Under the Moon's Shadow (44 page)

Beth knew immediately it wasn’t a social visit. “Oh, no, something’s wrong.” She straightened as Jason reached them and didn’t take her eyes from his face.

“Ethan’s been hurt. He’s at the hospital. I don’t know how seriously he’s hurt, just that he was brought in about twenty minutes ago by another deputy.”

As his words sank in, she felt her knees give way. Chase caught her and slid his arm around her waist for support, but she quickly recovered.

“I have to go.” She looked at Jason to make sure he understood. “Take me to him.”

He grabbed her hand and turned toward the door. Chase started to reach into his pocket for his wallet, but Lauren waved him on.

“Just go. Don’t worry about this.” He shot her a grateful glance and hurried after his siblings.

Reaching the door, he told Jason, “I’ll follow you in my car.”

Jason quickly changed directions with a curse. “I walked over here from the courthouse to get lunch.” He ushered Beth out the door after Chase. “We’ll ride with you.”

As Chase drove, all Beth could think about was that the last time she had seen Ethan, she had hurt him. Although it was less than a five-minute drive to the hospital from the Brown Bag, she was terrified that they wouldn’t be in time, and that Ethan would die not knowing how she really felt or why she had acted the way she had Sunday.

Pulling the car up alongside the emergency room doors, Chase let Jason and Beth out, then quickly pulled away to go find a parking spot. Jason grabbed her arm and tugged her toward the doors, but she slammed to a stop as a paralyzing wave of anxiety swept over her body.

“Come on, sis.” Jason turned to see why she had stopped. When he saw her pallor and the fine sweat that had broken out on her face, he took a deep breath and forced himself to slow down, presenting a calm front to Beth. She was relieved to see he understood. The whole family was familiar with the symptoms of a panic attack, as they’d seen Jackie suffer with them from time to time.

Placing his hands on Beth’s shoulders, Jason spoke in a low, soothing voice, and encouraged her to take some slow, deep breaths. When he saw Chase approaching out of the corner of his eye, he nodded toward the hospital.

“Head on in, see if you can find out anything?” Chase hurried inside, and Jason focused on Beth again. She could feel that some of the color had returned to her face, but she was still in the grip of the adrenaline rush that accompanied one of the debilitating attacks.

“Can you talk to me?” She shook her head and swallowed as frustrated tears sprung into her eyes. “Okay, it’s okay.” He rubbed his hands up and down her arms lightly. “Let’s go sit down on that bench over there, okay?” He nodded toward a bench about twenty feet away from the emergency room entrance.

Beth nodded and held out her right hand. He clasped it and held on tightly as they walked to the bench and sat down. She hunched over and wrapped her free arm around her stomach, and he watched as she struggled for control. As the attack finally eased, she released a shuddering sigh and loosened her grip on his hand. She sat back and wiped at her face.

“Are you okay now?”

She nodded, unable to stop more tears from falling. “Yes. I’m sorry. I just can’t go in there, Jason. What if he’s dead?”

“He isn’t,” Chase said as he walked up to the bench. “He’s hurt, some pretty serious cuts from what Wyatt says, but he’s not in any immediate danger.”

The relief left Beth lightheaded. “What happened?”

Chase held his hands up and shrugged. “Wyatt said Ethan went out to look at something one of the other deputies had called in about, and apparently he got knocked over by a big dog. He landed on some broken glass and got sliced pretty badly. The deputy brought him in.”

“Did the dog attack him?” Beth asked.

“Not sure, but apparently Ethan’s pretty good and ticked off. Are you going in there, or are you going to sit out here all day?”

Beth looked down at her hands and ignored Chase’s question. “Has anyone called his mother?”

Chase moved to sit on Beth’s other side. “Stella’s in there with him now.”

Jason stood up, and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m going to go talk to Wyatt. I’ll be back out as soon as I can.”

For a couple minutes after he left, Beth and Chase just sat there and watched the flow of traffic and people. When she started talking, he had to lean closer to hear what she was saying.

“I had a panic attack, Chase. I couldn’t go in.” She didn’t look at her brother. Her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. “I froze, just like I did the other day in the bathroom.”

He sat back as everything from the other day suddenly made sense. “Is that why you couldn’t talk to Ethan? Because you were having a panic attack?”

