Everyone Has Something To Hide

Chapter Thirty

Several hours later, Juliane looks up to see another man walk into the private waiting room, automatically seeing the relation.

"You must be the girlfriend," the man says, giving her a half smile. "I'm his brother Ali."

All Juliane can do is nod her head.

Ali hugs her. "He'll be okay. He always is."

"It was Éliane," she says into his chest.

"I know, his boss told us."

"Do you know where she is?" she asks, pulling away.

The man shakes his head. "They told me that he shot her but she got away. They're all looking for her though so I'm sure they'll find her soon."

The nurse waltzes in. "He is somewhat stable right now. We have managed to remove one of the bullets. The other is to risky right now to remove," she informs.

"Where's it at?" Ali asks.

"It is approximately one centimeter away from his heart."

Juliane sits down, suddenly lightheaded.

"Are you okay?" he asks, kneeling beside her.

"I want to kill her," she says softly, her eyes watering.

"I think we all do."

"He's awake. He's heavily sedated though so he's a little out of it. You can go see him one at a time but keep it brief," the nurse says, walking back in a few hours later.

"You can go if you want," Juliane nods. "I should probably check on Trevor."

"We won't be long," Ali nods. "I know he's going to be worried about you."

Juliane watches him walk down the hall, turning in the opposite direction and seeing Trevor sitting in the waiting room, even more of his arm wrapped up.

"Is he alive?" Trevor asks, a look of concern flashing over his face.

"He's stable," she answers. "They removed the bullet from his abdomen but they haven't taken the one out of his chest yet. It's an inch from his heart."

"Juliane, I am so sorry. This is all my fault."

"Yeah," she agrees, trying to keep her voice down. "What happened to the Trevor I married?"

"I think I was just better at not getting involved before."

She takes a deep breath, sitting down beside him. "What happened? Start from the beginning," she pleads softly.

Trevor spills the entire story. When they approached his company about moving money for them to when he started to convince himself he was doing something good by taking the money and such to when everything happened with the baby. She looks up to see Ali walking down the hall.

"He's asking for you."

Without saying anything else to Trevor, Juliane stands up and walks to the room. Stepping in, she sees Link laying in his bed, the blankets over his bottom half, another blanket over his top half. She notes all the IV's and the look of exhaustion over his face. She sees his face break into a small smile -- an oxygen tube in his nose.

"Hi beautiful," he smiles, his heart rate machine beeping a bit slower than it should be.

"Hey," she swallows hard.

"Don't worry about that, are you okay?" he asks, his voice groggy.

"Why would Éliane do this..." she asks, ignoring the question.

"She was being paid by the cartel. She had invested in them before," he says. "I missed you."

"I've missed you. So did they tell you about the second bullet?" she asks.

Link nods. "They want to take it out later," he says, his thumb lightly running over the back of her hand. "They also told me it's a high risk surgery."

"Éliane got away."

"I know. I'll find her."

"She's done enough," Juliane shakes her head. "You need to just relax and get better," she says sternly.

"If I make it through this can you make me a promise?"

Juliane nods.

"That you'll come live with me."

"Because I'll probably have to take care of you," she chuckles.

"No," he laughs too, "because I love you and after I leave the hospital, I never want to wake up without you again."

"How's living in London?"

"I don't live in London. I live in Arizona because that's where the woman I love is from."

"You'd stay in Arizona?" Juliane smiles.

"I'd stay anywhere to be with you."

A few tears run down her cheeks as she quickly wipes them away. "Trevor's fine. The bullet was through and through."

"Good. I punched him after I found him."

"So you gave him the black eye?" Juliane laughs. "And what about his arm?"

"Just the black eye. The arm was someone else's doing," he smiles as the nurse walks in.

"It's time," she nods, getting him ready to wheel him out.

"I love you," Link looks over.

"I love you too," she nods, leaning down and kissing him softly.