by A. M. Mahler
“Of course I’ll go with you. I came to New York to find you. If you’re going to be in New Hampshire, then I guess that’s where I’m going. How can I get to know you again? How can I make up for the lost time if you’re in New Hampshire and I’m in New York?”
“You don’t think I’m being crazy, or clingy?” Jackie asked with a big sigh of relief.
“I used to dream of you being clingy,” Danny smirked. “Anything to get your hands on me.”
“I was afraid you’d say no, and then you’d know how pathetic I am.”
“I’d love to pretend some machine didn’t just give away my anxiety about you leaving, but unfortunately, I can’t,” Danny said. “Not surprisingly, we’re still on the same page.”
“You’ll be real comfortable, I promise. There’s a bedroom on the first floor of the house that you can start out in. It’ll be a while before you can manage the stairs. I’ll oversee your recovery myself. I might not be that great of a nurse, but I’m a good doctor.”
He smiled lightly. Her presence was all he needed.
“Jacks, you saved my life, in more ways than one. I trust you with it.”
She took his hand in both of hers and held it to her chest, then leaned forward again to rest on his good shoulder. Why had she ever doubted that he’d say yes? This was her Danny. While he came in a larger body now, and admittedly held secrets he had yet to reveal—he still had the same heart, and she was still hopelessly in love with him.
Eleven
“WELL, McKENZIE, YOU’RE the last person I ever thought would become an officer of the law.”
Danny looked up and arched an interested brow at his most recent visitor—and his old rival. “And you, Willis, are the last person on earth I thought would ever come visit me in the hospital. I must have been extremely close to death.”
“You were. Jackie came bursting into my place crying her face off. I haven’t seen her cry like that since she was left high and dry by you on prom night.”
“Well, that’s one of the things I always hoped to be able to explain to her. I figure the Hippocratic Oath is the only thing that’s preventing her from punching me in the face right now.”
“I never took the Hippocratic Oath,” Ryan said with a smirk.
“You punching me in the face would be construed as a violent act risking significant bodily injury to a police officer, Willis. It’s also a little thing we like to call a felony,” Danny smirked back. “I’d tolerate it coming from her. You, not so much.”
Ryan snorted and began to wander around the room. He found hospitals so depressing. The ugly salmon color they all seemed to be painted did nothing to cheer anything up. “She knows why you didn’t show up that night.”
Danny perked up. “She what?”
“I went to your room that night with Cooper, intent on beating the shit out of you. The resident advisor told us what had happened. Jackie knows you never meant to stand her up.”
Danny dropped his head back and blew out a slow breath. “That’s good.”
Ryan wasn’t sure if Danny had intended him to hear that or not, but he chose not to respond anyway. He stopped his wandering and turned to face his nemesis head-on, arms crossed over his chest.
“Somehow, I was able to translate from all the sobbing and blathering that you agreed to convalescence in New Hampshire with her. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“If you’re having any second thoughts, now would be the time to voice them.”
Danny glared at him in response. “You know what? Fuck you, Ry. I may be too weak to pound you into the floor, but my trigger finger works just fine, and I have no compunction about popping a fucking slug in your sorry ass.”
“Hold on a second,” Ryan said, holding his hands out in a sign of peace.
“No, you hold on for a fucking second,” Danny snapped back. “I got news for you. I was taking your sister to the prom back then because I liked her. You get that? Everyone at that school thought she was weird, but I understood her, and she understood me. She’s the only one that ever did.
“And it may blow that stuck-up, pea-sized brain of yours, but I respected her, too, which was huge for me because I didn’t respect anyone at that time. It took me a while to figure out what that even meant. So, take your better-than-everyone attitude and shove it up your ass.”
Ryan simply raised his eyebrows at the tirade. For a guy who’d just had surgery, Danny was still quite a formidable force. “Okay, I may have had that coming for past transgressions, but you jumped the gun here. I came here to talk to you specifically when Jackie wasn’t around.”
“Why?”
“You might get more than you bargained for going to New Hampshire.”
“I seriously doubt it, but explain.”
Ryan let the first part of that retort go by and addressed the second. “Do you remember what we once talked about in your dorm room?”
“About her dad’s death being suspicious?”
“Yes.” Ryan sat down in the chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “The thing is, something weird was going on back then.”
“Yeah, I remember you saying that that night.”
“Things were strange that summer on the circuit. I didn’t really think anything of it before the accident, though. Then everything just became a blur. One minute I was chasing hot chicks, the next I was saddled with a sister. And, make no mistake, it was me that was saddled with her.
“Jimmy all but left her to me in his will. He wanted her to go to Trent with me and live with my dad when school was out. My dad was appointed her guardian only because I was too young. Once I hit eighteen, I was supposed to take over managing everything that was left to her. It blew my fucking mind, man. I never knew I had a sister, and suddenly I’m in charge of her life? Of course, financially speaking, I had no clue what I was doing. I had to sit down with my dad and his financial advisors. We set up a trust fund and invested everything else.”
