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UNDER 18 PLEASE CLICK HERE
Chapter 27-
by Michelle M Pillow & Mandy M Roth
Honey, I'm home!
Dmitri’s tires screeched as he turned into the parking lot of the Mid
County Hospital. He felt his body tense. Mike had been all but useless
in giving information. All he’d been able to say was that some nurses’
aide called and asked for Armando. He’d told her that Armando was gone
and then gave him the message that Michelle was in the hospital and
Mandy needed Armando get down there. That was it. That wasn’t a whole
lot to go on.
Hell, Mike should have a least asked what was going on. Dmitri would
have slugged his cousin, but Mike already looked shaken by the whole
thing. Mike didn’t like to admit it, but deep, deep down, he had
feelings and obviously he considered Michelle a close friend.
His car door was open before he’d even put the car into park. Leaping
out the driver’s seat, he slammed the door shut without locking it and
ran for the rotating front door. A low growl sounded in the back of
his throat while he was forced to wait for an older gentleman in a
walker. Tapping his foot, he finally made it inside and rudely brushed
past him.
“Michelle Pillow,” Dmitri said, stopping at the front desk. He knew
his voice sounded panicked, but he didn’t care. Like it or not, he was
going to storm up to that hospital room—no matter if she was mangled
from a car wreck, dying of cancer, missing all four limbs—and tell her
he loved her. Their petty bickering had gone on too damned long. He
was in love with her and she loved him—he didn’t plan on giving her a
choice in this—and he was going to spend the rest of his life making
her happy, whether she liked it or not.
“No, my name is Susan,” the woman answered coyly. She was cute, but
Dmitri didn’t see her. He frowned, not appreciating her humor or the
fact that she was twirling her hair trying to flirt with him. Before
he’d met Michelle, he’d of had this girl in a linen closet within ten
minutes. Now, she just looked cheap, tawdry, empty. He wanted more
than that. And he was going to get it.
“Michelle Pillow’s room number,” he said stiffly.
The girl sighed and turned to her computer. He was pretty sure that
she took twice as long to give him an answer because he’d been rude.
Just when he was about to reach over the counter and strangle her, she
said, “Michelle Pillow, Room 456.”
Dmitri nodded, trying his best not to growl at her instead. He took
off running for the elevators, mumbling, “4-5-6,” over and over so he
wouldn’t dare forget. The elevator took forever to get to the fourth
floor. Then as the doors opened, he frowned. He was on the maternity
level. Dmitri stormed to the desk, and demanded, “Room 456.”
What in the hell was she doing in the maternity level? Fine, whatever.
If she was pregnant, he’d take the kid as his own and that would just
expand their happy little fucking family and she’d be a loving wife
and mother and it would all be so fucking perfect. Oh, and she could
just have a few of his babies why she was at it.
“We don’t have a room 456, sir,” the nurse said. Her tone was stiff,
but when she looked at him, she took pity and said, “What’s your
wife’s name?”
“Michelle Pillow,” he answered. She looked at her computer and
frowned. “I’m sorry, are you sure you have the right hospital? We have
no one in labor by that name… oh, wait, there is a Michelle Pillow on
floor tw…o.”
Dmitri was already to the elevator, swearing at how many times and
ways he was going to rip out the receptionist throat when he found
her. Getting to the second floor, he again went to the desk. Not even
trying to control himself, he growled, “Michelle Pillow.”
“214,” the woman answered, as if she dealt with stress everyday and
wasn’t fazed by his.
Dmitri began to turn, when he heard someone say, “Wait a minute.”
Dmitri spun around, shaking so bad that he had to see her now or he
was sure the worry was going to kill him. He blinked seeing a doctor.
“214?” The doctor waited for Dmitri’s nod. “You must be Armando. Mandy
said she had you coming down. I’m Dr. Thomas. Listen, Mandy said I
should talk to you. When Michelle came in she was pretty upset. She
kept mentioning a Dmitri.
Dmitri felt his heart let loose, pounding violently.
“Do you know him?”
Dmitri nodded, unable to speak.
