Strings

by Emma Lea

  “I can’t let you go by yourself,” Amaya said.

  “You can and you will,” Gabe said. “I need to do this by myself. Stay here with the rest of them and I will let you know what happens.”

  Amaya grabbed him and hugged him tightly. He felt her concern and her fear like a second heartbeat. Huh. The twin thing really was real after all.

  “I love you Gabriel. Don’t get dead or I will never forgive you.”

  “Whatever you say, sister mine.”

  Gabe was nervous. He hadn’t come face to face with Jeanie since the courtroom when she had cried to the jury about how much she had loved him and how he had scorned her advances. It had all been lies. Nothing that he had ever heard out of her mouth had been true. Not the whole time she was his patient and not throughout the trial. She should have channeled all that energy into becoming an actress, she was that convincing. He had believed her lies for a long time but he knew better now.

  He walked into the restaurant and waved away the hostess. He saw the long sweep of dark hair with its hidden purple streaks and his heart stopped for a moment thinking it was Nadine. His head knew better though. He took a breath and rearranged his features into a pleasant smile as he crossed the restaurant to where she was sitting. He bent down to brush a kiss on her cheek, resisting the shudder that wanted to course through him. He sat and smiled at her and she beamed back at him.

  Her disguise was uncanny and he would have mistaken her for Nadine from a distance. But as he looked into the eyes that were hauntingly familiar, he knew she would never be able to fool him up close. It didn’t matter what she looked like, his body knew that this wasn’t the woman he loved. It didn’t respond to her despite the visible cues. She may look like Nadine but she would never be Nadine.

  “I ordered us some wine,” she said with a coy smile. “Champagne.”

  His eyebrows popped up in surprise. “Champagne? Are we celebrating?”

  “Well,” she looked down and then reached across to take his hand. There was no answering clench in his heart at her touch, not like if it had been Nadine’s hand reaching for him. “I know we fought this morning but,” she looked up at him. “I also know that you love me and that you didn’t mean those things you said.”

  “I was upset,” he said as the waiter approached with their bottle of Champagne.

  She waited for the wine to be poured before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a ring. His ring. The ring he had bought for Nadine. That’s why she had been at his apartment earlier.

  “I found this,” she said. “I wasn’t snooping, I promise. I was just tidying up and when I was putting some of your socks away I found it.”

  He looked down at the white gold and diamond ring that he had bought on impulse and his gut churned. Jeanie had taken something so very special to him and tainted it. There was no way he could give that ring to Nadine now.

  “Do you have something to ask me?”

  He looked up at Jeanie, the blue contacts making her eyes look like Nadine’s, and he felt like vomiting. He couldn’t say the words. He couldn’t even pretend to do it. When he finally said those words he wanted it to be Nadine sitting opposite him, not this woman who had caused him so much heartache.

  “I wanted it to be a surprise,” Gabe said instead, reaching out to take the ring from her. “Wouldn’t you prefer it to be unexpected?”

  She shrugged, grinning at him. “You know I will say yes,” she said, “so ask.”

  Gabe clenched his teeth together and swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat. He really didn’t want to do this, but he had to keep her happy so that he could find Nadine. His mind scrambled to find a way around it, but there was no other way.

  “Nadine,” he said and took a deep breath. “Will you—”

  “Yes, yes, yes!” she cried out jumping up and coming around to hug him, snatching the ring from his fingers and sliding it on her own hand. The people around them applauded and he tried to smile through the revulsion he felt at her touching him.

  He lifted his glass and clinked it with hers before taking a sip and grimacing at the taste. He didn’t think he would ever be able to drink champagne again.

  Jeanie pulled out her phone and held her hand out to take a picture.

  “What are you doing?’ he asked.

  “It’s not official until it’s on social media,” she said.

  “Don’t you want to tell your family first?” he asked. “I mean, you wouldn’t want Jace and Vanessa to find out via Instagram would you?”

