SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 46
“Stop fussing, I’m fine.”
Rory was tucked up on the couch, pillows stacked behind her, a mug of tea on the end table, a book open in her lap, and the smells of Theo’s chicken stew that he’d dropped by earlier wafting from the kitchen. It’d been three days since RJ had tried to kill her and Jimmy, and she was feeling perfectly healthy.
The baby’s heartbeat had been strong and steady when they’d checked it at the hospital. She’d had a concussion from the accident, which had caused the new nausea and dizziness, but there’d been no trace of either for the past eighteen hours. She was ready to get up and start doing things, because sitting still was driving her crazy, but Chance was adamant she wasn’t allowed to do anything until Emma Grace cleared her.
He’d been treating her like she was made of glass, and she was tired of it.
“I’m not fussing,” her very handsome ninja assassin nurse said. “Just asking how you feel.”
“And I told you,” Rory said. “I’m tired of lying around like I’m sick when I’m not.”
He was standing over her, hands in pockets, looking equal parts worried and hopeful. Chance hadn’t left her side for more than a few minutes at a time since he’d pulled her from the burning barn. The firetrucks and ambulance had arrived soon after. She and Jimmy had been whisked to the hospital where Jimmy had undergone emergency surgery to repair the damage done by RJ’s bullet.
Rory had been checked out thoroughly and released a few hours later with instructions to take it easy for a few days. Jimmy was still in ICU, still not out of the woods, but he had a strong chance of surviving. RJ was in custody and there were too many witnesses to everything he’d done for his daddy to fix it this time. She’d told Chief Vance what’d happened and then put it in writing and signed it. She would testify to it, too, and no amount of money was going to change her story.
It was a fact that RJ had shot Jimmy in cold blood and then tried to kill her and hide the evidence by setting the fire. He’d run her off the road and dragged her from Chuck as well, though that was small potatoes compared to what’d happened next.
Poor Chuck Norris. He was totaled, but Chance had shrugged it off like it was no big deal, telling her he could replace a truck but he could not replace her.
“Emma and Blaze will be here soon. Just hang in there, kitten. If she says it’s okay, then you can dance around the room naked if you want.”
“I’d rather get naked with you.”
His eyes darkened. “Yeah, I want that too.”
Rory swallowed. She hadn’t yet worked up the courage to tell him she loved him. She wanted to, desperately, but it was like the words just clogged her throat whenever she tried. Plus she wanted it to be the right moment. When she’d been dirty and bedraggled from her ordeal hadn’t been it. Kneeling beside Jimmy’s body as she held her shirt to his wound hadn’t been it either.
The hospital was a nope. Lying in bed beside Chance after they’d gotten home late was a good time, except it wasn’t because she wanted to be able to make love with him when she said those words. She hadn’t been able to for the past couple of days because of the random bouts of nausea and the fact he was adamant she wasn’t doing anything like that until Emma Grace said so.
Sitting on the couch with him fussing over her wasn’t the right time either.
Rory sighed. “Can they just get here already? I want my life normal again.”
Chance perched beside her and put his palm on her cheek. She loved the feel of his hand there. It was softer than she’d expected the first time, but also rough in spots from handling and firing weapons all day.
“Being careful after a concussion is normal, babe. You aren’t doing anything that I wouldn’t do if it’d been me who’d hit my head and started puking.”
She put her hand over his. He was so good for her. How was it possible to love a man so much? She’d thought she’d been in love with Mark but that feeling had paled compared to this one. “I know. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For knowing that feeling different is a trigger for me. For trying to make me realize that normal varies and I’m not abnormal for having to sit here like a spoiled princess and let you wait on me. It’s hard for me to see it sometimes.”
“I know it is, honey.”
“But you still won’t let me do anything until Emma Grace says so, huh?”
He grinned. “Nope. Sit there, princess, and read your book.”
She glanced at the cover and frowned. “Actually, the book is part of the problem. I’ve reached the sexy parts. So many dicks at once. I just want one, but I can’t even have that one yet.”
He made a sound in his throat and then stood, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You’ll get all the dick you want just as soon as Emma Grace examines you and says you’re ready to return to your usual activities.”
“Like riding your cock?”
“Rory, for the love of God, stop saying anything that puts those images in my head.”
She laughed because what else could she do? “Sorry, but you need to feel as desperate as I do.”
“What makes you think I don’t?”
“Fair point, sexy pants. Just so you know, the second I get the green light, I want you naked and hard and inside me.”
He shook his head. “Maybe not the second you get it, though. I expect Emma wouldn’t appreciate a live sex show.”
Rory snickered. “Maybe not. Okay, you’ve got until she’s out the door. Then I expect a performance to end all performances.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said with a wink.
An hour later, Emma Grace breezed in with Blaze at her side. She went straight for the exam because she knew Rory wouldn’t want to wait. When it was over and Rory was in the clear, the four of them sat down to lunch at the kitchen table because Rory asked them to stay.
