by Abbie Roads
“Helena’s gonna need an attorney. Someone to help her get a restraining order. And someone who’s willing to pursue a wrongful conviction case.”
A lot of unpleasantness lay in front of Helen, but hopefully none of it would be as bad as what lay behind her.
Thomas glanced at the clock. Damn. He had to leave right now, or he wasn’t going to have time to shower off Helen’s blood before the wedding—and he wasn’t going to ruin Evanee’s big moment by looking like he’d just come from the scene of a slaughter. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Depends.”
Thomas shouldn’t have expected anything less. They barely knew each other. “I need to leave for a few hours. My sister’s getting married tonight, and I have to be there.”
A genuine smile fired on Kent’s face. “That’s good news. With everything going on, I’m glad to hear she’s not letting it get to her.”
“Me too. Can you stay with Helen until I get back? She hates hospitals.”
Kent checked his phone. “I can stay a half hour. I’ve got a meeting with Lanning to update him on everything.”
Thirty minutes was better than nothing. “Stay as long as you can. And if she wakes up, tell her not to freak out, that I’ll be right back.” Thomas shook Kent’s hand. “Thanks, man. For everything. For showing up today. And for taking care of Hal. We appreciate it.”
We. Somewhere along the line, he’d gone from being a he to a we and didn’t mind it one bit.
Thomas went to her. He bent over, staring at the quiet beauty of her while she slept. His heart expanded, and a strange tingle took up residence inside his chest. It was a feeling he’d never felt before but one he instantly recognized. Love. He brushed a kiss against her mouth, then whispered in her ear. “I have to leave for a little while, but I’ll be back. I promise.” Even as he said the words, worry formed a stone in his gut.
Chapter 8
Thomas stood alone on the porch of Lathan’s cabin, staring out over the black-and-white world. Sounds of love and laughter drifted out to him from the postwedding celebration, but instead of the merriment making him happy, his insides shivered and his palms were sweaty.
Leaving Helen alone in that hospital was the same as leaving his heart in the care of strangers. The flat-out truth: He was better with her. He needed her. An hour away from her felt like an endurance test. Every moment here, while she was there, felt wrong. He turned in the direction of the hospital. If only he could see through the night and across the miles into her room.
He didn’t want to go back inside. But after a few more minutes of solitude, he’d plaster a smile on his face, go back in there, bid the bride and groom farewell, then drive like he was in NASCAR to get back to Helen.
The cabin door opened, and Lathan and Evanee stepped out into the chilly night air. Ev was radiant in a simple white gown. And Lathan almost looked tame in the suit coat and button-down shirt he wore.
Thomas forced a smile across his face that felt more like a grimace. He really was happy for them. They deserved all the joy they could get.
Ev put her hand on Lathan’s cheek and whispered something to him. He glanced at Thomas, nodded, then shed the jacket he wore and draped it over her shoulders. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, watching her as she moved across the porch toward Thomas. After everything she’d been through, Thomas couldn’t blame the guy for not letting her out of his sight.
He felt the same way about Helen.
Ev’s brow furrowed in concern.
After he’d left the hospital, Thomas had rushed home, showered, shaved, and changed into a dress shirt, tie, and suit coat, but he knew he looked like he’d just come from an all-nighter at the keg house. Lack of sleep and soul-deep worry did that to a person.
“What’s wrong?” Ev asked as she moved closer to him.
The list of things not going right was endless. Their mom destroyed their lives by marrying Malone. Malone was still out there. The whole world now knew Thomas had been Malone’s victim. He couldn’t work until Malone’s case was closed. Helen had been shot and wasn’t waking up. And that was just the highlights reel.
“I’m happy for you.” He tried for a real smile, but it slipped away before it fully caught on.
Ev’s gaze raked over his face, skimming the scar. “What’s wrong?” She repeated the question, and her tone said she wasn’t going to let it go.
