Four (Count to Ten Book 4)

by Jane Blythe

  “No,” Mick answered quietly. “The day the verdict came back guilty, we wanted to celebrate. We hoped Laura would be able to get some closure, but she said she needed some time to herself. When we got back home, she was gone. She’d left a note, telling us not to worry and that she was okay but that she needed to be alone.”

  The trauma Laura had gone through had rippled out to touch the lives of everyone who loved her. “Was there anyone who came to the court who seemed to take a particular interest in Laura?” Jack asked.

  “No. The court case was so hard on Laura, it was like she had to keep reliving what she’d been through over and over again. Those Garrett brothers got to keep hurting her, it wasn't fair.”

  Mick put an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “All our attention at court went to supporting Laura,” Mick explained.

  “She was so fragile, so vulnerable,” Karen cried quietly. “I just didn’t know what to do for her. She wanted to call you, Jack.”

  “She did?” Jack was surprised, but also pleased—it was further confirmation that Laura still loved him, which meant he still had a shot with her.

  “Yes, she did. She was just scared, she didn’t want you to see her like that.”

  “I'm so sorry I hurt her,” he told her parents imploringly.

  “I know you are, Jack.” Karen gave him a small smile. “I always knew that you were sorry. I told Laura so many times that she should forgive you.”

  “You did?” He hadn’t known that, he’d thought Laura’s parents hated him.

  “I did. But I was Laura’s mother, and if my daughter was angry with you, then I was, too. Laura was just scared to forgive you, in case she got hurt again.”

  “I hated you,” Mick stated a little sullenly.

  Karen waved a hand at her husband to silence him. “Jack, can you give us her address? So, we can go and see her?”

  His heart breaking, he murmured, “I can't do that, I'm sorry.”

  “But if she’s in danger then she shouldn’t be alone, she’d be safer here with us,” Karen protested. “And she needs us.”

  “I know she does, but I don’t think Laura’s ready to come home yet. She certainly wasn't pleased to see me, I don’t want her to be angry with you for turning up when she’s not expecting you.” He attempted a smile to gentle his words.

  “You just want time with her on your own so you can try to wiggle back into her good graces,” Mick growled.

  “Please, Jack.” Karen ignored her husband. “I need to see my baby.”

  “I'm so sorry, but I can't tell you where she is. I can promise you two things, though,” Jack stated seriously. “I can promise you that I’ll talk to her and try to convince her to see you. And I can promise you that I’ll keep her safe. I won't let anyone hurt her again.”

  * * * * *

  6:49 P.M.

  Rose was tired.

  It had been a long day. When they’d finished up with Laura’s parents, they’d spoken with the cops who had worked her case, who they hadn’t had anything to add that wasn't already in the complete case file that they’d picked up on their way back from Laura’s earlier in the morning. The two detectives hadn’t seemed overly surprised when she and Jack had asked them about the possibility of a third person being involved in her abduction, but neither had they given a reason why they hadn’t looked into it back then.

  After that, they had met with Laura’s sister, who had been just as angry with Jack as Laura’s parents had been. Although, as with her parents, when they had told her that they believed Laura was in trouble, she had quickly moved past anger to focus on concern for her little sister. Rose had gotten the feeling that no one in the Opal family was really all that angry with Jack anymore, and that they all really in fact liked him—Laura included.

  Then they had tracked down the remaining two roommates who had shared the house with Laura and Matilda Warren back when they were all in college. Neither of the women, both of whom were now married with toddlers, had spoken with Laura since she disappeared. And both had confirmed what Karen and Mick Opal had told them—if Laura had confided in anyone, it would have been Matilda.

  No one had had anything to add to what they already knew. No one had recognized the man in the sketch. They were no closer to finding out who was after Laura than they’d been at the beginning of the day. Which was not good news for Laura.

  Rose was looking forward to going home, taking a long, hot bubble bath, and then curling up in bed at a nice early hour. She was almost to her car when she saw someone standing a few yards away.

  Her breath caught when she realized who it was.

  It was Paige.

