Willow (21 page)

“…
the driver take us straight to the hospital. The police had kindly offered their help as an escort.” his dad stressed the word “kindly” and Jared knew that he’d called in a favor. “The helicopter is taking her straight to Ohio State University Medical Center.

We’ll more than likely be there after she’s in surgery.”

Jared got into the car and laid his head back. She would be fine, she would be fine. He had to believe that or he would go insane.

~o0o~

Willow woke again. She remembered the first time and even the second time because of the pain, the incredible pain. She still hurt, but she knew better than to move this time. She figured as long as she was still, she’d not hurt. At least not much.

Sounds. She could hear the squeak of shoes, faint and distant. A bell sounded from far away almost like chimes then an announcement telling people thanks for coming but visiting hours were over. She could smell things too. The harsh odor of disinfectants, food over cooked, and the tinny smell of blood all mingled together into the horrific smells of a hospital.

Her leg hurt, but she couldn’t move her toes. She had a moment of panic about that, but didn’t want to think about what might be wrong. She knew they were still there; she had rubbed them together the first time she’d awakened. Phantom pain had her taking a deep breath and she discovered pain there as well.

Willow still hadn’t opened her eyes, but she could tell that the room was dark. She knew that sooner rather than later she’d have to, but not just yet. She continued her inventory of her body.

Bypassing her toe wiggling for the moment, she moved her fingers one at a time. When she reached the eighth one, she felt something attached to it…something like a clamp. She wasn’t overly concerned. She could move her finger, it was just very heavy. The rest of her fingers were fine.

She was exhausted by the time she was finished. Her ribs were sore and hurt like hell when she took a deep breath. Her head hurt too, but nothing she couldn’t stand. There was a tightness in her throat, but again, nothing she couldn’t manage. Now all she had to do was open her eyes.

The room was large and the dim light behind her illuminated it just enough that she could make out things. She’d knew she’d been at a hotel, that there were some children and then lots of pain. She knew she was in a private room in a hospital. She even remembered why…a little of it anyway.

When she tried to focus too hard on what had happened, she got sharp pains in her head for her trouble. It would come back to her, she was sure. What she wasn’t sure of was whether or not she wanted it to.

There was a couch just to her right that was occupied. By whom she couldn’t tell. An overstuffed chair, also occupied, was near it. There were other shapes, a table with something on it, another chair, bunches of tall and short bushy things that she surmised were flowers from their smell. Willow looked down at herself.

She wasn’t surprised by the sheets, or the smallish hospital bed. But by the head attached to very broad shoulders, she was. It was a startling contrast from his dark hair to the whiteness of the sheets.

Jared. She got a pain in her head when she tried to think about him. Something had happened, something at her house, but she couldn’t remember. Closing her eyes to try and calm the pounding, she fell back to sleep when the headache lessened a bit.

The next time she woke, the room was brighter. She still didn’t move her body much, but did open her eyes. The bunches were flowers, and lots of them. Some were huge while others were small plants. The couch was empty, but the chair wasn’t. Her dad sat there asleep.

She felt tears well in her eyes looking at him. When had he grayed so much? Had he always been that way? Willow didn’t think so. She could hear him snore now, and thought what a comfort it was to her. The soft inhales of air and the hard rumbling of him exhaling made her smile. He’d been telling her mom for years that he most certainly didn’t snore.

There was a man sitting in the other chair. Willow was sure that she didn’t know him. There was no pain associated with trying to remember. He was awake and reading something and only looked up at her when a nurse walked in the room.

Her badge said her name was Debbie, RN. Her crisp uniform, a startling white against her dark skin, was also a giveaway. She didn’t look at Willow as she wrapped the cuff of the blood pressure equipment around Willow’s arm. It wasn’t until she was pumping it up that she looked up and made eye contact.

Willow might have laughed at her expression if she wasn’t afraid that it would hurt. She had to lick her lips twice before she could speak to her.

“
Where?” It was the best she could manage and even that was exhausting. But it seemed to wake Debbie up.

“
OSU Med Center. You…Glad your back.” The smile was huge and Debbie, now that she wasn’t in shock any longer, became a chatter box as she continued with her task. “You’ve been here for nine days. Only in this room for three. Intensive care, you know. You have some muscle damage to your thigh, but you do the PT stuff and you’ll not have much of a limp. The crease in your head isn’t so bad now. You should have seen it when they brought you in. Woo doggie, it was ugly.”

Willow looked around the room. The man she didn’t recognize was shaking her dad awake. And when he looked where the man had nodded, she burst into tears.

“
Daddy.” The pain disappeared when he came to her, everything came into focus, and she thought the world was back where it should be.

“
Oh my baby girl. My baby girl.” He touched her gently, but he didn’t hug her. She was glad that he remembered her injuries because she would have leapt out of the bed and into his arms had he not stopped her. As it was, she was already sore.

She wasn’t sure how long they sat there, not saying anything aside from her assuring him she was fine now. He didn’t mention how she’d managed to get hurt and she didn’t ask what had happened.

The door to her room opened again and the stranger and another man came in. She hadn’t even realized the man had even left. Neither man said much to her or her dad, but they did seem to have a great deal to say to each other. She and her dad ignored them both.

When the door opened again, J.R. Stone, Mrs. Stone, Willow’s mother and brother both came in along with Jared. Her mother took her hand and her brother stood close to her bed. They were all talking all at once, everyone but Jared. He stood close to the two men and stared at her. When yet another man came into the room, everyone suddenly stopped talking as he walked up to the foot of her bed. She knew that whatever he said she was not going to like.

“
Hello, Miss James. These men are with the FBI. My name is Agent Gant and this man is Agent Wilson. They want to ask you some questions about the two men that were killed the night you were kidnapped and injured.”

