Watching You: KJ Elite Inc. (34 page)

Tommy reached her at the top of the stairs and swept her up in his arms as he ran down the stairs eliciting a squeal/scream from Taylor who was clutching his shoulders in a vise grip.

“I won’t drop you – you know that.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t expecting it.” Taylor huffed out, wrapping her legs around his waist, despite chiding him. “I can walk you know.”

“This is faster.” Tommy lied, needing her as close to him as he could get. The past hour wasn’t enough for him and he knew he was fucked; he needed it all from her. There was no way he was going to let her walk away when this was over – and it would be over…soon.

As they reached the front door, Matt was opening it from the outside and stopped at the site of their rapid approach.

“Mike just called and asked me to stick it out here with Taylor.” Matt kept his eyes locked with mine and I knew that walking into that hospital was going to devastate Taylor; they weren’t leaving me much choice one way or the other. Pain was going to be inflicted tonight.

“The hell I will stay here. That’s
my
dad.” Taylor shouted, growing angry.

“Baby, Mike wouldn’t ask if he didn’t think it was best.” Tommy started.

She growled at him before opening her mouth and shoving against his chest, her feet now on the floor.

“No one asked me a damn thing.”

Tommy gently applied a commanding pressure to her shoulders and lifted her, turning, and set her back from the door.

“I’m sorry.” That was about all he could manage before going all kind of caveman.

“Watch her.” He said, turning his gaze back to Matt before practically sprinting out the front door and slamming it behind him.

“NO! This is bullshit!” Tommy heard her screaming from behind the front door, making a run for his truck. The hairs stood on the back of his neck and his body ran cold, his gut telling him something was not right. He was being ripped in two different directions and he had to trust his brothers knew what they were doing separating him and Taylor right now. The only thing making his mind lay at a relative proximity of ease, was knowing that Matt would lay his life down to protect Taylor – he was a protector and defender of the innocent, whether it was his job title or not anymore. You can’t fight what’s in your blood.

Tommy tore into the hospital like his ass was on fire, hoping to hear what was going on and get back to Taylor ASAP. Charlie was waiting for him at the front entrance and escorted him through to the employee elevators.

“Dad’s awake and the first words out of his mouth were, ‘where’s my baby? Yall have to get to her.’”

A chill ran down his spine and Tommy fought to physically shake it off.

While Charlie’s obvious resentment of Tommy was still there, it was a lot less obvious tonight as they rushed to Nicholas’s room without actually running down the halls.

“How? What?” A man who thrives in stressful combat situations should be able to form more functioning, intelligent sentences but it was what it was; his only weakness was exposed to a potential murderer and definite stalker(s). At least when he was under fire in live action in Afghanistan, he was able to work without worrying about her – she was tucked away living where hardly anyone knew her…or so they thought.

“When this is over, Taylor starts back in kickboxing and then Krav Maga.” Charlie muttered to no one in particular.

“Why wait?” Peyton asked, meeting them just outside the room. It was rhetorical and they all silently agreed. They crowded around the bed where Nic was propped up, sipping something through a straw in that cheap mini-pitcher the hospitals give patients for ice. Around the bed was everyone in the Kane and Jameson families minus Dillon, Taylor and Luke.

“Where’s my Annie?” Nic croaked, throat still on the mend after all those tubes.

“What happened?” Tommy urged.

Nic shook his head as he had many a times before giving the boys a good-hearted smack, a warning to wind down the idiocy or disrespect; it was a tool designed to combat the many attitudes and mishaps of a young boy well into manhood.

The tight smile that seemed to hurt his cheeks sat there almost out of habit but it only took a moment before he gave his best explanation.

“I don’t know who it is. What I do know is this – I was working in the barn that morning, moving some bales around to make room for the truck coming in, when something or someone knocked me forward. I smacked my head on God knows what, temporarily putting me out; when I was coming to, I felt a tug on my arm, right here.” Nic pointed a thinner version of his normally muscular hand at his right forearm. “Sumbitch musta stuck me with a needle of something, doc’s say it was uh… potassium something or other.”

“Potassium Chloride.” A voice from behind them all offered. A pretty red-headed doctor that Tommy hadn’t seen before stood about a foot behind them, not interfering and not necessarily eaves dropping either. She made no attempt at moving, only smiled and stood quiet for Nic to finish his run of the events.

“Yeah, well, that. It triggered what seemed to be a heart attack, but wasn’t really. The dose wasn’t strong enough to kill me, but it was administered intra-something, and although it wasn’t extremely strong, it was just enough to put me back out. I had enough time to rear up and knock that mother f…”

“Nicholas Jameson!” Mrs. Jameson warned him to mind his tongue. It was actually kind of sweet. Tommy gave a small smile but encouraged his father in law to continue.

“I grabbed my pitch fork and swept his legs from under him then delivered a nice one, two to his face. When I had come back from being knocked out the first time, my vision was still blurry and the drug didn’t help, so I couldn’t get a good enough look at his face. All I know was that he was alone and hurtin’ when I got my licks in. Probably still has a little limp to his walk.”

“Shit, Unc.” Noah sighed.

“I’m just going to step out. You boys let me know when you’re ready to clean up your mouths.” Mrs. James lifted her pointed chin and patted Tommy’s shoulder as she walked by.

“Doc?” Charlie called.

She made her way over to where Vic just was and smiled kindly again, her lab coat swishing behind her. The new doctor looked extremely young and innocent; she was, if Tommy ventured a guess, somewhere around 5’7 and had a slim build to her, not a lot of curves - she was demure if anything. Flaming red hair with piercing blue eyes, almost as cerulean as Mike’s and skin that was milky but not too opaque.

