“I was starting to patch myself up when you got here. Give me a second and I’ll finish the job so you won’t have to look at it anymore. I’ll be right back.” I headed toward my bedroom.
“You’ll need two hands for that one. I’ll do it,” he grumbled, stripping off his coat as he followed me down the hall. When we got to my bathroom, he ordered, “Sit down,” and began washing his hands.
I sat on the edge of my tub, hoping he wouldn’t insist I go to the hospital once he examined my wound up close. He kneeled down in front of me and gently took my arm, removing the towel. The bleeding hadn’t stopped yet.
Furrowing his brow, he said, “This isn’t just a scratch, Ellie. I’ll do what I can.” As he began cleaning my wound again, he said, “Tell me everything.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
While Baxter worked on my arm, I launched into my story about Justin and our joyride around town. I had to pause a few times, twice for him to let out a string of curses—like when I told him that Linda Beasley had been the one to tell Samuel Fox about Leann’s alleged affair with Richard Kendrick, and also when I recounted Justin trying to stab me. I halted my story a third time so he could make a call to Sterling to have someone look into the stolen sports car and do a background check on Linda Beasley.
After Baxter had put a dozen or so butterfly closures in place, he covered my wound with gauze and wrapped my entire forearm in a protective bandage. Once he finished, he grasped my hand and turned my arm over to inspect his handiwork.
His grip tightened on my hand as he said, “You know, you’re really lucky this is all he did to you.”
“I know,” I replied, relaxing for the first time since he’d started tending to my wound. Even with his gentle touch, the experience had been excruciating. I wiped the cold sweat from my face with my free hand. “So why had you already tracked down my phone by the time I contacted you? I wasn’t gone that long.”
“It was long enough that I started to worry. You vanished into thin air, and we were supposed to work on a couple of things before we left for the night. I called your phone, but it went to voicemail. I looked all over the station for you. At one point, I thought maybe you’d gone home, but then I found your coat and purse on the chair by my desk. When I heard you’d run out the front door, I knew something was up and GPS tracked your phone. I found it tossed on the sidewalk, and that’s when I really got worried.”
I hung my head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to stop and think.”
Baxter squeezed my hand again, and I looked up to meet his eyes. He didn’t seem as angry anymore. “Would your decision have been different if you’d had the time to stop and think?”
Smiling slightly, I said, “Probably not.”
“Come on. Let’s get you somewhere more comfortable.”
He helped me up, but as soon as I was in a standing position, my head got woozy.
“Ooh, going down,” I murmured as my knees gave out.
Baxter caught me around the waist, and in one swift motion scooped me up into his arms. He carried me toward my bed, but I said, “No, please take me to the living room.”
“You need to sleep.”
“We need to talk more than I need sleep.”
“Okay,” he conceded, heading toward the living room. As he leaned down to deposit me onto my couch, our faces were only an inch apart. My pulse quickened, and our eyes locked for a moment. After he straightened up, I felt an odd twinge of disappointment that he no longer held me in his arms.
What was wrong with me? I shouldn’t be having that kind of reaction to Baxter of all people. It had to be the exhaustion and stress playing games with my mind.
I cleared my throat. “Thanks.”
“Let me get you some water. You’re still pale.” He disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned and handed me a glass of water, he said quietly, “I, um…noticed you were ready to pour a drink in there. But the glass was unused.”
“Excellent attention to detail, Detective.”
A smile played at his lips. “It looks like you raided a bag of chocolate chips instead. Good for you.”
Shrugging, I said, “Trading one vice for another isn’t the best kind of progress.”
He sat down next to me. “Considering the vice in question is chocolate, I’m okay with it.”
“You won’t be saying that when you have to rent a crane to get my fat ass out of this house.”
Chuckling, he said, “I think we have a little time before we have to worry about that.”
I faced him. “Nick, all joking aside, I want you to know that it wasn’t my intention to go behind your back tonight. I feel like I broke your trust.” I paused, trying to find the words to convey something I’d been wrestling with all week. “And speaking of trust, I wanted to tell you… I’ve let go of my issue about you looking into my mother’s murder case. I get it that you were only trying to help me get some closure.” I took a deep breath. Apologizing didn’t come too naturally to me. “I’m sorry I was such a shit about it.”
“Don’t sweat it. I should have listened to what you said and left it alone.”
He still hadn’t addressed the situation tonight. I couldn’t bear not knowing where he stood. “But about me agreeing to meet Justin alone…I hope you understand that I did it because I thought it was my only chance. You know that, right?”
Nodding, he replied, “Even though I wish you’d come to me, I know it had nothing to do with me. The guy is a master at manipulation, and he’s going to do things his way. I fully believe that you would’ve lost your chance to talk to him if you hadn’t agreed to his demands.” His eyes came to rest on my bandaged arm. “I just hate that you had to pay the price.”
The pain in my arm had descended into a dull, burning ache. “Me, too.”
“But I’m happy to hear you’ve finally forgiven me. You can hold a grudge like nobody’s business.” He nudged my leg with his.
