Amelia studied Adele with a critical eye and lowered her voice even though they were alone. She cupped Adele’s cheek. “How is she?”
Adele spoke past the lump in her throat. “The same.” Then her eyes brightened a fraction. “But…we spoke when the nurse woke her up for her last neurological exam. She knew me, but was hazy-sounding. But she aced the neuro check anyway. She knew the day of the week, the month, and the name of the vice president.”
“That’s way more than most people in New Orleans know.”
Adele laughed. “I—I—know.” Then she burst into uncontrollable sobs, bending at the waist and wrapping her arms around herself in mute comfort.
“Oh, Ella.” Amelia moved to hug her, but acting on pure instinct, Adele stumbled backward and out of reach. “No.” Amelia’s voice was as hard as Adele had ever heard it, pure granite. “I’m not letting you do that ever again. You aren’t alone. Stop running.”
Her sister was right. She wanted to bolt. The urge rose up inside her like a tidal wave, seductive and strong, an addiction to be obeyed. But despite that, her feet were cast in cement. The words she’d avoided so many times since her world crashed down around her ears finally cut through the clutter in her mind. And sunk in. And stayed.
Amelia’s breathing hitched as Adele gave her a tearful nod and allowed herself to be pulled into her waiting arms.
Adele felt cool lips press firmly against the fine hairs at her temple again and again as she came apart at the seams.
Amelia murmured into Adele’s hair, “Let it out. It’s going to be okay, sweetie.”
Desperately, Adele wound herself around her big sister, and buried her face into Amelia’s neck and let everything go. “Bu—bu—but what if it izzzzn—n—nt? The doctor…he s—s—said rape and I t—tried, but I couldn’t get in—inside for too lo—ong!” She hiccupped a few times in quick succession. “And there are n—n—no co—coincidences. I—I—I couldn’t help her. Some—s—s-someone strangled her, Am—Amelia. Strangled her in my—my house!”
Amelia tightened her grip, a few of her own tears leaking out. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You tried your best.”
Adele’s entire body shook as she cried. “She al-almost di-di-died!”
“But she didn’t.”
“But—”
“The police were still at the inn when I got there, Ella. They told me that you saved Natalie.”
“No, I—”
“Yes!” Amelia corrected fervently. “Nothing is perfect, but it was enough, and that’s all that matters.”
Adele continued to weep for several long minutes and her sister didn’t interrupt. She needed this more than oxygen at the moment. Her body and head hurt, everything felt fuzzy around the edges and far more daunting than usual.
Finally, Adele shook her head fiercely, her words barely intelligible. “I-I don’t think I-I can do this.”
Amelia’s brows drew together. “Do what?”
“Ca-care about her. Be…maybe be fa-falling in lo-love with her.”
“You’re afraid that you’ll let her down.” It was more statement than question.
A jerky nod was Adele’s answer.
“Or that she’ll do the same and break your heart.”
This time the nod was accompanied by a broken whimper that spilled out without Adele’s permission.
Amelia sighed softly and tightened her hold. “You’re braver than you think, Ella.”
Adele wanted to believe the words. But she’d put everything on the line and failed before, and so it was easier to just believe it would happen again. Something in Amelia’s voice, however, was impossible to ignore.
“And I don’t think you have a choice when it comes to falling in love. It just sort of happens whether you like it or not. I’ve seen you two together. She’s good for you and a good person herself. Do you really want to stop it?”
“I—I…” Adele’s sobs began to wind down. She took several slow breaths and started to sound more like herself. “No,” she admitted to herself and Amelia. She sniffed loudly. “I don’t want to stop it.”
“That’s what I thought.” Amelia pulled away long enough to examine her sister’s tearstained face and wipe futilely at her drenched cheeks. “Are you done for now?”
Amelia’s expression made it clear that it would be okay if Adele hadn’t finished crying. That she had all night. And somehow that made all the difference. Adele nodded.
“Then, c’mon. You’re a hot mess.” With one arm around Adele’s shoulders Amelia guided them both into a ladies’ room that was only steps away, grabbing the bag she’d brought as they went.
