Out of nowhere, Anya rounded the corner and grabbed her by the shoulders, trapping her in place.
“Why are you avoiding us?” Katia asked once they were side by side.
“I know why,” Anya chimed. “A little birdie told me that you got a new house guest. Mr. James, the one who lives on your street, says he saw a gentleman walking into your place with an overnight bag. Lunelle downstairs said a man dropped you off this morning. In your car.”
“You’re going to believe Lunelle?” Tayler asked, hoping that a discussion about the first floor receptionist’s habitual lying pulled her friends off-course.
“She’s trying to change the subject,” Katia pointed out. “Why wouldn’t you want to tell us if you’re seeing somebody? Is he ugly? Are you embarrassed?”
Tayler sighed and wished that she could at least see over Anya’s shoulder to call out to someone passing by in the hallway. “It’s not what you guys think,” she replied.
They spoke in unison. “Enlighten us, then.”
She could put up a fight as much as she wanted to, but they weren’t going to let her leave without getting the full story. The heavens, set to go against her wishes, had also granted them some downtime in the usually bustling medical wing.
“Fine. Come to my office.”
They trailed behind her, and she could feel the weight of their smiles pressing against her back. In her office, they slithered into the leather guest chairs. If old wives’ tales were true, Gage’s ears were about to burn right off his head.
“All of that…the man with the duffel bag and a man dropping me off, it’s true,” she explained.
Anya would have squealed had they been anywhere else, and her face turned crimson as she suppressed her excitement.
“But it’s not a romantic thing. It’s the guy from that night. The one we found.”
“The alcoholic?” Anya’s voice was sharp. “Tayler, no. No, no, no. That man could kill you in your sleep. You don’t know anything about him. He could have ulterior motives. He’s a drinker…a drifter…a vagrant. Have all these years of celibacy gone to your brain?”
“We’ve already had this discussion, Anya,” she replied, but it was the first time she realized that she hadn’t considered something very important. What made her completely sure that Gage wasn’t the threat? No one really knew when he’d shown up in Yearwood. He could have arrived just as the notes began appearing and was using his protective detail as a ruse to get closer to her.
“I agree,” Katia said. “You’re sometimes too nice for your own good, but maybe everyone’s not worth saving.”
“Bullshit,” Tayler spat. “So I don’t know anything about him. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t deserve to live.”
Unless he’s secretly a serial killer…
“That’s not what I meant,” Katia corrected. “I just meant that this could be dangerous. Think about it. Where did he come from? How did he get here?”
She was thinking about it. That was part of the problem. Yet his vulnerability had been real. There was no way he could’ve faked wanting to die that well, could he? Did she mistakenly see her father’s agony in place of who Gage truly was? He had an unnatural and almost killer instinct. His social inadequacies fit the bill. But the scent…it hadn’t belonged to him. Then there was how easily he’d gained Ares’ trust. Playful as he was, Ares scarcely trusted anyone before meeting them several times.
“It’s been okay so far,” she deflected. “He made me breakfast.”
“Probably with rat poison,” Anya jabbed.
“I’m not bleeding from every opening on my body, so it’s safe to say that there was no rat poison in my eggs.”
She pulled the keyboard tray out from beneath her desk, but by the time her mind registered the long, scaled brown object sitting atop the black letter keys, it darted forward and sank its fangs into her wrist.
*****
Gage had only been able to survive one hour of delegating the construction crew before he’d picked up a nail gun and began putting up drywall, then laying tile in the upstairs master bathroom. Luckily for Tayler, the place hadn’t been as much of a gut job as he’d originally thought. It appeared that the old man had tried to have the place fixed up at some point, but construction had stopped midway through. The original timeline had been five weeks, but with the addition of his help, he could probably cut that down to four.
He’d had a few guys from the crew work specifically on the upstairs master suite and had a plumber and electrician come out so that, if need be, he could get Tayler moved in even before all the work was complete. The cottage was too small and tucked away. Nearly everyone had a view of this place on the hill. It also sloped down into the lake which stretched for miles on each end. Once the summer months came, it would be busy, so even though the house was private, there would still be enough people around where she wouldn’t have to be completely alone. Especially since he had no plans to be there.
Something inside of him didn’t like that train of thought, but he gave it no attention. He had to leave. There was nothing for him here. Just because she’d given him a little bit of meaning for a few weeks didn’t mean that he all of a sudden believed that his life was worth salvaging.
“Gage?” He turned around and the foreman was standing in front of him, his eyes glued to his cell phone. “Since this is her house and all, I figured that you’d want to hear about this.”
Gage’s muscles compressed. It was about Tayler, and it wasn’t good news. He could sense it.
“My wife works at the hospital and they said that Tayler got bit by some kind of venomous—”
Gage was already out the door.
He hopped behind the wheel of the car and sped down to the hospital, making it there in under ten minutes. Leaving the car in the loading area in front of the emergency room, he stalked through the automatic doors. Everyone inside was in a frenzy, and their chatter, to his ears, came across like a low, irritating buzz.