She tugged at a loose thread on the knee of her slacks as she spoke. “Seeing him all bloody and bruised, I just - I don’t know. It petrified me. All I wanted to do was help him, comfort him, and I just froze. I had to get out of there. When you tried to stop me, all that panic turned into anger, and I hit you. I’m sorry, by the way.”

Chase placed his hand on top of hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Forget it ever happened. I know I have.” He made his eyebrows jump as she looked up at him, and she laughed for a second.

“I’ll bet you remember it every time you look in the mirror,” she scolded. He grimaced, unable to disagree.

Her levity disappeared. “I need to go in there. I want to. I just know that he’s going to be mad over what happened Sunday, and hurt, and I don’t know what to say to him. What if he doesn’t want to see me?”

A wistful expression crossed her brother’s face. “I don’t think there is much danger of that being the case. The man loves you. Go to him.”

After a moment, she stood and straightened her shoulders. “Let’s go then.”

Not waiting to see if Chase was following her, she headed toward the doors. As she stepped inside, the doors that led into the emergency department itself opened and Stella came out. Her eyes lit up as they saw Beth.

“I’ll wait in here.” Chase ducked into the waiting room, giving them privacy.

“Thank God.” Stella hurried over to Beth and took her hands. “Sweetie, I’m so glad you made it inside. Please tell me you can come back and see Ethan. He’s as grumpy as an old bear, and if you don’t come back there soon, the doctors and nurses may very well bludgeon him with a bedpan.”

“Are you sure he wants to see me? We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms, last time we saw each other.”

Stella reached out and smoothed a stray lock of hair away from Beth’s face. “I’m absolutely positive he wants to see you. He may not say that exactly, but I can tell he’s terrified that you won’t want to see him. I don’t know what happened between you two, but he’s certain you’ve written him off. It’s made him unbearable, and they can’t do anything to treat him. Your brothers both told him you were here, but I don’t think he believes them.”

“Okay, then. Lead me to him.”

Stella gave her a brilliant smile and turned to wave at the clerk who controlled the button that opened the door. As it swung open, Beth could see Wyatt and Jason standing outside one of the rooms. The sheriff had a huge frown on his face, and as he saw Beth hurry inside with Stella, his frown cleared up.

“Thank God.” His words and tone were so close to what Stella’s had been earlier, Beth realized Stella hadn’t been exaggerating about Ethan’s mood.

“Is that her?” one of the nurses called from the station in the middle of the large, open room.

“Yes,” Wyatt responded as Beth approached the room. She could hear Ethan inside. He was muttering under his breath, with a loud curse escaping every few seconds. Wyatt turned and leaned into the room. “Doc, he’s got a visitor.”

Within seconds, a frustrated-looking, middle-aged woman came out of the room. She drew surgical gloves off her hands with a snap, and when she saw Beth, she put her hands on her hips and spoke.

“If you can’t get him calmed down, I’m knocking him out. You’ve got five minutes.” With that, she turned and stalked down the hall. She disappeared inside a room with a swinging door, which she pushed so hard that it bounced against the wall. Beth stared after her in amazement. She glanced back at Wyatt and Jason as a shout came from inside the room, and she heard Stella give an embarrassed groan from beside her.

“I raised that boy to behave better than this.”

“Damn it, you can’t leave me laying here with my ass hanging out of this gown!” Ethan yelled as a nurse’s aide came scurrying around the curtain. Her cheeks were as red as her hair, and she hurried past them.

Appalled at what she was hearing, Beth rushed into the room. She jumped as Wyatt closed the door behind her. Almost afraid to move around the curtain, she took a deep breath and did it anyway. When he heard her footsteps, Ethan snarled. “Who’d they send in this time, Nurse Ratchet?”

He was lying on the gurney on his stomach, with his arms wrapped around a pillow. Because of his awkward position, he couldn’t turn his head to see who had come into the room. They had dressed him in a gown that opened in the back, and several dampened gauze squares were dotted across his left side. The squares ran down his back from below his shoulder blade to end just above his knee.

“Not this time, but I swear I think I saw the doctor heading for the room where they keep the needles that are as big as your arm.” Beth moved around the bed so that he could see her. She saw his body go still as she spoke, and realized Stella had been right about him not believing her brothers. As he turned his head and saw her, she winced. The bruises on his face didn’t look much better than Chase’s, and the glare he was sending her would have made a hardened criminal shake in their boots.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he growled as he turned his face away from her.

