Yellowstone Heart Song (Yellowstone Romance Series Book 1) (25 page)

“How did he get injured?” Her words were barely a whisper. Her heart pounded in her ears.

“We set up a new camp after dark. Daniel wasn’t much in the mood for more talk, and I thought it’d be best if I left him alone with his thoughts. The next morning, he was already gone when I woke. He must have been elsewhere with his mind, otherwise he’d have never let himself fall into an ambush. A party of five Blackfoot surprised him. By the time I caught up with him, he already killed three, but they got him good. I shot one before he could finished Daniel off, and the last one hightailed it into the woods.”

Aimee’s hand covered her mouth. Her eyes stung with tears at Zach’s tale.

“I’ve become too damned dependent on that snake. I knew if I didn’t bring him here, he’d be a goner. I couldn’t watch my son die.” Zach ran a weary hand over his face.

 “So, this all just happened? In 1810, I’ve only been gone five days?”  Aimee shook her head, trying to comprehend the timeline.

“The device doesn’t send someone forward in time exactly 200 years. Going back, it’s no more than a day or two difference, but going forward ain’t always exact. Sometimes weeks or months more, but never less. I think it’s so there can never be a repeat of something that’s already happened to the person doing the time traveling.”

Aimee closed her eyes, and inhaled long and slow. “When Daniel gets out of surgery, he’s going to be completely disoriented,” she finally said. “He’s the only one who doesn’t know what’s happening. I need to be there when he wakes up.” She looked at Jana, who nodded. “I hope he forgives me for all the lies I’ve told him.”

****

 Another hour passed before Brad strode into the waiting room. Jana had gone to finish her shift, and Aimee stayed with Zach. Neither one of them spoke, each absorbed in their own thoughts.

Zach sprang up from his seat when Brad called his name. Aimee didn’t move. She sat quietly in the corner of the room. She watched and listened. Brad, still wearing surgical scrubs, extended his hand to Zach.

“Well, he made it through surgery. The next 24 hours are going to be critical, and . . .” his voice trailed off when he spotted her.  “Aimee? What are you doing here?”

“Waiting to see how your patient is doing,” she said.

“Do you know him?” Brad asked.

“Yes,” she said while looking straight at Brad. He seemed a bit confused, but turned his attention back to Zach. “No vital organs were badly damaged, but there was a lot of internal bleeding. He’s had several blood transfusions, and we need to monitor him close to make sure the bleeding has stopped.” His eyes darted to Aimee while he spoke to Zach.

“When can I see him?” Zach asked.

“He’ll be in recovery for a while. When we move him to ICU, you can speak to him.”

Aimee rushed from the room. Brad called to her, but she ignored him.

“He just went into recovery.” Jana emerged from the recovery suite. “He hasn’t woken up yet.”

“I need to get in there and be with him when he wakes up,” Aimee said urgently.

“Follow me.”

A nurse stood and adjusted an IV line on Daniel’s arm when Aimee and Jana walked in.

“I’ll take it from here,” Jana said.

“Thanks,” the nurse gave Jana a grateful look. “I really need to use the restroom.” She hurried off.

For the first time, Aimee stared at the patient in the hospital bed. Her hand went to her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears. She almost didn’t recognize him. His hair framed his face in matted strands, and a week-old beard covered his handsome features. A white hospital sheet concealed him from his torso down, the tops of a bandage visible. Spots of betadine and dried blood still splattered his chest.

“Daniel,” she whispered softly.

Jana stood by silently as Aimee took hold of Daniel’s limp hand and held it gently. 

“Daniel, if you can hear me, it’s me, Aimee.” She bent over him, her head close to his face.  Daniel stirred, and his arms reached up defensively to his face.

“Shh, shh,” Aimee tried to calm him. “You have to lie still, Daniel. It’s okay. I’m right here with you.”

Daniel slowly opened his eyes, and squinted against the bright lights.

“Aimee?” His voice was barely audible.

“It’s me, Daniel.” Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. “Please don’t be afraid. I know when you wake up everything will look very strange to you, but you have to trust me. Everything we’re doing is to help you live, okay?” She sat on the hospital bed and cradled Daniel’s head between her hands. She rested her forehead against his. Daniel’s arms lifted, and his hands reached for her face.

“I thought I lost you.” His voice sounded weak and hoarse.

“Never,” she whispered, her heart beating wildly.

“Aimee? What the hell is this?” A tense, familiar voice barked behind her.

Her head shot up and she straightened.

“Let me guess,” Brad finally sneered, glaring at her, then at the patient in the bed. “That’s your Montana woodsman.”

