Crystal Jake: The Complete EDEN Series Box Set

‘Go. Hurry, please,’ she begs urgently.

I pull away and slam my foot on the accelerator. Some guy screams at me. ‘Fucking maniac.’ In ordinary circumstances I would have got out of the car, walked up to him and got him to say it to my face. He’s got Jake to thank.

Jake’s wife is crooning to him.

‘Hang in there, Jake. I never said a bad thing about you. Not to anyone. Not ever. There was never anything bad to say. And I never gave a single important secret away. I’m good for all your secrets. I’ll never talk. I’m your wife and I love you to bits. We have our whole lives to live. Don’t leave me, my love. We will survive this. You just wait and see.’

The silence that comes from him is deafening.

I glance into the rear-view mirror and tears are pouring down her face. He lies in her lap with his eyes shut, so white, so still. It doesn’t look good. This is the man who wouldn’t lie down and give up when he was in the ring with me. I feel the cold hand of real fear for him.

‘Hang in there, Jake. Oh, Jake, Jake, Jake,’ she sobs, while the blood seeps through her fingers. She looks up at me. She seems dazed and totally lost. I know her type. She’s delicate. She can snap at any moment. I’ve seen that look before.

‘His hair feels so soft and smells so good, but I can feel him slipping away. His pulse is slowing down, too. I think he’s dying, BJ,’ she tells me calmly.

Fuck me, if that isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve heard today. She must be in shock and rambling. It’s not going to be good when she zones back into reality.

I fucking nail my foot to the accelerator.

Lily

BJ gets Jake to the A & E of the closest hospital. I don’t even register what it is called. I just sit there covered in his blood as they take him away from me and load him onto a gurney. It seems to me that they are moving too slowly. I feel an irrational fury. I want to scream at them, but I don’t. Instead they are surprised to find me perfectly calm. Even I am shocked at how unmoved I am. I don’t feel anything.

‘Hurry, please,’ I urge, my voice, as cold as ice.

And they take him away from me.

Someone touches my arm. Slowly I swing my eyes upwards. A long way upwards. Ah, BJ.

‘I’ve got to go. I can’t be here when the police arrive.’

‘OK. Thank you.’

‘I’ll be around later.’

He turns to move away. I catch his arm. ‘Wait.’

He turns back, surprised.

I reach into my bra and fish out the surveillance stick. ‘Can you hold onto this for me? You’re the only one I can trust now.’

‘What is this?’

‘This is Jake’s life.’

He takes it, nods, and leaves.

Then I call my old Detective Sergeant and give him the address, briefly warning him what his men are going to find. I take a deep breath and call Shane to ask him to come. As soon as I hear his voice that strange everything-is-under-control, all-is-well cloud that had protected me from fear and panic is suddenly gone.

My heart starts racing. My chest constricts and I can’t catch my breath. Sweat starts pouring from my underarms. I feel lightheaded and faint. I am choked by a sensation that I could die right here from pure, unadulterated terror.

The terror of losing Jake.

Someone—a nurse—takes the phone from my rigid hand. Maybe she will tell Shane the name of the hospital. I become aware that other people in uniforms are running toward me. I see visions of me falling to the floor, screaming and kicking, and everyone staring curiously. My brain instructs me to tell the people who are holding me that it is Jake who needs their ministrations.

There seems to be confusion all around me.

Some rational part of my brain concedes that it is possible that I have become hysterical. In fact, I think I have just slapped a nurse. It’s not that I want to, but I can’t control my arms and legs. They flail out uncontrollably with a life of their own. Someone injects me with something.

I scream for my Jake until I am gone from my body.

SIXTEEN

Lily

I don’t know how many hours pass before I wake up. There is no moment of confusion, of where am I? What is going on? Where is Jake? NO! As soon as I open my eyes I know. I am in a hospital and Jake’s been taken away from me. He is probably being operated on. I sit up and slide off the bed. My bare feet touch cold ground. There are curtains pulled all around me. I part the curtains and start walking in the direction of voices. I come to the reception desk.

‘Ah, you’re awake,’ someone says.

‘Where’s Jake?’ I ask.

‘Calm down.’

‘I will calm down when you tell me where my husband is.’

‘First we need some shoes,’ she says.

‘I just want to know—’

But she is already walking back to the curtained section where I had come from and returns with a pair of shoes, mine. I wear them hurriedly. ‘Take me to my husband please.’

‘He’s still in surgery, but I can take you to where the rest of your family are.’

I frown. ‘My family?’

‘Yes, they are all waiting. Come on.’

I follow her to a sitting room. ‘Here they are,’ she says cheerfully.

The first person I see is Jake’s mother.

The nurse makes her exit.

For a few seconds Jake’s mother and I stare at each other. Then she stands up and advances toward me. Her small frame is trembling with anger. I look at her and I don’t feel afraid. I want her to hurt me. I deserve it. It is all my fault. I was so stupid, so fucking careless. It will be a relief to have her strike me. She stands in front of me and lifts her hand. I think she intended to slap me. I would have done it if I were her. Her hand moves in an arc, but it never connects. Shane catches it.

‘Don’t, Ma,’ he says sadly. ‘He’s in love with her. When he wakes up, it will break his heart to know you marked her.’

He lets go of her hand and she covers her mouth with it. Her eyes are shocked and huge and her hand is visibly shaking. ‘What if he doesn’t wake up?’

He turns white. ‘Then his soul will grieve.’

She crumples then, sobbing as if her poor heart was breaking. He put his arm around her and gently led her to

ward the blue chair.

And then Dom is next to me. ‘Come on,’ he says. ‘Let’s get you some coffee.’

I let him lead me out of that sad waiting room with its blue seats and Jake’s devastated mother.

I lean against the wall. Dom and I have hardly spoken. I’ve kept away from him.

‘Do you want a real drink?’ he says.

‘Yeah,’ I say.

He takes a flask out of his jacket pocket.

I take a long swallow. The alcohol burns my throat. ‘How long has he been in the operating theater?’

‘Seven hours.’

I become frightened. ‘He’s not going to make it, is he?’

His jaw goes stiff. ‘He’s gonna make it,’ he says. ‘He’s gonna fucking make it or I’m gonna kill the fucking bastard myself.’

That’s Dom for you: Why open a fucking door when you can fucking kick it down? Tears start flowing down my cheeks.

Jake

I wake up to indescribable pain. ‘Lily,’ I mutter.

There is no answer. I return to the blessed blackness.

I come back. Lights. Voices. Machines. Searing pain. I go away.

I open my eyes. A woman. ‘Lily?’

‘Nurse Bourne, I’m afraid.’

‘Lily.’

‘Your wife?’

‘Yeah, my wife. Tell her to get her ass in here now,’ I mumble.

And then it is blackness again.

My mother holds my hand. I know that. I feel her. She cries. I want to stop her. I’m all right. She goes. Shane comes. ‘Get well soon,’ he whispers.

I open my eyes and there she is. She is shaking. She puts her hand in mine. She’s not all right. ‘I love you,’ she says. I’m not there for her.

Then I open my eyes and it is no longer fuzzy. I recognize my mother.

‘Where’s Lily, Ma?’ I ask.

‘She’s outside,’ she says. ‘You nearly died because of her.’

‘That’s right. I nearly died because of her, but I’d be dead without her, Ma. She warned us they had infiltrated BJ’s organization.’

That’s the thing about Ma, she’s not vindictive. She forgives easily. ‘In that case I will pray to the Madonna for your wife,’ she whispers.