Model Investigator (Haven Investigations Book 3)

by Lissa Kasey

The door opened, and in walked Kade with one crutch, and two coffee cups cradled to his chest in his left hand. James was in the hallway behind him holding the door and Kade’s other crutch. If I could have leapt out of bed at that moment, I would have. His eyes met mine, and he rushed to the side of the bed, almost falling, shoving Jacob half out of the way and startling him awake. Kade put the coffee on the tray beside the bed and leaned over me.

  “Baby, oh God, baby. It’s so good to see your eyes open. Can you hear me? See me?”

  I tried to answer, but my throat refused to do more than swallow. Fuck. I blinked at him, fear churning within me. What if this was permanent? What if I couldn’t move? Was stuck in this bed forever?

  “It’s okay. Shh. It’s okay. I’m right here.” Kade peppered my cheeks with kisses, fingertips caressing away tears that were falling. Both his and mine. “Holy crap, it’s good to see you awake.”

  Jacob stuck his head out the door and then turned back our way. His expression was hopeful, but he said nothing.

  I wanted to hold Kade. Touch him to make sure he was real. But I closed my eyes, and they refused to open again.

  NEXT TIME I awoke, it was to feel only slightly less groggy, but there was a definite sensation of weight to my body. I moved my fingers, feeling them clench and unclench, thrilled that even my toes seemed to respond. Or at least I felt them move. I opened my eyes to stare down at the blanket. There was a machine on my lower legs, massaging them, but my toes did move.

  I let out a long sigh of relief. The mask was gone, and Kade slept curled over the edge of my bed, head down. The room was dark, so I knew it was late. A batch of gifts piled in a chair by the window, like balloons, stuffed animals, and wrapped packages, made everything seem a little cheery. No flowers. I wondered what had happened and only vaguely recalled having the mother of all headaches.

  But Kade was there. Getting him back hadn’t been a dream. I put my hand in his hair, weaving my fingers through his short curls and enjoying the soft, spongy feel of them.

  Kade moved, turning his head carefully so he could free his hair and kiss my fingers. “Ollie,” he whispered.

  “Hi,” I said, surprised my voice actually worked.

  He leaned forward and kissed me. Just a gentle brush of his lips on mine. I sighed. He dragged the chair closer so he could perch half across the bed and wove his fingers through mine to grip my hand. “How are you feeling?”

  “Floaty?” I said it more as a question because I didn’t really know how to describe the odd lightness in my head. “What happened?”

  He pulled in a deep breath. “You had a stroke.”

  I blinked at him in confusion. “Huh?”

  “It’s called an Ischemic Stroke. A blood clot in the brain that deprives the brain of oxygen and nutrients. The neurosurgeon who’s treating you thinks it was caused by the multiple concussions you’ve had. You actually had a half-dozen tiny clots. Mostly on one side.” He let me process that for a minute. “They gave you blood thinners to break down the clots. That’s probably why you feel floaty. But as of the scan yesterday, they were gone, so the drugs are working.”

  A stroke. That sounded pretty serious. Didn’t people who had strokes have to do rehab to recover use of their limbs? Or worse, have part of their body never recover. What if I had something like that?

  “Hey, stop,” he whispered, brushing his fingers over my cheeks and tracing my lips. “You’re fine. You were in the best place possible when it happened, a hospital. They had you treated so fast, we were all still trying to process what had happened while they were already fixing you.” He laid his head next to mine, half sprawling across the bed so all I could really see were his eyes. They were so beautiful, even in the dark. “You scared the crap out of me. Your nose was bleeding, and then you had a seizure. A huge one.”

  I didn’t remember it at all. Just blacking out.

  “You’ve been out for almost a week. They kept you under for the first few days so they could remove the clots and get the swelling in your brain to go down.”

  I’d lost a week. How insane was that? And we’d been in the middle of a case. “Madison?”

  He huffed a small laugh. “It wasn’t Madison in my memory, Ollie. It was Peyton.”

  I gaped at him.

  “I have just that one memory. I’ve given the police what I know. They are investigating her.”

  “What about Tony?”

