The thought of that even being a possibility kept him so anxious he couldn’t relax. He was lying on his side facing her bed so that he could see her face as she slept, and the sight was a vivid reminder of what she’d endured.
A dark bruise had appeared on the side of her forehead, and her lower lip was swollen and cut. The sight made him sick to his stomach, and yet he couldn’t turn away. Then his eyes grew heavy and without intending to he fell asleep. He woke abruptly to the sound of Lissa crying.
He rolled out of bed so fast he forgot he was hurt. Pain ripped across his shoulder as he stumbled toward her just in time to hear what she was saying.
“Call Mack, Mama. Call Mack.”
Oh, hell, she’s dreaming about the miscarriage!
“It hurts, Mama.”
He took her hand and leaned a little closer. “I’m here, baby.”
But Lissa was still locked into the dream. “Mama, did you call him?”
The tears were killing him. He turned loose of her hand and cupped her face.
“I’m here, Lissa, I’m here. Open your eyes, baby. See me. See my face.”
Lissa gasped as if she’d been drowning and just reached the surface. Her eyes were open, but he didn’t think she saw him.
He bent over and kissed the mole above her lip. “For good luck, baby.”
She shuddered. “For good luck,” she whispered, and then she blinked, saw his face and sighed. “You came.”
Blaming her confusion on the concussion and pain, he saw no need to challenge where her thoughts had gone. She just needed to know he was there.
“Yes, I’m here.”
Her features twisted from the emotional agony of where she’d been. “The baby...”
“I know, sweetheart, I know. There will be others. Just rest and get well.”
“So sorry,” she whispered as her eyelids fluttered shut.
He stood for a few moments to make sure she’d moved past that dream, feeling shattered by the brief glimpse of what she’d endured without him.
A couple of minutes passed, and then a nurse came in on her rounds and saw him standing at Lissa’s bedside. “Is everything okay? How is her pain level?”
“She woke up. She was having a bad dream,” he said.
The nurse nodded. “After what she went through, I’d be having bad dreams, too. If you’ll step back a bit I’ll just check her vitals and be out of your way.”
Sleep was over for Mack, so he went up the hall to the waiting area to get a cold drink from one of the vending machines, looking for something with caffeine. The last time he and Lissa had eaten was at breakfast, so he got a Pepsi and a packaged sweet roll, and headed back to the room.
The nurse was gone. The night-light was on in the adjoining bathroom, and Lissa seemed at peace as she slept. He walked to the window and opened the shades enough to see out as he ate. When he’d finished, he threw away his trash and pulled a chair up near her bed.
It was nearly four in the morning.
His eyes were burning from lack of sleep. His shoulder was one miserable ache. But none of it would matter if Lissa woke up on the good side of getting well.
* * *
Lissa was dreaming that she was falling, tumbling head over heels down a steep, rocky slope. She grabbed at a bush, but it slipped through her fingers, and then she reached for an embedded rock that came loose in her hands. She knew there was a precipice at the bottom, and when she reached it she would fall over the edge and die. No one knew where she was. No one knew she was falling to her death. They would never find her. She was lost. And when she tumbled over the edge and out into space, she threw back her head and screamed.
Mack came up out of the chair so fast it took a couple of seconds for him to remember where he was. Lissa was kicking beneath the covers and clawing at the air when he grabbed hold of her arms.
“Lissa! Wake up! You’re okay. You’re okay. It’s just a bad dream.”
Lissa opened her eyes with a gasp, expecting to see the ground coming up to meet her. When she saw Mack instead, she began to shake.
“I was falling! I thought I was going to die!”
“Easy, honey, calm down. You’re pulling all the tubes out of your arms,” he said.
A nurse came through the door on the run, turning on lights as she went.
“What happened?” she cried.
“Another bad dream,” Mack said.
An alarm was going off on one machine, and another was registering off the charts.
Lissa was trembling. The dream was still so vivid she was having trouble grasping the fact that it wasn’t real. “I’m sorry. I thought I was falling off a mountain,” she said, and then looked at Mack for reassurance.
