Taylor Made Owens (56 page)

“Did they rape you?” Mark asked.

She answered, “They were about to,” while working on Robert’s wound.

“I’m sorry, Kristen.”

Once satisfied he was ready to transport, she signaled the attendants to put Robert on the gurney and take him to the ambulance. She rode with him to the hospital. Once they were underway, she put both her hands, drenched in his blood, to her face and sobbed.

At the hospital, he had to undergo an operation to stop internal bleeding and repair a puncture to his small intestine. By the time the surgery was over, it was 1:45 AM. Mark was doing police work at the station. Kristen called her parents, who rushed to the hospital. While Bill cursed at the absent Mark, Lisa hugged and cried with her daughter.

“You need counseling, honey,” advised Lisa. Her parents had to insist she get medical attention for her injuries, which, fortunately, were superficial.

After getting the necessary treatment, she went to the recovery room, followed by her parents. She sat next to Robert’s bed and gingerly rested her head on his chest so she could hear the reassuring beat of his heart. She fell asleep for a short time, her head rising and falling with his breathing.

Her mother put her hand on Kristen’s shoulder and suggested she come home with them to get needed rest, but she wouldn’t leave. Still with her head on his chest and looking up at his face, she said to the sleeping man, “I’m so sorry you were hurt protecting me. I pray that this doesn’t drive you away from my grasp, even as it makes me more desperate than ever to have you. I love you more than you can ever know. I want you for all time.”

Her parents looked at each other and knew what had been missing from her life. Despite the trauma she experienced that night, they could feel their old Krissy had returned.

Kristen got but two hours of sleep on the chair in Robert’s room that night. Bill got no sleep whatsoever, ready to take on any gang member who might approach his daughter. Mark showed up at six, but Kristen wouldn’t talk to him other than confirming she was through with him.

“I’m sorry, Kristen, but if I tried to take on nine of them by myself, we might both have died. I got four of them and came back for you as soon as I could. You’d be dead if I hadn’t.” She glared at him and walked away without responding. Bill warned him to make sure Kristen’s identity was not released to the media.

Later that morning, she went across the courtyard for her first session with a sexual assault counselor. While there, she heard Robert screaming for her. “Krissy! Krissy!” could be heard through the office window echoing off the surrounding buildings. “Krissy!” She dashed out of the office and the building to his room. By the time she got there, he was asleep, and the doctor was just leaving. She asked what he had given him, got the answer, and sat in the chair again.

Two hours later, he opened his eyes and tried to see through the confusion that clouded his mind. Suddenly he called, “Krissy!”

“I’m here, Bobby,” she answered. He looked and couldn’t believe his eyes: she was all right!

“You’re really here?” he said as he reached out for her. “I’m not dreaming or dead?”

“I’m really here, thanks to you.”

“Let me touch you.” She took his hand and kissed it, and leaned over to kiss his lips. “Are you all right? I saw how those bastards hurt you.” He was talking languidly and slurring a little.

“Physically, I’m okay; just a few cuts and bruises. But I’m still upset and afraid.”

“Those goddamn animals. They deserved to die.” He lowered his head and closed his eyes for a few minutes. Then he roused again.

“I’m sorry to get you into a situation where you had to kill again,” she said.

“Don’t be. There was no choice. I know I killed the four by the fire, but did the other one die? The guy at the top of the road? I fired a rock at his head.”

“I think he’s in critical condition.”

“Are you going to be all right? You should talk to a psychologist.”

“I was talking to one when you called out my name. I heard you and ran.”

“Tell me everything will be okay.” She hugged him and nodded. “Oh, shit. Kara! I left her with Melissa.”

“Mom’s with her. She’s fine.”

“Thank you. I want to see her and Brian. By the way, I’m not feeling particularly hale. Am I expected to live?”

“You should make a full recovery,” she said with a smile. “The knife ruptured your intestine. The surgeons repaired it. You’re on an IV because you can’t eat for a while. We’re giving you antibiotics because there was some leakage from the bowel, which could cause a dangerous infection. You’ll need to rest in bed for a few days.”

He nodded. “So, what happened out there? How did we get away?”

“Mark saved us.”

Robert’s face fell. “How?”

“Just as the man was about to kill us, Mark shot him.”

“He had a gun all along?”

“No, he must have got it off one of the bikers.”

