No Magic Moment (Secrets of Stone Book 4) (24 page)

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the sweet-faced brunette at the desk said. “If you aren’t next of kin, I can’t give you any information. I’m sure you understand.”

I nodded, trying to look like I did—and shoving aside the admission that if I’d accepted Michael’s proposal six weeks ago, I’d probably qualify as next of kin. Spilled milk now. Not worth stressing over.

I leaned over the counter. “Please.
Please
. Can you just tell me if she’s here? Diana Pearson. P-E-A-R-S-O-N. You can check that, right? My boyfriend should be here with her. Since cell phones aren’t allowed back there, he isn’t even answering my texts. Can you just give a yes or no if she’s here?” When she surrendered a hesitant glance, I went in for desperation and guilt-imposing. “That really isn’t too much to ask, is it?”

When cutie pie realized I wasn’t retreating without an answer, her sympathy turned into a glare. She wiggled her mouse, stabbed at the computer keys, and stated, “Yes. Diana Pearson was brought in via ambulance five hours ago. She was taken to the operating room and is still there. It’s likely your boyfriend is upstairs in the waiting area outside the operating suites.”

She pulled out a hospital map from a Plexiglas holder alongside the window we were talking through, unfolded it, and gave me directions using the back of her pen.

“We are here, in the emergency department.” She exaggerated an
X
over the same words on the map. “Go down this hall, take the elevators on your right to the fourth floor, and follow the corridor to the ORs.” More exaggeration, this time with a big circle around the words
Operating Rooms
. “The waiting area is just outside the suite. You can look for him there.”

With that, she pushed out the map, turned her back, and walked deeper into the nursing pod. Despite her words, I didn’t pick up anger from her. She was just protecting herself from getting in trouble—or at least that was my rationalization for stifling the litany of swear words on my tongue.

Hell, maybe she
was
angry. My human barometer was out to lunch, and guess how many fucks I gave about getting it back at the moment?

I was only sure of one thing right now. Somebody was going to catch hell soon. I was nearing the end of my rope.

When I got back to where Andre sat with his head lolled against the wall, I nudged him in the shoulder.

“Hey, big guy; wake up.”

“I’m not sleeping, you little shrew.”

“No kidding? You should hear the sound that comes out of you when you’re ‘not sleeping.’ It sounds remarkably like snoring.”

“Do you want me to start telling people about the water works?”

“Aw, that’s low.”

“Some things just need to be done.”

“I hate you.”

“So why did you
not
wake me?”

“Mary Sunshine at the desk told me Di was taken to surgery and is still there. We have a good chance of finding Michael upstairs in the waiting room outside of the operating rooms.”

“Then I guess we’re going upstairs.”

We headed for the elevator, stepping off at the fourth floor. It was easier to follow the overhead signs than rely on my addled brain, so we made our way through the maze of corridors until we came to the OR’s waiting area.

Sure enough, Michael stood in the corner of the big room, clutching a paper cup of coffee. He stared out the window into the courtyard of the hospital complex.

When I walked in, he looked right through me, as if I were a ghost. Out of habit, I grabbed for Andre but he wasn’t there. The traitor waited in the hallway.

“Hey.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him close. At once he sagged into me with his full weight, forcing me to brace myself to avoid being knocked off balance. I welcomed every pound. It felt damn good to be near him again, letting his heartbeat fill my ear. He was physically exhausted, and I had a terrible feeling we’d just begun this awful journey. I held him, silently vowing to be here for every step with him.

“Give me an update?” I finally asked.

He drew in a long breath. “They’ve taken her into surgery.”

“Right. Have they come out with any word?”

“No. There are internal injuries…they said they wouldn’t know how bad any were, until they got inside. She’s lost a lot of blood but they were able to give her a transfusion. The head surgeon doesn’t think there is brain damage. She doesn’t look like she had a lot of head trauma. I don’t remember exactly how he said it. Something like…‘surface damage’ to her face.
Fuck.
”

His voice cracked. I hugged him again, showing I understood. It was a cruel joke, if the doctors told him to be grateful it was “
just
surface damage.”

