The Deputies: 3 Novella Box Set (9 page)

If he didn’t give a damn about her he wouldn’t have withdrawn into himself the way he did. Her heart fluttered and a fresh spate of tears filled her eyes. She needed to give him more love and time. She needed to let him learn to trust again. His every action told her he loved her—couldn’t she wait for the words?

“Yes, it’s absolutely worth it,” she replied, her tone lighter than it had been before. She believed in her husband’s love and she believed in their life together.

“Luke, how would you like to spend some time with Grandma today? Mommy needs to do some shopping.”

She’d make a fancy dinner tonight and put on some sexy lingerie. Give him a special night that was all about him.

She knew where the door was and she damn well wasn’t going to be using it.

Alyssa shoved the grocery bags into the trunk of her car and pushed down the lid. She’d dropped Luke off at Alice Dixon’s house, finished grocery shopping, and now she needed to get home and start making the special chocolate mousse she had planned for tonight’s dessert.

Hopefully it would be a dessert they’d eat after some naked fun. Alice had been happy to watch Luke and had even offered to have him overnight. The shrewd older woman had immediately seen that something was amiss and offered her services in any way she could to fix it without prying into the details.

Climbing into the vehicle, she pulled out onto Oak, stopping at the red light at Sycamore. She hummed as she pictured the evening ahead. Letting Hank know he had all the time he needed to trust was her main job tonight. No more pushing. She’d win back his love a little at a time.

The light turned green and she pressed down on the accelerator, pulling into the intersection. Her eyes were focused forward but out of her peripheral vision something blue flashed. There was a squealing of tires and then an awful crunching noise. She screamed in pain and fright as her fragile bones met something relentless and unyielding, and her head violently hit the driver’s side window.

Blinking to try and clear her cloudy vision, she reached up to rub her eyes and gasped at what felt like a sharp knife in her ribs. Her hands were covered in blood and she let her head fall back onto the headrest with a groan. Everything hurt so badly and she was fighting to stay conscious.

The passenger door on her car was pulled open and a man’s voice barely penetrated the fog that was coming over her.

“Ma’am? Ma’am? Can you hear me? I’ve called 911. Just hold on.”

The gray mist was turning dark and taking the excruciating pain away. The only image in her brain was of her family sitting at the dinner table last night laughing and smiling.

“Luke? Hank?” She could feel her lips form the words but she couldn’t tell if she actually said them with the roaring in her ears. The blackness was persistent and she didn’t have the strength to fight it anymore, didn’t even want to. It hurt to breathe and it hurt to move, but if she closed her eyes and let the fog take her it would all go away. She let it slip over her, blurring the picture of her son and husband and sending her to a most peaceful place.

Hank turned on his lights and siren and pressed down on the accelerator. On the radio, he’d heard there had been an accident with injuries at the corner of Oak and Sycamore. Some idiot had blown through a red light T-boning another car. He wasn’t specifically called to the scene but he knew from experience Seth would need all hands on deck for the investigation. Hopefully the driver hadn’t also been speeding. In town the speed limit was thirty miles per hour and if adhered to it would limit the injuries.

Not far from the area, he was pulling up to it in less than ten minutes. He hopped out of the car ready to keep bystanders back so the EMTs could do their work. His first job was to have a few cars moved so the ambulance could get closer to the accident.

He pushed through the crowd to get a good look at the scene. There was a small car with a smashed in front end and another car with the driver’s side demolished that had been pushed at least twenty feet so it was almost out of the intersection with two tires up on the sidewalk.

Hank blinked a few times as he stared at the vehicle, trying to get his sluggish brain to process the information. He could smell the odor of gasoline and the vague sounds of voices shouting but nothing seemed to make sense. A hand on his shoulder pushed him back and Hank looked directly into the gaze of Seth.

“You don’t want to go there, man. Let me take care of this. The ambulance is on its way.”

Something snapped inside of him and he knew in that moment the car belonged to Alyssa. Almost doubling over in pain at the thought of his wife in that tangled hunk of metal he tried to breathe, to think. He couldn’t fall apart right now.

“Luke?” he croaked.

Seth shook his head. “He wasn’t in the car. Maybe he’s with your mom? Alyssa is hurt and you can ride to the hospital with her, okay? Stay with me, man. She’s got some injuries and I need you not to panic.”

Through his daze, Hank finally noticed that Seth had blood on his uniform and his hands.

“Is she–” Words failed him. He couldn’t say it, let alone think it. This simply couldn’t be happening.

“I crawled through the passenger side to get a look and she’s banged up and unconscious. She’s bleeding from a head wound but you know that they can bleed quite a bit and not be serious. Hank, are you hearing me?”

People died from head wounds and blood loss.

The words kept running through his mind and he had to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment to control his own thoughts. Sirens sounded in the distance as Hank shook off Seth’s grip. Stumbling toward the car, he could see the fire department was pulling off the driver’s door with a loud “pop”.

Alyssa was lying unconscious, still in her seatbelt, a stream of crimson blood running down her face and onto her green blouse. Instead of the usual golden bloom on her cheeks, she was ghostly white, her lips pale, her bright red hair the only color to be seen.

