Trusting Sydney: The Temptation Saga: Book Six (14 page)

“
I
’m sorry
, Sam,” Doug Cartwright, the county sheriff, said. “I can’t arrest the man when he gets off the plane. He took his own son away. That’s not a crime.”

Sam took a sip of his coffee. He and Sydney sat with Doug at Rena’s Coffee Shop. Sam had called Doug after Sydney had told him about Roy’s voicemail.

Now what?
Sam drummed his fingers on the table until a jolt went through him. “Hey, stealing’s a crime around here.”

“Sure is,” Doug said.

“He took Sydney’s purse money from her barrel race.”

“That’s a horse of a different color,” Doug said. “Tell me more.”

Sydney’s hand touched his arm. “No, Sam.”

“No, what?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t have my father arrested and thrown in jail. I won’t press charges for the money.”

Is she serious?
Smoke threatened to come right out his ears. “Are you kidding, Syd? That’s all we’ve got.”

Tears welled in Sydney’s eyes. “He’s my father. And he’s bringing Duke back.”

“Jesus H. Christ.”

“He’ll have an explanation, I’m sure of it. My mother’s in the hospital. I don’t even know what’s wrong with her. I’m worried.”

“Worried? After what they did?”

“They’re still my parents.”

“Sydney, they’ve been lying to you your whole life.”

“I know, I know.” She sniffed. “And I’m sure they thought they had a good reason.”

“Fuck their good reasons. Did they have a good reason for taking your son away? For stealing your money?”

“I’m sure they thought they did.”

Doug’s police radio buzzed. “Excuse me,” he said and headed to another table.

Sam said nothing, just stared at the beautiful woman who’d stolen his heart—and his son. How could he reconcile any of this? And now she was turning a blind eye to her father’s theft. How could she? After all her parents had done? All the lies? How could she get past all that?

How could anyone get past that?

Sam shook his head slowly. How could he get past Sydney’s lies?

As if reading his mind, she said, “I never actually lied to you, Sam.”

Well, she had him there. She didn’t lie. She just didn’t tell him, first about the child five years ago, and then about her engagement to Rod Kyle.

Nope, she wasn’t getting away with that one. “Omission is betrayal. Case closed.” He stood.

Doug walked back toward the table. “I have to get going. Are we done here?”

Sam looked down at Sydney. “You’re not pressing charges?”

Sydney shook her head.

“Then, yes, we’re done here.” Sam walked out the door, his own words ringing in his ears. They had so many meanings.

He wanted to look back, see Sydney’s face. Would she come after him? He didn’t know. His car wasn’t far. His walk turned into a jog and then a sprint. He got into his car and shut the door.

He didn’t look to see if Sydney was behind him. Nope, he looked only ahead.

Ahead to Denver. He’d go to the airport, wait for all the flights from Branson, and he’d have it out with Roy Buchanan once and for all.

Driving to Denver was usually relaxing, full of natural scenic beauty. He hardly ever saw another vehicle on the country roads. Normally Sam loved driving through the canyons, loved the fresh aroma of pine. Today he appreciated none of that. His nerves were on edge. He wasn’t sure what he’d do to Roy when he saw him. His fists itched to pummel the bastard, but he’d have the boy with him. Sam had to think about Duke.

Duke
.

His son.

His and Sydney’s son.

If only things had been different. If Sydney had told him. Perhaps they could have started their life together five years ago, and today Duke would be their son. Maybe they’d have had another.

Who knows?

He’d never know.

He loved Sydney. She touched a part of him that no other woman had. Making love to her was like a beautiful symphony. It was perfection.

But they could never be together.

Love without trust was nothing.

Nothing at all.

The semitruck came out of nowhere. To avoid collision, Sam, at eighty miles per hour, drove off the two lane road into the ditch. His windshield shattered, and a loose board from the fence he hit broke through it, scattering shards of glass all over him. Barbed wire from the cattle fence poked through and gouged his face and eyes.

