Behind The Mask (Nurses Book 2) (20 page)

Then it happens, swinging the knife around wildly, she plunges down into my shoulder. The pain is intense, burning, throbbing. The knife is sticking straight out, and I immediately sit up because I have no other choice. The pain is just too real. My sweat is now mixed in with my tears.

“Shoot me! Just shoot me, be done with the whole thing! I don’t want to live anymore. Just fucking shoot me!”

But I know that Damian won’t. I know that Martin won’t. She is unarmed, hysterical, and I’m behind her. When she stabbed me and I sat up, she ended up in front of me somehow. She’s still screaming for someone to shoot her, I’m guessing she wants a suicide by cop kind of thing. But this girl is clearly off her rocker and needs help.

“Just shoot me, put me out of my misery! Shoot me! Just shoot me!”

I make a move. I use my bound hands and loop them over her head and pull. The knife in my shoulder digs in harder, this hurts worse than losing my leg. She is laying on top of me, thrashing about, kicking and hitting at nothing. Damian runs in and subdues her even further. The pain is too much, I can feel my vision tunneling and that’s all for me. The last thing I say before I black out is, “Cori.”

They found him. He’s alive, now I’m just waiting for them to bring him out. I can’t believe that Emily is the one who did this. When the call came out that they found him, all of the officers went running.

I just sat and exhaled a sigh of relief. He’s alive. I keep rocking back and forth repeating ‘he’s alive’ over and over again. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know why it happened, I just keep focusing on him being alive.

I hear screaming and squeaky wheels, too. I go to the door to see what the commotion is and see that the paramedics have Emily strapped to a gurney wheeling her out. She’s screaming about loving someone and begging someone to shoot her. She’s handcuffed to the rails and looks crazy. Her blue eyes have this wild, unstable look to them. Her blonde hair is stringy and knotted. But what worries me is she has blood on her. She doesn’t appear to be wounded, but of course, I can’t tell.

I hear more wheels, and I’m hoping that Gage is wheeling himself out. What I’m not prepared for is him on a gurney as well. I launch myself towards him only to be held back by a cop. Screaming and yelling, I will get myself past this cop if I have to kick him in the balls to do it.

“Let her through. Damian, tell your boys to let her through!” Gage is talking, thank God.

“Guys, relax, it’s over. That’s his girlfriend, let her through.” Girlfriend? I mean, I guess I am his girlfriend. Now I feel bold like I should be telling these guys to step aside, girlfriend is coming through!. But I’m not sure, he hasn’t asked me. But yet again, I’m not in high school anymore, we are going to be living together, but am I his girlfriend?

“Of course, you’re my girlfriend, I mean unless you don’t want to be?” He must see the confusion written all over my face.

“I don’t think you have anything to doubt, dude.” Damian  has to chime in with his two cents over everything!

“Where are you hurt? I mean I see the bloody nose, so I’m assuming it’s broken, but where else is hurt?” I wave my hands around him trying to decide where I want to touch him because I don’t want to hurt him.

“Well, my mouth hurts, it could use something.” I’m waiting for him to tick off the list of injuries, but he is just staring at me.

“What does it need? Anything I can get you, do you need a drink?” I know I’m rambling and I sound weird, but I’m scared and I don’t want him to be truly hurt.

“It needs lips.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Damian snickers behind me. I want to sock him in the face right now, but I won’t.

“He wants you to kiss him, Cori. Sheesh can you take a hint? Just kiss him already!” Kim yells out.

Gage’s face is streaked with dried blood and his nose is crooked, but he gives a megawatt smile.  I’m sure that it hurts to smile, and I’m sure it’s going to hurt him to kiss. But I have to do it, not only is everybody staring at me, but I find that I want to kiss him.

When I touch my lips to his, I find myself getting emotional. Tears spring into my eyes, and I guess the only reason why is because I feel relieved. I know that he’s going to make it since he wants a kiss, and I know that he isn’t seriously hurt because I can see that he’s not. Even though he still hasn’t answered me with how hurt he is, he wants a kiss so he will get a kiss. After a scorching hot kiss, with all of the guys whistling at us, I can finally talk to him.

