Twisted Desire (31 page)

The sounds of the machines were driving me insane.
Beep, beep, beep.
His eyes never opened, never fluttered, nothing.

It’d been two days since he was shot, and as I sat by his bedside, my hope began to fade that he’d ever wake up.
 

His surgeries to remove the bullets went well. The doctors said the one in his leg barely missed an artery, and the one in his chest barely missed his heart. Barely.

Barely.

Barely.

“Penny?”

I must have fallen asleep. Someone was behind me, touching my shoulder. I jerked awake and turned quickly to see who it was. The only person I completely trusted was unconscious in a hospital bed.

Theo stood behind me, concern and sympathy in his eyes. He had been great with me since Tag was shot. He came to my room after everything had happened and gently told me. Tag had already been rushed to the hospital, so Theo drove me.
 

Roman Vitale was lucky he was already in jail and away from me.
 

“How’s he doing?”
Theo asked as he pulled up another chair. “Have you gotten any decent rest?”

Rubbing my eyes, I shook my head. “No. I won’t leave him. I can’t.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, he leaned forward and looked in my eyes. “You’re not doing him any good when you aren’t rested and have your energy. I can stay with him while you do. I booked us both rooms at the hotel around the corner.”

I shook my head again, tears forming in my eyes. “No, I can’t. Thank you, but no. What if he wakes up and I’m not here?”

Or worse
, I thought to myself.

“Then I’ll call you right away,”
he said, handing me a cell phone. I tilted my head in confusion.

“It’s from the agency. It’s yours now.”

I took the small black phone from his hand and stared at it. The agency, Tag and Theo’s agency. They were DEA agents.
 

It had all been a shock when Theo had told me everything he could while Tag was in surgery. To be honest, as I sat and listened to him, I wasn’t surprised. I knew something wasn’t right with Tag working with the cartel. As Theo filled me in, I felt a warm, peaceful feeling, knowing my man was fighting for me, for victims of drugs and crime all over the world. My Tag, my hero.
 

Theo had said that Tag was going to tell me on the plane when we were supposed to be going back to New York, before he was shot. Theo pleaded Tag’s case for me, expecting I’d be livid when I learned the truth.

I wasn’t.

I was relieved.

I’d always suspected there was something more to Tag, something innately good. I’d even told him on the yacht he didn’t fit in the “bad guy”
mode.
 

It’s because he wasn’t bad. He was the complete opposite.
 

But now, because of his job placing him in Roman’s cartel, he was fighting for his life.
 

Beep, beep, beep.

“Penny,”
Theo said quietly. “He’s going to be okay.”

Wiping a tear from my eye with my fist, I glanced over at him. “Then why isn’t he waking up?”

I’d finally listened to Theo and had gone to the hotel and slept. I woke up refreshed and feeling more like myself. Using the cell phone he’d given me, I called my sister Ava, needing to hear her voice more than ever.

After Theo had told me everything he could about their time in the cartel while Tag was in surgery, he’d let me borrow his phone so I could call my parents. Hearing their voices after months was more than I could take. I started bawling from the moment they said hello until a few minutes before we hung up. They’d said they were getting on the next plane to come get me, but I stopped them. I told them about Tag, and how I wouldn’t leave him. When Daddy told me Tag had called him earlier that day, before trying to arrest Roman and getting shot, and told him everything about my abduction, I was stunned.
 

He never told me.

My parents agreed to wait a day or two to see how Tag was doing, but still insisted on flying over to be with me. The sobs came over me again, and Theo took the phone, telling them he’d pick them up at the airport.

That was in a few hours now.
 

I returned to the hospital and found Theo watching some sports show on TV and my love still unconscious in his hospital bed. My heart broke at seeing him still like this, my always full of life Tag. I walked over to stand by the side of his bed and bent over to press a kiss to his cheek, then his lips.

“I’m back, baby,”
I whispered in his ear.

Beep, beep, beep.
 

Theo stood up then and rubbed his eyes. “Your parents land soon. I’m gonna head back to the hotel and sleep for a bit, then shower. I’ll go pick them up and bring them straight here. Sound good?”

I slumped down in the chair next to me. I was holding on by a thread. Barely.

I focused on the damn beeping, doing my best to not show Theo how close I was to breaking.

“Yes,”
I choked out. “Thank you.”

He was right by my side in an instant, bent on his knees. “Hey, now,”
he said softly. “Tag is tough, you know that. He’s one of the strongest guys I know, Penny. He’s going to pull through.”

I looked at him, sound asleep in that bed, looking so peaceful. His jaw was full of more scruff than usual, his lips slightly parted. His dark, thick lashes fanned over his strong cheekbones, and his chest rose and fell with each breath.
 