Searing pain shot through him.

Move. I’ve got to move.

Then nothing.

“
S
am
! Oh my God, Sam!”

The country road was dead. Sydney had been driving to Denver to find Sam. Where else would he have gone? To the airport to find Roy and Duke.

Fear had overwhelmed her when she saw the white sedan in the ditch on the empty road halfway to the city.

It’s not Sam. It can’t be Sam.

But the white sedan was none other than Sam’s rental car.

He was pinned in the driver’s seat. A pool of shattered glass surrounded him. One of his eyes was lacerated and bleeding.

Sydney gulped back nausea.
God, he can’t lose his eye.

The rest of his face and arms were covered with lacerations from the glass and barbed wire. She checked the pulse on his neck.

Weak, but there.

Thank God. He’s alive. I have to help him. I have to. Please, Sam, don’t die.

Quickly she grabbed her cell phone to call 9-1-1.

No service.
Goddamnit!
She threw the phone into the road. Then, realizing she’d need the phone, she ran into the road and retrieved it.

Thank God it was still working.
Now what? Now what? Now what?

She had to get help. Had to help Sam.

She touched his bloody cheek. “Sam? Sam, can you hear me?”

His lips twitched.

“It’s Sydney, Sam.”

More twitching, a soft grunt.

“Can you hear me?”

“Sssss.”

Yes! He was trying to reach her. She knew it.

“Sam, listen to me. I’m going to get help. I promise you.”

“Sydee,” he whispered.

“I’m going to take care of you. I have to leave to get help. My cell phone doesn’t have any service. But I will get you to a hospital. I promise. Hold onto that. Please.”

“Ssss.”

“I love you, Sam O’Donovan, and I promise you, I’m not going to let you die.”

She summoned all the strength and courage within her. Leaving him felt all wrong, but she had to.

“I love you,” she said again. A tear dropped onto his cheek. Oh no! It probably stung him.

She eased backward, leaving him as still as possible. Then she raced to her car and gunned the engine. She kept going on the route to Denver, checking her cell every thirty seconds for service. When she finally got one bar, she quickly typed in 9-1-1.

Damnit!
The call didn’t go through.

She tried again.

“9-1-1,” the operator said.

“Yes, hello,” she said breathlessly. “There’s a man on Route 5, about twenty miles outside Bakersville in route to Denver. His car went into a ditch. He’s hurt badly. He needs help now!”

“Can you describe the vehicle, ma’am?”

“A white sedan. Might be a Honda. Shit, I don’t know. Just get out there!”

“Your name, ma’am?”

“Sydney Buchanan. The man’s name is Sam O’Donovan. Please! Now!”

“We’ll send an ambulance.”

“No! Damnit, not an ambulance. You won’t make it in time.”

“Ma’am, we need to—”

“The helicopter. Or something better. I’d get him there myself but I can’t move him!”

“Ma’am, try to calm down.”

“I can’t fucking calm down! I love this man! Please help him. God, he can’t die. I promised him I wouldn’t let him die. Please!”

A few moments elapsed. “Helicopter has been dispatched.”

“Thank God. How long?”

“As soon as humanly possible, ma’am. No longer than a half hour.”

Damn, too long!
But she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t do anything else.

She thanked the operator but had a hard time hanging up. The call was her lifeline. Sam’s lifeline.

She drove back to Sam.
God, please let him still be alive.

The sedan shone innocently in the sun, as if it didn’t know it held a life in peril. Fear gripped Sydney as she ran toward the car.

Sam sat in the same position she’d left him.

She gulped back her tears. “I’m back, Sam. Help is coming.”

No response.

She touched his cheek again. “Sam?”

Still no response.

She took a deep breath and pressed her shaky fingers to his pulse point.

Nothing.

O
h my God
!

“Sam, no! No, no, no!”

