Red Red Rose

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  I came to feeling like I was floating, only I didn’t think I was because floating shouldn’t hurt this much. And everything hurt. Then the floating sensation was gone and I felt my body come down on something hard. My vision was fuzzy and everything was just flashes of light and faces and blurry movement. There was so much noise, voices all around and my head throbbed like the rest of my body. Hands were touching me, poking and prodding. I groaned when I felt a sharp pinch on my arm.

  “She’s awake!” A familiar deep voice cried in relief. Something large and warm wrapped around my hand. The touch was comforting and I wanted more than anything to be able to sit up and see him, but just as I thought my vision was clearing up and the fog in my head was abating, it came back with a vengeance and started sucking me under into the blackness. The voices became more distorted and I squeezed the hand holding mine before I lost consciousness again.

  The next time I made it out of the dark, I knew I was in a bed, a hospital bed. I blinked a few times before I was able to fully pry my eyes open. My head still ached, along with the rest of my body. The first thing I noticed was that my left arm was in a cast, but my mind was clearer. The only thing that wasn’t clear was what I was doing in a hospital bed. I tried to remember why I was here, and at first it was frustrating, like a word on the tip of your tongue that you can’t quite recall. Then everything started coming back in bits and pieces, flashes here and there until finally I had the whole picture.

  I remembered everything. The cabin with Will, or Aaron or whatever his name was and I remembered fighting him off in that bedroom and then Spencer coming to the rescue.

  Spencer.

  He was there again just before I did my Jack and Jill down the stairs.

  I looked around my dimly lit hospital room, the only illumination coming from the partially cracked bathroom door. I was thankful not to have the overly bright lights blaring down at me. I was disappointed to see that my room was empty. From the black sky outside the windows, I guessed it was late. The quiet also suggested it was the middle of the night. I worked to sit up and took stock of my soreness. My shoulder, neck and back were the worst. Falling down a flight of stairs felt similar to what I imagined getting hit by a two-hundred-fifty pound linebacker, sans pads, would feel like.

  “Of course I would step out of the room for five minutes and you would wake up.”

  I forgot all about my various aches and jerked my head toward the sound of that deep voice. A twinge of pain shot through my neck. I lifted my good hand to rub it as my eyes took in the tall and most welcome figure shadowing my doorway.

  He noticed my discomfort and his brow pinched with concern. “Hey, take it easy. You shouldn’t be moving around.” He came to sit on the edge of my bed and took my good hand into his, rubbing his thumb soothingly over the back of it. I wasn’t worried about the pain, having him here made everything hurt less.

  “Do you want me to go get a nurse? They should probably know you’re awake so they can check you over.”

  “Not yet.” I rested my head back against the pillow and let my eyes fall shut, only to bolt upright a moment later. “Emily. Where is she?”

  “It’s okay, relax. She’s alright. She’s just in another room recovering.”

  “Recovering? Was she hurt?”

  “Just a little dehydrated and malnourished, but she should be out of here by tomorrow. Her parents have been with her all day, and James is flying in.”

  “Good,” I relaxed again. “How long was I out?”

  “Just over twenty-four hours. You knocked your head pretty good on those stairs. You had a bad concussion, but thankfully no brain swelling. Doc said you’ll probably have a nasty headache for a while and maybe feel a little nauseous.”

  I nodded. I was definitely feeling both, and my throat was dry. I looked at the cup and bottle of water on the stand beside my bed. “Can you, uh,” I felt pretty useless, but Spencer was quick to pick up on what I needed and fill the glass for me.

  “Sip slowly,” he cautioned as he handed it to me and I tried to sit up more. It was a struggle without the use of one hand. After a few slow sips, I handed it back to him. He set it aside and resumed his position, holding my hand. I shifted over on the bed as much as I could and then indicated I wanted him on the bed next to me.

  “I should probably go get the nurse now, and I want you to be comfortable.”

  “And I just want you to hold me for a few minutes.” I tugged on his hand and he didn’t resist. He climbed up next to me and I rested my head against his shoulder. We lay there quietly for a few minutes. He continued to play with my hand in his and I just let myself enjoy the feeling of being safe in his arms again.

  He found me.

  I knew he would.

  “Are my parents here?” I asked after a while.

  “They are. They’ve been by your side all day, but I sent them home with the Raynes to get some sleep and promised them I would stay with you.”

  I nudged him with my good elbow. “You do know that they will consider you officially part of the family now for saving my life.”

  He sighed, “I didn’t save your life Nora. I got you pushed down a flight of stairs. You could have broken your neck.”

  I grabbed his face, forcing him to look me in the eye. “You did save my life. What he would have done if you hadn’t gotten there when you did would have been so much worse than a fall down the stairs.”

  He closed his eyes briefly and let out a deep breath. “I know and I keep telling myself that, but I still feel like it’s my fault you’re all broken right now.”

  “No, you’re the reason I’m not still trapped back there.” I stroked my thumb over the stubble on his jaw. “How did you find us?”

