“I’ve got an idea. Be back in a minute.” Wilkins loped out of the room and not thirty seconds later was back pushing a wheelchair. “How ’bout I take you to see him?”
Aiden’s hospital room was bright, Lily noticed. It was a double, but he had the whole thing to himself, no roommate for the time being. He was lying in the bed nearest the window.
“Do you think he’s asleep?” she whispered to Wilkins.
“Don’t know.”
He wheeled her closer and Lily was disappointed to see Aiden’s eyes were shut. She tried to push herself up out of the chair, but the sheriff kept her in it with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I’ll bring you closer, Lily. No need to get up.”
Now she was at Aiden’s bedside and reached out to smooth his tousled hair. His facial hair had grown from scruff to a beard, and she wished she could take care of him. Clean him up, make him look more like himself.
Still, she was surprised how strong and capable he looked even lying in a hospital bed. Even with machines beside him—the IV, the oxygen mask—he still looked indestructible. How had he managed to save her? Aiden O’Rourke was no ordinary man in her eyes. He was Superman.
“Aiden,” Lily whispered, unsure whether or not to wake him. There was no response, just the beeping of machines and the sounds of business as usual out in the hall.
Wilkins pulled up a chair for himself. “I sure don’t like hospitals. All them machines beepin’ and the smell. I don’t know what it is. Disinfectant? Death?”
Lily looked at him wide-eyed, surprised at his choice of words.
“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I wasn’t implying Aiden’s gonna die. Hell, Lily, he’s built like a Mac truck. If anyone can come through this, it’s him. I knew it the minute I saw him. He’s one tough son of a gun.”
Aiden turned his head toward them, eyes still shut. Lily inched to the edge of the wheelchair and took his hand, caressing it. She yearned to be close enough to kiss him.
“Lily?” Aiden’s voice was barely a whisper.
“Yes, yes, I’m here.”
His eyes opened and she thought she saw a smile under the oxygen mask. “You OK?” His words were barely audible, a tin-can echo.
“Got a couple of shiners, sore jaw, swollen face and who knows what my nose is going to end up looking like, but yeah, otherwise I’m fine. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?”
He shook his head. “I’ll live.”
Wilkins stood and looked down on him. “Sorry you had to go through all this, Aiden. The department is at your disposal. You just holler if you need anything.”
“Just take care of my girl,” Aiden said before his lids closed again.
CHAPTER 34
Lily felt pretty good considering she’d been in the hospital for three days. But she didn’t want to go home just yet.
“I wanna see Aiden then we’ll go, OK?”
Annie shrugged. “All right then, come on.”
Aiden was sitting up; one of the machines he’d been hooked up to the day before was now gone. He was left with an oxygen tube hugging his nostrils and an IV stand with a couple of bags hanging from it. A young nurse stood at his bedside, jotting something down on a clipboard. She smiled when she saw Lily and Annie. “Don’t tell me. You must be Lily. Aiden’s told me all about you,” she said, throwing Aiden a wink.
“Yes,” Lily answered, but her eyes were on Aiden.
He was clean-shaven, and his hair was combed back from his face. He smiled and there was that cavernous dimple. It was funny just how much she loved it. It somehow made Aiden, Aiden. As if he’d be someone else without it.
“How’s he doing?” Lily asked.
“Just needs lots of rest and to take it easy for a while.” The nurse turned to replace a saline bag. “He’s quite the hero around town. Heard he saved you from a burning building then even went back in to get your dog. All that with two bullet holes in him.” She laughed. “Impressive. Anyway, I’ll get out of your way. I’m sure he wants to visit with you.”
The nurse replaced the clipboard at the end of Aiden’s bed, and then Lily heard the soft squeak of her rubber-soled shoes as she left.
“You all ready to go home?” Aiden asked, spying Annie with Lily’s bag.
“Not without seeing you first. You look so handsome. Don’t tell me that young nurse gave you a sponge bath.” She winked.
