Hate Me Today (Save Me #3) (21 page)

Tuesday turns her head toward me, picking something off the shoulder of her suit jacket. “I knocked, Vanessa let me in and then went down to Abby and Jameson’s room with Paul, Evan and AJ. Now get up lazy ass. We have to be at the courthouse in forty-five minutes.”

With that, she swings the door open and struts out like she wasn’t just freaking out.

Vanessa

Tugging the edge of my tan pencil skirt down, I lean back in my chair, swinging my left leg over my right. Everyone is solemn this morning, like it’s a funeral we’re going to instead of court.

Jameson is on the couch with Abby tucked into his side, her hand resting gently on her rounded stomach. AJ is texting away on the other end. Tuesday’s staring out the window, her face totally masked so no emotion is showing, but I know she’s a wreck. I could hear it in her voice when I opened the door earlier. Paul stands stoically in the arch between the rooms. And Evan, well Evan is pacing like a caged animal, the tension rolling off him in waves.

I start fiddling with the three strands of pearls around my wrist. As soon as I hear the door click open, I stand, making my way toward it. I turn the corner, passing Paul and the heel on my boot catches the edge of the carpet, sending me tumbling.

“I’ve gotcha
, babe,” Jason whispers into my hair.

“Holy shit,” I mumble against the black lapel of Jason’s suit jacket.

As I straighten up, Jason pulls me flush against him, and my hands rest against his crisp suit jacket. I can’t help but run my eyes over him. I didn’t really get a chance to see him in his suit the last time he wore one but let me just say, holy-effing-shit.

His dark hair is slicked back instead of spiked into a mohawk like it usually is and he’s replaced his usual jeans and tee shirt with a three piece black suit and black tie. The tattoos on his neck touch just above the collar of his shirt, leaving me tempted to run my lips over them.

Jason pulls me back from my day dream with the deep rumble of his voice. “You look gorgeous.”

His fingers drag lightly down the bare skin on my arms when he leans forward. I meet him halfway, pressing my lips lightly against his. I shiver when his hands dive into my hair, pulling my head back so I’m looking at him.

The corner of his mouth perks up as he says, “I love you.”

And just like that
, my heart melts for this man all over again. He can tell me I’m the most beautiful girl in the world or that he wouldn’t know what to do without me. He can worship my body like he does on a regular basis, but nothing compares to what he just said.

I smile just as someone knocks on the door to tell us it’s time to go. Leaning up on my toes, I press my lips against his cheek, loving the feeling of his hands against my lower back and repeat the words he just said back to him. “I love you, too.”

~*~*~*~

I don’t remember them calling Tuesday’s name. Somewhere along the line when they started going into detail about what this monster that Tuesday was forced to marry did, I had to
tune them out. The photos, the descriptions, it all was making me sick. It isn’t until Jason squeezes my hand that I realize it’s Tuesday’s turn to go up.

She places her hand on the Bible, repeating the words the court officer tells her to and sits. Tuesday answers question after question until I feel like she’s going to go crazy from repeating herself over and over. The words objection and overruled are going to ring in my ears for the next month from all the times I’ve heard them because the defense attorney keeps attacking Tuesday.

When they finally finish putting Tuesday through the wringer, closing arguments are given because they held off on her testimony until last, wanting it to be fresh in the jury’s mind when they went to deliberate.

“I’m leaving,” Tuesday states once we get out into the hall, wiping the tears that are still falling away from her eyes as she presses herself back against Evan. “Please take me home.”

Jason’s arm curls around my hip, keeping me close and out of the way of all the people rushing around in here.

“What do you mean you’re leaving?” The district attorney steps up to her, shaking hands with someone as they pass. “You aren’t staying to hear the verdict?”

“No, because frankly, it doesn’t matter. You can lock them up but that won’t stop the reach they have. So I just want to get back on the plane and go home. Get as far away from this damn town as I can and never come back.”

She spins away and walks out of the courthouse after thanking him for everything he has done for her. We all follow along behind her, ignoring the press as they hound everyone with questions, trying to get the inside scoop before everyone else.

