“Thank you,” I said to Dave. “And I will. As soon as the hospital releases her and we are free to leave town, I’m taking her to your parents’ home. They still own a house outside pack territory, don’t they?”
“Yes. I’ll call them to let them know what happened and to tell them that the two of you will be staying there for a while. They’re renting a house inside Pine Hollow while their new house is under construction—per the stipulation of our marriage,” Danielle said with more than a hint of disgust. “You call us the instant she is home and safe. I want to talk to my sister.”
“I will. I need to go. The doctors are about to go in to see Leigh, and I want to be in there when they do,” I said. I hadn’t gone into her room while on the phone with Danielle and Dave because Leigh would have asked to talk to her sister, which would only further upset both women.
“Okay. Give her my love,” Danielle said through sobs.
“I will.”
I hung up and followed the female doctor into Leigh’s room. After a thorough examination, the doctor said all that was wrong with Leigh was a mild concussion and a few scrapes, scratches and bruises, some of which needed stitches and all looked bad and would take forever to heal, but none were life threatening. As we waited for her discharge papers, Officer Miles Dawson knocked on the door.
“Can I speak to you for a minute, Ms. Alexander?” he asked, not acknowledging me.
Leigh looked to me for approval.
“She can, but make it quick. The doctor will be back shortly with her discharge papers, and I would like to get her home,” I said, standing my ground beside Leigh’s bed.
“I won’t take up much of your time. Ms. Alexander, can you tell me what happened tonight?”
“I don’t know much. I closed the store like normal. We don’t drop deposits at night, so all three of us—me and two other employees—went our separate ways. I got about two blocks from the store when Maggie sent me a text.”
“Who is Maggie?” Officer Dawson asked.
“Maggie Saint. She’s one of our cashiers. Only I don’t think she sent the text.”
“Why not?” both the officer and I asked at the same time.
“When I got to the store, no one was there. I drove around the parking lot and passed the front of the building but saw nothing. I checked my phone to make sure I had read the message correctly. The text came from Maggie’s number, but it didn’t have her trademark “~~Love you lots~~” signature at the end of the message. She has that programmed into her phone. It appears at the end of every text she sends no matter who she sends it to.
“I was on my headset talking to Ryan at the time the message came through, so I didn’t notice it wasn’t there. When I noticed the signature was missing, I sent her a text asking how long she was going to be. The next message I received from her asked me what I was talking about and had the ‘Love you lots’ at the end. At that second, I knew something was wrong, so I parked my car. I asked Ryan where he was. He said at the apartment. I had walked around to the other side of my car when the building exploded. I hit my head on something and the next thing I know the paramedics and Ryan and you were there.”
The officer hastily took notes, then asked to see our phones. Leigh showed him the messages and her outgoing call to me. I showed him where she had called me and where I called the police. As the man wrote down that information and asked if he could take screen shots of it all and send it to himself, the doctor came in and had us sign some paperwork.
When the doctor left, Officer Dawson handed us our phones and withdrew his own. “I need to show the two of you a photo. Mind you, it isn’t a very pleasant photo even with most of the more horrific aspects hidden, but I need to know if either of you recognizes the person in the photo.”
We nodded at him as if we had a choice in the matter.
He held his phone out to Leigh first, and she studied it for a long moment before shaking her head no. He held it out to me next. The image was of a young man in his mid-thirties. His hair was dark, but that could have simply been all the blood in it. The face was pretty disfigured, but he almost looked like someone I knew.
Seeing the contemplative look on my face, the officer asked, “Do you know this man, Mr. Hart?”
“Maybe,” I said, turning my phone back on. “He looks like a guy I know from back home. Hold on.”
I wasn’t friends with Jacob Henley, considering how much older than I he was. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but since shifters age so slowly, I was an infant compared to him. I swiped through the many photos I had on my phone to one of the wedding photos. I had snuck a picture of Leigh before the reception and before she had seen me. She was a bit away from the camera. Off to the side of her and more in the forefront was a group of men standing in a circle talking. Jacob was one of them.
“The man on your phone could be this man, Jacob Henley. The two vaguely resemble each other.” I showed the picture to the police officer as I continued. “I don’t know him very well and don’t know why he would be here, let alone burning down Leigh’s place of employment.”
“Send me that photo, please,” he said while writing Jacob’s name down.
“And you say you don’t know him.”
“Not really. My hometown is small, so we all know each other roughly by name and reputation, but I probably haven’t said more than twenty words to the man my entire life.”
“Where was that picture taken?”
“My best friend’s wedding. Dave Carmichael. He married Leigh’s sister Danielle a few months back.”
“He was at your sister’s wedding, yet you don’t know him?” Officer Dawson asked Leigh. His tone suggested he didn’t believe us.
“I don’t socialize with my parents’ family or with anyone in Pine Hollow. Besides, I’ve been living here for the better part of five years.”
“You sound very bitter, Ms. Alexander. You sound as if there’s a problem I don’t know about yet you say there isn’t anyone you could think of who would want to hurt you.”