“Where else is hurt?”

“She knicked my shoulder, and I have rope burn on my wrists, along with the broken nose. Nothing too bad.”

He’s sugar coating his injuries for me, I know he is. He has to be because rope burn and a broken nose doesn’t constitute a gurney ride.

“Tell me the truth.”

With a heavy sigh, he recounts of the kidnapping and by the time he’s done telling me, I’m crying again.

“Cori, I promise it’s not so bad.”

“Yeah, he even took the girl down. He’s not bullshitting you, Cori.” Damian sends me a wink.

“Ma’am we need to take him now, you are welcome to ride with us, even if you’re not family. Not much treatment to give him, so it doesn’t violate anything.”

I opt to follow behind, ambulances make me edgy with everything that has happened to me. Walking back to the day room to get my stuff, I completely forgot about Sam. She seems to be waiting for me when I get there.

“Cori, I guess I have a lot of apologizing to do. I know you must hate me, but I promise I had nothing to do with what Emily did. You have to believe that. I will admit it now, I’m the one who slashed your tires. I was hoping to get you to quit so you wouldn’t see Gage anymore. But I see now that he’s the one for you and you for him. I’m sorry I treated you like shit and for the tires.”

She seems genuine, but I still want to smack the shit out of her. I mean seriously, women don’t need to act this way for a guy; solidarity and sisterhood bullshit. Guys aren’t that worth it, honestly.

“I believe you, Sam. I don’t think you had anything to do with it, hell Emily seemed really unstable when they wheeled her out. I’m not even going to press charges on you for the tires, but I will say this. Leave him the hell alone, he isn’t yours, he never will be yours. If I see you lay another finger on him, or I get a whiff of your stank ass perfume around where he is, I will personally fuck you up!” With that, I grab my shit, and I walk away. I feel lighter like I have lost some weight, which I guess I did, just the baggage of Sam.

When I get to the elevators, I’m surprised to see Kim waiting for me. Allyn had already told me he was going to bed now that the “ruckus is over.”

“What are you waiting on me for?”

“Well, duh, Cori, you are my girl, plus they are taking your boy to my hospital. So I figured we could ride together and then I can get some info for you on how he is doing. You aren’t his wife, people will know that because of how much you’ve been in the news, so they aren’t going to let you back there. But they can’t stop me.”

I want to hug her because she is right. But I’m pissed that the public knows that I’m not married. Well hell, that the public knows anything about me. I know the Xavier shit is fresh still in everyone’s mind, hell it never leaves mine. But people shouldn’t know this shit, and it bothers me.

The ride to the hospital is mostly silent. Just a little chit chat about me and Gage. Kim is absolutely one of my best friends, but damn is she nosy! I’m trying to rein my temper in, especially because I am talking to a friend. But the adrenaline is wearing off and so is my patience.

The walk into the ER has me fidgeting again, it has been a few months since I’ve been in the ER. Kim was right, though, everyone apparently knows who I am because they’re gawking at me. Mouths agape, shock and awe, staring at me. It irritates me more than it should. I shouldn’t care less about what these people think of me, but I do. I can feel myself shrinking in on myself again.

“C, get over here! You got a man to see.” Kim stops me from sitting in the waiting room of the ER. It seems that it’s just not staff who knows who I am if the patients and families whispering is any indication.

“Sorry, I didn’t think I would be able to see him.”

       “Girl, you underestimate my abilities. This is my house, my people. They may be assholes, but they are my assholes.” With a wink, she leads the way.

“Mrs. Knight, I’m Dr. LoPresti, and I’m treating your husband. He suffered some muscle damage from the stabbing and some skin irritation from the ropes, but he seems to be in great shape. Oh, and his nose is broken.”

Obviously, the good doctor hasn’t even looked up from writing down her notes because she would see the shock all over my face over being called Gage’s wife. I don’t think I could ever be someone’s wife. Just the thought of that scares me!

“Can I see him now?”

