Forget Me Not (Golden Falls Fire Book 4)

by Scarlett Andrews

Like I really almost died. As in, they put a tube in to breathe for me because I couldn’t breathe myself. Her eyes sank closed, and she tried to hold back tears. She didn’t want to die.

  “I’d never go in the ice core lab without gearing up,” she said.

  “Maybe you were just dashing in for something real quick?”

  “Never,” Annabelle said. “I’d never go in without a parka and gloves.”

  “I’m just glad he found you and that you’re going to be okay.” Her mom kissed her forehead. “Do you need to rest?”

  Annabelle shook her head as flashes of other images began coming to her, of cat stickers, and her hard drive, and Derrick.

  It wasn’t sleep she needed. It was Sean. He’d know what to do.

  “This is the second time you’ve saved my life,” Annabelle whispered when Sean arrived at her bedside. Her mom graciously left them alone.

  Annabelle’s vision was suddenly blurry with tears, but not so blurry that she couldn’t see Sean’s tall, broad-shouldered frame. His handsome face looked tired and worried, but most of all relieved.

  Sean caressed her cheek with his thumb, sending pleasurable warmth across her skin.

  “I thought I’d lost you.” His bright green eyes were fixed on hers, holding her in his gaze as if she might vanish if he blinked. “This made me realize that I can’t stand to lose you, Annabelle. I know you might not feel the same, but all I want is to be with you and make you happy. I’m willing to spend the rest of my life trying to convince you of that.”

  “You do make me happy.” More tears. “Sean, Derrick—”

  “Derrick’s an asshole,” Sean said.

  And he ruined us. Or tried to.

  “We’re good, aren’t we?” she said. “You and I, we’re good?”

  Sean’s smile was brilliant and full of love. “We’re the best.” He took one of her hands in both of his and then brought it to his lips for a kiss.

  Cold hands, warm heart, she thought. My heart is warm—make that sizzling hot—for you.

  He kissed her softly on the lips, and she melted into it, like the burning heat of him was breathing new life into her, and she wanted to kiss him forever and would have, except she needed to deal with what had happened.

  “Derrick tried to kill me,” she said.

  Sean’s eyes darkened, and his entire body tensed. “I thought so. He gave a statement to the police, but I knew he was full of shit.”

  “He stole my research, and then he tried to kill me.”

  Someone behind them cleared their throat. “What’s this?”

  Peter was at the door, looking ashen with worry. Linda was behind him with a bouquet of yellow flowers.

  “We came as soon as we heard,” Linda said.

  “What’s this about someone trying to kill you?” Peter said, looking like he thought he’d probably misheard.

  Annabelle took a deep breath. “Derrick stole my dissertation and my backup hard drive and replaced my work with his. He’s intending to plagiarize my entire thesis because his own is no good. I went to confront him about it. Not smart, I know. But I said I was going to call you, Peter, and I realized it was a mistake to say it, so I dialed 911 instead and tried to leave his office, but he must have hit me with something because I blacked out long enough for him to drag me into the ice core lab. He was trying to make it look like a careless accident.”

  “There’s a contusion on the back of your head,” Sean said. “The police thought it was from when you fell. Derrick denied ever having seen you, but he was there when the police arrived after getting your 911 call.”

  Peter was aghast. “I can’t believe Derrick would go to such extremes. Did he really think he’d get away with it?”

  “He was desperate,” Annabelle said. “He put his own dissertation on my system, trying to complete the picture. I read parts of it. It’s incomplete, and his thesis fell apart when it came time to back it up with data. I’m sure he considered falsifying the data itself, but because I had such a similar question, he couldn’t.”

  “He has been cagey about the status of his research,” Peter said. “Unwilling to let me see anything other than small pieces. Sometimes students get paranoid like that toward the end of their research, but I never imagined it was as bad as this.”

  “But . . . attempted murder?” Linda said.