  “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

  “I knew you would. I was just starting to fear it wouldn’t be in time,” I admitted quietly.

  “You and me both.” He very gently tugged me into his chest and wrapped both arms around me. “I was so terrified of what he might be doing to you, but the doctors, they said,” he pulled back slightly so he could look in my eyes. “They said he didn’t hurt you like that.”

  “He didn’t,” I reassured him. “I held him off, and you got there in time.” I tipped my head forward and placed a kiss at the hollow of his throat and he squeezed me a little tighter.

  “I wish I could take all the credit for your rescue, but there wouldn’t have even been one that night if it wasn’t for Danny.”

  I pulled back and looked up at him. “Danny?”

  “He was the one who figured out it was Will. That’s what he wanted to talk to you about when he came to see you that night. He didn’t know Will was the killer, but I guess he tapped into the wifi at your shop one day last week when his personal hotspot was down, and he noticed someone else was tapped in and spying on the network. He shut them out, thinking it was just someone trying to find credit card numbers or get people to download spyware. Later he tracked it to Will. He thought he was just trying to rip off your customers. That’s why he was going to tell you and not the cops, so you could decide what to do. He knew Will was a friend. We were so busy looking at Danny that we didn’t see Will. That fucking asshole had the nerve to accuse me of being responsible for you getting taken. Said if I had been with you it wouldn’t have happened.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, Will was back here every single day, pretending to be distraught that you were missing, pretending to feel guilty about leaving you in the parking lot. He said that night he made sure you were in your car and had the door locked before he left. Even stopped by Cassie’s with you in the trunk to take any suspicion off him because he was the last one to see you. I don’t know how long it would have taken us to put it together if Danny hadn’t pointed us in his direction. It still took us too fucking long. I wanted to bring Danny in right away when you didn’t turn up at home, but the officer said he’d gone to his house and didn’t leave all night. The next morning he headed for Sea
ttle and we confirmed he had work conference. He didn’t realize you’d been taken until he came back and that’s when he came in and told us about Will spying on computers at the shop. After that, we found spyware on your computer. He went through all of your emails, your social media accounts. He’d even been remotely hacking into your computer’s webcam.”

  I shuddered, thinking about everything he might have seen while I had no idea he was watching.

  “We had to wait for him to pop back up in town. No one had realized he wasn’t spending nights at his apartment. I spotted his car outside Cassie’s and got a tracker on him before he left. I followed him to you, up near Maple Falls, but I had to stay back a ways so he wouldn’t know he was being followed. Monroe and his team were ten minutes behind me by the time they got mobilized. Once I came to the dirt road turn off, I hiked the rest of the way in, I was sitting outside the cabin waiting for backup when I heard you screaming. I went in and you know the rest. After you fell I subdued Aaron and then backup arrived and the ambulances weren’t far behind.”

  “Is he in jail?”

  “Yeah. They’ve got him locked up tight, and Will, or Andrew or whatever his name is, will be lucky if he doesn’t get the death penalty.”

  “It’s Aaron. He’s Aaron,” I told him.

  He frowned. “That’s not possible.”

  I relayed him the same story Aaron had told me, about how he faked his death and assumed Andrew’s identity.

  “I suppose if the fire was ruled an accident, there would have been no investigation, no reason to examine the bodies or run dental records.”

  “What I want to know, is why didn’t the police figure out who he was sooner? They questioned him along with everyone else weeks ago.”

  “I know, but Will Edwards, the name he was using, wasn’t a fake identity, I mean it was, but he’s a real person. Or at least was. The owner of the cabin he had you guys in is a Thomas Edwards in Boise. Andrew, or I guess, Aaron was renting the house behind Mr. Edward’s from him. Seems he also helped the old man out around his house. He must have come across the cabin and records of Mr. Edward’s late son who died in infancy. He used the birth certificate and social security number to assume William Edward’s identity before he left Boise. It looks like he may have also killed a Gem County clerk to get his hands on your sealed file.”

  “He killed so many people,” I whispered sadly.

  “I know, but he won’t hurt anyone else. I should probably call Monroe and let him know what you told me. He’ll be interested to hear that he’s got Aaron Lee in custody, not Andrew Reardon, and I really should go get the nurse now.”

  I reluctantly let him go to make his phone call and send the nurse in. After she checked me over, he came back and climbed into the bed with me. I didn’t plan on letting him leave again. I didn’t plan on ever letting go of him.

  Once I was tucked into his side as comfortably as I could be, I craned my sore neck to look up at him. He’d closed his eyes, but feeling me move he opened them and tilted his chin down.

  “You should go back to sleep and rest.”

  “First, ask me what my decision is?”

  “Your decision about what?”

  “Us.”

  He brushed his hand gently over my cheek. “It’s been a rough, emotional couple of days. I promised you I’d give you a month, and I will.”

  “Just ask me.”

  “Nora, you’ve been through a lot,” he said softly. “You should take the month to be certain of what you want.”

  “Ask me,” I said more forcefully this time.

  “Fine,” he sighed. “What’s your decision?”

