by Julia Derek
The doctor was waiting outside Chase’s room when we got there, scribbling something on the papers on his clipboard. He looked up briefly when we were before him.
“Make it quick, please.”
“Thanks, doctor,” I said and then Gabi and I entered the room together. Chase had closed his eyes, his hands clasped over his chest. I sucked in a breath, stiffening slightly. Is he okay?
But then he opened his eyes and I stopped worrying.
“Hey Chase,” I said as we walked up to his bed. “This is Gabi. Gabi, this is Chase, my… boss.”
It felt weird calling him that after all that we’d been through together—and also because some people back home knew just how much I detested my boss at the firm. I wasn’t sure if Gabi was among them. Since there was nothing I could do about it right then, I quickly moved on.
“Is there somewhere we can write down Gabi’s number?” I asked Chase. We both looked at the little table that was attached to his bed and at the long counter along the wall. There were no pens or pads in sight anywhere, only medical equipment. Gabi didn’t have anything to use either.
“How about I ask the doctor outside,” I said. “He obviously has both pen and paper.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Chase said. I swiveled around and marched over to the doctor. Only begrudgingly did he let me have his pen and a piece of paper to write on. I returned to Gabi and Chase, armed with pen and paper now.
“Okay, what’s your number?” I asked Gabi. She rattled it off and I took it down. Then I looked at Chase. “Where should I put it? What are you gonna use to call me, by the way?”
“Just leave it on the table,” he said. Smiling deviously, he added, “I’m sure I’ll be able to convince a nurse here to let me use one of the hospital’s phones, don’t you think?”
I laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right about that. But hopefully you won’t need to. When Nick’s buddies get here, you can use one of their phones.”
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
Gabi started walking toward the door. For some reason, I found it hard to follow her, even though there was nothing left for me to do. I also knew that for every second I remained there, the more annoyed I’d make the doctor outside.
“Okay, we’ll leave then,” I said, making myself detach from Chase’s bedside.
“Wait,” he said as I started walking.
I stopped and turned to face him. “Yeah?”
His gray eyes sparkled with devilish intent. “Can I have a kiss before you go? You are after all my wife, right?”
I looked at him for a moment, not sure if he was kidding or not. Then I decided that he was not and that I really wanted to give him a kiss good-bye. As I walked back to Chase, I could hear Gabi leave the room. I would have some explaining to do when I joined her afterward.
Standing before him, I said, “We gotta make it quick or I’m pretty sure the good doctor out there will kill me.”
Instead of answering me, he wrapped his free arm around my neck and pulled my head to his, crushing his lips to mine in a kiss so searing my knees weakened. As our tongues mingled and danced, I couldn’t help but wonder how it was possible he tasted so good even after having been brought back from the dead. But truly, he did. Maybe the explanation was as simple as the chemistry between us was just so strong the mixing of our bodily fluids resulted in delicious-tasting pheromones. All I knew was that I wanted to keep kissing and kissing Chase. But of course we couldn’t continue for long. He pulled away first.
“I might have another cardiac arrest if we keep this up,” he whispered, “so we’d better stop.”
The mention of cardiac arrest instantly sobered me up. “Right,” I said. “We’ll talk as soon as Nick’s buddies get here.”
I waved good-bye to Chase and finally left his room.
The doctor was shaking his head at me as I returned the pen to him, while Gabi was doing her best to stifle an attack of the giggles behind his back.
Together, she and I walked back to Nick through the long corridor. I gave her an abbreviated version of why both the doctor and Chase himself had referred to me as his wife, and she instantly got the reasoning behind it. Nick got to his feet when we entered the waiting room.
“Everything good?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Gabi replied. She waved for Nick to come all the way over to us. When he was before us, she whispered, “Can you get a couple of guys to be outside Chase’s room and make sure no one can get to him until he’s discharged? It’s better we take care of it on our own than try to make the NYPD get someone here. This way we can be sure he’s safe.”
Nick nodded and pulled out his phone from his jean pocket. He swiped it open, speed-dialed someone and then brought the phone to his ear.
He watched us with his amazing eyes as he waited for the recipient to pick up. He or she soon did.
“I need two guys to watch a guy at the Lenox Hill Hospital right now,” Nick said. “Who can come?”
Nick listened as the other person spoke, grabbing Gabi’s shoulder and massaging it slowly at the same time. I felt like an intruder suddenly. This casual action of his seemed so intimate, almost inappropriate to me. I didn’t think he was aware of what he was doing, though.
“Sounds good,” he said into the phone. “I’ll text you the details in a few minutes.”
He hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. “It’s taken care of. Let’s go.”
Feeling like I was in very good hands, the three of us left the waiting room and the hospital. It didn’t take many minutes for us to find a cab that we jumped into. After a short ride during which Nick typed frenetically on his smartphone, we arrived at a police station. Thirty minutes later I had filed a report for what had happened to me and Chase and the three of us left again.
