Hammered (10 page)

“Don’t run away from this, Livy. I know why you feel this
way. You—“

Her eyes widened. “Exactly what do you think you know, Alex?”

“I know all about your family, sweetheart. And the raw deal
your father gave you. I—”

She tore herself away from him. “You poked into my personal
life? You dug around in my family?” Her eyes were wild, her body shaking with
anger. “What gave you that right?”

He spread his hands out in a pleading gesture.” I love you,”
he said again. “I wanted to find out what put those shields up and how to get
past them.”

“You had no right.
No right.
Why didn’t you ask me,
if you wanted to know so damn badly?”

“Would you have told me?”

She tossed her hair back, fire sparking in her eyes. “Of
course not. It’s none of your damn business. Just sex, remember? You agreed.”

“Because that was the only way I could be with you,” he
shouted back. Taking a deep breath he lowered his voice. “Why won’t you take a
leap of faith? Believe me when I tell you this is the forever kind of love?”

She looked at him for a long moment. “Because there is no
such thing. Get that through your head.”

Then she was gone, the door slamming behind her.

Alex sat on the edge of the bed, running his fingers through
his hair, trying to make sense out of what had just happened. Figure out how
he’d fucked things up so badly. Finally he pulled on his jacket, left the hotel
and headed back to his office.

The sidewalk was crowded but he barely noticed anyone when
they bumped against him. His head was still back in that hotel, feeling a soft,
pliant and hot Olivia in his arms. Superimposed on that was the image of a very
angry woman. And hurt. Yes, there had been hurt in her eyes, the last thing he
wanted to see.

He paid little attention to where he was walking, totally
engrossed in replaying the scene over and over in his mind.

“Hey, buddy!” someone shouted. “Hey, watch it!”

Alex figured they couldn’t be talking to him so he just kept
going. He heard a lot more shouting, the loud sound of horns honking, the
squeal of tires and then something very hard smacked into him. He was tossed
into the air then came down on something hard.

Blackness took over.

* * * * *

Olivia flew down the hospital corridor toward where Josh and
Tyler McMann stood in the trauma center. She knew she probably looked like
something left over from last night’s party. When Josh called her she’d left a
meeting and slammed out of her office, leaving her suit jacket and briefcase,
taking only her purse. In the car she’d kicked off those damn stilettos and run
barefoot into the hospital. Her blouse had a streak of indelible ink on it from
the pen she’d been holding when she got the call and she’d chewed off all her
lipstick.

But she didn’t care. Didn’t even care that Frank Vincent had
demanded to know why she was leaving and tried to order her back. Didn’t care
that she’d nearly gotten a speeding ticket on the way over. Didn’t care about
anything except Alex, who might be—please god, no—lying dead in this very
building.

All the way over she’d prayed, silently and aloud, for just
one more chance with him. How stupid she was, clinging to the hurts of the past
and denying herself a chance for a future. Alex McMann was good. He was honest.
He was real. She’d lost her heart to him in the blink of an eye but refused to
accept what he was offering because she was afraid. She was still that scared,
angry little girl, lost in a mishmash of a family, protecting herself against
the world.

Now, through her own stupidity, she might never have a
chance with the best thing to ever come into her life. If she could take back
everything she’d said earlier in the hotel room she’d do it in a heartbeat.

I love you, Alex. Please let me have a chance to tell
you.

“Where is he?” She stopped short, almost skidding, where the
brothers stood with somber expressions on their faces. “How badly is he hurt?
What happened, for god’s sake?”

Josh took her ice-cold hands in his warm ones. “Take a deep
breath. Come on.” He looked at her feet. “Where are your shoes?”

“In the car. They’re hard to drive in and harder to run in.
Tell me, please. What’s happening?”

“We weren’t sure if we should call you,” Tyler said. “I get
the feeling things have been a little rocky between the two of you lately.”

“Of course you should have called me. Oh my god. Where is
he? I want to see him.”

Josh led her to one of the obnoxious plastic chairs against
the wall and forced her to sit down. “He’s in radiology right now. The doctor
thinks he may have some cracked ribs. They want to make doubly sure his lung
isn’t punctured. And for sure his leg is broken and he has a concussion. He’s
also got some internal bleeding so as soon as they have the x-rays he’s going
to surgery.”