Smiling, I patted his knee. “Bad habit. Truth be told…I don’t mind so much when you look out for me. I even kind of like it.” His eyes flicked down, and I realized I’d left my hand on his leg. Mortified, I snatched my hand away and cleared my throat again. “I mean, it’s nice to know my partner has my back.”
His brow furrowed, and he leaned closer to me. “Do you think I go out of my way to protect you because you’re my partner? I’d never do this kind of stuff for Sterling.”
My cold sweat came back. I made a point to steady my voice before I replied, “Right, because Sterling is a cop who can take care of himself. I’m an unarmed civilian.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s because…” He stared at me for a moment, then placed his hand on my cheek. “I care about you, Ellie.”
A surge of heat shot through me at his touch. Blown away by his admission, I didn’t know how to respond. I’d been starting to feel the same way about him, but I didn’t want to ruin what we had by crossing a line. I managed to wreck every romantic relationship I had, and Baxter was way too good a guy to become another casualty of my love life. He was a man who deserved a happily ever after, not a hot mess like me. Before I had a chance to figure out what I was going to say to him, he came closer and brushed my lips with his. With the exception of my inner struggle, everything else about this moment felt right. Too raw to employ what little self-control I possessed, I leaned into him and kissed him back, good intentions be damned.
His lips were warm on mine, soft but urgent. But pure, unadulterated bliss only lasted for a moment until he pulled back and sighed. “I’m sorry. My timing sucks. We’re in the middle of a case. You’re emotionally drained. I don’t want to make things weird between us.”
With him being the one who pulled away, I didn’t want to come across as overeager. I took a deep breath and let it out before saying, “No, Nick. It’s fine.” I knew I had to put a stop to this, but all I could manage was trying to table discussing our feelings until later. “But you’re right. Your timing does suck.”
&nbs
p; He smiled.
I added, “And we both need to rest. You should go.”
His face fell. “You think I’m leaving you alone after you pissed off a serial killer enough to cut you? No way. I’m sleeping right here.”
If he didn’t leave, then how could I hope to keep my mind off him? I let out a nervous laugh. “Well, the joke’s on you, because if last night was any indication, I’m probably going to wake up screaming several times. I think you should run for it while you have the chance.”
He scooted away from me and stretched out on the other end of the couch. “Not happening, especially if you’re having nightmares. If you get scared, I’ll be here for you.”
“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but…you know you don’t have to.”
“Haven’t you listened to a word I said? I want to.”
I leaned back against the fluffy cushions behind me, thinking I hadn’t felt this safe in a long time.
***
I was in the barn with Rachel, standing over her tiny frame huddled in the dirty straw of the cattle stall. It was so frigid I could see my breath, and I was chilled to the bone. Rachel was shivering, wearing the clothes Jenna had been wearing when we found her at the park. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Justin Fox approaching us, a red-hot cattle brand in hand. I tried to position myself in front of Rachel to stop him, but he walked through me like I was a ghost. My sister was tied up, helpless to get away. I tried to grab him from behind, but my hands went through his torso. As he thrust the brand against her bare leg, I screamed, “No!”
“Ellie.”
Something had hold of my shoulders, but I couldn’t pull away or see what it was. All I could see was the frightening scene in the barn. I flailed my arms, trying to get free from whatever was holding me, intent on finding a way to pry that psychopath away from my sister. I screamed again as Rachel cried out in pain.
“Ellie, wake up.”
My eyelids fluttered open. Baxter’s face was directly over mine.
“I was… Rachel…” Tears streamed down my cheeks. “He was hurting her, and all I could do was watch.”
Baxter’s expression softened. He sat back and pulled me toward him so my head rested against his chest. “It wasn’t real. It was just a dream.”
“He was…branding her,” I choked out. “And it was so cold in that barn. She was so cold.”
He tightened his arm around me. “Look, you can’t go there. You have to assume she’s okay or you’ll go crazy.”
I sat up straight and demanded, “What do you know about how to behave in a situation like this?”
Letting out a heavy sigh, he said, “It’s time I told you.” After a long pause, he said, “My brother was kidnapped when he was a kid.”
I stared at him, shell-shocked. “What?”
“It’s not something I tell many people. Of course everyone from my hometown knows about it, because they remember when it happened. But here, only the Sheriff knows. And now you. It was a dark time in my life and my family’s life, and I don’t like to talk about it.”
“Kind of like me with my mom’s case.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. I won’t ask you to talk about it.”
“I want to tell you. I want you to know why I’m like I am.”
I smiled, touched that he wanted to open up to me. “Okay.”
His gaze trained on what was left of my Christmas tree, he began his story. “My dad was the high school football coach in our small town. Everyone knew him. And most people liked him, at least when the team was having a winning season. My brothers and I grew up at the football field. When I was sixteen, on the night of our homecoming game, my brother Tom and I were out on the field when the referees called a halt to the game. My dad rushed out and told us our little brother Shawn had gone missing. He was only four at the time. Mom was running the concession stand, like she always did, and she’d paid a neighbor girl to watch Shawn at the game. The girl got to talking with some of her friends, and she lost track of Shawn. She looked all over for him, but couldn’t find him anywhere. I remember hearing the announcer at the game calling his name over and over again.” He shook his head. “He was a good kid. He would have come running if he’d been there.”
