Finally My Happy Ending (Meant for Me Book 3) (11 page)

I didn't respond to his instructions. I had no intentions of running. Where would I go if I did? I believed him when he said they had no intention of hurting me, and I was confident that Brock would get me out of this mess, hopefully without having to fight anyone.

I had to pee so badly that it was painful. I stooped down behind a tree at the very edge of the woods, and stayed there for what seemed like a lifetime trying to get enough pressure to make anything come out.

"What's taking so long?" Leo asked after a few minutes.

"I can't go!" I said. "I need to go so bad that I can't make it come out."

"Maybe you need to relax."

"You think so?" I asked sarcastically.

"You better make something come out, or we'll just have to get back in the truck and wait till Austin."

"I can't wait till Austin! I'm already about to pop."

"So pee, then!"

"I'm trying! Just give me a minute to concentrate."

"It's already been like five minutes."

"Leo, please," I begged. "I'm in a lot of pain. Just be quiet and let me try to forget you're standing right there watching me."

He let out a huff. "Hurry up."

Chapter 16

It took a long time, and both men grew extremely impatient, but I was finally able to pee. You'd think being tied up and bound at gunpoint would be unnerving, but my bladder had been hurting so bad, that the relief of having it emptied overshadowed the negative feelings I had about going back to the truck. I felt like a new woman as I stood up, buttoned my pants, and headed for Leo's silhouette.

I let out a sigh of relief to offset the annoyance I'd no doubt be facing once I joined him to head to the truck. Just after I did that, something terrible happened.

I didn't know it was terrible at the time, though. At the time, it felt like I stepped on some uneven ground and my ankle rolled to the side. That wouldn't have been so bad, but it happened that the uneven ground I stepped on began rattling and moving. I was wearing shoes with a thin sole, so I could easily feel the movement beneath my foot. I let out a sharp yelp and stepped to the side instinctually, but it was too late.

The snake had been disturbed, and in the blink of an eye, it shot forward and latched its mouth onto my ankle. The following two seconds were quite possibly the longest of my life. It was extremely dark, but my eyes had adjusted enough to get a good look at the huge, nasty, scaly, tan-colored creature that sprang out to bite me.

Aside from being eaten by sharks or piranhas, a snakebite was my worst nightmare. This was a big, ugly looking one too. I kicked, and lashed, and screamed until I freed myself from it, and left it behind. I ran crying directly into Leo's arms. He had no other choice but to catch me. In shock, he asked me what in the world was going on while interjecting tons of profanities.

"A snaaaakkkkeee!" I wailed. "I gooottt biiiitttt!"

"What?"

"A snaaakkkkeee!"

I was so terrified that the creature had followed me out of the woods to bite me again, that I was literally climbing up Leo as if he was a tree.

"Are you sure?" he asked, beginning to high step toward the truck.

"I'm sure," I said frantically. "It latched onto my ankle."

He continued hobbling back to the truck with me in his arms.

"What's going on?" I heard the other guy yell impatiently.

Leo didn't answer his question. "Are you sure it was a snake?" he asked as he limped quickly.

"I'm sure," I said, still crying. "I saw it plain as day, and I heard it rattling when I stepped on it."

"It was a
rattlesnake
?" he asked with a sense of urgency in his tone.

"What happened?"

"She got bit by a snake," Leo said, interjecting a ton of f-bombs in the statement.

"How?"

"She stepped on it. Whatta we do?"

"Just get in the truck," the driver said as we made it over there. "We'll call Mickey from the road and see what he thinks."

Leo tossed me into the backseat. "You need to look at it and see if it even broke the skin," he said breathlessly as he climbed in behind me.

I slid up my jeans to take a look at the area where I knew I'd been bit. The interior lights were still on from us getting in, but they began to fade the instant the driver put the truck in drive and started to merge back onto the interstate.

"We need some light back here!" Leo said.

I was staring at the spot when the lights came back on. I let out a gasp when I saw two red holes on the front of my ankle.

"She sure did get bit," he said, again, interjecting cuss words every chance he got.

"Maybe it wasn't a dangerous one," the driver said.

"She said it rattled!" Leo said. "Whatta we do? I gotta call Mickey."

The driver turned off the light, and I let my foot sink to the floor as Leo pushed buttons on his phone.