  And she was standing staring precisely at the spot where she had been nearly killed almost six months ago.

  “Paige?” she called as she hurried toward her friend.

  Paige shouldn’t be here, and certainly not on her own. She hadn’t been back here since her attack, and coming here on her own could not be a good idea.

  Her friend didn’t respond. Didn’t indicate in any way that she had heard Rose.

  When she reached Paige, she saw that her friend’s face was blank. Eerily blank. Expressionless. Rose was feeling totally out of her element. She should have waited for Jack to leave, come down to the parking lot with him. He would have known exactly how to handle Paige. Rose didn’t have a clue what she should say to her friend.

  “Paige?” she rested a hand on her shoulder.

  Paige started, letting out a strangled scream, and turned huge unfocused eyes in her direction.

  “It’s okay, Paige. It’s me. It’s Rose,” she soothed.

  Reverting her gaze back to the spot where she’d been attacked, Paige was breathing way too fast and visibly trembling.

  “Honey, what are you doing here?” Rose asked, wanting desperately to snap Paige out of her trance.

  “I needed to see,” Paige murmured so quietly Rose barely heard her.

  “See what?”

  “If I could come back here.” Paige swayed and sunk to her knees.

  Alarmed, Rose knelt beside her, taking hold of her friend’s wrist to check her pulse. “Paige, honey, let me take you home. Is Elias there?” Paige shook her head. “Okay, then you're coming home with me.” No way was she leaving Paige alone right now.

  Instead of responding, Paige suddenly burst into a fit of hysterical sobbing.

  Rose wrapped her arms around her friend. “Shh,” she soothed. “It’s okay, Paige.”

  Paige buried her face in Rose’s shoulder. “What if I can't come back?” she cried.

  “Come back where, honey?” Rose asked.

  “To work. I want to come back, but what if I can't do it?” Paige sobbed.

  “What are you scared will happen when you come back?” Rose was feeling helpless; what she wanted to do was call Jack or Ryan or someone who would know what to say to help Paige.

  “This.” Paige looked up at her. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  She brushed Paige’s curly hair away from her face. “You don’t know what’s wrong with you? Paige, you were threatened, terrorized, and beaten nearly to death. What’s wrong with you is that you're simply dealing with the fallout. And it doesn’t help that he’s still out there somewhere. But listen to me.” She made sure Paige’s brown eyes were focused on her. “If you're ready to come back to work, that’s great; and if you're not, that’s totally fine. Whatever you decide, I'm here for you. We’re all here for you. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Paige sniffed.

  “And you’ve done it now. You’ve come back here. Next time you come, it’ll be a little easier and easier again the time after that, until it doesn’t bother you anymore,” Rose encouraged.

  “Yeah, I guess you're right,” Paige agreed, like the thought hadn’t occurred to her before Rose had said it.

  Rose tugged Paige to her feet. “Come on, I’ll take you back to my place and we’ll call Sofia, see if she can come and have dinner with us.”

/>   Paige allowed herself to be guided to Rose’s car, and she helped her friend into the passenger seat.

  “I have a headache,” Paige murmured as Rose climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “I'm not surprised. I don’t think it was a good idea for you to try that on your own. You could have asked Elias to come with you. Or me or Ryan or Jack or Sofia or anyone else,” Rose admonished.

  “I didn’t know I was going to react like that.” Paige rested her head back against the seat and closed her eyes.

  “Yes, you did,” Rose contradicted. “That’s why you haven’t come back before now. Only because you're going to be back at work soon, you thought you ought to do it.”

  Paige merely huffed.

  “There’s Tylenol in the glove compartment,” Rose informed her. “Then text Elias and tell him you're going to be at my place. I don’t want him getting home, finding you're not there, and worrying about you. Then close your eyes and rest.”

  After waiting to make sure Paige was going to follow her instructions, Rose picked up her own phone and typed a one-handed message to Sofia, briefly explaining what had happened and asking her to join them for dinner.