“If you’re telling me that she’s rich, sorry, but that’s not breaking news. So am I. I don’t want or need her money.”
“No, that’s not the point,” Ryan replied. “Like I said, because I suddenly had a sister, I paid most of my attention to her to that summer, and probably a few years after that. I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t really able to do much about them at the time. Jackie was so messed up from the aftermath of the accident. She was painfully shy to begin with, and it was all I could do to just to keep the press off her back. I was so focused on her that I didn’t really notice what was going on around her—or me—for that matter. The day we arrived at Trent, she mentioned something that really stuck with me. She told me her governess carried a gun.”
“Yeah, I remember you saying that. Why would a governess need a gun?”
“Well, Jackie thought her dad was paranoid about her safety. He didn’t send her away like my dad did. He kept her with him all the time. She had a nanny, and then a governess. What I’m saying is that I don’t think this governess’s only job was to chaperone my sister.”
“And Jackie just thought the extra precautions were because her father was paranoid? Did she know what he was so scared of?”
“I’m not totally sure, but I’m inclined to think it was our mother,” Ryan said bluntly.
“Jackie’s never talked about her mother.”
“Well, there’s nothing to talk about, really. Neither one of us knows her or have ever met her. I don’t even really know what she looks like, except that it’s something similar to me and Jackie. Recently, I’ve been trying to research and find some old pictures. She dated two of the circuit’s hottest drivers at one time, so there’s got to be some evidence of that. I’ve even hired a private investigator.”
“What would the mother have wanted with Jackie, though?”
“Money is my guess.” Ryan shrugged. “She inherited all her father’s money, which is quite a nest egg, let me tell you. My dad’s still around, so even though I have a trust fund, I
haven’t inherited anything yet. I’m still trustee of Jimmy Reilly’s estate, too, and I’ve authorized an investigation into his death. Jackie doesn’t know about it yet.”
“Something like that is going to get around,” Danny warned him. “The guy was a legend.”
“Yeah, I’ll tell her when I have to, but Jackie lives in her own world. I don’t like to sully it up.” Ryan gave Danny a hard look and was satisfied that Danny fully caught his meaning. “For someone who’s lived through what she has, she somehow still maintains a sweet innocence about her. I’d like to keep it that way. She deserves that.
“She’s never come out and told me, but I know the only time she was ever really happy was when she was at Trent before you left. She hasn’t been truly content since. Now that you’re back on the scene, she’s happy again. You and I may not see eye to eye, but I know that you going to New Hampshire with her—even if it’s only for a little while—will make her incredibly happy. I’m actually moving up there myself, but not for another few months yet. I’ll keep you updated on the investigation if you want, but I’d also like you to let me know if you notice anything strange.”
“No problem,” Danny answered. “And you should know I plan to do a little checking around myself.”
“What’s a cop on medical leave going to find?”
“I’ve got plenty of connections, Ryan. I worked in Army counterintelligence before I became a cop, you know. So, if you want your mother found, I’ll find her.”
“Okay,” Ryan nodded. “Looks like you and I will be doing some talking in the future.”
“When you asked me if I wanted to back out, did you think I’d see this as a hassle?” Ryan just shrugged in response.
“The first time I saw your sister, she almost knocked herself unconscious with a fifteen-hundred-dollar suitcase. And I felt like I got clubbed over the head with that thing. I’ve spent the better part of thirteen years trying to track her down and work my way back to her again. A guy doesn’t do that if he doesn’t want to be bothered, you get me?”
A slight smile spread across Ryan’s lips. “Did you resign from the force?”
“Yes.”
“I see.” He stood up and offered his hand to Danny, who hesitated before taking it. “Have fun in New Hampshire.”
“I fucking hate New Hampshire.”
“Well,” Ryan said with a laugh as he strolled toward the door, “good luck with that then.”
WHEN DANNY WOKE next, Jackie was back at his side.
“A guy could get used to waking up next to you,” he said, running his index finger up and down her forearm.
She smiled, closing his medical file and setting it down on the table. She was going to take a copy of it with her to New Hampshire since he was her first official patient.
“I hear Ryan came to see you.”
“Oh, well, you know, we’re besties now,” he grinned.
She just rolled her eyes. “He worries about me too much. He always has. I’m sorry if he gave you a hard time.”
“You don’t think I can give as good as I get?”
“Well, recent events have made me question your ability to take care of yourself lately,” she said, looking at him intently.
“Is that your doctor look? Because if it is, you’ve got it down. It’s pretty intimidating. I suddenly feel the need to confess all the ways I haven’t taken care of myself properly, as well as all the naughty things I’ve done to my body.”
“Well, rather than listening to your gushing confession—which I’m sure would be very enlightening—why don’t I lead the conversation?” she asked, assuming her best doctor’s interrogation voice. “You have a scar that looks like it was from a gunshot wound. When did that happen?”
“When I was in Afghanistan.”
Her severe pretense drained right out of her with those words.
“You were in Afghanistan?”
“Yes.”
