Quickly he runs and retrieves the pieces. Waylen looks at the towel in confusion. The red smears appear to be words—cries for help. Waylen raises his eyes and sees a ventilation duct high on the wall. The towel seems to have fallen from the duct.
The realization almost knocks the air out of him: that duct is about where the women’s changing room is.
“What the hell happened to Leilani in there?” he wonders, “And dear god, why is the message written in blood and whose blood is it?”
Without a second of hesitation, he sprints across the lawn and runs through the hotel like a madman, murder boiling in his blood.
Waylen tries to open the door of the dressing room but finds that it’s locked. He raises his legs and kicks it and the door shudders in its frame. He kicks again and it splinters and swings open with a loud crash.
Robert and the bodyguards sprint to the door, almost slamming into Waylen in their haste. Waylen enters the room and immediately feels ice cold water spraying his head.
“Find the emergency valve and turn it off,” he orders.
The bodyguards rush away and the water stops pouring from the ceiling. Waylen splashes across the room and his eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness. He hears a soft m.o.a.n and sees Leilani curled into a fetal position on the floor.
She’s completely n.a.k.e.d and half-submerged in a puddle of icy water. Waylen squints and sees that blood has mixed with the water.
“Shit,” he whispers. His blood seems to have frozen in his veins.
Leilani moves slightly and m.o.a.ns again. Her head and waist ache and her entire body feel numb and cold. She hears someone splashing across the floor, but she has no idea who it is. She hopes its someone who has come to save her and not Leonie.
“Damn it,” Waylen groans, “How badly do you hurt?”
Leilani doesn’t respond. With a quick movement, Waylen bends down and scoops Leilani into his arms. He reaches for a bench and grabs a handful of towels and a robe and wraps his wife’s body in the damp fabric. Her skin is almost as icy as a corpse and he wants to scream.
Waylen quickly runs out of the changing room and into the hall. In the sudden light, he sees that the blood has already seeped onto one of the towels. He curses under his breath.
“Quick get the doctor!” he screams.
“The hotel doesn’t have a doctor anymore,” Robert whispers, “He quit this morning.”
Waylen’s face pales and he runs out of the hotel and toward his car. Leilani’s head still aches, but she can hear Waylen’s rapid breathing and the sound of the air rushing past them as he sprints with her in his arms.
The door of waits open for them and Waylen packs his wife into the backseat. Sensing his boss’ urgency, the chauffeur begins to drive before Waylen has even shut the door. He speeds down the winding mountain roads but is forced to slam the brakes at a traffic jam at the bottom of the mountain.
“Keep driving,” Waylen growls, “I don’t care what color the light is.”
The chauffeur runs the red light but is quickly forced to stop for other cars. The limousine is large and it’s impossible to weave through traffic in it.
“Mr. Bamford, it’ll take at least half an hour to get to the hospital from here,” Robert says fearfully, “I don’t know what happened to Mrs. Bamford, but she seems to be bleeding a lot. We don’t have time to lose.”
Before Robert can finish talking, Waylen opens the car door and takes Leilani into his arms. He runs out into traffic and toward a large pharmacy nearby. Robert and the bodyguards chase after him.
When Waylen runs into the pharmacy carrying a half-unconscious woman in his arms, everyone stops and stares. Robert and the bodyguards round up the clerks and pharmacists and select the most likely looking woman to examine Leilani.
Thought the clerk is not a trained doctor, she does her best with the examination. Fortunately for her, Leilani’s problem is easy to diagnose. Leilani begins to regain consciousness as the clerk examines her, and she notices Waylen watching the woman’s every move.
“Don’t worry,” the clerk says, “It appears that the lady had simply strained or torn a muscle in her waist. Her temperature is a little high, but not dangerously so.”
“Why is there so much blood if she just sprained her waist?” Waylen asks worriedly, “Look, there’s even blood on the towel.”
The clerk flushes.
“It appears that the lady had just gotten her period,” she says, “Besides, most of the stains are lipstick, not blood.”
The clerk can’t believe the absurdity of the situation. The man and woman are boyfriend and girlfriend or maybe even husband and wife. She can’t believe the man doesn’t know the date of his own partner’s period. She almost wants to laugh at the fact that he mistook the lipstick for blood.
“Men are so clueless,” she thinks.
Leilani is so embarrassed she hides her face behind one of the towels. Waylen gives a cold look to the clerk and she stares down at her shoes.
“Go buy some suitable clothing for my wife,” Waylen orders Robert.
The clerk and Robert both rushes from the room and Waylen closes the door. Upon hearing the door close, Leilani feels suffocated. She doesn’t want to be alone with Waylen in the tiny room.
“Why the hell did you text me and say you were leaving?” Waylen roars.
Upon learning that Leilani is okay, his concern has turned to white-hot rage.
“What text? When?” Leilani asks confused.
“Four o’clock,” Waylen says more calmly. He finds her confusion strangely reassuring.
“That can’t be right,” Leilani says, “I was taking a shower and I didn’t have my phone with me.”
Waylen takes out the phone, opens the text message, and shows it to her.
“No, I didn’t send that,” Leilani says with a firm shake of her head, “I left my phone in my locker in the dressing room before I went into the shower. I haven’t touched it since then.”
In a flash, Leilani realizes that Leonie took her phone and used it to send the message to Waylen. Waylen realizes the same thing, but he keeps his suspicions to himself.
“Are you in a lot of pain?” Waylen asks her softly, his eyes look gentle ad pained.
Leilani is confused by his sudden shift. Just a moment ago he as screaming and raging, but now he’s all soft concern and tenderness. Thinking about it makes her head hurt. She avoids his gaze and grimaces to herself.
“As soon as Robert arrives with the clothes, I’ll take you to a hospital,” Waylen whispers.
“You don’t need to make a mountain out of a molehill,” she sighs, “I just need to apply some salve to my waist to ease the pain. Dr. Walter can check to make sure I’m healing correctly.”
“You want to strip to your waist for him?” Waylen asks, suddenly angry and jealous again.
Leilani closes her eyes in exhaustion and frustration. She has suffered countless injuries and attacks since she married Waylen, and he never seemed to care who doctored her or what they saw. His sudden possessiveness makes her despair.
Someone knocks loudly at the door, and the clerk enters the room timidly. She holds several sprays and salves next to Leilani.
“Miss, these products all help soothe muscle aches and injuries, but I recommend that you should go to the hospital and have some x-rays and scans to make sure the injury isn’t more serious than it looks.”
The clerk gives the bottles to Waylen. Waylen examines the products and gives the clerk a serious look.
“I want the best medicine,” he says.
“Sir, this is the best medicine in our pharmacy,” she says, trying to hide her exasperation.
“Can you help me apply it?” Leilani asks the clerk.
She wants to begin the healing process as quickly as possible. If she’s in too much pain to move it’ll be even more difficult to escape from Waylen.
“Umm, maybe your boyfriend can help you,” the clerk says awkwardly upon seeing Waylen’s ferocious glare.
Leilani grabs the medicine from Waylen’s hands, “Waylen, you should leave.”
“I’ve already seen all there is to see,” Waylen smirks, grabbing the medicine back.
Leilani fumes. How dare he say such suggestive things in front of a stranger!
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
Leave a Reply