Page 5 of Rage's Solace
When he sees my index finger shift from the bullet hole, he curses under his breath again. He doesn’t like that I’m injured. It makes him angry. My foggy brain likes that because it means he’s protective. It’s been so long since anyone protected me that I relax into his care.
He gasps and his hands still on me for a second. Then he states softly, “You’re gonna make it through this Prissy girl. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
I suddenly place that voice. There’s only one person who ever called me that. Raymond Anderson. I reach out with one bloody hand and grasp his arm. It’s really him. He’s not dead, like they said. He’s here and real and whole.
No, I’m hallucinating, he died over ten years ago. Am I dying? Has Ray come to take me to heaven?
It’s getting harder to talk but I force myself to get out, “Mia. No matter what happens to me, you’ve got to protect Mia.”
His hand comes out to cover my wound with something thick and soft like bandages. He whispers, “The little girl. Is her name Mia?”
I nod as darkness closes in around me. I feel lightheaded. It’s so painful it takes my breath away.
“Come on Prissy, stay with me.” My brain is on slow motion and although I can hear his words, I can’t really process them. He goes back to messing with the bullet wound, packing it with more gauze, I think. I can hear Mia crying, then suddenly the room explodes with men in black riot gear.
I barely catch a glimpse of them before Raymond throws his body over mine and shouts to Mia, “Stay down kid. All the way down. I’ll cover you.”
It’s all too much. I don’t know if I got shot again or what but my eyelids close so slowly that I can see them shutting in a way that I never did before, and I’m frightened that this is the last thing I’ll ever see.
***
I wake up, expecting to be in an ambulance but I’m in a regular vehicle, a truck maybe. I can hear Mia crying in the back and an IV bag hanging off Raymond’s rear view mirror.
When I lift my head to look at him, he reaches out to touch my cheek. “Sorry, all the ambulances are at the site of a largemotor vehicle accident. I’m improvising because you need to be at the ER, ASAP.”
“Mommy, are you okay? I thought you died.”
Damn Conrad all the way to hell for putting Mia through this. I try to organize my thoughts so I can say something to make her feel better, but Raymond beats me to the punch.
“Hey, your mom is going to be fine. She’s just lost a lot of blood and needs to conserve her energy to get better right now. Let’s let her rest, okay pumpkin?”
“Alright. I get it,” Mia responds, sounding more than a little despondent.
I snatch up all my energy and tell him, “Don’t let Conrad take her.”
He glances at me for a second before saying, “Conrad didn’t make it.”
I want to ask more questions, but I just can’t. I lay my head back down and try to gather my scattered thoughts. At first, I can’t believe it’s true, that the man I’ve been trapped with for the last eleven years is gone, just like that. And what are the chances that Raymond Anderson walked back into my life the very moment I needed him the most? It’s one in a million.
***
I must have blacked out again because when I wake up, I’m in a hospital room. There are two chairs beside my bed, one for Ray and the other for Mia. Seeing them side-by-side is strange. They both have the same green eyes, and brown, naturally curly hair. It makes me wonder if he can see what I see when I look atthem together. For a moment, a strange thought springs into my mind, but then I come to my senses. It can’t be true, it’s wishful thinking. Then another thought crosses through my mind, Ray is dead, he died over a decade ago in a motorcycle accident. I saw his grave for myself.
My heart starts racing and it must have set the machines off bleeping because Ray jumps to his feet and rushes to my bedside. Mia is standing beside him in an instant, her eyes wide with concern, “Mommy, how are you feeling? The doctor said you were going to be okay. Do you feel okay yet?”
I reach out to take my innocent little daughter’s hand in mine. Something really weird is going on because my hand feels like it weighs fifty pounds. I try and calm down my racing thoughts and I do my best to smile and ease her fears. “I’m feeling a hundred percent better, baby. Once I’m all rested up, we can go home.”
That’s when Raymond speaks up. “It looks like you might here for a bit. Your injuries were pretty substantial.”
“Thank you for saving us, Ray. I can’t thank you enough.”
“You’re very welcome. Do you have anyone Mia can stay with while you’re hospitalized?”
I shake my head, then wince in pain. “I’m not in touch with my parents, we haven’t spoken in years. They’re living on the East Coast now.”
“What about her paternal grandparents?” he asks.
“Her paternal grandmother died a few years ago and her grandfather has similar issues as my husband. I’m not sure I’d want her being around him.” I don’t even mention Ashton,Conrad’s brother, who was lurking on the fringes of our life since before we got married. At the thought of him I have to resist the urge to shudder. Now with Conrad gone, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be safe again.