“Where are we going now?” I asked Nick, who had become the person in charge again after having let Gabi call the shots at the station. I had thought that had been kind of weird considering that we were in his hometown, not hers, but I didn’t say anything. We were walking along the street outside the police station. Now, in the early evening, it was buzzing with people, twice as much as in the morning. The sun was hanging low in the sky, but it was pleasant out, so New Yorkers had apparently decided to take advantage of this beautiful spring day.
“That depends on you,” he replied. “Do you want to go home?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. I looked at Gabi. “What should I do?”
“We might as well go back to your place,” she said. “Since the NYPD have already been there and gone through it, it’s not like you can’t go home again. If you want to. I totally understand if you’d rather go to a hotel though for the night. I’m sure your place still looks like hell. The detectives surely left it the way they found it.”
I shrugged. “That’s okay. I think I’d rather go back home even it looks bad. No point in not facing reality, right?”
“True,” Gabi said. “Well, if you’re okay with it, let’s go to your place then.”
We found another cab to take us to my apartment. While we crossed Central Park to get to the other side where I lived, Chase called us from the hospital. Nick’s two buddies had arrived there within the hour and had instantly asked Chase if he wanted to use one of their phones. Chase had jumped at the opportunity and called Gabi’s number.
I gave him a quick update on what had happened at the police station and what we could expect, then he promised to call as soon as he found out when he would be discharged.
We said good-bye and I handed the phone back to Gabi. I couldn’t help but marvel over how effectively she and Nick had taken care of me from the moment I got in touch with them. When I asked them how it was possible for everything to work so smoothly, Gabi explained that they had already alerted Nick’s contacts in New York before arriving.
“So everyone was on standby, just waiting for the word from Nick,” she finished.
“Ah,” I said, smiling at them both. “And I who thought
it was just us being incredibly lucky.”
“Relying on luck would be a very bad strategy,” Nick said. “Though in this case, maybe we’ll need some to figure out what’s up. I don’t think I’ve ever been as dumbstruck as I am by what happened to you and Chase. It really makes no sense.”
Chapter Fourteen
When we arrived at my building, a high-rise in midtown Manhattan, the doorman on duty made a huge thing out of the fact that not only had strangers—thugs—managed to get by the doormen, but they had also managed to break in and trash my apartment without a problem. Gabi, Nick, and I weren’t surprised that he was so profusely apologetic; obviously, the building’s security left a lot to be desired if one could be abducted after entering one’s own apartment in the middle of the day.
The middle-aged man in the building’s charcoal doorman outfit seemed as distressed as he was acting, the big vein in his high forehead looking like it was about to burst any moment. “We’re so, so sorry this happened to you, Ms. Whitman.” The words were rushing out of his mouth. “As soon as we found out, we fired the doorman who was working when this unfortunate incident happened. I can assure you that this will never again happen, nor has it ever happened before. Naturally, management will compensate you for all that you have endured due to this tragic event.”
He kept talking and talking as all of us rode up the elevator to the twenty-fifth floor where my apartment was. The locks had been changed this morning, at the same time as the cops were going through my place in search of clues that could lead them to the perpetrators.
I wasn’t sure if I believed my anxious doorman no matter how many times he repeated what a unique situation it was that could only be explained by a bad egg among the doorman staff. All I cared about right then was that he opened my apartment door, so we could get inside my place finally and take a look at its state with our own eyes. I didn’t doubt that they’d get their act together now, though, in part because this building’s reputation hung on a thin string after the break-in/abduction. If it became widely known in the city, it would be much harder for them to get tenants and the apartment rents would shrink drastically. Surely the doormen could expect their holiday tips to be lower than normal this year, unless they had bribed the neighbor who’d discovered the state of my apartment to keep her mouth shut.
“So, as you can see, you now have three locks instead of two,” the doorman explained as he finished opening my apartment door. “The locksmith promised they were as good as unbreakable.” He grinned nervously at me. “No one but the doorman staff and you will have access to the keys, of course. Here you go.”
He handed me the three new keys I would use to get into my apartment.
“Thank you,” I said. “I think we’ll be okay on our own now.”
“Of course,” the doorman replied, bowing as he retreated. “If you need anything, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to call me at any time. Here’s my card.” He gave me a business card with the building logo.
“Great, thanks,” I said, hoping that he would leave finally. He took the cue and actually did.
The second he disappeared into the elevator, I turned to Gabi and Nick. “Do you think the doorman who worked that day is involved in this?”
Nick shook his head; out of the two, he was by far the one with the most experience in law enforcement having been a cop for nearly eight years. “We’ll find out as soon as the detectives the department put on this case speak to him, but my hunch is that he’s not. Like your doorman just pointed out”—Nick nodded in the direction of where he had left—“he was probably a bad egg. If not, this case will be very easy to solve. But I really don’t think they’d be so stupid and involve someone so easily accessible. No, the sad truth is that breaking into someone’s apartment isn’t very hard, even if you live in a doorman building.” He chuckled and his eyes glittered under the brim of his baseball cap. “Trust me, I know from experience. I have broken into plenty.”
