When You Were Mine [Second Chances 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (23 page)

Jamie winced and said, “Yeah. That had to be rough growing up.”

“When I filled out in middle school, people stopped fucking with me. My elementary school years were kinda shit though,” he said, shaking his head.

He heard the entrance to the ER pop open, so he turned to watch Theo rush in. His eyes were red-rimmed and he said, “Has there been any news on my baby?”

Jamie reached out, put his hand on Thomas’s shoulder and said, “Not your fault. I’m just glad you found her.”

With a final look at his wife, he said, “Jene. It was a pleasure meeting you. If you’ll excuse me.”

He stood up and headed toward Theo, who nodded anxiously at Taryn. When he spotted Jamie, he broke down again.

Jamie ignored the stinging of his own eyes and tried to steer Theo to a chair. He was held immobile in a crushing hug as Theo sobbed like a baby on his shoulder.

He had managed to hold it together for the most part, thus far, but when Theo said, “I can’t lose her. She’s my baby. Why would anyone want to hurt my baby?” Jamie lost it.

He very vaguely remembered someone getting him to a chair and shoving coffee into his hand, but for the life of him, he didn’t remember who. It took him a few minutes before he could pull himself together. He managed to wipe his face off and take the proffered napkins from Evan.

Over the next hour, everyone showed up. Even his mother drove down from Ventura. He took equal turns comforting everyone and being a total fucking wreck. He paced, and then he sat. Then he paced. He couldn’t fathom how anyone could bring themselves to hurt Cora.

When the ER doctor finally came out, he called Theo’s name. En masse, the entire group followed him over to the doctor, hopeful that the news would be good.

The doctor blinked at the sheer size of the group and then she asked, “Is this...”

“Family. Go ahead, please. How’s my baby?”

Theo clutched Jamie’s arm in a death grip as they waited.

“She lost a lot of blood but we were able to repair her lung and retrieve all of the bullets. One was lodged in her shoulder. Luckily, with the exception of the lung, nothing else vital was hit. She’s out of surgery now. She pulled through just fine. With her age, health, and medical history, there’s no reason to think she won’t make a full recovery. We’re moving her to a private room in the ICU so we can keep a close eye on her for the night. She’ll be here for a few days. She also has a nasty concussion.”

“When can we see her?” Jamie asked, swamped with relief.

“The nurse will let you know when she’s been settled. She’s still sedated, but you can see her briefly tonight. No more than two at a time. Five minutes max. She needs to rest.”

* * * *

He knew it was the right thing to do, letting Taryn and Theo go first. He couldn’t help but wait anxiously for his turn though. It was one thing to hear that she was going to be okay, and quite another thing to see it for himself.

He paced the hallway, his stomach in knots until Taryn said, “Your turn, Jamie,” and gave his arm a comforting squeeze.

He gave her a nod and hovered at the door for a minute. His mother stood next to him, gave him a little push, and said, “Go on. I’ll give you a minute.”

Jamie felt the stinging in his eyes but ignored it. He gave his mother a crushing hug. “Thank you, Mom.”

Any sense of relief he might have had left him the moment that he saw her laying there. She looked so fragile. She had an ugly bruise on her cheek and a scrape on her forehead. There were so many machines and wires.

He picked up her hand and sank into the chair next to her bed. He pressed a kiss against her knuckles and said, “Baby, I thought I lost you.”

“How could anyone do this to you?” he asked on a broken sob. The combination of fear, anger, and relief was too much to bear. He broke down, leaning his forehead against her hand. He had come so fucking close to losing everything.

Eventually, he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder in comfort. Still he couldn’t bear to let go of her hand. No matter the history, what had transpired between them, there had never been anyone but Cora.

“Jamie, baby. We need to go now. The nurse has been giving us the evil eye for the last ten minutes.”

He sat up, wiped his face, and said, “Shit. I didn’t realize I was in here for that long.” He released her hand with one last squeeze and then stood up.

Everyone continued to mill around until the nurses finally threatened to have them kicked out of the hospital. From what the doctor said, Cora would be held for observation for the next three days. He needed to plan for that. There was no way in hell that he was leaving her side.

Mentally, Jamie rearranged his schedule so he would be able to be at the hospital. He would need to talk to Tim about it, but there was nothing else he could do. He wouldn’t leave her. Not if he could help it.

He could barely remember the drive home. Even though he’d worried he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he had dropped off immediately. When he woke up after a few hours, he felt renewed.

He sent a few e-mails, ate breakfast, and then headed off to the hospital. When he checked in at the nurses’ station, he found out that Cora had been moved out of the ICU this morning and into a private room. He stopped at the hospital gift shop and bought her some flowers, then made his way up to the seventh floor.

When he stepped through the door of her room, he winced. The bruises on her face were much more pronounced. He was, however, glad to see that she was no longer hooked up to oxygen. He set the flowers on the shelf by the window and dragged one of the visitor’s chairs to the edge of the bed.

Once he had settled into the chair, he gently picked up her hand and held it in his. He saw her flinch and then open her eyes. As they focused on him, she smiled and said, “Jamie.”

“Cora, baby. I thought I lost you last night. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

She squeezed his hand and said, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Do you want water? Do you need anything?”

Her voice was scratchy when she said, “Water, please.”

Jamie moved to the rolling table and poured her a drink.

When she tried to sit up, she winced, so he moved behind her and supported her between her shoulder blades. She took a few sips of water and then said, “Thank you.”

Once he had settled her back against the bed, she said, “Jamie. About the other day...”

The hand he had been stroking through her hair paused. He asked, “Would you rather me not be here?”