Jana turned to face him. “Don’t make a scene,” she whispered to him. “You took a Hippocratic oath, remember?”

“You can’t be serious!” Brad glowered at Jana.  “I’m not going to hurt my patient, but you’ll have to excuse me that I’m not doing the happy dance to see her with another man.”

“Leave them be,” Jana said softly. “Please.”

With a snort, Brad turned and left the recovery room. “Page me if you need something,” he called over his shoulder.

“Thank you once again, for coming to my rescue.” Aimee breathed a sigh of relief.

“Where the hell am I?” Daniel asked weakly.

“I’ll tell you everything, Daniel, but for now just lie still to let your head clear, okay?”

Daniel squirmed and tried to raise his upper body off the bed, but stopped and groaned in obvious pain.

“I told you to lie back,” Aimee ordered, and pushed against his shoulders. “You’ve been stabbed several times, and those wounds are going to split open again if you don’t stay still.”

Daniel complied, and grimaced. “Did you sew me back up?”

“No.” Aimee held her breath.

He raised his head to look around, a frown forming on his face. “Where the hell are we?” he asked again.

“We’re in a hospital,” Aimee answered.

Daniel’s forehead wrinkled. “Hospital? How did I get here?”

“Would you just be still? I’ll tell you later. Everything is going to look very strange to you, but you have to wake up fully before I can explain everything. Don’t freak out at the tubes in your arms and everywhere else.”

“Freak out?” Daniel glanced down at his arms and chest.

“It’s what you’re about to do. And don’t pull on that! It’s a needle in your arm that is putting fluids in your body.”

Daniel stared at his arm, then back at Aimee.

“Your father brought you here when you were trying to commit suicide with those Blackfoot,” Aimee offered quietly in the way of an explanation. Her heart pounded in her ears, dreading Daniel’s reaction.

****

 Daniel struggled to clear the fog from his mind. There was something he should remember, but his brain would not function properly. He’d never been this drunk before. His father must have offered him a lot of alcohol to numb the pain.

“Jana, come meet Daniel.” Aimee turned briefly to her friend, then faced him again. “Daniel, this is my best friend, Jana Evans. I think I’ve mentioned her to you before.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Daniel,” Jana said cordially. “And I have to say, Aimee was not exaggerating one bit.”

Daniel stared, cursing his foggy mind. The woman in front of him wore the same type of clothing as Aimee. Her hair was darker than Aimee’s and shorter than his own. Where the hell was he?

“What is going on?” he asked. His eyes darted from Jana to Aimee, to his strange and unnatural surroundings.

With a pained look on her face, Aimee said, “No more half-truths, Daniel. Your father and I are going to tell you everything.”

“What’s my father got to do with this?” His mind was trying to tell him something, but it stayed just beyond his reach, and each time he thought he had a grasp on what he should remember, it vanished again.

“We’ll explain everything, and you’ll finally know the truth about me, too.” Aimee smiled uneasily. Tears shimmered in her lovely eyes.

Daniel focused on her face, and tried to clear his muddled brain. Suddenly it came to him as his bleary eyes took in the strange lights and surroundings. Unfamiliar noises everywhere pounded in his head. Aimee was from the future! Aimee had lied to him. Used him. Deceived him. Comprehension suddenly dawned as to his whereabouts.  He closed his eyes again to shut out the reality of his situation. His father must have brought him to the future. Daniel wished he had left him to die.

Chapter 23

Strange sounds echoed in his head. Daniel couldn’t focus his eyes or ears. His eyelids felt heavy, and his vision blurred when he did manage to keep his eyes open. He just wanted to give himself over to sleep, but his deeply ingrained instinct to be alert at all times prompted him to fight the sensations.

He felt as if someone had beaten him over the head several times while coming out of a drunken stupor all at once. He had never felt this weak before, and his surroundings were surreal. Too many strange noises that he had never heard before pounded in his head, and the bright lights shone in his eyes, nearly blinding him. Perhaps he was already dead. He dismissed that thought immediately. If he were dead, he wouldn’t be feeling any pain, and right now his gut was on fire.

Those damn Blackfoot had gotten him good. Five warriors had come out of nowhere. He’d killed two of them immediately with well-aimed arrows. He disposed of another attacker with his knife, but a fourth warrior stabbed him several times. His father had caught up to him at that point and shot one. Daniel couldn’t remember anything after that.

He hadn’t been able to think straight for a week prior to that incident. He had come back from checking his traps, and Aimee was gone. Her pack and all her belongings were missing as well. Everything except her moccasins, sheepskin coat, and the deerskin dress was gone. She wouldn’t leave without letting him know. An icy fear had gripped him. Aimee had been acting out of sorts for weeks, but never had she indicated that she wanted to leave.

