Walker Revenge (The Walker Family Series Book 5) (4 page)

Chapter Four

Numerous noises were coming from his mother
as the doctor put Russell’s x-rays up on the light board in his
room. She’d sighed, cried, sniffed, and he wasn’t sure what else.
His father’s hand rested on her shoulder for comfort. Russell lay
there, just as he had for nearly four days, waiting for them to say
something positive.

“Everything is healing nicely. We’re going
to get PT in here today and get you moving a little bit. You won’t
be trying to walk for a few weeks, but you’ll get there.” The
doctor took the x-rays off the board. “A few more days and we can
release you into your parents’ care. You will still need to be
attended to at all times.”

Russell realized that all the years of
military training had led him to this moment. He wasn’t about to
let his mother wait on him hand and foot for the long term. He was
physically in excellent health, minus this setback. He’d be damned
if he wasn’t going to be walking in a few weeks, just as the doctor
had said—but fully walking, not assisted. No, Russell Walker wasn’t
going to rely on aids to help him get around.

“He’ll be in good hands,” his mother’s shaky
voice broke the silence Russell hadn’t even noticed had filled the
room. He’d been to locked into his own thoughts.

The door to his room opened again, and
Phillip Smythe poked his head in as he took off his hat and secured
it under his arm. “Oh, you have a full set of visitors. I’ll check
in later.”

His mother rose and walked to the door,
pulling Phillip inside. “You come in and visit. We’ve been here all
morning. I could use some coffee,” she offered, and Russell watched
as his father fell into line next to her. “We’ll be back shortly,”
she promised as they walked out of the room.

Russell looked at the doctor who was
gathering his things. “I’ll be back around tomorrow morning to
check on you,” he gave him a smile as he too walked out the
door.

“Seriously, I feel as though no one wanted
to see me,” Phillip laughed as he walked around to the side of
Russell’s bed. “You look better.”

“Get me the hell out of here, and I’ll be
even better. You passing through?” he asked as he looked at
Phillip’s uniform. “Or did you drop by on your coffee break?”

Phillip took his hat in his hands and ran
his fingers over the rim. “There’s surveillance footage of a blue
pickup truck following you down the road. The gas station on the
corner by the bar caught it on their camera.”

Russell thought back to their first
conversation. “You think I was run off the road, don’t you?”

“I think there’s a possibility. We’re
looking at your truck to see if we can find any other paint on
it.”

“My truck is blue, too.”

“My team is good. They’ll know if that was
the case. Every blue is a little different.”

“Jake said the truck is totaled. He can’t
fix it, and he can fix anything.”

“He’s right. You know you’re lucky to be
alive?”

“I’ve been told.” He began to wish that
sleep would just take over. Suddenly he didn’t want to discuss the
accident anymore.

“Dominic Cleary, does the name ring a
bell?”

He wasn’t sure if the beeps on the monitor
grew more rapid because of the cuff on his arm or because of the
name Phillip had just posed.

“Yeah, I know the name.”

Phillip nodded. “I knew that.”

“He’s the S.O.B. Chelsea married.” His jaw
tightened uncomfortably, and his leg tensed so that the pain ripped
through him. “Why the hell bring him up?”

Phillip rubbed his chin. “He’s out on
parole.”

Russell fisted his right hand as anger
surged through him. “Parole? He never hurt her, did he?”

Phillip rubbed the back of his neck. “He was
in jail for robbery and kidnapping.”

“That didn’t answer my question”

“Russ, I’d better let you calm down before
they kick me out of here.”

“You’d better answer me, damn it,” his voice
rose.

Phillip took a deep breath. “He has a record
of domestic violence. She has a restraining order against him.”

Russell’s vision began to blur. She didn’t
mention that, and he was pissed that she’d been in his presence for
days without telling him. But then again, who’d want to brag that
their husband was a felon?

“A restraining order? That means he’s hurt
her, and my guess is more than once. She’s too trusting a person to
have slapped that on him for just getting a little rough one
time.”

