A Safe Place To Fall (The Fall Book 1) (23 page)

Drew's dad nodded his head. “He
doesn't realize how much information we already have against him.
Don't worry, kids, Lana will get justice.”

“You better be right,” Drew
said quietly, “because if he gets away with this, I will kill
him.”

Sandra's eyes widened, but she remained
silent.

“You will have to beat me to it,”
Lana's father spoke his first words since arriving at the hospital.
“If you care so much about my little girl, why did we find out
about all of this after that weasel shot my girl?”

“Now, Conrad, calm down. I'm sure
there is a perfectly good explanation for why we were left in the
dark.”

Drew sighed. He had wanted to tell her
parents immediately after the texts had started getting more
threatening. At times he had even suggested as much, but Lana had
been against them knowing about any of it. She had feared they would
make her move back home. As much as he was beginning to love her, he
was beginning to think she would've been safer in Charleston.

“She didn't want to worry you,”
was all he said.

***********************

Lana looked around the sterile, white,
boring room through half-opened eyes. Steady beeps filled the room.
Voices, that oddly sounded like her mom and dad's, could be heard out
in the hallway. The drugs must have been affecting her hearing.

“Hey,” Drew's groggy voice
said from a chair beside the bed. “It's about time I got to
see those eyes. How are you feeling?”

“Like some jerk-face tried to
shoot my arm off.”

Was that her raspy voice?

He reached over to the small table to
pour some water into a small cup, and offered the cup to her. “Here
drink some of this.”

She
greedily emptied the cup. The water tamed down the dryness of her
throat, but didn't fully take it away.
How
long had she been asleep?

“You've been out of surgery for a
couple of hours,” Drew informed her, reading her mind. “Your
mom and dad are outside in the hall.”

Lana groaned. “Why did you call
them?”

“Oh, I don't know,” Drew
began, “maybe, because their daughter got shot.”

She gave a lame attempt at rolling her
eyes. “Big deal.”

He chose to ignore her attitude. “I'll
go let the nurse know you are awake. Don't move, not even an inch.”

As if she could move with the burning
sensation in her arm. Getting shot was for the birds. How it had
happened replayed in her mind in a slow replay. How could she have
forgotten to take the safety off?

Stupid.
Stupid. Stupid.

Now she would have to deal with lectures
not only from Drew, but her parents. Her parents. Drew owed her for
going against her wishes and contacting her parents. What made him
think that was a good idea, anyway?

“Oh, Honey,” her mother
cried, running into the room. “I can't believe I almost lost
you!”

And
the dramatics begin.

“You didn't almost lose me, mom.
He shot my arm not my heart,” Lana pointed out the obvious.

“He shot my baby girl.” Her
mother had tears in her eyes.

Lana moved her hand away from her
mother's searching ones. “I'm fine mom. Quit being so
dramatic. I hate it when you do this.”

It may have been rude, but the
medication kept her from caring.

Her mom had a flare for drama. Lana
admitted being shot was probably a big deal; yet, people got shot
every day. Some lived, some didn't. She had been one of the lucky
ones, who only received an arm wound. In her mind it was simple, and
there was no need for all of the drama.

“I knew we should never have let
you come here,” her overprotective dad said from the door way.
“When you get out of here you're going home with us.”

As
if!

That was her father, always trying to
take control of a situation. Little did he know, this would have
happened even if she had stayed in Charleston. Devin had followed
her. This had roots' back home; eventually he would have snapped.

“I'm not going home,” she
replied weakly.

Conrad stalked angrily into the room.
“I'm your father, and you'll do as I say.”

“No, I won't,” she did her
best to yell. It came out more as a squeal.

Real
convincing, Lana.

“Now is not the time, Conrad,”
Sandra told her husband. “She just came out of anesthesia.”

The nurse chose that moment to walk into
the room. “It's important that nobody does or says anything to
upset the patient.”

The patient, as if she did not have a
name. To the nurse she was just one of many people who would be in
and out of this room. Why would she take time to bother to learn
Lana's name?

At least the woman was trying to get her
parents to shut up.

The nurse gave Lana a friendly smile.
“I'm Nelly, are you feeling any pain?”

Was she feeling any pain? It was a
stupid question everyone seemed to be asking today. Of course she
felt pain; she had just been shot in the arm for crying out loud.

“I feel like I've been shot,”
Lana repeated the same reply she had given to Drew. She hated
repeating herself.

The nurse, who reminded her of that
short black doctor on Grey's Anatomy, chuckled. “Well, I do
suppose that's normal.” The woman busied herself with checking
her vitals. “You gave that man of yours' a scare.”

At the mention of Drew's name, Lana
looked around the small room. Where was he? Why had he not come
back yet? She needed him by her side to feel an ounce of comfort.

“He went down to the gift shop,”
Nelly supplied, switching bags on the IV stand and pressing buttons.
“He wanted to give your parents time with you.”

Sure
he did.

If
he was staying away, it meant he was avoiding someone. That someone
was, no doubt, standing in this room. Lana's money was on the person
being her dad. What had her father said to keep Drew away?