This time she couldn’t hold back the tears. Why? Why hadn’t there been cell service here? Why hadn’t she run after him when he left Rena’s? Why hadn’t she told him about Duke in the first place?

Why?

Why?

Why?

She laid her head in his lap and sobbed.
Please don’t leave me, Sam. Please don’t leave me.

She’d promised she wouldn’t let him die.

She’d promised.

How would he ever trust her again?

But it didn’t matter anymore.

The whipping blades of a helicopter whooshed through the air.

Too late.

Too fucking late.

Sydney didn’t move, so lost in Sam she was.

“Get out of the way, ma’am,” a voice said.

No. I’m not leaving him.

“Ma’am, move, or I’ll move you.”

Not leaving him.

Strong hands jerked her from her love.

“No!” she screamed.

Emergency technicians crowded around Sam.

“He’s still with us,” one said.

Sydney’s heart leaped in her chest. Did that mean…?

“Let’s get him out of here,” another said.

In a few minutes, Sam was on a stretcher with an oxygen mask covering his face.

“Is…is he alive?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am, but barely.” They loaded him on the helicopter.

“Can I come with you? Please?”

“You a relative?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then I’m sorry. You can’t. We’re taking him to Denver General. Meet us there.”

Damn!
Why hadn’t she said yes?

She gunned it all the way to Denver. She had no idea where Denver General was, so she stopped at a convenience store for directions.

And realized she hadn’t called Dusty.

She looked at her cell phone. Her fingers had stopped working. How could she call Dusty now? And tell her what? That her parents had taken Duke and Sam had gone half mad? And now he was barely holding onto life and might not make it?

She couldn’t formulate the thought herself, let alone tell someone else.

She’d wait. Wait until she got to the hospital and found out how things were. There wasn’t anything Dusty could do now anyway.

She found the hospital and went straight to the emergency room. “Sam O’Donovan?”

The nurse receptionist rustled some papers. “He’s in surgery. You a family member?”

“Yes,” she said this time. “I’m his fiancée. Sydney Buchanan.”
Would that work?
“Can you tell me how he is?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know anything. Please have a seat and I’ll find you when I have any information.”

Sydney sat down in an empty chair. A few chairs down, a young woman held a crying infant. On her other side, an elderly man stared into space. Was he wondering if he should call someone too?

She couldn’t put it off any longer. She had to call Dusty.

“Hi, Sydney,” Dusty said.

Sydney cleared her throat. “Hi, Dusty. I’m not sure how to tell you this. I’m at Denver General with Sam. He was in a car accident.”

“Oh my God! Is he okay?”

“He’s in surgery right now. I won’t lie to you. It looks pretty bad.”

“Oh my God. I’ll come right over.”

“I don’t know how long he’ll be in surgery.”

“It’s okay. I have to be there. He was always there for me.”

“Whatever you think is best,” Sydney said, though she didn’t want company. She wanted to sit alone and pray for Sam.

Sam had to make it.

He had to.

Tears fell onto her blouse and she wiped her nose. So she’d live without him. She could do it. It couldn’t be that hard to live when your heart was with someone else. She owed it to him. And she’d do it.

The waiting dragged. She leafed through magazine after magazine, not even glancing at the pages.

In an hour, Dusty arrived and gave her a hug. Luckily, after she described what had happened, Dusty wasn’t in a talkative mood either. They sat in silence.

And waited.

Sydney lost track of time. Five hours later—six? seven?—a surgeon appeared.

“Miss Buchanan?”

“Yes, that’s me.” Sydney stood.

“Mr. O’Donovan is in recovery. He’s going to make it.”

Sydney threw her arms around Dusty. “Oh, thank God! How is he?”

“He had some internal bleeding that we were able to stop. That was the major concern. After that we turned to his eye.”

“Oh God,” Sydney said.

“Luckily the optic nerve was not severed, but the bleeding was causing quick damage. If we had been even ten minutes later, he would have lost his vision in the right eye.”

“Thank God you called when you did, Sydney,” Dusty said. “You really came through for him.”

