Finding Home

by Rachel Smith

They were coming.

  Alex was coming.

  He’d put his arms around me and keep me warm. He could make it all better and I won’t have to feel the pain any longer.

  It could be over.

  The sound got louder and louder, until I heard the ‘swoosh’ of tires sliding against the snow. It was close, I could tell.

  Heavy footsteps pounded against the ground and then I felt it. On my cheek. Even being almost unconscious, I knew his touch.

  Alex.

  “Lizzie, babe, stay with me,” he said, desperation and panic in his voice. “Don’t leave me, baby, just hold on.”

  “Lexington!” I heard someone shout from a distance.

  “Get the ambulance here, now, Raftzen, she’s in bad shape.”

  Bad shape? I’m not in bad shape, I work out sometimes.

  “Alex,” I mumbled.

  “I’m here,” he breathed and ran his fingers through my hair.

  The heavy weight came off my legs. I heard someone yelling for Johnny to wake up. Johnny was on my legs? He must have been the warmth I felt. But where was Max?

  “Max,” I croaked.

  “The guys are on it, honey. Don’t worry. We’ll get him,” Alex replied.

  The wail of more sirens floated over me. The ambulance arrived and I was loaded inside.

  As the EMTs poked and prodded and put pressure on my belly, the pain began to disappear. Like a feather in the wind, it floated away a little bit at a time.

  Everything began to slowly get quiet. The beep of the equipment, the roar of the ambulance engine. The shrill wail of the siren even began to drift off. It all faded away as I fell into peaceful oblivion.

  Finally… warmth.

  25

  Alex

  The steady beep from the hospital machines offered a small level of comfort. They were continuous, always the same.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  Over and over, the piercing noise cut through the quiet of Lizzie’s hospital room.

  She’d been out for two days now.

  The doctors were able to repair the damage from her knife wounds, sewing her tender skin back together. Holding in the precious little blood she had left in her body.

  I had seen a lot of injuries over my years as a cop. Gunshots, knife wounds. Bodies mangled inside twisted metal after a horrific car accident. A lot of people who hadn’t been as lucky as Liz in the end. Gory shit that stuck with you and woke you up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

  But this? Seeing my woman in the bed for two straight days with nothing from her but the sound of the machines monitoring her vitals?

  This was torture.

  With my head in my hands, I didn’t notice Alan Raftzen enter the room.

  “She still the same?” he asked, startling me.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Doctors say everything checks out okay. Now we just need her to wake up.”

  He nodded reassuringly. “She will.”

  I silently agreed. My emotions had been up and down and every which direction for the past couple days, I didn’t always trust myself to hold much of a conversation in fear I’d lose it.

  “They found Mayland,” he said, and my body stiffened.

  “What?” I asked, my voice so low and dripping with hate I almost didn’t recognize it.

  Raftzen caught my eyes with his. A look of determination and confidence evident in his gaze. “Boys in blue two counties over picked him up last night, driving a stolen F-150.”

  The weight that had been pressing down on my shoulders suddenly lifted. Relief washed over me when I realized that bastard was going away and it was finally over.

  “Motive?” I asked, unsure if I really wanted to know the answer.

  I’d had some of the guys on the force dig into Mayland’s life, give us some insight on why the hell he would’ve done this. So far, the only thing they’d had come up with was a bunch of basic, random info. His family, past jobs, social media profiles.

  Nothing pointed to him taking my Liz.

  “It was the sister,” Raftzen answered.

  “Whose sister?”

  “You mind?” he asked, pointing to the sofa long the side of the hospital room.

  “Sure. I mean, no, go ahead. What sister?” I asked again, flustered.

  Alan sat down. He rubbed two fingers across his chin. A tell, I’d learned over the years, when he had sensitive information to share.

  “Just fucking spit it out, Raftzen,” I snapped, standing from my chair. I needed to stretch, or pace, something to help me handle whatever the hell I was about to hear.

