Trouble In Dixie (28 page)

"Multi-
million
?" she repeated and her
breathing got shallow again and he frowned.

Chase stood up then walked around to her and
put his hand on her back and rubbed, then said, "Breathe,
sugar...easy."

She took several deep breaths and blew them
out slowly, and relaxed her shoulders, then said, "Explain, please,
Sonny."

"If the well produces like the predictions,
you'll get royalties off the production...twenty percent of
whatever we get from it. That could be a lot of
money--millions."

"How fast does that happen?" she asked and
put a hand to her chest to slow her heart.

"Depends on how deep we have to dig, but
we'll probably find out the viability of the wildcat in no more
than a couple of weeks...if we don't have snags with the
environmental assessment, or the drilling permit."

"If it's viable then what?" she asked.

"Probably another few weeks to get the
completion well in, and then it's all about production. You'll get
paid monthly royalties, based on what we produce," he told her.

"Wow...this is all unbelievable," she told
him and shook her head.

"You're gonna be rich, sugar...I have a
feeling, and it's rarely wrong," Chase told her and squeezed her
shoulder, then leaned over the table for the paperwork, before he
sat beside her and went over it all with her.

Katie was in stunned shock, as she stood on
the porch waving at them as they pulled off down the driveway. She
looked down at the check in her hand, and felt lightheaded again.
Two hundred thousand dollars, and that was just a bonus for signing
the five-year lease. She couldn't wait to tell Tommy and her
sister. Katie went back inside and shut the door, then grabbed her
keys and backpack. Walking to the bedroom, she shoved some clothes
in there, and her toiletries, then went back outside. She was going
to Amarillo tonight, and Tommy Tucker was going to listen to
her.

On her way out of town, Katie had found
Karlie at the Double B and shared the good news with her. Her
sister had been shocked when Katie showed her the lease and the
check, she'd almost passed out just like Katie had. Who wouldn't,
Katie thought, then laughed in the dark cab of the truck. With a
promise to call when she got there, Katie hit the road, headed for
Amarillo. Her sister hadn't wanted her to drive all that way at
night alone, but Katie assured her she'd be fine.

It was nearly two in the morning, but Katie
was still wide awake, and was about a hundred miles from Amarillo
now. The surplus of adrenaline that had swamped her today was still
flowing through her veins, as was the caffeine from the large cup
of coffee, she'd bought when she'd stopped for gas earlier.
Anticipation filled her at the thought she'd see Tommy and Dixie in
less than an hour, because she had to turn onto surface roads here
soon.

About thirty minutes ago, it had started
sprinkling rain, and she'd turned her wipers on low, and slowed
down a little, because she'd fishtailed a couple of times on the
slick pavement. She knew light rain brought the oil on the roadway
to the surface, making it extra slick, so she was being careful.
Taking one hand off the wheel, she picked up the styrofoam cup and
took a big sip of her now lukewarm coffee, then glanced down to put
it back in the drink holder.

When she looked back at the road, she gasped
at the tail lights right in front of her, then pumped her brakes a
couple times, but she didn't stop. The truck felt like it was
floating on the roadway, as it hydroplaned on the slick road. Her
heart sped up and as if in slow motion, she watched as her truck
slid toward the side of an eighteen wheeler that had jackknifed and
was blocking the road. There were several other cars that had
crashed into him too, and those vehicles were smoking and mangled.
Thinking quickly, she spun the wheel to the left, so the passenger
side of the truck would take the impact she knew was coming, then
she tensed up and started praying.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Tommy was leaning on the breakfast bar,
stirring cereal around in a plastic bowl, pretending he was hungry,
and pretending to eat, because he didn't want to worry Dixie. She'd
told him last night she was worried about him, and she'd made him
the cereal when she'd made her own this morning. He'd turned on the
big screen TV in the living room and was absently watching the
news, while he waited for Dixie to finish her breakfast.

