Irresistible Forces (30 page)

Chapter 21

W
HEN STEVE GOT
off the plane in New York, he went to the agency to find the kind of work he was looking for. He had heard about it from a doctor he knew from med school. It was a small dingy place with a battered sign outside. And it looked as bad as the places where they sent their clients. They gave Steve a brochure, a long list of countries that they served, and a description of the kind of jobs they offered. It seemed like the right thing to him, and they told him it would take them several weeks to process his application. But he had nothing but time on his hands, and no pressure to go anywhere in a hurry. He thought of calling Harvey Lucas to say hello, but he wasn't ready to talk about Merrie yet, or the fiasco in California, so he decided not to.

He stayed with an old med school friend, and spent most of his time walking, and going to museums. It was the first time in years that he had some leisure time. He went to the beach, and saw all the latest movies. And he thought constantly about calling Anna. But he thought it best to leave that a closed chapter.

And at the end of June, the agency finally called him. They had processed his application, and had several jobs for him. They offered him Peru, Chile, Kentucky, and Botswana. And the jobs they described sounded uncomfortable, but intriguing. In the end, he opted for Kentucky. He no longer felt the need to flee from Meredith. And they told him to come back in four days to sign the papers. It would be a two-year commitment.

Knowing that he was going to leave again, he decided to call Harvey Lucas. And after he did, he decided to drop in on Anna. He wanted to say goodbye to her, and to tell her that he was sorry he had been so hard on her when he left for California. He had no intention of trying to start something up with her again, he knew he had no right to do that. He just wanted to make sure she was all right, and maybe see Felicia. He had missed her. He had missed them both, and he hated the fact that he had never said good-bye to Felicia. It was the wrong way to leave a child, he knew, to simply disappear out of her life without farewell or explanation. And he felt even worse about the way he'd left her mother.

It was a warm, sunny day in June. The first big heat wave hadn't hit the city yet, and people looked happier than usual, and still in good humor. He called to see if she was in, and a baby-sitter said she'd be home from work by three. So he waited until five to drop in on her. He had decided by then that if he called her, she probably wouldn't agree to see him.

He took the bus up Broadway, and walked west on 102nd, until he reached the familiar building. And it looked slightly better in the summer sunshine, but not much. It was still an abysmal place, and he hated that she had to live there. But not nearly as much as she did.

He was about to ring the bell on the panel downstairs, when two young men in T-shirts and jeans approached him. They looked as though they were going to ask him a question. One of them said something to Steve, and he turned without hesitation toward them.

“Sorry, what did you say?” He was thinking about Anna, and had been away from New York just long enough to forget being cautious.

“I said, give me your wallet, asshole.” Steve stared at them for an instant, not sure whether to give it to them, or try and talk them out of it, and as he hesitated, the second man pulled a gun on him. And he saw that the first one had a switchblade.

“Take it easy, guys, I'll give you my wallet, but there's not much in it.” And as he reached for it, his hands were shaking. He started to hand it to the man with the knife, and the younger one with the gun looked nervous.

“Hurry up, man … we don't have all day….” The one with the knife grabbed the wallet, as Steve looked at him, and without a word of warning or a sound, the other one shot him, at close range, somewhere in the middle of his rib cage. Steve made a sudden choking sound, and instinctively touched the bell he had been about to ring, and fell slowly down the stairs of Anna's building toward the sidewalk.

He lay there facedown, unable to move, and one by one windows began to open, and he could hear people far above him, shouting, but by then the men had run away and there was no one to stop them.

He could hear voices far away, and after a while, there was someone pulling at him, but as they turned him slowly to survey the damage, he slid slowly into blackness.

He was unconscious as the people in the building ran down, and he never knew that they had gone to get Anna. Everyone in the building knew she was a doctor. She found him in the midst of a small crowd, and she was carrying her medical bag. They had told her someone had been wounded. She had heard the shot, but at first thought nothing of it. She thought maybe a truck had backfired. But as she looked at him, she heard sirens. Someone had called for an ambulance, and as she saw the wound, and then his face, and knew who it was, she realized with horror that he had come to see her.

She was holding a bandage to his gut when the paramedics arrived, and she told them what she needed. They got him on a gurney as quickly as they could, and she told one of her neighbors to watch Felicia.

“Are you going with him?” The paramedics looked startled, as she gave them the name of the trauma unit where she worked, and they agreed to take him there. Steve was still unconscious and bleeding profusely. And as they ran an IV into him, and she kept pressure on the gaping wound, she wondered why he had been there. She had heard nothing from him in three months, and hadn't expected to see him.

His blood pressure was dropping as they reached the hospital, and luckily, Lucas was on duty. Anna explained what had happened to him, or what she knew of it, and Harvey ran to surgery to get ready. Anna was still with Steve, and the trauma team had taken over from the paramedics.

“Does anyone know his name?” a nurse shouted at them, and Anna answered for him.

“It's Steve Whitman.” Her face was gray as she watched him.

“What the hell's he doing here? I thought he was in California,” one of the nurses said as she cut his clothes off with a scissor.

“Well, he's here apparently,” Anna said tersely, fighting to put on scrubs as she followed the team to surgery, “and he has a hole in his gut the size of Texas. Jesus, can't you guys move any faster?”

“We are moving … we're moving….” But they were losing him and Anna could see it. They were at the door to surgery by then, and Lucas was waiting for them. He already had a mask, a cap, and gloves on.

“He's going, Harvey,” Anna whispered, as she went to scrub. She wanted to stay with Steve, but she also wanted to assist Harvey and she had to scrub to do it.

His blood pressure was still dropping by the time she got back to him, and they had already intubated him. Steve knew nothing of what had happened. He was deeply unconscious as the people who had been his friends fought to save him.

“What the hell happened?” Harvey asked, as they dug for the bullet.

