Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2 (50 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

T
he beeps of the heart monitor assured Wade that Lacey was still with him. Thanks to Promise, Teigen's gun had missed its mark, but that didn't change the doctors' diagnosis of her.

Too long under freezing water, they said. Low cardiac output in the rewarming phase after rescue. Extended time of hypoxia. All things Wade had heard spoken by medical personnel over the course of twenty-four hours. But the worst thing uttered: possible low functioning capabilities when she awakened,
if
she woke up at all.

Wade dropped his forehead to her weak, lifeless hand, so unlike her strong hands that controlled two thousand pounds of metal and six hundred horses under the hood.

But would she again?

If what the doctors said about her being low functioning did occur, would Lacey ever drive any car again?

“I'll take you anywhere you want to go,” Wade said aloud, but he knew it could be so much worse than that. It could mean an inability to speak. It could mean she would be forever wheelchair bound. It could mean a totally different Lacey.

“Hey,” a whisper came from the door behind him.

Wade looked up to see his sister coming in with two cups of coffee. She stopped at the foot of the bed. “No change,” he told her before she asked for the tenth time that day.

Roni brought the cup to him, but he wasn't ready to let go of Lacey's hand. She put it on the side table with the other coffee she'd brought in that morning. His breakfast also sat there uneaten.

“You were admitted, too, Wade. You need sustenance to get well. If you won't do it for yourself, then do it for Lacey. She's going to need you to be strong.”

Wade swallowed hard. “You're right. She's going to need someone who's strong...and whole. Someone who's capable of not losing it when she needs him most. Someone who's not me.”

Roni was quiet for a few minutes. Then she slumped down in the corner chair. “I did this.”

Wade questioned her with a silent look.

“I'm sorry, Wade. I haven't been fair to you. I've guilted you every chance I could get to make you come home, throwing out that you needed to heal, as if there was something wrong and sick in you.”

“There is.”

“No, there isn't. Yes, you're injured. You've had to face a lot of heavy, scary stuff that left a mark on you no different than the marks on my neck and arm. You've never made me feel inadequate because of my wound, but I haven't done the same for you. I've reminded you constantly that it exists, and that's made you think something is wrong with you. But Lacey...” Roni drifted her attention to the bed. “She's been able to do what I never could.”

Wade studied Lacey's soft, relaxed face. Her coloring had returned, but the smudges beneath her eyes still remained. “What's that?”

“Love you the way you are. She's not blind. She knows you hurt. She knows you might never love her back.”

“I love her back,” Wade said. “I love her so much it scares me. What if...”

“What
if
you live to be a hundred with her by your side? What
if
she wants to support you on your good days and your bad days?”

“That's the problem. You heard the doctor. Lacey hasn't woken up yet, and they're already prepared for the worst. What if I can't be there for her because of my bad days? That's the what-if I'm talking about.”

Promise lifted her head from her slumber at his feet. She sniffed the air and resettled herself when she saw she wasn't needed to calm him. But that could change at any moment.

“Lacey deserves someone who can support her all the time, someone who can guide her and be her spotter for the dangers that come her way. And trust me, there're plenty of them. I've never seen a person get herself in so many mishaps.” Wade felt his lips tug into a smile.

“Which you were there for, right down to dropping out of a helicopter and diving into freezing-cold water to get to her in time.”

Wade knew what his sister was trying to do. “Because I was having a good day. But what if—”

“Oh, stop with the what-ifs. Nobody can be on 24/7. And if Lacey only loves you when you're perfect, then she really doesn't love you at all. She's seen you at your worst and she's seen you at your best, and her love stays the same. The question is, will you love her at her worst?”

* * *

Lacey heard the question clear as day. No longer were words muddied in her brain. Nothing was distorted or confusing, as they were when she was pulled from the water. She held her breath now and waited to hear Wade's answer before opening her eyes.

“No.” His reply came sharp and resonated in the room.

Tears instantly filled behind Lacey's closed eyelids. The stab of pain was worse than she thought possible. Wade would never love her.

“I see,” Roni said quietly, as though she could read Lacey's heartbreaking thoughts.

“No, you don't, Roni. You don't understand. I don't consider anything to be Lacey at her worst. Even her impulsiveness is who she is, and I would never want to change that in her. I love everything about her, and if she wakes up a different person, I will love that Lacey, too. But it will not be me loving her at her worst. It will be me loving her as the person she is.”

After a few quiet seconds, Roni said, “I stand corrected. What say you, Lacey?”

Wade turned away from his sister. Lacey could barely see him through the blur of tears spilling down the sides of her face, pooling into her pillow. He jumped to his feet, still holding her hand, closing in on her. His free hand cupped the side of her face.

“Lacey, you're awake. Does anything hurt? Roni, get the doctor!”

Roni ran from the room as Lacey tried to push up.

“Wait, don't move. How does your head feel?”

“Foggy but okay.”

He looked to her legs and she moved them under the blankets.

“Legs, check,” he said. “And arms? How are your arms?”

Lacey lifted her arms and reached for him. At his sigh, he leaned in so she could wrap them around his neck and assure him she really was all right. He breathed deep against her ear, praying thanks to God for her healing.

Lacey pulled back, needing to see his face to be sure. “Wade, does this mean you've accepted God's love?”

“And anything else He wants to give me.”

More tears sprang to her eyes. Could she hope that he would accept love from others, too? “How about Promise's love?”

Promise appeared beside Wade with her two front paws on the edge of the bed. Her tongue hung out in excitement.

“Down, Promise,” Wade commanded. “Sorry, she just wants to make sure she did her job. You'll get your treat later, girl.”

“She saved me?”

“Yeah, took Teigen right down. There's no denying it, she loves you.”

“And you.”

Wade smiled. “And me.”

