Embattled Ever After (Lost and Found Series Book 5)

by J. M. Madden

  “Ah, okay, yes. I remember Harmony House well. Did I talk with you?”

  He paused for a moment, as if thinking.

  “No ma’am, but I took one of your cards at the end of the meeting when you were handing them out. I thought I would let you know… I saw that guy you were looking for.”

  Alex drew in a shocked breath. “You did? Are you sure it was him?”

  “Oh, yes, ma’am. I remembered him from before because he stayed outside even when it was below zero and all of the rest of us were trying to stay warm. I thought he was crazy, but some guys… well, some guys just can’t stand to be inside, you know?”

  She didn’t know, but she made a noise of agreement.

  “Anyway, I saw him earlier today. I was at a bus stop a few blocks up from here and I saw him. Just for a minute though. He was walking really fast somewhere, almost running.”

  Alex’s heart rate picked up speed. “What is your name? Do you mind me asking?”

  “No, ma’am. My name is Chuck. Most of the guys know me around here.”

  “Chuck, I want to thank you for calling me. I truly appreciate it.”

  The man hung up, leaving her staring at the phone.

  In spite of what was going on in her own life, she needed to head to Colorado.

  Chapter Twenty

  Shannon was, of course, admitted to the hospital. If she hadn’t been, John would have brought the fucking roof down. If there was any chance at all that she was in medical danger, she would be taken care of. He would see to it.

  Lora arrived, looking frazzled. After giving Chad a lingering kiss and a big hug, she came over to Shannon’s bed. “What did you get into?”

  Shannon shook her head, looking aggravated. “I was just driving back to the office when this guy started harassing me. I pulled off the road to get away from him and he followed, then he hit me!”

  The women disintegrated into chatter, and it gave John a chance to zone out. This couldn’t be some random incident. There had to be more to it than that. The man who had attacked her had been too focused, too aggressive. What possible reason would he have to target her?

  Or was she even the target? John debated that question for a little while. To his knowledge, he hadn’t done anything to offend anyone—well, at least not any more than normal. Yeah, he was mouthy and a little foul, but had he actually offended someone so badly that they wanted to attack his woman?

  “What are you thinking, buddy?”

  Chad leaned against the wall beside him, one cowboy boot cocked and his arms crossed. John shook his head.

  “I’m not sure. Why target her? She never does anything to anyone.”

  “That seems hinky to you too, huh?”

  “Yeah.” He looked up at his buddy. “Am I oblivious? Did I offend someone and just not realize it? I’m coarse, I know that, but this seems more deeply rooted. He went after her specifically.”

  Chad sighed and dragged a chair close so that he wasn’t looming. John appreciated that. “I don’t think so, dude. I mean, you push the line sometimes but this is different.”

  Duncan ducked his head into the room. “Hey, gentlemen.”

  “Hey, Sarge. We were just trying to figure out if maybe John pissed off somebody special.”

  Duncan smiled grimly, lines bracketing his mouth. “I was wondering the same thing earlier.”

  John folded his arms defensively. “I enjoy pissing people off, but this seems like a drastic retaliation. I mean, really? Put my woman in the hospital?”

  Duncan shrugged, leaning heavily on his cane. Pushing to his feet, Chad passed the chair over. Duncan sank into it, and John stared. Normally, he’d have waved Chad off and just stood there. Was the boss actually admitting he was in pain?

  “I think we need to keep an extra sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary. John, just to be safe, why don’t you sack out in here tonight?”

  “I had already planned on it. There’s no way I’m leaving her right now.”

  “Chad,” Duncan continued, “is Preston back?”

  He nodded.

  “Let’s pull him in here tonight as well. He’ll go high and be ten different places at once.”

  Chad pulled his cell phone from his pocket and typed in a message. “He’ll be here in about thirty minutes.”

  The men sat there for a moment, trying to understand a situation that had very few details.