Aiden laughed and held his side. The laugh quickly morphed into a cough. “Sorry. They told me to sit up as much as I can to clear my lungs. Seems I’m coughing a lot these days.” He waved at Annie, who was standing behind Lily. “Thanks for all you’re doing, Annie.”
“No problemo.” She placed Lily’s bag on the ground in front of her. “How ’bout I go get us some coffee? You allowed to have a coffee, Aiden?”
“Better make it apple juice for me.”
Annie left and Lily took a seat. “No sponge bath then?”
“Unfortunately not. They forced me to get up this morning and walk around a bit. Hurt like hell, but they won’t let me go home until everything is working.” He looked slightly embarrassed.
Lily smiled and bent to kiss his cheek. “So, when can you go home?”
He gave her a hesitant look, as if not wanting to answer. Then she realized his home had burned to the ground. Her hand flew to her chest. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. Guess I should rephrase that—when can you come to my home?”
He raised a brow. “You want me to stay with you?”
“Of course.” She was about to say, Where else could you go? but stopped herself, realizing it might be a bit harsh.
“Well, I don’t have much to pack, so, sure, if you’ll have me, I’d love to stay with you.”
Pack? She knew it was a joke since all his belongings had been lost in the fire, but just that word, that one tiny word, made her think of him leaving town.
“I didn’t know if you still wanted me in your life after what happened. I should have done more to protect you, but I didn’t think Natalie was going to…to do what she did. I thought she was just a mixed-up kid, and I could talk her down off that ledge she seemed to be on. I’m so sorry, Lily.”
She slipped a careful arm around him and kissed his neck and then his lips. “You saved me, for real this time. How can you say you didn’t do enough? Without your help, I wouldn’t be alive.” And we wouldn’t be together, she wanted to say, but were they together? She didn’t know the answer to that question and was afraid to raise the issue. Time would tell. She’d have to be patient.
He pressed his eyes shut and shook his head, leaving her bewildered.
CHAPTER 35
Lily’s follow-up appointment with the surgeon wasn’t for a couple more weeks, but today was the day she was allowed to remove the bandages from her face.
Her stomach fluttered with butterflies, excitement and worry giving them life. What would Aiden do if she wasn’t as pretty as before? Probably still love her, she thought with relief.
She took a seat on the edge of the tub and squeezed her eyes shut. “OK, go ahead. Be gentle,” she said to Aiden. She could feel his smile even though she couldn’t see it. He’d been released from the hospital two days ago and seemed to be doing well. Still on painkillers, of course, though Lily noticed he hardly took them. He said the abdominal wound was uncomfortable and gave him trouble when he sat or got up, but surprisingly, it was his shoulder that hurt most.
Lily felt Aiden picking at the edge of one of the white steri-strips that lay across her nose and cheeks. The skin around her eyes was still black in spots, but a yellow cast had come in beneath it.
He carefully pulled up the edges on another strip. “You OK?”
Lily nodded. She heard Rex come in and felt him lie on the scatter mat at her feet. Canine moral support, she supposed.
Aiden finally had one strip off completely, then another and after another minute, the last one.
“How do I look?”
“Beautiful.” Aiden handed her a mirror and smil
ed hugely at her. He looked the same, his dimple, his days’ worth of scruff, that black tousled hair. How he looked so good after nearly dying, she had no idea, and secretly prayed her nose wouldn’t be a smashed-up mess.
She took the mirror from him with shaky hands and immediately started to cry when she saw her reflection. “I’m ugly.”
Aiden’s smile went out and he looked around for a tissue. Finding none, he grabbed a wad of toilet paper and handed it to her, all the while trying to hold his arm and shoulder as still as possible. “It’s still a bit swollen, but I can tell it’s going to be fine. Your nose will look exactly like it did before,” he reassured her.
She held the mirror up again and turned her head slightly this way and that to examine the doctor’s handiwork from every direction. There were no stitches. She was thankful for that. They were all on the inside, she’d been told, in order to prevent scarring. After another look, she decided Aiden might be right. Maybe once the swelling and bruising went away, it wouldn’t be so bad after all. Of course, the bruising would go, but it was hard to imagine the swollen tissue shrunk back to its original shape and form. She handed back the mirror. “Hope you’re right.”