“Where’s Tayler?”
The timbre of his voice cut through the chatter. The room fell silent and all eyes turned to him. There was no need for decorum. He didn’t care who he offended. He just needed to find her, see her, and make sure that she was okay. She’d been hurt on his watch, and a snake biting her in the middle of a medical facility was so left field, that if the sheriff didn’t think it had to do with the person who’d written the notes, he’d slice the extra fat off of the man’s stomach.
“You,” he pointed to a man wearing brown scrubs with a look of terror on his face. “Bloke with the hearing problem. Come here.”
The man moved forward with trepidation. “Yes sir?”
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“Yes sir.”
“Do you need your hands, or could you get on just fine if I broke them both in three places?”
“I kinda need—”
“I don’t give two shits about your hands, mate, but I will fucking break them if you don’t tell me where Tayler is.”
The man’s eyes darted over to the reception area, and the woman behind the desk motioned out a room number with her fingers.
“R-right this way.”
When they got to the room, Gage pushed his way in despite the man rattling off some policy about visitors. Tayler was lying on her side a bit too still for his liking. Her hand was in a splint and there was an oxygen mask covering her face. The monitor next to her showed a slightly decreased pulse and blood pressure reading. Anti-venom was being administered through an IV.
It made no sense that she’d been bitten at the hospital. If this person had intended to kill her, why not release the snake in or around the cottage? At the hospital, especially with the variety of snakes known to North Carolina, she would have been able to get rapid care. What would be the point of hurting her if they knew that she could get immediate help?
“How do you do that?” she asked, pulling the mask off her face. “You’re like a jungle cat. I didn’t eve
n hear you come in.”
He looked around for a chair, but she scooted over on the bed, giving him a space to sit. He eased onto the thin mattress near her thighs and lifted her hand. “Does it hurt?”
“No.”
“How did it happen?”
“It was in my keyboard tray. A freakin’ cottonmouth was in my keyboard tray.”
He continued to examine her hand, thankful for the splint covering the wound which he knew had turned color by now. Seeing the discolored flesh would have turned a few unfortunate people at the hospital into target practice.
“Where’s the snake now?” he asked.
She flicked the wrist on her other hand. “They took it away. In the past three years, this has been the second identified cottonmouth in the area and both instances have been tied to me. I think I secrete snake pheromones.”
She tittered at her own little joke, and he wondered how she could laugh. If she’d died, a lot of people would have died with her until he found out who was responsible. She was too good of a person to deserve to have her life ended prematurely at the hands of some bastard.
Her eyelids drooped. “Gage, if I fall asleep, will you stay?”
“Is that what you want?”
“Yes.”
She laced her fingers through his and he let her. As she drifted to sleep, he pulled the covers further up around her shoulders. He watched her, but kept an eye on her chest and the monitor to make sure that she didn’t get too peaceful. Even if she hadn’t asked, he would have stayed, but there was now the added problem of her not being safe at work. He couldn’t tail her at work, as much as he would love to, so she’d simply have to take some time off.
The door pushed open and two women walked in. One was tall enough to rival his height in the right pair of heels, and the other had elegant, oval-shaped eyes which were currently peppered with worry.
“Oh, we didn’t know she had company,” the tall one said. Then they stood around as though they’d expected him to excuse himself and make his way out. They’d be standing around all day.
“Oh wait.” Elegant eyes brightened. “You’re the guy. Anya, he’s the guy.”
“What guy?” She examined his face, then his clothes. “Not the alcoholic.”
He briefly imagined snapping her long neck.
“Don’t call him that,” Elegant eyes said, nudging the woman named Anya.
“If you’re Anya,” Gage spoke up, “what’s your name?”
“Katia.”
“You’re friends of Tayler’s?”
“Yeah. We were with her when everything happened. Everyone’s calling it a freak accident.”
Gage frowned. “That’s the most ridiculous shit I’ve ever heard.”
“Why are you here again?” Anya asked, folding her arms across her chest. “We came to check on our friend, not you.”
He eyed her and she looked away, as expected. Her words were much bigger than her actual grit. She’d likely had her height her entire life and had used it to intimidate, giving her a false sense of confidence. If they’d met at some point in her earlier life, he would’ve cut that out of her immediately.
“Forgive her rudeness,” Katia said, stepping forward. “It’s nice to meet you. We never really got your name.”
“Gage.”
“Nice name. Tay hasn’t had the chance to tell us that much about you, but we’re glad you’re here.”
“Yes, but when are you leaving?” The Amazon was still stuck on her tirade.
He wanted to be nice. He’d even resigned to try to be nice as they were Tayler’s friends, but she’d run out of rope.
“Do I seem like the type of man who gets intimidated by words?” he asked her. “Now, I’m being nice for Tayler’s sake, but I’m warning you, I’m not leaving her side until she’s discharged. You have a problem with that, I would love to hear what solution you think will get me to leave this room.”
“I’ll call security,” she threatened.
“Good, tell them I’m looking for them. Personally, I would like for them to explain to my face how they allowed someone to slip in here with a snake unnoticed.”
