Saving Scotty Read online

  “She won’t go. She hates hospitals. And, considering she was abducted from one, I doubt that you can get her to step foot in another one without her literally kicking and screaming.”

  “I know. I have a feeling that you’re right about that. But I wish that she would. I don’t want to be indelicate, but there needs to be evidence of what happened to her so that we can nail that bastard to the wall. The longer we wait, the less likely that there’s going to be any evidence to be found. But, I don’t want to pressure her, either. She’s been through enough already.”

  Jack looked thoughtful. “Well, I can certainly try to talk her about going to a hospital, so that they can do a rape kit on her. But, don’t be surprised if she throws me out of the room again.”

  “Thanks, I would appreciate that immensely.”

  “Not a problem.” Then he took another swig of his mojito and said “well, I’m going in. Wish me luck.”

  “Luck,” I said with a smile.

  After he left, I was left with my thoughts. I wanted so badly to go up there and hold her and comfort her. But, at the moment, she wanted zero to do with me.

  I silently prayed that Jack could get through to her, so that I could truly help her recover from all that she went through on that island.

  Chapter 25

  Scotty

  I wasn’t wanting company. I wanted to be alone. Yet, I stopped hearing voices downstairs, and I wondered if I was alone. And, I suddenly wanted Nick to be right there next to me, by my side.

  God, this was frustrating. I wanted, so badly, for that beautiful blue-eyed man to come and lay in the bed with me, and stroke my body and hold me and tell me that everything was going to be alright. I wanted to cry on his shoulder until my tears could come no more, and cling to him like I have never clung to anybody before. I wanted him to be my person, my rock, the person that I could always depend upon to love me and give me the strength and stability that I desperately needed at that time.

  I mean, I was literally ready to kill myself on that island. I had a plan. I was going to go through with that plan. To say that I needed somebody there to help me overcome the immense pain that was brought on me by that evil Mr. Lucas was an understatement.

  Yet, Nick couldn’t be that one. No way. No way. How could I possibly allow somebody who betrayed me so fundamentally be that one?

  So, I felt like screaming, I was so frustrated. I was so angry at what had happened to me. Angry at Mr. Lucas and furious at Nick. And, just like that, I stopped wallowing in my pity and started to feel like I was going to get out of that bed, by hook or by crook, and get down there and pummel Nick with my fists. Tell him how rageful I felt toward him, and how I never wanted to see him, ever again. That he better let me leave, or I would call the police. Or something.

  Then, I calmed down, and started to think about the good times again. And I felt, once again, the love that I had for him. The protection that I felt coming from him. The feeling that I wanted to spend eternity with him.

  I was so messed up at that point. I didn’t know which emotion to trust. All that I knew was that I was feeling every emotion to the nth degree, and I was like an exposed nerve. Everything bothered me. The love I felt was just as strong as the anger and the hatred. So, I was confused, to say the least.

  At some point, Jack came back upstairs. “Madam,” he said, in his best maître d’ voice. “Mr. O’Hara would like to know what you would like to eat. On the menu we are featuring roast duck with baby carrots and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. A baked potato will round out the meal.” And then he shrugged. “Or, you can just have pizza,” he said in his normal voice. “Nick ordered one and it will be here in a half hour.”

  In spite of myself, I smiled and then laughed. “Come here, you,” I said, motioning him to the bed.

  He sashayed over to the bed, and crawled in next to me. “So, little Scotty,” he said, putting my head on his shoulder. “Are you ready to listen to me finally?”

  “No,” I said. “There’s nothing that you can say that will change my mind about Nick. He has to not be in my life. Period.”

  Jack sighed. “Well, then, how about another subject. This is going to be touchy, but, it needs to be said. You need to go to the hospital.”

  “NO! And if you think for two seconds that I will ever, and I mean ever, step foot in another hospital again, you have another thing coming, sister.”