Before I know it, we’re loading back onto the plane to go home. I lean back in my seat, buckling and curling myself into Jason, my hand resting on his leg.

Tuesday’s phone rings on the table across from us. She answers it and only says a few words before powering the phone down completely. She stares at her hand before Evan finally gets the nerve to say something.

“Who was that?”

“The DA,” she mumbles, “verdict came back already and he just wanted me to know that Anthony was found guilty on all charges. He won’t be seeing the light of day for a long, long time.”

She tries to hide the smile on her face as Evan wraps himself around her, telling her that he loves her. I know she wanted to put on the strong façade but I can tell she is relieved that this portion of her life is over with and she can move on.

I’m glad too because seeing her hurting
was hurting all of us.

Vanessa

I swear there has to be steam rolling out of my ears when I end my call and drop my phone onto the table.

“You have got to fucking be kidding me,” I curse.

Jason strides up next to me, dropping his bags next to mine on the floor.
“What’s the problem?” he asks.

I shake my head, not wanting to put the stress on anyone else.

“Don’t,” he says, “don’t play it off like it’s no big deal. In the entire time I’ve known you, I’ve seen you riled maybe three times. That includes when I was doing everything in my power to piss you off.”

“Nothing, it’s fine. I’ll handle it.”
I turn to walk away but he catches my arm before I get too far and pulls me back to him, crushing my back to his chest. Reaching forward, he pulls my hair off my neck, settling it on the opposite side.

“Wanna try that again?”

I stomp my foot, knowing full well that I’m acting like a five year old that isn’t getting her way. That is until Jason presses his lips against the spot just below my ear; my eyes close as I breathe him in.

“I have a doctor’s appointment today, I won’t be able to drive after it so I had someone that was going to go with me and I was going to fly out and meet you guys in Seattle later. But she just backed out.”

“So what’s the problem? I’ll drive you, we’ll fly out later and meet up with everyone else.”

“No, I’m not fucking up your day or making you hang out at the hospital with me all day. You go with everyone else. I’ll just… call my mother or something.”

Jason chuckles against my neck. “Yeah because you and your mother are on such great terms right now. Plus, I’d rather hang out at with you.”

“Fine,” I concede.

~*~*~*~

“Don’t laugh at me asshole.” I laugh behind my mask when he pulls me in and kisses my lips through the material. My gloved fingers settle between his as we make our way through the masses of people.

“Not laughing.” He bites his lip, pushing my hair off my shoulder. “Actually, it’s kinda hot. Mysterious and shit. Ya know?”

I go to respond but Jason’s phone rings just as we get to the receptionist.

“Vanessa Camaron Knox, August second, nineteen-ninety-four,” I say before she even has a chance to ask.

Nodding, she takes my wrist and wraps the bracelet she just printed out around it, sending me on my way. Jason walks back toward me, locking his fingers with mine again and pulls me into a chair next to him.

“Who was that?” I ask, not trying to be too nosey. I shut my phone down, he watches me and does the same.

“Devon. I forgot to let him know I was flying out with you. They were rounding everyone up.”

We sit, chatting for almost an hour before they call my name. We follow the nurse back to the exam room, going through all the motions to get me set up and prepared. Dr. Close comes in, closing the door behind her before giving me a tight smile.

Reaching past me after saying hello, she introduces herself to Jason, who has pulled on a hospital gown and mask that the nurses gave him.

“How are you feeling?” she asks, turning her attention back to me.

I open my mouth, talking around the tongue depressor, “
Hine.”

“Just fine? I think that’s the answer I get every single time you’re here. Fine, or not.” Dr. Close cocks her eyebrow at me and I hear Nurse Nicole laugh from behind me, covering it up with a cough. I don’t answer her so she turns to Jason. Without her even needing to ask him, he sells me out.

“She’s always tired, runs on coffee pretty much, and she keeps losing weight even though I practically shove food down her throat every chance I get.”

“See if you get lucky anymore,” I mutter low enough that I don’t think he can hear, but he does.

“I’d rather have blue balls for a few days than lose you to because of something that could be taken care of.”

Reaching over, he squeezes my hand. I swear I hear Nicole sigh dreamily, which makes me chuckle until I see the needle they’re going to be sticking in my back.

