Page 72 of Inherited Light
“I do want to see the world, but with you, not alone. I didn’t realize how much I would miss you until you were gone. I moved back and wanted to reconnect, but you never called,” she whined again.
I shook my head. “I didn’t know you were in town. It’s only been recently I’ve been in Little Ivywood full-time again. I’ve been back and forth for school. Why didn’t you reach out to me?” I asked. It took me no time at all to see she had lost her mind, so the only thing I could do was play along, and pray Cat understood what my intention was.
She shook her head sadly. “The guy is supposed to call the woman, Lennie. I had it all worked out, but you never called. Now I find out you have a girlfriend!” she exclaimed, the gun motioning at Cat.
I took a deep breath and shook my head. “Cat isn’t my girlfriend. She’s a friend of my sister’s, nothing more.”
“How come you’ve been staying with her then?” she exclaimed angrily, throwing her arms around with the gun in her hand.
“Someone knocked her unconscious and she can’t stay alone when she’s hurt.”
She got a smirk on her face. “Sorry I had to hit you, Lennie. I tried not to hit you too hard. She deserved it, but you didn’t. I had to get her prints on the toolbox.”
“So, it was you,” I said as I kept moving to the right. “Did you kill Xavier, too?”
I held my breath as I waited to hear her answer. “He had to go. I slept with him to get information about you and he wouldn’t stop bugging me. Once I found out about her,” she said, waving at Cat, “I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I want you and me to be together, and I don’t want anyone in the way!” she exclaimed.
I held my hands up in front of me. “I get it, Monica, but you never talked to me. I feel bad you’ve waited so long for me to come to you. Had I known, we could have spent many more years together.”
I tried not to gag at the idea of marrying her and living with her forever. It was a scary thought as I stood there staring into her crazy eyes. I wasn’t connected enough to feel her emotions, but I could plainly see she was losing patience.
“We still can,” she said, sliding up alongside of me. “All you have to do is leave here with me.”
“What about her?” I asked as I motioned at Cat. “We can’t leave her here.”
“Sure we can, someone will find her sooner or later. Once I kill her it really won’t matter when she’s found.”
She turned to shoot Cat, but I stood in the way, so she had to shoot through me to get to her. “Move aside, Lennie. We can’t go on with life until she’s out of it.”
She leveled her gun and I didn’t know what to do. If she shot, she would hit Cat right in the chest. Before I had a chance to raise my gun, there were two pop-pop sounds and Monica fell forward into my arms. The gun clattered to the ground as she howled in pain trying to grasp her back. I laid her down, cuffing her as she screamed about how she did this all for me.
I leaned over so she could see my face, hers filled with rage and pain. “I didn’t ask you to do this. There is no us. Cat is my girlfriend, and I plan to marry her. Good luck in prison.”
I turned and ran to Cat, kneeling by her as the room filled with cops. “It’s okay, honey. I’m going to keep you safe,” I promised, stroking her head. My hand felt sticky and I looked down to see it covered in blood. I swiveled my head to the left. “We need an EMT over here now!”
She grasped my hand and squeezed it, her eyes almost closed, knowing she was safe. I could tell the pain was sending her into shock as her grasp loosened on my hand. “Did you feel me, Ren?”
I rubbed her chest roughly to keep her awake. “You did a great job, sweetheart. I could feel your pain and Tabitha sensed you were somewhere dark. We only found you because you told us where you were. You’re so brave,” I cooed as an EMT knelt by her on the ground.
“I’m going to give you some morphine so we can get you off this floor. Lorenzo filled us in on your back pain. Are you hurting anywhere else?” he asked and she pointed at her head. “You’re bleeding from your head. You probably cut it when you hit the tree.”
She stared up at me, her eyes frightened. “I hit a tree? I just remember trying to avoid someone in the road. Is my van okay? Ren?”
“Shhh,” I soothed her as the EMT started an I.V. in her arm. “Your van will be fine. Rest now. We’re going to take you to the hospital and have them check you over. We should make sure your back isn’t any worse.”
She grimaced and shook her head a little bit. “It’s not good, Ren. I felt it pop when she threw me over her shoulder. All I have is pain now and no sensation at all in my legs.”
I rubbed her forehead, blood and all, and forced a brave smile to my face even though I was terrified. “I’m not going to leave you, baby. We’ll get through it together.”
Epilogue
I waited patiently for Cat to finish in the bathroom before I helped her to bed and showed her my surprise. After having surgery on her back a week ago, Cat has done great. When we got her to the hospital, the doctors rushed her into a room and locked Tabitha and me in the waiting room to pace. My dad andMamáarrived along with Cinn and Foster within minutes, but the feeling of being alone was overpowering. After what seemed like forever, the doctor took a few moments to tell us Cat’s CT scan showed the disc fragment had broken off and now compressed the spinal cord. If they didn’t do surgery she would be in pain for the rest of her life, bedridden, and had the potential for a slew of other problems.
They allowed me to see her long enough to console her, and encourage her to have the laser surgery done. She had no sooner signed the form and they were rolling her down the hallway to surgery. I trudged back to the waiting room in a stupor andMamáwrapped me in her arms, comforting me in a way only amamáknows how. After thirty minutes of waiting, my dad convinced me to go with him to the cafeteria to get some snacks. As we busied ourselves with a mundane task, he mentioned Cinn had told him how afraid I was to talk to him about my work situation. My initial reaction was to deny it, until he offered a heartfelt apology for making me feel like I couldn’t talk with him about my dreams and aspirations.
While we gathered drinks and snacks, I told him I had hoped to start my own construction business, and I had sold the BMW to get the funds to buy the trailer and tools needed for start-up, but now I had to rethink things. He was confused about why until I told him about Cat’s van. It would never run again, and she didn’t have a down payment to get a loan on a specialized vehicle. I planned to use some of the money from the BMW to help her buy a new van. It was bad enough she was in surgery, but now she wouldn’t be able to get back and forth to work. Without the van, she had no independence and her independence was the most important thing to her.
My dad surprised me when he took out a business card from his wallet and handed it to me. He had spoken with his friend at the bank already. He told me they would help me obtain a business loan. Since I had a large down payment I could wrap the cost of a new vehicle in for Cat with no problem.
