through him.

“Okay, you guys, you’ve even got
the
Samoan Hulk
worried.”
Catalella
teased pointing at him. Reno awarded her strength
and brevity with a smile of his own. “Even his tattoos are starting to frown.
Maybe you could take Michael to get some done.”

“He’s going to get something done
to him, all right!” AJ hissed.

“How far do yours go?”
Catalella
had decided to ignore AJ’s comment.

“Uh-my
tattoos?”
Reno didn’t think Michael had the stomach
to do a tribal tattoo as extensive as his was. He rolled up the long sleeves of
his flannel shirt, pointing at where the tattoo started mid-bicep. “They start
here and cover my left
pec
and the left side of my
chest.”

“Lisette must be crazy about them,
I know I would be,” she giggled. Then
Catalella
let
out a frustrated sigh. “Okay people, give it to me. I can take it. Before you
give me my death sentence, get me my big sister. I don’t understand why she’s
not here if she’s already come back from Hawaii.”

“You told her Lisette went to the island
with me?” Reno blurted out.

“Yes, we couldn’t tell her.
Catalella
had passed out. She had just found out her
prognosis. We couldn’t tell her at that moment,” AJ defended.

“Tell me what?” The trembling fear
in
Catalella’s
tone silenced the room. As if to
announce her fear, her heart monitors started beeping faster than usual.

“Relax, peanut,” AJ soothed.

“What happened to Lisette? Tell
me!”

“After you
relax!”
AJ barked.

Reno was about to chastise AJ at
his bedside manner. It was obvious that
Catalella
was
scared for her sister, but barking at her didn’t seem the proper way to handle
the situation. Reno was proved wrong when
Catalella
took a deep breath and firmly shut her mouth. The whimpering disappeared and
the tears seemed to freeze in her eyes.

“Lisette had an accident, but she
is doing great.” AJ smiled reassuringly. Who was he trying to convince,
Catalella
or himself? “We put her in a medically induced
coma so her brain could heal. She’s doing fine. You know she wouldn’t want you
to worry about her. She would want you to get better.”

Catalella
nodded her
head. She forced her lips into a faltering smile. Reno could almost see her
resolve break. She held firm, her eyes stuck on AJ. It was like it was just the
two of them in the room—everyone else could have disappeared for all they knew.
That was what pained him most about not having
Rhyne
with him.
Catalella
burst into a storm of tears and
AJ just held her. Reno was angry at the envy he felt of the picture before
him—a big brother comforting his little sister. Feeling out of place, he
started to retreat.

“Reno?” He stopped at the sound of
Catalella’s
muffled cry.

Reno moved to the side of the bed
and stood next to AJ. He held onto her free hand and almost collapsed at the
strength he felt surging through her dainty fingers. It was then that he
realized that he did have a little sister. In the
mean time
he would hang onto
Catalella’s
love until he found
Rhyne
.

“She’s not going to die. She’s
already planning her wedding to you.” Reno feigned shock and that got a laugh
out of her. “She’s also planned the marriage.
The house just
outside the city, not too far from Mama and Papa, and how many kids you are
going to have.
She wants two girls and one boy.”

“Let me guess—so the girls could
torture the boy.
My poor son.”

The room erupted into laughter. But
their joy was dampened when Michael walked in. “What’s going on here? You
shouldn’t be crowding her.”

“Since I’m paying the medical
bills, I decide who gets to be here and who doesn’t.” The threat in Adrian
Senior’s deep timbre stunned the room into silence. For a few uncomfortable
minutes Adrian and Michael stared at each other. Reno scoffed at how brave
Michael was trying to be. He was no wimp, but Reno knew better than to try and
out stare the mountain that was Adrian Jackson Ross Senior.

“I didn’t mean it that way,”
Michael said, his ego taken down a few notches.

“How exactly did you mean it?”
Adrian Senior shot back.

“Actually, since I am the doctor
here, I say we all leave little miss
Catalella
to
rest,” AJ put in.

“Mrs. Mathews,” Michael corrected.

“You’d better hope I don’t forget
that,” Reno threatened, his lips pulling into a slow grin. The fear that
reflected off Michael’s eyes was reward enough for him. In
Catalella’s
hospital room, he wouldn’t make a play for the sniveling rat. Out in the
hallway…Michael was fair game.

“Wait, you haven’t told me what
happens next,”
Catalella
said.

“With
Lisette?”

“No, with
me.
What happens after the chemotherapy and the radiation?”

“We caught it early but there’s
just one more procedure after radiotherapy.” AJ turned back to her and pulled
out his doctor voice. Reno had to admire that in him. He went from being big
brother, to angry big brother then to doctor in a flat second. Now he talked to
Catalella
as his patient, to reassure her and make
her understand the steps she had to take on her way to recovery. “You will get
a bone marrow transplant, from me.”

“I want Lisette to be my donor,”
Catalella
announced.