Once inside, and with head down and eyes shut tight, Adele braced herself over the sink and took a few more deep breaths while Amelia disappeared into one of the stalls. She collected her scattered emotions long enough to be embarrassed that she’d just dissolved like a sandcastle in the surf. Adele couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried like that. If ever. She felt…more in control. Better. “I’m sorry for doing that, Amelia.”
“What? Are you kidding? Considering what happened tonight, that was totally normal.” Amelia emerged from the stall with a giant wad of toilet tissue in her hand. “It’s the scary, withdrawing-from-the-world crap that’s not okay, all right?”
A firm nod. “Okay. No more of that.” It was a promise not just to her sister, but also to herself. Natalie needed her and even more than that, Adele desperately needed to come through for Natalie.
Adele lifted her head and opened her eyes to look in the mirror. “Fuck me sideways.” She barely recognized the woman looking back at her.
Amelia chuckled weakly. “I know. Your mascara was undoubtedly waterproof, but, apparently, nothing is typhoon proof.”
Adele rolled her eyes at her sister’s quip, even though it was clearly true. Her face was tearstained and bloodstained from touching herself with bloody hands all night. Her bawling had caused the dried blood on her face to rehydrate and smear, and her mascara had dripped all the way down her cheeks to her chin in crooked charcoal streaks.
Adele looked like the most pathetic accident victim-slash-hooker-slash-sad clown ever.
With Amelia’s help, and after enduring several of her sister’s gasps at the bruises covering half her body, Adele dressed in fresh clothes. She trashed everything she’d been wearing, brushed her teeth and cleaned up her face. Feeling horrible, but like a horrible new woman, Adele rummaged through the rest of the duffel until she found her phone.
“Did you find Natalie’s too?” Adele took a few twenties from the billfold in her purse and shoved them into her jeans pocket.
Amelia shook her head. “Her purse wasn’t anywhere to be found. The police think the burglar took it with him.”
Adele grunted unhappily. “And my gun?”
“Even if it was still there, I couldn’t get to it. The intruder trashed all the guest rooms and your entire apartment, Ella. The police were being dicks and I wasn’t allowed to remove anything. Not even your toothbrush. The only reason I was able to get your purse was because you’d left it outside in the courtyard. I plain old stole the cane while no one was looking.”
They shared conspiratorial grins.
Amelia dug into her own purse. “I brought you my gun from the shop.” She pulled out a nickel-plated .357.
“Goddamn, Amelia!” Adele exclaimed, eyes wide. That particular model gun was a beast and about as scary looking as they came. “Where did you get that? I thought you believed in gun control.”
Amelia smirked. “I do, for everyone else.” Her gaze strayed to the door as though they somehow might be overheard. “Just don’t tell Tony. You know how squeamish he is.”
Adele smiled softly, and for the first time all night, it reached her eyes. “I really love you.” She took the heavy weapon and made sure the safety was on before she stuffed it into the duffel bag.
“I know. Oh, and here.” Amelia pulled a small box of bullets from her handbag and passe
d them over. At Adele’s raised eyebrows, she said, “What? Just in case.”
“Thanks for all this, sis.” Adele gestured to the bag that contained a new full set of toiletries, an iPad still in the box—apparently Apple products could be had at any time day or night in the City of New Orleans—another change of clothes and a windbreaker.
Adele’s mind drifted back into the ICU. Her heart had never left. For a second, a look of fear overtook her.
Amelia rubbed Adele’s back with one hand. “She’s going to be okay, you know.”
She has to be. “Let’s go make sure for ourselves.”
When they entered Natalie’s room, her doctor was there and Adele’s stomach dropped. “What’s wrong?” She moved quickly around the bed to be close to Natalie.
Seemingly distracted with one of the machines hooked to Natalie, the doctor motioned for the nurse to be the one to tell Adele.
Even Amelia’s face paled.
Unexpectedly, the nurse smiled brightly. “The pressure in her head has gone down significantly since our last check. It’s almost back to normal.”
