Page 22 of Clayton (Bourbon & Blood #2)

Now I can’t breathe. God above! How does he do that to me? How does he turn the tables and leave me just reeling from it all? “Damn you, Clayton.”

“Get in the car, Annalee. Before we both bleed to death in the driveway.”

CLAYTO N

The adrenaline has worn off. It’s just gone. I’m keeping my hands clenched into fists just so she can’t see the fact that they’re shaking. I’ve never been so fucking scared in all of my life.

If Samuel were in front of me right now, I’d hit the bastard again. A part of me wishes I had killed him. I know that he’ll find some way to weasel out of this just because that’s what he does.

Climbing behind the wheel, I start the engine and ease onto the street.

There are several people on their porches, a few curtains being drawn back as we drive by.

Everyone in Fontaine wants to know what’s going on and if we don’t oblige them with information, they’ll just make it up.

Hell, they can’t make up anything as deranged as the truth. I ought to let them.

That’s a Mia question. She’s the PR expert, so I’ll let her do her thing and spin this in the way that is least damaging for the company and for those of us who have to continue living here.

The hospital is only a few minutes from the house. Everything in Fontaine is just a few minutes away, to be honest. I’ve seen more of this place in the last month than I ever want to again.

Walking in, I go to the desk and check us both in.

The receptionist whose name I ought to know; hell, I think I went to high school with her mother, looks at me in absolute shock.

I don’t have to think hard to figure out why.

Annalee and I both look like extras from a disaster movie.

We’re covered in blood, some of it our own, some of it Samuel’s.

Handing over IDs and insurance cards, I take the forms she gives me and the two clipboards and go back to where Annalee is sitting. She chose a spot in the corner. Like we can hide!

“You’re just going to have to brazen it out,” I tell her. “Everyone in town is going to be talking about this…for a while. It’s not going away quickly.”

“Fantastic. Thanks for the pep talk,” she sneers.

“Just keeping it real.”

“That’s my job,” she says sharply. “Do you think this is going to make it weird for Emma Grace at school? And her big dance recital is tomorrow night…I don’t want this insanity to overshadow it.”

“We’ll just make a bigger deal out of it to make sure it doesn’t,” I promise. And we will. I’d already planned on getting her flowers.

“What’s going to happen to Samuel? Be honest with me here.”

I sigh and stop filling out the form for a second. “He’s not going to prison. It’s a nice pipe dream, but you and I both know that won’t happen.”

“He broke in! He drugged me! He tried to kill me! He was planning to kill you and John!”

“But he’s Samuel Darcy…and he has friends that will cover for him, that will call in favors. At the most, he’s going to get a slap on the wrist in county jail. This will not be prosecuted to the fullest, Annalee…but he’s still leaving here. Whatever it takes.”

She’s finished filling out her paperwork, so she takes the clipboard from me and starts filling out mine. She’s the queen of multi-tasking. “I don’t like it. I hate that he’s getting away with it.”

“He’s not the only one who can call in favors…I can make his life hell here. And socially, after this, he’s screwed. Most of his circle will drop him like a hot rock. It’s not going to be hard to convince him to go. ”

“Promise me…I want him gone. If Emma Grace had been home?—”

“Don’t!” I can’t think about it. I won’t. If I do, I’ll go find him and finish what I started. “I’m not letting anything happen to her. And I’m not letting anything else happen to you.”

The ER door opens and a nurse appears. She calls Annalee back first and I sit there, waiting impatiently. I don’t like that I can’t lay eyes on her right now. Samuel is somewhere in the hospital, I know. I put nothing past the son of a bitch.

After a few minutes, the nurse calls for me. I walk toward her and she smirks. “So much for living on the hill. The Darcys have gone redneck.”

I’m not in the mood. “Your brother works at the distillery…and your husband is trying to get a job there. Think you’re helping out either of them right now?”

She clams up then, but her expression remains sour.

I tolerate the temperature check, the invasive questions, and the blood pressure cuff that is way tighter than necessary.

When she leads me back to the ER, she puts me in the cubicle next to Annalee’s, not because she’s being nice but because there’s no other option.

Samuel is on one side of the nurse’s station and we’re in the only two cubes on the other.

He’s under guard. There are two sheriff’s deputies standing outside the curtained-off area.

“I should have driven us to Lexington.”

She looks over at me. “No. He’s not running us off…not from here, not from anywhere. Besides, I’ve had a shitty day and I’m not dealing with that traffic.”

I just want to be home. In my actual home…with my wife, with my daughter and without it looking like an earthquake zone. The doctor walks in and I just keep holding onto that thought.