Embattled Home (3 page)

A
t ten-thirty the
next morning, Chad waited outside Lora’s room. The smell of the antiseptic fumes had hit him as soon as he’d walked in the front door, making him pause as emotions tried to swamp him. It had taken serious effort to make his legs move and remind himself who he was here for. Not for one of his guys. Not for him. Lora.

Nurses had been bustling in and out and he was sure one of them had told her he was there. He made it a point to smile congenially at everybody that went in, in spite of their leery looks. They knew what Lora had been admitted for, but they didn’t know what her ex looked like.

Chad understood their hesitation. And appreciated it. There was no way to prove he wasn’t her ex unless they asked Lora outright.

So he cooled his heels, waiting till he thought she would be getting ready to go. At quarter till, he knocked on her door and stepped in.

Lora’s injuries didn’t look any better in the light of day. Her un-swollen eye narrowed in on him sharply. “Why are you here? I thought you understood I didn’t need your help.”

Chad shrugged, trying not to be put off by her demeanor. Honestly, he couldn’t blame her for feeling bitchy. If he were in her position he would feel that way too. It wasn’t like she had oodles of help.

“I do. I just thought I’d give you a ride home so we could talk about a few things.”

Pushing to her feet, she grabbed the railing of the bed to steady herself. “I really don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

Chad hated to be the bearer of bad news. “Derek bonded out this morning.”

A frantic look passed through her eyes before she straightened her spine. “Good for him. I need to get home.”

He stepped forward one step. “I know you do. My car is right in front.”

The hesitation was obvious on her face. She wanted to get home to be with her daughter, but she wasn’t sure if she could trust him or not.

“Have you called for a ride yet?”

She pursed her lips, but winced when the split puckered. “No,” she admitted. “I thought the security guard could call me a cab.”

Chad held out a plastic Wal-Mart bag. “I got you a pair of sweats. I didn’t think the squad grabbed anything for you on the way out the door.”

For a long moment, Lora just stood and stared at the swinging gray bag in his hand as if it were a snake. “Lora, you don’t want to have to walk into the house in the bloody gown you left in.”

She frowned. “I think they may have thrown the thing away in the emergency room. There wasn’t much left to it. One of the nurses was going to find me a pair of scrubs or something.”

He set the bag on the end of the bed within her reach. “Now you don’t have to wear somebody else’s clothes.”

She glanced at him from beneath her dark lashes. The purpling around her left eye was complete, although some of the swelling had receded, and Chad fought to keep the anger off his face. She’d been through so much and if he had only moved quicker, she wouldn’t be here at all.

She reached out and took the bag. “I’ll pay you back when we get to the house.”

Chad nodded once. If she wanted to pay her way, that was fine. “I’ll wait outside for you.”

Within just a few minutes, a nurse arrived with her discharge paperwork. Then an orderly arrived and parked a wheelchair outside her room, knocking. Lora appeared in the pink sweats. Chad was impressed with himself. They fit her perfectly. She’d also put on the flimsy little tennis shoes he’d gotten her, but he could tell by the way she shuffled that they didn’t fit her correctly.

She eyed the wheelchair belligerently. “I can walk.”

The orderly smiled tightly. He’d heard this argument before. “Ma’am, it’s hospital policy. I have to wheel you out.”

Chad could feel the tension rise in the hallway as she shifted from foot to foot.

“I don’t want to sit in the chair.”

The orderly glowered. Lora shifted subtly back toward the room.

“Ma’am, I have to wheel you out. It’s policy.”

Fear skittered across Lora’s face and he suddenly realized it wasn’t the chair she was objecting to. It was having the big orderly behind her where she couldn’t see him.

Chad shuffled forward, wincing slightly. “Mind if I push the chair? My hip’s bothering me today. Must be some cold weather moving in.”

The orderly looked him up and down, resting lightly on his left arm before meeting his eyes. “Iraq?”

Chad smiled tightly.

The man nodded once and released the chair handles. Chad moved in behind the wheelchair and met Lora’s eyes. She didn’t look much more accepting of him pushing the chair, but she stepped forward and sat down anyway, placing her feet on the foot rests.