“Officer Dawson, my family and the people of Pine Hollow hate me for no other reason than that I’m fat. They are a bunch of arrogant, vain, and pretentious people who are happier when I’m not there. I see no reason why they would come here specifically to hurt me.”
Officer Dawson looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded. “That’s pretty much it. They might be a little angry with me for choosing her over them but not enough to kill her. They know that if anything happens to her that isn’t remotely natural, I’ll suspect them and never come back. All they’ll want to do to me right now is make me happy in the hopes that I will one day come home.”
“All of this is over weight?” the cop asked, looking at Leigh as if he didn’t believe it. He also gave her an appraising look that suggested he found her body pleasing. I stepped a little closer to her to assert my dominance.
“Yep. From the moment I hit puberty and a size twelve, a size none of those women see unless they are pregnant, I was an outcast. My mother tried to be nice about it, but my appearance even disgusted her. The only person in my family who loved me for me was Danielle.”
“Her parents are getting better about things,” I cut in, making her snort in derision, then clutch her head.
“All of that’s beside the point,” I said. “What happened to the man in the photo?”
“We found him behind the book store. It appears that he didn’t get away from the blast quick enough. We found evidence on him that links him to the explosion.”
Before anything else was said, Nichole rushed into the room, crying. She threw herself into Leigh’s arms and crawled into the bed with her.
I followed Officer Dawson out of the room. “I would like to take Leigh home. Will that be a problem?” I asked him.
“The doctors have discharged her,” Officer Dawson said, putting away his notepad.
“No, I mean I want to take her back to Tennessee. I don’t feel safe here. If Jacob is responsible
, then that means someone from Pine Hollow is likely the one setting all of this up. If that is the case, I want her where we have more family to help watch her. It won’t be a lot of help, but more than I have here. Also, I think they’ll be less likely to destroy property in their own town.”
“Okay. I’m keeping the investigation open on my end, but I’m also going to contact the…” He looked down at his phone for a second while he searched for Pine Hollow, TN then said, “Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and let them know what’s going on.”
“Thank you,” I said and shook his hand.
Ten minutes later, I had both Nichole and Leigh settled into my vehicle and was taking them to an all-night diner. The doctor didn’t want Leigh falling asleep for a while. Leigh didn’t mind and announced that she was hungry. She wanted a waffle.
After we dropped Nichole off at her car sometime later, we went back to the apartment for a shower and crawled into bed. Leigh rolled over into my arms and said into my chest, “I love you, I really do, with all of my heart, but I want my parents.”
I couldn’t breathe for a long moment. She had never told me she loved me. She was my mate, so I knew she had to, but she had never said the words. I didn’t even know if she knew what she had said and how she had said it, until she shifted on the bed to look at me.
“I said the ‘L’ word, didn’t I?”
“You did. Did you mean it the way I want to take it, or did you mean it as a figure of speech?”
“I meant it. I mean it with every inch of my soul, but you don’t have to say it back.”
“I do because I want you to know that I do. I’ve been waiting for you to say it first. I’ve pushed you, moved us along quickly from that very first night in the hotel, but this one I was leaving up to you, but now that it’s out, I’m never going to stop saying it. As a matter of fact, if you weren’t so injured, I would make love to you to show you how much I love you.” I leaned up and gently kissed her then pulled her head back down onto my chest.
“Are you sure you want to go back there?” I asked her a long minute later. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to waste time trying to convince her of the move, but I wanted her to be sure she wanted to go back.
“I don’t want to have anything to do with Pine Hollow, but I’m scared, and I want my mommy and daddy.”
I chuckled at the childlike tone in which she said the words but understood what she meant. I didn’t want my family or Pine Hollow, but I wanted the safety of my pack.
“Go to sleep. Tomorrow we will plan to leave as soon as you’ve healed enough to travel.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, baby.”
She was asleep in an instant, and I followed her despite the whirlwind of thoughts circling my head.
Chapter 18 ~ Going Home
~~~Leigh~~~
I woke the next afternoon tired, achy, and beyond pissed off. Someone had purposefully blown up my place of employment, my best friend’s livelihood, her passion. She swore to me the night before that that didn’t matter. All she cared about was that I was all right. Anyone else would say this was my fault since I was the obvious target, but she ordered me not to blame myself. To make matters worse, my car was too damaged to repair.
The bed I woke up in was too comfortable to leave, but the empty space beside me told me that Ryan was already up, so I made myself rise. My bladder was begging me to empty it anyway.
After relieving myself, I disrobed and stood in front of the mirror, examining myself. Light bruises and healing scratches covered my body. I’d always taken for granted my body’s ability to heal quickly. That morning I was thankful for it and a bit surprised by it. What I had suffered through the night before was bad, and I knew some things would have begun to heal while I slept, but not that quickly. Examining the worst of my cuts and seeing how old the marks looked, I wondered if I had slept longer than I thought.
“Ryan,” I called as I left the bathroom in my bra and panties. With any other guy, I would have put on a t-shirt, not wanting him to see all of my fat on display that way, but with Ryan, I wanted to be naked because he took so much pleasure in seeing me that way.