  * * *

  As she landed at Denver’s pretty, canopied airport, she wondered what the hell she was doing.

  She was trying to get her life back on track, she supposed. There were too many loose ends.

  Alex rented a small SUV with four-wheel drive to deal with the snow, if needed. The roads were clear, but there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. It wasn’t enough to slow Denver down, of course, but enough for her to be leery of driving in it.

  Now, where should she go? It was after eight in the evening. Scrolling through her cell phone, she sent Duncan a text.

  What hospital is Shannon in? I want to send her flowers.

  St. Joseph East. Room 319.

  Thank you.

  No problem. She’ll appreciate the thought.

  Wow. Doesn’t get any more cut and dried than that.

  Alex plugged the address into her GPS and took off. She parked in the lot and walked inside. Yup. Just as she’d expected. There was a gift shop inside, so she grabbed a couple of baby and parenting magazines and a huge vase of flowers. Juggling her purse and everything else, she headed to the elevator.

  The hospital was big and beautiful, and appeared to have just been recently updated. There were still a few areas of construction, with floor to ceiling plastic hanging, as if to keep in the dust. Or maybe to keep people out. She wasn’t sure.

  As she rode the elevator to the third floor, her heart rate spiked with anxiety. This was a little impetuous, coming here, but she’d been worried. Over the past month she’d talked to Shannon several times, and when she’d met her in person it had felt like they’d clicked. Maybe she was assuming a little too much about their relationship, but she had to salvage something out of this mess.

  Alex lifted her chin as she stepped off the elevator, determined to appear strong. There was a possibility Duncan could be here, and she didn’t want to look anything less than fabulous, in spite of what had happened to her in the past week. She knew there was a very strong possibility she would break down in tears when she saw him.

  Walking along the hallway, she counted down along the room numbers. Should be just around the corner. When she approached the room, though, a huge man slipped around in front of her. “Can I help you?

  Alex gulped, looking up into his intimidating face. The man was dangerous. If she’d met him in a dark alley she would be running for her life. Skull trimmed hair, dark wraparound sunglasses even inside. It took her tongue a moment to peel off the roof of her mouth. “I’m looking for Shannon Murphy.”

  She wiggled the vase of flowers.

  “I’m sorry,” the big man said. “Shannon isn’t taking visitors right now.”

  Alex narrowed her eyes, wondering why this guy was here. Her spine firmed. “I’m sorry, and you are?”

  She waited patiently, not taking her eyes from the man.

  “It doesn’t matter who I am. Shannon is not taking visitors.”

  This guy’s attitude was beginning to irritate her. “So when I go down the hall to the nurse’s station and call her room to talk to her, I really don’t think she’s going to say the same thing. I suggest that you duck your head inside that door and see if Dr. Alexandra Hartfield can come in to see her.”

  The man’s face flickered with some emotion, but she wasn’t sure what. If he was one of the guards who worked at LNF there was a very good possibility he recognized her name from gossip.

  “Wait here,” he growled.

  Then with a final glance back at her, he ducked inside the room. Within seconds he was back, holding the door open for her. �
�Shannon will see you.”

  Alex brushed past the insufferable man without a word, and went into the room.

  Shannon was sitting up in bed, grinning, and looked on the verge of jumping out to meet her.

  “Don’t you dare move out of that bed!” Alex warned.

  Sinking back against the mattress with a smile, Shannon gave Alex a searching look. “What are you doing here? You didn’t come all this way out here to see me, did you?”

  Alex avoided her eyes, setting the flowers on a table. She didn’t need to tell her she was going hunting for a ghost.

  “Oh, Alex, those are beautiful! You didn’t have to do that. I’m just in here for observation. Nothing is actually wrong with me.”

  Alex gave her a look. “It doesn’t mean you’re not bored and need something to brighten the room.”

  John sat in his chair near the window and he tipped his head at her as she walked over to give Shannon a hug. “Nice guard dog you have out there,” she told him. “What’s up with that?”

