Saving Scotty (12 page)

“Of course. I knew that you would have helped me, even if, god forbid, I would have done something like that. That’s the kind of guy you are. And I’m lucky to have you as a friend. I mean that.”

We finished our drinks and then I told Ryan that I would be sitting on the same couch as Scotty. She was sleeping, but I felt the need to be close to her anyhow. Ryan nodded his head in understanding.

So, for the rest of the flight, I sat there and just watched Scotty sleep.

And it was the happiest I had felt in days.

Chapter 22

We landed in La Guardia after our four hour flight. Scotty was still fast asleep on the couch, so I gently nudged her. When she still didn’t wake up, I knew that she was extremely exhausted, so I just picked her up and put her into a wheelchair that I had called for while I was still on St. Croix.

Then I said my goodbyes to Ryan. We hugged each other and I said “Thanks, again, buddy. I don’t think that I could’ve done it without you.”

“I’m quite sure that you could’ve done it without me. You’ve always been a man of action. But I was still happy to help.”

“Even so, you helped me more than you could know. I mean, I would’ve eventually found her, but it might have taken considerably longer if you weren’t around. And who knows what would’ve happened.” I shuddered to think about that. “So, I owe you.”

“No. You saved my life more times than I can count. You owe me nothing.”

“Be that as it may, I still appreciate you.”

Then, with a smile, Ryan said. “Well, I better get going. My animal foundation and my family are waiting for me. But keep in touch, ok?”

“You know I will.”

And, at that, Ryan got on his plane, and I went into the airport so that I could push Scotty to meet Charlie, who was going to come and pick us up.

Charlie came around, and I gently put Scotty into the seat and told him to take us home.

∞

Scotty didn’t wake up for the next few hours. When we arrived back at my loft, I laid her down on my bed and sat next to the bed, just watching her. I was watching her both because I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, that was how happy I was to have her safe and sound, and also because I was worried about her. I was worried about her bruises, her color
, and the amount of weight that she had lost. I was probably going to have to take her to the hospital when she woke up, but I didn’t want to take her until she was conscious. I thought that if she woke up in the hospital, it might be a little bit disorienting for her, and it also might scare her, because of what happened the last time she woke up in the hospital.

So, I just sat there, watching her chest heave up and down. Truth be told, I also was thinking, while I watched her sleep. I was thinking about how I was going to confront Portia, and also how I was going to tell the partners that I was going to walk if she stayed at the firm. I was thinking about how it was that I was going to convince Scotty that what she saw was not accurate.

I also called Jack.

“Hello?” Jack said when I called him.

“Jack. Nick O’Hara.”

“Oh, hello handsome. What can I do you for?”

“Uh, I don’t know if you know this. But Scotty, uh, went missing for about 72 hours or so.”

“Oh, shit. I didn’t know that. I just figured that she was staying with you, like she usually does.”

“She’s staying with me now. But she probably will want to see you. You’re like a brother to her, and she’s pretty destroyed right now. I was wondering if you could come over and stay over here for a little while.”

“Sure,” he said. “Do you need me to bring an overnight bag?”

“Yeah. I mean, I hope that I’m not being presumptuous, but she’s been through some considerable trauma. She needs a support team, and that would definitely include you. So, yeah, if you could stay over here for a couple of days, or even longer, that would be fantastic.”

“Sure, whatever you need.”

“I’ll send Charlie around to pick you up.”

“I’ll be looking for him.”

Jack arrived within the hour. His eyes got big when he went up to my bedroom and looked at tiny Scotty, laying on the bed and still snoring away. “Oh, my god,” he said. “She looks terrible. What happened?”

I took a deep breath. “Well, you probably will have to let Scotty tell you the details, but all that I know is that she spent the past few days as a captive of Mr. Lucas in his home on St. Croix.”

“What? I don’t understand?”

I stood up and motioned him to come downstairs with me. “We need to talk somewhere else. Scotty’s asleep, but she might still be able to hear us, even if it’s her subconscious picking it up. I don’t want her to stress too much.”

