The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (15 page)

“We have to call the cops.” Jonquil steered the car into his mom’s driveway.

“He said not to.”

“I know. I’ll have Joel act as go-between. We can keep them away from the house if you want, but you need backup. Do you have any way of getting fifty-thousand in three days?”

“Not a prayer. Not even two-thousand unless I sold my car. Which I’d do if I had no other option, but even that’s not going to help much.”

“Then leave it to me. I can make that happen.”

Gage turned to stare at her. “You have that much cash in your back pocket?”

“No, but I have sisters. We have resources. Give me a few hours and I’ll figure it out.”

“Why?”

“Why what?” she asked as she stopped in front of the house.

“Why would you do that for me? We’ve been on a couple of not-really-a-date dates. That’s it.”

She looked out the front window instead of at him and took a deep breath. “Because like it or not, you’re part of my life. You’re best buds with my brothers-in-law and the future one. I know Vince and Jeremy will stop at nothing to help you, and I think Joel, Blake and Harrison feel pretty much the same. Whatever you need. We’ll figure it out.” She looked him in the eye. “Now, let’s check on your mom and then I’ll call Joel and have him put things in motion.”

Feeling slightly less panicked, Gage got out of the car, meeting her at the head of the car and taking her hand.

They went inside and he called out to his mom. There was no response. He checked the sitting room she preferred and opened the fridge to see a note stuck to the gallon of milk from the housekeeper who had been there the previous evening.

His brows furrowed. Usually his mom would have found that when she got up in the morning. He shut the fridge door and called her name again, heading for her bedroom suite on the second floor.

“Could she be out visiting someone?” Jonquil asked. “We didn’t check the garage.”

“I guess, she has good days and bad days. Yesterday wasn’t so good so I thought she would be home today.” He hoped he was wrong. The caller said his sister had been abducted. They didn’t say anything about his mom. And was Natalie at home when it happened? He didn’t see any indications that the place had been broken into. He hurried up the stairs and down the hall, Jonquil close on his heels.

When he knocked on his mother’s door, it opened under the pressure of his knuckles and he entered, calling her name. He heard a groan from across the room and found his mother lying on the floor. She was in her robe, her arms askew, blood slowly seeping from a wound in her head and pooling beneath her. Gage fell to his knees beside her and checked her pulse.

When Gage looked up from his mother’s side, Jonquil already had the phone at her ear and was asking for an ambulance. She had him give her the address and then stayed on the phone answering questions for a few minutes before hanging up.

“Hey, Mom, do you hear me? Come on, look up at me. It’s Gage.”

She muttered something and he asked her to repeat it, not understanding.

The wait for the ambulance to arrive seemed to take forever. Jonquil met the EMTs at the door and showed them up to the room, and two deputies came along.

“Trent, I’m glad you’re here. We need to talk to you when this is over,” Jonquil said in a low voice after Gage joined her, stepping away from his mom so the EMTs would have room to work.

“About this?”

“No, something else. Maybe unrelated. Probably not.”

His brows lifted, but he agreed.

The EMTs got Diane on the backboard and into the ambulance. It seemed to take forever to Gage. Every minute stretching into the next, but finally he sat in the front seat of the ambulance and felt his heart pounding as fast as the quick scream of the ambulance siren. Watching through the side-view mirror, Gage saw Jonquil’s car pull out onto the road behind them. In that moment, he knew his whole life had changed that day. He wondered if he would ever recover.

Jonquil arrived at the hospital less than a minute after the ambulance, the winding mountain roads didn’t lend themselves to speeding. She had called Joel and asked him to put out the word that they were at the hospital and that they needed a family meeting as soon as she knew if Gage’s mom was staying or going on to a larger facility in Denver. She was nearly done speaking when the mountain passes cut her off from the cell phone towers and she put the phone down for the rest of the drive.

She wasn’t allowed in the ER, which she pretty much expected, so she asked the nurse to let Gage know she was there and settled in the waiting room for when he had something to tell her.

Soon he joined her. “They don’t know what happened, I mean, how she is, yet, but the last time I know she was up and about this morning. I have no way of knowing how long Natalie has been gone.” Tears brimmed in his eyes. “My mom asked me to move back home, but I didn’t. I thought I needed my space.”

“This is not your fault.” Jonquil’s heart felt heavy, going out to him. “You’re a grown man, and you spend a lot of time at her place helping her out, don’t you? You can’t blame yourself for this.”

When he didn’t respond, she grabbed his chin and turned his face toward hers. “Do you hear me?” He lifted his gaze to hers and she continued. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I don’t know if I can believe that.”

“Well, you should. I don’t lie.” She dropped a brief, gentle kiss on his lips. “Be patient and the doctor will be out soon to tell you what they’re going to do. I talked to Trent—one of the deputies. He said he’d meet us here to find out what’s going on. I’ll fill him in on what you told me and we’ll see what he thinks we should do.”

“If there’s anything that could hurt Natalie—”

“Gage. Trust me.” She stared him right in the eyes. “I’m going to have Vince and Jeremy working with me on this. Do you think they’d let anything happen to your sister? No, because she’s yours and you’re theirs. Right? Al needs a new roof, you drop everything to help. Vince’s parents need someone to help set up or tear down for their big July Fourth celebration, you’re there. You have a crisis, they’re going to be there too, because that’s what you guys do.” She choked up a little as she spoke. “You’re all family. Like me and my sisters.”