“It’s gonna take some time before we’re both a hundred percent.” Aiden sat beside her and hugged her to him. “We’re falling apart, aren’t we?” He laughed and held his side as he did. “But we’ve got each other and that’s all that counts.”
Did they really have each other, she wondered, and if so, for how long? True, he had told her he loved her, but it had been a while since Aiden said anything about their future or whether he was even staying in town. The force of that worry was so strong, she had to push it away, and couldn’t yet bring herself to ask him about it. Besides, she didn’t want anything to ruin the time they had together, no matter how long or short. “Thank you,” she said and smiled. “You make me feel beautiful and special no matter what.”
He gave her face a gentle caress. “No need to thank me. What I say and do for you comes easy because it’s from my heart. You’re doing the same for me, remember?”
His touch awakened her desire, and his words only strengthened it. She stood and took his hand, leading him into the bedroom. They stopped at the foot of the bed. Aiden pulled her close and peppered soft, feathery kisses on her forehead, her eyelids, her nose then, more hungrily, her mouth.
Lily undid the buttons of his shirt, one at a time, slowly, carefully, mindful of his injuries. She bent to kiss his stomach, just above the packing over his wound. Aiden was unable yet to don jeans or any kind of pants that fastened with a zipper and button. Lily eased off the pajama bottoms he was wearing.
With a sly smile, Aiden eased himself into the bed then pulled up the covers for her. Lily slid in beside him and they lay facing each other, caressing, kissing, touching. Even though she knew he wanted her badly, and she wanted him just as much, being so close, so intimate, had to be enough for now. The feel of his heart beating against hers and the warmth of him was all she needed. They lay together for a long time, silently enjoying each other until sleep finally came for them.
* * *
“Do you think about Natalie?” Lily asked Aiden over breakfast the next morning. It was the first time either of them had brought up her name since the night at the cabin when all hell had broken loose.
Aiden looked thoughtful, as if choosing his words carefully, then replied simply, “Can’t get her out of my head.”
Lily sipped her coffee and took a bite of her bagel. Eating was still a bit of a chore, but the pain lessened with each passing day. “Me neither. For the longest time, it was as if everything that happened that night was just a bad dream.”
Aiden’s eyes widened with her words. “I know what you mean. It was surreal and…well, never mind.”
Lily smiled halfheartedly. “What were you going to say?”
He shook his head and waved a dismissive hand. “That’s a story for another time.”
Her cell phone rang. Coaxing out whatever Aiden was about to say could wait.
It was Sheriff Wilkins. He’d called out of courtesy to let her know Natalie’s doctors cleared her for questioning. Lily eyed Aiden. “Will you be OK alone for a while?”
* * *
“She’s got a visitor right now. I’m sorry, you’ll have to come back another time,” the plump nurse said to Lily.
“Yes, I know. Sheriff Wilkins is in there with Natalie, questioning her. He’s expecting me.” She’d gathered up all of her confidence and injected it into her voice.
“I wasn’t aware anyone else was coming.” The nurse planted her hands on well-padded hips and examined Lily through narrowed eyes. “Wait here.” She pushed open the slate-gray door to Natalie’s room and was back within seconds, trailed by Wilkins, who was decked out in what looked to Lily like a hazmat suit.
He pulled down the surgical mask he was wearing. “Lily?” Then turned to the nurse. “Give us a second.”
When she was out of earshot, Wilkins took Lily by the shoulder and pulled her closer. “I only told you I’d be questioning Natalie out of courtesy. I didn’t expect you to turn up here.” His voice was a furious whisper.
“I’m here now and I think you owe it to me to let me come in there with you.”
“No way.”
“She’s allowed visitors now, right? So, I’m here for a visit.” When he didn’t answer, she continued, “I can help. Seeing me might unnerve her, get her to say more.” She waited a beat or two. Still no answer. “How long have you been questioning her?”