  Huffing out a breath, Shannon gave John a look. When he shrugged and turned back to the window, she waved Alex to a chair. “Somebody deliberately tried to run me off the road. Nobody is sure why. Actually, nobody is sure it was meant to hurt me specifically, but we’re kind of taking the cautious route.”

  Alex sat back in surprise. “Somebody hit you deliberately?”

  “Yes. They ran me off the road, then left. A Good Samaritan stopped to check on me and the other guy left.”

  Alex looked from Shannon to John. “What the hell?”

  And now that she looked at John’s face she could see how angry he was. He stared out the window as if he were willing the man who had attacked Shannon to step forward so he could kick the shit out of him. Alex had no doubt that he could do it.

  “Preston is very nice actually,” Shannon told her, referring to the guard dog at the door. “But he does take his job seriously.”

  “I would say so,” she laughed. “Well, how are you feeling?”

  Again, Shannon waved her hand. “I’m fine. No issues other than a knot on my head. Did you seriously come all the way out here to see me, or was it for Duncan?”

  Alex avoided Shannon’s penetrating look. “I’ve had a lot of things going on the past few weeks and I took some time off to regroup. I also had a call from one of the guys I met at Harmony House about Aiden Willingham. He said he saw him on the street a couple of hours ago.”

  “Really?” Shannon’s hazel eyes were wide. “Man, I hope you find him. It kind of sounds like he’s been trying to hide.”

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “But that case nagged me for a long time. If I can resolve it, I will.”

  “And Duncan?” the other woman asked gently.

  Alex took a deep breath, avoiding her eyes. “Duncan and I have very different plans for our lives. I wish it would have worked out, but it didn’t.”

  Shannon looked sadder than she had the entire time Alex had been there. “I’m sorry, Shannon. I know you guys put a lot of planning and hope into bringing me out here, but we’ve got an issue we just can’t get past. And though we had fun at the beginning, we had to break it off before we became too invested and couldn’t.”

  “Sounds like a bullshit excuse,” John said, turning from the window.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You two could make it work.”

  Sighing, she leaned back against the chair, tired. “Perhaps. Duncan has to believe it though. You heard him at the house, John. He doesn’t want to be a father, and I very much want to be a mother. That is a very big dividing point.”

  “It will change though.” He rolled closer to her. “If you had told me six months ago I was going to be happy about being a father, I would have laughed in your face.” His eyes drifted to Shannon, and Alex’s heart ached at the love she saw between them. “But now that I know, it’s a very different situation. Yes, I’m paralyzed, but that doesn’t mean I will love them any less.”

  Alex swiped at her eyes, unaccountably weepy, and wished she could tell them everything that had gone on over the past week. She needed people in her corner to root for her. It was so hard being alone. Her father was the only family she talked to, and that was usually only when he was stateside. The call the other night had been the first in two months.

  Breathing deeply, she set her hurt aside and tried to focus on something else. “Is your paralysis complete?”

  John narrowed his eyes at her. “No. It’s an incomplete injury. I still have occasional, spasmodic leg movements. Why?”

  Frowning, she debated whether or not to even tell him about what she’d read. If she were in his place she would want to have as much information as possible. “I was on the Denver, Colorado Eastern VA system’s website and one of the research programs are looking for volunteers. It’s a program testing virtual reality training on paralysis patients. Just thought you might want to know.”

  John’s face closed down and for just the barest moment she saw a moment of raw need spasm across his expression, but it was gone almost immediately. Without saying anything he wheeled around and returned to the window.

  Shannon had tears in her eyes, and Alex could tell she wanted to know more, but perhaps now wasn’t the time.

  Tiredness began to drag on Alex, and she had more to do. “Well, I better go. I just wanted to check on you. If you need anything tonight, just give my cell phone a call.”

  Leaning forward, she gave Shannon a big hug and was gratified to feel it returned.