  “Mayland has a sister. Her name is Veronica. She lives in Chicago. No known priors. No history of substance abuse or any other run-ins with the law.”

  Frustrated, I urged him on. “Can you get to the point? What does this Veronica have to do with my Lizzie?”

  “Veronica’s last name is Schumann,” he continued. “Her husband’s name is Erik.”

  It took a minute to sink in. The name was familiar, but I just couldn’t place where I’d seen…

  “The photo,” I breathed.

  “Turns out,” Alan went on, “Veronica’s husband was cheating on her awhile back.” His eyes met mine. “With Liz.”

  My eyelids closed as if in slow motion. My shoulders slumped in defeat. I knew she’d had a life back in Chicago before me, that things had gotten ugly with her boss at work, but I still hated to hear it all again.

  “I knew she had a relationship that ended badly, but not an affair.”

  My head sprang up, my body lurched toward the bed. It was soft and strained, but it was still her voice. A voice I hadn’t heard in two full days.

  “Baby,” I whispered, “don’t try to talk.” I frantically pushed the call button for the nurse, my thumb going crazy like a tweaking gamer trying to make it to the next level.

  “I never knew,” she whispered again. Tears leaked from her eyes, dripping down her temples and onto the sheets. “I thought he loved me, but it was all a lie.”

  “It’s okay now,” I said as I gently brushed the tears away. “No more tears because of him. You’re okay. I’m okay. We’re here, baby, together, and everything is going to be okay.”

  Her eyes shifted, focusing directly on mine. Something shifted in my soul, catching in my breath. The worry, the fear, she wiped all of it away with just a look.

  “Well, look who decided to make her way back to us,” the nurse chirped as she walked into the room. “Welcome back. You gave this guy quite a scare.”

  She took Lizzie’s temperature, measured her vitals, and pushed a series of buttons on the machines. She continued to jabber, going on and on about something or other. I wasn’t paying attention.

  I couldn’t.

  My focus was on my woman. Our eyes locked together, bound by something deeper than feelings and emotions.

  Bound by love.

  Totally oblivious to the world around me, I barely registered Raftzen on the phone, calling it in to the station that Lizzie was awake and talking. Everything had sort of just faded around us. I hadn’t even noticed the tears until she lifted her hand, with tubes from her IV protruding from the top, to brush them off my cheek.

  “You big softy,” she whispered.

  I laughed, causing the tears to fall harder. They were the good kind though, the happy kind. The ones you cry when you realize everything in your life just fell into place and you finally… finally felt like you made it.

  After years of searching. After years of looking for something and never knowing what, I found it.

  Finally.

  I’d found my home.

  26

  Lizzie

  “Please stop fussing,” I begged.

  “You keep saying that, babe, but it’s just not going to happen,” Alex responded.

  I’d been home from the hospital for only a day.

  One.

  One full day, and already I was plotting inside my head all the ways I could go back.
>
  Between Alex’s incessant hovering and the constant ‘ding’ of the doorbell for another flower delivery and the never-ending stream of calls and texts from people, I was going crazy.

  I mean, I love that all these people are concerned and everything, but for a self-proclaimed introvert, it was like torture.

  Pure. Torture.

  All I wanted was my laptop and the soothing calmness a good, organized spreadsheet gave me.

  “But noooo,” I sneered, wishing Alex would catch my annoyance and go find something else to do.

  I mean, the man flitted around the house like a crazed bunny, practically bouncing off the walls between caring for me and attempting to make life easier. If every inch of my body didn’t still hurt, I’d reach up and slap him next time he got close enough.

  But alas, as I’d been repeatedly stabbed just recently, that was out of the question.

  So instead, I scowled a lot.

  Which wasn’t appearing to get me anywhere. Still, at least I felt better.

  The only time Alex stopped with the pillow propping and the relentless asking if I needed anything was when there was another knock at the door. What I assumed was more flowers turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

  Johnny Trellis.