“Until she wakes up, I’d think it would be a good idea if she didn’t
see him. Michelle’s had a mild attack. We’re running some tests and
the last thing she needs until we find out what’s wrong is to be
worked up. From the sounds of things, and from what Mandy has shared,
this Dmitri is a primary stress source.” The doctor gave a smile that
was more polite than cheery. “That young lady has had a lot to deal
with lately. With her heart condition, I really am surprised she’s
held up so well. Oh, and please try and get her to take her medicine.
She really shouldn’t have been off it like she was.”
Dmitri went numb.
“Well, I’ll let you go,” the doctor said. “You can see her now. Mandy
said you were family, so you’re allowed to stay as long as you like
past visiting hours. I think it would be good to have a friend by her
side when she wakes up.”
~*****~
Mandy headed into the office extra early to beat their boss in. The
guy was a punk to begin with. Add the fact that Michelle would be
out of commission for a few weeks due to stress on her weak heart, and
you’d end up with an super punk.
Hank, their new boss, would have no problems with firing Michelle.
He’d think of some creative way to title it so that he could get
away with it, and there was no way that Mandy could let that happen.
Michelle needed her job at the Nocturnal Journal so Mandy was willing
to take on her workload to help her out.
She sat down at Michelle’s desk and searched her files. She had lists
upon lists of interviews that needed to be done, so Mandy fired up the
computer and began the arduous task of emailing all candidates. It was
eleven by the time she’d gotten far enough on Michelle’s work to be
able to concentrate on her own.
Mandy locked Michelle’s office door on her way out and headed down the
hall to her own. Opening the door slowly, she jumped with a start when
she came face to face with Darren. “What the hell are you doing here?
Are you trying to kill me?”
He flashed a bad boy smile at her and propped his enormous feet up on
her desk. She gave him the evil eye, but he kept them there. “No,
baby, I’m not trying to scare you. I just wanted to see you and I’m
sick of that friggin’ dead guy getting in the way.”
Mandy arched an eyebrow. “Friggin’ dead guy?”
“The vampire.”
“Ah, I see. So, what is it you want to talk to me about that Armando
can’t be present for?” She gave his feet a good shove on her way to
her chair. His size thirteen’s crashed to the floor and left Mandy
grinning from ear to ear.
Darren leaned forward and gave her one of his famous ‘I’ve done
something you’ll hate’ looks. “We need to talk about our marriage.”
“Great, this shouldn’t take long. We were only married a couple of
weeks.”
Running his hand through his shaggy hair, he let out a sigh. “Yeah,
about that….”
Mandy’s gut clenched. Darren was up to his old tricks again, and she
didn’t like it one bit. “About that what?”
He glanced up at the calendar on her wall and shrugged. “We’ve been
married more like two years now.”
“Pfffttt…” Mandy snorted. The calm look on Darren’s face made her stop
and take notice. “What the hell did you do, Darren?”
“It’s more like what I didn’t do.” He reached over the desk to touch
her and she eyed her letter opener. She wasn’t above stabbing the man
if need be. “I sort of never got around to turning those papers in.”
Mandy shot up and out of her seat, sending several folders flying to
the ground in the process. “YOU WHAT?”
“Well, you signed all that you needed to sign and then left the papers
with me to give back to my attorney. I kind of forgot to do it.”
“NOBODY forgets to turn in paperwork. AND you swore to me that it was
annulled!”
“I lied.”
Mandy’s blood boiled. How could he do this? How could he waltz in
after all these years and drop this on her? “You’ve got to be kidding
me. Why would you wait two years to tell me this?”
Darren’s face reddened. “I thought you’d come to your senses about us.
I assumed that when I moved out here and relocated my business, you’d
take one look at me and know that we were still meant to be together.”
She thrust her hands up in the air. “Hold on… what do you mean, moved
out here?”
“Honey, I’m home.” He said, in a bad accent.
“Get the papers and get them to your attorney, NOW!”
Darren shook his head. “No. I’ve already spoke with him and he’s
willing to take this to court. You see, sweetie, you married a
werewolf, and by law we’ve got certain rights, too. You’re my mate, in
the eyes of the law, and that entitles me to certain privileges.”
