No money changed hands.
Forty-seven
Lara
A week went by in the hospital. Kit and I never talked about that day. I knew he didn’t want to stress me and it suited me fine because I knew I wanted to wait until I was at his home before I told him my decision. Today was my last day at the hospital and Kit had gone to get some medication when a man came in.
“Hello, Lara,” he greeted. His voice was cultured, but steely. “You don’t know me, but I’m Rhett. Rhett Haverbrooke.”
I drew my breath in so sharply it hurt my lung. I relaxed my body and took a few shallow breaths.
“I’m sorry if I startled you,” he said, coming closer.
“What do you want?” I asked suspiciously. I didn’t want any trouble with Mr. Haverbrooke’s powerful family.
“I wanted to thank you.”
My body stilled with astonishment. “Thank me? For what?”
“For taking care of my problem.”
I frowned. “Problem? What problem?”
“My daughter was about to marry a worthless gold-digger. Nothing I could say would make her change her mind. Sheriff Bradley tells me thanks to you, young lady, he seems to have completely disappeared from the scene. Run away with his tail between his legs.”
“Oh, that,” I said softly. “Yes, it is a good thing Kayleigh did not marry him. He was not a good man.”
“Well,” he breathed out. “I thought I’d drop by and let you know that I’d like to return the favor. If ever you are in need of something, don’t hesitate to call on me. If you need anything at all. Money? Whatever? Just contact me.”
I shook my head. “Thank you kindly, but I don’t need anything, Mr. Haverbrooke.” Then I stopped. “Actually, I do need something. Do you have connections in Hollywood?”
“I believe I do,” Mr. Haverbrooke said, and I could hear the smile on his face.
“Good, because I’ve got a friend that could do with a bit of help. You mustn’t tell her though. It has to be done in secret.”
“Well then, it’ll be our little secret,” he said as Kit came into the room.
“You must be Kit. I’m Rhett,” he said civilly.
“Pleased to meet you,” Kit said, but his voice was cold and hard.
“The pleasure is all mine. You and Lara should come around for dinner. Meet my wife and daughter.”
“I’m not one for going out much, Rhett, but thank you kindly for the offer.”
“Well, I’ll be going then. Good day to both of you.”
“I’ll contact you about my friend. Her name is Elaine.”
“What was that about?” Kit asked me.
I gleefully told him about Rhett Haverbrooke’s offer to help.
A nurse pushed me out of the hospital in a wheelchair, and Kit helped me into the pickup.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Remember, if at any time you feel shortness of breath, sudden sharp chest pain, fever over 101° or the incision starts weeping, tell me immediately because we have to go back to the hospital,” he said worriedly.
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay. You ready to go home?”
“Yeah.” I smiled at him.
It felt strange after a week of the sterile air of the hospital to breathe in fresh, cold air again. It hurt my lung a bit, but I enjoyed the feeling of bitter cold air going into my system again, even if it did sting my lung some.
We didn’t talk much in the car. I was tired, but happy. Very happy. I might even have dozed off. When I woke up again Kit was parking the car. His skin touched mine–so warm, as if he had just removed a pair of fleece-lined gloves. He squeezed my good shoulder, then bent to kiss my forehead.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and there was a softness that spoke volumes.
“Yeah,” I said slowly.
“Let’s go inside,” he said softly.
Kit came around to my side, and gently, as if I was made from spun sugar, helped me down. “Shall I carry you to the door?” he asked.
“What, and have you drop me in the snow?” I joked.
He didn’t laugh. Slowly, step by step, he led me to the door. He opened it and I heard the unmistakable clicking of a wolf’s claws on the hardwood floor behind me. I gasped in amazement. I hadn’t heard him come up. “Is it Lobo?” Kit told me how he found me surrounded by wolves.
When I told him that Lobo had growled at me, he said that Lobo was growling to the others. Warning them to keep away from his human. He explained that when Lobo took my shoulder in his jaw he had done it to drag me along the driveway. Somehow, he managed to pull me up the steps to the porch. Then the wolves had sat around me guarding and keeping me warm.
“Yes,” Kit said, his voice kinder than I had ever heard.
I smiled for the first time in a long while. “He wants to come with me. He’s my buddy.”
“If you want in, boy, you go right ahead,” Kit said.
“I thought the wolves were not really allowed into the house.”
Kit tightened his arm around me and dropped a kiss onto my hair. “He saved your life, Lara. As far as I’m concerned, he can have my bed.”
I bit my lip. “I feel bad that I even for a moment thought they were going to eat me when I owe my life to Lobo and the rest of them.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. They don’t know and even if they did, animals don’t keep grudges. You were frightened and you were right to be cautious.”
“I’m glad they’ll never know,” I said softly.
“I’ll be damned. It looks like he’s going to curl up in front of the fire just like a dog.”
“I guess that’s where I will curl up, too,” I said, and walked to towards the hearth.
A few minutes later we were all huddled around the fireplace as Kit made the fire roar. Lobo pressed against my feet, the warmth of his big body instantly cut through the chill. I reached down to scratch his ears.
“We need to talk,” Kit said.
“I agree. You go first.”
“Look … I know I lied, and that was wrong. Very wrong. I’m very sorry about that.” Kit stood up and began to pace the floor. “I know when we parted the last time you said you never wanted to see me again, but I want to say something first, and then you can decide if you still want us to break up.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I would have him even if it was only for a day, but Kit cut me off. “Please, just listen to me first.”
“Okay,” I agreed quietly.
Forty-eight
Lara
“I know I went away without any explanation of where I was going, or what I would be doing, but you have to understand that there are some things I just can’t tell you. That I will never be able to talk about. I will have to keep those secrets to myself, simply because … I took an oath.
“All I can tell you is that I was sent to another country. It was a dangerous job. We were dealing with people who would have cut your hand off for your watch. I wish I could tell you everything, but all I can say is that it was a partial success. We didn’t get the bad guys but we got the guns and the drugs.
He paused.
“Anyway, there was a lot of gunfire going on and confusion, and my best buddy… Roger, I never told you about him because he was always a part of my other life. I didn’t know how to tell you about him without telling you everything else as well, but I can tell you about him now, I think.
“Roger and I went into the service together. He was a Ranger for a long time before he switched over to the dark side, as he liked to say. He worked with me in special ops. He was as badass as they come. We went through everything together. He was there for me. Every mission, he was there.
“Roger was a beer connoisseur. He laid his motorcycle down once because a car braked too fast in front of him, and he swore that was the only time he actually saw his life flash before his eyes. After that
he was butch enough to lead a crew into hellfire, but he was too pussy to get on a motorcycle again.”
Kit sat and sighed.
“He had these magnetic brown eyes. The man was a fucking monster. We used to go on these trips to exotic beaches where he always got laid, sometimes three or four times in a night, and the most I got was sand in all the wrong places. He … he was brave and strong but he cried like a little boy when his dog died …”