  “Yes. A million times over.” I smiled.

  I could see him holding back his own smile. “Are you sure? I promise I don’t mind spending the month trying to woo you.”

  “Oh, you can still woo away, but I promise I’m sure. I’m sure of you and that you are worth every risk, and whatever time I get with you will be enough.”

  “Good,” he kissed my forehead and then met my eyes. “Because I wasn’t leaving even if you said no. I thought I would be able to if it was what you wanted, but after almost losing you, there’s no way I could ever give you up or walk away. You’re the one thing I’ll fight the hardest for and never stop fighting for.”

  He slowly brought his lips down to mine and rolled me to my back. He leaned over me, never breaking the kiss, and cupped his hand around the back of my neck. His lips moved slow and languidly over mine. He took his time claiming me in the gentlest way, but his kiss burned its way through me down to the very deepest parts.

  And when he was done, his lips stilled for just a moment before he lifted them. I opened my eyes and could see every fleck of brown and gold in his as he stared into mine. His chest heaved and his breath fluttered across my lips. The tips of our noses touched and we lay there breathing each other in.

  “I don’t know when it happened, but I knew the moment I found you alive inside that cabin that somewhere along the way I fell in love with you. I love you so much; it hurt to breathe in the seconds after I saw you go down those stairs until I could get to you. I pretty much thought I’d beaten fear with everything I’ve had to face in my life, but losing you terrifies the shit out of me.”

  I raised my good hand to the side of his face. “Then it’s a good thing I don’t plan on leaving you. You’re not the only one who fell, and I don’t just mean down the stairs.” I leaned up and touched my lips to his and then collapsed back on my pillow with a cheesy grin. “In case you hadn’t noticed I’m pretty in love with you too.”

  I couldn’t say exactly when it happened either, only that it had and I don’t think there could have been any stopping it. Love is crazy like that. Sometimes it’s a slow build-up, two hearts finding each other and becoming so entwined over time it would be impossible to separate them, and sometimes it takes no time at all. Sometimes two hearts come together and they just recognize something in the other that calls to them. You can fight it all you want, but by the time you realize what’s happened, you’re smack-dab in the middle of love with no way out. Most of the time you don’t even see the warning signs until it’s too late to turn around. It’s exhilarating and overwhelming all at once, leaving you breathless. But with those feelings also comes a heart-stopping fear. Fear of what will happen if you ever lose that love. Fear of the unknown. And even though it was scary as hell, I was ready to embrace the unknown with him.

  Epilogue

  Spencer

  I felt like some kind of stalker, standing outside her room, listening to their conversation. I couldn’t help it. After everything that had happened over the past week, I was having a hard time letting her out of my sight. I hadn’t expected to come back from making phone calls and find him in there. Bastard probably planned it that way, waited for me to leave her alone so he could have his chance. Not that I blamed him. He’d had five years of chances and let them slip through his fingers.

  I wasn’t worried that anything he might say to her would change her mind. He wasn’t a threat to me, but I knew she cared for him and he did have the power to make this harder on her. That, I would not allow.

  “It may take some time, but I know she’ll get past it.” They were talking about Emily. “I’m just worried it will be a while before she’s back to herself. She’s not talking much about it. She’s not talking much at all.”

  “Just give her time, James. She’s a fighter. What she went through . . .” Nora’s voice faded and I knew she was going back there in her head. I expected it would be a while before she stopped seeing that cabin, stopped reliving those days and nights. Hell, it was going to be a while before I stopped reliving them. I woke so many times during the night, afraid I was going look beside me and find her missing from the bed.

  “Do you know? What she went through, what he did to her? The doctors won’t say much. They’re leaving it up to her. She spoke to Parker earlier, but she asked that we not be in there for it.”
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  “I know it was bad. I can only imagine, based off what I saw, but I don’t think he touched her, at least not– not in that way.”

  I knew what the guy must be feeling. I’d felt it every single moment that Nora was missing and I didn’t know what was happening to her.

  They were both quiet a minute before James spoke again.

  “Thank you. Thank you for bringing my sister home.”

  “It wasn’t me, James. I didn’t do anything.”

  “My sister might not be saying much right now, but she did say that you protected her, that you kept him from hurting her, that you let him–”

  Nora stopped him. “I didn’t let him do anything to me if that’s what you’re thinking. I tried to keep him happy to keep him away from her, that’s all. He didn’t touch me like that either. Spencer stopped him. He’s the one who saved both of us. It’s him you should be thanking.”

  I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

  “I know. I know what he did, but I also know that when you had a chance to run, you ran for my sister and tried to get her out before worrying about yourself.”

  “I couldn’t leave her.”

  “I know. I’m glad she has you, and I think she’s going to need you now more than she ever has.”

  “You know I’ll be here for her.”

  “I know. And I guess Shaw will be here for you?”

  “Yeah. He will,” she answered him.

  He was quiet a moment. “So I guess I better make other plans for December thirteenth?”

  I didn’t know what the significance was, but I could guess.

  “I think so,” came her soft reply.