Adele finally exhaled, a little surprised that she was still upright.
Amelia mumbled, “Thank heavens,” and found a place to stand out of the way against the far wall.
The doctor finally joined the conversation. “Ms. Abbott is doing very well. I’ve reduced her medication and she should be much more alert soon. At this rate, it’s likely her intracranial pressure will be normal by morning. I’ll be back after her CT scan to check on her again.”
Light-headed with relief, Adele gently squeezed Natalie’s hand. “Good job, Nat.”
The doctor leaned closer to Adele. “Ms. Lejeune, if you remember our conversation from earlier? I can do it, of course. Or if you’d prefer to ask…?”
The smile dropped from Adele’s face. “As soon as I’m able, I’ll find out.”
With a short, but sympathetic nod, he left the room.
Natalie began to stir.
“Natalie?” the nurse called softly, leaning down so she could look directly into Natalie’s eyes. “I need you to wake up and talk to me.” She turned to Adele. “I went to get the doctor before, so I’m just now getting to her neuro check, though the doctor did a preliminary check when he arrived.”
Natalie grumbled in protest, but her eyes dutifully fluttered open. She looked dazed and doped up, but managed to automatically mumble, “It’s still the same date and the vice president is still the same. And if something has changed, I don’t really care.”
The nurse chuckled, and Adele’s smile could have lit up the city. This was the most lucid Natalie’d been all night.
After a few routine questions that Natalie successfully answered, the nurse left and Amelia went with her in search of coffee and to track down a phone number for Natalie’s parents.
For the first time that night, Natalie’s eyes didn’t immediately close when the nurse finished her evaluation. The capillaries in one of Natalie’s eyes had ruptured and it was splotched with red, heavy-lidded and half-mast.
Adele’s heart clenched. She threaded their fingers together and brushed her lips against Natalie’s clammy forehead. “How ya feeling?”
“Honestly?” Natalie’s voice was raw and raspy. “Not great, but not too bad.” She tried to narrow her eyes, but it was a sad attempt that ended up somewhere between an awkward wink and squint. “I think I’m high.”
Adele chuckled silently.
“I think my head hurts.”
“You think?”
“It does.” Natalie’s voice went a little dreamy. “I just don’t care.”
This time Adele laughed softly.
Natalie glanced down at Adele’s bandaged wrist and slowly let go of their joined fingers so she could gently graze it. Her eyebrows knotted. “You’re hurt. What happened to you?”
“Shouldn’t that be my line?” Adele asked affectionately.
Natalie just waited.
“I scraped it on the door. It’s nothing.”
“Not nothing.” Natalie sighed. “You’re important.”
Adele nearly came undone.
Natalie slowly licked dry lips, and her eyes began to drift closed. “That bastard…we fought…but the cord. I knew you’d get in. I could hear the door breaking. He was afraid of you. I could tell. You were awesome…like a girl Incredible Hulk.”
Adele wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “I wasn’t.” She rested her forehead against the mattress and slammed her eyes shut tight, feeling like a fraud. How could Natalie think that? “I’m so sorry.”
“Why?” Natalie whispered, dragging her fingers softly through Adele’s short blond hair that had somehow gone a little messy again.
“Because I didn’t get in sooner.”
A faint smile curled sleepy lips. “Didja blow his head off?”
Adele snorted as she remembered her frantic threat. She sat up. “No. I didn’t have my gun with me. He’d gone out the window by the time I got into the room.”
“Bummer.” Natalie brought her hand back near the bandage on Adele’s wrist.
No wonder Amelia liked Natalie. They were both sweet on the outside, but sweet and mercenary on the inside. “I agree.”
Adele couldn’t meet Natalie’s eyes. “I need to ask you something, Nat.” She wrung her hands together and her heart started to slam against her ribs. “I’m sorry, sugar, but the doctor needs to know.” The endearment slipped out and she tried not to think about it as she swallowed hard and glanced up at the ceiling before forcing herself forward, dreading the answer. “Do—do they need to run a rape kit on you?”