Mandy lunged at him, wanting desperately to tear any body part she
could get her hands on off him. He caught her in mid-stride and held
her arms at bay as he pressed his face close to hers. She snarled at
him. “If you think I’m having sex with you, you can….”
“No, no sex… yet, but I will be moving my bags in to your house
tonight.”
“LIKE HELL YOU WILL!”
Darren laughed her outrage off. “Mandy, it’s simple. I’ve checked into
this. I’m entitled to reside with you—my mate and you can’t stop me. I
could force you to move in with me, but I’m guessing that would be
even harder on you, and if we’re going to make this union work, we’ll
need to compromise.”
Running out of options, Mandy attempted to head butt him. She missed
and came into contact with his shoulder blade. A loud thud, followed
by excruciating pain was all she got of the experience.
“Sweetie, be careful. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. Your body is
not only your temple, it’s mine now, too.” He smiled down at her.
“Don’t worry, I won’t push you for children, yet.”
“Darren, this is ridiculous. Don’t do this. I’m supposed to be
marrying Armando in a couple of weeks. Don’t come in here and turn my
life upside down.”
“NO,” Darren shouted. “You stop turning my life upside down! It ends
now, Mandy. We need to make this work. That’s what married people do
you know, and if we can’t then I promise to step aside and let you
marry that dead piece of….”
“Darren!” Mandy scolded. “Please don’t do this. What are we going to
work out in three weeks? Nothing!”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. We’ll have more time than that
because I say we will. I want at least two months with you—at least
that or I refuse to ever step down.”
~****~
Michelle blinked, opening her eyes. She had a killer headache, but
that was nothing new. She’d been so stressed lately, a little migraine
was nothing. At least her stomach wasn’t churning, that was something.
Seeing a bright light, she blinked again.
“Michelle?”
Was that Dmitri’s voice? Her heart fluttered almost painfully.
“Michelle, are you…?” Ok, that was Brian. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been here all night,” Dmitri’s voice hissed. “What are you not
doing here?”
“I—” Brian began.
“Bri?” Michelle mumbled. “What’s going on? Where am I?”
“Hey, sis,” Brian said and she felt someone lift her hand. Her eyes
came into focus and she saw her brother. “Doc says you haven’t been
taking your pills.”
“Ugh,” Michelle grimaced. “I told you I wasn’t. They’re placebos, I’m
sure of it. I don’t feel any different when I’m on them.”
“You need to be taking them,” Brian scolded. He gave a pained look
over her and Michelle turned her head to follow him.
She’d almost forgotten Dmitri was there. Her headache was making it
hard to concentrate. Damn, but he looked good, even tired and red eyed
as he was. She tried to smile, instinctively glad to see him, but the
look faltered. “What are you doing here?”
“Mandy had to go into work to cover for you, so I volunteered to
stay,” Dmitri said. His voice and expressions were tight.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she whispered. Pleasure flooded her that
he had been by her side, even as she wished he’d never see her like
this. “This… it really isn’t a big deal.”
Brian snorted. Michelle turned her glare onto him and gave him the
‘shut up or I’ll beat you’ look. Brian sighed.
“Sis, I hate to do this, but I’ve got to leave on an assignment. The…
magazine’s not giving me a choice.” Brian glanced at Dmitri. “You
know—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Michelle interrupted. She glanced at Dmitri. “I know.
You be careful all right? Call when you get near a phone.”
Brian nodded. Dmitri’s cell phone rang and he stood up to answer it.
“Yeah?”
With Dmitri distracted, Brian leaned over. “You know I wouldn’t go if
it wasn’t important, right?”
“You do what you have to,” Michelle said. “I’ll be fine. Promise.”
Brian looked pained. “I want you to stay with Mandy… for me. The doc
doesn’t want you being alone and I agree. And promise me, you’ll take
your medicine. I don’t want to be distracted out on the field, you
know, taking pictures. I’ll lose my focus.”
“I’ll be good,” Michelle promised, chuckling softly.
