CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LUKE
The tears are still rollingdown her beautiful face. Her face is now covered with bruises and contusions in different shades of black, blue, green, purple, and red. She carefully wipes the tears from her eyes and sniffles while she tries to gain enough composure to speak.
“You didn’t have to bring me in here, Luke. I was almost out of your way. But when you touched me, I just couldn’t take the pain of not having you anymore. If I can just rest for a minute, I’ll be on my way again.
“Doors are hard for me to get through alone. If you don’t mind opening it for me, I’d appreciate it,” she says as she lays her head back on the pillow and covers her eyes with her forearm.
The tears are still flowing.
“Why won’t you answer me? Who did this?”
Sighing, she answers me resignedly. “No one did this. I was in a wreck.”
“What? You mean the one from a couple of weeks ago?” I ask.
“Yes. You knew?”
“Only what I saw on the first couple of minutes of the news. They said it was a minor accident but you were staying overnight to be‘monitored for your condition,’ insinuating that you were pregnant with Travis’s baby,” I reply, somehow managing to not roll my eyes and keep most of the venom out of my voice. “I ripped the cord out of the back of the TV after that statement and haven’t watched it since.”
“PR spin, so that fans didn’t panic over Travis and so the future concerts wouldn’t take a sales hit. The insinuation about my‘condition’ was just another way to sensationalize the wreck.” She shrugs, playing it off.
Andi keeps her voice low, but I can hear the disappointment in it. The label cared more about their bottom line than her health and well-being. I’m partly chastising myself for believing it and partly for not recognizing the ploys they use.
“Do Mack and Shane know what really happened to you?”
“Yes.”
Son of a bitch! And they didn’t even tell me!
“Tell me about it. What really happened?”
Moving her arm, she looks up at me. Surprise registers in her eyes, along with something else. Leeriness.
“Our Phoenix show was delayed, so we had a few extra days before the show in Los Angeles and I wanted to stay to see you and Shane fight. I couldn’t stand being this close and missing it, so Travis had his motorcycle brought here so we could meet up with the band afterward.
“I watched your fight, and I was so proud of you for winning. You really did a great job in the ring. Then I watched as Syndi climbed in the ring with you. You picked her up in your arms and kissed her, right in front of everyone, and you were so happy. I’ll never forget the smile you gave her. It used to bemysmile.”
“You were here during my fight?” I ask incredulously. I feel like I’m just now catching up in this conversation. I knew she was here during Shane’s fight, but I didn’t see her when I went out.
She simply nods and continues from the point where I interrupted her.
“That scene with Syndi kept replaying in my mind, so I asked Travis if we could just go on to L.A. that night. I couldn’t stand being here any longer. It was late, it was dark, and we were probably both too tired to make the trip. A drunk driver clipped the motorcycle when he changed lanes and we lost control.
“The force of the hit threw me off the bike, so that’s why I have cuts, scrapes, and bruises everywhere—along with my broken leg. As I lay on the highway, all I could think about was you. Thoughts of dying without being able to tell you how I really felt gave me a panic attack. The paramedic said I was going into shock from internal bleeding, and I was airlifted to the hospital.
“I just got out of the hospital today, and my first stop was here. So now you know.”
I’m floored. Flabbergasted. Pissed off. Hurt. Relieved. Furious. Shocked. Grateful.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to think or feel with all this information being thrown at me. No one told me she’s been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks. “Why didn’t Mack or Shane tell me?”
That explains their sudden disappearances from the gym for extended amounts of time lately. When I questioned them about it, they’d give me vague answers about running errands or some shit.
“I told them not to,” she admits.
“Why?”