The slick news anchor was pumping up a story
about a mass pileup they'd had last night on the interstate, rain,
a jackknifed eighteen wheeler, multiple casualties, two fatalities,
a pregnant woman airlifted from the scene, then they flashed a
picture of the accident on the screen, before cutting to recorded
footage of the accident, where they focused in on a heap of twisted
metal that used to be a red truck, with a 'Cowgirls Do It With
Their Boots On' sticker on the shattered back window. The bite of
cornflakes in his mouth turned to dust, and he couldn't swallow it,
so he went to the sink and spit it out, then wiped his mouth with
the back of his arm, then stood there trying to corral the panic
inside of him.

The phone on the wall by the breakfast table
rang and Dixie got up and answered it, then frowned and held it out
to him, "It's Miss Karlie..." she announced, and he fought back the
urge to vomit, as he walked over and took it from her.

"Karlie, tell me that Katie is still in
Bowie," he said in a strangled voice.

"No, she was headed to the Rockin' D last
night...she was supposed to call me when she got there, and I
haven't heard from her," she said in a worried tone. "Is she there?
Can I talk to her?"

"Oh, god, not again," he groaned and shut
his eyes and was bombarded with flashes of the accident that had
killed Maggie.

"What the fuck is wrong, Tommy! Where's my
sister?" Karlie wailed into the phone.

"There was an accident last night, I just
saw it on TV, and I saw her truck," he said on a sob, then told her
in a hoarse whisper, "I'm going to find out where she is, and I'll
call you," before he dropped the phone and took off running
upstairs to get dressed.

He threw on the clothes he'd taken off last
night, because he didn't want to waste time finding more, and
shoved his feet into his boots, then ran back downstairs, where he
found Dixie on the phone with Karlie, evidently. He took it from
her hand and hung it up, then picked her up and headed for the
front door.

"Darlin', I need you to take your golf cart
and go back to the barn and find Jud...tell him I had to leave,
there's an emergency, and tell him I said for him to watch you, and
I'll call him later," he told Dixie then kissed her cheek, before
he pushed her toward her pink cart. "Stay with him and be good," he
said in a broken voice, then took off running for his truck.

He dug in his pocket while he ran, and
quickly dialed a friend with the Amarillo Police Department. As
soon as his friend answered, he said, "Doug, I need your help,
where did they take the pregnant woman from the wreck on the
interstate last night?"

His friend checked and told him where she'd
been airlifted to, but couldn't give her name, because her
next-of-kin hadn't been notified yet. There were no speed limit
laws as far as Tommy was concerned, while he drove hell bent for
leather toward the hospital. He didn't even stop at red lights,
once he hit the city limits, he just drove, and prayed. She had to
be alright, his babies had to be okay...this couldn't be happening
to him again.

Pressing the speed dial number for Karlie,
he called her and she answered on first ring, sounding despondent.
He told her where they'd taken Katie quickly, then disconnected, as
he pulled into the emergency room parking lot on two wheels, parked
and took off running for the main door. When he got inside, he slid
to a stop at the nurse's station and asked in between gasping
breaths, "Katie Upton, my fiancé, where is she?"

"The pregnant woman from the accident this
morning?" the woman asked and then started pecking on her computer.
"Are you her next of kin?"

"As close as you're gonna get for now...her
sister is on the way," he told her impatiently, then demanded again
more insistently, "
Where is she?!?
"

"She's in the ICU right now, fifth floor,"
the woman told him.

Tommy ran for the elevator and jabbed the
button several times. He got tired of waiting and saw a stairwell
over to the left, and ran there, then took the stairs two at a
time, until he got to the door with a five above it. He pushed the
door open forcefully, then stepped through it into a hallway just
outside of a nurses station where he heard all kinds of mechanical
beeping.

Running up to the desk, he swallowed then
asked the nurse on duty with tears burning his eyes and acid
scalding his gut, "Katie Upton...where is she?"

