“I guess it just feels like a betrayal. You know how this department, hell, this town feels about them, and you’ve been in bed with the ringleader...” he started.
“Now let me stop you right there, Lieutenant!” Heathcliff’s face was red, but not out of embarrassment—he was pissed as hell.
“My personal life hasn’t got one damned thing to do with you or anyone else in this department or this town, and I don’t have to justify anything to anyone. Got it?”
“You got sucked into the fancy vortex way of life, with all their hoity-toity-ness and whatnot...”
“And this affects you how, son?”
“I just hate seeing a good man, someone I admire and look up to, being dragged through hell like this, Capt.”
“I’m a big boy, Bryan, I can handle my own affairs. You’d be wise to do the same.”
Heathcliff stormed by him out of the breakroom. Everyone on the floor had stopped working, their gazes fixed on him. He stopped and turned to them all before entering his office.
“Get back to work and do your jobs if you still want to have one by morning!” he barked, stomping into the office and slamming the door behind him.
He’d be damned if he got persecuted because of something that was out of his control. The most important thing he had to do was make sure the likes of Kimberly Wallace were out of Hamby for good and that the town’s citizens returned to everyday life. He flopped down in his chair and got started on the stacks of paperwork in front of him, proud of his work as an officer and prouder that he was with the woman he loved.
LANA HADN’T EVEN realizedwhat she was feeling until it was far too late. She lay on the examination table in the ER of Shelby General and sobbed inconsolably. Kayden sat next to herin his wheelchair, his face pained and twisted when she turned away from him. The disappointment she felt in herself for what she’d probably caused was too much to bear.
She had been feeling deep cramps that morning, and they worsened and then became more persistent. Every hour, then every half hour, and she knew at that point that something was wrong. What she thought were cramps were actual minor labor pains from the miscarriage that was occurring. By the time she was placed on the bed in the exam room, the fetus had aborted right on the bed to her extreme horror and dismay.
The shock was as if that police car had hit her all over again, her body screaming in agony, her senses spinning out of control as the nurses all rushed in to help. The look on Kayden’s face was a mix of fear and disbelief, but he held onto her hand and tried to give her as much comfort as he could; but it wouldn’t be nearly enough. Now they waited for her discharge papers after doing another intravaginal sonogram to confirm the fetus was gone entirely.
“Lana,” Kayden stammered in a voice so small, she thought she’d imagined it for a moment.
She turned back to him reluctantly. He held her hand to his mouth and kissed it. She took deep breaths and willed the new tears away, thinking about the child they’d never meet, praying and wishing that she was still pregnant. She didn’t want to be wheeled out of the hospital a crying mess for any local reporters to see, and refused the chair when the nurse brought it in. Once the discharge papers arrived, Paula and Maureen entered the room, their eyes puffy and crying, clearly worried out of their minds.
Seeing Maureen show genuine emotions surprised her, but she shoved those thoughts deep down. Now wasn’t the time to overanalyze her intentions. She doubted the woman could bethatevil.
“I’m so sorry!” Maureen bawled.
She threw her arms around Lana, making her literally squeeze her eyes closed and hold her breath. If she didn’t, she’d fall into a sobbing mess on the floor. Lana didn’t have her own mother there to comfort her, and although Maureen was not her first choice, she accepted the shoulder to cry on.
“Thank you,” she wept.
“Let me help you get dressed,” Paula broke in, causing Maureen to let her go.
“Thanks. I just want to go back to the house and get some sleep,” Lana replied.
Kayden wheeled out of the room with Maureen on his heels. They waited in the hall, and Maureen looked down at her son and the desolate look in his eyes. How could she betray him and help the monster that caused this? Kayden looked at her with watery eyes as if he could read her mind, then, slowly, wheeled himself down the hall, toward the exit.
SLOUCHEDON THEcouch instead of his wheelchair, Kayden stared at the horizon through the lanai windows. Now that his pain was a little more tolerable, it was far more comfortable on his hips. Maureen was next to him as he poured himself a glass of bourbon from the fancy decanter and downed it in one gulp.
“You should not be drinking on your medications,” Paula chastised, and removed the decanter from his reach.
“Don’t bust my balls today. Please,” he begged.
Reluctantly, she moved it back to its original place.
“I promise you, Kim will pay for this,” Maureen declared, grabbing hold of his hand.
“A lengthy prison sentence should do the job just fine,” he replied.
“She needs more than jail if you ask me,” Paula added.
“I’ve regretted a lot in my life, but nothing compared to regretting the day I met her. She has caused so much pain and damage in such a short amount of time—it’s, it’s like she planned it all,” he replied.