He looked out across the snow-covered lawn and into the dark woods that surrounded Lathan’s house. It took him a while to figure out what to say, because so much was wrong, and only one thing felt right. Helen.
Words rushed out of him. Words that surprised him. “I hate him. I hate Malone. I hate him for what he did to you.” His voice got tangled in his throat. He could barely speak. “I hate him for what he did to me.” I hate him for what he did to Helen.
He felt Ev’s gaze on his face but couldn’t look at her. She was silent a moment, then stepped closer to him, put her arm around his waist, and leaned her head against his shoulder.
“Damn it. I’m sorry. This is your wedding day. I shouldn’t be bringing this shit up now. I don’t even know why I said it.”
“What did he do to you?” she whispered into the night. The only knowledge she had was from their mom’s article.
Terrible memories crowded his sanity, all looking for some airtime. But years of conditioning, years of silence clamped his lips closed. He hadn’t been able to talk yesterday when Lanning formally questioned him, and he sure as hell couldn’t speak about it now.
He couldn’t speak at all.
In that way, he and Helen were alike. Sometimes silence was its own answer.
“Oh, Thomas. I didn’t know.” Evanee responded as if he’d just told her everything, when he hadn’t said a word. She turned in to him and gave him a hug.
He stood there not sure how to react, then hugged her back, the little boy inside him clinging to the comfort his big sister offered.
“I was so caught up in trying to survive Junior that I didn’t realize you were being hurt too.” Regret settled heavily in her tone.
“I feel the same way. I knew something wasn’t right. I should’ve seen what was going on. Should’ve stopped it.” He matched her regret and raised her one.
“You were a kid. You couldn’t have known. Mom forced us both into an awful situation. We can’t change the past, but we can choose not to let it have any more power over us.”
Her words made sense on a logical level, but Thomas wasn’t feeling very logical about Malone. Unable to find his voice, he nodded his understanding. But the one thing he knew on every level: Helen was the key to a future he’d never dared to dream about. She was a balm to all his wounds. Healed him mind, body, and soul in a way that shouldn’t have been possible.
Just as Ev and Lathan and what they’d survived seemed impossible.
“Ev…I need to ask you something.”
She pulled back from him and moved to stand shoulder to shoulder at the railing, staring out over the dark yard again. “Anything.”
“When you were taken… Well… Everyone talked about you and Lathan having a…connection, a bond, something that linked you together. I thought they were spouting some New Age bullshit. I didn’t believe that kind of thing could exist. But now…” God, he was making a mess out of this. He just needed to shut the fuck up and get back to the hospital.
“It’s real.” She looked back at Lathan standing in the doorway, doing a great impression of being a bodyguard. “I know how crazy it sounds, but it’s real. It’s the reason Lathan’s alive. You know Junior shot him.” Her voice faded to a whisper. “In the heart. He should’ve died. But I healed him.”
Thomas whipped around to face Ev. There wasn’t even a hint of joking. She was serious.
Helen had been shot in the heart too. And he’d suspected from the moment he�
��d placed his hand over her heart that he was healing her too. How else could he explain the gunshot wound requiring only a bandage by the time they’d gotten her to the hospital?
A million questions lined up in his brain. “How did you know you were connected? How does this thing between you work? How is it even real?” Impatience raced his sentences.
Ev stared at Lathan, love naked on her face. “It’s woo-woo-hocus-pocus. It doesn’t make sense in any logical way. It’s something deep inside…intuitive. Almost a sense of inevitability and…destiny.”
Destiny. The same word he’d been thinking.
“A deep sense of knowing.” She sighed and turned away from Lathan, looking at Thomas again, taking in his haggard appearance. “Why do you ask?”
“I met someone. It feels”—he restrained himself from using the word destined—“more than normal…”
“Do you have an ability?”
An ability? What was she talking about? Oh…wait… He’d never thought of being able to see the shadow of death as an ability. More like a hindrance that he’d figured out how to use for good.
