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Chapter 42
Christine
Iopen my eyes, wincing as the harsh fluorescent lights pierce my groggy state. Blinking several times, I try to clear the fog that clouds my vision.
Where am I?
The rhythmic beeping of machines echoes through the sterile room, blending with the soft whispers of nurses and the distant hum of medical equipment. Each chirp and blip is a steady rhythm, stretching endlessly through the clinical and detached room. Methodical, monotonous, surreal.
I’m in the hospital.
I feel like I was run over by a truck. My body feels like it’s encased in lead, heavy and unresponsive. I try to move, but a surge of agony shoots through my limbs, effectively immobilizing me.
I am hurt. How did I get hurt?
I force myself to take small, shallow breaths as panic threatens to consume me. Closing my eyes, I focus on the sound of my ownragged breathing, trying to calm the pounding of my heart that echoes in my ears.
I am okay.
Somewhere just beyond the door to my room, I hear arguing. The urgency in their voices fuels the adrenaline coursing through my veins.
My uncle. Rocco. Jackson?
Fleeting remnants of memory flood my mind in disjointed waves, like a tide that never fully recedes. My fingers twitch involuntarily, trembling with a mixture of fear and uncertainty.
I force myself to sit up despite the pain, wincing from the aches of protest. As I scan the room with bleary eyes, I take in the unfeeling white walls adorned with impersonal artwork. The scent of antiseptic lingers in the air. The room is a degree cooler than I’d like, causing goosebumps to form on my arms.
A nurse, her pale pink scrubs crisp and clean, bustles through the door with an air of efficiency. Her face is etched with lines of compassion, but they do little to ease my trepidation. My heart races as she approaches my bedside. “You’re awake,” she announces with a gentle smile. “You gave us quite a scare. How are you feeling?”
Little tubes and wires protrude from my body, leading to the machines that make up the symphony of my nightmare. “What happened?”
With a sense of purpose, the nurse strides over to my bed and snatches the clipboard from its perch at the end. “Your vitals look good.” She makes the rounds to each of the computerscreens behind me. My health is displayed in numbers and lines, none of which make sense to me.
Before she can answer, the door creaks open, revealing my unlikely savior. “Morning, sunshine,” Jackson greets with a smile.
“Your boyfriend here saved your life.” The nurse points at him with her pen. “If he hadn’t found you when he did, those thugs might have killed you.”
Thugs. Rocco. Giovanni. Might have killed me.
Gently, Jackson’s hand settles on my forearm in a comforting gesture. “Can you give us a minute?” His voice is smooth as honey, but his words carry a hint of command as he politely requests the nurse to leave.
“Of course,” she replies. “I’ll go let the doctor know you’re awake. He should be in shortly.”
As the nurse leaves the room, Jackson removes his hand. “Sorry,” he apologizes with a wince, “but I had to lie. When we got here, the doctor asked about your family, and you started freaking out. They had to give you a sedative because you were yanking out your IVs. I called Carrie, and she said you have a stepfather in Manhattan and some family up in Kansas City, but I figured it was safer to lie and say I didn’t have their info. At least until you woke up and could tell me what happened.”
The last time I saw Jackson, he was blowing me off at the Pennington estate. I had forgotten that he worked on campus; I had forgotten that he existed at all. “You saved me,” I frown.
Jackson nods. “Of course I did. I was headed to lunch when I saw you go behind the student union building. I guess I was nosy,”he blushes, cheeks filling with a light shade of pink. “I followed you. I figured if you caught me, I could apologize for my behavior a few weeks ago at Thanksgiving. But I rounded the corner of the union and saw those two guys beating you up. One was just watching, but the other looked like he was going to kill you. When I yelled at them, they ran away.”
“Rocco wouldn’t have killed me.” I don’t think so, anyway. He needs me to marry him, but I don’t have towalkdown the aisle to do it. If I’m in a wheelchair and someone is pushing me, I’m sure that counts, too.
“You knew those guys?” Jackson looks at one of the machines next to me, his eyes narrowed in concentration. “Why did they do that to you?”
I open my mouth to reply, but it turns out I don’t have anything to say. I don’t know why Giovanni and Rocco cornered me on campus, I only know that they did. I assume they were there to issue a warning to Nic and me.
“Thanks for not getting my family involved,” I change the subject.
“You seemed really upset when the doctor brought them up.”