His father’s tale came back to him full force. The memory of that conversation flooded his mind, the memory of how his world and everything he had believed to be true shattered apart. Traveling through time. Aimee was from the future. She was no different from Emma after all. Another lying white woman had deceived him. Only this time it was worse. He had lost his heart to her.

For a moment, he ceased his struggle to open his eyes. Instead he focused on his pain - the physical pain in his gut, not the pain in his heart. His head pounded as if a herd of bison bore down on him, and dizziness threatened to overtake him. His insides were molten fire. He refused to lie still, however. He needed to find his father, to get away from this place, this time. He needed to get back to the world he knew, even if his entire existence had turned out to be a lie.

****

 Aimee tensed. At first, Daniel seemed relieved to find her beside him. Now, he acted withdrawn. He needed to fully wake up, but he obviously remembered what had transpired back in his time. Was he thinking about his conversation with his father?

“Daniel?” she asked hesitantly.

“Where’s my father?” he rasped.

“He’s . . . he’s waiting to see you,” Aimee stammered. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. His sudden anger was apparent. It was all her fault. She had lied to him all this time, and his reaction was exactly as she’d feared.

“I wish to see him now.” Daniel’s voice sounded more forceful. He struggled again to raise his torso off the mattress. Jana quickly moved to his side, and she and Aimee both tried to push him back down.

“You have to lie still, Daniel. It’s too soon after your surgery,” Aimee pleaded. Daniel fought against the pressure of their hands on his shoulders. 

“Get my father,” he commanded through gritted teeth, his cold stare piercing Aimee’s heart.

“He’s going to reinjure himself,” Jana said. “How can he even move already?” She shot Aimee a look of amazement. “I’ve never seen anyone try to move so soon after abdominal surgery.”

“I have,” Aimee said solemnly. “Daniel, you need to lie back and stop fighting,” she implored.

“Dammit, woman, go and get my father!”

Daniel’s confrontational attitude and shouting brought a few more nurses to his bedside. One of them had a syringe in her hand, and injected its contents into the IV line in his arm.

“Boy, he’s a fighter,” she commented.

Aimee stepped back and watched in horror. She may have lost him all over again. A crushing sensation grabbed hold in her chest. Daniel threw a final accusing look in her direction before the sedative he’d been given made him slump back against the pillow. She sucked in a breath at the cold stare of betrayal in his eyes. Then they became unfocused again, and his lids drifted shut. His body relaxed against the mattress.

Aimee collapsed onto a nearby stool and buried her face in her hands. She didn’t look up when Jana’s supportive arms came around her shoulder.

“He’ll come around,” Jana whispered encouragement. “I can’t even imagine what this must be like for him.”

“No, you don’t understand.” Aimee shook her head. “I know what’s going through his mind. I lied to him and deceived him. He hates me now.”

“The way he looked at you, even barely out of anesthesia, before he realized where he was tells me otherwise. Any woman would kill to have a man look at her that way. He’ll come around.”

Aimee wasn’t convinced. She knew him too well.

****

The pain in Daniel’s gut woke him sometime in the middle of the night. Or was it daytime? He had lost all sense of time. Too many strange lights shone everywhere, none of them sunlight. He fought to clear his mind. He raised his head and scanned his surroundings. Strange unfamiliar contraptions  stood everywhere. He didn’t even have words to describe them. He eyed the peculiar smooth thin ropes – were they ropes? – that seemed to be everywhere on his body. Some were grey in color, others were white. They were all attached to his chest, and one transparent rope came out of his arm. The line went to some sort of water bag that hung from a shiny pole. Every time he tried to move, he felt a new rope somewhere on his body.

“What the hell?” Daniel growled. He pulled away the blanket covering him. He wore a shirt that reached just past his privates. Sure enough, there was a tube there as well! This was too much. He had never felt this trapped before. He pulled on the tube, ignoring the sudden burning sensation, until it was out. He was tempted to do the same to the rest of the lines attached to him, but he held off for the moment. He raised himself to a sitting position and slowly pulled his legs over the side of the bed while clutching at the bandage around his middle. White-hot pain shot through his insides, and he clenched his jaw.

He looked around the strange room. Aimee sat curled up in a chair in the corner. Her chest moved up and down rhythmically in sleep. Daniel studied her for a moment. Something squeezed his heart at the sight of her. Her beautiful long hair framed her face, falling in cascades down her shoulders and over her breasts. He wanted to burn the sight of her into his memory, then quickly thought better of it and looked away. She had turned out to be nothing but a deceptive white woman after all. The ache in his heart that came with that knowledge overrode the pain in his gut.