  “Scotty. I love you. I want what’s best for you. But, come on now. You need to have certain tests done. Nick wants to nail Mr. Lucas, but the only way that we can is if you go to the hospital and get, you know, a rape kit done.” When he said the words “rape kit,” he said them so softly that I could barely hear them.

  But that didn’t matter. I already knew what he was getting at. And I wanted nothing to do with it. Zero.

  “Nope. Sorry. Not doing it. I’m not going to let that hospital put a metal thing in my you know what. I’ve been traumatized enough, thank you very much.”

  “Well, then, hang on,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

  “I’ll be here,” I said sarcastically. “Where am I going to go?”

  “True that,” he said with a wink.

  He left, and I laid there, staring at the ceiling. I had a feeling that there would be something brewing, something that I didn’t like.

  He came back, and my instinct was correct.

  “Ok,” he said. “So, you don’t want to go to the hospital. That’s okay. Nick said that he knows a doctor who makes house calls and-“

  “NO. No means no. I don’t want anybody near me with any kind of metal anything. Now, leave this room if you can’t comprehend what I want.”

  “It’s for your own good,” he said.

  “Jack, I swear to god, if that doctor comes near this bed, I will scream so loud that people in New Jersey can hear me. New Jersey, nothing. People in Florida will be able to hear me.”

  “Scotty. Now listen to me,” Jack said in a tone of voice that I had never before heard from him. For once, his voice wasn’t playful. It was commanding and intense.

  I got quiet. “Okay, Jack, I’m listening.”

  He took a deep breath. “Good. Now. That man is a predator. He has haunted you your entire life, and now he has attempted to destroy you again.”

  “Tell me something new, or I’ll stop listening.”

  “Quiet,” he commanded. “Now, if you don’t allow this doctor to examine you, then you will have made the most selfish decision that you could possibly make.”

  “Selfish? What do you mean?”

  “Scotty. Do you think that you’re the only one that he has preyed upon? And do you think that there is not going to be another girl whose life will be ruined by him if he continues to walk free?”

  I blinked back my tears and shook my head silently.

  He continued. “There’s going to be another little girl who’s going to be scared to death of her own shadow and going through life the way that you have, just because that man will have done something to her that you could have prevented. You can prevent that from happening. But you have to let that doctor examine you. Only then can you finally have the evidence to hang that bastard.”

  I inhaled my breath and held it. I could feel my hot tears running down my face. I bit my lip, hard. I couldn’t look at Jack for several minutes, so I just stared at the wall. I felt myself taking the pillowcase and twisting it tightly into a knot, over and over again.

  Then, I finally exhaled my breath after what seemed like hours.

  “Okay. Bring that doctor over.”

  Chapter 26

  Jack went down to tell Nick to bring the doctor, and I laid in the bed, scared to death. The last thing that I wanted was for somebody to touch me down there, let alone with a metal speculum. I could think of nothing more intrusive than what I was about to be subjected to.

  In a half hour, the doctor arrived. A woman. Thank god.

  “Hello,” she said. “My name is Dr. Woods.” Sh
e was dark-headed and pretty, and wore very little makeup. She took my hand. “I’m very sorry for what happened to you. You’re very brave for doing this,” she said.

  “Okay. Just get this over with and be on your way. No offense.”

  “None taken,” she said. And then she explained that she would be examining me, which would include taking pictures of my bruises, swabbing my mouth, taking a complete medical history and also that she would have to do a vaginal exam.

  “I know,” I said. “I’ve watched Law and Order SVU.” I was trying to make a joke, and she did smile politely at the reference.

  So, for the next hour or so, I felt like I was violated all over again. Pictures were taken. Samples were given. A metal speculum went into the area that was savagely torn apart by that evil man.

  I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

  Finally, it was.

  “Thank you again,” Dr. Woods said. “You’re – “

  “Very brave. I know,” I said.

  She nodded and started to leave with her little box full of evidence.

  “Uh, Dr. Woods?” I said, before she left.