Phillip checked his watch. “I need to be
getting back to…”

“You can’t keep coming in here and dropping
questions and walking out.” He tried to sit up, and managed to move
only slightly. “What the hell did he do to her to cause her to
restrain him?”

Phillip bit down on his bottom lip. “He hit
her when she told him she’d filed for divorce, and he took off with
their son. They were missing for two days.”

Russell eased back, and he fought the anger
boiling inside of him mixed with the sheer sadness that struggled
to surface in tears which stung at his eyes. “Son?”

“Lucas. He’s nearly three.”

The room grew warm, and suddenly Russell’s
world began to spin. The monitor to his side chirped loudly and
within a few moments there were nurses piling urgently into his
room. Phillip was pushed out as they readjusted Russell, fiddled
with his wires, and added something to his IV. Then the world
calmed, and went black again.

~*~

Chelsea cherished the days she could spend
with Lucas. They’d watched TV together when he’d awoken at six in
the morning. They’d shared a bowl of dry Cheerios for breakfast.
Now, he rested in her arms as he napped, and she didn’t have the
heart to put him in his crib.

If these first three years had gone so
quickly, she made herself sick thinking how quickly the next three
would go. The overflowing sink full of dishes could wait until
after he went to bed. She was simply going to hold him as long as
she could.

With a glance at the kitchen table, which
was filled with laundry and books, she realized she had homework
that needed to be tended to as well. The very thought of it made
her eyes burn, and she closed them hoping that Lucas’s sleep would
be contagious.

Just as she felt her muscles relax and her
breath begin to sync to Lucas’s, she heard a tapping at the door.
Lucas remained quiet against her.

She rose carefully and walked him to the
playpen where she set him down. He stirred briefly but found
comfort quickly.

Chelsea hurried to the door and opened it to
find Officer Smythe standing on her front porch. She pressed her
finger to her lips and stepped outside, leaving the door open just
a crack in case Lucas were to wake, so she would hear him.

“Lucas just fell asleep,” she whispered as
if to set the volume for their conversation.

“I’ll be brief then,” Phillip said, taking
her lead.

“Is something wrong?” Her hands began to
shake, so she fisted them behind her. “Is Russell okay?”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a grin.
“You thought of him first?”

Chelsea pressed her shoulders back and
crossed her arms in front of her. “You were working his accident.
That’s all.”

He nodded, but she was sure he’d seen
through that. “My reason for dropping by is different. Dominic was
released from jail and is on parole in Texas.”

Her lips began to tremble, and she pressed
her hands to her stomach. “They should have warned me. They didn’t
warn me.”

“I’m warning you.” He reached for her and
took her hands in his. “His parole is in Texas. He’ll break it if
he comes into Georgia.”

“He’ll come for Lucas.”

“Do you really think he will? He doesn’t
want anything to do with him.”

“He didn’t want anything to do with him when
he kidnapped him before either. All he wanted was to hurt me, and
he did that.”

“He’s not going to come near you.”

That was a truth she was much too familiar
with. “I still have a restraining order, too.”

“You do. All of this is intact. You need to
know so that you’re aware.”

“Maybe I should go. I should move. My
parents are in Florida with my sister. I could…”

He shook his head. “You need to stay here
and finish school.”

“I’m almost done. I’ll take my boards, and
then…”

“And then you’ll heal the world.” He smiled.
“Until then, I think we need to make a plan to surround you with
friends.”

Chelsea swallowed hard. She hadn’t had many
friends in the past three years, only one or two she could count on
to help with Lucas. Her breakup from Russell had cost her the
friendships she’d had with his cousins and with his mother. Of
course, that was her own fault. She’d pulled away from them
altogether. Why wouldn’t she? She was absolutely embarrassed.

They did still share some common friends.
She was still close with Gia, but Gia wasn’t expected to return
home until after Christmas, though Dane had returned to check on
Russell. And even when she did return home, she’d be much too busy
planning her wedding to want to have Chelsea hanging around all the
time.

There was Lydia. But Lydia was a busy woman.
Chelsea had lost count of the number of businesses Lydia owned in
town.