He spoke finally. “Just got here and I barely got started when you showed up. Her parents are on their way. I don’t have much time. They’ve got her some big-city lawyer. If I don’t get in there now, that lawyer will have her shut up like a bank vault in no time.”
Lily took hold of his arm. “We’d better hurry up then.” But Wilkins stood as solid as a statue, unyielding and firm. She couldn’t budge him.
“No. I can’t let you go in there.”
“After what you and your department, not to mention Natalie, put me through, I’m going through that door whether you like it or not.” Something in her glare must have told Wilkins just how serious she was, because he waved the nurse back over with a sigh of exasperation.
“Miss Valier will be coming in too,” he said.
“All right, you’ll have to put these on.” The nurse pointed to a stack of coveralls. “Masks and gloves are over there on the counter. It’s a sterile environment, so you’ll not be allowed to take them off. Understand? She’s a very sick young lady, and we can’t risk infection.”
“Is she in pain?” Lily asked. Although she despised Natalie, a small part of her felt sorry for the girl.
“She’s got third-degree burns over forty percent of her body, but she’s on a morphine drip so she’s comfortable.”
“She going to be in here a long time?”
“Yes, months I’m afraid,” the nurse answered with pursed lips and a slow shake of her head.
Lily steeled herself for what she was going to see when she walked through the door in front of her.
“Looks like you have another visitor,” the nurse announced, nodding for Lily and Wilkins to enter, then took her leave.
Lily made her way into the large private room. There were no plants or flowers or cards. Sterile room, she remembered.
Natalie was on her back, the bed inclined slightly. No blankets or sheets touched the damaged parts of her from what Lily could see, just moist dressings. Her bed was surrounded by a thick sheet of plastic, which Lily surmised was a barrier between the girl and the germ-filled world around her.
As she moved farther into the room, she noticed Natalie’s hair was singed to the scalp in several places. Red, raw patches of blistering skin gave her scalp a checkerboard appearance, but her face seemed to have been spared the same fate. It wasn’t until she drew nearer that Lily spied an angry splotch at the bottom of Natalie’s jawline.
An
IV drip and heart monitor did their jobs, and a small TV hung from a wall-mounted arm beside her, inside the confines of the plastic housing.
“Knew you’d show up sooner or later,” Natalie said, her eyes sleep heavy. “Don’t worry, I’m going to prison when I get out of here. Right, Sheriff Wilkins?” Her words were slow and it seemed an effort for her to speak.
Wilkins didn’t reply but Lily did. “I’d say there’s a damn good chance of that.”
A small groan escaped the girl as she tried to lift her head. “Can’t see much with that mask on. Your face messed up?”
Lily thought she saw a smile curl the girl’s lips. “I’m just fine,” she replied.
Natalie seemed to lose interest and turned her head to the muted TV. Lily saw a morning talk show on the small screen. A pretty blonde woman smiled and talked animatedly to her co-host. This made Lily want to grab hold of Natalie and shake her, to pull her attention back to her. Instead, she asked, “Are you sorry for what you did?”
Wilkins grabbed her wrist in warning, but she was undeterred and yanked away from him. “You murdered two people and an unborn baby! I’d like to know what’s going on in that head of yours. Do you even comprehend what you’ve done?”
Natalie turned back slowly and glared. “Now my outside matches my inside.”
This wasn’t what she was expecting. Were there tears in the girl’s eyes? Lily thought there might be. She was about to say she deserved everything she was going to get. That a life sentence in a maximum-security prison wasn’t good enough, that she should be sentenced to death.
“You done now? I’ve got a job to do,” Wilkins said to Lily. He’d left her now and was standing by the window, resting against the ledge, arms crossed over his narrow chest.
She threw a glance his way, lips pursed, then turned back to Natalie. “Why did you try to kill me?”
“Because women like you get everything you want.” Tears now streamed down her cheeks, and she let them come and did not wipe them away. “You’ll never be alone in this world because you’re beautiful.”
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