  “Yes?”

  “On your way out, if you see Jack, could you ask him to come up here please?”

  “I certainly will,” she said.

  And Jack came up about five minutes after she left.

  I spread my arms, and he came and sat on the bed.

  And I cried on his shoulder for what seemed like hours.

  And probably actually was hours.

  ∞

  I finally quit crying. Jack was sitting there, stroking my hair and back silently, the entire time.

  “Uh, Jack,” I finally said.

  “Yes, love?”

  “I’m finally ready to listen.”

  “Thank god,” he said.

  “What were you going to tell me?”

  “Okay,” he began while repositioning himself on the bed. “Nick and Portia did not have sex. He would never, ever do something like that to you.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “What you saw was a drugged man and a Fatal Attraction bitch who was doing everything but boil a bunny to get back at Nick for rejecting her. And that’s the truth.”

  “Come again. Start over.”

  “Okay. Here’s what Nick told me, and I believe him 150%. He went to Portia’s office to discuss you. He knew that Portia has had it in for you, and that she wasn’t going to stop harassing you until she got you to quit. So, Nick was trying to smooth her over so that she might get off the warpath against you.”

  “Okay. Sounds reasonable so far. Go ahead.”

  “Well, you and he were hot and heavy, as I’m sure you know. I mean, you were there, right?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said. “Go on.”

  “He knew that it was a matter of time before the firm knew about the two of you, and he was concerned on how Portia was going to take the news.” He sighed. “Why he thought that he could reason with a crazy person is beyond me, but that’s a straight boy for ya. Anyhoo….Nick went to Portia’s office to talk with her and try to flatter her and encourage her to find her own man to stalk, I mean date.”

  “Okay. Continue.”

  “They had some scotch. She distracted him briefly, and he took a sip and immediately felt like he was about to pass out. He actually did pass out, and he came to in his loft with a headache that he described as a 42 on a scale of 1 to 10. He had no knowledge of anything that had happened.”

  I had a feeling that was both sinking and elated at the same time. Sinking because I felt like a fool to just assume that Portia wasn’t up to some dirty tricks. I should have been smarter than that. And sinking because I had given Nick such a hard time, and he didn’t deserve that at all. At all at all.

  But my feeling was also elated. If this story checks out, Nick was in the clear. I loved him more than I ever thought that I could love anybody, and I could be with him without anger or mistrust. That was huge.

  I took a deep breath. “So, how does he know exactly what happened?”

  “Ryan told him on the plane about how pissed he was at Nick for Nick doing that to you. And Nick was like ‘huh? Whatyou talking about Willis?’” Jack shrugged. “And he put two and two together and came up with four, and he figured it all out. Smart guy, huh?”

  “Smart guy.”

  “So. Can lover boy please come up here and take my shift? I got pizza downstairs a-calling my name. There’s several slices with your name on it, too, by the way.”

  “Of course,” I said. “Have him come up.”

  “Thank god,” he said. “Well, toodles. You know I won’t be far.”

  “I know.”

  A few minutes later, Nick was in the bedroom. He was bearing several slices of pizza on a tray. Also on the tray was a perfect red rose in a vase, a glass of orange juice and a tiny teddy bear that said “be mine” on his tiny little t-shirt.

  He smiled as he approached the bed. “I brought you something to eat,” he said. “God knows you need it more than ever now.”

  He sat down on the bed, and picked up the pizza and brought it to my mouth. I took a bite. A bite of pure heaven. It was from my all-time favorite pizza place, because this place used the absolute best cheese and lots of it.

  I loved him right at that moment, more, perhaps, then I had ever loved him. Not just because he got me pizza from my all-time favorite place, although that certainly was a factor, but also because he was just…Nick. He hadn’t changed on me after all. I thought that he had changed his mind about me and about us, but he hadn’t really, and I loved him with all my heart.

  He put his arm around me, and bit into his own piece of pizza. “How is it?” he asked.

