Beneath His Darkness (Healing Hearts #3) (38 page)

After getting their version of my health, I want to know how the police found us.  Tucker says it’s thanks to Cammie and me.  She had called him after leaving me the night we were taken, asking him to go check on me.  But he was picking Adriana up from the airport, which is why he called.  I remember the horrible way I treated him.  Soon after the fallout with Tucker, the text came from Davyd.  I bantered with him and left my phone, thinking if someone noticed I was missing, it would be best if they got those messages.

Adriana insisted they go over to check on me and when they got in the elevator, they found my keys.  I had dropped them in there because I thought Davyd was watching me through my windows.  I wanted him to think I locked up.  He never questioned where my keys were.

“But how did you get to the elevator?  Didn’t Benny stop you?”

“He wasn’t there.  Terrence said he left shortly after you got in the town car, stating he had a family emergency.”

Things didn’t feel right to Tucker so he asked Terrence if he could go up and check out my place.  Being the kind man he is, Terrence said yes.  Tucker knew they were my keys because of my
Facing Extinction
keychain.  When he got in my apartment and found my cell phone, he knew there was a problem.  He called the cops and gave them the information.

I’ve never been so glad to have a sibling in my life, especially a persistent, famous one.  The cops were afraid to ignore him.  They pulled the security footage for the building and saw that Cammie was driven away in the same town car.  My behavior appeared hostile so the police believed I was coerced into getting in the vehicle.

It took them over twenty-four hours to track down Benny.  When they found him, he was drunk and face down in the lap of a prostitute.  After he sobered up, it took a couple days to break him.  He was afraid of Davyd’s wrath.  But eventually, he gave up all of Davyd’s properties he was aware of.  They started searching, learned of the child prostitution ring, and finally got the location of where we were being held.

Cammie and I lasted six days in that mad man’s lair.

Six days that felt like years.

Dr. Sherman comes in a few minutes after they finish telling me about Cammie’s parents arriving in Vancouver.  Grams and Mikos flew out as soon as Tucker told them I was missing.  Eddie called the Richards.  Mikos called Gloria and she arrived two days ago.  It seems there has been quite the battle going on over what hell I got their daughter thrown into while my family tried to calmly explain that Davyd was the only one responsible for this nightmare.

I agree with Cammie’s parents.  She would never have been in this situation if she hadn’t been my friend and I plan to make sure she never gets hurt because of me again.

“It’s nice to see you awake, Mr. Andrews.  How are you feeling?”

“Like I got stabbed,” I joke.

He asks Mikos and Tucker to step from the room while he examines me and after all that’s happened, I appreciate the privacy.  His eyes are kind and knowledgeable.  When he pushes on my cheek, I wince a bit.

“Sorry.  Nothing in your face is broken, but you do have bruising in your cheekbone.  It’s going to be tender for a while.  Can you follow the light with your eyes, please?”

He puts me through a series of tests and then he sits down to tell me about the surgery.  He explains I was fully unconscious when I arrived at the hospital and I lost a lot of blood, requiring a transfusion.  Other than the collapsed lung, there was no other organ damage.  He uses the medical term, which sounded something like pneumonia, and I had to ask him to speak my language.  He also explained the surgery and how it was a rather simple procedure.  He shows me how the tube is attached to a see-through water seal chamber and the bubbles in the chamber are the air leaving my body. When they cease for a while, he’ll schedule a chest x-ray to verify re-inflation of my lung.  If all looks good, he’ll get this tube out of me.  He makes it a point to tell me he wants the tube out sooner rather than later to avoid risk of infection.

Doctors always have to warn about that, don’t they?

Before he leaves, he turns to me and with a practiced smile, he says, “You’re going to have a lot of people telling you what you need to do to heal over the next few days.  I’ll be in and out checking on you, nurses will be pestering you, the respiratory therapists will be by, but I truly hope you take the time to speak to someone about getting outside counseling when you leave here.  What that man did to you leaves a wound no one can see and that is something I can’t heal.”

