Mr Black

4. Cassidy Amor

The weighted feeling of guilt consumed Cassidy's heart when she received a phone call from Danny informing her that Guy had been involved in an accident and was badly injured. The world around her collapsed as she fell to her knees, and all she could think about was how she'd acted selfishly during the art gala. She'd cursed Guy for breaking his promise and not attending the event when he had a valid reason for not being there. Not once did it cross Cassidy's mind that he'd been involved in an accident. What sort of girlfriend did that make her? She should have known when Guy didn't respond to her texts that something was terribly wrong.

Cassidy's heart furiously drummed against her chest as she raced down the hospital corridors, knocking into a nurse carrying supplies to the ward. She nodded an apology for her actions as she tripped over her own feet and stumbled through a pair of double doors into the waiting area. Heads turned to stare at her dramatic entrance. Mikey stopped to help the nurse back onto her feet while shouting after Cassidy to calm down. Calm down! How could she calm down during a time like this? Guy's life was on the line, and the last time she'd spoken with him they didn't part on good terms with one another. She had to know that the man she loved was still alive and tell him that she loved him.

She immediately spotted Danny hunched over in the corner of the waiting room. He rubbed his head with his shaking hands and sighed. He looked incredibly pale, like a ghost had passed through him and sucked the life out of him. It seemed Danny was involved in the accident too; a bandage was securely wrapped around his neck.

"What happened? Where is he?"

Danny jumped out of his skin when Cassidy bombarded him with questions. The closer she inspected him the more she noticed how shook he appeared. His eyes looked far into the distance as the memories of the accident came back to him. It made Cassidy eager to find out what had happened, but as Danny tried to answer, he started to stutter and stumble over his own words, and he finally broke down.

"That's enough, Cassidy!" Mikey grabbed her away from Danny, and she cursed at him in Spanish. "You're making things worse."

Cassidy stopped struggling against Mikey and sympathetically stared towards Danny as he wiped his bloodshot eyes.

"Oh, Danny, I'm sorry. I'm just ever so worried for Guy." She sat down next to him and squeezed his hand. "Are you okay? Can I get you anything?"

"I'm fine. Guy saved my life." He breathed out sharply. "And no, thank you. I don't want anything. I just want to go home." He didn't go into the details about the accident. "It's been a strange evening."

Cassidy and Mikey glanced at each other, wondering what he could possibly mean by that.

"We'll take you back home after we see Guy," Mikey reassured him and patted him on the shoulder.

Danny faced the corridor leading towards the intensive care unit. "That's going to be a problem."

The three of them stood outside Guy's room, staring up at the huge policeman with biceps bigger than his own head. He stared down at them with a disgruntled look and crossed his arms, not letting them pass. Why was there a policeman outside Guy's room? Cassidy started to panic. What trouble had Guy found himself in? Was he arrested? Did this have something to do with his job? What sort of job had landed him in the hospital with a police guard? Cassidy had too many questions and not enough answers. However, she came to the same conclusion: Guy had to be working for the London-Irish mob and had gotten caught up in some drug bust and was now arrested. All of her worst nightmares about Guy were coming true. 

What was she thinking? There had to be a perfectly good explanation for the policeman, and she was just overthinking the worst case scenario like her brain liked to do. Guy didn't work for the mob. She hoped.

"Can we go in, please?" Cassidy gulped as she tried to make herself look tall by standing on her tiptoes. "Guy's my boyfriend."

Her actions had the opposite desired affect. It didn't help that she was in her pyjamas and fluffy white slippers. She'd rushed out of the apartment without even changing when she got the call from Danny. So right now in her petite frame and pink frilly shorts, she didn't exactly look intimidating against the heavily tattooed policeman, who was possibly ex-army.

"No."

Cassidy pouted at the policeman with a deep frown. Why was he so mean?

"I told you." Danny sighed. "I don't even know if Guy is out of surgery. They won't let me see him." He bit down on his nails.

"Surgery?" Cassidy mumbled, and her lips trembled, on the verge of tears. How badly injured was Guy? Her heart strained. Guy couldn't die. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if something ever happened to him.

"Who exactly are they?" Mikey arched a brow, highly interested by the people keeping guard over his brother.

Surely with Mikey being Guy's next of kin, he should be allowed to see his brother.

"I have no idea." Danny rubbed his temples. He jumped when a shadow hovered over the three of them.