His knees almost buckled but he pushed forward, swallowing down the acid that balled in his throat. By the time he reached her side, his legs did give out and his shins hit the pavement. He grabbed her limp and lifeless hand in his larger one, bringing her fingers to his lips. Her skin felt cold and she didn’t so much as flicker an eyelash when he called her name several times.

“Lis, baby. It’s Hank. I’m here. I love you, baby. I love you. Hang in there.”

“Sir, we need you to move.”

A deep voice made Hank turn angrily but the nasty words on his lips died. It was the EMTs. They were going to take her away but he wouldn’t let them without him as well. He stepped to the side to let the two men do their work.

“I’m her husband. I’m going with her.”

He’d meant the words to come out forcefully but instead they came out choked and barely audible. One of the men looked up from where he was kneeling next to Alyssa and gave him a sympathetic look.

“You can go but give us some space, okay? Let us help her.”

Hank took a few steps back and felt a hand on his shoulder. “I called Alice. Luke is fine and at your mother’s. I gave her the abbreviated version of what’s going on and she said not to worry and do what you need to do.”

Gratitude and relief ran through Hank in a rush. In the midst of an accident investigation, Seth had taken the time to hunt down Luke. His son was happy and healthy, completely unaware of what had transpired mere minutes ago.

“Thanks.” Hank forced the word through the lump in his throat. He barely registered the flashing lights on the emergency vehicles or the press of people craning their necks to get a good look. Everything that was going on felt strange as if it was happening to someone else. Maybe he’d wake up and find it was all a terrible nightmare. The physical pain that had ripped through him in the beginning had changed to a numb, dead feeling inside. If anything happened to his wife, he might never feel anything ever again.

Helpless, he watched as they wrapped a collar around Alyssa’s neck and attached her to a board to stabilize her back. At one point, her lids had fluttered and she’d moaned in pain. He’d jerked forward to talk to her but she went back to being deathly still and quiet before he could say a word.

Carefully moving her to a stretcher, the team lifted her into the ambulance. Hank jumped in after them not even sparing a glance at his boss and grabbed her hand. He needed the contact with her to keep himself sane.

The only thing that mattered now was Alyssa. She had to live so she could yell at him and tell him he was a fucking selfish swine who didn’t deserve someone like her to love him.

Chapter Eight

N
o one would tell Hank anything.

When they’d arrived at the county hospital, they’d taken her back behind a set of double doors. He couldn’t see or hear anything that was going on. Every now and then someone would exit and he’d try and talk to them but they would just pat him on the arm and say that the doctor would be out as soon as they knew anything.

Pacing back and forth, the argument he and Alyssa had had this morning played over and over like a bad movie. She’d given him nothing but love and what had he done this morning when she’d reached out again?

He’d acted like an asshole, throwing her love back in her face like he didn’t need it. He needed it more than he needed air to breathe. Without Alyssa, life would be empty. He’d be alive for his son but there would always be the hole in his chest where his heart used to be.

He stared sightlessly out of the window and sank into a chair, the pain and desolation so acute he could hardly bear it. His fingers gripped the seat edge until his knuckles turned white and he shook as the first tears he’d cried in many years rolled down his cheeks.

He didn’t try and hide them or pretend he was too manly. His wife was fighting for her life and it didn’t seem right to act as if this didn’t affect him. He was being torn apart inside with fear and self-loathing and there wasn’t a facade he could muster that would cover it up.

“Have you heard anything?” Footsteps and then Seth’s voice.

Hank brushed at his eyes and tried to stand but fell back into the chair instead, his body feeling suddenly stiff and old.

“Nothing.” Hank shook his head and accepted the cup of coffee Seth held out to him. “No one will tell me anything.”

Seth scrubbed his fingers through his hair, his expression haunted. Hank remembered that Seth’s best friend in high school had died in an auto accident.

“Did you call your mom?” Seth asked softly. Their voices seemed to boom in the quiet.

“Yes. I talked to her and then to Luke. We decided not to tell him anything right now. Not until we know something. He was going to spend the night anyway. Alyssa was planning a special night for me Mom said.”

His last words sounded strangled as he tried to hold onto his composure. When he’d spoken to his mother and she’d said that Alyssa had wanted to have a romantic evening, just the two of them, it had almost done him in. That she could still love him after his behavior this morning stunned and humbled him.

“She deserves a hell of a lot better than me, Seth. If I could trade places with her, christ, I would. This shouldn’t be happening. I’m a fucking cop. We always talked about if and when something happened to me. But Alyssa? Shit, this is just not supposed to be happening. It’s supposed to be me.”

“I wish it was neither one of you.”

Hank’s head fell back against the wall and he stared up at the ceiling. “If…when she gets better I’m going to offer her a divorce.”

“What the fu–? Listen, you’re reacting to the stress. Alyssa loves you and doesn’t want a divorce. Hell, I admit I wasn’t sure in the beginning but I’ve seen you two together and I’m convinced. She loves you. You both can work this out.”

Slumping forward, his elbows on his thighs, Hank shook his head. “She deserves a better man. I’ve done nothing but hurt her since she came back. Do you know what she asked me this morning?” His voice filled with remembered pain. “She asked me to tell her I loved her. I fucking refused, Seth. I was mean and nasty and basically told her to leave. That’s not a man that deserves a woman like Alyssa.”