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Ghost:Okay.
Cassie’s staring straight ahead, zoned out, and I contemplate not telling her, but that wouldn’t be fair. She needs time to prepare.
“Tate is on his way up here. Won’t be long and we’ll know.”
The look of terror on her face is so hard to take.
As I sit on the edge of her bed and pull her up into my arms, I can feel her shivering. I’m worried it’s another seizure coming, and she must have sensed my panic.
“I’m sure it’s just my nerves. Just keep holding on tight.” Oh, baby, I’m holding on so tight to you and everything else. You have no idea.
The door bursting open has me jumping and pushing Cassie as much behind my body as possible, until I see it’s Tate. That man has no idea how to enter the room of someone who has a hit out on her. He’s lucky he doesn’t have a gun in his face, but only my instincts told me not to go that far because Ashton is outside watching, so he would have stopped the stranger before they made it past the door.
“It’s benign,” he blurts out, which is not how I picture him normally delivering the news. “I’m so sorry it took so long. One of my operations didn’t go as planned, it happens. But I got here as soon as I could.”
Cassie is back in my arms, and we’re both crying. I never show emotion in front of others, but I’m just so overwhelmed with relief I can’t contain it. I’ve cried with Cassie more in the last few days than I have my entire life.
“Not cancer, Ghost, it’s not cancer,” is all she keeps repeating into my chest. In my head I’m saying the same thing. Tate just stands back and gives us time to pull it together, and I see no judgment from him at my breaking down in front of him. He’d be used to it, I’m sure, but I’m not. Thank goodness neither Bull nor Badger are here to see it. I would never hear the end of this. I’m settling on the bed next to Cassie again as Tate pulls up a chair to sit with us.
“We aren’t out of the woods yet, not by a long shot, but this is a good result. Now, let’s talk about where we go from here.” His voice is now calm and full of authority, nothing like the one he burst into the room with. I have a feeling over the last few days we have gained another friend, and we might mean a little more to him than his average patient. Same goes both ways. This man in front of me will have me watching his back and that of his family, keeping them all safe for as long as we are both living. It’s the best way I can repay him. My money would mean nothing to him, but his family’s safety is priceless.
* * *
Waiting two days for this surgery has been horrendous, but there are people who are in more urgent need for the operation than Cassie is. In a way, that should be comforting, but it’s not. I just want it over and to get her home. No amount of money or outside danger to her can change her priority in the surgery schedule, and nor should it.
We have said all we need to say at three am this morning. Neither of us could sleep, and it was time to be raw and say the things that should never be left unsaid. As much as I trust Tate and I know he’s the best, this surgery is risky, and anything can happen. We held each other and talked until the sun rose, about our hopes and dreams for both of us and the kids. Cassie wanted me to know that she has written letters and they are at the house, which was hard to hear, but I would have done the same if the situation were reversed. The percentage rate of her not making it home, from the tumor and also due to the outside danger, was so much higher than the average person, and she wanted to be prepared. Especially for the kids. She knows what it’s like to lose a parent early in life, and she wanted to tell them everything she might miss out on being able to say.
We cried, we laughed, but most of all, we were together just loving each other.
Since then, the morning has been a constant in-and-out of nurses and doctors to get her prepared for the surgery. Any minute they will be here to take her. All the test results have been done on the sample, and Tate has everything he needs. Even the DNA genetic mapping of the tumor was tested to see if it is something we need to watch with the kids in the future. Tate has sent it all to me to keep for the future. It will also be there if, God forbid, another one forms for Cassie and we aren’t anywhere near Chicago and Tate. We don’t know what life will bring us in the future, and there is always the chance we could need to run again. The chances are slim but never zero.
The door to her room opens, and we know it’s time.
Again, I walk her to the door that feels like such a bigger barrier to me than a few pieces of wood that swing open and closed. The orderly stops to let me say my goodbye, even though I will never say those words.
We don’t need many words, we have already said them all.
“I love you.” I kiss her on the lips like I’ll die without touching her.
Pulling back, she looks at me with her beautiful bright eyes that always get to me. “I love you too, and remember… tomorrow will be a better day.”
Barely holding it together, I signal for them to take her before I can’t let go.
“Fight,” I call to her as she’s pushed away, and she raises her hand, with her other hand pointing to her wedding-ring finger. That’s all I need to know.
She’s fighting for us.
The doors close, and I lean my back into the wall beside them, trying to use the wall to hold myself up. Looking up to the ceiling to whoever is up there listening, I thump my fist so hard on the wall, that the pain is shooting up my arm.
“You can’t have her… she’s MINE!”
With that, I storm down the corridor to get my laptop from Ashton. I need to end this.
Jason, I’m coming for you!
ChapterTwenty-Two
CASSIE