Dr. LoPresti finally looks up and her eyebrows skyrocket almost to her hairline. “You aren’t his wife are you?” she says it with a sneaky smirk on her face.

“No, you won’t tell on me will you? He’s just my boyfriend.” Oh God, please let this work. Please let her be cool and give me a pass.

“Sure, besides he’s asking for you anyways. So even if you aren’t his wife I would have to let you in,” she says with a chuckle in her voice as she walks off.

Kim takes me to his room and the first thing I notice is the big bandage on his shoulder. That and he looks pale white, almost ghostly. Rushing to his side, his eyes are closed and he appears to be sleeping.

I sit down in the chair across the room and silently cry. It’s a relief cry, relieved to have this be over, relieved that he’s going to be ok.

“Don’t cry over me, baby, you could just sit right here and make me feel better.” He pats his lap and wags his eyebrows at me.

“Gage! Seriously? Now you want to crack dirty jokes! You’re hurt!”

“Why not? I got a hot nurse to help me heal, shouldn’t I get some perks? I’ll let you give me a sponge bath later.”

This man! I want to smack him, hug him, and kiss him all at once. He brings out feelings in me that I haven’t felt in a long time. Even when I was the party girl, I still didn’t have the feelings and emotions that I feel for him.

“Who’s the hot nurse you got? I’ll beat her up!”

“Very funny, Cori, now come kiss me, my lips are hurting again.”

How can I resist? He’s giving me the puppy dog eyes and pouty lip. Who knew that just a month ago, he would go from a shut-in asshole who yelled at everyone to this? A guy who complains his lips hurt to get a kiss.

Happy to oblige him, I kiss him and he uses his good arm to pull me down onto the bed with him. Then the asshole does the unthinkable! He tickles me! I hate to be tickled, but I squirm and squeal like a little girl.

“Hey, hey, everybody decent? Doesn’t sound like it. Maybe we should come back in what two minutes? Is that all it takes you, Gage?” Damian knocks on the partition and slips his head through the curtains. I hear Damian yell out “ow that fucking hurt,” then “Well what do you want me to say? You hit me, it’s not like the boy hasn’t heard a curse word or two.” Olivia must be with him if he’s getting smacked around.

“Guys, of course we are decent. Come in.” Damian, Olivia, and Jack all file into the room. Damian and Olivia’s eyes light up when they see me snuggled in the bed with Gage. They seem to be happy to see me happy.

“Aunt Corny, are you ok? Gage, what about you?” Jack is always Mr. Serious, he’s an amazing kid and has the biggest heart. I always worry that when he gets older his heart will be broken too much. He is my tender-hearted boy. Any boy that messes with him will have Damian to face, but the girls, I feel extra bad for the girls. They have Olivia, Kim, and myself to contend with.

“Of course I’m fine, and Gage is just Gage; it’s just a scratch! I think he gets to blow this place soon. Y’all will be playing with your wrestlers in no time.”

Seeming to be satisfied with my response, he sits down and pulls out one of his video games and gets to playing.

“Anything new, D? I guess Gage has started calling Damian his nickname as well. I’m so glad these guys became fast friends. I wouldn’t be able to date Gage if Damian didn’t like him.

“Well, we executed a search warrant on Miss Lenton’s house. She had a lot of pictures of Sam hanging on the wall. She had a few pictures of you as well, with the eyes burned out and big X’s over your pretty boy face. She’s currently checked into the mental ward of the hospital. Placed on a 5150 involuntary hold until charges are established. I hate to say it, but I doubt she will face prison time. She will probably get her insanity defense and be locked in the mental ward for awhile. It seems as if she had a healthy obsession with Sam, and you got in the way when you were brought to the rehab.”

“Yeah, she kept saying she is going to love me for this. Took me a few to figure it was Sam. I didn’t expect her to go all psycho, though. I truly didn’t see it coming.”

I agree with him, although I knew Emily was a bitch from the get go. I may not have known that her hate was because of her love of Sam, but I knew she had some deep hatred for me. I just didn’t know she felt the same for Gage.