He didn’t finish the sentence. He was too busy getting knocked off his feet by Doolie, who ran over and tackled him. Doolie got off one good punch, but it wasn’t enough. La Roque rolled him over and started a ground and pound. It turned into bedlamwhen Simon ran over to pull La Roque off his friend, ending up getting knocked down and punched too.
Then the three of them were fighting in a mad scrabble. The fool holding the lighting got knocked over like a bowling pin and knocked Penny over with his hip.
When she fell, it was as if time slowed down to a crawl. The floor was concrete, and when she hit it face up, her skull slapped the hard cement. She lay there stunned, staring up at him. Suddenly, time sped up and released him from his paralysis. Jack scooped her up, forgetting about the brawlers, the camera, or even Charlie, who was bellowing at the top of his lungs for everyone to fucking stop.
“I’m fine, Jack,” Penny said, but her eyes were big and frightened. She touched the back of her head, and her fingers came back bloody. His heart stopped. “What about the…?”
It was as though a giant snake was writhing in his body, squeezing his organs, shooting venomous panic into every vein.
If she was hurt…if the baby was hurt…
Jack was in the habit of walking or jogging to the gym, no matter the weather but he did have one of his cars stashed in an old loading zone in the back of the warehouse, just in case he needed one quickly. Good thing. He raced outside with Penny still in his arms and rounded the corner. The garage was there on the right, at the back end of the building. This little car was a piece of shite, but it was tuned up and full of petrol. He stashed Penny in the back seat and jumped behind the wheel.
She didn’t have to ask where they were going. Within minutes, they made it to the best private hospital on this side of town, a place he was all too familiar with.
“I can walk,” she tried to say when they’d parked, but her eyes were now swimming with tears. Despite that, she gave him a watery grin. “Stop the soap opera routine.”
Breathing in and out, trying to maintain some calm, he let her walk in, but the second he spotted a wheelchair, he made her sit in it. He snatched a nurse, who stared up at him. “My wife just had a bad fall. She hit her head on a cement floor. She’s in her first trimester.”
“Okay, let’s get her looked at,” the nurse said matter-of-factly. Smiling at Penny, she asked, “What’s your name?”
When they wheeled Penny away to the A&E for her exams, Jack was handed a clipboard and a pen. He stared at the paper for a long minute, trying to clear his head enough to put down the right answers. Briefly, he hesitated over the spot where it asked what his relationship was to the patient. If he said he was just a boyfriend, there was a chance they might not let him see her, so he put “husband” down.
That should have been made official the day Penny’s last things were installed at his place.
Then he waited. And waited. Ignored Charlie’s calls and messages and waited some more with his fists clenched on his thighs and his throat tight. As he sat in the uncomfortably small chair in that waiting area, his thoughts shifted, turning away from the outsized panic that had thundered in his chest to the slowly building rage in his stomach.
That rage was fiery, almost sweet, as it licked upward and spread throughout his body. It was a singular blaze he’d never quite felt before, one that wasn’t going to be quietly smothered or dampened with soothing words.
This was the kind of fire that could only be doused with blood.
21
DESERVE ME
PENNY
She was fine.
The baby was fine.
But Jack…
Jack was not okay.
For as long as Penny lived, she wouldn’t forget the look of panic that seized his features when he saw her hit the floor. Everything happened so fast, except for the fall itself, as though it had taken a thousand years for her to slowly sink and finally land with a thud.
Her head and her body had hurt like hell, but she’d felt safe in his strong arms. Then she was jittery again when they’d had to separate, and she was wheeled away.
And then the questions came at her. Had her husband done this to her? Was she afraid to go home with him? Should they have an officer escort her to another place where she’d be safe? She had to explain what happened to at least three different people, and by the time she was done, she wanted to cry.
Turns out, she had a mild concussion. But she was relieved to hear, “Your baby is doing grand,” after the ultrasound picked up its galloping heartbeat. They installed her in a room, “To watch you overnight, just as a precaution.” And she actually did cry with relief when they let Jack in to see her. He walked in and took one look at her. Then he lay his head against her belly, and when he sat up again, his face was suffused with color, and his eyes were wet.
He spent the night in her private room, in a chair that was too small for him, not complaining once. In fact, he wasn’t saying much of anything; he only asked if she needed this or that, changed TV channels for her, and fetched snacks from the vending machine. He purchased a small travel-sized deodorant, toothpaste, and toothbrush for her from the hospital shop, not wanting to go get hers from home if it meant leaving her for longer than a few minutes.
“I guess they didn’t have any bonnets down there?” she asked with a teasing grin.
His answering smile was strained. “I’ll tell them to put in an order for the next lady who needs one.”