The words made Natalie’s eyes pop open wide very briefly, but she relaxed again almost immediately. “No. No, he didn’t want that.”
Adele didn’t know when it had happened, but tears were sliding down her face again. She swiped at her cheeks, wholly without words to describe how grateful she was. So she didn’t even try.
“Aww…don’t look so sad.” Natalie pouted. “I’m sorry about our date too.”
“I don’t care about our date,” Adele said hoarsely. She couldn’t help but kiss Natalie’s protruding lower lip. “We’ll go on another one. An even better one.”
Natalie smiled wistfully. “With even more kissing?”
Adele’s body jerked with a laugh. “Yeah. With nonstop kissing.”
Natalie’s sloppy smile was big enough to show teeth. “Good.”
“You kept saying he before. Who was the he that did this to you?”
Natalie shook her head a tiny bit and grimaced at the movement that was obviously painful. Her eyes slid all the way closed again. “I dunno.” Her voice began to slur from fatigue. “He had…err…a mask ’n’ gloves.”
Adele bit back a curse. “What did he want?”
Natalie’s face went slack.
“Natalie?” Adele prompted gingerly. She felt guilty for pressing her, but her mind was already whirring with ideas and suspects. The burglary and assault had to be connected to Misty and Josh. First on her list of suspects was Kurt Mosley, though she didn’t know how he would have tracked Natalie to the inn and what motive he might have. “What did the man that hurt you want?”
“Mmm?”
“Natalie. Focus, hon.”
“Phone.”
“But…why would someone want your phone?”
“Nuh-uh…Josh’s.” Then Natalie’s hand fell away from Adele’s wrist and she began to lightly snore.
Chapter Fifteen
Twenty-four hours later…
It was the middle of the night again and a single light above the bed was enough to see by, but still dim enough to be soothing. Adele changed positions in the chair next to Natalie’s bedside for the hundredth time. There was no point, really, as true comfort lay beyond her reach. And that’s all she was hoping for at this point, just being able to rest and relax, but not necessarily sleep. Adele was exhausted, but she needed to keep watch, not to mention the fact that the
looming specter of her own dreams frightened her more than she cared to admit.
Adele stood, and her eyes immediately slammed shut from the pain. After a few deep breaths to gather herself, she moved to the head of Natalie’s bed and ever so gently traced Natalie’s face with her fingertip, admiring well-shaped, full lips and the dark brows that were relaxed in sleep. She carefully drew a stray strand of hair from Natalie’s face, frowning at the random speckles of dried blood that were still caked along the scalp line and disappeared into thick hair.
Just as the doctor had predicted, Natalie’s intracranial pressure had stabilized to well within the normal range just a few hours after it began its decline. She’d been monitored closely for the rest of the day, but, thankfully, every test had come back with good results and she’d been moved into a private room where she could rest and continue to heal.
Confused and wounded, Adele found herself wanting to touch Natalie constantly, but at the same time, draw away. She didn’t understand how Josh’s phone played into the break-in at the inn.
Georgia had given Natalie her charger after they’d returned from the Christmas tree lot. But Natalie never mentioned the phone again. Surely if Natalie had found something on it that would help their investigation she would have come to Adele with the information. Or would Natalie “forget” to mention that the same way she had the phone in the first place?
Adele had so many questions, but they all needed to wait. Patience had never been her best virtue.
Stretching, she bent and kissed Natalie tenderly on the lips and smiled when her friend released a gentle, contented sigh. Adele’s heart clenched. She needed Natalie safe, but she was fighting an unknown foe and so knowledge was power. They had almost nothing to go on, but Adele was determined to leverage what little they did know. That also meant achingly hard choices, but ones that Adele was prepared to make.
Quietly, she retrieved her phone and stepped out of the room. Taking a few steps away, she ducked into an empty room that still allowed for a view of Natalie’s doorway. Adele leaned heavily against the wall and dialed Al’s home phone number, her stomach tight with tension.
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