And just like that, with amazing clarity and a great many details, it all came rushing back to her.

~Chapter 22~

Jared watched her face while she talked with his family and hers. She was confused, he could see, and she kept looking his way. He wanted to tell everyone to leave them alone, but knew that the family, especially hers, needed this. He was actually waiting until the Feds showed up anyway.

When Agent Gant showed up just before the attorney that his dad had gotten for her, Jared noticed that he looked grim. Jared had spoken to the man several times over the past week and he genuinely liked the guy.

He introduced everyone to Willow and Jared saw the exact moment that she remembered. Her face crumpled and her eyes darted around the room. When she looked at him, he stepped toward her.

Her face was pale, paler than when he’d come in. The light color she’d had in her cheeks while talking had faded when her memories returned. She looked afraid, terror lurked in her eyes. He could see her uncertainty and that shocked him most of all. This was not his Willow.

Taking her hand into his, he looked her in the eyes. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Willow.”

He wasn’t getting through and she was starting to hyperventilate. He squeezed her hand and threw himself on the blade so to speak. “I should have told you who I was.” her confusion seemed to fade a bit. “After we made love, I should have told you who I was.”

“
You mean after you fucked me.”

He started to laugh, but was afraid she’d slug him. She certainly recovered fast.

“
You were a good lay, what can I say?” He heard her father rumble something. “Willow, you don’t believe that any more than I do.”

He saw her stiffen then wince, but she didn’t back off. “Are you saying I wasn’t a good lay, Jared Robert Stone? Because you know damn good and well I was the best you’ve ever had.”

Her eyes sparkled, whether from anger or mischief he didn’t know, or care. Jared heard his dad laugh then try to cover it with a cough.

“
Maybe. But then we really didn’t get to…practice very much, did we?”

Alexander grabbed his shoulder as Jared spoke to Willow. “Maybe you should back the fuck away from my little sister.”

Jared didn’t take his eyes from Willow’s. She looked at him too. When Alexander tried to push him off the bed, Willow finally spoke up. “You’re a real bastard, you know that?” He nodded at her and smiled. “Let him go, Alexander. Mr. Stone is just trying to piss me off.”

“
What the fuck, Wills? This man just insulted you, he lied to you, and now he’s telling you…he’s saying that… Damn it, Wills, if I had known what kind of man he really was, I wouldn’t have helped him find you.” Alexander let Jared go. “This is stupid.”

“
Miss James, while this has been very…educational, there are some—”

“
Shut up, Wilson.” Jared didn’t need to turn to see Gant was pissed. He could hear it in his voice as he spoke to his partner. “Can’t you see these two are working things out? Miss James, when you’re up to it, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“
It’s Willow, and now is fine. Let’s get this over with. And Mr. Stone and I”—she jerked her hands from his—“are finished.”

Jared stood up and leaned down to her, face bracing his hands on either side of her. He brought his mouth to just brushing hers before he spoke. He watched, mesmerized, as her tongue flicked out and ran quickly over her lush lips. Hunger for a taste nearly made him whimper.

“
Oh we’re far from finished, Willow. Very far.” He gave in then and brushed his mouth over hers. Once, twice, then again before he kissed her.

Her mouth opened under his, her tongue slid along his, and that did make him moan. When her fingers curled around his arm, he deepened the kiss more, eating at her soft lips and dueling with her tongue. Need coiled around him and centered in his groin. Reluctantly, he pulled back, remembering her injuries and the people in the room before he did something really stupid and begged her to take him.

Standing again, he nearly did beg, nearly snarled at them all to get out and to leave them alone for a few minutes, no, a few hours…days…weeks…years. Even then he wasn’t sure that would be enough time. She looked…beautiful came to mind, but it seemed so unimaginative. Delicious and soft, sexy and erotic all came to mind when he looked down at her.

With a quick kiss to her nose and a “mine,” he walked to the couch and sat down. It was either that or fall on his face. Every drop of his blood had pooled in his cock.

~o0o~

Everyone cleared out of the room except for the two agents and the man Mr. Stone Sr. had introduced as her attorney, Andrew Gibson, and of course Jared. He said he wasn’t leaving and no one argued with him overly much. Not even her glaring at him did anything other than make him laugh at her. She decided to make him pay later.

The questions were hard to answer for the most part. Why did Talbor target her? Did she know the other man there? Did she know if he was alone? But the hardest ones to answer, the last ones, made her uncomfortable.

“
Did you see Smith kill Talbor?” Gant asked her twice when she didn’t answer right away.

She looked into Jared’s eyes as she spoke. “Yes. It was…I hurt so badly by then, but I could see them both. He had…Smith had already shot him, Talbor I mean. He shot him in the belly. I didn’t hear it, but I saw Talbor drop and clutch…his belly was covered in blood.”

“
Did he say anything?” Gant asked her softly. “Either man, did they say anything to each other?”

“
Mr. Smith was pissed. He wanted to know where his merchandise was. I think he was mad mostly because Talbor kept calling it drugs. He told him, Mr. Smith told him that he’d…” She looked up at Gant. “Mr. Smith told Talbor that if he hadn’t already killed his predecessor that he’d find him again and kill him all over for hiring Talbor in the first place.”

Gant stopped writing in his notebook. “Did he mention his name? Did Talbor say his name?”

Willow looked back at Jared fleetingly then at the floral arrangement on the table. Jared looked upset and she wondered what he would think of her when he found out she had murdered someone.

“
He had already put the gun in his mouth and killed him by then. He was sorta talking to himself, I think. No, He didn’t…Smith didn’t say his name.”

Gant shifted. “Willow, this is a question I don’t want you to answer without conferring with your attorney first.” She knew what the agent was going to ask her and she was going to answer. She’d answer as soon as she could get her heart to stop pounding.