Limitless (Journey Series) (20 page)

“Ah, there she is, my sweet and
sarcastic, Leah. I knew you wouldn’t be gone for long. You are one tough nut,”
she sang out. My eyes darted around, looking for my husband, even though I was
glad to see my best friend. Things were really different when she was gone
especially as of late.

“He’s down in the cafeteria. His
mom finally dragged him out of here to get something in his stomach. He’s been
up here every minute with you since you were brought in. Teddy and I hopped on
a plane as soon as he called. I can’t believe what that crazy bitch did to you.
I mean Roy’s a nice looking guy but she was pulling out all the stops to keep
him. No clue why she thought beating the shit out of you would solve that.”

 I groaned as my head flopped back
onto the pillow and I winced as my head throbbed. Just thinking about that
woman made the pain flare up. If her plan b was putting me in a butt load of
pain, I guess it had worked. I don’t know how it worked out for her otherwise
though.

“Is the crazy lady at least in
jail? Please, tell me she is.”

“Oh yes,” she replied with a
satisfied smile. “I don’t think you’ll have to be worrying about her for a
long, long time. Apparently, she has a little bit of record. Obviously, nothing
to the extent of what she did to you but with that all added up, she’ll either
end up in jail or the looney bin. I guess either one will do.”

“Good.” Even though I would prefer
seeing her go off to live life in a cold jail cell, I guess either one would do
like Ally said, as long as she stayed away from my family. I didn’t think my
body could put up with any more ass kickings for a while.

I closed my eyes, feeling the pain
medicine slowly wash over me once again, but pried them open when I heard the
door pushed open. I was rewarded when I saw my sexy husband walk in and as soon
as he saw my eyes, a wide smile spread across his beautiful face, and he raced
over to my bedside.

“Finally awake, baby? How are you
feeling?” He brushed the pad of his thumb lightly across my lips and even with
all of the medicine pumping into my system, I still felt the butterflies take
flight in my stomach.

I relished in the feeling of his skin
against mine. I had been ready to die when Shelia had the gun pointed at me and
it felt so good to be right here, alive and breathing. “I feel like I got the
shit beat out of me, but other than that I think I’m good.”

“Really?” He leaned down to kiss each
corner of my mouth gently. “Because that crazy woman really did a number on
you. I just wish I had gotten there a little bit sooner. I had this feeling
that something was wrong so I snuck out of my conference and headed home. I’m
just glad I got there when I did. I almost lost you,” he added quietly.

“But you didn’t,” I raised the hand
that wasn’t in a cast and smoothed out the creases that had formed from the
tension on his forehead. “She’s actually lucky that she thought to tie me up or
I totally would have taken her. I guess she was smart when it came to that.”

Chase smirked and stood up
straight, “You’re right, you’re here and that’s all that matters.” The door
swung open once again and Teddy’s shaggy blonde head popped in. “All clear in
here?”

“Yes,” Ally rolled her eyes and
waved him in, “even though I know you wouldn’t mind seeing what’s underneath
Leah’s hospital gown.” I watched as Teddy sauntered in and came to stand over
my bed, his eyes twinkling with amusement. The two of them still looked to be
totally in love with each other and they both had the same sick twisted sense
of humor, which was probably why they got along so well.

“Wow, Leah. You are lookin’ like
pure shit.” Chase reached over and slapped him in the back of the head as soon
as he said it and gave him a death stare. “Dude, you didn’t even let me
finish.” Teddy rubbed the back of his head while smirking at me.

“I was going to add before I was
rudely interrupted, that you look sexy as hell as always though. If Chase wants
to step out of the room, the three of us could have a real fun time, if you
know what I mean.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and Ally rolled her eyes at
him, even though she was smirking at him the whole time.

“Chase can stay right where he is,
but thanks so much for the offer,” I stated sarcastically. I really couldn’t
tell if he was joking or not, knowing the two of them, it probably was not a
joke.

 I still remember when we were back
in high school and Ally had to re-live her night with Leo Marney and Tad Cooper
by telling me every detail that had went down between the three of them. I
hadn’t talked to her for a week after that.