  She paused and looked at him, tilting her head to the side as she considered what he was saying. Jeanie didn’t have family and she wouldn’t be used to taking them into consideration. But if she wanted to convince everyone that she was Nadine, she would have to learn. He could see her working it out in her brain.

  “And what about Mandy?” he said. “Surely you want to tell her in person?”

  She grimaced slightly before smoothing her face into a serene smile. “You’re right,” she said. “I was just so excited, I wanted the world to know.”

  “I have an idea,” he said, hoping like hell that she would go for it. “I never did get to meet Mandy. Why don’t we drop in on her and give her the good news?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “She’s probably not even home.”

  “We’ll never know until we try,” he said, his fingers crossed under the table. “We can just do a drive by and if there aren’t any lights on, we’ll just keep going.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut as she thought about it. “Okay,” she said, “But you promise that we’ll just keep driving if there are no lights on?”

  “I promise,” he said.

  “And we’ll go back to your place to celebrate?”

  “Your wish is my command,” he said through a fake smile.

  “Okay, let’s go,” she said, jumping up.

  “What about dinner?”

  “I can’t eat now,” she said, “I’m too excited.”

  Gabe prayed that Detective Ramirez was following him as he drove through the early evening traffic. Jeanie directed him into a part of town that he would normally avoid. The buildings were run down and he didn’t particularly like the look of the pedestrians he saw on the sidewalk. He didn’t comment as he followed her directions. Finally they pulled over in front of an old building that had seen better days. He opened his door and got out, walking around to open her door. Jeanie got out and stared up at the building. It was still light out so it was hard to tell if there were any lights on in any of the apartments.

  “It doesn’t look like she’s home,” Jeanie said.

  “How can you tell?” Gabe asked, trying to work out which window she was looking at.

  “It’s that one,” she said as she pointed. “There’s no light on.”

  “Let’s go up anyway,” Gabe said, tugging on her hand. “It will only take a minute and if there’s no answer, we can go.”

  Jeanie bit her lip and looked around.

  “Come on,” Gabe said, tugging her towards the building’s entrance.

  “Fine,” she said with a huff and followed him.

  Gabe hoped to God that Detective Ramirez was as good as his word as they disappeared inside the building. There was an awful smell and the stairs creaked as they ascended. Gabe didn’t know what he was going to do when they got there. He wanted to get inside that apartment. He needed to know if Nadine was in there.

  Jeanie stopped in front of a door and tapped on it quietly.

  “There’s no one home,” she said turning and trying to get him to move back towards the stairs.

  “Give her a minute,” Gabe said. “She might be in the bedroom or in the shower.”

  Gabe stepped up to the door and knocked loudly, calling out as he did. “Anyone home?”

  He heard a faint rattle and reached for the door knob. There was someone in there, he was sure of it.

  Jeanie grabbed his hand. “Come on. Let’s go. There’s no one
here.”

  But Gabe refused to move. He knocked again, louder this time.

  “Hello!” he called out. “Anyone there?”

  “Gabe!” he heard a muffled shout from inside and his heart leapt.

  He reached for the doorknob again and rattled it ineffectively. He banged on the door. “Nadine! Nadine! Are you in there?”

  Jeanie beat on him with her small fists. “Bastard! Bastard!” She yelled at him, but he didn’t stop trying to get the door opened. He shoved it with his shoulder, putting as much force behind it as he could. He felt it shudder with each hit and then there was someone beside him, shoving it as well. The door burst open and Gabe took off, calling out to Nadine as he went.

  “In here. In the bedroom!”

  He ran towards her voice and threw the door open. She was on the bed, her ankles cuffed and bleeding as she tried to free herself from them. He ran to her and wrapped her in his arms, his heart pounding as relief and adrenalin swamped him.

  “Get away from her!”

  Gabe turned to see Jeanie standing in the doorway of the bedroom with a gun leveled at him.

  “You don’t want to do this, Jeanie,” he said.

  “I’m not Jeanie,” she said. “I’m Nadine. That’s Jeanie.”

  “No, you said I was Mandy,” Nadine said and he begged her with his eyes not to say anything else that might antagonize the situation.