“They said it was a freak accident,” she argued.
“I’m done talking to you.”
Anya and Tayler’s personalities were so discordant that he wondered how the two had developed a friendship in the first place.
“Guys, please.” It looked as though it took a mighty force of strength, but Tayler’s eyes opened. “Take that somewhere else. I’m exhausted.”
“You want us to leave?” Anya asked.
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
“No.” She tightened the clasp she still had on his hand. “Gage stays. Gage goes nowhere.”
He looked down at her. She was finally beginning to understand. He’d declared her as his mission and he never deviated from a mission, always seeing it through to completion.
“Are you serious right now, Tayler?” Anya asked. “You’ve known him for what, two seconds?”
Tayler fell silent, but he knew that she was still awake. She’d already picked up a tactic from him; once an order was made, there was no need for more discussion.
“Anya, let’s just come back later,” Katia said, tugging on her friend’s arm. “Does he look more like he’ll hurt her or us?”
Elegant eyes, he found more likeable than the other friend.
Anya tossed up her hands and pushed through the door. Once they were gone, Tayler’s lids flipped up. “Sometimes, I think my friendship with her was conceived through a sponsorship program,” she said. “Like a ‘With just ten cents a day, you can help Anya Schultz find a new attitude’ program. Or like the old school ‘save the wetlands’ programs.”
“Save the bitch.”
Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth to suppress a laugh. This one might have been his favorite of them all. The expression roamed the full length of her face and somehow made her smoky eyes appear lucid. It was a full laugh despite the fact that she was trying to hide it behind her palm.
“That’s bad. I shouldn’t have laughed,” she added. “Still, she was mean to you and you were being pleasant. At least, your version of pleasant. But you can be funny when you want to be. It’s even funnier because you’re so serious when you say things. I’ll make you smile one day, though.”
Many times, she’d come close.
“Still tired?” he asked.
“A bit. You’re going to tell me to go back to sleep, aren’t you?”
“If you’re tired.”
She restructured their grasp so that her hand nestled into his. He closed his fist and she used her thumb to stroke the bend of his forefinger.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“I’ll worry about that.”
“I should just sleep?”
“Yes.”
“You’re making life so easy.” She yawned. “I could get used to this.”
As she drifted off a second time, her finger stopped stroking, so he allowed his to trail from her wrist to her knuckles. It turned out that touching her felt as good as having her touch him. Maybe even a bit better.
He’d call the contractor about bringing on a few extra hands from their division in Charlotte to install the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen, and funnel their efforts into completing the master suite as soon as possible. The additional help had to come from outside. He didn’t trust anyone currently in town.
Then he’d call Mo and have her get a more in-depth workup on the workers’ backgrounds. The company had guaranteed clean slates for their men, but that offered him no assurance.
He’d then try to keep Tayler as close as possible. It seemed as though this person was trying to engage her in a game of cat and mouse, but even a cat eventually got tired of toying with its prey.
The door pushed open a second time, and a staff member entered with a covered food tray. “She ordered this earlier,” the woman said. “Could I just l
eave it here so that she’ll have something to eat when she wakes up?”
He nodded, and she left the tray on the bedside table. When she left, he looked over at the tray and felt a tug in his stomach. He lifted the cover and inside, a neon pink square caught his eye. He pulled it off, the steam from the food already slackening it. Then, his blood flashed over
Tayler. You fucked up.
*****
Fayetteville, NC
August 5th 2012
08:07 AM
He hadn’t wanted to kill this one.
She’d been so sweet—an elementary school teacher that, for whatever reason, thought it had been a good idea to live over an hour away from the school where she taught. Unlike the other ones who’d complained the entire time, this one had obeyed for a short while and his daughter had taken to her quite quickly. The woman had even taught her a few words in sign language: more, sad, and Daddy, which had been his favorite. But just when they’d started to truly bond, she’d tried to escape. She’d broken the trust he’d taken so much care to instill into their relationship.
Her eyes were now lifeless as he stared down into them. Her skin had been the color of oak, but it now carried a sickly, pale grey tint even though he hadn’t drained her blood like he’d done the first one. That process had been too messy and the risk of his daughter walking in on the gory scene had been too great. The depravity of the act had also tugged the slightest of emotion out of him, leading to his only mistake.
Taking one last look at the latest woman’s beautiful face, he closed the lid on the dumpster and walked back to the car. His daughter played with a toy in her car seat, and her plump hands wiggled as she signed to him the minute he slid into the car.
“We’re going to get something to eat right now,” he promised, pulling off.
They stopped at the eighth restaurant he encountered, a family-friendly looking place across the street from a massive hotel with everything except gold trim and stone turrets. People congregated out front, some of them in white coats and others who simply exuded pretentiousness, which meant that it was the site for some sort of medical convention or conference. Though he didn’t care too much for physicians, he’d always enjoyed medicine. Maybe after their meal, he could even trick one of the pricks into helping him understand what had gone wrong with his dosage for the first subject.
Angels & Assassins: BWWM Romance Page 5