He saw the panic and pain flare in her eyes. She immediately said, “Please. Don’t go. I wanted to—”

“Shh. Just relax,” Jamie said. He knew they would resolve things in one way or another at some point. None of that mattered right now though. He was just relieved to know that they would have the opportunity. “We can worry about that later. I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”

He continued to stroke his fingers through her hair and asked, “Did you need me to call Celia or get anything from your office? Or home?”

“I talked to Taryn this morning. She called her and let her know what was going on. Celia’s going to go in and cancel my appointments for the next week or so, then she said she was going to stop in.”

“I’m surprised Taryn isn’t here,” Jamie said. She took mother hen to another level. The other night when he’d gone to visit them, she’d kept giving him these sad, sympathetic glances. She’d sent him home with leftovers and an extra slice of chocolate cake.

“She was going to take off work today. I begged her not to. The last thing I wanted was her here, worrying over me. She’s got enough going on with the early contractions. Between Evan and me, we kind of bullied her into going.”

“So you’ve probably got about a day of peace before she’s here, fussing and nagging at you, right?”

Cora laughed, and then groaned. She took a breath and said, “Yeah. Sounds about right.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, baby. Relax. And Theo?”

“He called me this morning and told me he was wrapping things up at the office. He’ll be by later today.”

Jamie watched her eyes drift to the clock on the wall.

She asked, “Shouldn’t you be going to the office?”

“In light of recent events, I decided to take the day off,” he said.

“Shinobi, Jamie. You’re right in the middle of the campaign!”

“I’m taking a day. It’s perfectly fine. I talked with Tim about it and he said that the promo can be pushed back as much as two weeks,” Jamie said.

Cora sighed, then winced with pain. “Don’t screw anything up to be here, Jamie. I’ve got plenty of people to watch over me.”

“I’m here as much for me as I am you, Cora. You have no—”

“Excuse me.” A gruff voice came from the doorway. “I’m Detective Jacobs. This is my partner, Detective Manning. We’d like to ask you a few questions, if you’re up for it.”

Jamie watched as they both flashed their badges, and then started to pull back. He was surprised when Cora gripped his hand and said, “Stay, please.”

When he saw the panic flash in her eyes, he said, “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”

The police officers eyed him, but said nothing.

“So,” Detective Manning said. “Can you tell me happened last night? Start from the beginning.”

Cora took a deep breath, then winced slightly and said, “I was leaving work, headed for my car. As I turned the corner of the building and stepped into the parking lot, I heard a loud sound. I felt it, but I didn’t realize I’d been shot until I looked down and saw all the blood. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t.”

The police officer said nothing, and wrote furiously.

“I turned around, and tried to go back into the building for help. Warren Aimes shot me two more times. I tried to hit the panic button on my car alarm and then...I don’t remember what happened after that. Nothing until I woke up this morning.”

“You know the man who shot you?” Detective Jacobs asked.

“Yes. Warren Aimes. A-I-M-E-S,” she patiently spelled. “I tried to get a restraining order but he had already skipped out on parole so they couldn’t find him. I testified against him in court and he ended up going to jail. He came to my office a month and a half ago. I didn’t recognize him then. He was angry. Really angry. He threatened me.”

“I was a witness to that,” Jamie added quietly.

Detective Jacobs stepped outside for a moment. It sounded like he was on his phone. The other officer continued to quiz Cora for a few more minutes until she held up a hand, citing a need to catch her breath.

He let up for a minute but then began rephrasing his questions. He asked her the same things repeatedly until finally she snapped at him.

Jamie was pleased that some of the color came back into her cheeks. She was exhausted for certain, but she was working her way up to being pissed off.

Finally, Jamie stepped in and said, “Look. She was shot three times last night. She’s recovering from a collapsed lung. If she says she saw the man who shot her, then she saw him. She’s got no incentive to lie to you. She can’t breathe very well and she’s exhausted. Can you cut her a break, please?”

The detective narrowed his eyes at Jamie, then looked at Cora and closed his notebook. As he turned toward the door his partner returned.

“Good news, folks. We actually picked Mr. Aimes up on an unrelated crime last night. He had the gun on him, still. He’s currently awaiting arraignment on separate charges. In addition to your testimony, we may be able to match the bullets to his gun. Either way he’s not going to be making bail anytime soon.”

When Detective Jacobs handed her his card, and they both took their leave, the silence in the room was almost deafening. Finally, Jamie spoke up and said, “Between whatever he did last night after, his parole violation and everything else, hopefully he stays behind bars for a long, long time.”

It was, he realized, a very small bright spot in an otherwise crappy situation.

Cora stared out her hospital window, her ears still ringing from the phone conversation she’d just had with her father. When he called her to tell her he was running late, she’d told him about the police stopping by. He had not been happy.

She figured he’d be relieved that the man was in custody, but like a pit bull, he had immediately asked why Cora had been able to identify the man. He’d listened calmly while she explained the backstory and then promptly yelled, “Why the hell is this the first I’m hearing about a man coming to your office and threatening you, baby girl?”

Jamie, having heard him through the phone, ushered her visitors out into the hallway to give her privacy. She had given him a desperate look, but he had just shaken his head as he closed the door. It had been an ugly conversation, and she wasn’t likely to hear the last of it any time soon. She knew Jamie was liable to get yelled at, too.

Reasonably, her father knowing about the danger wouldn’t have changed anything. The restraining order wouldn’t have either. Jamie had followed up with the courts and found out that after his arraignment, Warren Aimes had been remanded into custody with no option for bail this afternoon.

At the light tap on the door, she looked up. Thomas, the security guard from her office poked his head in and said, “There she is!”