  The gun swung to Nadine and Gabe tried to shield her with his own body.

  “Don’t think I won’t shoot you,” Jeanie said. “I don’t need to kill you to get you out of the way.”

  “You don’t want to do this,” Gabe tried again. “You can still walk away. No one has been hurt yet.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” she spat. “You and I both know that none of us are getting out of this alive.”

  “What would be the point of killing us?” he asked.

  “If I can’t have you than neither can she,” Jeanie said, her voice eerily calm. “Maybe I’ll just kill you and let her live the rest of her life knowing that you died saving her. That’d be a nice way to torture her for everything she has put me through.”

  “I haven’t done anything to you,” Nadine said, her eyes wide with fear.

  “You stole Gabe away from me!” Jeanie yelled. “He’s mine! You can’t have him.”

  “No!” Gabe called, taking a step forward. A gunshot rang out and Gabe felt the heat and sting as something hit him, spinning him around until he fell backwards, hitting the ground with a loud thump. He heard a scream and his name and then everything went black.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Wet kisses rained down on his face and he smiled. He could wake up this way every morning.

  “Gabe,” came her voice. It was the voice of an angel. The voice he loved. The voice he wanted to hear every day for the rest of his life. “Gabe, can you hear me?”

  His eyes flickered open and then the pain hit. His shoulder was on fire and he groaned as he tried to move.

  “No,” she said. “Stay still. The ambulance is coming.”

  He looked at Nadine and saw the fear and worry in her eyes and then it all came rushing back to him. The gun, Jeanie. The pain as she had shot him.

  “Jeanie,” he said, struggling to sit up.

  “Shh,” Nadine soothed. “It’s okay. She can’t hurt you now.”

  Gabe kept his eyes on Nadine. “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine. But you need to keep still. You’re bleeding. A lot. I can’t keep the pressure on if you keep moving around.”

  Right. He could feel it now, the way she leant her full weight on his shoulder. It burned like a bitch but he’d rather that than bleeding to death.

  “Oh God, Nadine. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

  She leant down and kissed him on the mouth, shutting him up.

  “None of this is your fault,” she said when she lifted her head. “It was all her fault. All of it.” Nadine took a breath and her eyes hardened. “She drugged me. She manipulated me into thinking I was going crazy.”

  “Oh baby,” he said, not knowing what to say. He should have seen it. He should have protected her.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she said, her eyes snapping. “You are not going to take responsibility for this. I won’t let you. That woman carries all the blame.”

  He grinned up at her, his head a little woozy. “I’ve missed you,” he said. “I’ve missed the feisty Nadine that came into my office full of fire and snark.”

  She kissed him again and he surrendered to it. There would be a hell of a mess to clean up but he would worry about that later. Right now he had the woman he loved in his arms…well, sort of in his arms and that’s all that mattered.

  “You’re going to have to move ma’am so I can get a look at him.”

  Nadine scowled up at the paramedic that had arrived and moved out of the way, not letting go of his shoulder. The paramedic looked down at her hands and then at her.

  “I’ve got it,” he said, “you can let go.”

  She reluctantly lifted her hands and a rush of pain hit him, causing him to groan. The paramedic worked quickly, binding the wound and then filling a syringe.

  “No,” he gasped. “No drugs.”

  “It’ll just take the edge off,” the paramedic said. “The trip to hospital will be a bitch without it.”

  Nadine’s cool hands were on his forehead as she tried to soothe him. “Let the man do his job,” she said and he nodded in acceptance.

  It didn’t take long for the painkiller to work and as he was wheeled out of the apartment he felt himself dropping off.

  “Nadine,” he called.

  “I’m right here,” she said, squeezing his hand.

  “I love you Nadine,” he said. “Marry me.”

  “Probably not a great time to propose,” the paramedic said quietly. “You might want to wait until there is less blood.”

  He didn’t care what the other guy said, he only had eyes for her.

  She was smiling at him and crying at the same time.