  “He expected Annabelle to confront him, and to try and tell you guys what happened, but he didn’t expect her to call the police,” Sean said grimly. “He panicked.” There was a thin, tight quality to Sean’s voice that made Annabelle think he was considering murder himself, of Derrick. “Annabelle, are you well enough to talk to the police? I think the sooner they bring Derrick in, the better.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Thanks to you, I’m going to be just fine.”

  33

  Sean stayed while two police officers arrived to take Annabelle’s statement. He could barely contain his anger as Annabelle informed them about Derrick’s recent behavior. Susan Keith’s reaction wasn’t anger, but rather relief at the positive outcome.

  Starting at the beginning, Annabelle said she’d been getting strange notifications about simultaneous logins to her university account, something Sean hadn’t known. She told how Derrick had entered her apartment without her permission while she was away and stayed the entire night, having access to her computer and hard drive, how she’d changed the door locks afterward, and how she suspected Derrick had slipped something into her drink at The Salmon Eye to finagle his way into her apartment again, knowing she’d never willingly let him in, as well as to buy himself time while she slept off the effects.

  That son of a bitch, Sean thought. He’d been on medical calls where the victim had been plied date-rape drugs, and the only upside to Annabelle’s situation was that Derrick’s goal hadn’t been rape. If it had been, I’d kill him.

  The officers had a nurse draw blood for a test, although they thought the alleged drug may have already left her system. In either case, they’d question Derrick about it and seek a search warrant of his apartment if the facts led to probable cause.

  After Annabelle finished with the last thing she remembered—being knocked out in the hallway—the police then questioned Sean.

  He’d given statements to police officers before and even testified in court in cases of stabbings, shootings, and domestic violence calls. He knew to include every detail, as Annabelle had. In this instance, it was easy because every moment of the previous night was seared into his memory, not just because he’d already written his own incident report for the fire department, but because his emotions were so raw.

  “Thank you both,” the lead detective said. “Ms. Keith, we hope you have a quick recovery. Rest assured we’ll be going to the prosecutor’s office this afternoon and we hope to have a warrant in hand within a few hours.”

  After they left, Annabelle reached out her hand to Sean. “I guess being with me’s not so easy.”

  He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Being with you is a piece of cake.”

  “Ooh, cake!” she said, and as Sean watched her eyes light up, he knew he’d be picking up a cake for her in the very near future. “I’m kind of tired, and you look exhausted. Do you mind if I sleep for a bit?”

  “Of course not.” Sean looked at Susan, who had just returned to the room. “You’ll be here? I think someone should be with her until Derrick’s in custody.”

  “I’ll be here,” Susan said. “And may I walk you out?”

  “Sure.”

  After he kissed Annabelle goodbye, Sean walked down the hospital corridor with Susan. Neither spoke as they walked, Sean because he was beyond tired, and he sensed Susan had some trepidation about what she wanted to say.

  Sure enough, she began with an apology.

  “I feel I’ve been unfair to you concerning my daughter,” she said.

  “Oh?” Sean said and then kept quiet, waiting for her to continue. Annabelle hadn’t mentioned anything, so he was cur
ious to see where this went.

  “Yes, and I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re a fine man. The finest! How much education you have doesn’t matter in the least. It’s just that I’ve wanted Annabelle to live an easier life than I’ve had, you understand? My husband is a commercial fisherman, and his income has always been unsteady. It’s been feast or famine in our family, and I didn’t want Annabelle to have to live that sort of life. And so . . .” she took a deep breath and stopped to glance back at Annabelle’s closed door. “I advised her that she needed someone with a college degree. And that you weren’t her type.”

  Sean realized where many of the cons on Annabelle’s list had come from. A mother worried about her daughter, a lifetime of preconceptions and expectations. “If it’s money that’s a concern, firefighting is a steady career with a good pension. It’s not going to make me rich, but I’m financially stable. And your daughter is an exceptional woman. I would never try to hold her back in her career if you’re worried about that.”