He smiles and leaves the room, his words hanging heavy in the air.  How did he know?  Was he Cammie’s doctor, too?  Did I talk in my sleep?  Is it written on my face?

Do I look like a victim?

Tucker and Mikos walk back in and I see stress on their faces that wasn’t there before.  Feeling the need to erase it, I tell them the checkup went well and that I should be able to go home in a few days.  They smile, but it seems forced.

“What?” I ask, tiredly.  I’m losing energy fast and know I can’t take much more.

“You have some other visitors who would like to see you,” Tucker says.

“I told you, I don’t want to see her.”

He shakes his head.  “I sent her away.  She wasn’t happy, but she understood.  She said to call if you change your mind.”

I nod, but I know I won’t.  She is better off without me.  As much as it hurts, she belongs in Ohio, as far away from me as possible.

“Your grandmother and mother would like to see you,” Mikos states.

My mother.  Tucker mentioned she was here earlier, but it didn’t sink in.  I have no urge to see that woman.  She, in no way, comforts me.

“My grandmother can come in, but keep Gloria away from me.”

“Grant,” Mikos pleads.

“No.  You want me to get better?  Keep her away from me.”

I turn my face away from them and wait for the door to close.  It’s hard enough having Mikos here.  I know he’s my father, but I know almost nothing about him.  He can’t just step in because tragedy struck and tell me to forgive her.

I close my eyes and allow myself to relax for a few minutes until my next guest arrives.  I’m not sure how to face her either.  I’ve had a few talks with this woman who insists I call her Grams.  I enjoy talking to her.  She gives great advice and she seems to accept me no matter what I’ve done, but how do I look at her after what’s been done to me?

Will she be able to tell?

Will she be able to see how dirty I am?

I wish I could get out of this bed and take a shower, scrub clean all the areas Davyd tainted on my body before this sweet woman walks in the room.  But all I can do is look away and hope she doesn’t see the foulness left behind.

“Oh, my dear boy,” she gasps.

My eyes pop open and my Grams is standing there with Tucker behind her.  Her hands are over her mouth and I see her scanning my face.  Tears pool in her dark eyes and I wish I could run to her.  I’ve connected with this woman somehow and seeing her hurt is causing my heart to ache.  I want to pull her into my arms and comfort her.

“If that man weren’t dead, I’d…”  She stops talking as a tear falls.  She wipes it away fiercely, stands herself up to her five-foot-eight height, and squares her gaze at me.  “There’s a special place in hell for filth like that man.  I promise you that.”

She walks up to my side, bends down, and places the gentlest kiss on my cheek.  In Greek, she softly starts singing a lullaby.  I have no idea what it is, but it soothes me.  I fall asleep, feeling peaceful for the first time in a week.  She did that.  She made me feel safe.

Something I didn’t think I could ever feel again.

Chapter Forty Five

Grant

It’s been a few months since I left the hospital and my life has changed in many ways.  I no longer live in Vancouver.  I moved to L.A. about a month after I was released.  There was nothing keeping me there.

The show was cancelled.  If Victoria thought people hated her in Vancouver after her affair with me, she didn’t know what hate was.  Although my fans rallied behind me and I became a sought after actor, it was public knowledge in the surrounding area how many people lost their jobs because of me.  Eddie gave great recommendations, which helped most of the crew into other jobs, but the actors had to start auditioning for new roles.  They weren’t quiet about their distaste for me.

News of me being Tucker’s brother spread like wildfire.  The tabloids spread many false reports.  Some of which we had our legal team rescind because they claimed sexual or physical abuse in our homes, stating that was why we didn’t grow up together.  Others we left alone because they weren’t worth trying to falsify.  Eddie is writing the true story for the network.

They decided to make our story into a mini-series.  I found that out in the hospital, as well as finding out my brother paid off the money they were still asking for.  The network dropped the amount drastically, but it was still more than I could afford.  Even with the investments I made with my inheritance, it would have bankrupted me.  I told Tucker I would pay him all the money back and he laughed at me, telling me he wouldn’t accept it.  All he wants is for me to live a happy life.

He doesn’t understand.  I won’t be happy knowing there is money owed between us.