That small glimmer of trust touched him greatly. The poor woman had been through hell, partially brought on by his actions. He wanted to reach out and rest a hand on her shoulder, but he knew for a fact that would send her screaming in the other direction.

Shoving off, he made sure to favor one side to keep his story believable. The orderly walked ahead of them, pushing the elevator button and triggering the automatic doors for their passage. At the parking loop in front of the hospital, he opened the door of his Chevy for Lora and stepped back. As quickly as she could manage, she slid into the seat and shut the door.

Chad turned the chair over to the orderly and thanked the man, shaking his hand, then circled the hood to get in.

Lora had already fastened her seat belt, but she turned her head to look at him. “Thank you for doing that. I didn’t want him behind me.”

The words were gritted out, as if they’d seriously hurt her pride to say. Chad nodded once, and tried not to make a big deal of it. “I thought not. You’re welcome.”

They didn’t say anything as he pulled out of the hospital lot and turned away from downtown, heading toward her little subdivision.

He glanced at her as they got onto the freeway heading east. “Do you have a place you can stay for a while? Family or something?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have family out here. But you probably already know that.”

Chad chose not to respond to the bitterness in her voice. He
had
known, but he wanted her to confirm it. “You have a protection order against him, issued by the judge this morning, but I have a feeling Derek doesn’t really care about a piece of paper.”

He could feel her sharp gaze swing to him. “How do I have a P.O. already? I haven’t gone in to file it yet.”

“My boss spoke to the judge this morning, before Derek went to court.”

Lora exhaled softly. “I guess I have to thank you again.”

Chad shook his head as he glanced behind him to shift lanes. “We didn’t do this for thanks. We realized we were on the wrong side too late, so we’re trying to amend the situation. That’s why I need to talk to you about a few things.”

“What things?” Her voice was wary, and he had to wonder if she was leery of everything anymore.

“Well, if you don’t have a place to stay, we’re going to assign a couple of people to keep an eye on you for a while.”

“The hell you say!”

Chad glanced at her. Her hands were clenched into fists and her expression was livid.

He forced his voice to stay calm. “Let me tell you why.”

She eased back in the seat. “I don’t want more people watching me.”

“I know you don’t, but what about your daughter? You can’t be with her twenty-four seven. And from what we were told when Derek hired us, he wants the girl back.”

Lora barked out a laugh. “No, he doesn’t want her. His mother does. She’s the one driving him.”

Chad thought she was right. Mrs. Malone had come to the original interview and had supplied several of the “facts” about Lora’s unsuitability as a parent. “Well, regardless of who wants her, your child is definitely at risk.”

She was quiet for a long time. Chad could feel the anger radiating off of her, but it couldn’t be helped. The girl had to be protected.

“How long do you think you’ll have to watch us?”

Chad sighed, flicking the turn signal to the right. “Honestly, I don’t know. He has to go to court for this assault and hopefully he’ll get time for it. But his mother may continue to pursue guardianship. I think the best thing you can do is exactly what you’ve been doing. Keep your nose clean and provide a safe environment for Mercedes. Unless you have a boatload of money hidden away that you can tap to completely disappear, you’re kind of stuck where you are, dealing with things as they come.”

Lora knew everything he was telling her was correct, but it was a bitter pill to swallow. She literally had to bite her tongue not to argue.

“Do you think he’ll get time for this?” She waved a hand at her face and wrapped wrist.

The investigator shrugged, swinging the wheel with one hand. “If we have anything to say about it he will.”

He tossed her a roguish grin, startling her, and Lora wished she could be charmed by him. If she’d been any other woman, he would have appealed to her. The only thing she could appreciate was that he was big and made her feel a little more secure in the strange environment. And his eyes seemed kind.

Lora stared out the window. Her face throbbed, but she knew she wasn’t going to use the painkillers in her purse. She’d taken the bottle only because it was more expedient than arguing with the doctor. Derek was known to show up at inopportune times, protection order or not, and she couldn’t risk Mercy’s safety for her comfort.