  “Heavenly. This is the first bit of food that I have had since, well, since I left New York in the first place.”

  His eyes darkened. “Why is that? Was that monster starving you?”

  “Well, no. I mean, he brought me things to eat, but I simply wasn’t hungry. I felt nauseated just being near him, so I refused to eat. To tell you the truth, I was a little bit afraid to eat.”

  “Afraid to eat. What do you mean?”

  “Well, in my condition, I can’t get to the bathroom very well, of course. I depended upon Mr. Lucas to get me in and out of the bathroom. He deliberately kept my wheelchair at a place where I couldn’t reach it, and he didn’t give me crutches. So, I was helpless in that way. I felt that if I ate that I would throw up, because I was just so stressed and anxious being there. And I felt that if I had to throw up in the bed that he would severely punish me. That was why I was afraid to eat.”

  Nick took a deep breath. “I’m very glad to give you food, Scotty. Sorry it’s only pizza. I’m going to attempt to cook again this evening, but I have to send Jack to the store for some things.”

  “No, that’s okay. You don’t have to go all out for me.”

  “Of course I do. And making sure that you’re well fed is not exactly going all out. It’s just giving you a basic necessity.”

  “Well, I guess what I’m saying is, I appreciate you cooking for me. I really do. But I’d like to help. I’m not an invalid just yet.”

  “No, no, I wasn’t thinking that. I just feel the need to take care of you, that’s all.”

  I looked into his eyes. “I love that you want to take care of me. That means the world to me.” Then I took an enormous breath. “But I feel that I owe you such a major apology.”

  Nick bowed his head slightly and looked at me with those blue, blue eyes of his. “Apology for what?”

  “Well, you know what it is that I saw in Portia’s office.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “My apology is that I didn’t think things through. I automatically assumed that you were in there having sex with her, and I never should have thought that. I mean, after what we have gone through, just trying to get together, and after all of your reassurances to me that I’m special, I should have immediately thought that
Portia was up to no good. Not that you were.”

  Nick put his hand in my hair, and looked me right in the eye. “Scotty. I understand why you would think that about me. You haven’t known me long enough to know when I’m dead serious about something. And you don’t know me well enough to know that when I say that I’m not going to cheat, it means just that. I don’t try to snow women and tell them that they’re the only one, when they’re not. I never have been that guy. But I’m telling you, right here and now, that I will never, ever cheat on you. You’re the only one. I don’t say that to anybody, but I’m saying that to you.”

  I nodded my head. “I believe you.”

  “Thank god,” he said with a smile. “I knew you would come around, sooner or later.”

  I smiled back. “Yeah. And, as you can see, I can’t very well run away from you even if I didn’t come around.”

  At first he didn’t smile, because he wasn’t quite sure if he should. But I smiled big to show that the topic of my broken leg was something that I could joke about, so he chuckled a little, and then laughed with me. “Truer words were never spoken.”

  And then I got more serious. “Nick, uh, I’ve been through a lot these past few days. But I feel that I can and will survive what happened to me with Mr. Lucas on that island. I mean, I lived for two years with that happening to me every night. I’ve gone through my rage and grief about it already. I’m ready to move on and move past that.”

  “Okay. How can I help you do that?”

  “Well, I’ve had some time to think. That doctor who came over here did a lot of very intrusive things. Asked some very difficult questions. Violated me a second time, almost. I mean, I know that it was something that had to be done, but it didn’t make any of it any easier.”

  Nick nodded his head, and gently put my head on his shoulder while he stroked my hair. “Go on, my love.”

  “What I’m getting at is that I went through that whole examination, and the humiliation of doing that, so I don’t want that to go for naught. I want to nail Mr. Lucas to the wall.”

  Nick’s face lit up. “Oh, thank god. I mean, I know that has to be done, but I was afraid that I was going to have to talk you into it. Jack seemed to think that you probably would be very reticent to do something like that.”