"Good evening, or should I say morning." The man greeted them all with a dirty smile. Cassidy immediately didn't trust the odd stranger. "My name is Stephen Miller." He took a long sip from his takeaway coffee cup in an awkward attempt to prolong the importance of his name, but it made him come across as an obnoxious douche bag. "I work for the Bank of England, and one of my employees was caught up within an accident while at work. I'm afraid he's not allowed any visitors while we sort out the situation."

Miller? That was the man Guy had spoken to on the phone yesterday before the art gallery opening. Cassidy's forehead crumpled. So this was the man that convinced her boyfriend to miss out on her special evening to work on a Saturday. She already blamed everything that happened today on him. At least now she knew for sure that Guy really did work in finance. Maybe there was a security reason why he'd never told her that he worked for the Bank of England. Still, she had a hard time believing Guy was a banker or a finance director. It was Miller's smile that put her off. It wasn't natural but forced, an attempt to hide the truth. She could tell that much and from the fact he covered his eyes with sunglasses while indoors. Double douche bag. Only men with secret agendas wore sunglasses indoors. Well, that's what most trashy action films on Netflix had told her.

"What happened to Guy?" Cassidy commanded.

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to disclose that information." Miller grabbed Danny by the arm and forcefully dragged him away. "Mr Clyde, our lawyers would like to have a word with you."

"L-lawyers...?" Danny's face drained of blood. His eyes stilled, looking petrified, as he had no choice but to leave with Miller. Cassidy parted her mouth, ready to defend Danny about his rights, but was quickly stopped when Mikey shook his head at her.

"I don't think Danny's visiting your usual run of the mill type of lawyers." Mikey stared after the pair as Miller pushed Danny into a room, filled with a couple of men dressed in suits with briefcases.

What the hell was going on? Bulky policeman, creepy bankers, and now hotshot lawyers. Cassidy wasn't getting answers, and she wouldn't leave this hospital until she found out what had happened to her boyfriend. She once again tried entering Guy's room, but the policeman was having none of it and literally picked her up off the ground and moved her to the side. Cassidy did admit that she was petite, but that didn't give the man the right to handle her in such a manner.

"I'm going to find someone who might be able to help us." Mikey rubbed his head in his hands. "Don't kill the policeman while I'm gone."

"I'm not promising anything." Cassidy seethed at the guard and imagined breaking his arm. She could only wish. Maybe it was time she actually started using her gym membership instead of slouching on the sofa every night eating chocolate and drinking gin. Then she might have a chance at kicking his arse.

Mikey dismissively shook his head and wandered off to find somebody who could help him find out what was truly happening to his brother. However, it wasn't long before Cassidy spotted him flirting with a cute male doctor and not accomplishing his task. It was Cassidy's turn to roll her eyes. Wasn't he dating Noah? Why was he flirting with the doctor, especially at a time like this? She swore she was the only one worried about Guy's health. When she'd gotten the call from Danny, she'd been hysterical, expecting Guy to be at death's door.

There had to be another entrance into Guy's room, but from her quick glance, she could tell that the only way in and out was through the door the policeman was stood outside. Cassidy stuck her tongue out at him as she marched away and tried to think of another way to see her boyfriend. Cassidy stopped and stared at her own reflection as she passed a window, shocked by her own hideous appearance: scruffy bed hair that looked like a bird's nest and mascara-smudged cheeks from over crying. She hardly recognised herself. She wasn't about to let Guy see in her in such a state. He would have a heart attack at first glance. Cassidy slumped past the empty nurses station and backtracked when an idea popped into her head. She smirked as she grabbed a spare pair of scrubs and a surgical mask and quickly changed in the toilet, cleaned herself up, and covered her face with the mask. She confidently walked down the corridor and grabbed a medical chart from a passing trolly, pick-pocketed an NHS identity card from a nurse she bumped into, and strode towards Guy's room.

The policeman didn't give her a second glance as she quickly flashed her identity card before he could have a good look at it, and she walked inside of the room and closed the door after her. Her heart pounded the entire time, but she soon relaxed, knowing she had made it without being caught. So much for top security. However, her moment of relief was short-lived when she gazed over at Guy's bed, and her heart dropped. 

Guy was usually the type of person who liked to have a good looking suntan especially during the summer, so finding him looking paper white and having a blood transfusion had her feeling sick and on the verge of a break down. He was out cold with only the sound of his heart monitor indicating that he was still alive. His beat was steady, possibly too slow for her liking. Guy was an energetic person who couldn't sit still for more than a second, so witnessing him unmoving was a stark contrast to the usual playful person he was at heart. 