“So, is he your hero now?” Robert said with a half-smile.

She returned a refulgent one. “You followed us to protect me?”

“I thought something might happen as I told you last night.”

“What you did for me was unbelievable,” Kristen said as she stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. “It was the bravest, most noble deed I can ever imagine.”

“Well, I was trained to handle those situations, though I didn’t quite pull it off. But you were at that monster’s mercy, yet you refused to abandon me. The raw courage that must have taken. Thank you. And you stopped me from bleeding to death, too, I guess.” She nodded. “God, woman, you’re amazing.” The two kissed. “So, how’s Mark handling all this?”

“He’s playing himself up to the media for saving the two of us.”

“That son of a bitch.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“Did you get a chance to break off the engagement?”

She nodded with a smile. Robert smiled back. She took a deep breath and declared, “I’d love to, Bobby!” recalling the way his mother invited his father’s proposal.

He smiled and said, “You’ll marry me?”

“Yes!” The two lovers kissed.

“Right away, Krissy. I mean like right now, before God finds out and fucks us up again.”

“God made us for each other. We can’t get married with you recovering from a serious injury in the hospital. Can we?”

“Why not? We can have just a small ceremony here. I know it’s not the wedding you dreamed of, but I need to make you mine
now
.”

“All right. I’ll call my mother, and we’ll make arrangements for tomorrow!”

•

The small ceremony took place three days later. It took that long to make the necessary arrangements and for Robert to recover sufficiently. Kristen was dressed in her mother’s wedding gown. Robert wore his only suit. On Robert’s side were Kara, Kim, Phil, and Brian, who acted as best man. On Kristen’s were her parents, brother, sister-in-law, Miriam as the maid of honor, and George. Brian had retrieved his grandparents’ rings from the trunk.

Robert slipped the engagement ring onto Kristen’s ring finger with a kiss before the ceremony and the wedding ring onto same during the ceremony. She slid his father’s ring onto his finger. They fit perfectly.

As the wedding ended, Bill, playing the part of emcee, said, “Bob, I’m very happy to welcome you to our family, if only so Krissy will stop brooding. I want to warn you of a couple of things as a new husband, though. First, don’t have that second child or your wife will get you neutered.” The assembled laughed.

“Second … um, how to put this? Expect less sex.” More chuckling. “You may have heard of a famous poll that found that twenty-seven percent of women prefer chocolate to sex. Well, I have further breakdowns that may be of interest. It turns out that only ten percent of single women prefer chocolate to sex, but fifty percent of married women prefer chocolate to sex, and seventy-five percent of married women with children prefer chocolate to sex. In fact, sixty percent of married women with children prefer scrubbing toilets to sex. And this is really telling: ninety-nine percent of married women with children prefer chocolate to sex with computer geeks.” Everyone laughed.

“Third, expect all those compliments you’ve heard from her to be replaced by criticism. The only nice thing Lisa ever said to me after we were married was eleven years ago when she told me, ‘You know, in dim light you’re not all that ugly’.” All laughed again.

Wedding night festivities had to be postponed because of Robert’s injuries and Kristen’s too-recent trauma. The couple just cuddled in bed as best they could. It was the most peaceful night she could ever recall. Finally she had her soul mate, and she would never let go.

Five days later, they consummated their union, conceiving the first two of their four children.

Robert and Kristen Owens would have their ups and downs like anyone else, but they spend the rest of their lives loving each other and their children; that’s all that ever mattered, and all that ever will.

END

Novelist ROBERT POWER was born in Canada, but raised and educated in the United States. He stayed in university so long, Berkeley eventually gave him a PhD to get rid of him. Working as a consultant from home, he drove his wife crazy until he took up writing fiction in his too-ample spare time. Neither he nor his wife know what they were thinking when they decided to have four children, but they’re happy they do--most days. They live in southern Ontario. Visit his website: rdpower.ca.

2020

For Power or Love

For Power or Love 2

Forbidden

Thank Sophia for Sam

Copyright © 2008 by R.D. Power

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Written 2003-2008

Edited by Anna Genoese

Cover design by Jeroen ten berge

ISBN 978-0-9917983-0-8

The author is not a representative of nor endorsed by any of the trademarks used or discussed in this book, which is a work of fiction and not meant to imply or represent reality.