The whisper stirred Ryan and he opened his eyes and groaned at the monster crick in his neck. Daylight streamed through the blinds on the window and he winced.
His gaze first found Kelly, who was still sleeping, her cheek resting on the mound of pillows. Her bed was elevated slightly so she wasn’t lying flat and some time recently her IV bag had been replaced because it was now full.
Then he turned, his hand going to rub the kinks in his neck. Devon was standing next to the chair Ryan had slept in, his eyes dark with concern.
“What the hell happened?” Devon said in a low voice.
Carefully, Ryan stood, not wanting to risk waking Kelly up. He motioned for Dev to follow him outside the hospital room. When they walked out, Ryan saw Cam shove off the wall, his eyebrow arched in question.
“What are you two doing here?” Ryan asked with a frown.
“Last night was tense,” Devon said. “We tried to call you but couldn’t get you so we went by your apartment. Your doorman told us that Kelly had been taken to the hospital by ambulance so we came over to see if she’s okay.”
Ryan closed his eyes as his throat knotted all over again.
“Whoa, man, you need to sit down,” Cam said. “Have you eaten?”
Ryan shook his head.
“Want to tell us about it?” Dev prompted.
Ryan stared at his two friends and emitted a harsh laugh. “How do you explain that you’ve made the worst mistake of your entire life and you’re not sure you can ever make amends?”
“That bad, huh,” Cam said.
“Worse.”
“Is Kelly going to be all right?” Dev asked. “And the baby?”
“I wish I knew. They might have to deliver the baby early if her blood pressure doesn’t go down. I did this to her. She’s lying in a hospital bed because I wasn’t there for her or my child. What kind of a bastard does that make me?”
Cam and Devon exchanged glances.
“Look, granted I don’t know the whole story, but I’d say that you aren’t solely to blame for the problem,” Devon said carefully. “My brother assaulted her,” Ryan said as rage flooded him all over again. “He tried to rape her and when she fought him off, he called me with an ingenious story. He claimed they slept together but when he told her it was a mistake, she threatened to tell me he tried to rape her so I wouldn’t break up with her for cheating on me. So of course not half an hour later when she shows up at my office telling me exactly what my brother said she would, I didn’t believe her. Because I couldn’t imagine my brother, the brother I all but raised, doing something so despicable. And when she begged me, when she got on her knees and pleaded with me to believe her, I wrote her a check and told her to get the hell out of my life.”
Devon and Cam both looked at him stunned, speechless.
“How am I ever supposed to get past something like that,” Ryan snarled. “Tell me how she’s supposed to get past that. Do you know that just last night before dinner I magnanimously told her that I forgave her? That I wanted us to forget the past and move forward and that I forgave her for cheating on me.”
He broke off and laughed a dry, harsh laugh.
“Yeah, from the start I’ve been all about being the bigger person and wanting to start over when all along I treated her so unforgivably. She came to me for help, for protection, because I was the one person she counted on, and I turned my back on her.”
Ryan turned away as his composure slipped. Tears burned his eyes. Angry, furious tears. He wanted to ram his fist into the wall. He wanted to roar with rage.
His friends flanked him, each slipping a hand over his shoulder.
“I don’t know what to say,” Devon said quietly. “I know you love her.”
“Yeah, I did, do, always have. I loved her and yet I did this to her. How is she ever going to be able to trust me again?”
“Someone needs to beat the hell out of that little bastard,” Cam growled.
Ryan slowly raised his head, his face set in stone. “He’ll never ever come close to her again. I’m going to kill him.”
“Damn,” Devon muttered. “Look, I know you’re pissed and you have every right to be, but don’t do anything stupid. He deserves to have his ass kicked, but don’t do anything to land yourself in jail. Kelly needs you. You can’t help her if you’re behind bars.”
“I can’t let him get away with it,” Ryan said. “He touched her. He violated her. He hurt her.”
“I’m going with you,” Cam said tersely.
Ryan shook his head.
“You don’t get a choice. It’s either I go with you or I’m calling the police. The difference is, I’ll let you beat the crap out of him. But I won’t let you kill him. The police aren’t going to let you touch him. So what’ll it be?”