  “I’m not worried at all anymore,” Susan said. “She was so crazy about you back in high school, and you, of course, ran in very different circles. I was worried that if you and Annabelle dated and broke up, it would crush her. I reminded her of that, too. But now that I’ve seen you with her—my gosh, you’re as smitten with her as she is with you.”

  Sean smiled. “It’s true.”

  Smitten is an understatement, he thought. I’m going to make her my wife if she’ll have me.

  But that would be between him and Annabelle in the future. He was just glad to gain some understanding of what had prompted some of her doubts. That pros and cons list was partially responsible for all the bad things that followed because if Derrick hadn’t sent Sean the list, they wouldn’t have broken up, and if they hadn’t broken up, Annabelle wouldn’t have been at trivia night. She would have been with Sean every night, and Derrick couldn’t have finagled his way into her apartment and stolen her research and attacked her when confronted about it.

  And yes, all of that was Derrick’s fault, but Annabelle had written the list in the first place, and she clearly had some concerns he needed to address.

  Might as well start with her mom.

  “I think you should trust that Annabelle isn’t the same girl she was back in high school, and I’m not the same guy,” he said. “I may have been your typical self-absorbed teenage hockey jock back then, but I’m thirty years old now. I’m a responsible member of the community, and I’ll never let anything bad happen to Annabelle. If she’ll have me, my entire goal in life will be striving to be the man she wants and needs.”

  Tears sprang to Susan’s eyes, and she put her hand on Sean’s arm. “This makes me so happy to hear, Sean. It truly does.”

  “I have just one question for you,” Sean said, ready to lighten the mood. “What’s her favorite kind of cake?”

  Susan’s smile broadened. “That would be triple chocolate.”

  “Triple chocolate it is.”

  It was late afternoon by the time Sean got home, and even though he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in several days, he had a hard time falling asleep because he couldn’t stop remembering the image of Annabelle laying near death on the frozen concrete floor, her skin so pale and her body nearly lifeless. He’d come close to losing her forever, and it made him more determined than ever to not waste one more minute being without her.

  No other woman would ever intrigue him, delight him, entrance him quite like Annabelle Keith.

  Finally, his exhaustion pushed him into a deep slumber—that and the rhythmic purring of Samwise, who slept next to Sean’s head.

  It was late evening when he woke to the sound of his phone ringing. He saw it was Annabelle and scrambled to catch the call.

  “Hey!” he said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better every minute,” she said. “I only took a short nap after you left because the gang from the lab stopped in to visit me, so I’m going to sleep soon. But I wanted to let you know Derrick was arrested a little while ago. An officer stopped by to tell me. They’re charging him with theft, fraud, assault, and attempted murder. They found my hard drive and some kind of roofie-type drug in his apartment—I forget the name—but of course, Derrick denied everything. In any case, he’s been arrested. No bail was set because they found him packing a suitcase, so he’s a flight risk.”

  He will not do well in jail, Sean thought with satisfaction. But he’s safer there than on the streets where I can find him and make him pay for what he did to Annabelle.

  “I’m so glad this ended well,” Sean said.

  “I’m so glad you found me, Sean.” Annabelle’s voice was soft. “I’m so glad you didn’t just forget about me after we broke up.”

  “Forget you?” he said incredulously. “Annabelle, I can’t get you out of my mind! And the only reason I broke up with you is because someone—Derrick, I presume—texted me a picture of a list you made that was pretty short on the pros and pretty long on the cons.”

  “I had a feeling that might have been what happened,” Annabelle said. “I’m so sorry about that. It was idiotic of me. But Sean, that list didn’t tell the whole story.”

  “Damn straight it didn’t,” he said. “I’ve got more going for me than just having a cat and being gainfully employed. I did like the part about the sex being amazing, but—”

  Annabelle giggled, and Sean thought his heart might burst. To think he might not have heard that laugh again!

  “The sex is amazing,” Annabelle said, again to Sean’s pleasure. “But there was a back side to the list that I’m fairly sure Derrick never texted you. Do you want to know what it said?”

