“Can I ask your name?”
“I’m sorry. I’m Shelby Daniels.”
“Are you and Cain good friends?” It seemed ridiculous to have this conversation now, but she needed some reassurance of where she stood and what her role would be once they reached the hospital.
“We met just recently.” Shelby took a hand off the wheel and put it on Emma’s knee. “I work for the FBI, ma’am. That puts Cain and me in an awkward position for any romantic relationship, but it doesn’t make it impossible for us to be friends.” Friends who share some pretty nice kisses, but that’s all it’ll ever be.
Emma swiped at her veil of blond hair as she leaned forward a little. “I’m sorry. You probably think I’m just an idiot, but when I saw the two of you earlier I thought—”
“I know what you thought, ma’am, and like I said, Cain and I are merely friends. We got to know each other because Cain saved my life. If it weren’t for that, I’d probably only know her as the voice on the tapes we have.”
Needing some comfort, she put her hand over Shelby’s and looked up at the ambulance. “Do you think she’ll be all right?”
“I have faith Cain loves life more than anything. Giving up isn’t in her vocabulary, so maybe we should have the same belief in her. I think she’ll be just fine.”
Shelby and Emma left the car in the emergency room lot and ran in after the gurney. Tex was now on it, almost straddling her patient as she held an ambu bag over Cain’s face, pumping to keep her breathing. The sheet Cain was lying on was saturated, signaling them that the bleeding hadn’t stopped.
So much had already happened, but in reality the night was just beginning.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The doors of the exam room swung closed, and Shelby and Emma neither saw nor heard of Cain for hours. Coffee cups still full of bitter-tasting liquid sat before them untouched. An intern had taken Emma into another of their exam rooms and checked her for injury and shock. She had only a scratch on her side where the bullet had exited Cain and grazed her. Once she rejoined Shelby each, as if by silent agreement, took hold of the other’s hand and didn’t let go.
“I should call the house and ask Merrick to speak to Hayden.” Emma was dreading having to tell her son what had happened but felt he would want to be there supporting his mother.
“It’ll be okay, Ms. Casey. This wasn’t your fault.”
“Please call me Emma, and you don’t understand our son. He idolizes Cain, with good reason, I guess. She never abandoned him, not like I did.”
Shelby tightened her hold on Emma’s fingers and smiled. “You’re his mother and he needs you now, even though he’s bigger than both of us and might not think so.”
The cell phone Shelby was holding up looked almost frightening, but Emma rubbed her hands along her legs and accepted it.
“Casey residence.” Merrick’s voice sounded tight and cold from the waiting.
“Merrick, this is Emma.”
“Ms. Casey, Cain’s not home.”
“Could you put aside your feelings for a minute and listen? I know Cain’s not home, that’s why I’m calling. She was shot, Merrick, and she’s still in surgery. I need you to come and bring Hayden with you, but please bring extra protection. I promised Cain I’d look out for our son, and I need your help.” Her grip on the phone was making her hand cramp as she anticipated Hayden’s response.
“What hospital?”
She told her the name and where she and Shelby were seated.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
The second hand of the large clock on the wall of the waiting room swept around with a low grinding noise thirteen times after she ended her call before Merrick, Hayden, and Mook filled up the small room by sheer presence. She stood up and prepared herself for whatever reaction Hayden was going to have. His poker-serious expression softened just a little when he saw the blood covering her blue dress.
“It’s not mine, Hayden. Don’t be afraid. I just don’t want to leave until I know Cain’s all right.”
“She said you were here to make things right between the two of you. Did you?”
She was surprised by the question, thinking that he would have asked about Cain before anything else. “To be totally honest, it’s going to take more than just one night to do that, but I’m hoping we’ll eventually get there. You may find it hard to accept, but Cain and I were the best of friends at one time, over and above the love we shared.”
“She told me that too. The nurse informed us on the way in that it’ll be another couple of hours, but Mom’s hanging in.” The information was the only comfort he gave her.
Ah, of course he would have stopped to ask. He’s Cain’s kid, after all. The woman could have done commercials for the Boy Scouts--always be prepared.
Emma knew Cain’s idea of being prepared meant getting all the information about any given situation. Hayden was no different. “Thank you, and thank you, Merrick, for getting him here so quickly.”
The room was small, granted, but Merrick had noticed how close the two were sitting. “Did you and Agent Daniels have lots to talk about before we got here?” She had already come up with two scenarios as to why Shelby was there—to either help finish Cain off or something more intimate.
“Agent Daniels was nice enough to give me a ride to the hospital from the warehouse.”
Hayden walked nearer to his mother and the other woman sitting right behind her. “You were there?”
“We both were, Hayden.”
“What happened?”
Riffling through her hair and taking out the pins that held only strands now, Emma took a deep breath. “It happened so fast that all I remember is standing next to Cain and then someone yelling at her to throw down her gun, which didn’t make any sense. You and I both know Cain doesn’t ever carry a gun.”
Behind Hayden, Merrick nodded in agreement. Cain didn’t need to carry a firearm. She was surrounded with them all the time.
“Before I could react she grabbed me and swung around, and something knocked us both to the ground. When the lights came back on I realized it was the force of the bullet that knocked her off her feet. She saved my life.”
“It seems that every time she protects you from something, she loses big in the end, doesn’t it?” said Hayden.
The tears came when Emma faced such anger in her son. Any chance of reconciliation with Hayden was as slim as with Cain. “I’m sorry. I can’t say anything other than that. This may sound like an old cliché, but if I could trade places with her I would.” The sobs that were threatening came spilling out then, and she ran out to escape any other sarcastic comment he had.
“Wouldn’t it have been more effective to just slap her and get it over with?” Shelby asked him, never getting up from her seat.
“What do you know, lady? You’re just here to try and drag my mother down.”
“Check that attitude with me, Mr. Casey. I’m not Emma, and I’m not going to put up with it. Granted your other mom is in there fighting for her life, but I’m almost positive that if she were out here, she’d have slapped you down by now herself.”
It was remarkable to look into his eyes and find so much of Cain there. They held the intensity in their blue depths, and the same fire.
“Don’t come in here and spout off about things you know nothing about. My mother lets you see only what she wants you to see, and nothing more. Even you can’t be so stupid not to have figured that one out.”
“I’m not stupid, Hayden. I just heard what she told you in the restaurant tonight. You’re smart enough to know we’re always listening. ‘To be a man you have to respect your mother and your family.’ Isn’t that what she told you? One little setback and you have to lash out at the easiest target? One you know isn’t going to fight back. Maybe Cain’s right, and following her father’s rules does show what caliber of man you will become. But you act as immaturely as you just did, and people like me will finally break you.”