Chance smirked at her, but she ignored him. Yeah, she wanted to climb him like a tree, but Granny had raised her better than to run her friends off without offering beverages or food. Not that she hadn’t considered it, but with her luck Colleen would show up to deliver a blistering message from the beyond if she dared.
Maybe that wasn’t the only reason she asked them to stay for lunch, though. Maybe she was a little scared of what being naked with Chance again meant.
There would be nothing stopping her from admitting her feelings. No more excuses. Fear swirled, but the cloud of it was much smaller than it used to be. She’d asked for time, and he’d given it. She didn’t need more, but still the cloud persisted. Why?
“Have you heard anything about Jimmy yet?” Rory asked.
“Nothing new. He’s stable, and that’s good,” Emma Grace said.
Rory nodded. “I’m mad at him, but I don’t want him to die. I told him I’d forgive him if he didn’t, so I hope I have to keep that promise.”
Chance put a hand on her knee beneath the table and squeezed.
“He’s alive because of you,” Emma Grace went on. “If you hadn’t tried to staunch the bleeding, he’d have lost too much blood before the ambulance arrived. He owes you his life.”
“Well, that and the fact RJ was a poor shot.”
“Honestly, unless you’ve had a lot of training—and by a lot I mean hours and hours a day for a very long time—nobody’s that accurate, especially under pressure. Junior was filled with adrenaline and anger. His aim wasn’t going to be what it would’ve been in the range under controlled conditions,” Blaze said. “Considering where the bullet went in, he likely tips the gun down as he squeezes the trigger. That’s how you miss the bullseye and land in the outer rings.”
“Not the point, honey,” Emma Grace told him, patting his arm.
“Sorry. Got carried away with explaining why his aim wasn’t accurate.”
He exchanged a look with Chance that seemed to say volumes and made her curious. It was like they knew things others did not. They’d known, somehow, that RJ had a record, though they’d only found it out the afternoon RJ had run her off the road and tried to turn her into crispy bacon. It wasn’t as spectacular as knowing where to find her and Emma Grace when Kyle Hollis had abducted them a few months ago, but it was still interesting that they had the kind of information she’d thought only the police would know.
“Well, I’m glad y’all caught him before he got away.”
“There was never any doubt,” Chance said. “I just wish I could have been there when Alex, Blaze, and Ethan ran his ass off the road into Cedar Creek. I might not have dragged him out of his truck before he drowned, though.”
“We debated it, gotta admit,” Blaze said. “But Alex rightfully pointed out we needed answers. Plus the idea that his daddy wasn’t going to get him out of trouble this time was kinda fun. Bet he’s gonna make a fine piece of ass for some big Bubba in lockup.”
Rory sipped her tea. “And I have to admit that’s a thought that fills me with uncharitable glee. Granny would be horrified.” She lifted her glass skyward. “Sorry, Granny.”
“Sorry, Granny,” everyone repeated, lifting their glasses as well.
“He deserves to be terrified though,” Rory said, anger building in her belly. “I have no doubt Jimmy did what he did because RJ encouraged him and made him believe it was the only way to sell his farm.”
RJ hadn’t admitted to anything, and Jimmy wasn’t able to tell his side yet, but Rory had no doubt RJ was the mastermind for all of it. He’d also very likely been the one trespassing on her property that first night when Chance had insisted on staying with her. Casing the place, making plans, and then roping Jimmy into helping do the job with the promise of success and riches.
The truth would come out, either when Jimmy recovered or when the police traced the money that’d been used to pay Carl for getting his hay elsewhere this year.
“All that effort and now his daddy isn’t buying anybody’s land,” Chance said.
That was the other thing that’d happened. The development was on hold after several investors pulled out of the deal when Darryl Benson was indicted for fraud in Houston on Friday afternoon while RJ was going on a criminal spree of his own. Apparently Mr. Benson had been inflating company assets when seeking investors and it’d finally come back to bite him in the ass. Which meant D&B Properties wasn’t buying anyone’s land anytime soon. If ever.
When lunch was done and they’d exhausted the conversation, Emma Grace and Blaze rose to leave. Rory hugged her friend at the door, hugged Blaze, and then she and Chance walked out on the front porch to watch them get into Blaze’s truck and leave. Rory’s heart lurched at the sight of the barn. It hadn’t been completely destroyed, but it would take a lot of work to rebuild the parts that had burned and make sure the entire structure was sound.
They’d had so much rain in the days before RJ set the fire that it’d helped save the barn from annihilation. It would have burned down without intervention, but the rain-soaked wood had slowed it enough to give the fire department a fighting chance.
Rory waved as Blaze and Emma Grace turned and headed down the drive. It wasn’t until they turned onto the road that Rory did what she’d been dying to do. What she needed to do.
She threw herself at her man.