November
I woke up about half an hour ago. My nose is clogged and my chest feels like 10 bricks are stacked on top and my throat feels like sandpaper.
When we went to sleep yesterday I felt fine. Must have been the lake. It was really late by the time we came inside.
I lay back on the headboard of the bed with a heavy sigh. At the moment, the only way I can breathe is through my mouth. I feel like hell and a sauna mixed together.
I hear a stir next to me and the blankets just barely pull away from me. I look over as a soft groan catches my attention. Lewis's eyes flutter open and land on me instantly.
He closes his eyes again, a smile tugging at his lips. "Morning, amore mio." his voice comes out raspy and deep. His presence lifts my mood but not enough for me to forget the growing pain In my body.
He senses my hesitation in replying to him and his eyebrows scrunch together. He's now wide awake and all of his attention is on me.
"What's wrong?" I turn my gaze to the wall in front of me. On the wall is a painting, a vintage one by the looks of it. A red flower stands in the middle, although it doesn't quite stand tall. It limps to the side, smaller flowers surrounding it, keeping the red flower from completely crumbling to the ground.
A hand waves in front of my face, snapping me out of the trance the painting seemed to cast on me. I look to my left and see that Lewis is now sitting up on the bed.
"What's wrong?" he repeats once he knows I'm listening.
"I don't feel well." my voice comes out in bits, it cracks along the way. My head feels heavy even though it's laying against the headboard.
He looks at me with an alert look as his hand shoots to my forehead, checking my temperature.
"God, your burning up." he jumps up from the bed and rushes to the connected bathroom, almost tripping in the way.
Seconds later he reappears with something small in his hand. Once he reaches me he sits back down and sticks a thermometer in my mouth.
He lets it sit for a minute, his hand resting on my thigh gently.
It beeps and he quickly takes the thermometer out from me. His face drops instantly, and the color drains from him as he looks at the little numbers on the pen-like thermometer.
"What? What is it?" the face he's making is scaring me.
"104." I gasp at the over-high temperature. "This thing has to be broken." he takes the wet wipe he brought with him and wipes it off before lifting my arm and putting the thermometer in my armpit.
We wait the minute before it beeps again. He takes It and curses under his breath. "It's getting higher." he lifts me effortlessly off of the bed and walks into the bathroom.
He places me on the counter and begins to run the bath water. He puts his arms on his knees and leans his head in his hands.
"This my fault. I shouldn't have put you that fucking water," he says frustrated, blaming himself for my sudden sickness.
"It's not your fault. I agreed t-to go in." my voice hurts as I speak but I don't want him to beat himself up over me.
He looks up at me. "Mi dispiace, amore mio." I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion but before I could ask what that meant, he waves his hand in the water testing the temperature of it.
(Google Translation: I'm sorry, my love.)
He grabs my hand and guides me off of the counter before helping me out of my clothes. The more I stand the heavier my head feels and the harder it is to hold my own body up.
Once I'm naked he leads me to the bathtub and I step in but then immediately step back out. I look at Lewis, "It's cold."
"I know, but we have to break your temperature, Astoria. If we don't bring it down we have to bring you to a hospital and I don't trust anyone enough to let them do whatever they want to you." his voice cracks at the end. He doesn't trust doctors? Because of his mom? He told me that they could've saved her but they waited too long.
Instead of arguing, I step back into the water and sink to a sitting position. My legs up to my chest and my arms wrapped around my legs.
He gets down on one knee and uses a cup to pour the cold water all around me. He grabs his phone without stopping and dials a number before putting it on speaker.
After a few rings the other line answers. "Yeah?" James' voice comes from the small device and Lewis rushes to respond.
"I need you to bring that ice cream, that's in the freezer. And bring some ice as well." no questions asked James agrees and hangs up, a few minutes later a frantic knock comes from the bedroom door. Lewis gets up from his knees and walks out of the bathroom and into the bedroom to open the door.
Him and James appear in the doorway with a pint of ice cream and a bowl of ice. James looks at me, a worried expression on his face. Since my knees covered my chest he shouldn't see anything.
Lewis comes back to my side and continues to fill and pour with the cup. James then puts down the ice cream and brings the bowl to the bath and pours the ice in.
I jump at the freezing temperature of the water and attempt to get out of the tub. My knees no longer cover anything as I stand up. James turns away but Lewis still stands in front of me.
"Thanks J, I got it from here," he says, a hint of jealousy in his tone.
He nods and leaves the bathroom but not without saying, "Call me if you need anything else." then leaves, shutting the door behind him.
Lewis then turns to me and pushes my back into the water. "But I'm cold." I wine as I begin to shiver and curl up.
He sighs before getting into the bath behind me. He pulls me closer by my waist and wraps his arms around me. He leans his head on my shoulder and whispers in my ear.
"I know you're uncomfortable but I'd rather have you be cold than be hospitalized. I can't...I can't lose you." I give up on fighting to get out of the water and use his body heat to keep me warm.
With him with me, it's not that bad.
"I'll be fine, I'm most likely going to sleep the day away." she says as she pulls the sheet onto her body.
I had to take away anything that would bring her temp up again. That includes the comforter on our bed. But I did give her a thin sheet since I now know that she doesn't do well in cold temperatures.
I have a meeting with our lawyer. He's coming here because he said that he has confidential information that he can't talk about on call. I trust him enough to not stab us in the back.
I sigh, although I'll still be here, I won't be able to give my attention. "Okay fine, but eat this ice cream, when I come back I want to see an empty container, understood?"
She nods her head. "Understood."
I kiss her on her forehead. Her temp has gone down a bit since the ice bath but it's still too high for my liking. It's around the late 90s. I hesitantly leave the room and shut the door behind me.
I make my way to the home office where J and Marshall are already waiting for me.
"You have a lovely home, Mr. Montgomery," Marshall says, looking around the room. I wave my hand as I sit. "Call me Lewis, as I said before." James nods in agreement to my statement and so does Marshall.
"So, what's your super confidential info?" I ask, leaning back in my chair, twisting a pen in my hand.
He clears his throat and fixes his thick stack of papers. "I found out that he's wanted and has a warranted arrest in the following places." he looks down at the paper on top of the stack.
"Dallas, Huston and Austin Texas, Virginia, Florida, Vermont, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Nevada, and New York. That's not including the smaller cities that also have a warrant out for him." I think over what he said.
We were born in Dallas so of course that's on the list. James looks like he has an idea since his face lights up.
"What?" I ask, straightening in my seat.
He taps on the table unconsciously before looking at Marshall. "How long has he had the warrant in New York?" I then turn my attention to him as well.
He looks down at his paper and reads for a moment before answering. "Since last month, he was caught selling drugs in a well-known club and was the reason it blew up, causing hundreds if not thousands of innocent people to die." he's sick. And if you think about it, he's been doing this for years.
James snaps his fingers knowingly. He shoots ups from his seat and walks back and forth, running his hand through his tame but messy hair.
"He doesn't have a warrant here, but he does in New York. New York is what, 30 minutes away from here? I say we take down that son of a bitch when he least expects it."
I smile at his quick thinking. I turn back to Marshall. "Anything else in that stack that'll help us?" I ask and he flips through until he stops completely.
He looks between both me and James. "Yes." He sure knows how to build suspense, I'll give him that much. After a minute of silence, he shuts the stack of papers.
"I know where he's hiding."
-oop, shit is getting real. Prepare yourselves :)