His dark hair was finally growing in, still too short to run my fingers through but no longer shaved and bald. I couldn’t wait to be able to run my fingers through it, and prayed once again he’d wake up.
 

“The longer he doesn’t wake up,”
I started, choking back a sob. “The longer he doesn’t wake up, the less likely it is that he’ll wake up, Theo. The doctors haven’t told me that, but I know, I feel it.”

He let out a sigh and stood. “He’s going to make it. God wouldn’t take him after all he did to take down Roman, and…”
he paused, making me look up at him.

“And what?”

Dropping to his knees beside me again, he stared straight into my eyes. “And just after finding you.”

His words sent a jolt of pain ripping through my heart, and I had to look away. I grabbed one of Tag’s strong hands and held it between my own, silently begging him to wake up. Lifting it to my mouth, I pressed a kiss to his palm, then put his hand to my cheek. I needed his touch, anything to feel him with me.

Theo stood. “Okay, I’m gonna go back to the hotel. I’ll see you in a few hours when I get your parents.”

“Thank you, Theo,”
I whispered. “For everything.”

The door to the hospital room slowly opened, and the faces of my parents peeked in. To actually see them, in front of me, sent such a rush of various emotions through me, I burst into tears as I flew into their arms.
 
My mother wrapped hers tightly around me, swaying me back and forth as she cried too, giving me the comfort only a mother’s touch could. To be in her arms again, after months of never knowing if I’d ever see them one more time, made me about fall to my knees. The shock of knowing this was real, that they were really with me, made me cry even harder. My father reached out and hugged us both then, himself shedding some tears. The three of us stood there together, in Tag’s hospital room, crying tears of joy and sadness for what could have been hours.

When we finally pulled away from one another, my mother framed my face with her soft hands, and when I inhaled her scent of lemon and strawberries, it made me smile. “Penelope Marie,”
she whispered, just staring at me. “I can’t believe I’m holding you, my baby.”
She started to choke up again. “I thought we’d never see you again, piccola mia.”

My father stood behind her, beaming down at me. He looked older from when I’d last seen him. He had larger bags under his eyes and more grey in his hair. The lines across his forehead were more pronounced, but he was still one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen, and I was so grateful he and Mama were there with me.

“Penelope,”
my father whispered, running his hand down my face, then covering my mothers framing it.
 

The door opened then, and Theo poked his head in. “Am I interrupting?”

We broke apart, and my parents welcomed him in, telling him no. I just stood there and mouthed “Thank you” to him, which made him smile and wink at me. We all stood in the middle of Tag’s room, the only sound the beep of the machine.

Beep, beep, beep.
 

“How is he, bella mia?”
my father asked from right behind me.

My heart sank. There was no change with him. The doctor had told me earlier that his body needed the rest, to give him time. That the rest will help him heal faster from the trauma his body suffered. The doctor didn’t know my Tag, though; he didn’t know how full of life he was.

“The same, Papa,”
I responded quietly. “I’m so worried about him.”

My father grasped my hand in his, squeezing it, trying to offer comfort.
 

“I’ve told Penny that I know he’s going to wake up any minute and ask us what we’re all freaking out about,”
Theo chimed in.

“He’s right,”
my father agreed. “I’ve never met him, but from everything I’ve heard, he’s a strong man. Have faith, bella.”

We spent the rest of the day hugging each other and catching up. Theo came and went, having to catch up on the case throughout the day. My parents convinced me to leave his room for a few minutes to get a bite of dinner, which did help me gain some much-needed energy.

“We are staying right here with you until your Tag wakes up, and we can take you home,”
my mother told me as we ate.
 

Grateful tears pooled in my eyes. “Thank you, Mama. I need you both so much.”

My father reached over the table and flicked a tear away with the pad of his thumb, just like he used to do when I was a little girl. “We want to bring Tag home too, if that’s what you both want.”

I swallowed the huge lump in my throat. “He said it was before…before,” I couldn’t finish my sentence, couldn’t say that he may not come back with me.

My father tilted his head to the side as he continued to brush away my tears. “Then it is still what he wants, bella.”

We finished our light dinner and went back up to his room. Everything was the same as when we left, except a nurse checking his vitals.

“Ms. Santoro,”
she exclaimed when she saw me walk in. “He just moved his fingers a few times.”

I rushed over to his bedside, my hand over my mouth. This was the first sign of life from him since his surgeries. Now tears of joy were falling down my cheeks as I kept staring at his hand, willing him to do it again.

My parents came to the other side of him, holding each other’s hands as they too watched. The nurse explained how it was a very good sign and that it most likely meant he’d be waking up soon. I smiled and nodded, never moving my eyes from his hands.

When it seemed like he wouldn’t do it again, I took a step back, disappointment flooding my body. “Bella, don’t give up,”
my father told me gently.