Tossing her purse onto the floor next to the wall, she moved closer to him. She lowered the bedrail so she could reach him. “Trying to keep the medical staff from strangling you.” She placed her hand on his uninjured shoulder. Ethan tensed, but didn’t shrug her hand off, and Beth took that as a positive sign. After a few moments, he sighed, and his muscles relaxed. He stayed silent, however, and she knew she was going to have to tread carefully.

“What happened? Chase said something about a dog?”

He growled, clearly reluctant to tell her. “Come on, big guy.” She leaned over and spoke softly as she placed her other hand on his right arm. Wrapping her hand around his hand where it lay on the pillow, she placed a soft kiss on his shoulder, letting her head rest there for a moment. “Tell me about this dog. I don’t see any bite marks.”

He finally spoke. “That’s because it didn’t try to bite me. It tried to lick me to death.”

She gave a startled laugh, and he turned his head to look at her. He was still scowling, but not as fiercely as before. “It was a bull mastiff. Probably weighed close to what I do, and he pushed me down on a pile of broken windows. End of story. Why are you here?”

Beth studied his face and saw the tired circles under his eyes and the weary look in his eyes. Reaching out, she pushed his hair back, running her fingers through the silky strands.

“I’m here because you’re here. I love you. Where else would I be?” She felt his hand tighten underneath hers, and his eyes closed.

He swallowed a couple of times. “It sure doesn’t feel like you love me.”

Her heart broke. “I know. And I promise, I’ll explain everything soon. But right now, we need to get you taken care of. Will you let them work on you?”

He nodded, and she gently disengaged her hand from his so she could go tell Wyatt to let the nurses know Ethan was ready. Ethan’s eyes flew open as she pulled back, and his gaze hardened, but not before Beth saw a flash of fear.

“I’m just going to let Wyatt know to send the doctor in now, okay? I’ll be right back. I’m not even leaving the room.” She hurried to the door and cracked it open. “He’s ready, and can you call Marshall for me?”

Wyatt assured her he would, and she went back to Ethan’s side. The look on his face softened a little as she came back within sight, and as she took his hand, his eyes closed with a sigh. He let his body relax again, and she felt a tremor run through him.

“Are you cold?”

“A little.”

She glanced around for a blanket. When she didn’t find one, she cursed under her breath.

“I heard that, and I’m telling your mother,” Ethan said without opening his eyes.

“Hush,” Beth told him, smiling. “I’m looking for a blanket to cover you up with, but I don’t see one.” When she heard the door open, she squeezed his hand. The harried doctor came around the curtain and pulled on a fresh pair of gloves. A different aide accompanied her.

“Could we have a blanket if it isn’t too much trouble? He’s cold.”

The aide moved to the other side of the curtain and quickly came back around with a folded white blanket. Beth released Ethan’s hand and took the blanket with a smile of thanks. She unfolded it, and carefully laid it along his right side, taking pains to avoid his wounds.

The doctor spoke. “Detective Moore, I’m going to start stitching these cuts up now. Are you sure you don’t want me to give you anything to help you relax? Even with the numbing shots, this is still going to be an unpleasant process.”

His eye flew open. “No narcotics, damn it. I told you that before. I haven’t changed my mind.”

Beth eyes widened at the anger in his tone. “Ethan, calm down, they...”

He interrupted her, and a desperate look entered his eyes. “I don’t want the drugs, Beth. Understand? I don’t want the drugs.” He repeated the words slowly and succinctly. With sudden insight, she understood that Ethan was afraid of the addiction potential, and she grasped his hand again.

“Okay, then. No drugs.”

“Promise me,” Ethan begged as he gripped her hand.

“I promise.” She looked straight into his eyes. “No drugs.” After a moment he relaxed, and his eyes closed once again.

Beth looked up to meet the doctor’s speculative gaze. She shook her head. “He’ll be okay without the sedative.”

“Well, this is going to take a while. Why don’t we get you a chair so you can be comfortable while I work?” She turned to the aide, who again moved to the other side of the curtain for a chair. While they were waiting, the doctor studied Beth and her now calm patient, eyes narrowed. As the aide came around the curtain with a regular chair, she shook her head.