"I think I need a hospital," I whimpered, closing my eyes.

"Shhhhh," Leo soothed with the phone to his ear. "We're gonna get you fixed up. One of Mickey's good friends is an emergency room doctor. We got him on call and there's only 40 miles to Austin."

"What if I can't wait forty miles?" I asked, already feeling nauseous and light headed. "I don't think I can wait."

"Shhhh. Hey Mickey, we got a situation here with the girl. No, we got her. She's right here, but I think she might have been bitten by a rattlesnake."

I heard Mickey yell out over the phone and Leo took it from his ear for a second.

"She had to pee, and we pulled over to let her. We had to, or she was gonna go in the Cadillac. We stopped so she could go in the woods, and she stepped on a snake. (Pause) She heard it rattle, that's how. (Pause) Why don't
you
look it up on Google? I sort of got my hands full here. (Pause) She's right here. She's fine. (Pause) Pauly, turn on that overhead light again. Mickey Googled it. He said we need to check it to see if it looks red and irritated around the bite marks."

The overhead lights came on, and I put my foot on the console so we could get a good look.

"It looks pretty red, boss. (Pause) She's pretty shaken up."

"I don't feel so good," I said, leaning my head on the back of the seat.

"She says she don't feel so good, boss." There was along pause. I had my eyes closed, but I assumed Leo was listening to Mickey. "Okay," he said, finally. "Mickey says you're gonna be just fine as long as we get you back to Austin within two hours."

Leo was breathless and nervous, but he was doing his best to stay calm and comfort me.

"Pauly's driving fast. We're gonna make it in thirty minutes, no problem. Mickey's gonna have the doctor waiting at his house when we get there." There was another long pause. "Okay, Mickey's got some instructions. First off, we need to remain calm. We're doing that, Mickey. Then we need to take off any restrictive clothes." He looked at me. "You should probably pull off your shoes and socks. And Mickey's saying for you to put your leg down where the bite's below your chest."

I lowered my leg to the floor again.

"He said we could tie a loose tourniquet around your leg, but make sure not to get it too tight."

"The whole point of a tourniquet is that it's tight, Leo," the driver (who I now knew was named Pauly) said from the front seat.

"Shut up, Pauly, I’m trying to listen to Mickey here. (Pause) We just need to keep her calm and get her to Mickey's house fast."

"I'm going as fast as I can without getting us pulled over," Pauly said.

***

An unknown amount of time passed as the venom took hold of me. I remember some of the events, but a lot of it was blurry. I'm relatively sure I had some sort of anxiety attack through most of it, because I had cold sweats and felt like my heart was about to beat out of my chest. It felt as though I had completely lost control of my body.

I remember bits and pieces of arriving at Mickey's, meeting the doctor, getting an IV, and getting settled into a bed. I drifted in and out of consciousness, but remember feeling surprised by being in a nice, clean place instead of a rundown shack like I expected to be held during a kidnapping.

The doctor told me that his intention was to give me the antivenin I needed. He stated that he had some sort of plan that included giving it to me at a certain pace, but I didn't really care what he was saying. I heard parts of various conversations, but never the whole thing. I knew I was tied to the bed. I remember someone saying that. But I was comfortable and didn't feel much like moving anyway.

I remember what it felt like when I woke up for the first time and could actually think straight. I immediately had a sense of relief like I might live through the experience.

I took in my surroundings. I was in a nice bedroom lying in one of two twin beds with lots of pillows stacked up behind my back. It took me a few seconds to comprehend that I was hearing voices, but once I did, my sense of relief multiplied by a thousand. There were male voices, and I clearly heard someone say the name Brock as if they were addressing a person who was in the room.

I tried to make out what they were saying but couldn’t. I looked around again, assessing my position and wondering whether or not I had the strength to get up. I had an IV in my arm and was strapped to the bed with those official looking straps like you'd imagine they'd use in an insane asylum.

I wanted to yell out to let them know I was awake, but I couldn’t find my voice right away. Just as I was clearing my throat, the door to my room flung open, and I saw my knight in shining armor standing in the doorway. I tried to smile at him, but I knew even as I did it that I was pitiful looking.

His expression grew livid as he took me in. "You have her strapped to the bed?" he asked, whispering and screaming at the same time to whoever was standing next to him.