“But…why?”
“After I left Trent, I finished high school in a military academy down in Norfolk where my dad was stationed. Once I turned eighteen, I inherited all my mother’s money, plus some from my grandparents. I had thought about going to college, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to study. I just wasn’t interested in anything. I had contacted Trent to try and get in touch with you, but no one would put me through. I was so pissed off when I got ripped away from you. I was pissed off at my dad and the people at Trent who were blocking my way. I even wrote you letters, but they were never answered.”
“I never got any letters,” she said quietly.
Had somebody been intercepting her mail? It couldn’t have been Ryan, could it? Would he have been capable of that sort of treachery?
“Well, eventually, that’s what I figured, but at the time, I thought you didn’t want to see me or talk to me because of prom night, and that just made me even angrier. It was all my old man’s fault. He pulled me out just when he knew I wanted to stay. You know, my parents didn’t have a good marriage, and I know my dad wondered if I was really his kid. Back then, I just wanted to lash out, so I did the one thing I knew would drive him absolutely crazy: I joined the Army. Since I fit a certain profile, I was assigned to Special Forces. I was a medic at first, and it felt good, helping people who really needed it.”
“Yeah,” she smiled softly. “It does.”
“After a few years, I moved into counterintelligence. I got shot six years in, left the Army, and became a cop.”
“Why did you leave intelligence?”
“Guys in that job, they have nothing to lose,” he explained. “They’re picked because they have no wives, no kids, no family. Nobody’s waiting for them to come home, so they’re expendable. After a few years of that, I realized that I wanted to have something to lose. Basically, I wanted you, so I started to actively look for you again. I didn’t want to be the guy that had nobody to notify when he died. It ended up not being all that hard. Imagine my surprise when I ran into Sophie and she told me you were in New York.”
“Sophie owns the general store in Grayson Falls, where I’m moving. She told me about the opening at the hospital there, too,” Jackie explained. “Did she tell you about that?”
“No, she just told me that you were in New York working in an emergency room. She didn’t even tell me which one. That I had to track down on my own. It was really easy, which pissed me off, too.”
“Why would that make you mad?” she asked, surprised.
“I just didn’t like that you were so easy to find.”
He was uncomfortable about it because of what Ryan had revealed to him earlier, but he wasn’t going to mention that now. This small town in New Hampshire was becoming more appealing by the minute.
“But you were trying to find me,” she persisted.
“Yeah, and other people might be looking for you, too,” he countered.
Jackie just shook her head. “Nobody cares about me anymore. I’m not a story or a freak show to follow around. Nobody has even tried to interview me in years.”
“Yeah, well, it still gives me a reason to stick around and make sure no one gives you a hard time.”
She looked down at her hands, then back up at him from beneath her lashes.
And there, he thought, was the shy, insecure girl he once knew.
He could see the girl he had fallen in love with in the woman before him.
“Do you need a reason to stick around?”
He reached out, hooked his finger under her chin, and raised it up, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I’ve already got the only reason that matters to me.”
Jackie blushed and pulled back, deliriously happy with his answer.
When she turned toward the door, a man she didn’t recognize was leaning against the frame.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m here to see the inmate,” the man replied, gesturing to the bed.
Jackie looked back at Danny. “Do you know him?”
Danny nodded.
“Okay, but not too long. He needs his rest. I’m going to talk to the nurses about your discharge orders.”
She swept by the newcomer on her way out and the man raised his eyebrows at Danny.
“That’s your doctor?”
“Not officially,” Danny sighed.
“She’s a looker.”
“She thinks she’s plain.”
Detective Eric Davis, his partner and longtime friend, sauntered in, sticking his hands in his pockets. “How’d you find that out so fast? You’ve only been here a week, and most of those days you were unconscious.”
“That’s Jackie,” Danny said simply, gesturing toward the empty door. “That’s her.”
“Your dream girl?” His partner asked, amazed, trying to catch a glimpse of her in the hallway.
“Well, she’s a woman now, but yes.”
“Shit, I thought she only existed in your head.”
“You thought I made her up?” Danny growled.
“Not really,” Eric shrugged. “But I didn’t think you actually knew her.”
“I told you I went to school with her!”
Eric sat down in the visitor’s chair and propped his feet up on the bed. “That doesn’t mean shit. I went school with hundreds of girls I didn’t actually know.”
Danny scowled at him, but it didn’t make any difference.
His partner linked his hands behind his head. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. With his dark hair, blue eyes, tattoos, and long, lean body, Eric looked exactly like a guy you’d find running down dark alleys after the dregs of the earth.
Danny and Eric had served together in the Army, and Eric was the one who had gotten Danny a job with NYPD when there were no openings. He was one of the few people Danny could actually depend on.
“Believe me when I say I know her,” Danny grumbled, readjusting his position. “Now, tell me about the guy who shot me. Do you have him in custody?”
“No.”
“It wasn’t the guy we were chasing,” Danny said. “I didn’t get a good look, but it wasn’t DiCarlo.”