  Didn’t think I’d ever see the day those words went together…

  “How ya feeling?” he asked as he stepped into the entryway.

  “Sore,” I answered.

  “I bet,” he chuckled, quickly grabbing at his side as he winced in pain.

  My eyes widened. “I didn’t know you were hurt. Are you okay?” I asked and looked to Alex, pissed he hadn’t shared that little tidbit of information with me yet.

  I gave him my deepest, best scowl, hoping to really convey my level of anger.

  Johnny’s eyes shifted from me, to Alex, and back to me again. He smiled. “Just a little flesh wound from when I tussled with Mayland,” he explained. “Nothing a few stitches and a whole lotta alcohol can’t fix.”

  Alex rolled his eyes.

  “Um, excuse me, Mr. Judgy-McJudgerson,” I scolded, and even mustered enough energy to wag my finger in his direction. “Johnny saved me from that psycho, if he wants to jump into a barrel of alcohol, he’s allowed, okay?”

  I looked at Johnny and raised my eyebrows as if to say, ‘See? I got your back, brother.’

  Both men stared at me, the edges of their lips tipped up as they made half-ass attempts to hide their smirks.

  “What?” I asked.

  Johnny shook his head and let out a low chuckle. “Glad to see my nerdy neighbor is back,” he said.

  Alex’s shoulders shook with laughter. “I think I’d go with awkward over nerdy.”

  “Uncomfortable?” Johnny teased.

  “I’m right here!”

  The two men shared a moment, laughing at my expense while I stared in disbelief. Did they not still hate each other? What the hell happened while I was unconscious?

  “Sorry to break up this little bro-mantic moment between the two of you, but I’m exhausted, and I need to rest, so…”

  Johnny nodded. “Just wanted to check in, make sure you were all good.”

  “Yup, great. I’m just great,” I answered.

  Alex stuck out his hand toward Johnny before he left. “Never officially got the chance to say thanks,” he stated.

  Johnny looked down at Alex’s outstretched arm and my breath hitched in my throat. Sweet baby Jesus, my emotions were still all wonky from the hospital drugs, I couldn’t take much more.

  “Don’t mention it,” Johnny replied, grabbed Alex’s hand, and shook it.

  Me, on the other hand, well, I was no longer able to hold my shit together and it spilled out like a broken dam right then and there in my living room.

  “The love of my life and man who saved my life… making friends… being nice to each other…” I hiccupped and sobbed, continuing to wail. “You guys have the whole rest of your lives to be friends now and to grow old with your families and you can have kids the same age and be the best of friends for all your lives!”

  Sobbing, snotting all over, I was really a sight to see.

  “And that’s my cue,” Johnny stated uncomfortably and snuck out the door.

  Alex knelt beside me on the couch, using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe my face. “Okay there, turbo, time to get yourself settled down.”

  I steadied my breathing before finally taking one big, calming breath through my nose.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “Not sure what came over me, there.”

  Alex smiled. “It’s a lot to process in just a few days.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, nodding absentmindedly. “It really is.”

  “Okay, so now,” he started as he fluffed the pillow behind my back. “You need to get some rest, and I need to get down to the station.”

  “What?” I asked. “Why?” My sudden panic at the fact he was leaving was a bit concerning. He was driving me batshit crazy and all, but I didn’t actually want him to leave me all alone.

  “Just some paperwork I need to get submitted,” he said with a shrug. His eyes quickly averted from mine.

  Little did he realize I could read him like a book. “What are you not telling me?” I asked.

  He gave me those big, puppy dog eyes, feigning innocence. “Don’t give me that,” I said, annoyed he would even think of keeping secrets.

  He sighed. “Chicago PD picked up Veronica. Max is being held without bail until his trial, but they got her on conspiracy to kidnap with the intent to harm.”

  “Oh my,” I mumbled.