Seeing him entangled in tubes and wires made her want to help heal him back to health. She wished now more than ever that she'd never quit medical school. She approached his bedside and swept his floppy dark locks out of his eyes and delicately stroked her fingers down the growing stubble on his cheek. He murmured, his heartbeat picked up, and his hand reached up to grab hers. 

"That tickles," he mumbled as he gradually woke up from his slumber. 

His eyes were slow to open and droopy when he finally did open them and gazed up at her. 

"Nice outfit." He smirked. "Can you play nurse with me when we get home?" He coughed.

Cassidy shook her head and smacked his arm, and he flinched, the pain flashing through his eyes. 

"This isn't a joke, Guy!" The tears finally broke free and flooded down her face. "You've been in an accident. I don't even know what type of accident. Nobody will tell me anything, not even Danny. I had to dress up as a nurse so I could sneak past the security just so I could see you! What happened to you, Guy?!"

Cassidy's throat felt dry, and she wiped her face and grabbed a hold of Guy's hand and looked into his eyes, begging for answers. Why the long nights recently? Why was he coming back home with a different injury every night and getting worse? He squeezed her hand and pulled himself up into a sitting position, cringing and flinching the entire time as Cassidy helped him and passed him a cup of water. 

"I'm fine." He weakly smiled and took a sip from his drink.

"You're not fine!" Cassidy yanked her hand back. "You have blood pumping into your veins! What happened to you?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you." He gazed away from her, unable to look her in the eyes. 

Cassidy scoffed, not surprised by his answer. He never told her, when she thought about it. He never told her much about who he was and what his job was. His work seemed more important to him than anything else, even if it got him killed. 

"What sort of job requires a police guard ?" She crossed her arms. "Who do you work for?" 

"Please, Cass, don't put me in this position." His boyish smile fell flat, and his heart rate started to rise. He reached out and pressed the buttons for the machine, which released morphine. Guy didn't look banged up, like he'd been in a car accident, yet he was in pain and extremely pale, having lost a lot of blood. Where had he lost blood? She couldn't see any injuries on him unless they were under his hospital gown. It therefore had to be a smallish injury to be able to cover it up, but what sort of injury could be small enough to cause blood loss and pain? She didn't understand. Why he couldn't he tell the truth? Did he not trust her? Did she meaning nothing to him?

She clenched her hands and paced the room. Why was he being stubborn? Why wouldn't he tell the truth? If he wasn't going to tell her, then she would figure it out for herself. She grabbed his chart at the end of the bed and flicked through his paperwork. 

"Cass, I was in a car crash." He looked panicked as she read through it. "Please calm down, and I will tell you what happened." 

"You mean you will tell me another lie," she snapped as she gazed over the paper. Her eyes scanned over the details until she found what she was looking for and sucked in a sharp breath. "Hypovolemic shock due to a GSW? A gun shot wound?!"

Guy closed his eyes and sighed when the clipboard slipped out of her hands, and the waterworks once again surfaced. Now she understood the police guard. If he was shot then the potential killer was still out there.

"You were shot!" Her heart raced as it finally hit her. 

Why would anyone want to shoot him? Her thoughts immediately went back to the London-Irish mob. It explained the dark paintings he would draw of nightlife street crime. He really was in deep s**t. As much as she loved him, she couldn't be a part of his life when he was getting shot at. She couldn't watch him die.

"I love you, Guy. I love you so much it hurts, and that's why I can't be with you anymore. I can't be a part of a relationship built on lies and secrets. So until you start telling me the truth about who you are, I can't do this anymore."

"Cass, please don't leave." Guy panicked and attempted to throw the covers off and reach out to her, but instead he hissed and fell back against the pillows, his face scrunched up in pain. "We can talk about this."

"Then tell me who you work for." Cassidy looked into his eyes, hoping he would tell her the truth. 

Guy's mouth parted open as he stared at her, begging her not to leave him. After moments of silence, Cassidy knew he was never going to tell her the truth, and it broke her heart that he couldn't trust her. She turned around and headed out the door. 

"Siempre te querré!" Guy shouted after her. 

Cassidy stared at him. He was crying and hanging off the edge of his seat. It was the first time Cassidy had ever heard him speak Spanish to her. She didn't even know he could speak Spanish, her first language. Still, it wouldn't be enough to make her stay. She couldn't be with a man who only ever lied to her. 

"Goodbye, Guy."