“Well, bless your heart,” the nurse said, as she began checking Lissa’s IV and then resetting the systems.
“Did I mess stuff up?” Lissa asked, watching as the nurse began untangling wires and hooking them back up.
Mack shook his head. “No, baby. You didn’t mess up anything that can’t be fixed.”
“That’s right,” the nurse said as she added a new piece of tape to the IV line. “There. I think you’re good to go.”
“I’m thirsty. Can I have some water?” Lissa asked.
“I’ll check the orders,” the nurse said. “Be right back.”
Lissa looked at Mack. “Tell me it’s over. Tell me the stalker is behind bars.”
“What do you remember?” he asked.
“Seeing Louis and then watching him turn into a madman. I ran away.”
“The only thing you need to know is that he’s dead. He killed himself. We’ll worry about filling in the blanks later, okay?”
She sighed. “Between the ten years we were apart and now this, we’re going to have a whole lot of blanks to fill in.”
“And a lifetime to do it,” he said as he leaned over and kissed her.
She eased back onto the pillow and then licked her lips. “You taste sweet...like a honey bun.”
He chuckled. “You’re correct. Want one? We can ask the nurse.”
“I want water most,” she said.
He gently pushed straggling curls away from her forehead. “It feels good to know you’re no longer in danger,” he said. “I won’t worry about you now whenever you’re out of sight.”
“As soon as I feel better, I can go back to work. With him dead, there’s no longer a danger to the children.”
“I know.”
The nurse came back into the room, carrying a pitcher of ice water and a cup.
“Here you go, honey. Ring if you need to get up.”
“If someone was to come in here with a honey bun, I don’t suppose there would be any reason for me to turn down a bite if it was offered?” Lissa asked.
The nurse laughed. “Technically you’re not on a restricted diet.”
Lissa looked at Mack.
“I’ll be right back,” he drawled, and headed back to the vending machines with a lighter step. If she was hungry, that meant she was on the mend. Good news. Very good news.
By the time he returned, she’d fallen back to sleep, so he set the sweet roll aside and crawled into the other bed. Morning was already here. He just needed a little sunshine to go with it.
Sixteen
Marcus Silver was in the library going over invitation samples. He needed to pick one, and have them printed and ready when it came time to invite the necessary bigwigs to his announcement party. Running for senate was no small feat, and he wanted all the backing he could get. He’d talked to his cook, who’d already volunteered to give over her kitchen to a catering company for the night, and he was debating about which florist to use to decorate the mansion when he heard footsteps outside the doorway. He looked up just as T.J. walked in.
“Hey, Dad, what are you doing?” T.J. asked.
“Picking out the invitation for the party.”
“Cool, can I see?”
“As far as I’m concerned, you can make the final decision. I like any of these four here. You choose and then drop it off at the printers, will you? I need to find out if they’ve released Paul Jackson’s body, and if so, see if his son has set a date and time for the services.”
“Are you planning something kind of like you did for Dick Phillips?” T.J. asked. “You know, where all the classmates who come get up and say something personal about him?”
Marcus sighed. “I was thinking we should. I mean, we did it once, so it seems like we’d be slighting Paul if we didn’t do it for him, too.”
T.J. nodded. “That’s kind of how I see it. Do you need any help making calls?”
“No,” Marcus said. “But thanks for asking.”
“I could actually drop by the hospital and talk to Mack myself, if you like,” T.J. offered.
“The hospital? Why is he at the hospital again?”
T.J. frowned. “You mean to tell me you didn’t hear about what happened at the supermarket yesterday?”
“If you’ll remember, I left town after we ate lunch yesterday,” Marcus said.
“That’s right, you did. Well, long story short, someone’s been stalking Melissa Sherman, and yesterday he tried to abduct her from the supermarket. He wound up killing himself when he couldn’t get away, but she was injured. Mack is at the hospital with her.”
“She and Mack Jackson are a thing?” Marcus asked.