Mama Said (27 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

An IV drip went into one arm and her foot was bandaged in a swath of white gauze. Swollen, but still numb from her surgery, it was elevated. She’d be stuck doing nothing for a while. She wondered if Shane had been serious when he said he wanted her to stick around.

That made her smile. For once it felt like the right thing to do. The really right thing to do.

It wasn’t about him helping her, or her helping him. They were equal partners, sometimes rational, sometimes totally dysfunctional pieces that somehow fit together to make a cohesive whole. There was a weird symmetry between them that worked.

And, of course, she couldn’t forget the sex.

She couldn’t see them doing the horizontal tango for a while, regardless of how much medication she received. They’d have to make up for lost time once her body healed.

Despite the nearly blissful feeling, she felt herself slipping back into the land of slumber as she pondered when she could get out of the hospital. Soon, she thought, if they sent her home with a couple of these wonderful painkillers. She wondered if they did IV morphine drips to go. If they didn’t, they should. Maybe she could sweet-talk some nice young doctor into letting her have one.

With a smile on her face, she let herself relax, the sounds of the traffic outside fading away little by little. A rumble of a noise outside the door brought her back around. At first she wasn’t sure if it was real or a dream.

It sounded like Shane arguing with somebody out in the hall. The weird part was it also sounded like her brother Enrique’s voice. Seconds later the door burst open, and both men barreled inside.

“Where were you when my sister was almost killed?”

She tried to pry open her eyes, but they didn’t want to stay open. Without her consent, they kept closing. But she was pretty sure, unless she was dreaming, Shane and Enrique were standing inside her room having a heated discussion.

“She got away from me.”

“I looked you up. You’re ex-Special Forces. How is she in the hospital while you’re walking around without a scratch? How could you let that happen?”

Shane’s voice ratcheted up to match Enrique’s. “If you know your sister, you know how strong she is. You’d know she does what she wants when she wants and nobody, not even you, can stop her.” Maybe their talk had worked. He sounded convincing.

But she hated that they were doing their macho posturing within earshot, especially since both were doing their own version of the ‘control Gabriella’ dance. But when she opened her mouth to speak, only a tiny squeak came out. When she remembered Stu’s hands around her neck squeezing until she couldn’t breathe.

“She could have died.”

“Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think the idea scares me to death even still?” Shane bit off a stream of curses she hadn’t heard before.

“You have no business being around my sister if you can’t protect her.”

Gabriella finally found her voice, although it was barely above a whisper. “All right, that’s it. Do I have to drag my broken body out of this bed to kick both your asses?”

Both men stopped their yammering and stalked to the side of the bed. She couldn’t help smiling. They were so much alike it was scary, even to her.

“Gabriella, you’re awake?” Shane kissed her lightly on the lips, impervious to her brother’s death stare from the other side of the bed.

Enrique bent down to place a kiss on her cheek. “You look like hell, little sister.” He smiled right before he went back to giving Shane the death stare.

To his credit, Shane didn’t back down. Not even an inch. Then again, she wouldn’t have expected him to.

She glanced between the two of them and smiled again. “I’ll survive. But I’m not sure about you two. You look like you’re going to kill each other any minute now.”

Ignoring her comment, Enrique spoke. “You shouldn’t talk too much. The doctor said you should rest your vocal cords…”

Shane laughed as he eased into position at the head of her bed, taking the hand unencumbered by the IV in his. “Gabriella not talk? I don’t think that’s possible.”

“How do you get off talking about my sister like that?” Enrique folded his arms across his chest and glared.

“Do you have any idea how ludicrous you sound? Where’s Sammie? She needs to come here and reel you in.”

Enrique’s face flushed and he shrugged, an iota of the tension easing out of him. “While they were waiting for you to come out of surgery, they decided to go shopping. Water Tower is just around the corner.” He turned his wrist to look at his watch. “I imagine they’ll be here any minute.”

“They?” She barely got the word out of her mouth before ‘they’ trouped in: Enrique’s wife, Sammie; her sisters, Juliana and Francesca; her niece, Santana; her mother, Marguerite; even her little brother, Joaquin. “Am I dying or something?”

After she received the usual round of hugs and kisses from the group, they gathered in a semi-circle around the bed. To his credit, Shane stayed right where he was, but she could tell he was feeling overwhelmed when his fingers tightened in hers.

Her mother spoke first. “We were worried sick about you.” She tsked as she took in her injuries with a motherly perusal. “That guy really did a number on you.”