  “Tony’s not talking. Refuses to answer questions. Madison too. But it could have been Peyton. She was a cheerleader. Stronger than the average girl.”

  “Why?”

  He let out a long sigh. “We won’t know until she tells us.”

  “Kade, what did you remember?”

  “No, Ollie.”

  “But it was for sure her?”

  “There was a fire, and she threw water to put it out. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”

  Which made no sense. But maybe that was because I was so loopy? It was sort of a low-grade pot high without the talking butterflies and prostitute cats. Only everything sort of felt loose, detached, ready to float away, or maybe that was just me.

  Kade squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry about it, baby. I’m right here with you. There are guards at the door. We’re both safe.”

  “Will I be going home soon?”

  “Maybe in a few days?”

  I let go of his hand to touch my head. Had they drilled another hole in it? I hoped not. My hand met something cold and plastic instead of my hair. Kade grabbed my fingers and kissed them.

  “Just a sort of helmet thing? Not sure all the magic it does, but it helps with the clots and kept you from thrashing around. You had a lot of seizures in those first few hours while they were waiting for the meds to work.”

  “My hair?”

  “Still there. Tomas said after they take the helmet off tomorrow, he’ll fix it for you.”

  “I’m so lost,” I admitted.

  “Follow me, little Alice. I’ll lead you home.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Sleep.”

  “But you said I’ve been out for days.”

  “You have. And you need lots more sleep. Real, healing sleep. I’ll be right here, I promise.” He massaged my brow with his thumb. “Close your eyes. Rest, baby.”

  I didn’t want to lose another second with him but couldn’t have kept my eyes open if Peyton had stepped into the room with an assault rifle right at that moment.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I JERKED awake with an irrational fear that I needed to save Kade. The sun was shining, and Kade was gone, but Tomas sat beside the bed, playing a crossword game on his tablet. He had an earbud in his ear, and efficiently took two Haven calls while I watched, scheduling a bodyguard case from the first and putting off the second one with a firm “We don’t do that.”

  His eyes flicked to me once he hung up with the second call. “Hey.” He grinned, set the tablet aside, and slid to the edge of the chair. “How are you feeling?”

  “Clearer.” Not like a balloon drifting off into the sky, for which I was grateful.

  “I fixed your hair. You slept right through it, but Kade said you’d feel better when you woke.” He smiled at me.

  “Where’s Kade?”

  “Getting food. I’ll let him know you’re up.” Tomas sent a quick text from his phone, then reached for a folder on my tray. “Your choices here are mushroom broth, green Jell-O, or chocolate pudding. Your nurse said you can have solids, but they want them to be soft for the next day or so.”

  I grimaced.

  “Yeah, not exactly top food choices, but you should eat.” He glanced toward the open door to what looked like a bathroom. “Gotta pee? They took the catheter out this morning. Nurse says I can help you up.”

  Yeah, a bathroom break would be nice. I nodded slightly, still a little light-headed. Tomas hit the button to raise the head of the bed until I was mostly sitting upright, and then he lowered the railing and unwrapped the IV line. “I’ve got the po
le. Just go slow. They said you’re probably going to be a little dizzy still.”

  The massaging things on my lower legs had been removed, though the device still hung on the bottom of the bed. I carefully swung my legs around and waited as a wave of dizziness spun my vision. I closed my eyes and breathed through it, then set my feet carefully on the floor, testing the solidity of them before trying to get up. Tomas lent me a shoulder and wrapped an arm around my waist as I stood. He pulled the back of my gaping gown closed without even looking at it, and we shuffled to the bathroom.

  It was an oddly déjà vu moment. Not all that unlike what had happened when Donovan had attacked me. I washed up and let Tomas lead me back to bed. The whole process probably took a half an hour, which was ridiculous, but I couldn’t seem to move faster without the world spinning.

  “It’ll fade,” Tomas assured me. “Your doctor says it is because your brain has to recover from so many clots. You’re lucky. It could have been really bad.” He shuddered. “I saw the scan. God, Ollie. No wonder you had so many headaches. It’s amazing you’re still alive.” He tugged the blanket back up over me. I was just thrilled that I could move all my limbs and seemed to be mostly functional.