“I’m in the kitchen,” he called back.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked, coming to a stop in the kitchen doorway to watch him cook scrambled eggs and bacon.
“About nine hours. Why?” he asked, turning to me. He nearly dropped the bacon he had forked out of the pan onto the floor at the sight of my near nakedness. He had seen me in less, but the sight of me seems to always stun and arouse him.
“Oh.” Knowing it would take him awhile to find his words, I turned to go back to the bathroom for a shower when he stopped me by calling my name.
“Yeah,” I said, walking fully into the kitchen. He put the bacon on a plate and circled me. “Is something wrong?” I asked, growing worried by his look.
“Have you seen yourself?”
“I have. Why?”
“Do you remember what you looked like this morning when we got home?”
“I do.” He saw it too. My healing wasn’t normal, even for me. I had no idea how to explain it.
He reached up and brushed his fingers across a cut I had across my back. His touch caused goose bumps to sprout along my skin. I had the deep urge to bend over, drop my panties, and beg him to take me. My desire shifted to apprehension at his next words.
“These are almost healed. How…” Then he leaned into me to the point that his nose touched the skin right behind my ear, and he inhaled deeply. This action shocked me so much that I jerked away from him.
“What’re you doing?” I asked, eyeing him wearily.
He cocked his head and looked at me for a long time. Finally, he asked, “Have you always been able to heal like this?”
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean, ‘sort of’?”
“I mean, I’ve always been able to heal rather quickly, but this…this is remarkable even for me. That’s why I asked how long I had slept. This is what a cut would look like two days after I received it for me, not one day.”
“Do you know why you heal so easily?”
“No. I just figured it was good genes or something. My entire family heals quickly though they almost never get hurt.”
“Huh… Have you noticed any other strange things like that about yourself?”
“Not really. My eyesight is exceptional and so is my hearing. I’ve had a few people tell me that both were a little too good, but again, my whole family has exceptional senses.”
“Then I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s a good thing anyway. I want to get us out of town as soon as possible, and I didn’t want to take you back home looking that way. Your mother would shit a brick.”
“She wouldn’t…”
“Don’t. She would. I think you would be surprised how different your parents are since the last time you saw them.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I lived in Pine Hollow, remember? I’ve spent a great deal of time with your father since the wedding. He helped me move here, didn’t he?”
“Okay. I guess I should call them to let them know we are coming.”
“I’ve already done that. Your childhood home is empty. We can stay there for now. Why don’t you put on a shirt and come eat? We’ll talk about what we’re going to do afterwards.”
That night, we had a late supper with Nichole, who informed me that she was moving back to her parents for a while. Her mother had been sick on and off for the last year, and Nichole had felt guilty about not being there for her. In a way, I was glad she was leaving because it made me feel less guilty for moving back to my own parents’ home. We had a teary goodbye and promised to stay in touch as much as possible. Ryan promised to make it happen even if he had to drive me to Washington himself to do it.
The next day, we packed up Ryan’s apartment, shipped everything we wanted to keep to Tennessee, donated the rest—even my poor excuse for a car
—and boarded a flight home. How easily his job had let him go surprised me, but I figured my father had helped with that. We didn’t have any problems during our travel, and when we got to my parents’ house, we crashed in my old room.
My parents had moved all of their stuff out when they moved to Pine Hollow but had apparently bought us a few things when they heard we were coming back. The living room had a sofa, two recliners, a couple of tables, and a television. There was food in the kitchen, essentials in the bathroom, and a king size bed and dresser in my bedroom. All of it was new, and if I hadn’t been so tired, I would have called my mother to chide her and thank her for doing what she did for me. As it was, we passed out the second we hit the bed.
The next morning, we woke to the sound of my parents making us breakfast. Ryan growled at the bedroom door though he meant it more for the loud noises they were making in the kitchen than for the actual presence in the house. I laughed and petted his head when he dropped it back onto his pillow.
“How do you feel?” he asked, turning to me.
I pulled down the blankets to examine my arms. All that was left were some tiny pink lines that would probably be gone by tomorrow. He sat up and lifted my shirt to examine my stomach and back. He examined my breasts a little too much.
If it hadn’t been for my mother screaming my name from the bottom of the stairs, I would have told him that I had healed enough and would he please take me already. We both jumped at the sound of her voice. I was surprised by the playful tone in which she had called my name. I hadn’t heard her sound that pleasant and loving when speaking to me in a long time. I eyed the door wonderingly, and Ryan cursed under his breath, then moved off the bed and toward the bathroom. I went to the door, opened it a bit, and yelled down that we would be there in a minute. If she was going to be nice to me, I would be nice to her…for the time being, that was. I dressed while Ryan was in the bathroom, and he did the same while I took my turn.
My hands shook as I reached for the bedroom door handle. At the sight of the shaking, Ryan pulled me to him for a long kiss.
Outcast (Supernaturals Book 2) Page 14