Page 41 of You Can Make Me
I hadn’t even thought about my face since hugging my parents and Sam. No one had said anything. Mom hadn’t freaked out. I thought sure, it’s there, they see it, but no one was staring at it or anything.
The face I saw in the mirror caught me so off guard.
The glaring red mark on my forehead, the indented angry slash on my cheek. My mouth…oh God, it was horrible.
I thought of all the years I’d worn braces and retainers to have a perfect smile. Regular teeth-whitening treatments were a part of my self-care, along with a carefully mapped-out skin routine, facials and waxing. I’d prided myself that I hadn’t needed lip fillers to get the full look that both men and women desired, and I’d been blessed with a jawline and cheekbones that people paid good money for plastic surgeons to achieve.
There was no getting back to that Cooper, and once I’d been hit with that realization, a wave of rage rocked me so hard, I lashed out as if I had no control over my impulses.
This wasn’t the first hole I’d put in a wall, but the last one had been in my teens. I was in my thirties now and should have known better. Thank God I hadn’t broken my hand with that childish act.
And through everything, Denny was still here with his painstakingly calm voice, even when I knew he was scared to death. I knew better than to say such awful things—to intimate that I wished I wasn’t alive—but I was a drama queen and always had been. Looking at the haggard, shaggy, sliced-and-diced man with the deformed lip in the mirror had totally thrown me, but I knew now with certainty, I’d never be Cooper Harris, TV news reporter, ever again.
There was no fixing my face, so I’d have to get to work fixing the rest of me…and repairing things with Denny. Again.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked me.
He rested his elbows on his knees and looked…wrecked. As wrecked as I felt. I’d put him through hell, and it was time for me to know the truth so that we could bear this weight together, since he was determined to stay.
God, I didn’t deserve him.
“I remember getting hit on the back of the head. Getting dragged. He pulled out a cleaver? I remember thinking that was an odd choice.”
Denny chuckled, but it was a tired, rusty sound.
“What?”
“Youwouldquestion his cutlery choices. What else?”
“I pleaded with him, sort of. I knew the crack on the head had done damage because words were hard. He said something like, ‘I’d say it won’t hurt but I’d be lying,’ and then he said, ‘You’reso pretty. Just like him. I’m gonna have fun taking your pretty away.’”
My eyes welled up, and Denny was at my side in a flash.
“Baby—”
“It’s okay. Let me get it out.”
“Move over,” he said, so he could slide in next to me. He put his arm around me and ran his fingers through my hair at the back, right over the scar tissue I had back there. He held my uninjured hand with his other on my lap.
“I remember being like, ‘Duh, Cooper. You have a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu and years of Muay Thai. Fight back!’ So I tried to knock him down, but he cut my forehead and I couldn’t see, then he sliced my arms, and while I knew I got a few good kicks in, it only excited him more. Then he cut me deep, and I was flagging. And then…you were there.”
Denny looked down at our hands, and the scar on my forearm where my sleeve had been pushed up. The crease on his forehead was so severe.
“How did you find me?”
“I… I can’t tell you all of it. But it was Dee Dee who figured out where Holland was, and Walter, Dee Dee, and I were driving to find him. We didn’t know he had you. Some of his guys tried to run us off the road, we crashed into a fence. Dee Dee disappeared in the melee, and when we found him, he was trying to get Holland to leave you be. Holland taunted us, and I was afraid to take a shot. He was bent over you kinda, and he still had a hold of your collar, and there was a lot of chaos… Before my first bullet even hit him, he’d slashed his own throat. He was dead before he hit the ground.”
“I remember he fell. And you…”
“I saw your shoes.”Denny’s voice broke and his cheeks turned mottled red. He wiped at an eye and blew out a breath.
“And you saved me.”
“I panicked, actually.” He laughed, wiping more tears away. “Walter called in the EMT and Life Flight while I tried to stop the bleeding, but there was so much. So much that I couldn’t tell where it was all coming from, and your lips were turning blue. Walter flagged down the paramedics, but I wouldn’t let go of you. I remembered your blood type, it seemed really important to me that they knew that. The helicopter arrived, and Walter had to drag me away.”
He was trembling, his hands shaking.
“I’m sorry, Denny. What I said. I’m grateful, know that, please. I’m sorry I haven’t been more?—”