  “Thank you so much for coming, Alex. They should be releasing me tomorrow. Assuming somebody lets me go home.” She looked pointedly at John, but he never moved from the window or even looked up.

  “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow then. Night.”

  Alex let herself out of the room, expecting to see the big guard outside, but he was nowhere to be seen. She headed to the elevator, waving to a few nurses. She pressed the button, wondering if she should drive through and get something to eat before she drove over toward Harmony House. The doors of the elevator slid open, and there stood Duncan.

  He had shifted as if to walk out of the elevator, but he stopped when he saw her, his eyes widening. “Alex, what are you doing here?”

  All of the pain of the last week… hell, the last month… bubbled up and she wanted to walk into his arms and cry. Instead, she forced herself to take a deep breath. “Hi Duncan. I, uh, came in to see Shannon.”

  He glanced down the hallway. “Yeah, I did too. Wait, you came all the way out here to check on her?”

  She shifted on her feet. “Well, not just her. Earlier this afternoon I got a call from one of the Harmony House guys. He said he’d seen Aiden.”

  Scowling, Duncan stepped out of the elevator to step against the wall. “Who called you?”

  “A guy by the name of Chuck,” she told him. “Said he’d seen Aiden on the street this morning, rushing somewhere. I was going to drive around a little and see if anything jumped out at me.”

  Duncan frowned, his dark eyes scanning her face. “Did he give you an address?”

  “He gave me a general location,” she clarified.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  She felt her mouth fall open. “What?”

  “Let’s go look around. We’ll see what we can see.”

  Without a word, Alex turned and pushed the button for the elevator. It hadn’t gone anywhere, so the doors opened immediately. “You don’t have to go with me,” she protested.

  Duncan followed her in and pressed the first floor button. “I can be your guide.”

  She didn’t say anything as the elevator settled onto the lobby floor and the doors slid open. This wasn’t what she had expected to happen, by any stretch of the imagination. On the one hand she was excited to see him, but it was also heartbreaking that she could be so close yet still have this distance between them. In spite of everything that had happened between them she wanted to reach out and hold his free hand. She wanted to tell him
about the baby she—they—had lost.

  But she held her tongue as she led him to her rental car.

  * * *

  Duncan didn’t know why Alex was here, but he wasn’t going to miss the chance to be with her. Standing in the hallway, he could tell by her body language that she had wanted to get away from him, but he was sure it was because of the situation. Things were tense, he couldn’t deny.

  It was so damn nice to see her again. It hadn’t even been a month and a half, but it felt like a lifetime. Even though she looked tired, and a little bruised under her pale skin, she still left him breathless. He cleared his throat. “How long are you staying?”

  Her gaze stayed straight ahead. “Not sure. Depends upon… things.”

  “What things?”

  Was he one of those items?

  “Well, whether or not I find Aiden. How Shannon does.”

  She left off there, and he winced. Best way to take a guy down—leave him off your to-do list.

  At a red light, Alex typed an address into the GPS, then turned when the directions started flowing. Duncan didn’t say anything, just looked out the window at the passing scenery. He doubted Aiden had been spotted, but it was a possibility he supposed. The man had been six hundred miles away last time he’d seen him though. On a good day, Kansas City was an eleven hour drive from here.

  They turned onto the street that led to Harmony House, several blocks down. The streets were mostly deserted. It was almost ten o’clock, and colder than a witch’s tit, so a smart person would have planned to stay in. The homeless who planned to sleep outside tonight would be bedded down already, bundled tight against the inescapable cold.

  Alex drove past the shelter, then started weaving in and out of the alleys and streets. When she spotted a form lying against a wall or in a depression, she would slow down. Duncan searched faces and recognized a few that he knew, but not Chuck, and definitely not Aiden. They went past the designated area where he’d been spotted a couple of times, but they didn’t see anyone there now.

  “I don’t know why I thought he would still be there,” she sighed. “That was stupid.”

  “Not stupid,” he assured her. “Just hopeful.”