“Apparently, most of the bad stuff happened to her ribs,” he went on. “The bastards also punctured one of her lungs, and possibly lacerated her spleen. The docs speculated that she was probably kicked quite a bit. If—if her spleen has to be removed, her immune system will be compromised for the rest of her life.
Fuck
!”

“Okay. Sshhh. It’ll all be okay. People live like that all the time. They have treatments for that.” I returned his incredulous look with a firm frown. “I’m not saying that it isn’t bad, Michael. Don’t freak, but I’m trying to be positive. It’ll be the key for her recovery. We have to stay positive.”

He actually nodded—though stepped back from me so decisively, it cancelled my confidence. “I’ve been thinking about that too.”

My stomach flipped strangely. “About…what?”

“I’ve had some time to myself this afternoon. To really think.” He stared back out the window. “I’ve come to some…hard decisions. Ones you won’t be happy with—but I must ask you to respect.”

I agreed. I already didn’t like the direction he’d just steered, simply by the new set of his shoulders—and not helped when he stepped back over, took both my hands, and guided me into the seats nearby.

He turned to face me, still clutching my hands. Took another long breath.

“Dammit, Michael. You’re—you’re scaring me.”

He lifted his head. His gaze was rimmed in red and covered in torment—and still one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

“Margaux…we need to break up.”

I shoved his hands away. “Fuck that.” Lurched to my feet, despite my liquid knees and swimming vision. “No. Wait. Fuck
you
.”

“Sugar, I’ve given it a lot of thought, and—”

“I’m sure you think you have. But you can go fuck yourself
and
your thoughts,
sugar
.” Screw the patience, the understanding, the “positive thoughts” and the sweet little girlfriend. I unlocked the door for fighter bitch Margaux and she barreled in, taking over, facing off at him, full glare blazing. “We’ve come this far. We’ve come
so
far, dammit. I love you!”

“And
I
love
you
. But—”

“No. Just
no.
If you think I’m going to walk away when you need support the most, you have no idea who you really fell in love with.”

He rose, infuriatingly composed. “It’s not just up to you. I get a say in this, too.”

I whirled, needing to not look at him. To not feel the pull of his presence, even now when I yearned to beat on him, tear at him…cling to him.

Finally, I could summon words again. “You—you once told me that your mom and I are the two people who matter the most in your life.”

“You are.”

“So…one is laying in there fighting for her life, but now you’re letting the other one die—of a broken heart. Why, Michael?
Why
are you doing that?”

He pushed a hard breath through his nose. “You’re not making sense right now.”

“No.
You’re
not making sense.” I couldn’t breathe, unable to escape this fight for my sheer existence. “What the hell?” I fell back into a chair. “How did we get to this? Why are we even talking about this?” Panic set in all over again. Back to suffocation. I shot to my feet. Michael followed right behind me.

“Dammit,” he growled. “Margaux—baby—I need to protect you, okay? After this—after what happened today—do you even understand what it all means?”

“Yeah.” I stopped. Let him collide into me. I hung on to his shoulders before he could get away. “I do. I understand perfectly, okay?”

He yanked free, face contorting. “Then
why
would you fight me on this?”

“Because I’m not afraid of him! Of any of them! Of Declan, Menger, those stupid goons, or any of their puppet masters. If we run, they win!”

“Then maybe it’s time to let them.”

I grabbed his hands. “Stop it! You’ve never surrendered before and you’re not doing it now. If your mother was standing here—”

“But she’s not.” He didn’t let me go, but his tone was violent enough to cut me off at the knees. “Because she’s in
there—
in her sixth hour of surgery. What’s next, Margaux? You want to tell me that? What the
fuck
is next? Do I come home and find
you
in a bag on our front step?” He spun away to drop into a seat, hanging his head in his hands. “Do you know what that did to me today to see my mother like that? Do you have any goddamn idea?”

His head descended lower, as if the weight of the memories was too much to bear. I stayed standing. I understood his pain but I was angry and ready to fight—to battle for us, for what we’d built. I was
not
going to walk away just because he said it was time, or thought it would be too dangerous to stay.

“I do know,” I rasped. “I was right there too, remember?”

He didn’t look up. “But it was
my
mother, Margaux.”

That stung but I clenched for composure. “And that makes a difference…why?”