“You know the drill but this time we’re going to keep you a little while longer and run some extra tests as well. Jason, we have to have you take a seat in the corner.”

I roll so my back is facing her, pulling myself into the fetal position. I squeeze my eyes shut as they prep my back with iodine and numb me up. Keeping my eyes closed, I focus on the sound I’ve grown accustomed to hearing next to me at night, Jason’s breathing, letting it take me away from the physical pain.

Jason

I pull a deep breath into my lungs, curling my fingers into fists. It’s taking everything in me not to get up and flip out about the pain I can clearly see they are causing Vanessa.

Her thin fingers wrap around the safety rail on the bed, her knuckles turning white. I can barely stand it when her mouth opens, silently crying when they push the needle into her back. The nurse holds her still, pushing Vanessa’s legs into her chest while the doctor finishes up.

I can tell the instant they are done. Vanessa’s face isn’t quite as pained but I can still see the pain there. After bandaging her back and telling her to lay flat, they draw a shit ton of blood and then everyone leaves us alone in the room.

She reaches up, pushing tears away with her thumbs. I want to tell her that I’ve never seen anyone as strong as her, never seen anyone endure so much and still keep a genuine smile on their face. But I can’t. I can’t form the words to tell her how amazing she is, or how she makes me feel stronger just by being near her. So since I can’t speak, I lean forward and kiss her, hoping she gets all of what I want to say from the gesture.

Two hours later, after the doctor tells Vanessa everything she probably already knows about the aftercare, they let us leave. I push her out toward my truck in the wheelchair. She winces when I help her into the truck.

I climb into the cab, pulling out my phone as I close the door. Vanessa’s already got hers turned back on and I can’t help but notice that her phone is blowing up more than normal. Her eyebrows draw together and she looks to me when mine starts doing the same thing.

I look down at my phone as voicemail after voicemail roll in, followed by a massive amount of text messages from everyone from Abby and the whole crew to Carter and odd numbers I don’t even know.

Vanessa slaps her hand over her mouth, stifling back a cry and I think for a second that she’s just sore until she pulls the phone away from her ear and puts it on speaker. Tuesday’s voice filters out, I can tell by the sound of it that she’s crying.

“Vanessa,
it’s 2:34. I know you had a doctors appointment and I’m hoping that’s why your phone is off. I’m not sure if you were able to make the flight with the rest of the crew but if you didn’t I really need you to call me as soon as possible.”

We hear the sob as she disconnects her call and the next message plays, stating almost the same thing but this one is from AJ. The next one is from Payton
. I can’t wrap my head around why she would be calling since she’s deaf but I can definitely tell it’s her by the way she speaks.

“Vanessa
, please text me when you get this. If you didn’t make the flight out, please don’t grab another flight, come straight to the Ironsound office.”

“Jason, what the hell is going on?” she whispers while I speed
through the five minute drive toward the studio.

I haven’t had a chance to look at anything on my phone but it doesn’t matter, I slide it into my back pocket when I jump from the truck and make it over to where Vanessa is trying to rush toward the door. I make her stop, wrap her arms around
her neck and lift her into my arms. She doesn’t complain which tells me either she is in a lot of pain or is too worried about what’s going on to care how we get in there.

The doors are locked, weird considering they’re usually open until at least eight. Using my security code, I wait for the doors to click open and rush to the elevator, impatiently waiting until it arrives. Vanessa hits the button for the floor where Abby’s office is, then wraps her arm back around my neck, burying her face into my chest.

The doors slide open, the air around us fills with screaming and crying and we slip into the room, somehow unnoticed. I scan everyone here, their faces all scream sadness but the television on the wall catches my attention.

I know Vanessa found the same thing I did when she gasps, I feel the tears hitting my arm just as everyone notices we’re here. They all start toward us, crying and talking at once as they wrap their arms around us but neither one of us take our eyes off the scene on the television.

The fire from the crash on the screen is trying to be tamed by so many different people they all blur together. The scrolling words at the bottom grab my attention but it’s like my mind is going in slow motion and I can’t catch up with any other words other than Ironsound and plane crash.