  When she pulled into her garage fifteen minutes later, Paige seemed to have drifted off to sleep. Reaching over, she gently shook her shoulder. “Paige? Hey, we’re here,” she said softly. Paige’s eyes blinked sleepily open. “How’s your head?”

  “Better,” Paige acknowledged. “Thanks, Rose. For everything. Sorry I cried all over you.”

  “You're welcome and no worries, you can cry over me any time you need to.” Rose was pleased to see that Paige was obviously doing better; maybe she was better at handling hysterical people than she’d thought she was.

  By the time they’d gotten inside and made a start on dinner—macaroni and cheese and a salad—the doorbell was ringing.

  “I’ll get it,” Paige volunteered.

  She returned a moment later with Sofia and Sofia’s friend, Annabelle Englewood. “Hey, Rose.” Sofia smiled at her. “Okay if Annabelle joins us?”

  “Of course.” Rose smiled back. “Hi, Annabelle.”

  “Hi.” Annabelle smiled shyly back.

  It wasn't that Rose didn’t like Annabelle, she liked the younger woman just fine, it was more that she couldn’t seem to connect with her. Rose knew that Annabelle struggled with major self-confidence issues, and that those issues affected the way she interacted with people. The only person Annabelle seemed close to was Sofia.

  “So, how are you doing?” Sofia was asking Paige. “I can't believe you went there on your own. Why didn’t you call me? I would have gone with you or Ryan would have or Jack or Rose. Why did you go on your own?”

  “Rose already told me off,” Paige replied.

  “Well, good for her. That was really silly, you know. What were you thinking?”

  “I guess I wasn't.” Paige shrugged fitfully.

  Sofia softened. “How’re you doing?”

  “How do you cope with him being out there?” Paige asked, refusing to look up from the tomatoes she was chopping.

  “I try to keep busy and not think about it,” Sofia replied grimly. “But he hasn’t been violent toward me, it’s you that he’s a danger to.”

  This unknown man had been stalking Sofia for a couple of years now, long before they all met her. He had left Sofia gifts and flowers, called her and had even broken into her house when she wasn't home. Then he had disappeared, only to return six months ago when he got the idea in his head that Paige and Ryan were having an affair. Blaming Paige, he latched onto her and decided if she was dead, then Sofia’s happiness would be ensured.

  “Annabelle, how did you cope while Ricky Preston was still out there?” Paige asked Annabelle.

  “I didn’t,” Annabelle answered simply.

  “Having Ryan and Sophie helps,” Sofia added. “You have Elias, and he’s totally devoted to you. And maybe you guys might have kids soon.”

  “I can't get pregnant,” Paige blurted out. “There were complications when I was attacked and I won't be able to have kids of my own.”

  “Oh, honey,” she and Sofia said simultaneously, both moving to wrap their arms around a crying Paige.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Rose asked, knowing what a blow that would have been to Paige, who had dreamed of having children for as long as Rose had known her.

  “No one knows,” Paige replied. “Well, obviously Elias, but other than him, I only told Ryan.”

  For a long moment, the three of them just stood there. She and Sofia held Paige while she cried, while Annabelle stood awkwardly beside them. Her unusual eyes, which were so pale blue that they appeared white, were full of sympathy for Paige, but she wasn't comfortable offering comfort.

  “Well, we are a depressing group, aren’t we?” Sofia smiled ruefully.

  “That we are.” Paige gave a small chuckle.

  “Actually, I had something I wanted to talk to you guys about,” Sofia announced. “And since we’re all here, this seems like the perfect time.”

  * * * * *

  7:53 P.M.

  “Hey, sweet pea, what are you still doing up?” Jack took baby Sophie from his brother’s arms as Ryan opened the front door for him.

  “She doesn’t want to go to sleep for daddy,” Ryan answered for the eleven-month-old baby.

  “Sofia’s out?” he asked as they headed for the kitchen.

  “Yeah, apparently Paige decided going back to where she was attacked on her own was a good idea,” Ryan grimly explained.

  He winced. “It didn’t go well, I take it?”