  “What about long-term effects?” I had to ask. Was I always going to move like a snail? How long would the dizziness last? Did I have to worry about more clots?

  “Save those questions for Kade.”

  I stared at him for a minute, trying to read what he wasn’t telling me, but either I was too tired and dizzy, or he just was really good at looking neutral.

  The door opened, and it was Will, to let Kade and Britney in. Britney was really beginning to show her pregnancy. I needed to pick out some new fashions for her as her tummy swelled. She could certainly be soon-to-be mommy chic.

  The smell of real food made my stomach jump like it was trying to reach out and grab it. “Holy crap….”

  Kade leaned over the bed and kissed my cheek. “Soup and vegan custard for you. Soft foods even the hospital can’t protest.” He winked as he began pulling things out of bags. Britney had a ridiculous amount of food. She spread her haul out on the small tray like an army of boxes.

  “No comment,” she told me.

  “I said nothing,” I said.

  “This baby wants meat.” She glared at her belly. “I swear he’s an exact copy of Will. Needing his steak rare. And bacon. God, the never-ending need for bacon.”

  I smiled. “As soon as I’m better, I’ll find some pregnant mommy yoga to help you work out.”

  “You should see all the baby stuff she and Sophie have bought in the past few days,” Kade said. He held a bowl of warm, spicy Thai coconut soup for me. He gave me the spoon but held the bowl so I wouldn’t have to. The soup was filled with deliciously soft veggies and mushrooms. “Designer baby clothes, car seats, toys.”

  I sighed but only took a tiny sip of the broth, savoring the flavor on my tongue and waiting to see how my stomach took it before taking more. “Don’t love her more than me,” I told Britney.

  “Oh, Ollie, you know you’re still my number two.” She looked down. “Well number three, I guess. Will and baby being ahead of you, and all….”

  I was surprised Will hadn’t come in for lunch. But maybe he was just taking a turn on guard duty. Did I really need guards? No one had hurt me this time. I looked at Kade, who put my bowl down to hold out the water glass. It was weird how weak my limbs felt. He let me sip.

  “You do know babies grow fast, right? So designer clothes… not such a good idea,” I told her.

  “I know,” Britney said. “Sophie said the same thing. I just had to stop and look, and they were just so cute, I couldn’t resist.” She rubbed her belly. “I just want the best for our baby.”

  “He or she is going to be spoilt rotten,” I told her. “Lots of uncles.”

  She grinned at me. “And a cousin.” She looked at Kade. “Micah is amazing. I’ve never met a teenager that complains so little and helps so much.”

  I agreed. Kade was oddly silent, but he didn’t look pensive or at all troubled. Though there were some things that had not yet been said, and I was worried. “Long-term?” I prodded him before he could pick up the bowl again.

  The nervous glances almost could have been synchronized. I narrowed my eyes at them.

  “Just some minor things,” Kade said.

  “Minor to who?”

  “All of us,” he said. “First, and the one I think is the least issue, is that you’ll have to be monitored for a while. A couple of months, a year, whatever. Regular head checks. You’re also going to be on a low dose of blood thinners for a while. It may not be permanent.”

  “But it might be,” I said.

  Kade shrugged. “People are on this stuff for decades and are fine. You’re young enough that you may heal and be fine in six months or a year or whatever.”

  Okay, a new med and a few scans I could handle. It wasn’t like I wasn’t used to going to the doctor. “What else?”

  “You’ve had a series of seizures.”

  “You told me about that.” I didn’t remember them at all.

  “It was worst that first day, but you had a few a couple days after. I think it’s been three days since your last one?”

  “So am I being given another drug for that? Or is it just gonna go away?”

  “We don’t know yet.” Britney reached out and put her hand on my leg through the blanket. “No meds, but the second part.”

  What did that mean?

  “Until they are sure you won’t have any more, you won’t be allowed to drive,” Kade said.

  “What?” I demanded.