“What happened? Can someone please tell me?” She realized
she was still holding onto Josh’s hands. Gripping them, actually.

“We talked to the police who were first on the scene,” Tyler
answered. “From what we gather he was paying no attention to what he was doing
and walked right into a crosswalk in front of a car. Good thing the guy had
decent brakes or we might be at the funeral home instead.”

Livy closed her eyes and swallowed hard against the nausea
rising in her throat.
She
should be the one in there right now.
She
should
be the one hurt.

“This is all my fault,” she said, her voice shaking. “All of
it.”

Tyler frowned. “Why do you say that? You weren’t driving.
You aren’t the poor guy who hit him.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, still holding
Josh’s hands in a death grip. “We had a terrible argument at…lunch. Really bad.
I got angry with him and ran away.”

Tyler sat down next to her and put his arm around hr. “Alex
is a big boy, Livy. He’s responsible for his own actions.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand. We…we had an
agreement. About us. I spelled everything out for him in the beginning.”

Josh frowned. “Like a business arrangement?”

Yes. Like a stupid business arrangement.

It wasn’t much to cuddle up with on a cool night. The empty
place in her heart was just getting bigger and every time she and Alex were
together it was harder to keep from telling him how she felt. He gave of
himself so willingly, letting her have it all her way and what had she done?
Thrown it back in his face, even while her own heart was breaking.

“I-I guess. I didn’t… Oh hell. He wasn’t supposed to fall in
love with me.” She swiped at the tears filling her eyes. “Worse than that, I
wasn’t supposed to fall in love with him.”

“But you did,” Tyler guessed.

She nodded, tears filling her eyes again. Josh let go of her
hands, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

“Thank you.” She wiped her eyes. “I didn’t want to love
him,” she cried. “Love is just too painful.”

“Sometimes,” Josh told her, “you have to take a leap of
faith. That’s what happened with Vanessa and me and look how well that turned
out.”

That was the second time she’d heard that phrase. That was
what Alex had asked of her and she’d turned away from him. “I’ll never forgive
myself for this.” She scrubbed her hands over her face. “Never.”

Tyler gave her a hug. “Sure you will. And Alex will forgive
you, too, because he has enough of a brain to pay attention to where he’s
going.”

“So let me ask you this,” Josh broke in. “Do you love him. I
mean, really love him? No holds barred? Because I know how he feels about you
and if you don’t return that it would be better for you to just walk away now.
I can always take his place at the business meetings.”

“No! I mean, yes. Definitely yes. I do love him. I just…”

“Need to take that leap of faith?” he finished for her.

There was that phrase again.

She nodded, blotting away a fresh spate of tears. “I do.
But…do you think he’ll still give me a chance?”

“As much as he loves you?” He looked at Tyler and they both
nodded. “If he doesn’t we’ll beat him up.”

She choked out a laugh. “When will we know what’s going on?”

Tyler stood up. “Here’s comes the trauma doctor right now.”

A lean man in jeans and a polo shirt with a white coat over
it approached them. Livy couldn’t tell a thing from the expression on his face.

He studied her. “You must be Livy.”

She stared at him. “How did you know?”

“My patient’s been calling for you every time he comes to.
He even mumbled your name after we pumped him full of painkillers.

A ray of hope shot through her. He’d asked for her. Wanted
her. Oh, please, please, please let him be all right.

“How is he? Will he be all right?”

“They’re taking him up to surgery now. Fortunately the
cracked rib didn’t puncture a lung but there is some internal bleeding and the
break in the leg is a compound fracture. We’ll set it while he’d under the
anesthetic.” He looked at all three of them. “I expect he’ll be here for about
a week but then he’ll need care at home. We can arrange for home nursing to
help but…does he live alone?”

“He lives with me,” Livy put in before anyone else could
answer. “He’ll be coming home with me. I’ll be taking care of him.”

The two brothers stared at her.

“Are you sure?” Josh asked at last. “He’s going to require a
lot of attention, and you have work—“

“No,” she interrupted. “Alex comes first. I can make
arrangements with Frank.”