“I think he was coming to see me,” Anna said through clenched teeth as she watched, “and someone shot him.”

“You're a dangerous woman,” Harvey said, still unable to find or dislodge the bullet, and they were pumping blood into him as fast as they could get it.

“And he's an asshole,” Anna added as tears rolled into her mask, and she finally begged Lucas to let her try it. “I'm good at this,” she said.

“So they tell me.”

She took over from Harvey then, and dug deep for the bullet. And with a small grunting noise, she found it. But it took her another twenty minutes to dislodge it. His blood pressure was stable by then, but he was still hemorrhaging badly. It took them another hour to stop it. But three hours after they took him into surgery, Harvey let Anna do the sutures. And Steve was finally in stable condition.

“I think he'll make it,” Harvey said, as they wheeled Steve into Recovery and he took a good look at Anna. “You look like shit, Dr. Gonzalez.”

“Thank you, Dr. Lucas.”

She still looked gray, and her knees were shaking now that it was over. And then she went to sit next to Steve. It was another two hours before he stirred, and when he did, he was still groggy, but he saw her sitting there next to him, and he smiled when he saw her.

“Anna? I was coming to see you,” he whispered.

“You never made it.” She smiled down at him as tears filled her eyes again. She thought she would never see him again, and then she thought he would die before they could save him.

“What happened?” he whispered again.

“Someone shot you.”

“Nice neighborhood,” he said, and she smiled through her tears at him.

“What were you doing there?” But she knew before he answered.

“I came to say good-bye to you.”

“You did that three months ago,” she said gently, as he drifted off to sleep again, and then opened his eyes and continued the conversation.

“I wanted to see Felicia. I miss her.”

“She misses you too,” and then she decided to throw caution to the winds and tell him the truth. “So do I, even if you are an asshole.”

He smiled at her then. “I'm getting divorced and going to Kentucky.”

Anna frowned as she listened to him. “I think he's hallucinating,” she said to one of the nurses.

“I heard that. It's true … divorced … Kentucky …” Steve insisted weakly.

“Don't talk so much … you can explain later. Why don't you sleep for a while?” she said gently. She was still worried about him.

“My chest hurts.”

“Stop complaining. You had a great surgeon.” Anna looked down at him with a grin, as he watched her.

“Who did it?”

“I did. You had a bullet the size of an egg in your chest. Now shut up and go to sleep before I hit you.”

“I love you, Anna,” he whispered softly but she heard him.

She leaned down close to his face so he could hear her better and the others wouldn't. “I love you too.”

“Marry me.” He was groggy but she knew he meant it.

“Never,” she answered. “I'm allergic to it.”

“… good thing to do … good for Felicia … good for me … good for you … have more kids … a baby….”

“I don't need a baby, if I have you to take care of. You'd be more trouble than ten children….”

“Will you marry me?”

“No. Besides, you're on drugs. You do not know what you're saying.”

“Yes, I do … and I'm not married….” He sounded stronger as he said it. “And I'm not gay.”

“What's he talking about?” Harvey Lucas came to check on him, and caught the tail end of the conversation. “Who said he was gay? He's not gay.”

“No, but he's an asshole,” Anna said firmly with a glance at Steve. He was coming out of the anesthetic nicely and Lucas was pleased, and left them to continue the conversation. “I thought you were gone forever,” she said gently.

“I thought so too … I'm back….”

“So I see. Why don't you stay here? You'll have to explain later about Kentucky.” But even in his drugged state, he remembered that he hadn't signed the papers. He remembered a lot of things, leaving Merrie, leaving California … going to see Anna … and then he didn't remember much after that … until he saw her in the Recovery room and his chest hurt.

“I love you,” he said again, determined to convince her.

“I love you too, now rest for awhile. I'll be here. I'm not going anywhere, Steve.” She had never been as happy to see a face as she had been to see his, especially once she knew he'd make it. She had cried over him every night for three months. But now he had come to see her, for whatever reason.

“Why won't you marry me?”

“I don't need to. Besides, I told you, I hate rich guys.”

“I gave it all back to her … I'm poor now….”

“You're crazy,” she said, smiling at him.

“You too,” he said, smiling at her, and then he drifted off to sleep as she watched him.

“How's he doing? Is he okay?” Harvey came by to check his vital signs and was satisfied with what he was seeing.

“He will be,” Anna answered him, as he left them alone again. Steve was in good hands. He had been a lucky guy that afternoon. But no luckier than he deserved. Harvey glanced over his shoulder as he walked out of the Recovery room, and saw Anna holding Steve's hand and smiling at him.

“Is that Steve Whitman in there?” one of the nurses asked him. The word was out in the trauma unit.

“It sure is.”

“What's he doing here?” Everyone was confused. They thought he was still in California.

“Recuperating, I hope,” Harvey Lucas answered, “so he can take his old job back and I can get the hell out of here, and finally do some research.”

“Is he coming back?” the nurses at the desk asked Harvey.

“Could be,” Harvey smiled at her. “Could be. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.”

And as she sat next to him and watched him sleep, Anna held his hand and watched him. Just being there with him was all she'd ever wanted or needed. She didn't need promises or wedding rings, or money. She just wanted to be with him. And he was back now. For both of them, the nightmare and the loneliness were over.

a cognizant original v5 release october 06 2010

About the Author

DANIELLE Steel
has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 430 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include:
Journey, The House on Hope Street, The Wedding, Granny Dan, Bittersweet, Mirror Image, The Klone and I, The Long Road Home, The Ghost, Special Delivery, The Ranch
, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of
His Bright Light
, the nonfiction story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.

A Dell Book
Published by
Dell Publishing
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New York, New York 10036

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1999 by Danielle Steel

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eISBN: 978-0-307-56653-9

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