I was all for Ally living her life
however she wanted, but she did not need to share it all with me. Gross. And by
the way the two of them were looking at each other, I had a feeling they were
into some kinky shit.

“You still up for one more visitor
before you pass out again?” I raised my eyebrows at Chase when he broke the
silence, waiting for him to tell me exactly who the visitor was. I guess it
kind of depended.

 “Caleb wants to see you. He’s been
asking about you non-stop. Roy has him out in the waiting room with my mom.” I
nodded my head eagerly and Chase turned to head out the door. “Wait, how much
does he know?”

“I told him you had an accident,
but you know that kid, he’s too smart for his own good sometimes. He seems to
be handling it pretty well, but he just wants to see you. I’ll only bring him
in for a minute.” I watched as Chase left and then Ally and Teddy crowded
around my bed.

“We’re gonna head out for the
night, so you guys can have some family time. I’ll see you in the morning, ‘kay
sweetie?” Ally leaned down to kiss me on the cheek and Teddy did the same on
the opposite one with a smirk. “See you tomorrow, beautiful.”

I sighed as I leaned back and
fought to keep my eyes open. I certainly didn’t want to come off as loopy and belligerent
when Caleb came into see me. We had already dealt with that enough coming from
Shelia.

“Mommy!” I heard a squeal as his
tiny body ran in to the room and he immediately rushed to stand next to my bed,
pushing to his tiptoes in order to see me. Chase came up from behind him and
scooped him into his arms so we were more at eye level.

“Hey buddy, I’m so glad you’re
here. You always make me feel so much better.” I reached out to squeeze his
hand and he gave me a wide smile in return. “When are all of your boo boos
going to go away? You want me to kiss ‘em, so they’ll go away quicker?”

“Oh sure, I bet that would
definitely work.”

“Be gentle,” Chase whispered into
his ear before carefully leaning him down so he was hovering over my body and
he peppered all of my injuries with kisses.

“Ah,” I breathed out. “I’m already
feeling better, thanks so much. I’m really sleepy now though, do you think you
can go back with Roy and be a good boy for me?” He nodded his head in answer
and gave me a small wave before Chase carried him out of the room. “I’ll be
right back, baby. Go to sleep though, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

My eyes instantly closed as soon as
the door swung shut. I thought I would have trouble falling asleep in the
hospital with the almost constant noise but my eyes grew heavy right away. I
was safe and my family was here to surround me with support. Even though I
could still feel the pain, the happiness overrode that and made me feel like
life was finally starting to look up.

Leah

It had been almost a month since I
had gotten out of the hospital. Other than my wrapped wrist, you could hardly
tell that someone had tried to kill me. Luckily, Mary had went to work pretty
quickly as soon as the police had cleared our house and by the time I came home
from the hospital, everything was back into perfect order, even more so than
before Shelia had wreaked havoc in it.

Ally had helped too, by doing her
favorite thing, shopping. Almost every single one of Caleb’s toys and stuffed
animals had been replaced before he came home, so he never had to see the
damage that had been done and he was just excited to have everything new.

Shelia still remained in jail,
waiting for a trial that was soon to come. Our lawyer assured us that she would
get plenty of time, whether in prison or a mental institution, and I guess that
was all we could ask for. As long as she got some kind of punishment for what
she had done, we would be happy. Other than that, we had completely pushed that
situation out of our minds, wanting to move on with our lives.

The weekend had come and it was the
first one that we were letting Caleb spend at Roy’s again. I knew none of this
had been Roy’s fault and I knew how guilty he felt, but I was nervous to let
Caleb out of my sight for even longer than a second.

Roy had completely understood why I
felt that way and I had finally worked up to the point where I thought it would
be okay for Caleb to go. I know how much he loved his dad and I wasn’t going to
stop their relationship from growing just because of my fears.

“You about ready, baby? Mom said dinner
should be ready around six, so I think we should be heading out.” I glanced
over at the clock after pulling my sundress over my head and rolled my eyes.