Sydney’s body froze. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

“Is there anything else, Doctor?” Dusty asked. “I’m his sister.”

“Multiple lacerations on his face and neck, but only a few of them required stitches. All in all, he was very lucky.

“Thank God,” Dusty said.

“Do either of you know what happened? How he ended up in that ditch?”

Dusty shook her head. “Sydney found him.”

Sydney tried to speak, but her vocal cords didn’t cooperate. She cleared her throat. “I don’t know. I found him en route to Denver.”

“It’s lucky you were on that road when you were,” the doctor said.

She nodded. She couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat.

“You saved his life.”

“Yes, you did,” Dusty agreed. “Thank you so much.”

Sydney swallowed. She couldn’t accept their thanks, their accolades. Their words hung in the air around her, jeering at her.

For the truth of the matter was, had she told Sam the truth about Duke in the first place, he would not have been on that road to Denver, driving to the airport to find her father.

She had been the catalyst for this whole situation. There was no way around it.

It was all her fault.

T
wenty-four hours later
, Sam was moved out of ICU. He was still heavily sedated. After sitting with him for several hours, Sydney realized she had to contact her father and find out what was going on with her mother and with Duke.

Her cell phone had long since died, and she hadn’t been back to her hotel room to charge it. How to get in touch with her father? She could use a hospital phone, of course, but her father’s cell phone number had been disconnected. She tried the hotel.

Yes, Mr. Buchanan was registered, but he was not answering at this time. Sydney was bewildered. After all, her parents had prepaid and hadn’t bothered checking out, so the clerk on duty could have been referring to their previous reservation. Probably not, though, since security had been notified. Sydney vowed to be optimistic. Roy and Duke had returned to the hotel. They were no doubt wondering where
she
was.

After checking with the reception desk in the waiting area, she found a recharger not in use that fit her phone. Thank goodness. In an hour or so she’d be able to make the calls and find out what was going on.

In the meantime she sat with Sam, holding his hand, hoping her presence soothed him. She couldn’t stay with him long-term, but for now, she needed to be with him. Needed to see him through this horrible situation she had caused.

When he was okay again, she would leave.

He was still unresponsive when she left to get her cell phone.

Yes! Two calls had come in from her father. After listening to the voicemails, she learned he had returned to the hotel and he and Duke were in a different room. He left a new cell phone number. Quickly she dialed.

“Sydney,” Roy Buchanan said, “where have you been?”

“I’ll get to that,” she said, “but first, I think it’s you who owe me the explanations.”

Her father’s sigh whooshed into her ear. “Yes, I suppose you’re right about that. Where do I start?”

“How about stealing my purse money and taking Duke away?”

“Your purse money? What are you talking about?”

“Did you or did you not steal my twenty grand out of the safe in my room?”

“Sydney, I didn’t. I swear to God.”

“Then Mom did.”

“How could she…? Oh.” His voice clouded. “She did leave for a few minutes before we left the hotel. Did she have access to your room?”

“Of course. I gave her a key.”

“Oh no.”

“So what’s going on? Where is she? You’re saying you didn’t take my money?

“I did not take your money, Sydney. But why didn’t you put it in the safe?”

“I did.”

“Then how…? What was your combination?”

“Duke’s birthday.”

Roy was silent for a moment. Then, “Easy for your mother to guess. She’s ill, Sydney. If I wasn’t sure before, I sure as hell am now, knowing she stole her daughter’s money.”

“What happened, Dad? Why did you leave?”

“Your mother was scared that Sam would take us to court and drag Duke through a big mess. I tried to tell her Sam was a nice man, that we’d work something out.”

“Sam had decided to talk to you about that, Dad. He also wants what’s best for Duke. But honestly, I don’t know what he’ll do now. There are other circumstances as well. He was—”

“Sydney,” Roy interrupted, “please let me explain about Duke and your mother. I need you to know what’s going on. Then you can tell me what’s going on at your end.”