“I have…” He’d never uttered the words out loud. “I see the shadow of death.” He cringed, waiting for her to react with disbelief. When she seemed to be waiting for more, he went on. “Everyone is born with a shadow of death. Some look light and lovely, and some are foul and dark. I can connect with a dead person’s shadow and see their life. I know… It sounds crazy.”
She waved her hand in the air as if dismissing his words. “I believe you.”
He froze, not sure he’d heard her correctly. She believed him? Without explanation? Without a million questions?
She turned and motioned for Lathan. The guy shoved off from his spot leaning against the doorway and came to her, wrapping his arm around her waist and hugging her tightly to his side. Ev slid her hand up and placed it on his cheek, covering the tattoo blazoned there.
“I believe you because Lathan has an ability too.”
“Whoa…” Lathan raked him with a gaze.
“Thomas, tell him what you told me.”
When he told Lathan about the shadow of death, he expected the guy to give him some narrow-eyed suspicious look, but Lathan nodded his head slowly as if taking in and processing everything Thomas had just said without question.
He’d expected doubt, skepticism, disbelief. Not total acceptance of…his ability. But Ev said Lathan had an ability. Thomas opened his mouth to ask Lathan about his ability, but Ev cut him off and spoke to her husband. “He’s met her.” The way Ev said her carried a meaning Thomas couldn’t translate.
Helen. Helen. Helen. His head bobbed up and down on his shoulders.
Ev smiled her crooked grin. “We come in pairs. Xander and Isleen were the first pair.” Thomas wasn’t surprised. Xander also consulted for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the couple had both helped to search for Ev when she’d been kidnapped. All you had to do was be in the same room with them to see how much they adored each other. “Then there’s Lathan and me. So… who is she? Where is she? Why isn’t she with you?” Ev peppered him questions.
A part of him wanted to keep Helen hidden from the world. His secret. Not because he was ashamed of her or her past. But because he didn’t want to expose her to people’s judgment. He sucked in a slow breath before he spoke her name. “Helena Grayse.”
“The murderer?” Shock raised Ev’s voice, the sound echoing in the night.
Anger tightened the muscles between Thomas’s shoulder blades. “Just so we’re clear”—his volume was a little louder than he’d intended—“she’s innocent.” And he’d prove it to the world. Helen had suffered through her years in Fairson. The least she deserved was a public exoneration. “Malone was the entire reason she was convicted. His testimony alone put her in prison.”
“If Malone was involved, she most likely is innocent. Poor girl.” Ev’s voice filled with compassion.
“Where is she?” Lathan’s tone was gruff. “Why aren’t you with her?”
“She’s…” Might as well spit it out. “She’s in the hospital. She got shot…in the heart.”
Evanee inhaled a shocked breath. Lathan’s arm around her tightened.
“I”—Thomas hesitated to say the words out loud—“healed her.” The words felt weird in his mouth and sounded even weirder to his ears, but felt so right in his soul.
“Of course you did.” Lathan’s words were spoken matter-of-factly. “Then why aren’t you there with her now? You should be with her.” Lathan’s voice edged toward aggression.
“I didn’t want to miss the wedding.”
“You don’t know how this works, do you?” Lathan fired at him.
“I don’t even know what this is,” Thomas shot back.
“You know that bear totem out on old Route 40?” Lathan gestured with his head in the direction of the highway.
The subject change left Thomas’s brain with a severe case of whiplash. “Yeah.”
“It all started there for me. At that totem. There’s a story behind it that explains all of this.” Individually, all of Lathan’s words made sense. It was when Thomas tried to add them up that he had problems. How could he and Helen be linked to an old bear carving?
“It’s the story of Fearless and Bear. Our best guess is that all of us couples are like a reincarnation of them,” Evanee offered as if that would help him understand. “Let me go get Dr. Stone from inside. He’s the one who explained all of this to us. He can explain it to you.”