It was only four-thirty and we had
at the most a twenty minute drive. “Okay, I’m coming. What’s the hurry anyway?
We have oodles of time.” I sat down on his lap and wrapped my arms around his
neck where he was patiently waiting for me on the living room couch, but he
abruptly stood up and lowered my feet to the ground.

“No time for that woman. We need to
get out of here.” He shoved his hands into his jeans that hung low on his hips and
I followed closely behind, enjoying the view, even if he was rushing me for no
reason.

He looked extremely yummy today
with a form fitting black shirt on that hugged his back and a black hat pulled
on backwards. I loved when he wore them like that, his green eyes were more
visible and I could stare into them for hours. Ah, that was a little cheesy,
wasn’t it? Oh, well I guess I could be cheesy if I wanted to. I earned it.

He held the truck door open for me,
gripping my hips through the thin material of my dress before boosting me
inside. “Did I tell you how gorgeous you look in that dress? Absolutely
amazing,” he stated as he slid behind the steering wheel and flung an arm over
the seat to back out of the driveway.

“Why thank you, kind sir,” I
replied in a southern drawl. “You look pretty amazing yourself.”

“I try. Mom’s dying to see us; we
haven’t had a family dinner in a while.”

“I know, I wish Caleb would have
been home to go with us. I guess there’s always next time. I know he was
excited about going to Roy’s house, especially since I reassured him about a
hundred times that Shelia would most definitely not be there.”

“It’s okay, baby. Just like you
said, there’s always next time. Now that everything has finally settled down,
I’m sure Mom will have them every week again. We have one stop to make before
starting the trip over there.” I looked at him questioningly as he drove but
his lips were pursed tightly and I knew he wouldn’t budge and tell me where we
were going, no matter how much I bothered him. I sighed and leaned against the
headrest, closing my eyes for what only felt like a few minutes before I felt
the truck come to a stop.

“Where exactly are we?” I felt his
hand cover my eyes as he pulled me out of the truck. “No peeking.” Grass
tickled my feet through my platform sandals and then finally we stopped.

“Okay, I thought this would help a
little bit with the whole healing process. I talked to the doctor to see what
she thought and she figured it would help too. My mom suggested this right
after…well right after you got out of the hospital, but I knew you probably couldn’t
handle it then. I just-”

 I huffed out a breath to interrupt
his rambling. “Chase, whatever it is, I promise I’ll be okay, just uncover my
damn eyes.” He did as I asked and I looked around, quickly realizing we were in
a cemetery. “What…?” Any question I was going to ask, rushed out of me when I
saw the small headstone across from my feet. It read:

~Baby
Boy O’Neil~

To
the world you are just a part, but to us you are the world.

The feelings that were running
through me were so overwhelming; it was a mix of sadness at what we had lost,
but also happiness for what Chase had done. A single tear ran down my face as I
ran a hand over each word that was carved so carefully. Chase stood silently
watching me the whole time; it was only then that I noticed the pile of fresh
flowers.

“I try to visit at least once a
week,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulders. “It seems to help. I thought
it would for you too, but we can leave if you want.”

“It was a little boy,” I whispered
and Chase reached out to wrap me in a tight hug, kissing my forehead as I sank
into his warmth. “Thank you, for bringing me here, for doing this. I almost
feel like I should be having a break down or something right now, but it feels
more like closure.”

“That’s kind of how I thought of
it. Now, you can visit whenever you like.” I nodded my head, looking down at
the headstone once again. I couldn’t believe how sweet and thoughtful my
husband was, even when he was going through a hard time of his own.

“You ready to go or you want a
little more time?”

“Nope,” I took a deep breath and
turned towards my husband. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

He led me back towards the truck
and boosted me in. “I guess I’m a little glad Caleb is gone this weekend. I
felt like we needed to do that alone. Thank you.”

  “No problem, baby. Caleb’s went
with me a few times actually. He doesn’t actually understand the whole thing,
but he likes to go. Are you sure you’re still up for dinner?”