“And that’s what you do for family,” he said in a low voice as he pulled her against him, leaning slightly toward her.

She pressed her cheek into his shoulder and appreciated the steadiness he gave back to her when she was trying to be strong for him. “It kind of surprises me sometimes. A year ago they were just these women my dad was biologically connected to that I had to live with for a year. Now it’s something else entirely.” It had been a whirlwind at first.

“And Angela?”

His reminder of her little sister made Jonquil uncomfortable. She knew things should be different between her baby sister and herself and had no idea how to get them there. “I don’t understand her. I never have.”

He glanced at the door to the ER. “Have you tried?”

“Are you and Natalie best buddies?” she asked, sure the answer would be no.

“Guilty.” He checked his watch, something she noticed he did often. “Where is that deputy?”

“I thought you didn’t want them interfering?”

His lips pressed together for a moment. “If you’re sure he can be trusted. If he’ll stay back and let Joel be go-between, I’ll bring them in. I trust Joel.”

“Good. Joel calls him in for stuff all of the time.”

It was only a moment later when Trent came into the waiting room, his cowboy hat in his hand. “Have you heard anything about your mom?” he asked.

“Not yet. The doc promised to tell me soon.” Gage shrugged, looking a little helpless.

“I’m sure he’ll be out as soon as he can be,” Trent reassured. “So what’s the big secret?”

Jonquil started it off and nudged Gage into telling Trent what was going on with Natalie. She saw the pain in his eyes, the stress as he went through it all again. Trent asked good questions and squeezed out a few more details.

Jonquil started fielding text messages from her sisters before the doctor emerged to talk to Gage. They stepped aside to have a private conversation, but Jonquil could hear it anyway.

“Your mother has suffered a blow to the head. The MRI shows swelling on the brain. It’s too soon to know for sure what the long-term effects will be. We have a helicopter on the way from Denver. She’ll be going to Swedish Medical Center. I’ve been talking to the doctor there and he’ll be waiting for her when she comes in.”

There was more discussion about her condition and then the doctor left.

“So, off to Denver?” Trent asked.

“Yeah.” Gage ran his hand through his hair. “I’ll need a car. And what do I do about Natalie?”

“I’ll see what we can find out on our end,” Trent promised. “I’ll be in touch. I may need to get into your mom’s place again.”

“Oh. I don’t think we locked up when we left.” Gage rubbed his cheek, looking confused and overwhelmed.

“So this is how we’ll do it.” Jonquil took charge for the moment. “You’ll take my car to Denver. I know you whine that it’s tiny, even though it’s not. You’ll deal. I’ll have Vince, or Jeremy and Joel, probably, meet Trent at your mom’s place to go through things. Then they can lock up everything there. Is there any chance the door locked behind us?”

“The guys know where the spare key is,” Gage said.

“Great. Someone will head to Denver a little later to check on you and bring you your own car.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

Jonquil gave him a withering look. “Because I’m going to be able to keep them away? Right, I don’t think so.” He wasn’t keeping her away, either, but she wasn’t going to mention it now because then they’d just argue about it.

“Well.” Gage shrugged a little in acknowledgment.

“We’ll get you regular updates. And you make sure you reciprocate, okay?” She took him by the shoulder and peered into his face, saw the exhaustion lining it and knew it would only get worse from here.

He met her gaze and nodded. “Okay.”

“Are you safe to drive or does someone need to take you?”

“I’m fine. A little shell-shocked, but not tired.”

She pressed her keys into his palm. “Drive carefully. It’ll take the doctors in Denver a while to look her over before they’ll let you see her or have answers for you anyway, so you don’t need to rush.” Wanting to kiss him, but feeling a little awkward about what their relationship actually was—despite their previous lip-lock—she leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Thanks.” He put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for another kiss, brushing his lips over hers. “Here are my keys.” He handed them to her as he looked at Trent. “Can you give her a ride back to Juniper Ridge, since you’re going there anyway, or is that against the rules?”

“It’s my choice. I could use a little company.” Trent looked at Jonquil. “If we’re going to look for clues at his house, we probably better head out now.”

“Thanks,” Jonquil said. She gave Gage’s hand one last squeeze, then moved away, siding his keys into her pocket. She wanted to go with him, but there were things that had to be done first.

And she’d see him again before the night was out.

Joel and Jeremy met with Trent at Gage’s mom’s place to look for clues. Trent dropped Jonquil back at her house. By the number of cars parked out front, everyone else was home.

Good. It would simplify things if she only had to say it once. She strode to the front door, nerves filling her. After all, not everyone had known what was going on between them, or whatever it was. Now there was no way it would stay just between them. Though considering Angela knew, it wasn’t like everyone wouldn’t find out soon enough.

She pushed inside and smiled as Delphi came over to her.

“What’s going on? Joel said you were with Gage and his mom ended up in the hospital. The details were a little sketchy.”

“The information I gave him was pretty sketchy, so I imagine what he told you was even more so.” Jonquil looked around as she realized everyone was watching her. Very. Closely. Her gaze landed on Angela. “What are you doing here? I thought you had a performance.”

“I got a text about the family meeting so I got someone to bring me over the second the show ended.” She looked closer at Jonquil. “Is your lipstick smudged?”