The thought of having people follow her deliberately, with her knowledge, sickened her. It defeated everything she had worked for to get away from Derek. During their marriage, she had endured bodyguards everywhere, watching them do everything. Derek was used to it; he’d grown up that way. But to Lora it had been humiliating. None of them had ever stepped in when Derek had beaten her, and their sly glances afterwards told her they would do the same if they ever got the chance. She wasn’t sure they hadn’t.

Her mother had taught her to be independent. And now, the thought of giving up that independence was abhorrent to her. But she would do it. For the sake of her child, she would do it.

“Okay. We’ll accept your help. For now.”

Chad nodded. He had known what her answer would be. “We’ll try to be as unobtrusive as possible, but if anything seems out of the ordinary we will make ourselves known, so you may want to say something to Mercedes. I don’t know what you’ve told her about your situation, but you may want to think about having a little talk with her. She’s going to ask questions anyway when she sees you.”

“Mercy,” she murmured. “Not Mercedes.”

Chad gave her a nod. “Mercy.”

Lora sighed at the thought of explaining everything to her sharp-eyed little girl. She was already protective of her. Recently, Mercy had started to show signs of anxiety, not eating correctly and coming into her room at night. Lora knew she fed off of her own worries, which made her guilt all the heavier to bear. It was a vicious cycle.

She dropped down the visor mirror in front of her, then flipped it right back up, disgusted. Nothing she could do to change it anyway. When she got to the house, she’d just have to try to smile her way around her daughter’s fears.

All of that went out the window when they pulled into her driveway and there was an unfamiliar black Town Car parked there. Before she could get her seat belt off, the front door of her house opened and Derek’s mother walked out, carrying her crying daughter. The sitter scurried along behind, cell phone to her ear. She was obviously pleading with the older woman not to leave yet and talking to somebody else on the other line at the same time.

Lora saw red. Before the car had even come to a stop she was out of the vehicle and running across her yard. All of her hurts were shoved to the side as she rushed to her daughter.

Mrs. Malone saw her coming and pasted a smile to her glossy mouth. “Lora, what a nice surprise.”

“Get your hands off my daughter.”

The smile stayed on the older woman’s mouth, but her eyes chilled. “Well, dear, she’s my granddaughter too, you know. I was merely helping you out while you were indisposed.”

Lora grabbed Mercy and pulled her into her arms. The little girl burrowed into her neck, sobbing.

The sitter, Heather, rushed to them, crying. “She tried to say she had temporary custody, Lora. I was trying to call you, then I was going to call the police.”

Mrs. Malone flashed the woman a scorching look. “I’m her grandmother, you twit. I am allowed to see the child whenever I want.”

“No,” Lora snapped. “You’re not. Not unless I say, and I most definitely didn’t.”

The older woman smoothed a hand down her black dress as if she hadn’t a care in the world. The arrogance on her face was enough that Lora almost laid into her. But then she’d be no better than Derek.

“I want to see my granddaughter, Lora.”

For a second, there was a flash of honesty in the woman’s face, and genuine pleading, but Lora didn’t let that sway her. “Mercy will never be allowed into your home, not as long as Derek is a part of your life. Do you see what he did to me?”

She stepped into the other woman’s space, making sure Rosalind got a good view of the ten different shades of color around Lora’s swollen eye. Rosalind’s gaze flickered and she looked away. “I’m sure if you had spoken with him like he requested months ago it wouldn’t have come to that.”

Lora snorted in disbelief. “It’s just so natural for you to come to his rescue. Leave, Rosalind.” Cradling her daughter, Lora backed away from the older woman.

Rosalind lifted her hand to stroke down Mercy’s back, then folded it away against her stomach. “You need to realize, Lora, that I will be in my granddaughter’s life, and so will her father, whether you want us to be or not.”

She lifted her chin and walked to the Town Car. The driver didn’t have time to get out to open her door before she was inside and waving at him to drive.

Chad stood on the concrete watching the car pull away. He’d been a solid warmth behind her when she confronted Derek’s mother and she appreciated the fact that he had let her confront the woman on her own. It wasn’t until the black car was out of sight that she let herself sink to the ground.