“It’s simple.” Lathan pinned him with a look more serious than death. “You want your woman safe? You want her unharmed and healthy? You don’t fucking leave her side. You keep touching her at all times. Touching. That’s the only way you are both protected. Nothing—I mean nothing—can hurt either of you when you’re touching. And if she’s in the hospital, that means she’s hurt. You need to be there to finish healing her. She needs you.”
The man’s words were confirmation and permission. Confirmation of everything Thomas had felt and permission to leave. His sister and Lathan understood his need to be with Helen.
“I’ve got to go.” He sprinted past Ev and Lathan.
“Don’t leave her,” Ev yelled after him. “I’ll tell Dr. Stone to stop by your place tomorrow.”
Thomas raised his hand to acknowledge her words as he ran to his truck. He was only twenty minutes away from the hospital, but twenty minutes seemed like forever. Terrible things could happen in twenty minutes.
* * *
Helena lurched awake, heart beating like a gong while she gasped for air as if she’d been holding her breath. A dizzy, disconnected feeling swarmed over her.
She focused on a random point on the wall and stared at it while forcing her breathing to ease. Slow breath in. Slow breath out. The edges of panic began to recede.
Her gaze slid across the wall and found a TV playing the evening news on mute. Words scrolled along the bottom of the screen. Closed captioning. On the wall next to her, a long window was covered with vertical blinds. She looked in the other direction and saw an open doorway, but all she could see was a hallway.
A woman in scrubs walked past. Scrubs? Adrenaline shot through her. She was not in the hospital. But even as denial tried to latch on, she heard those familiar sounds. Moaning, quiet conversations, the beep of machines. How did she get here? Had the Sisters attacked her again? No. She’d been released from Fairson. She remembered that much.
Memories came to her from a great distance. Being in her grandparents’—no Thomas’s—house. Him taking care of her. Being gentle and kind to her. Oh, and…they’d had sex. Incredible sex. A flush of warmth settled between her legs.
The last thing in her memory file was Mrs. Ellis shooting her. Helen closed her eyes as the scene replayed on the back of her eyelids. Somehow, she’d gotten here, but she didn�
�t know how. And where was Thomas? Had Mrs. Ellis hurt him too? Doubtful. The woman’s hatred was targeted on Helena alone. But if Thomas wasn’t here… Mrs. Ellis must’ve told him her true identity. A heavy weight settled over her like a blanket made of lead.
She needed to get the hell out of here. Get back to her camp. Gather her stuff. And get the hell out of this town.
A woman on the TV caught Helena’s attention. She had pink streaks in her hair and lay in a hospital bed with a thick, white bandage around her thigh. She looked familiar to Helena. Someone she’d gone to school with? Someone she’d seen at Fairson?
She read the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen.
I’D SEEN IT ALL HAPPENING BEFORE. ALMOST LIKE I’D DREAMED THAT HE WAS GOING TO ATTACK ME, AND I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO DO TO SURVIVE.
Helena looked away from the words and back to the woman’s face. A memory hit her in a thunderclap of clarity. That woman was the one from her dream, the one who’d stood there watching Helena after she’d won the fight with Hatchet Guy. Which couldn’t be possible, because if it was, then that would make her dream…real.
Chapter 9
Thomas’s mind refused—flat-out fucking refused—to believe the message his eyes sent. Helen’s hospital bed was empty. Not only was it empty, but it was made, the room had been cleaned, and any indications that she’d been there were gone. All of it confirmed the worst of his fears.
No. Goddamn it. No. He grabbed a handful of hair and yanked. In his peripheral vision, the walls expanded and contracted with his heartbeat. He couldn’t look away from that empty bed.
“Where is she?” he bellowed to no one and everyone.
“Sir. Please.”
He whirled around. A woman stood in the doorway of Helen’s room, wearing a set of scrubs with an ID badge clipped to her collar. A white shadow floated around her. “Keep your voice down. Patients are trying to”—her gaze landed on the scar on Thomas’s face—“sleep.” The word fell flat between them as she backed up a step.