  Sean’s heartbeat stuttered. “Of course.”

  “It said—” she paused, started again. “It said there’s no other man for me—only you, Sean. Only you.”

  “Well, I wish I’d seen that part,” he said with some measure of chagrin.

  “And I wish you’d explained what was going on instead of just breaking up with me like that.”

  “I wish I had, too—and I’d tell you that next time, I would do it differently, but there’s not going to be a next time. You’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.”

  34

  Early the next morning, Annabelle’s doctor came in and looked over her chart and EKG readings.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “On top of the world,” she said.

  “Top of the world, really?” the doctor said. “Does your throat still hurt?”

  “A little bit, yep.”

  “Your ribs still ache?”

  “A little.”

  “And how about your breathing?” he asked. “Are you able to take deep breaths? Any wheezing?”

  Annabelle drew the deepest breath she could.

  “Still a little shortness of breath,” the doctor said, looking at her curiously. “So . . . top of the world?”

  Annabelle laughed. “I’m alive.”

  Alive and in love, she thought. And love makes everything else okay.

  “Can I go home today?” she asked. “Like, right now?”

  The doctor smiled. “What’s the rush?”

  Oh, I’m hoping Sean will cuddle with me, that’s all.

  They’d had a long, deep, at-times-X-rated conversation by phone the previous night, and from the conversation she knew that cuddling wasn’t all Sean had planned for her. More amazing sex was on the agenda as soon as she was well enough.

  “Your numbers look pretty good,” the doctor said. “Another eight hours of normal, and I’ll clear you to go home. How does that sound?”

  “It sounds like eight hours too long.”

  “Better to be safe than sorry,” the doctor said, a sentiment with which Annabelle could not disagree. “Your body suffered quite a trauma. Thankfully you didn’t go into full cardiac arrest, and the freezing temperature actually slowed down your metabolism enough that you shouldn’t suffer any long-term effects of oxygen
deprivation. Still, a little more observation and rest can only be good.”

  “Fair enough,” Annabelle said.

  The doctor left, breakfast arrived, and then Annabelle’s phone buzzed.

  It was Sean with a text message. Good morning! How are you feeling?

  She texted back: Good morning yourself. I’m feeling better . . . doc says I might be able to leave later today.

  There was no immediate response, and Annabelle kept glancing at her phone, triple-checking that the sound was on. It was half an hour before Sean texted back. I have a few things to take care of today, but I can come by this afternoon. Keep me posted on when they’ll discharge you.

  Annabelle was disappointed that he wouldn’t be visiting her that morning, but her mom came by and they spent a couple of hours playing card games. Mid-morning, the David Attenborough’s Pants trivia team stopped by again, with the obvious exception of Derrick. Lottie reported that rumors were spreading like wildfire across the university about the attempted murder in the glaciology department.

  “Great,” Annabelle muttered. “I suppose I’ll be getting a visit from Cassie Holt from Channel Eight soon.”

  She liked Cassie but very much did not want to be on the news. Still, it wasn’t every day that a resident of Golden Falls got charged with attempted murder, and Annabelle expected that even reporters from Anchorage would show up at Derrick’s arraignment.

  After their visit, Annabelle found herself bored and stir crazy. She stared at her EKG monitor, not knowing what was normal. It was steady and unchanging, which she took as a good sign. The nurses checked on her, her mom hung out, lunch came and went, and still no word from Sean.

  At around four, there was a knock on the door. Annabelle glanced up, hoping it was him, but it was just the doctor from that morning, a smile on his face. “Ms. Keith, I’m happy to tell you that I’m discharging you,” he said. “Just sign here to acknowledge, and the nurse will be in shortly to get you all squared away. There are a few prescriptions you’ll want to fill at the hospital pharmacy, but nothing you’ll need for more than a couple weeks. Make a follow-up appointment with me for a week from today. I want to do a few tests to make sure your heart is in good shape.”