It feels as if the bottom falls out of my world. Vanessa pushes out of my arms, dropping next to a trashcan and dry heaves. She cries out in pain, reaching around to rest her hand on her back. I slip down next to her, pull her into my arms and hold her against me.
Tuesday slides down next to us and grabs my arm, wrapping herself around it as she stares blankly at the television. AJ drops next to me, wrapping his arm over my shoulder.

Abby’s the first to speak up once everyone stops talking all at once.
“Why didn’t you fuckers answer your phone?” Her voice cracks as she tries to keep herself together.

“Can’t have them on in the exam rooms,” Vanessa mutters, never taking her face away from my chest.

“Why didn’t you tell us you weren’t going to be on the plane with everyone else,” Jameson questions, wrapping his arms around Abby. “We’ve spent the better part of the last two hours thinking you were both dead.”

I shake my head, trying to wrap myself around everything that’s going on. I was supposed to be on that plane. I would have been on that plane if it hadn’t been for Vanessa’s ride flaking out on her
. I’d be dead along with everyone else.

“W-who else,” I croak.

“Everyone except you two,” Paul speaks up from the corner he’s standing in. “Devon, Jack, the rest of the support band. Carson and his entire band were on board. The entire backstage crew. Mandi.”

The trembling that Vanessa was doing while Paul is talking turns into a full blown sob when he mentions that Mandi was on board as well. If I’m counting right, there were at least twenty people on the plane, not to mention the pilot and staff.

Vanessa’s phone rings again a few minutes later, when she pulls it out of her pocket she fumbles with it for a second before getting it to her ear.

“Mandi!” she cries. “Mandi, where are you?”

She looks up and says something about the door code. Abby rattles off a set of numbers and Paul runs out the door. Vanessa tries to push off me, but I hold her still. She should be lying flat, this is the closest she’s going to get right now so I’m damn sure not going to let her run around.

A few minutes later
, Mandi rushes through the door with Paul and drops in front of us. Her arms wrap around us, her and Vanessa talking through the sobbing but I can barely understand them.

Mandi might be Vanessa’s assistant but she’s more than that. She keeps us all going, everything we need to do goes through her. She keeps us on track and she has become one of Vanessa’s closest friends.

“Why weren’t you on the plane?” Tuesday asks, wiping tears away from Mandi’s face.

“I was running late, got stuck in traffic so when they called I told them just to go ahead and I would catch a different flight.”

Thank God. I swear the girl is always fifteen minutes early for everything and the one day she decides to run late, it saves her life.

Two more people walk into the office. I turn my head to them, realizing it’s Payton and Rene, the head of the PR department. They’re talking but I’m having a hard time hearing anything right now over the roaring in my ears. You can tell they’ve been crying as well, but right now they’re strictly business.

“We have to release a statement,” Rene states, her voice wobbling. “I can probably hold off the full blown shit storm that’s going to happen for a few days, but we need to release something to do that.”

I speak up before anyone else has the chance to.

“Tell them that we appreciate everyone’s thoughts during this horrific time but we won’t be releasing anyone’s names or details until everyone’s families have been notified. To please respect the privacy of everyone and we’ll let everyone know when we know more.”

Rene looks shocked that those words came out of me but turns for approval from Abby. When she nods in agreement, Rene takes off back to her office to do what she does.

Evan pulls a reluctant Tuesday away from me a little while later, telling us he’s taking her home. I know she’s waiting to freak out until she’s home; Evan knows it too. I reach out, he grabs my hand, helping me up without waking up a now sleeping Vanessa.

“Jason?” Abby calls out.

I turn around and see the worry etched in her face. “Yeah, love?”

“Our place
, please. Izzy knows, she saw the news before we could shut it off. She’s kind of freaking out.”

I nod, telling Mandi that she’s coming with us. She doesn’t fight it, following numbly along behind me. I hear Jameson tell Rene that we’d all be at the house if she needed us. AJ pulls me toward his SUV, opening the back so I can slide in with Vanessa. He says something about coming to get my truck tomorrow
. I don’t really care though. The only thing I care about right now is still asleep in my arms