Daniel tried to stand, but a tugging sensation on his chest prevented him from leaving the bed. He reached his hand under the shirt to find where the lines were attached to his skin. He jerked them off impatiently, then stood. The feel of the smooth cold ground beneath his soles was as foreign as everything else. His legs shook and his insides throbbed but he needed to be out of this bed. The shirt he wore only covered his front, while his backside was completely exposed. What a strange world this was.

An instant later, the door to the room burst open, and a woman came barging in.

“What are you doing, sir?” she asked, a horrified look on her face. Daniel scowled. How had she known he’d gotten out of bed? And was the future made up entirely of females? He couldn’t recall seeing a single man anywhere. Was that why they all wore britches?

Aimee stirred awake at the sound of the nurse’s voice, and scrambled off the chair.

“What are you doing?” She rushed to his side and grabbed hold of his arm.

“I couldn’t lie in that bed any longer,” Daniel growled.

“He removed his leads,” the nurse remarked in an exasperated tone. She moved swiftly to his side to usher him back in the bed. She stepped forward, and glanced down at her feet. “Oh Jesus, he pulled out his urinary catheter as well!”

Daniel scowled, and Aimee giggled. She held her hand over her mouth.

“Mr. Osborne, you need to get back in that bed so I can hook you up again,” the nurse said with a stern voice.

“I refuse to have any more of these . . . things attached to my body,” he sneered.

“Can I have a few moments with him, Susan?” Aimee asked quietly. “I think the drugs are making him uncooperative, and I’ll try and calm him down.”

“Okay, Aimee,” the woman said with a shake of her head. “I’d best turn off the EKG alarm at the nurse’s station. But make him see reason, ‘cause I don’t need Dr. Bigsby chewing me out in the morning.”

“I’ll take full responsibility,” Aimee assured her. Facing him, she gently took his hand in hers. He flinched as if she’d burned him and pulled away. Aimee set her face determinedly.

“If you don’t cooperate and lie back down, they’ll give you more drugs to subdue you.” Her tone sounded indifferent.  “You’re a strong man, Daniel, but you can’t fight the medicines in this time.”

He only glared at her.

“Remember what I told Elk Runner? How he needed to lie still? Well, your injury is much worse, and . . .”

He didn’t let her finish. He tugged on her shirt at her waist, and pulled her to him, then brought his mouth roughly down on hers. He couldn’t help himself. He had to taste her lips one last time. Daniel abruptly released her again before Aimee had a chance to even respond.

“You have to listen to me right now. You need to get back in that bed.” Aimee’s voice sounded labored.

Weak and in no state to fight anymore, he complied. He refused to look at her, and reluctantly sat down and pulled himself into the bed.

“Where’s my father?” he asked coldly.

“He’s probably sleeping in the ICU family room. I’ll go get him.” She glanced over her shoulder once more and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Daniel sank back against the pillow, clutched his side, and stared at the ceiling.

****

“Leave us.” Daniel’s voice chilled the room when Aimee returned with Zach in tow. Biting back the tears, her eyes darted from Daniel to his father. Zach gave her an apologetic glance, and nodded almost imperceptibly for her to leave the room.

Aimee reached for the door handle, then turned to gaze one more time at the man she loved more than anything. “Please, Daniel, if you’d only let me explain.”

“No! I’ve heard enough lies!” Daniel lunged up from his position on the bed, but stopped short as he clutched his injured side. Grimacing, he groaned and slumped back against the pillow.

Every cell in her body screamed to rush to his side, to implore him to listen to her, beg his forgiveness, but his reaction just now held her back. She didn’t want to be the cause of him reinjuring himself.

“I love you, Daniel,” she said barely above a whisper, and left the room. Hopefully Zach could talk some sense into him, and she could come back to reattach his leads. Eventually he would have to listen to her and allow her to explain.

****

Aimee had barely closed the door, when Daniel glared at his father. “Why did you bring me here?” he demanded. “You should have left me to die.”

“I couldn’t do that, son,” his father said quietly.

“Take me back,” Daniel ordered. His father’s eyes widened in surprise. “Take me back, now.”

“Daniel, you don’t know what you’re saying. Your injuries.”

Daniel cut him off. “If I die, it’s as it should be. Take me back.”

His father’s eyes drifted over him, and he finally nodded. His hand reached for the pouch around his neck and he removed the snakehead. “All right,” he sighed. “If that’s what you really want. But what about Aimee?”