“Of course,” Jack said.

So, the two of us went downstairs and I made both of us drinks.

“So, start over,” Jack said. “What happened to her?”

“Oh, where to
begin,” I said, but I started at the very beginning, when Scotty apparently saw Portia and me, and filled him in on all the details that I knew.

“Oh, god,” Jack said. “So, Mr. Lucas got ahold of her and that’s why she has all those bruises and she looks like she hasn’t eaten for days.”

“Right. She looks like she hasn’t eaten in days because she probably
hasn’t
eaten for days. Anyhow, I need to make sure that that monster doesn’t see the light of day anymore, outside of a prison cell. I also need to make sure that Scotty is safe at all times. I’m going to call my lawyer in the morning to ensure that Mr. Lucas, the subhuman cretin, is not considered to be legally related to Scotty anymore. And, as soon as Scotty is coherent, I’m taking her to the hospital and I’m going to try to make sure that she presses charges against the bastard.”

Jack nodded. “All of that sounds like a pretty good plan to get her back on her feet. What can I do to help?”

“Be there for her. You’re her best friend. She’ll probably confide in you more than she would me. I’m sure that she’s fearful and ashamed of what happened to her on that island, and she might have a difficult time opening up to me, as she always has. So, be her sounding board.”

Jack looked at me, with a look of awe on his face.

I looked at him with a quizzical look.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just staring at you, because I didn’t think that men like you existed in the world. You’ve so amazing to her.”

“Not so amazing. I’m just looking out for her best interest.”

“Well, good. It’s good to know that somebody is.”

Chapter 23

Scotty

I woke up on Nick’s bed. I had no idea how I got there. The last thing I remember was that Nick was putting me on Ryan’s private plane, and he was laying me down and telling me to sleep. And, I apparently was exhausted, so sleep was exactly what I did.

It was then that I realized that I hadn’t really slept in several days. I was under too much stress at Mr. Lucas’ house, so I wasn’t sleeping like I should have been. So, I was physically exhausted.

I didn’t know how tired I was, though, until I woke up at Nick’s loft, and it was 7 O’clock in the evening. I think that we were on the plane the previous night at around 9 O’clock, or so, which meant that I was asleep for almost 24 hours.

I heard Nick downstairs talking to Jack.
Jack was here? When did that happen?
I tried to get my bearings and come to terms about everything that had happened to me in the past few days. It was all so surreal, so I thought that maybe I had dreamed it all. It also seemed to happen so fast.

But it all came flooding back to me. And, when I started remembering and processing what Mr. Lucas was doing to me, I started to panic. I felt so dirty and ashamed. So humiliated. It was then, when I was safe in Nick’s bed, that I really started to examine what had happened to me on that island. Before, when I actually was with Mr. Lucas, I was only fixated on survival. I couldn’t really think about what was happening to me, because, if I did, I would have lost my mind.

And then I started to think about how I was so desperate that I wanted to die.

I involuntarily cried out, and the two men downstairs came rushing to my bedside. “Scotty,” Nick said. “Are you okay? Can I get you anything?”

I took a deep breath. “No, Nick, you can’t.” And then I looked at Jack. “Jack, please, take me home.”

“Girl, no offense, but I’m not taking you nowhere. I’m staying here with you, at the loft. You know this is much better accommodations than the shithole we live in.” Jack was smiling as he said all of this, so I knew that he was joking.

“Jack, it’s not funny.” And then I looked at Nick. “Would you excuse us? I have to talk to Jack alone.”

Nick nodded, but he gave Jack a look. Jack looked
at him and nodded back. And, just like that, Nick left.

I took a deep breath. “Jack, we have to get out of here. I can’t be here.”

Jack took my hand. “Love, here’s the thing. Nick told me what you thought you saw in Portia’s office.”

“What I thought I saw? What I thought I saw? I did see it, Jack. I saw him and her and their nakedness. I did see it. So, I can’t be here, because I can’t be with him anymore. Please, let’s call a cab and get
us out of here.”

“Calm down, love. Just calm down.”