“You don’t even like your mother. In fact, you hate the bitch.”

“Michael, I never knew my mother. Are you referring to the woman who liked keeping me around as her show pony?”

“You know what I meant. So what would you even know about what I’m going through right now?”

It sucked the anger right out of me. Or perhaps punched it out, with the force of pure shock. It was a cheap shot, taking me so completely off guard that I plopped down in the seat beside him. He’d really gone there. As the realization took hold, a mixture of hurt and anger welled tears into my eyes, stingy shitheads that had me rolling my eyes back, fighting them from tracking down my cheeks.

“Though that was completely unnecessary and a low blow, it’s also true. I don’t know exactly what it must have been like. But you know what, Michael? I’ve come to care about Diana…very much. And more than that, I love you.” I lifted a hand to his hunched shoulder. Even now, I wasn’t able to help myself. I needed the contact. I needed
him.
“
I love you
. And watching you suffer and not being able to help? That’s breaking my heart more than enduring all this myself.”

His muscles coiled as the words left me. Through one silent moment, they remained that way. Another. Finally, he gave me a word. One.

“No.”

“No,” I echoed. “No…what?”

“No.” He stood, but didn’t look back. “I’m sticking to my decision.” I’d never heard such steel in his tone before. “It’s over—for us. For—all of it. I’m calling Doug and ending his investigation immediately. I want all of his team off the case. I’ll pay them whatever is owed outside of the retainer. You shouldn’t be stuck with the bill on that; it wouldn’t be right.”

“It wouldn’t be—” I couldn’t move beyond sputtering it.
Not right
? Because doing this to me—to
us
—was?

“Then I’m moving my stuff out of the condo.” He rolled on through his speech as if I hadn’t spoken. Time for being ghost Margaux again. “I need to get away from you as soon as possible, so the target gets lifted off your back. It’s the only way you’ll be safe.”

“Safe? What the hell? Michael, you’re being ridiculous!”

“Mom is going to need me out at the farm for a while as she’s recovering, anyway—maybe longer. A nurse can stay with her during the days when I’m gone, I’ll commute to downtown on the days Aequitas absolutely needs me.” He spread his arms, bracing hands up against the window frame, never looking more breathtaking—or alone. “Now that Dec knows he can get to me in more private ways than court, maybe now he’ll drop the charges so I can get back to work.”

I found the fortitude—perhaps just the fury—to stand again. “How the hell can you be so matter of fact about all of this? So—so heartless?”

His shoulders rippled with more tension. “I’m just doing what I have to—what I
need
to, to keep you safe. It’s the most important thing. It’s the only thing.”

“Dammit!” It was pitiful and full of loose, ugly tears. I still didn’t care. Plenty of people cried in hospitals. For once, I actually looked like everyone else. “Goddammit! I love you, Michael! Doesn’t that matter? I thought…I thought you loved me.”

“I—” He stopped himself with a vicious growl. “It just can’t matter anymore, princess. Our time…it was beautiful. But it’s run out.”

“It’s—” I whirled, beginning to pace. “You think I’m going to accept that, asshole? ‘It was beautiful?’ Are you kidding me? Fuck you, Michael.
Fuck you
.”

He swept a hand up, harsh and dismissive. “Don’t come back here after you leave today. I’ll keep Andre updated about Mom, and he can tell you if you need to know, but we need to stop all communication at once. It’s not safe for you. They probably have the phones tapped.”

“The phones—” I choked and even laughed, unable to finish. “Do you hear yourself? You sound completely paranoid!”

“No. I sound completely practical. I sound realistic. I’m not putting anything past him now, Margaux. A woman is fighting for her life right now because of that monster. I won’t watch it happen to you, too. I…can’t. Please. Just please don’t argue with me anymore.”

I stared at him, tears running freely, leaving hot tracks in their wake down my cheeks. “You’re breaking…my heart.”

“There’s nothing more I can do. I need to know you are safe. I will sacrifice a thousand lifetimes of my own happiness for that, baby. My own heart and soul.”

For a moment, I confronted exactly that in his gaze, darkened to gold fire. His heart, his soul, his pain…reached out and connected with mine once more.