“I don’t have any friends,” she said.

“You have more than you think. But if you’ll
forgive me, I actually talked to someone else before I came over.
Glenda Walker said they’re going to need help with Russell when he
comes home.”

She felt the blood drain from her head.
“That’s not a good idea.”

“Really? You have a better one?”

“Why would she do that? Why would she want
to do that? And Russell probably thinks that’s a horrible idea. I’d
be better off living right here alone.”

“You and Lucas alone? That’s a solid idea,”
Phillip narrowed his gaze on her. “The Walkers are far enough out
of town you wouldn’t be followed around. There are enough of them,
as well, to keep an eye on you and your son. Russell needs your
expertise too. I don’t see where this won’t work out.”

“I stabbed them all in the back, Phillip. I
walked away from their family.”

“Yeah, well Glenda must have forgotten,
because this was her idea.”

Chelsea walked to the porch step and sat
down. Her knees had gone weak, and her stomach was unsettled.
Phillip joined her, and they sat in silence for a moment.

“Do you think he’d really come here and hurt
us?” She raised her eyes to his to read him even before he
spoke.

“Chelsea, he took Lucas to hurt you. What
says he won’t do that again?”

“I never told Russell that I divorced
Dominic. I never told him about Lucas.”

He rubbed his chin and she could hear the
scratching sound his whiskers made against his fingers. “I might
have mentioned it to him.”

She could feel the sting of the tears that
would break free if she let them. “Icing on the cake, right? Broken
promises because I strayed, got pregnant, and then married the
bastard.” Her stomach rolled, and she was sure she was going to be
sick right there in front of Phillip, who was only there doing his
job.

“We are all allowed our mistakes.”

“But no one should hurt other people.”

“It wasn’t as if you were the one who ran
him off the road.”

She covered her mouth with her hand. “You
think someone did that?”

“There is a small trail that leads to that.”
He rested his hand atop hers. “A lot of things can happen when
people are apart like you and Russell have been. Sometimes the
heart can forget the pain it had. Think about it. He did say he
loved you.” Chelsea dropped her shoulders and stared at him, but he
only smiled back. “Russell needs you to heal him, and you need them
to help you. Chelsea, think of Lucas. Don’t think of the mistakes
that led you here. Think about moving forward. The Walkers can help
you do that.”

Every sinner had to face their sins, she
thought, as she later watched Phillip drive away. Perhaps her
penance was in helping Russell heal at home while she was kept safe
within the walls of his family’s home.

While Lucas slept, she dug through the stack
of mail on her counter that had grown over the past few weeks. Sure
enough, there was the notice that her ex-husband was being
released.

Her head had been in the clouds for months.
Her lack of organization could have cost her and Lucas their lives
had she not had someone like Officer Phillip Smythe looking after
her.

Chelsea dug through her purse searching for
her phone. She scrolled through the contacts until she came upon
Glenda Walker’s phone number. She needed to hear it from Glenda
herself. She’d know in a moment if Phillip put her up to it or if
it had been Glenda’s idea—and she’d quickly know how Glenda felt
about her. One thing Glenda Walker wasn’t very good at was hiding
her true feelings—no matter what they were.

Chapter Five

His father paced in front of yet another
horrible daytime drama that played out on TV. His mother positioned
a straw into another can of ginger ale, which he was beginning to
despise as well. And Russell was captive to their fussing over him,
which he’d decided wasn’t the worst part of the hospital stay.

The muffled sound of his mother’s phone came
from within her purse. She stopped her fussing, dug in her purse,
and pulled it out as she simultaneously greeted the caller.

A broad smile formed on her lips. “Chelsea,
it’s so nice to hear from you. I was just talking to Phillip about
you earlier today. How is your son?”

Russell bit down on the straw his mother had
just put into his drink. How had he missed this little part about
her having a son, and why in the hell was she calling his
mother?

“Well, I told him I thought it was best for
everyone. Besides, it’ll be great to have a little one around
again.” His mother moved to the window and looked outside, as his
father walked to the side of his bed, and they both listened to the
one side of the conversation.