And quit my job if he gives me a hard time.

Quit my job?

Yes, yes, yes. I’ve been so blind. I just want Alex.
Everything else is secondary.

“Okay,” Tyler told her. “We can help, too. You know that.”

“He’s going to be in surgery for a while, then in recovery.
There’s a waiting room on the surgical floor but if you want to go get coffee
or leave for a while, the nurse can call you.”

“I’m not leaving.” Livy looked at the two men on either side
of her. “I’m staying right here.”

I’ll never take the chance of losing him again.

“Fine.” The doctor gave them a tired smile. “I’ll find you
when he’s out of surgery and give you a report.”

“Let me at least get you some coffee,” Josh said as they
waited for the elevator. “I think we could all use some.”

She nodded. “Thank you. I’d appreciate it.”

When they reached the surgical floor she excused herself and
walked away a few feet to call Frank, who shocked her by being surprisingly
understanding.

“Livy, you’re the best I’ve got,” he told her, “but you need
to have a personal life or you’ll burn yourself out. You deserve it. I’ve just
been waiting for the right man to come along for you.”

“But the project. The meetings.”

“Have one of the brothers call me on my direct line. We’ll
work it out. And Dan can stand in for you on any meetings you can’t make.” His
voice sounded so kind she wanted to cry again. “Take care of your man. Guys
like him don’t come along too often.”

And wasn’t that the truth.

“Thank you, Frank. Really.”

Waiting in a hospital was never easy. Every second seemed
like an hour and every hour like a day. Livy’s imagination ran wild and the
images of Alex she conjured up, hurt and broken, were probably much worse that
the reality. She just wished they knew more.

They sat, they paced, they drank bad coffee from the machine
against one wall. Finally a man in green scrubs walked into the room and asked,
“Family of Alex McMann?”

Livy and the brothers stood up and the doctor walked over to
them.

“Dr. Burton,” he told them, shaking hands. “Well, the
surgery went well. We set the leg and tied off the bleeders in his abdomen.
Fortunately all his vital organs are still intact.”

“What about the concussion?” Tyler wanted to know.

“It was pretty severe but we did a CAT scan of his skull and
there are no cracks or hematomas. He will, however, need to be awakened every
couple of hours once we get him into his room. The nurses on the surgery floor
are very good but we’re a little overbooked at the moment.

“I’ll do it,” Livy told him. “I’m going to stay with him
every minute.”

Josh chuckled. “We’ll be there, too. We can help.”

“I’d say he’s in good hands.” The doctor gave them a tired
smile. “It will be at least an hour before they take him to his room.”

“Thank, you Dr. Burton.” Livy grasped his hands as if they
were a lifeline. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s nice to deliver good news.”

When the doctor left Josh turned to Tyler and Livy. “I took
care of him at Admitting when they brought him in, but I want to make sure he
gets a private room.” He looked at Livy. “I’ll see if they’re willing to put a
cot in there for you.”

“Oh, thank you. Will they do that?”

He winked at her. “I’ll make sure.”

The afternoon dragged on interminably. She told Josh and
Tyler they could go back to the office if they wanted but she was hugely
relieved when they said they were staying right there. She needed their
strength. Needed them telling her everything would be all right and Alex would
forgive her. Livy had just checked her watch for what seemed like the
thousandth time and noted it was six o’clock when a nurse came into the waiting
room asking for Alex McMann’s family.

“We just took him up to his room.” She smiled at them. “He’s
still very groggy but he’s asking for someone named Livy.” She looked at
Olivia. “I’m guessing that would be you.”

“Yes, yes. Can we see him now?”

“Yes. He’s on the third floor. Someone at the nurses’
station there can direct you.”

Livy thought her heart would stop beating when she walked
into the room and got her first look at Alex. His left leg was in traction, a
cast extending from hip to ankle. A nurse standing beside his bed was just
checking his dressing, which apparently covered his entire midsection. And he was
hooked up to machines that clicked and beeped and whirred. An intravenous
needle was taped to the back of one hand so he could receive whatever fluids
were in the plastic bag hooked to a pole.