“Don't pout, child, he'll be back
soon.” Was it just her, or did Nelly sound a little like that
hippo nurse off of Doc Mcstuffins?

Wow
.
The drugs really were messing with her head.

“The doctor will be in later on,”
the nurse went on when Lana remained silent. “I'll leave you
and your parents to talk. Calmly.” She had looked at the
couple when she said the last remark.

Lana closed her eyes and prayed for
patience in dealing with her parents. They wanted her to go home
with them. That was the whole reason why she had kept the stalking a
secret from them. Besides what could they have possibly done that
Drew hadn't?

“You're going home with us,”
her dad broke the silence, “and that's final.”

She ignored him. When it came time to
go home she knew she would not be going with them. The days of her
father controlling her life were over. If she could face down a
stalker, she could face down her father.

***************************

Drew tossed and turned in bed that
night. Lana's dad had stated that Drew would not be staying at the
hospital, not even in the waiting room. Her father had it out for
him.

He kept seeing her laying in blood, and
could hear her moans of pain. Not being able to take away her pain
had caused him pain. This had to have been the hardest day of his
life.

Just thinking about what could have
happened if Devin had better aim made him want to puke. To make
matters even worse, Conrad was planning to force Lana to go home with
him. She didn't want to go and had made that clear. Her objections
didn't seem to faze the older man. No doubt, Conrad always got what
he wanted.

Fear of losing Lana to her father
clogged Drew's throat. The idea of not having her by his side during
normal times felt wrong. He needed her.

Drew punched his pillow angrily. He
shouldn't be in this bed while Lana was laying in that hospital bed.
What gave Conrad the right to dictate to him where he should be?

The next day found him facing an unhappy
Lana.

“You didn't come back,” she
pouted. “You said you were going for the nurse, and then you
didn't come back.”

He sighed. “I wanted to, honey, I
really did.” Casting a glance to the door where her father
could be on the other side listening; he continued, “Something
came up.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Something
like my father?”

Well,
didn't she just hit the nail on the head.

“He's
just trying to protect you,” he told her.

She rolled her eyes. “He's being
controlling. He's another reason I came to Morgantown.”

He squeezed the hand he was holding.
“Once he realizes the threat has been removed he will change
his mind.”

“No, he won't,” she sighed,
looking more than a little melancholy. “I'll have to confront
him, and it will get ugly. He doesn't like it when things don't go
his way.”

It sounded as if Conrad and his father
had a lot in common. No wonder he had been drawn to Lana from the
very beginning. They had both lived in the same type of hell.

**************************

It had been an ugly scene when Lana
told her dad that she refused to move back to Charleston. Her father
had abruptly left, but not before he told her not to come running
back to him crying when this all fell apart.

What he
did not say screamed at her;
don't
come home at all
.
He obviously refused to believe that staying was the best thing for
her.

Her mother had followed him out in
tears.

Lana, arm in cast, had left the hospital
just days after the surgery. She was unsure if her parents were even
aware she had been released.

It
doesn't matter
,
she told herself,
you're
where you need to be
.

Chapter
24

3 months later

Lana cast one last look around the
bedroom she had occupied while living with Ricky. At moments she
felt bad for leaving him all alone; he had always been a sweet
roommate. Not once had he not put the sock on the door handle when
he had company.

“
You
got everything?” Drew came into the room.

“
I
think so,” she replied, as strong arms circled her waist from
behind.

“
Ready
to go home?” he asked his breath brushing her ear.

Home was where ever Drew happened to be.
As long as she had him she knew she would be more than fine. She
thought he felt the same about her.

Without saying a word she pulled away
from him and led him out the door.

Drew pulled her to a stop just before
they reached their apartment. Standing outside the door was no one
other than Shawn. Her immediate reaction was to turn and run the
other way.

Before she could run Shawn turned his
head and spotted them.

Crap.

“
What
are you doing here?” Drew demanded to know, putting himself in
front of Lana.

Shawn held his hands up in a symbol of
surrender. “I need to apologize to Lana...about before...”

Drew turned his head to the side and
whispered, “You don't have to talk to him if you don't want
to.”

Lana knew she could send Shawn away and
nobody would hold it against her. Just the same, she felt as if she
kind of owed Shawn. If it had not been for him telling Drew what he
had discovered about his cousin; she could have easily bled out on
that bedroom floor.

“
Let
him talk,” she told Drew, grabbing his hand. “Just don't
leave me.”

“
If
you say so.”

They led the way into the unlocked
apartment and she took the last bag into the room that once belonged
to Chris. Chris recently moved into Tammy's apartment to allow Lana
to permanently move in with Drew. She refused to step foot into the
room she had been shot in.

“
Get
it over with,” she said, on the borderline of being rude.

Shawn wiped his hands on the legs of his
blue jeans. “About graduation...”

Lana wrapped her arms around herself,
stepping closer to Drew, drawing from his strength. She did not know
if she was strong enough to face those memories on her own.

“
It
should never have happened,” he blurted.

You think?

“
I
was afraid you would leave, and I would never get another chance with
you,” he admitted sitting down in the chair that Chris always
sat in. “I was messed up on a lot of shit that night and it
caused me to misread a lot of signs.”