  “Rose found her all hysterical. She managed to calm her down, though, and she thought it would be a good idea to distract Paige for a while, so she asked Sofia to go and have dinner with them.” The concern for his partner was evident on his brother’s face.

  Jack echoed that concern. “Why didn’t she ask someone to go with her? You would have gone; Sofia would have gone; Rose would have gone; I would have gone; anyone would have gone with her.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s stubborn.” Ryan sighed.

  “Ryan, she goes back to work in one week, I don’t think she’s ready,” he announced a little tentatively.

  Ryan sighed again. “She has a lot going on.”

  “I know she does, but you don’t want that distracting her. Getting distracted was what led to her getting attacked in the first place,” he reminded his brother.

  “Jack, she can't have kids,” Ryan informed him.

  “Oh …” His heart went out to Paige. They all knew how much she’d wanted to have kids. Finding out she couldn’t because of her attack would have been a major blow when she already had a lot on her plate.

  Ryan rested a hand on Sophie’s soft little head. “No one knows, only me and of course Elias, so don’t say anything,” he cautioned Jack. “She’ll tell people when she’s ready.”

  “Yeah, I won't say anything,” he assured Ryan, although knowing would add to his already existing concerns about Paige. Sophie’s pudgy little hands began to pat his cheeks, and she gurgled excitedly. He smiled down at her. “You want some attention, huh?”

  “I better go put her to bed. Don’t want Mommy to be mad I let you stay up late,” Ryan said as he picked up the baby. “I’ll be right back, don’t worry if you hear screaming, she’s likely to protest a little.”

  Jack chuckled, feeling a twinge of jealousy as he watched how happy his brother was with his baby daughter. He wanted this. He wanted a home, a family, children. And he wanted it with Laura.

  Which was all the more reason to wrap up this case ASAP.

  Once this was over and Laura was safe, then he could work on winning her back.

  While he waited for Ryan, he sent a quick text to Rose to check on Paige, and then checked in with the cops who were posted at Laura’s door. By the time he had confirmation that Laura was still safe and Paige was doing okay, Ryan was walking back into the kitchen.

  “So, I
heard,” Ryan announced.

  “Heard what?”

  “About Laura,” Ryan replied with a slight eye roll. “I can't believe we never knew what happened to her.”

  “She didn’t want anyone to know,” he explained.

  “Do you think Mom and Dad knew? They were still close with the Opals even after you two broke up, and after they moved.”

  “No, I don’t think they knew. Laura told her parents not to tell anyone.”

  “So?” Ryan looked at him expectantly.

  “So, what?”

  Another eye roll. “Are you going to get back together with her?”

  “Laura’s still angry with me,” he replied.

  “Of course. What you did was stupid, but she’ll realize that you were both kids back then and now you're both all grown up. She’ll get over it because we all know she loves you. So, are you going to get back together with her?” Ryan asked again.

  Jack hesitated. He wanted Laura back. Desperately. And yet, there was one thing that made him doubt that he was good enough for Laura. And it wasn't what had broken them up in the first place.

  “Jack,” Ryan began gently. “You never stopped loving Laura. We all knew it. You dated, but you never connected with any of those other women because deep down, you still believed that you would somehow get back together with Laura. Well, this is your chance. This is your chance to get back the only woman you’ve ever loved. Don’t let what happened three years ago hold you back.”

  Jack was surprised that he had apparently done such a bad job at hiding that. He’d thought that his family and friends would simply think he was a little down about breaking up with his girlfriend. He’d never known that they’d figured out that more than that had happened on that vacation. But obviously, Ryan had known and Rose had known, and it was probably a safe bet that everyone else knew, too.

  “You couldn’t have really thought we were stupid enough not to notice the complete changes in your behavior?” Ryan arched a blond brow.

  Actually, he had really thought that they hadn’t known. Or maybe if he was honest, it was more like he had hoped.

  “Okay, so maybe you did,” Ryan chuckled. “But seriously though, Jack, you need to deal with whatever happened. If you want Laura back, then she’s going to need to be your top priority. She’s going to need a lot of help to deal with what she’s been through. You don’t want to be distracted by your own issues.”