“I can’t calm down. I won’t calm down until I’m out of this loft and into a cab and we’re going home.”

Still, Jack sat there and looked at me, his expression soft.

“What is your problem?” I asked him. “I just told you that Nick had sex with Portia. Why aren’t you threatening to kick his ass? In fact, why aren’t you kicking his ass right now? I mean, Nick’s a big guy and in amazing shape, but I’ve seen you in action in your bitch fights. You know how to fight dirty. You can take him.”

“Scotty, you have to calm down. Otherwise, I’m just going to have to leave the room until you do. Because I have something to tell you, but I know you, and I know that you won’t listen to a word I say unless you’re calm.”

I was trying to listen to what Jack was telling me, but I was completely riled. Jack wasn’t listening to me, just like nobody had ever listened to me. And I was ready to cut a bitch right at that moment.

“Listen, Jack. Either you get me out of here, or I’ll, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” Jack asked, his eyebrow raised and his patented
bitch, please
look on his face. “Listen, girl, I don’t want to point out the obvious, but you’re like crippled right now. You can’t go anywhere. So, you might as well shut your pie hole and listen to me.”

I said nothing, but just crossed my arms in front of me. I was so angry I couldn’t see straight. So, I pointed at the skywalk
that bordered the bedroom loft and said “OUT, NOW! And don’t come back until you’re ready to listen to me and do what I ask you to do!”

Jack just gave me a disgusted smirk and got up and walked out of the room. I heard him walking down the stairs, and I heard him say to Nick “I tried. She’s not ready to hear it yet. I’ll talk to her later.”

“Thanks, Jack. Do you think it’s okay if I go up there?”

“Better not. She needs to stew in her own juices.” That last part was said with a deliberately raised voice, because Jack obviously wanted me to hear it.

“I can hear you, Jack!” I yelled down. “I can hear every word you say! I might be crippled, but I’m not deaf!”

“I know that!” he yelled back. “Why do you think that I’m talking in such a loud voice?”

At that, I lay back down on the bed and put the covers over my head. I wanted to cry out in sheer frustration, but I didn’t want Nick to come running up here and giving me his sympathetic boyfriend act.

I wanted to put as much distance between myself and Nick as possible, so that I could begin the process of rebuilding my shattered life. As long as I was there as Nick’s loft, I couldn’t possibly begin the healing process. Why couldn’t Jack understand that? He was my surrogate big brother. He was supposed to be on my side. Yet, he, for some odd reason, decided to take the side of the man-whore downstairs.

Okay, so that man-whore just literally saved my life.

But, then again, if it weren’t for that man-whore, my life never would have been in danger in the first place.

Jack was right, though. I was stewing in my own juices. But, after the ordeal that I just went through, I had a reason to and a right to. I needed to find a way to overcome this new trauma, and it wasn’t going to be with Nick by my side.

It just wasn’t.

Chapter 24

Nick

Jack had just come back down the stairs after trying to talk to Scotty. I was heartbroken to hear that Scotty wasn’t quite ready to hear the truth about Portia and me.

After Jack and Scotty were done with their yelling at each other back and forth, between Jack in the living room and Scotty in the loft bedroom, I motioned to Jack to come with me to the den. Scotty wouldn’t be able to hear us there, and I needed to talk to him some more about what was going on.

“Have a seat, Jack,” I said. “Let me offer you a drink.”

“Ooh, a cocktail. To tell the truth, I haven’t had a cocktail in several days. I’ve been too busy busting my hump trying to find more Broadway work.”

“How are things going with Bob’s production?”

“Oh, great. But, it’s a chorus part. I’m ready for something more big-time. But it’s a stepping stone, for sure. Thanks again for helping me get that part.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Both of us sat down on the couch, and I put my drink on the coffee table, on top of a coaster.

“So, I guess that you and Scotty are like brother and sister, huh?” I said to Jack.

“Yeah. As you could hear, we fight like brother and sister. But we love like brother and sister, too, so it’s all good. Sorry about her stubbornness. She can be like a mule sometimes.”