The network approached Tucker after the kidnapping.  They wanted to know whether a movie deal could be made, but must have known I’d tell them to fuck off.  Guess they underestimated Tucker’s ability to be an asshole when offended because he told them the same thing.  There is no way I would let Cammie relive that by re-telling it or seeing it brought to life for the cameras.  I imagine Tucker feels the same way.

My final month in Vancouver wasn’t uncomfortable.  It should have been with the jeers, threats, and shoves I received, but Grams stayed the entire month and the first two weeks I was in L.A.  She and I took that time to really get to know each other—no bullshit, no lies, just putting everything on the table.  I found out what complete and unconditional love is.

I told her I slept with Davyd to get information on Tucker.  It was no secret between her and I that my hatred for my brother took me to dark places, but this was the final thing I had kept buried, hoping I would never have to say it out loud.  I know Davyd told Cammie, but even she didn’t know the full truth behind it.  Grams watched me with patience while I told the whole story of how it started out as my need to take Tucker down and morphed into him having control over me.  I finally admitted what had been in my mind since we were trapped—it was my fault.  I let him touch me willingly in the beginning, so it gave off the message that I was his.

“Oh, dear boy.  It is not your fault.  There is something broken in Davyd, and people like him, that can’t be fixed.  Let me ask you a question.  If you were intimate with a woman, who one day told you she no longer wanted to be, would you force yourself on her?”

“Of course not.”

“Point proven.”

“It’s not that easy, Grams.”

“Why not?” she asks, her voice gentle.

I contemplate her question, thinking over the real problem, and answer her honestly.  “I don’t know how to be myself anymore.  I’m not used to being afraid, but that’s just it.  I’m scared.  If someone touches my shoulder, I jump.  Sounds startle me.  The nightmares feel real.  I don’t know how to go back to the person I was and I’m afraid I’ll never be able to.”

She puts her hand over mine and gives me the smile that always offers me comfort.  She’s the only person I could have this conversation with.

“In these tragic situations, Grant, two types of people come forth.  There are victims and there are survivors.  Victims use tragedies as excuses to whine and manipulate.  Everything that happens in their life is because of the tragedies that have befallen them.  They can’t take responsibility for themselves and want everyone to feel bad for them.  And sometimes, they do bad things to others when things don’t go their way.  I feel that you used to be this type of person and had you continued, I would have been very sad for you.”

“Grams?”

“Shh.  Let me finish.  Survivors take a beating, but they always get back up.  They fight to get better and take control of their lives.  Survivors prosper and grow to help others because the knowledge they gain from standing up in the face of adversity shines from them.  I see this in you now.  I see a man with troubled eyes, but behind them are a million questions.  Those questions are your fight to get better, my boy.”

I shake my head at her because I don’t see a fighter at all.  I’m weak and I’m afraid…all the time.

“I know you don’t see it right now.  You feel like the victim, but I promise you, you are a survivor.  It seems like too much to go through, but you will survive this.  You will heal, you will even love, and I will be by you every step of the way.”

“I don’t know.  I feel so…broken.”  With someone else, it would be embarrassing to admit my feelings, but with Grams, it’s freeing.

“I feel like I’ve said this to many people in my life, whether it was over a broken heart, a grieving widow, or even to you now, the words holds true.  In order to heal, you have to first be broken.  It’s a universal law.”

I hope her words are true for me.

“Thanks, Grams, for listening.”

“Anytime.  Now, let’s get you some food.  You’ve gotten too skinny.”  She winks at me and heads for my kitchen and I anticipate the wonderful aromas that will be wafting around my apartment soon.

Grams and I became very close.  It still shocks me how easily I accepted her into my life and heart.  It wasn’t just a surprise forming a relationship with my grandmother, but finding out that every Stavros owns a piece of Blue, the winery owned by Grams and her late husband.  She showed me pictures of my grandfather and herself and the vineyard in Greece.  It’s stunning.  She tried to pay me restitution for all the years I should have been part of the company, but I wasn’t comfortable with that and I made that clear to her.