Ryan’s lip curled into a snarl.
Devon sighed. “You should see yourself, man. It’s a good thing Kelly is sleeping. Whatever it is you need to do, you need to get it done so that when she wakes up you can be the support she needs. You’ll just scare her to death if she sees you like this.”
“Devon can stay with Kelly,” Cam volunteered. “I’ll go with you to confront Jarrod. Then
you can get your ass back here where you belong and put this whole thing behind you.”
Cam made it sound easy, but Ryan knew better. Kelly might not ever forgive him and he wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t. But if she did and if she and Ryan were going to be together, he was going to make damn sure his family was never an issue for her again.
“Will you do it?” Ryan asked. “Will you stay with her for a while? If she wakes let her know…”
“I’ll handle it,” Devon said. “You just go so you can get your head on straight again. And rip his nuts off for me. The bastard deserves it.”
Seventeen
Jarrod’s expression was one of resignation when he opened the door to Ryan’s insistent knock. Ryan didn’t give him time to do or say anything. He grabbed his brother by the shirt and propelled him backward into the small studio apartment Jarrod lived in.
“What the—?”
Ryan silenced him with a fist. Jarrod went sprawling and Ryan and Cam both stood a few feet back waiting for him to pick himself up off the floor.
Jarrod wiped at the blood on his mouth as he stumbled to his feet. “What the hell, Ryan?”
“Why did you do it?” Ryan asked in a deadly quiet voice. “Why?”
An uneasy expression crawled across Jarrod’s face. His lips drooped and his eyes went dull. At least he wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t know what Ryan was talking about.
Jarrod dragged a hand across his mouth again, his hand coming away smeared with blood. “I know it won’t mean much, but I’m sorry.”
Ryan exploded at him. Jarrod didn’t even try to defend himself. He went down on the floor and this time he didn’t get up. “Sorry? You’re sorry? You tried to rape her. You lied to me about her. What the hell is wrong with you? She was the woman I was going to marry. Why would you do something like that?”
“Mom,” Jarrod said in a weary voice.
Ryan took a step back, stunned. “Mom? Mom put you up to this?”
Jarrod dragged himself only up enough to lean against the living room wall and he put a hand through his hair, his expression weary and defeated.
“Yeah. She went ballistic when she found out you proposed to Kelly. She was determined you weren’t going to marry some penniless upstart. Her words not mine. I thought she was crazy at first. I mean I figured she’d throw a fit and then get over it, but then she wanted me to go buy her off. She said that if Kelly refused the offer, I should frame her with the fake rape story. I swear to you I wouldn’t have raped her, Ryan. I just wanted to set it up so you’d think we slept together.”
“Jesus,” Cam muttered. “This is crazy.”
Ryan was numb from head to toe. His own mother had done something that sick? It didn’t seem possible. How could anyone hate someone else so much that they’d go to such lengths to get rid of them?
“She invited me to dinner last night. But I swear, Ryan, she told me that you wanted me there, that you and Kelly wanted to let the past go and start over. I wasn’t going to go, because I didn’t want to upset Kelly or make you angry, but Mom told me you specifically asked for me to come. And I hoped… I hoped that maybe you and Kelly could forgive the past and that we could be a family again. Like old times.”
Ryan dropped his hands to his sides, suddenly so sick at heart that he just wanted to walk away. “You’re no longer my family. Kelly and our child are my family. I don’t ever want to see you again. If I ever catch you near Kelly I swear to you that you’ll regret it.”
“Ryan, don’t. Please,” Jarrod called hoarsely.
Ryan stopped at the door and slowly turned around. “Did she beg you like you’re begging me, Jarrod? Did she ask you to stop?”
Jarrod’s face flushed a dull red and then he looked away, no longer able to meet his brother’s gaze.
“Come on,” Cam said quietly. “Let’s go, man.”
As they walked back out, Ryan nudged Cam toward the waiting car. “You go. I’ll take a cab. I’m going to see my mother.”
Cam hesitated. “Sure you don’t want me to go with you?”
“Yeah. This is something I have to do by myself.”