~*****~
“Mandy, slow down,” Dmitri said into the phone, as he left the
hospital room. “What’s do you mean Darren is moving in with you?”
“Lycan law. He never annulled the marriage,” Mandy answered. “He has
mating rights.”
Dmitri frowned. That’s all she needed to say. He knew lycan law better
than anyone. Being Were, they had certain protected rights as mating
was a hard enough process to begin with.
“There’s more, though,” Mandy said. “Michelle was supposed to stay
with me, but now, with Darren….”
“Yeah, Armando’s going to be pissed and she doesn’t need to be in the
middle of this. Did you tell Darren about Michelle? What kind of
asshole moves in and kicks a sick friend out? You picked a real winner
there, Mandy,” Dmitri grumbled.
“Dmitri, please don’t. This is hard enough as it is. You think I like
it? I have to call off the wedding. Please, I need your friendship
right now.” Mandy sounded near tears.
“You got it,” he answered.
“Thanks,” Mandy said. “I can tell Armando the wedding’s postponed
partly due to Michelle’s episode, but he’s going to find out about
Darren’s little ploy one way or another. I’ll just have to deal with
that later. Now about Michelle, I got her workload covered.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it,” Dmitri said.
“And I need you to take her home,” Mandy announced.
Dmitri felt his stomach tighten. “Me? What about her brother?”
“Brian’s leaving town. Some big photos shoot,” Mandy said. “And well,
her home—”
“You’re telling me that little twerp is going out on a photo shoot
while his sister’s sick? He’s been living off her for how long and now
he’s just going to up and leave her?” Dmitri started to shake,
wondering if he wanted to beat Brian up so close to medical attention
or if he wanted to wait for the dark alley so he could suffer more. He
felt his body tingling with the threat of a shift.
“That’s not all. Would you just listen?” Mandy sighed heavily.
“Michelle can’t go back home at all. She doesn’t have a home to go
back to. It burned down last night. That’s why Brian didn’t come to
the hospital.”
“What?” Dmitri demanded.
“Some kind of electrical problem,” Mandy said. “We’re still waiting to
hear. It took out her apartment and many others. Everything she had is
gone. Well, I did have her laptop. She left it at the office. It has
all her manuscripts and stuff in it, which is a relief because that
girl’s bad about backing up files and the backups are all burned to a
crisp anyway.”
Dmitri couldn’t move. “We can’t tell her.”
“I know,” Mandy said. “With everything she’s had, to add this would
be… like adding the death sentence. We just have to keep things quiet.
That’s why I want her to move in with you.”
Dmitri’s heart pounded so hard he felt it in his stomach. “With me?”
“Yes, do you mind?”
“No,” he said instantly. Mind having Michelle under the same roof as
him, day and night, where he could watch over her, protect her, touch
her. His heart stopped. He couldn’t touch her. He couldn’t add to her
stress. Suddenly, the idea sounded like hell. Michelle in his home,
untouchable, unkissable. He’d be unable to declare his feelings for
her like he wanted to, unable to convince her to love him. In a
whisper, he repeated, less convincingly, “No.”
“Thanks, Dmitri!” Mandy said. “I’d ask Armando, but Michelle would be
too uncomfortable there and he’s going to be in too lousy a mood when
I tell him about Darren to take care of anyone.”
“Hey!” A nurse yelled, breaking into his conversation. “This is a
hospital. You can’t have that phone on in here!”
“I’ve gotta go. Don’t worry. I’ll convince Michelle to come home with
me,” Dmitri said.
“Thanks. I’ve got work covered and I’ll go get her some clothes to
wear tomorrow. I think the Salvation Army’s open. They should have old
t-shirts,” Mandy said. “We’ll tell her that Brian took her house key
and we can’t get in.”
“Get off the phone, sir!” the nurse demanded.
Dmitri clicked it shut and turned his gold flecked eyes at her and
growled. She jumped and backed away, pale. Feeling somewhat satisfied,
he moved to walk back into Michelle’s room, hoping he could restrain
himself long enough not to kill Michelle’s no good brother.
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