AJ’s schooled feature fell and Reno
could see the hurt in his eyes. “No offense, dummy,” said
Catalella
,
“but I’d rather have you play doctor to both Lisette and me. We don’t need
another Ross occupying a hospital bed. You need to be looking over the other
doctors’ shoulders and making sure they do everything right. Plus, I don’t want
any boy germs in my body.”
Catalella
scrunched up her
nose like a nine year old.

To Reno,
Catalella
was exactly that, a child. He threw a nasty glare at Michael. Surely even
through the haze of his greed Michael Mathews could see that
Catalella
was a child too. Sure she was seventeen, but she
had been coddled all her life so she’d never had the opportunity to face life head
on. She had AJ, Lisette, and her parents as a buffer. What the hell was Michael
Mathews going to do with a teenager in the hours that he isn’t sexually
harassing the rest of the female population?
Shame on him.

“Boy germs
huh?
How I wish,” AJ muttered the last part under his breath.

Reno caught it and he couldn’t help
but feel the same way too. How he wished Michael’s
boy germs
never got into
Catalella
. “You
make a good point, Ross number three. I will talk it over with Lisette’s team
of doctors and let you guys know. Reno, come with me?”

“Sure, see you later number three.”
Reno gave
Catalella
a quick kiss and left the room.
He couldn’t help the pleasure he felt when Michael moved out of their way and
ran to
Catalella’s
bedside like a little boy hiding
behind his mother’s skirt.

Once they were in Lisette’s room,
Reno let out a groan of frustration. “I just wanted to nail his face into the
wall.”

“Trust me, so did I. We can’t do
that now.” AJ put his hand on Reno’s shoulders. “I need to talk to the doctors.
Lisette’s immune system isn’t compromised, but they might not think
Catalella’s
idea is the best one.”

Reno walked away from AJ and headed
toward the window. He stared out at the New York view and all he could see were
buildings and more buildings and people hurrying around doing their business.
They were oblivious of the hearts breaking in the hospital, of the hard
decisions being made every second that ticked by and the frustration a man in
love felt having no say over the life of his girlfriend.

“What do you think?”

“About what?” he answered
distracted.

“What do you think about Lisette
being a donor? You heard
Catalella
. You two are
practically married. You have a house outside of the city with—”

“—two girls and one boy,” Reno cut
in, “I know.” He smiled, but something else ate at him. “Hearing that she’s
already planned out our lives makes me feel terrible for thinking that she was
cheating.”

Reno walked over to the foot of her
bed and held onto one of Lisette’s toes. He looked at her, and his heart broke
away into little pieces. She was hurt, she was really hurt. Her right leg was
in a cast and it was held up in the air by a set of traction pulleys. Her right
arm was in a cast, and lay across her chest. As Reno walked over to the side of
the bed, his hands smoothed the length of the metal brace that was holding her
together. The ribs on the right side of her chest were all
broken,
she had a punctured lung and a broken collar bone. Half of her face looked like
it didn’t belong on his beautiful Lisette. Her right eye was swollen shut and
her beautiful brown skin was now black, blue and purple.

Every time he took inventory of her
broken body, rage burned white hot in his chest. He pulled back his hand when
he realized how violently he was shaking. It was anger that possessed him, made
his chest heave and his lungs ache at how fast and short his breaths were.
Anger made his heart beat with such savagery, blood rush through his veins and
pound in his ears.

It was the weakness he felt in that
moment that fueled the anger and made the murderous thoughts in his head vivid.
Those murderous thoughts had Reno covering the distance between Lisette’s bed
and the door in three long strides—he was going to kill Michael Mathews,
consequences
bedi’amned
.

Reno let out a feral growl when the
weight of AJ’s body fell onto his back. “You can’t do what you are thinking,
man!”

“Get. Off. Me!” He bucked like a
wild horse trying to throw AJ off but it didn’t work. It was worse when the
object of his rage took that moment to emerge from
Catalella’s
room and stand in the hallway that divided the two girl’s room. A horrendously
cruel laughter released from his lips when he saw the terror in Michael’s eyes.
He forgot the man on his back and lunged forward for Michael. His attempt was foiled
when another body charged at him from the front, sending all three men tumbling
back into Lisette’s room in a great heap.

“I’m going to kill him,” Reno
hissed through clenched teeth. The door shut, taking Michael out of his line of
sight. He tried to get off the floor but he couldn’t move
,
he was pinned to the ground. Who was the second man?

“Whew!
Hey, bro!”
DJ’s boyish smile appeared before him. His bearded face burning bright with
amusement. “For a second there I thought you would kill the bastard.”

“It’s a good thing he is in a
hospital.” Reno stopped fighting them. “I am your elder brother, and I’m
telling you to get off me!”

“Since I like having a brother, I’m
not letting you do anything.”

Reno yielded to his brothers and
they all lay on the sterile white hospital floor in silence.

“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but
hospital floors have all kinds of germs,” DJ teased.

“You are such an idiot!” AJ shot
back.

“Says the
doctor.
You should know how many diseases are on this floor.” DJ jumped
to his feet and the rest followed. Just then Dennis and Adrian burst into the
room, confusion obvious on their faces.

“What was all that?” Adrian asked.

“A foiled
attempt at murder.”
DJ didn’t know when to stop.