  “Yeah, looks like the Mayland family will be having holidays together in jail for a few years,” he said.

  It should’ve made me feel better knowing they were getting what they deserved, but it didn’t. I couldn’t put my finger on the reason why, but it really bothered me Veronica had held a grudge for so long. The moment I had found out Erik was married I had cut all ties.

  Immediately.

  Hell, I moved to another state to put that whole debacle behind me and start fresh. Evidently, she hadn’t been able to get over it and forgive her lying, cheating, scumbag of a husband.

  So, she took it out on me.

  Because apparently it had been all my fault.

  Alex stood and made his way to the door.

  “Is there more?” I asked, something not sitting quite right in the pit of my stomach.

  “More?”

  “Yeah, to the story. Is that it?”

  Alex pursed his lips. “For the most part,” he answered cryptically.

  I sighed. “Sock it to me.”

  He chuckled. “The douchebag has been fucking around on her for years.”

  My eyes widened at this news.

  Whoa.

  “Apparently,” he went on, “the guy isn’t real picky about where he sticks his dick. No offense.”

  “None taken,” I mumbled.

  He knelt next to the couch again. “I thought you were leaving?” I asked.

  “I am. Have to make sure my girl is okay before I go.”

  My heart melted. “Go, be super cop. I’m fine.”

  “I can’t seem to make myself go,” he admitted.

  “Alex,” I whispered, seeing the unshed tears in his eyes.

  “I almost lost you.”

  “But you didn’t,” I noted. “I’m here, and I’m okay. And now we have the rest of our lives to be together.”

  He smiled. “Yeah, I like the sound of that, babe.”

  He kissed my cheek and was out the door as I slid into peaceful oblivion.

  27

  Alex

  “More of what?” I asked Alan Raften from across his desk. “We got ‘em both, it’s over.”

  Alan rubbed two fingers across his forehead as he stared down at the pile of paperwork.

  “Raftzen,” I said again. “How the fuck can there be more?”

  “Nancy Waters,” he answered, and my blood ran cold.

 
; The door to the station opened and Brandon walked in, an officer following close behind. Alan motioned for them to follow him and we all settled into an interrogation room before I was able to even form a thought, let alone speak.

  “Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on? What does this have to do with Lizzie’s case?”

  Brandon’s head snapped toward me, his eyes wide with fear. “I thought you brought me in here to talk about my mom,” he said.

  Alan nodded and held his hands up at both of us. “We did. Now, both of you, please sit down.”

  I sat, my mind still reeling with possibilities of how this could all be connected.

  “When we found Jimmy Scorelli’s DNA on your mom’s body, Brandon, we figured it was because your dad had gotten himself in too deep,” Alan started.

  “I know,” Brandon nodded, “because of drugs.”

  “That’s true,” Raftzen agreed.

  “But there’s more,” I chimed in.

  He looked at me and nodded. “Yeah, Lexington, there’s more.”

  He turned his gaze back to Brandon. “You know about what happened to Elizabeth Rockwell, don’t you, Brandon?”

  Brandon swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

  “Well, it turns out she had a… well, a relationship with a man back in Chicago. When his wife found out about it, she wasn’t very happy.”

  My chest muscles clenched.

  “Turns out the wife, Veronica, was Max Mayland’s sister. You know Max, the realtor here in town?”

  Brandon nodded.

  “You see,” Alan went on, “women do some pretty wild shit when their husband steps out on them. Jealousy. Rage. It can burn a woman deep inside until she just snaps. And this guy? The one Lizzie had been with? Well, he wasn’t real keen at being faithful to his wife. Ever.”

  “Will you just spit it out instead of pussyfooting around, Raftzen?” I spat.

  “Erik Schumann was having an affair with your mom,” he said to Brandon. “I’m sorry, kid. I guess that Erik and Veronica came to visit Max and somehow him and your mom got hooked up together. He’s been making pretty frequent trips to this area to uh… well… you know,” he finished.