"Are you her next-of-kin?" the woman asked
him.

He scowled and grated out, "I'm her fiancé
and, yes, until her sister gets here, I'm her next of kin."

The woman's face turned serious, and she
stood up behind the desk, then walked around to him. Tommy knew
whatever this woman was about to tell him, wasn't going to be good,
and he braced himself for it.

"Miss Upton is in room three...they brought
her here for observation after she got out of surgery."

"Surgery?" he said and felt the blood rush
from his face, and he stumbled.

"Yes, she had injuries that required
surgery...I'll see if I can get the doctor to come and talk to
you," the nurse said and then took his arm and led him around the
circular desk to a room. The curtain was pulled around her, and he
swallowed hard and tried to keep his legs under him, as the nurse
let him go and walked off.

Tommy hated hospitals, hated them with a
passion and fear that only someone who had been through what he had
could appreciate. He sucked in a deep breath of the antiseptic they
used to keep the room clean, then exhaled slowly, before he walked
across the room and pulled back the blue curtain, then stepped
inside, and held back the moan that rushed to his lips.

Karlie's beautiful face was swollen and
bruised, and she had nicks all over it, along with a bandage on her
forehead near her hairline. Her red hair was spread over the white
pillow under her head like flames. There was a tube under her nose,
he assumed was for oxygen, and she had an IV in her right arm. Her
left arm was covered in thick gauze wrapping from her upper arm
down, her fingers were the only thing sticking out from the massive
gauze wrapping it, and they were swollen and purple.

On leaden feet, he walked to the bed and
picked up her hand, and kissed it, then massaged it with his thumb.
Katie stirred, then moaned and tried to swallow, before she turned
her head toward him and opened her eyes. They were filled with pain
and confusion and he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Hey, baby," he whispered and felt a tear
escape his eye and it landed on her cheek. He laughed, then wiped
it away with his thumb then stroked her cheek.

"Tommy," she croaked and her eyes filled
with tears, then she tried to swallow again, then pulled her hand
from his and ran it over her stomach. She sighed and a few tears
fell on her cheeks, then she told him in a trembling relieved
voice, "They're still there."

"I'm waiting on the doctor to come talk to
me..." he told her then took her hand again, and asked, "What
happened, baby?"

"I was coming to see you and it started
raining, then I looked down to put my coffee cup in the holder and
when I looked back up there was an semi truck and I tried to stop,
but I couldn't...the road was slick."

He brushed the hair on her forehead to the
side and sucked in a sharp breath, before he said, "I saw it on TV
this morning and saw your truck...I thought..." he moaned and felt
tears burn behind his eyes.

"I'm okay, I think...just a little bunged
up," she said with a small smile, then her face fell. "I was just
worried about the babies...still worried," she told him weakly then
looked toward the wall.

He grabbed her chin and made her look at
him, then said, "Katie, I'm just glad you're alive...and you're
going to survive...whatever happens, we'll deal with the rest."

"I can't lose my babies," she said in a
broken whisper and tears streaked down her cheeks.

"
Our
babies are tough, just like
their mama...they're going to be fine, sugar," he told her even
though he had no idea how the babies were yet, he had to calm her
down. "Stop worrying, you're not helping them by worrying."

The doctor walked in the room and threw the
privacy curtain back. He was a middle-aged man with kind gray eyes,
and salt and pepper hair. He walked in and patted her belly, then
said. "How's the lucky mama feeling?"

"Lucky," she told him with a watery giggle,
then swallowed and qualified, "As long as my babies are okay, I'll
be fine...are they okay?"

"You were spotting, so we did an ultrasound
in the E.R. to check for placenta problems, and had them on a fetal
heart monitor during surgery, but we were more concerned with your
condition then, and how they were affecting your condition. We need
to look at how they're doing now," he told her and she saw a nurse
push in a cart with an ultrasound machine on it.