Blind Love (36 page)

“She had tape on them, and it caused some inflammation,” the doctor said. “Apparently she had some on her feet and ankles, too. Some of the skin is gone where the tape was ripped off, but the most serious injury is the trauma to her head. She’s stable right now, but we’re going to watch her closely over the next few hours.”

Walt’s face had lost most of its color. He looked old and frail and worried sick about his only child. A nurse helped him to a chair. If Catherine woke up and saw the stricken look on Megan’s face or the fear in Walt’s eyes, it would scare her into another coma.

“Why don’t you go home and get some rest. I’ll stay with Catherine.”

Walt shook his head. “I can’t leave her now.”

Someone brought a wheelchair for Walt, and a nurse took his blood pressure. Megan said, “If you don’t get some rest, you’re going to have another heart attack.”

“Heart attack?” said Tony. “Is that why you fell and broke your leg and hip?”

He nodded. “The pill Fawn gave me caused a mild heart attack, but I didn’t want Catherine to know. I didn’t want her to worry.”

Tony hunkered down beside the wheelchair. “Go home and take care of yourself. I promise you I won’t leave her side unless they kick me out. It could be hours or days before she wakes up, and you don’t want her to see you like this.”

“He’s right,” said Megan.

Walt sighed and nodded, and Megan pushed him out the door. It hadn’t been that long since he’d been a patient here himself. Fawn was responsible for his pain just as she was responsible for Catherine’s. Spike wouldn’t have known how to get past the gate, and he wouldn’t have known that Catherine was Walt Timmons’ daughter.

But Fawn knew.

<>

Megan and Walt came and went, but Tony stayed by Catherine’s side for two days. He held her hand and spoke to her about the show, about his family, about hanging wallpaper, and anything else he could think to say. He told her he had a big surprise waiting for her, but he couldn’t tell her about it. She had to see it to believe it. If she ever woke up. The doctors weren’t sure when and if that would happen.

Tony told Catherine over and over again that he loved her and wanted to marry her.

The evening of the second day, right after Walt and Megan left, he felt her fingers move. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to give him hope that she’d come out of her coma. “Catherine, honey, can you open your eyes and look at me?”

Her head moved slightly and he brushed her lips with his finger. “Are you thirsty?”

Her lips parted slightly, and he brushed some water over them. A second later, her eyes opened a little. “Tony,” she whispered.

“I’m right here, honey. You’re going to be okay.” Thank God she woke up. He’d been so afraid she’d sleep forever.

“Spike?”

“He’s in police custody.” The guy had two missing teeth and a broken nose. He wouldn’t knock around any more women, not where he was going.

“Fawn?”

“They haven’t found her yet.”

“Spike hit her. He made her walk down the hill to put the ransom note in the mailbox, but she didn’t come back.”

Tony didn’t feel sorry for Fawn. Men like Spike didn’t do things for nothing. She knew that when she asked him to bail her out of jail. She’d traded her freedom for Catherine’s life. When the authorities found her, she’d lose her freedom for a good long time, maybe forever.

Kidnapping was a federal offense.

<>

Fawn spent the night in a sleazy motel with the trucker from hell. The bed was hard, his breath was bad enough to kill a moose, and his snoring could wake the dead.

The next day, he stopped at a discount store on the outskirts of LA and handed her a hundred dollars to buy herself some new clothes. She almost cried. A hundred dollars wouldn’t buy the kind of bra she was accustomed to wearing, and he expected her to buy a whole outfit. She bought herself a new bra, a package of underwear, a pair of jeans, a knit shirt, and socks. That should get her by for a couple days.

When she climbed back in the truck, she handed him his change. Two dollars and thirty-six cents. She didn’t tell the trucker she had money on her, and he didn’t ask.

He didn’t need to know.

After driving all day and all night, the trucker stopped at a truck stop, crawled into the bed behind the seat, and went to sleep.

Fawn walked inside and found herself a new ride with Bob, a rugged looking man with a gleam in his eye. Minutes later, she was on her way to Denver.

<>

Once Catherine woke up, she told the doctor she wanted to go home. “My mother can take care of me, and my father shouldn’t be walking around so much on his sore leg.”

A little smile pulled at the corners of the doctor’s mouth. “You don’t like our luxury accommodations?”

“Not especially.”

“Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see. Tell your father to stay home and take care of himself, that you’ll be there soon.”

“Okay.”

Two days later, the doctor released her. She didn’t want to be alone with Fawn out there somewhere, but she wouldn’t be alone at Father’s house. Her parents were there, and so were Sanchez and Jill. And Tony. In all the time she’d spent in the hospital, he’d seldom left her side. She wanted to tell him she loved him, but not here, not at the hospital.

The raw skin on her ankles didn’t sting anymore, the lumps on her head weren’t so prominent, and her ruptured eardrum was healing. Thank God Tony came in when he had. One more kick to the head and she would have slept forever.

Tony drove Catherine home, and her parents had a quiet welcome home party for her.

After the party, Tony took her upstairs, where he could kiss her and hold her in private. “I love you, Princess. God, how I love you.”

She stroked his face with her soft hand. “I love you, too, Tony. I should have told you on the show, but I was so stunned. I thought you’d chosen me by default.”

“I chose you because I loved you, Catherine. I’ll always love you, honey.”

<>

A few days later, Henry sent Catherine some tapes of the show to go through. While she worked, Tony walked over to Emily’s house with Megan to clean up the mess. He didn’t want Catherine to see all that blood. It would give her nightmares.

Walt rode his wheelchair over, but not before making sure Jill and Sanchez would stay close in case Catherine needed them. Nobody wanted her to stay alone.