I reached over and squeezed Baxter’s hand, my heart aching for him.
He stared at our hands as he continued, “The whole stadium went nuts. Everyone who knew Shawn started looking for him. The police got there within minutes. We went over every inch of the place. The police checked every vehicle before they let people leave the parking lot, but he was already gone. No one had seen anyone take a kid out of the stadium kicking and screaming. It was as if he’d vanished.” He sighed. “The detective that got assigned to the case was very much by the book. He called in a ransom negotiator, although she did nothing because there was never a ransom demand. He compiled a list of everyone with a vendetta against my dad or mom and investigated them. He worked with some civilian agencies to conduct several widespread physical searches of the town. He got news coverage for us, and the story even got picked up nationally. He did everything right except care about what he was doing. And after four months, he still hadn’t found my brother.”
“Four months? Did you…start to give up hope?”
Nodding, he said, “Tom and I did. Mom did. But my dad never did. Tom and I started acting out at school, and our grades dropped. Mom got so depressed she couldn’t get out of bed most days. My dad held us together.”
He dropped my hand and hoisted himself up off the couch. I could tell it was a difficult topic for him to talk about from the deflated way he carried himself.
Pacing back and forth in front of the Christmas tree, he continued, “Then the detective came to us one day and told us he was transferring to a different department. He was going to work narcotics instead of missing persons. So we assumed that was basically the end of Shawn’s case. We figured no one was going to swoop in and take over an investigation that had gone so cold. But then along came Detective Joe Finnegan. The first few weeks he was assigned to the case, he simply got to know us. He took my dad out for coffee. He and his wife brought dinner over and ate with our family. He shot hoops with Tom and me after school. He talked with us for hours on end and made us feel better. He treated us like human beings rather than a victim’s family. What we didn’t realize was that he was also finding out who really knew us and who knew Shawn well enough to kidnap him in a crowd without being noticed. I showed an interest in what he was doing on the investigative side, so he would take me to the station with him sometimes and let me look over his shoulder while he ran background checks and wrote reports.”
I smiled. “Sounds like something you would do.”
Shrugging, he said, “I try every day to live up to the standard he set.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve exceeded it, especially this past week.”
Blushing, he said, “So, after a couple of months, he shows up one day out of the blue at our house, and he has Shawn. After we’d all but given up on ever finding my brother, there he was, not a scratch on him. One of my mom’s friends had moved away a couple of weeks before my brother was abducted, so she wasn’t originally on anyone’s radar. But Joe managed to glean from my mother that the woman had lost a child. He checked her out and found that she’d taken all of her savings out in cash and was living in a remote cabin. On a hunch, he made the two-hour drive and found her outside playing with Shawn.”
“Wow. Amazing hunch.”
“If it weren’t for him, we never would have seen my brother again. That’s when I decided I wanted to be a cop. And not just any cop—a cop like Joe Finnegan. I wanted to be able to do for other families what he’d done for mine.”
I shook my head. “I had no idea…all this time you knew exactly what I was going through. I guess that’s why you always knew what to say.”
“I probably should have told you sooner. I wanted to a few months ago. Remember when I s
aid I’d tell you my life story someday?”
“I remember.”
He grinned at me. “Well, before I got the chance, you quit talking to me.”
“Right. Stupid mistake.”
Baxter came my way and picked up a throw blanket from a nearby chair. He spread it over me. “Tough situations can have happy endings. Try to think about that instead of focusing on the bad stuff. Get some sleep.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
As soon as Baxter and I got to the station in the morning, our team was raring to brief us on what they’d worked on the previous night. I appreciated their dedication, especially since the clock continued to tick, with time seeming to slip by faster and faster as we approached the deadline. By noon today, we’d have only twenty-four hours left.
But before the team meeting, Jayne called me into her office. Manetti was already inside. I’d known at some point I’d have to face the music for going off alone with Justin. I was a coward and had let Baxter pass the news to them through Sterling last night, so at least they’d had a few hours to digest it.
“How could you have taken such a stupid risk?” Manetti demanded the moment the door was closed. His face was twisted into a furious frown. “You could have been killed.”
I lowered my eyes and tugged at the sleeve covering my bandage. When he’d talked to Sterling, Baxter hadn’t mentioned my injury and had promised—against his better judgment—to keep it between us. In my mind, there was no real harm done, and it would only worry everyone for nothing.
Jayne took a different approach. Coming over to sit in the chair next to me, she took my hand. “This isn’t like you, Ellie. I think your judgment is clouded because of Rachel, otherwise you would never have taken a chance like this.”
Manetti said, “Anytime you’re not out on an interview with Detective Baxter, you’re going to have a permanent deputy shadow. Even inside this building. If you decide to shake him and go off on your own again, I’ll take you off this case, sister or not.”
An Eye for an Eye Page 26