  “I didn’t mean to make you sad,” he said. His voice sounded funny and he grinned at the stupidness of it.

  “I’m not sad,” she said, “I’m happy.”

  “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

  “Yes,” she said and bent down to kiss him just before he was loaded into the ambulance.

  “That’s my girl,” he said to the paramedic who just rolled his eyes.

  Nadine paced the waiting room. Gabe had been taken straight into surgery but no one would tell her anything because she wasn’t family. She didn’t think a drug-induced proposal counted. The detective at the scene had questioned her briefly before letting her go. He told her he would be in touch. She didn’t look at the body of her friend as she walked past. She didn’t want to remember her that way, her dead eyes staring at the ceiling. Jeanie might have been a monster, but Mandy had been her friend.

  Which she knew was screwed up. The woman had tried to take her identity and had made her think she was crazy to boot.

  “Nadine?”

  Jace’s voice had her spinning around and the tears falling once again. For someone who never cried, she was sure doing a lot of it lately.

  “Jace,” she said, running at him and throwing herself into his arms. He wrapped her up in a hug and for the first time in far too long she felt safe. She didn’t really know where she stood with Gabe, drugged proposal notwithstanding. But she knew she had to fix this thing with her family and her band.

  “God. We were so worried about you,” he said, not letting her go.

  She held on tighter and breathed in his familiar scent. Jace had always been there for her. From the moment their parents had died, he had been her rock. She had been such a bitch to him and she owed him so much.

  “Nadine?” Vanessa’s voice pulled her from Jace’s arms, but not completely. She dragged her sister into the hug as well and a small piece of her hea
rt clicked back into place. She had missed them. Missed this.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Stevie said, patting her on the back.

  She hugged Stevie as well. Another part of her family who she had been neglecting.

  “We haven’t met,” a woman said, standing a little off to the side. “I’m Amaya, Gabe’s sister.”

  Nadine couldn’t help herself. She pulled Amaya into a hug too. Amaya held on tight for a moment before they separated awkwardly.

  “He’s in surgery,” Nadine said, “but they won’t tell me anything because I’m not family.”

  “Leave it with me,” she said and strode out of the room.

  “Are you alright?” Stevie asked, grasping her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes. “Really?”

  “A little bruised and battered, but nothing serious.”

  “And Mandy?”

  Nadine’s face fell. “Dead,” she whispered. “The police shot her after she shot Gabe.”

  Stevie pulled her into another hug.

  “He’s out of surgery,” Amaya said coming back into the waiting room. “The operation went fine and they’re taking him to recovery.”

  “When can I see him?” Nadine asked.

  Amaya hesitated and Nadine felt herself straighten up at the implied threat.

  “After I’ve spoken to him,” she said and Nadine nodded.

  She understood Amaya’s protectiveness but she wouldn’t be kept from him. She had a lot of things she needed to tell him and no one was going to stand in her way.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  By the time Nadine was allowed in to see him, Gabe was asleep again. She sat by his bed and held the hand of his uninjured arm, tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t know what she would have done if she had lost him. In the short time they had been together, he had come to be her whole world. She needed him in her life and she wasn’t going to give him up without a fight.

  Jace came in to take her home and they all spent the night huddled together on the couch. They couldn’t really sleep and they spent most of the night talking. There were so many things she needed to tell them. All her fears about becoming their mother and about ruining their lives. She told them how she had begun to doubt her own sanity because of the lies Jeanie had told her. Coming out the other side of it, it was hard to believe that she had fallen for all of it, but the missing memories and the photos had convinced her. The detective told her that Jeanie had cloned both her phone and Gabe’s and had sent the text telling her that the dinner with Gabe’s sister was off. She had also photoshopped the photo of Nadine with the bartender. The original was actually Jeanie with the bartender but she had manipulated it by replacing her face with Nadine’s. They had also found a stash of ketamine at the apartment, the drug she had used on Nadine. It had the unfortunate side effect of disrupting her memories so that the subtle suggestions from Jeanie had made her lies seem more believable.