“Give us a medical breakdown of what he just said, for those not so up to date with redneck medical terminology.”

Nic grunted and it lifted his upper body, while he shook his head. She cleared her throat and gave them all a kind smile.

“Well, as he said, someone delivered Potassium Chloride to him intravenously, which means it was injected directly into his vein. It induced what looks to the untrained and very aware eye, like a heart attack. Had he died, it would have easily been classified as SCD, which is Sudden Cardiac Death. The thing is, your father does not have any heart problems, so since we know his history, the EMT’s noted the site where the drugs were administered and were able to give him a dose of Sodium Bicarbonate which counter-acted the effects of the Potassium Chloride and set him right.

“Unfortunately for him and us, his body sent him into a coma, which is like a hibernation of sorts; his body was protecting itself and focusing on getting right. Once a person goes into a coma, we can only take measures to help them breathe, feed them – intravenously – and the like, keeping them alive, physically. It is up to the person’s body to wake themselves up when it’s ready. We got lucky and his only lasted a couple of weeks. And extra lucky, because there is no fear of another heart attack since there is no sign of any cardiovascular problems.”

The brothers all listened while muffling curses and stifling grunts. Noah would understand most if not all of this, because he was their go-to for medical stuff – their medic.

“When I was ‘asleep’, after he gave me that drug, I heard him cussing and shuffling around, trying to get up and leave. I started hollering for your mama and one of you boys – I knew that Dillon was on his fishing trip and would be no help to me. It’s damn lucky your mama was coming to call me in for lunch.”

The Doctor touched his shoulder and gave him that sweet smile; a smile that indicated he genuinely cared for her patients.

“Thanks Jess.” Charlie said, trying his damnedest to look unaffected of her or the situation his father just played out. He turned on his heel and made quick strides out into the hallway.

Tommy followed first and the brothers all made it out behind him; doc stayed to check Nic out and see how he was feeling. They could all hear him grumbling from across the way, “Geez, can’t I have a smoke, ma’am? I’m feelin’ ready to get back home already.”

She presumably touched him somewhere still hurting because he gave out a pained curse; with a silent exchange, all of the men agreed they’d never mention it so long as they live. Nicholas was a tough sumbitch and seeing him in that little hospital gown really was like a kick to the family jewels; Nic and his dad were the two strongest men who knew and seeing one of the in such a frail environment seemed so off, disconcerting.

“So, we’re looking at this guy having been on our land the morning of. We still have tape of that day, right?” Noah asked.

“Gonna have to call Luke to be sure.” Mike nodded, but looked to Charlie. “We need someone to stay on him. As ornery as he is, he still needs someone to watch his six while he’s in here. No one is off limits. Foxhole friends move together, piss together, sleep together, you hear me?”

Again, everyone nodded and Tommy hollered, “Hooah battle buddy!”

Just because he could. It was a mutual love-hate relationship between the Marines and Army; they loved to hate each other.

“Foxhole friend, battle bitch, shipmates, you got the deal.” He scoffed, his competitive streak peeking out.

Noah and Tommy laughed, exchanging looks.

“I’ll get J.R. up here and he can switch off with Skippy tomorrow.” Charlie said.

“Alright. They should be good enough. It’s not like he can go anywhere. We’ll get something together for when he’s released. Charlie, stay on base with the Doctor and let us know what we’re looking at. Having you handle this will keep us on site and closer to Taylor. This is escalating and I’ve got a gut feeling this is about to come to a head.”

Charlie was turning away, already calling in his deputy and Mike looked to Tommy and Peyton. “You two get back to Taylor and keep Matt in the loop.”

They nodded and took off without waiting for further orders. It was one of those situations where you don’t sit around and twiddle your thumbs, debating the best novel of all time and sharing a glass of brandy. Peyton climbed up into his truck and Tommy peeled out of the hospital parking lot, tearing ass down the dirt road’s until he was pulled up in front of his house. He didn’t even have the patience to wait and park it in the garage. His stomach was like a bowl full of ice cubes as he approached the front gate only to realize it was open and no one was manning it. There were two teams on the perimeter of the land but only Dillon was on the gate tonight. That did not bode well for his safety – whether he was dicking around and Tommy got to him or if someone took him out.

Peyton had whipped out his glock and his cell phone at the same time as they flew through the gate and dialed Luke.

“Gate’s down – anything?”

Tommy sat and waited for him to convey what Luke was saying.

“He has no coverage and is running off Betty’s power grid. He’s black.”

“Fuck.”

Swearing the mantra,
she better be okay with you Carver.

* * *

“Hungry?” Matt asked me, herding me towards the kitchen. He’s lucky he still had his balls intact.

“Not particularly. I’m full on betrayal at this moment.” I sneered.

“More for me, then.” He chuckled.

“You’re a complete…. I just… I don’t even have words for what you are right now.”

“Whatever you can think, I’ve been called worse. Trust me. But I’m with Tommy on this one, sweetheart – your safety at all costs.”

“I’m going to bed. There’s no point in fighting with you. One of us will get stabbed and I prefer not to hide bodies in a hurry.” I waved him off in that nasty way that stuffy old ladies do and continued on to the rear staircase. No turning back now or he’d know how scared I really was. He was once my refuge, but he turned his back on me and I wasn’t giving in this time.

“I’ll be there in two minutes. Do not even think about the balcony; I will shoot anything I hear outside of this house and that means your pretty ass if it finally gets you to sit still and do as you’re told.”

“Like you could even get the safety off before I ran.” I scoffed at him. Pretty boy cringed when he saw my little bitty .22.

“Tell you what, when I get upstairs, I’ll show you something really neat. First though, I need sustenance to keep up with you.” He grinned at my retreating back. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew it in his voice well enough by now.