“Well, she’s hurt. Physically and mentally. Which reminds me. Charlie should be here at any moment, with the painkillers that Scotty’s doctor prescribed for her. So, be watching for it.”

“Of course,” he said, sipping his mojito. “So, I guess I need to go back up there at some point, when she’s calmed down, and try to talk to her again.”

I nodded my head and took a deep breath. “Yeah. But, what if she doesn’t believe the truth? You know her, probably better than anybody in the world. I wish that I knew her as well as you do, but, of course, she and I haven’t been together that long. Do you think that she’s going to believe what really happened in that office?”

“Girlfriend better believe it. God, I was so pissed at her when she gave you such a hard time before. I could tell that you’re a good guy and that you’re genuinely in love with her. She just wouldn’t believe me, though. So, I finally just gave up. The problem with Scotty is that sometimes she gets in her own way. Not that I can blame her. Poor girl had such a shitty life. But it’s frustrating
when you see somebody making so many mistakes, and you just can’t do anything about it. You just want to shake them sometimes.”

“I know what you mean. But, to be fair, Scotty had a reason not to trust me. I have been a bad, bad boy. To tell you the truth, I had all but given up on finding somebody to truly love until I met her. But she doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know the life that I have led and why I have always been hesitant to get emotionally involved with women.”

Jack took a sip of his mojito. “This is delicious, by the way,” he said. “You know, I’m curious, though. You’ve had issues with opening up before. Why now? Why Scotty? I mean, she’s a special girl, that’s for sure. But what made you decide to give your heart to her?”

“I’ve asked myself that very question. It’s partly that she’s so spectacular in so many ways.
Strong yet vulnerable. Intelligent yet naïve. Guileless and sweet, but I can tell that she can be a badass if she wants to be. So many contradictions, and so wickedly talented and beautiful, which doesn’t hurt.”

“She is all of those things. But so are probably a lot of other women. So, why her?”

I sighed. “She’s, she’s, she’s…the one. Sometimes it just comes down to that, you know?”

At that, Jack smiled broadly. “Yeah. The one. Man, I wish I found that myself.”

“You will. When you’re not looking. I certainly wasn’t looking. Hell, I was dating a supermodel when I first noticed Scotty. Supermodels, for me, were safe to date, at least the ones that I met, because they’re so into themselves. I’m quite sure that there are supermodels who aren’t like that, but the ones who I was attracted to were. When you’re dating a narcissist, there’s zero chance of falling in love. Which was how I wanted it. Then, somehow, someway, Scotty snuck in, just when I least expected it. And I haven’t been the same since.”

“Scotty hasn’t either. I mean, I know that she gave you a hard time, but, you now what? That girl is deeply in love with you. I mean, head over Pradas. So, don’t worry, I’m gonna give her some time and then go up there and talk to her again and try to make her see the truth about what happened between you and the evil queen bitch at your firm. And, we got all the time in the world. With that broken leg, she can’t go nowhere.”

I smiled, in spite of myself. I felt a little bit uncomfortable that he was being so casual about Scotty’s injury, but, then, it made me see how close their relationship was that they can kid each other about such things.

“So,” Jack said. “Scotty’s the little sister that I never had. You got any siblings yourself?”

I took a deep breath. “No. I mean, I have a best friend that I love like a brother. But, no.”

“Oh, an only child, huh?
Me, too, technically. But, like you, I feel that I have a sister, ‘cause that’s what Scotty is.”

Another deep breath. “No, I’m not an only child. I, I, I had a sister. Her name was Michelle.”

“Oh,” Jack said, and looked down at his drink. “I’m very sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Yeah. She, uh, died of cancer when I was only 12.” I swallowed hard, because I could feel a lump coming into my throat. “She was only 14 herself. She, uh, was really somebody special, too. I mean, we fought, like brother and sister do. But she always looked out for me.”

Jack was sitting there, and I could see little tears start to form in his eyes. He just silently sipped his drink, and looked like he wanted me to continue.