He and Gabi exchanged a private glance, which made me feel like an intruder again. Though, maybe I shouldn’t this time, as I had an idea what he was referring to. Having spent five years pretending to be one of the guys in the criminal underworld, I could imagine that Nick had done all kinds of stuff that would put most people in jail if caught.
Little by little, he but mostly Gabi had revealed to me what they had been working on while undercover in New York. No specific details, but I was still able to picture what they’d been up to. Kind of. Due to their combined efforts, their target had been brought to justice. Because the operation had been so successful, it meant Nick could no longer stay in the city or chances that his cover would be blown greatly increased. Basically, the farther away from New York City he was, the safer he would be. So he had requested to be transferred to work for the LAPD. Not only would he be on the other side of the country this way, but he would also be close to Gabi. Seeing the way he looked at her, I could tell that he was very much in love with her.
After learning all this, it made perfect sense why he was wearing that baseball cap so low on his face and why he was keeping his head down whenever we walked the streets of Manhattan. I also understood why he had let me and Gabi do most of the talking at the police station.
As far as the officers working at the station knew, Nick was dead and Nick liked them to keep thinking that. He liked the vast majority of the world to keep thinking that.
It warmed my heart to know what a risk these two were taking by coming here to help me when their own lives were at risk by simply being in the city.
We walked into my apartment. While it still looked like a tornado had gone through it, I wasn’t as disturbed by seeing the mess as I had thought I’d be. Plus, I preferred putting it in order myself—with the help of Gabi and Nick—not having cleaning staff do it for me as the doorman had offered. Really, it was only my living room that was in bad shape anyway. When it came to the rest of my apartment, only drawers were pulled out and cabinet doors had been left open. It didn’t take long to fix that. As I had feared, my smartphone was nowhere to be found. Good thing I gave Chase Gabi’s number so he can easily reach me, I thought when I finally gave up looking for it.
We spent some time fixing up my place, then we ordered take-out for dinner. I was too tired to go anywhere, and Gabi and Nick were not about to leave me on my own.
After eating lots of sushi and washing it down with Diet Coke and beer, we decided to call it a night early. It was only ten o’ clock, but all of us were tired. I knew why I was tired, but for Nick and Gabi it was only seven at night given that California time lagged three hours behind East Coast time, so I was sure they were only faking it not to make me feel bad for wanting to crash. When I offered them my bedroom, they insisted I sleep in my own bed and they in the living room. Together, we set up the pullout couch for them to sleep on.
“You’re welcome to watch TV,” I told them so they wouldn’t be bored to death. “I really don’t mind. As long as you don’t blast the volume, I won’t even hear it.”
Gabi smiled at me. “Thanks. That’s good to know. Maybe we’ll do that.”
I showed her how to use the remote control. As she nodded politely, it slowly dawned on me that she really didn’t care and that she and Nick wouldn’t be bored. I should have figured that by the way these two couldn’t stop touching each other. They were madly in love and more than happy to be on a couch or bed together with nothing else to entertain them but each other.
“Well, good night then,” I said and left them on the couch. Then I walked into the bathroom to take a shower. When I had finished brushing my teeth and applied night cream, I slipped into a T-shirt and fresh underwear and crept under the covers, glad to be in my own bed at last. I closed my eyes and reveled in the sensation of my soft sheets and firm mattress.
Considering that I had only slept two hours the night before and was generally exhausted, I should have passed out the moment I put my head on the pillow, but of course sleep didn’t come to m
e that easily. I kept thinking and thinking about what had happened and how strange it all was that it was impossible for me to relax. I tossed and turned in my bed, trying to find a position that I thought would make it easier for me to finally slip into la-la land. The fact that one side of my face hurt like hell when I put pressure on it didn’t help. Two hours or so later, I heard soft steps in the hallway next to my bedroom. The person stopped outside my bedroom door and knocked lightly.
“Come in,” I said loudly. It was obvious from the knock that the person was just testing to see if I was still awake and didn’t want to wake me otherwise.
My bedroom door opened and Gabi’s head appeared in the doorway. She held out her phone toward me.
“Your husband is on the line,” she said, covering the phone’s mic with her fingertips. “Are you awake enough to talk to him?”
I shot out of bed and took the phone out of her hand, smiling at her. She must have seen by my body language that I really wanted to talk with him while on my own, because she instantly withdrew and closed my bedroom door.
I brought the phone to my ear and crept back into bed. “Hey husband,” I said.
“Hey,” Chase replied, his voice soft. “I just wanted to call and say goodnight.”
A pleasant feeling filled me at the sound of his voice and what it had said. “That’s so sweet of you. How are you feeling?”
“Better. A lot better. I think I’ll definitely be good to go tomorrow morning.”
“That’s good. How are the guys treating you?” I was referring to the two men Nick had sent over to make sure Chase was okay.
“I don’t even notice them to be honest. Maybe they left.”
I gasped into the phone, instantly more awake. “What? Do you really think so?”
Chase laughed quietly. “No, silly. I’m just kidding. They’re still out there. I just spoke to one of them a while ago. But they are super quiet.”