“All right. Go ahead.”

“As I said, your mother was scared about Sam trying to take Duke. She insisted we run. She was adamant. I figured I’d go along with it and head for home. No harm done, right?”

“Well, not exactly.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. After we got on the road, she canceled our cell phones and started to talk about… I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“Tell me what?”

“About our families, your mother’s and mine.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve talked to Blake. I know everything.”

Silence again. Then, “How is your brother?”

“He’s had some rough times, but he’s doing okay now from what I can tell. He was very willing to help Sam and me find you.”

“I’m sure he was. Anyway, if he told you about your mother and me being children of rival crime families in Chicago, he was telling the truth.”

“Yes, that’s what he told us.”

Her father’s sigh cut into her ear. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions about that, and I promise I will take the time to tell you everything you want to know, but right now, let me get back to your mother.

“We were taking turns driving. When it was her turn I dozed off for several hours. When I woke up, she had changed our route. She said we were going to Florida to get the money from our Cayman Island account. I assume Blake told you about that?”

“He did.”

“Okay. I can only imagine what you must think of us.”

“Please, Dad, just go on.”

“All these years, I have refused to touch that dirty money. And now, all of a sudden, she wants to get it. She admitted she’d been withdrawing money from the account for years for one reason or another. She also admitted she’d been in contact with her father and taken additional money from him. I was shocked. She knew how I felt about that money.

“She said we were taking Duke out of the country where no one could find us. I told her she was being paranoid, that we’d work it out, but she was determined. Still, I thought she was just stressed out. Until—”

“Until what?”

“She said she was going to call her father and have him take care of Sam.”

“Take care of what?”

“That’s mob speak. ‘Take care of’ means have someone killed.”

Sydney’s heart nearly stopped. “My mother wants to kill Sam?”

“No.” Roy cleared his throat. “What I mean is, she’s no longer in her right mind.”

“Oh my.” Sydney didn’t know what else to say.

“We were near Branson, so I drove to the nearest hospital and had her committed. After only a few minutes of arguing, she relented. So at least part of her knew it was for the best.”

“And you left her in Branson?”

“Not for long. I’m going back. We’re going to find the best possible treatment for her. But for now, I need you to take care of Duke. I can’t be the single parent to him that he deserves and take care of your mother at the same time. Can you do this for me? For your mother? Can you take care of your son for us?”

Your son.
Her father had referred to Duke as
her
son, not his own.

But right now, she had to take care of Sam. “Of course I’ll take care of Duke. But I can’t take him for a day or two, or maybe more. I have to take care of Sam right now. He’s been in a bad car accident.”

“What? Oh my God. Is he all right?”

“Yes, he’ll be all right.” She explained what had happened. “He’s lucky he didn’t lose the vision in his right eye.”

“It sounds like that’s because of you.”

She sighed. “Maybe. But this whole thing is because of me. If I’d told him about Duke in the first place, none of this would have happened. He and I might be living happily together. Now I can never be with him.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t you see? I’ve caused all this. All his pain is because of me.”

“But you saved his life.”

“If I hadn’t kept Duke from him in the first place, he wouldn’t have been rushing to the airport to find you. He wouldn’t have been in the accident.”

“Sydney—” Her father’s voice was stern. “This is not your fault. What if I had told your mother ‘no’ when she wanted to leave? I wanted to, but I didn’t. If I had, Sam would also not be in this situation. And neither would you. And neither would Duke. Don’t talk to me about guilt. I’m harboring a ton of it. What do you say we both let it go?”

A tear fell from her eye and rolled down her cheek. “I can’t.”

“Sydney, you’re my daughter and I love you. Please don’t let the past dictate the future. We’ve all made mistakes, but we need to live as things are today. Would I rather your mother not be in the hospital? Of course. But there she will get the help she needs. She is not well, and I’m afraid she hasn’t been for some time. I should have seen it.