I laughed a little. “God, I was so mad at her one time. I think I was about 7 years old, and she was 9, and I was kinda a scrawny kid. Anyhow, there was another boy, and I think that I was flirting with his little girlfriend. You know, like you do when you’re seven. You pretend that you’re getting married to them, and you give them a little Barbie doll or something. I knew that this little girl was ‘going with’ this other little boy, but I didn’t care. She liked me too, and I gave her a little trinket that I got at a swap meet.”

Jack looked like he was charmed with this story, because he was smiling a little.

“And that didn’t go over too well. So funny. I guess that I was a little womanizer even then. Sorry, a girlalyzer. Ha, I just made a new word. Anyhow. That little boy and I arranged to fight it out at the playground after school hours. But Michelle, she found out what I was going to do, and damned if she didn’t
show up there too.” Then I started really laughing. “So, Michelle, she lectured this little boy about how fighting was wrong, and that she was going to tell his parents and all of this. And I was about ready to punch Michelle instead of Tommy, the little boy.” I shook my head. “I was so pissed. She obviously had no idea how boys settled things.”

“So, what happened with you and the little girl?”

“Ah, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort, so I moved on to another little girl in class. Pamela, that was her name, hated me so much after that. She dumped Tommy, too.”

Both Jack and I started laughing at the story.

Then I got serious again. “That, uh, that was the story that I told at her funeral. Because she was protecting me just because she loved me and she didn’t want to see me get hurt.” I shook my head. “I closed myself off emotionally after that. You know, you’re a man. You learn pretty early on that crying is for girls, and emotions are for babies. But, you know what? That’s bullshit. I wanted to cry, I wanted to get emotional. I wanted to show how lonely and depressed I got after she died. But I couldn’t. So, I just found a way to push it all down.”

Jack touched my arm. “But you found a way to open up, huh?”

“Well, Ryan, my best friend, helped with that. He came to live with us not long after Michelle passed, and it was such a breath of fresh air. He brought my parents back to life, because they felt that they had another son. And he needed us so much. He was always the one who wore his emotions on his sleeve. I tried to be like him, really, but I went the other way. I just couldn’t open myself up like he always could.”

“But that’s changed, right?”

“Yeah. That’s changed. That changed with that beautiful woman upstairs. My heart is open now, and it feels amazing. I never thought that it would happen, but it did.”

Jack nodded his head. “Well, then, there’s no question. Scotty belongs with you, and you belong with her. She might be hard-headed, but she’s really just trying to protect herself too. God knows she’s earned to right to do so, poor girl. But, don’t worry. She’ll see the light and she’ll understand what happened with you and Portia, and then she’ll let you help her through what happened to her on that island.”

“Right. I mean, I don’t know exactly what did happen to her on that island, but I could just imagine. That man. He’s cruel. You look in his eyes, and you can just sense his depravity. I felt nauseated just being in the same vicinity as him. But as soon as Scotty is strong enough, I’m going to have to work on her to make sure that she goes to the police about this. For that matter, I need to take her to the hospital.”

“She won’t go. She hates hospitals. And, considering she was abducted from one, I doubt that you can get her to step foot in another one without her literally kicking and screaming.”

“I know. I have a feeling that you’re right about that. But I wish that she would. I don’t want to be indelicate, but there needs to be evidence of what happened to her so that we can nail that bastard to the wall. The longer we wait, the less likely that there’s going to be any evidence to be found. But, I don’t want to pressure her, either. She’s been through enough already.”

Jack looked thoughtful. “Well, I can certainly try to talk her about going to a hospital, so that they can do a rape kit on her. But, don’t be surprised if she throws me out of the room again.”

“Thanks, I would appreciate that immensely.”

“Not a problem.” Then he took another swig of his mojito and said “well, I’m going in. Wish me luck.”

“Luck,” I said with a smile.

After he left, I was left with my thoughts. I wanted so badly to go up there and hold her and comfort her. But, at the moment, she wanted zero to do with me.

I silently prayed that Jack could get through to her, so that I could truly help her recover from all that she went through on that island.