"It was for her own good… so she didn't pull out the IV," the person said.

Brock crossed to me without hesitation and began gently unlatching the restraints. The doctor and a man I thought I vaguely recognized as Mickey joined him in the room.

"I'd like to watch her for a few more hours," the doctor said.

"Well, you can watch her without these things," Brock said, through gritted teeth. He got one of my arms loose, and stooped to my side, looking me in the eyes for the first time. He stared at me as if gauging if I was alert and aware of his presence.

"I'm so glad you're here," I whispered in a barely-there voice.

He touched my forehead, smoothing my hair and looking me over with great concern. His face was the best thing I could possibly see upon waking up. I watched the spot by his temple flex as he gritted his teeth.

"I feel better now," I whispered, trying to assure him I was okay.

He smiled at me, but it didn't reach his eyes. I knew he was mad. He stood and reached over me to unlatch the other strap.

"I don't recommend you leaving right now," the doctor said. "I'd like to watch her a little bit longer to make sure she doesn't need any more anti—"

Brock cut him off. "We'll stay while you watch her, but she's not staying strapped to this bed."

Brock grabbed a chair from along the wall and set it right next to the bed near my arm—the one that didn't have the IV. He picked up my arm, holding it gently in his hands before interlacing his fingers with mine and letting our hands rest comfortably on the bed together.

"This will all be over before you know it," he assured me. He did his best to smile, but I knew he was upset. The muscles in his jaw and temple moved as he stared at Mickey who was standing across the bed.

"We need to get a few things straight, Mr. Silliman," Brock said calmly.

Mickey asked the doctor to leave the room for a minute, which he did. "We didn't mean for the girl to get harmed," was the first thing Mickey said when the door closed. "It was an accident."

"I think we both know it never would've happened if you hadn't taken her in the first place."

"That’s true, but we had no intention of harming her."

Brock took a deep breath as if he was trying to remain calm. "Okay, I'm gonna say some things right now, and you're gonna keep your mouth shut and listen to them. I don't really care what you intended. She got hurt, and it happened when she was being taken against her will."

"We knew it was the only way we could get you to fight."

Brock put his hand up and closed his eyes, patiently telling Mickey to be quiet. "Listen closely to what I'm saying here, Mickey. My brother has your address. He knows exactly where I am, and will have the police all over your house if I don't call him in the next few minutes to check in."

"I have no intentions of you not making it home safely, Brock. If I meant any harm to the girl, I wouldn't have called you. I wouldn't have gotten her the medical attention she needed."

"I would appreciate it if you stop pretending that you have some moral code because I know you don't. You called me because you were scared she was dying and you knew I'd figure out you had her. I made it perfectly clear that I was not going to fight for you. Not this weekend or ever."

"I just need you to show everybody that it wasn't a fluke," Mickey said. "I got every millionaire in Texas wanting to come see you fight. You stand to make a bigger payday than you'd see in a year of building furniture."

Brock took a long, deep breath like he was trying really hard to hold on to his last shred of patience. He smiled at Mickey, but it was one of those smiles that said he was about to explode. "Mr. Silliman, I can appreciate that you enjoy watching fights and that you like making money. But I made it perfectly clear that last month's fight was a one-time thing." He leveled the man with a fierce stare. "I need to explain something to you right now," he continued, in a calm, measured tone. "Under no circumstances will I fight for you again. I told you that before, and my mind cannot be changed—not for any amount of money. I feel no obligation to comply with anything you ask of me. I didn't feel it the last time either. The only reason I went along with it was because I thought it'd be a quick, easy way to get the ring back without having to hurt anyone. As far as my girl goes… you
do not
want to find out what will happen if you or anyone associated with you ever, and I mean
ever
, lays a finger on her again." He paused and took a calming breath before continuing. "Please understand that I'm a Christian now, and I'm trying my best not to brutally murder anyone, but let me assure you, you do
not
want to find out what I'm capable of, Mr. Silliman. You really have no idea who you're messing with. I am a dangerous man, and I have lots of connections. I will not hesitate to unleash on you and yours if you come anywhere near Trish again." Brock stared at Mickey from across the bed. It was one of those long, knowing stares where he let Mickey see just how serious he was. "I need your word that you'll never touch this girl again."