The meandering one-lane drive led past a little fish pond, through lush landscaping, to the smaller house on the back of the hill.

Tony unlocked the door and Megan walked inside. “Emily remodeled since I was here last. This is nice. I wouldn’t mind living here myself.” She turned to look at Walt. “It’s all on one floor.”

“Yeah, that’s good. She did a good job on the remodel. Why don’t you fix it up and decorate the way you want, and we’ll move over here? Emily isn’t planning to come back, and we don’t need that big house. We’ll give it to Catherine. She can add an elevator and turn it into a hotel.”

Tony didn’t tell them he had another hotel to give Catherine. Could she run two places at the same time? Would she even want the plantation house after Walt gave her his mansion on the hill?

He scrubbed Catherine’s blood off the kitchen floor and Spike’s off the refrigerator. Spike sat in a jail cell awaiting trial. If the feds didn’t convict him of kidnapping, the State of California would try him for attempted murder. Either way, he wouldn’t likely be out in this lifetime.

Fawn was another story. She’d disappeared. Nobody knew where she’d gone, but she couldn’t hide forever. Her picture had been on all the major news stations, and Walt had offered a fifty-thousand dollar reward for information leading to her arrest. Someone would spot her and turn her in.

Unless she’d left the country.

<>

In Denver, Fawn woke in Bob’s bed. He had to leave this morning for a four-day trip. “You could come with me.”

“I wish I could, but I don’t want to mooch off you forever. I need to find a job.”

After a morning quickie, he showered and went into the kitchen, singing in a deep baritone. “Breakfast in ten minutes,” he called.

“Okay.” Another greasy breakfast. Bob liked his eggs swimming in grease and his hash browns the same way. She preferred something a little more healthy—scrambled eggs and dry toast with fresh fruit—but she couldn’t complain. Bob had given her a place to live, and although he got a little rough in bed, he treated her well.

She wrapped herself in his robe and walked out to the kitchen.

After breakfast and a long, hot shower, she kissed Bob goodbye.

“Good luck on your job hunting,” he said.

She breathed a sigh of relief when he walked out the door. In three days, she could be in Canada. Or Mexico. Sipping a last cup of coffee, she sat in front of the television and saw a report on the kidnapping of Catherine Timmons. The report ended with Fawn’s picture. Her stomach dropped. She had a reward on her head.

She dressed quickly, pulled her hair into a twist and pinned it to her head, put her sunglasses on, and opened the door.

“Put your hands up and step out the door,” an officer said.

Fawn dropped her discount store bag and her purse and raised her hands. One officer frisked her for weapons and another read from a little card.

Bob stood behind the officers, and she knew he’d turned her in for the reward money.

“I need to speak with an attorney.” She needed more than an attorney.

Fawn needed a miracle.

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Over dinner that evening, Catherine’s father said, “Catherine, as soon as we get some work done on the other house, Megan and I are moving out. You can have this one to start a hotel.”

She was so stunned, it took her a minute to reply. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely sure. I can’t get upstairs or downstairs in this place, and it’ll belong to you someday anyway, so why not now?”

Did she want to start a hotel here? Yes and no. The house would need work before it could be used as a hotel, and when he put the property in her name, she’d have a huge tax bite. “I need to talk with an accountant before we do anything. I want to make sure I can afford the taxes. I need to check on zoning, too.”

Father nodded. “Smart girl. We’ll talk with my attorney, make sure we do everything right.”

“We need to have the doors widened at Emily’s house and have a bigger shower put in the master bedroom, so your father can sit down in the shower if he needs to,” said Megan.

“I can help with that,” said Tony, “but not right away. I have another project in the works right now.”

“We’re in no hurry,” said Walt.

Catherine knew she’d end up with the house at some point, but she didn’t think it would happen for a few years. The place she really wanted was the house she’d come to think of as the plantation. It was big for a house, but small for a hotel. There was enough property to add private cottages and a restaurant. She should have offered to buy it when Tony took her to see it. If she had, Nick might not have sold it to someone else.

Tony had been so attentive the past few days, but they hadn’t talked like she thought they would. She didn’t push him into a discussion of the future. She couldn’t. If he wanted a future with her, he’d have to initiate the discussion himself. If he didn’t, she’d stay with Henry through another show and then leave to start a hotel business.

Late that afternoon, while Megan was fixing dinner, Catherine sat with Tony out by the pool. He took her hand. “Walt called me the day the show started. He asked me if I loved you.”

She was almost afraid to ask. “What did you tell him?”

“I said it felt like a part of me was missing when I wasn’t with you. I told him I wished I didn’t have to go on that stupid show, because I’d already found the woman I wanted.”

The warmth of love flowed through Catherine’s body. Tony didn’t choose her by default. He loved her before the show began. And she loved him. “After my father came home from the hospital, he asked me if I loved you. I couldn’t lie to him any more than I could lie to your mother when she asked me the same question at Cara’s birthday party. I said yes.”

Tony cocked his head. “We could have skipped the show.”

“No, we couldn’t. We were both committed, and speaking of commitment, I’m waiting for a proposal.”

“I can’t afford a fancy ring right now, Princess. I spent all my money.”

“On
what
?

He flashed a smile. “I’ll have to show you. Will you marry me without a fancy ring?”

“Megan,” Catherine called. “Can we borrow your rings?”

“Honey, you can have them.”

Catherine raised her eyebrows. “Problem solved.”

Tony leaned over and kissed her. “You want to go upstairs and finish this, Princess?”

“Finish?” She laughed a little. “Tony, we’re just getting started.”