Enrique and Shane exchanged looks, but neither said anything, even though she could tell her brother was itching to. Instead, Juliana spoke. She could have predicted the lawyer in her would dig into the specifics of what happened. “I spoke with the State’s Attorney and the Internal Affairs Department. As far as they can tell, they’ll be indicting about ten officers. You probably won’t have to testify for at least a couple of months.”

She knew what she was implying in her comment. She could come home as soon as the hospital released her. That way, they all could keep a collective eye on her and hover incessantly.

“Once the doctor releases you, we’ll put you on a plane to Florida so I can take care of you,” her mother said.

She’d known her mother would bring that up sooner or later. They weren’t going to like what she had to say, but someway, somehow they’d learn to live with it. “Actually, I thought I’d stay in Chicago for a while.”

Enrique gave Shane an accusatory stare. “That’s not going to work.”

“Why’s that, Enrique?” She’d always let Enrique come to her rescue, but she didn’t need him any more. It had taken a near death experience to convince her she could handle herself quite nicely.

“You know why.” He folded his arms across his chest, as did Joaquin, which was more than a little embarrassing.

“Why? Because I’m a screw-up? Is that what you’re saying?” She stopped to take a gulp of water. “Guess what I learned over the last month on my own? That I’m pretty darn good at taking care of myself, even when you’re not around to bail me out.”

His face softened. Obviously, he was being nice to her or he would have shouted right back. Instead, his voice was soft when he spoke. “You almost died.”

“But I didn’t. And you know why I didn’t? It was because I saved myself. I did what I had to do and came out of it relatively unscathed.” She drew in a deep breath. “I’m a lot stronger than any of you give me credit for.”

“We know that, dear.” Her mother’s voice was warm, in contrast to the hard edge of Enrique’s. “But physically you won’t be able to do much for yourself with a broken ankle.”

“I’m going to take care of her. It’s the least I can do after she saved my life.” Shane twisted his fingers in hers.

Joaquin spoke this time, taking over for Enrique. “What do you mean?”

Shane moved in closer to her on the bed. “Gabriella found me close to dead in an alley. She didn’t abandon me like she should have to save herself. Somehow she got me to safety and kept us both alive.” He squeezed her hand tightly. “She’s the strongest woman I know, both emotionally and physically. Is it any wonder I fell in love with her?”

She didn’t think Shane had ever said so many words at once since she’d known him. Which mirrored the fact that she didn’t think her family had ever been silent for that long, let alone allow someone else to speak.

But knock her over with a feather. He couldn’t profess his love when they were alone, but could announce it to her family. Still, she couldn’t suppress the smile. She knew he loved her.

She felt so elated she thought she might burst. And she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the pain medication.

“Now that all that nonsense is out of the way, show me what you bought at Water Tower Place. And let me feel your tummy, Sammie. I can’t believe I’m finally going to be an aunt again.”

It was probably close to two hours before her family took their leave. If Santana hadn’t wanted something to eat they might have stayed into the night. None of them relished the idea of hospital food when a plethora of great restaurants were all within a couple of blocks.

Shane seemed shocked at first, but then accepted it as her female family members hugged and kissed him goodbye. She knew it signaled he was officially part of the Santos clan, like it or not.

“How’s Patrick? I thought for sure he’d stop in to see me.”

“He’s doing good. We made peace with each other, just like we should have a long time ago.”

“No kidding. But how about your stepdad?”

“Near as I can tell, he really did come to warn me off the case. Who would have thought? And Carissa sends her love, by the way.”

She tsked in an I-told-you-so way. “How’s she doing?”

“Great. She’s got a lot of rehab in her future, but she’s already talking about coming into the office.”

“And Vince?”

“Recovering, but it’s a little slower than they expected, probably due to his age.”

“Hmmm, now that I’ve got the update on everybody, I have to tell you I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately.”

“I should be afraid. Very afraid.”

She rolled her eyes. “Since I won’t be able to do much singing for a while, I could probably help out in the office. I’m not so good at computers, but I’m awesome at detective stuff.”

Shane rolled his eyes. “What have I gotten myself into?” His smile belied his words.

“How does O’Neil, Ryan & Santos sound?”

“Very scary.”

“Deal with it. Life around me is usually pretty darn scary.” She kissed him long and hard, loving every second of it. She couldn’t wait to get home to be alone with him. “But you’ll get used to it.”

“Doubt it. But then again, what fun would that be?” He stretched out next to her in the hospital bed.

Somehow she’d known this was how things would always be between them. Which was just about as perfect as it could get.

2012 eBook Titles

*also available in print from Genesis Press