Authors: Rose Connelly
“What?”
Pain filled eyes looked up, desperately begging for a hint of hope.
“
She’s badly
hurt, but she’s not dead,” Devon reiterated.
“We need to get her to a hospital
.
I called on the way over so
a
n ambulance should be here soon.
”
“What about
the other guy,” James growled.
“Mitchell Haines.
I recognize him from newspaper clippings.
He was head of the company Mira worked for in California.”
“Will he live?”
The tone clearly said that if he was still alive he wouldn’t be soon.
“No.
He’s definitely dead.
It looks like she got him in the jugular.
Most of the blood is his.”
“Good.”
Sirens sounded in the distance, getting closer.
The smell was unmistakable
—
the faint odor of bodily wastes mixed with a dose of fear and hopelessness and only vaguely disguised by the sharp smell of antiseptic.
Before Mira opened her eyes she knew that she was in a hospital, but it still came as quite a surprise.
She had felt the blood dripping steadily down her side and
the
horrible, crippling punch of the second bullet as it had hit her.
When the world had turned
gray
she had ass
umed that was it
,
but it looked like
she had been wrong.
She was intensely gratefully that the numbing darkness had receded, but now that she was awake
the pain intruded.
It throbbed
cruelly
along her side where a line of neat little stitches kept her skin together and stabbed
gleefully
into her chest where do
ctors had dug a bullet from under her left shoulder.
Later, she would be grateful for the unconscious pain in her side that had made her bend at the last moment and sent the bullet into her very upper chest instead of her heart, but now she just hurt.
She tried to speak, to tell somebody, but her voice wouldn’t come.
A heavy weight seemed to be pressing down on her and she couldn’t move.
With a strength born from desperation, she focused all her energy
on
her right hand.
It twitched
slightly
.
Somebody
must have noticed because she could barely make out
a rough masculine voice coated with an undercurrent of fear.
He said something to the doctors and a hint of Ireland leaked out.
She felt a small sting in her arm, barely noticeable under the cover of pain, and the darkness tried to pull her back down.
She fought against it, suddenly afraid of being
alone and never coming back.
A warm hand clasped
hers and a rich voice murmured. I
t was enough.
With a silent sigh of relief
she let go.
When awareness came again it was with the sound of beeping monitors and the happy trill of morning birdcall.
The pain was still there, but now it was just a distant throb, held at bay by the wonders of medicine.
With an effort
she forced open sand-
encrusted eyes and immediately closed them again, assaulted by the bright sunlight that flooded into the room.
Quiet footsteps crossed the room and the flow of light was cut off.
Moments later
a chair squeaked next to the bed.
“I know you’re awake,” a female voice said.
“If you ever want to get out of here you need to make an effort.
God you scared us,” she added
, censure in her voice
.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
“Lily,” Mira croaked in a parody of her usual voice.
She opened her eyes again and blinked a few times to clear them.
Her friend sat next to the bed looking a little wrinkled, but as beautiful as ev
er.
“What are you doing here?
I thought you were in Paris.”
Lily
leaned forward and clasped Mira’s right hand.
“You’re my best friend so of course I came when you needed me.
Sarah wanted to come too, but her
husband basically tied her up to prevent it
.
He didn’t want her flying when she was so pregnant.
She has,
however, called every hour
and if you weren’t getting better she was all ready to hop in her car and drive here.”
The image of petite Sarah standing up to her bear of a husband made Mira smile.
It was nice to know she had such
loyal friends.
“Where’s Pat?” s
he asked, suddenly remembering the voice she had heard.
“I sent the men home,” Lily said.
She looked down at her manicured fingernails
and her face subtly heated.
“That detective sure is persistent.
I could barely stop him from waking you and badgering you with questions.”
The obscene image of her filet knife, sticking from a man’s throat, popped into Mira’s mind, banishing her curiosity over Lily’s blush.
She pushed the picture away and cl
eared her throat
.
“What happened to Zeus?”
At that question Lily looked up and smiled.
“That butler of James’ probably has him sitting on a silk cushion eating steak.”
“That sounds like Winston.
He loves that dog.
”
Thinking of James, though, and the current unsettled state of their relationship made Mira uncomfortable and she shifted the topic.
“W
hen am I getting out of here?” s
he asked her friend.
“As soon as you’re ready.” She narrowed her eyes. “But y
ou will have to take it easy for a
bit.
I promised the doctors. Your
arm will be stiff for a while,
” she added.
“B
ut you were lucky.
If I were you, though, I’d stay at home and let that beautiful man of yours take care of me.”
The
thought of going into that place
ever again sent a cold chill down Mira’s spine.
“I d
on’t know what to do,” she moaned.
“I can’t stay at that house.”
“Ok,” Lily replied with a wicked smile.
“Why don’t you go and stay with James.
By the way that man looks at you I’m sure he won’t mind.”
The thought made Mira feel warm, but it wasn’t an option.
When she had been lying
on the floor
,
feeling the life leeching out of her
, she had come to a decision. I
t was all or nothing.
S
he refused to be th
e only one risking their heart.
“I can’t stay with him,” she finally said.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m in love with him.”
Lily
huffed out a breath.
“That doesn’t make any sense Mira.
I’ve never personally experienced the emotion, but if you love him, shouldn’t you want to be with him?”
“I do, but I’m not the problem.”
Mira gingerly got up and, with Lily’s help, put on the soft flowing dress that her friend held out.
She might be cold, but at least it didn’t rub against her stitches.
“He is.
He doesn’t love me.”
A nurse came in with a wheelchair and the conv
ersation was put on hold.
Lily
, however,
wouldn’t
be satisfied that easily and she
picked up the topic
as soon as they were in the car
.
“
Have you even told him?”
s
he asked
bluntly
.
“That I love him?
Of course I have.”
“And,” Lily prodded.
“He said he cared about me.”
“That bastard,” Lily spat, obviously agreeing that the man deserved to be hung for uttering such a stupid thing. She
squealed out of the hospital parking l
o
t, cutting off another driver and, b
lithely
ignoring his shouted curse,
switched lanes and put her foot down.
“I have an idea,
” she
finally
said.
“Why don’t
we go by your house so
I
can
pack a bag for
you?
Sarah wants to see you and the peace and solitude of the ranch would definitely do you some good.”
“She has two
, very loud kids,” Mira reminded her.
“And they’ll provide a great distraction
from all that solitude
if you need it.”
“All right,” Mira
relented, beginning to like the idea.
It had been much too long
since she had seen her friend
. Plus
it would give James time to make a decision.
If it didn’t go the way she wanted, well, she would deal with that too.
“I’ll just leave James a note.
He’ll have to know where to find me when he’s ready to crawl,” she added.
“
That’s the sp
i
rit,” Lily said,
“
but
I’ll
write the note
and,” she crossed her heart at Mira’s suspicious look.
“I’ll put it somewhere he’ll be sure to find it
.
I
’m doing this because
I love you and
I
know you don’t want to go in the house.”
**********************************************
************
“I’m not going to a damn ball,” James said uncomfortably as Winston adjusted his black tie.
“I don’t see why I have to dress up like this just to go over and see her.”