  Kade gripped my hand and Britney my leg. Tomas paced near the bathroom. “I’ll take you wherever you need to go, Ollie. Don’t you worry at all.”

  “But if the clots are gone, I shouldn’t have any more seizures.”

  “Baby, the seizures weren’t from the clots. They were from the damage to your brain, the swelling of blood vessels and oxygen deprivation. Those things aren’t healed yet. It could be months before they are. Or….”

  “Never,” I supplied, my stomach churning. “But you can’t drive either.”

  “I can, actually. It’s a little awkward, but I’m getting used to it. Left leg works fine.” He picked up the soup again. “Baby, it’ll be okay. We’ll work it out. You just need to heal. There’s no race. You have time. You’ll get better.”

  “But I might not,” I pointed out.

  He shrugged. “We’ll deal with it. Tomas has been training Sophie in the office, so she’ll be backing him up soon. That way if you need to go somewhere when I’m not around, you have wheels.”

  “Just not mine.”

  Kade flinched. “Yeah, about that….”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. Britney laughed. Tomas bolted toward the door. “I’m going to go check on something….”

  “What?” I demanded. Tomas disappeared through the door without answering.

  “You’re lethal on cars, Ollie,” Britney teased.

  “The dealership said they were fixing it. It wasn’t my fault someone tried to blow us up.” I crossed my arms over my chest but accepted a small bite of mushroom from Kade.

  “The frame was damaged,” Kade said. “The blast rocked the car hard enough to pop the tires?” I nodded, remembering how it had sat at an angle. “It bent the frame up, snapped an axle, and you may not have noticed, but there was a two-by-four sticking out of the trunk.”

  “But Micah got his stuff out of the back seat.” And he hadn’t said anything about the state of the car.

  “The interior was mostly undamaged, but the outside was totaled. Sorry, baby.” Kade kissed my cheek, then went back to fishing out small bits of vegetables for me. “Your insurance paid off the loan completely.”

  I shook my head when he offered another spoonful. It was too much. He set the soup aside and opened a small box, which held a slice of the coconut pumpkin custard. I groaned, salivating at the
thought.

  “Just a bite for now, and you can have the rest later.” He offered me a forkful of creamy goodness. I sighed.

  Britney downed two pieces of pumpkin custard to my three bites. “Don’t judge,” she warned me when I eyed her round belly.

  “Four months?” I asked.

  “Twenty weeks.”

  “With how many more to go?”

  “Twenty.”

  “Halfway there. If you keep eating like that….”

  She pointed her fork at me. “Shush.”

  Kade hid a grin. I sighed. It felt good to be back with them, to have Kade looking happy and mostly normal. I could deal with whatever life threw at me so long as Kade was with me. And he showed no signs of leaving.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  THERE WERE so many people in and out that I fell asleep rather hard in the middle of a conversation with Jacob about my house and the third-floor room that had been mine but was now his. The thought confused me, but since sleep took me so fast, it didn’t matter. I woke to darkness and mostly silence. The machines didn’t beep now, or at least not for me to hear. I still had the IV and a handful of drips, but nothing else. Kade lay curled in the tiny armchair less than five feet away, out cold. His beard was a little overgrown, and dark patches circled his eyes. He obviously hadn’t been sleeping well, but if he was sleeping in the chair every night, that made sense. It couldn’t have been very comfortable.

  He had one cane within reach, and no blanket. I didn’t like that at all. He was healing too.

  It took me a few minutes, but I got turned around enough to unlatch the side rail of the bed, and carefully shuffled to his side and spread one of my blankets over him. The trip back to the bed was more difficult, as I was oddly weak. A side effect of the stroke, maybe? But I finally made it and pulled my own blanket back up. At least the dizziness was mostly gone.

  A brand-new iPhone sat on the tray table in the rainbow-unicorn-cat case my old phone had been in. I picked it up and slid the bar. My phone. I sighed, happy to be connected again. Kade must have set it up for me, since he knew my password and passcode. I logged into the case file, though it took a few extra seconds to make out the words. They began jumbled, then slowly fell into place. There were added notations from Kade. Memories.