Chapter 66
A half hour later, Bishop stood to leave. The three of us had spent the last thirty minutes talking, a lot about what happened at dinner, and a little about the very first time Lawton and I had met.
"So you're Hospital Girl," Bishop said. He glanced at Lawton. "You could've mentioned that."
"Why?" Lawton said. "So you could spend another five years giving me a hard time? No thanks."
"Hospital Girl?" I said.
Lawton gave a sheepish grin. "I didn't know your real name."
"Well, you could've mentioned it to me," I said. "I never gave you a hard time."
Bishop made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort.
"Hey," I said. "I didn't. Much."
I turned back to Lawton. "So why didn't you tell me?"
"Maybe," he said, "I wanted you to love me, not that guy on the sidewalk."
I rolled my eyes. "Because the guy on the sidewalk lost a fight? Lawton, don't you get it? Win, lose, it doesn't matter. I don't love you because of what you do or what you have. I love you because of who you are."
Lawton grinned. "You wanna say that again?"
"That's it," Bishop said. "I'm gonna go get your car. See ya in a few days."
"Um, actually," I said, "I think I lost his keys."
"Not a problem," Bishop said.
"So you've got a spare?" I said.
"Something like that."
"Hey," Lawton called out to Bishop, when he was halfway to the door. "Have 'em drop a car in visitor's parking, will ya? Something low-key."
Nodding, Bishop walked out the door, silently, just like he'd come.
"He's kind of scary," I said.
"Baby," Lawton said, "you don't know the half of it."
"Speaking of which." I turned to face him. "Since you're incapacitated…"
He raised his eyebrows. "Incapacitated? That's what you think, huh?"
I gave it some thought. I'd seen him walk away from a different hospital looking far worse than this. "Hey, I'll take what I can get." I gave him a stern look. "Time to answer some questions, mister."
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
I glanced toward the door that Bishop had just walked out of. "Just what is it that you two are involved in?"
His smile faded. "What do you mean?"
"Oh c'mon," I said. "Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I mean. You've got this bullet-proof car and all kinds of weird skills—"
"Like what?"
"Well, like getting into locked houses, for starters."
"Oh that."
"Yeah. That."
"Sorry," he said. "I can't tell you."
Silently, I studied his face. He didn't look sorry.
"Why not?" I said.
"Because I've taken an oath."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh please. Do I look dumb to you?"
"No," he said. "What you look is so damn beautiful, it hurts just to look at you."
"Now you're just sucking up."
"Yeah. But that doesn't mean it's not true."
"Are you ever gonna tell me?" I said.
"Yup."
"So why won't you now?"
"Because we're not married." He grinned. "Yet."
My lips twitched. "Yet?"
"A guy can hope, right?"
"C'mon, be serious."
"You think I'm not?"
"Honestly?" I said. "I'm not sure."
He grinned. "Good. Because whatever happens, I'm gonna do it right. Because you deserve it, and a hell of a lot more."
My knees were trembling, and I was having a hard time focusing. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? And if so, how did I feel about that? I heard a giggle. Oh God, it was coming from me. My face blazing, I slapped both hands over my mouth and tried to look serious.
Lawton reached up, gently tugging my elbow until I tumbled down next to him, lying with him in the hospital bed, shoes and all.
I was laughing so hard, I couldn't stop. "You're gonna get me trouble," I said.
"From who?" he asked.
"The nurse."
"Eh, if she gives you a hard time, we'll just leave."
"You can't do that," I said.
"Why not? We'll just walk out and take care of the paperwork later."
I believed him, too. "So tell me," I said. "What happened that night we first met? Obviously, you lost a fight, but–"
He shook his head. "I didn't lose."
"But I saw you," I said. "No offense, but you were a mess. If you won, then the other guy must've ended up dead."
I froze. It would explain so much, the cigarette burns, him getting tossed out of a vehicle that barely slowed down, his warnings for me to stay quiet.
"Oh my God," I said. "Is that what happened? You killed someone?"
He laughed. "No. But you should see the look on your face. It makes me glad I didn't."
"Oh stop it," I said. "So what did happen?"
"You're right about one thing. It was a fight, except I was supposed to lose."
"Why?"
"Remember that businessman I told you about?"
"The one who loaned money to your Grandma?"
"Yeah. Well, you know that old saying. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse."
"To throw the fight?"
"Yup. And he'd forgive the loan. Refuse and, well, let's just say he'd be very unhappy."
"So you agreed?"
"Yeah. I was young and dumb. I knew I shouldn't. But I kept thinking of getting that loan off her back. It seemed a small price, wrong as it was."
"So what happened?" I said.
"One f*cking punch."
"What do you mean?"
"So I'm supposed to make it look good, right? Hit him a few times. He hits me back. He was supposed to be some tough guy, won a lot of fights. So I hit the guy. Just once. And it's all over. He was on the ground. The crowd was going nuts. The guy never got up. And that businessman, the one who paid me to take a dive, he saw the whole thing."
"So then what?" I said.
"Well, as you can imagine, he wasn't too happy."
My voice was very quiet. "So he tried to kill you?"
Lawton laughed. "Nah. He liked me. Had 'em drop me at the hospital, right?"
"Drop you?" I said. "I was there, remember? They squealed up and kicked you out. You could've died."
"Nah, it'll take more than that to kill me."
I reached out to trace one of the old cigarette burns, faint, but unmistakable now that I knew what I was looking at. "They hurt you," he said.
"Baby," he said, "whatever they did, it didn't hurt half so bad as losing you."
I felt my eyes grow misty. "Really?"
"Yeah. Even then. First time we met. That's why I couldn't have you talking about it."
"Why not?"
"Because them hurting me, I can deal with. But them hurting you, I wasn't gonna let it happen. I still remember that night. You were so sweet." He laughed. "And funny."
"I was not funny," I said.
"You were too," he said. "And so f*cking beautiful. And your voice. Man, I loved the sound of it."
"You couldn't have loved it that much," I teased. "You left without saying goodbye."
"I had to," he said, "for your sake. Those weren't nice people."
"That's for sure."
"And then, a couple months ago, when I'd almost given up on finding you again, there you were, walking right past my house, looking just the same as I remembered."
"This is totally unfair, you know."
"How so?" he said.
"I had no idea what you looked like." I smiled. "But what I did see, and heard, I liked. I liked a lot." I looked around the hospital room. "Want to know what I wish?"
"What?"
"I wish we were somewhere else."
He smiled. "Yeah?" He sat up. "Let's go."
"Oh stop it," "You're supposed to stay at least twelve hours."
"For what?"
"Observation."
He leaned close to nuzzle my neck. "The only person I want observing me," he said, "is you."