More hope blossomed in Lacey. Could he accept her love, too? There was only way to find out. “I lo—”

Voices from the door interrupted her. People elbowed each other to get in first, only stepping aside for the doctor.

“Well, well, you gave this group a big scare, young lady. I'm Dr. Monroe and I'm glad to see you awake and looking so much better than you did when you were flown in.” The doctor studied her vitals as Lacey tried to make sense of what he was saying.

“Flown?”

“The helicopter on-site made all the difference for you. It's not too often an accident victim has a chopper ready and waiting to whisk them off to the hospital.”

Lacey looked at Wade behind the doctor, then to the rest of the people at the door. “Mama, Daddy, what are you doing here?”

Her parents stepped up to her bedside, opposite the doctor. “We came right away, and thanks to Wade's grandfather, we had our own private plane waiting for us at the airport.”

“What grandfather?” Lacey asked. There was so much she was missing.

A man in the doorway said, “That would be me. I'm Michael Ackerman, Wade and Veronica's grandfather.”

“Ackerman?” Lacey pushed up on her elbows and heard the heart monitor pick up beeps.

Michael raised a hand. “I apologize for abducting you. When your brother started asking questions about my daughter's accident, he became a person of interest. Unfortunately, that carried over to you when you picked up the baton after his death. I wish I could have met him. He was a hero.”

“Jeffrey was a hero?”

Wade stepped back to her side and cupped her hand. “A true hero. Senator Teigen's latest campaign slogan was Words are Powerful. That's what Jeff was trying to lead us to. Thanks to him, we now know it was Teigen who made deals with the Russians. Jeff wasn't writing a book after all. It was code to where all his research was planted. You should see all the pictures he had on Teigen, going back forty years. Those pictures are worth thousands of words and will put him away for life.”

“Jeffrey died a hero,” Lacey said with a slow smile. Somehow the words came easier knowing this. “And your mom was innocent. You must be so relieved.”

“Not as relieved as I am to see you awake.”

Michael Ackerman, aka Wade's grandfather, went on to explain the rest of the story, from the car crash to when Lacey found the capsule that no one had been able to locate. And how even that had been part of Teigen's plan to cover his involvement in the spying. He'd had photos of Clay taken and was supposed to pick the capsule up to use the film as blackmail. But Wade had found it first and alerted his mother to what was happening at her track. Unfortunately, it had been too late.

Lacey lifted her chin to Ackerman when he'd finished. “But what about Wade and Roni? How could you leave them when they needed their family?”

“Trust me, it was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was for their safety that I broke off all connections to them. I'd already lost my wife and daughter. I took peace knowing that Wade and Veronica lived on, even if I had to watch them from afar. My death put an end to anyone trying to hurt me by hurting them.”

Lacey looked back at Wade, but he no longer stood behind the doctor. She searched the room and found him against the wall, edging closer to the door. “Where do you think you're going?” Didn't he know she wanted him by her side?

“You've heard it all, and you have your family with you now,” he said as though that was supposed to mean something to her. “We'll be out in the hall. Come, Promise. Come on, everyone.”

“But I need you here. Beside me.”

Wade looked from Lacey to her parents. Her father tugged on his wife's arm to pull her back to give Wade the place closest to Lacey. The invitation was loud and clear. The place by Lacey's side belonged to Wade. Lacey didn't know what she would do if he rejected it. She decided she wouldn't give him the chance.

“I love you, Wade.” The words came out with a force this time—and a dare to turn her love away.

Wade stepped up to the bottom of the bed, but still not by her side. His blues flashed at her declaration. His dimple turned rigid.

“Being loved upsets you?”

“Think about what you're saying, Lacey. A life with someone who isn't whole is bound to hurt you. I would rather die than harm one hair on your head.”

“Even if I have perpetual helmet hair?”

“I'm being serious.”

“So am I. I want to make sure you know that I'm not one of those girls who cares about her hair being out of place.”

“I don't care about your hair! I care about your heart and breaking it.”

Lacey put her hand on her heart. “Now I love you even more. I'll never find another guy who will love me despite my messy hair.”

His lips pressed into an angry line. “Your hair is hardly equal to what my brokenness will do to you. Can't you see that?”

Lacey looked at her mother and understood her wise words to her at the shop even more now. Lacey would hug her later for it.

She looked back at Wade and lifted her chin. “You can push me away all you want, but nothing will change the way I feel about you. I will always love you, and if you walk out that door, I will still love you. And not for anything you think you can offer me. Sure, I can list all the wonderful qualities that make loving you easier, but it's the man beneath it all who has my heart, and you will have it forever. Good days, bad days and every day in between are just more days for me to show it with my truth and actions. Can't you see
that
?”

Wade stepped around the bed, but the look on his face didn't look anything but livid. “You're asking me to be okay with hurting you because you love me. Do you know how ridiculous and selfish on my part that sounds? What kind of man would I be if I accepted those terms?”

“An honest one.”

He stilled beside her, studying her face.

“How many people promise to love and cherish someone only to hurt them because they denied a weakness in their life? It's why I never wanted to get married. I didn't trust someone who pledged their undying love when things were going well. Can they still say they will feel the same when things aren't? I can. Our honesty now will only make us stronger together later. With everything in the light, there can be no hidden surprises.”

“It's going to be hard, Lacey,” Wade said in a rush on a raspy whisper.

“I drive race cars, Wade. Do I look like some wimpy girl?”

“I want marriage, Lacey. Nothing else.”

“Is that a proposal?”

Wade pulled back. The shocked look on his face at the turn this conversation just took had him switching gears. He looked around the room at their family's expectant eyes. “Wait. I can't do this.”

Everyone started to shuffle out of the room to give them privacy.

“Stay where you are.” Wade stopped them in their tracks. “I want everyone I love here.”