Page 85 of A Whim and a Prayer

“What?!” Alex’s trademark calm seemed to abandon him as he repeated Beck’s message to Gabe. “Where the devil is she—is she all right?”

“She seems to be—sound asleep and on the crabby side if you try to wake her up, but otherwise okay. But it’s a difficult situation to navigate as she could have been raped.”

“What?!” Gabe grabbed the phone and shouted into the receiver. “What the devil do you mean she could have been raped?”

Beck’s eyelids sagged closed as he kneaded his temple. “It’s a lot to go into right now, Gabe, but I can fill you in at Massachusetts General because I need to get her there as soon as I can. The guy swears he didn’t rape her, but he’s a frat boy, and a highly drunk one as well, so I’m covering our bases.”

“Thanks, Beck. We’ll meet you there soon,” Alex said quietly, obviously having commandeered the phone back from Gabe. “And, Beck—thanks for always being there for her.”

A sting of tears threatened. “I wish I could say it’s my pleasure, but tonight? Not so much. See you soon.”

Hanging up, he returned to the room just as the lowlife was coming to. The moment he saw Beck, he cowered against the wall with a hand up, but Beck ignored him, making a beeline for Winnie. He tossed her purse strap over his shoulder, then swooped Sleeping Beauty up in his arms, grimly satisfied when the frat-rat cringed against the wall once more with a look of fear Beck hoped he wore for a long, long time.

“Don’t worry, scumbucket,” he said as he walked by, “I don’t plan on wasting anymore energy on the likes of you.” Exiting the room, he got halfway down the hall when his ire suddenly exploded all over again at what the jerk had done to Winnie. Stopping dead in his tracks, he made an about face and reentered the scene of the crime just as the lowlife was starting to rise, bent over with his backside to the door. The moment he heard Beck’s footsteps, he glanced over his shoulder. The whites of his eyes went wide with terror, totally unprepared for the sound kick in the butt that landed him flat on the floor.

“Sorry, pal, but what can I say?” Beck delivered a thin smile on his way out the door. “Plans change.”

Chapter Fifty-Eight

En route to the hospital, Beck couldn’t help but wonder if he did the right thing calling Alex and Gabe instead of Mr. and Mrs. Dennehy. A part of him wanted to call Winnie’s parents—heaven knows if it was his daughter, he’d want to be there. But Mrs. Dennehy didn’t take these things well, especially when it came to Winnie, so he made the decision to call Winnie’s cousins Gabe and Alex instead.

Gabe because she had a rare kinship with Winnie—both had been abandoned orphans who’d been abused. And Alex because he was a doctor, a psychiatrist who might be able to help Winnie with both handling this situation and her low self-esteem issues. As well as any more delicate issues should the need arrive.

Beck swallowed hard.

Like rape.

And pregnancy.

The slimeball claimed he didn’t rape her, but Beck had his doubts, and whenever he thought about it, his blood pressure hiked to murderous levels. And if he felt this way, he could only imagine how Mr. Dennehy would feel, not to mention all of the male component in the O’Connor clan.

A groan slipped from Winnie’s lips, and Beck looked down to where she slept on the seat of his car with her head in his lap. He could feel her drool seeping into his trousers, so he shifted a bit to get more comfortable, thinking he should have probably put her in the back seat where she could stretch out and sleep.

But between his law books he took to the library weekly and the bundle of Herald newspapers he was supposed to deliver to the paperboy next door, there wasn’t much room. So, he’d propped her in the front seat, but that hadn’t lasted. The poor thing kept falling over onto the seat. He finally just gave up the ghost and let her get comfy in his lap. He grimaced as he flipped his blinker on to turn a corner.

Comfy for her.

Awkward for him.

By the time they reached Mass General Hospital, one leg of his pants was soaked, but if there was anybody he could pick to drool over him, it would be Winnie. His mouth shifted sideways. But somehow, this isn’t what he had in mind.

He parked in the ER parking lot and wasn’t even out of the car when Gabe came running out of the waiting room with Alex following calmly behind. “Where is she?” Gabe screamed, not exactly the calm and collected family member one wanted in an emergency. She peeked in Beck’s open door and immediately rushed around to the passenger side, yanking the door open. She leaned in and lightly jostled her cousin. “Winnie? Are you all right?”

“She’s asleep, Gabe,” Beck said patiently, rounding the car to get Winnie out, giving Alex a nod when he tugged Gabe out of the way.

“Why isn’t she answering?” Gabe said in a near shriek, early-morning emergencies plainly not her expertise.

“She’s asleep, Gabe,” Alex repeated mildly as Beck carefully lifted Winnie from the seat and closed the door with his knee.

By the time Alex had arranged for speedy access to an ER room on what was obviously a busy Saturday night, it was almost four-thirty in the morning. Alex was in the ER room with the doc on call and Gabe was pacing the floor of the waiting room in front of Beck, biting her nails. Most of which he expected would be nubs before all was said and done.

Hunched in his seat with head bowed and hands clasped between parted knees, Beck was now wide awake despite no sleep in 24 hours, as if high-test caffeine were flowing through his veins along with adrenaline. He glanced at the clock on the wall and instantly shot straight up in his chair, his 5:00 a.m. early-bird shift at The Herald suddenly coming to mind. “Gotta make a phone call,” he said to Gabe as he jumped up to hunt for a pay phone, figuring a visit to the ER was the perfect excuse.

The minute Alex reappeared an hour later, Beck was on his feet along with Gabe, who never gave Alex a chance to even open his mouth. “How is she, Alex? Is she awake? Did she tell you what happened? What’d the doctor say? Is she—”

With the barest hint of a smile, Alex gently quieted her with a touch of his fingers to her mouth. “She’s fine, Gabe, just very sleepy.” He met Beck’s gaze directly. “We were able to get her to come to several times before she’d doze again, but she remembers getting dizzy and sick, which is a common side effect from chloral hydrate. Said she asked Brayden to take her home, but he suggested she take aspirin powder and lay down for a while—”

“Of course he did, the slimeball … in his lair, of course.” Beck slashed a hand through his hair, disgust dripping from his tone.