Wounds That Won’t Heal

by Calle J. Brookes

Classic cars. Cooking. Things they both enjoyed. Something that when the world settled down around them they could do together. Rafe was actually looking forward to it.

  He wanted to get his house fixed, then get her little she-devil ass into his home where he wanted her to belong. He wanted her in his bed every damned night.

  Not across the yard, her light tempting him to do something stupid like climb the rosebush to get to her without her father knowing.

  Jillian’s bedroom was on the first floor—climbing would be wasted effort. But he’d do it, if that was what it took.

  But they would have to discuss that later. For now FCGH had to come first.

  Marcus was right next to her. Lacy was across the island, busily chopping vegetables. Horace the Beagle wove in and out of their feet, begging for scraps. Apparently he liked zucchini.

  It was so domestic, so open and welcoming. And when they looked up and smiled at him when he walked in the door, it felt so right. As if Rafe had just found exactly where it was that he belonged.

  Jillian stopped cooking and crossed the kitchen to him. She took the stack of files from him and handed them to her father. Kevin carried them into the dining room and sat them in the middle of the table.

  They all knew why those files were there.

  Jillian slipped her arms around him and tilted her head back for him to kiss her. Rafe complied. Quickly, easily, like he had done it a thousand times before.

  Until the door opened behind him and someone bumped him. "Move, you're blocking the door. You can suck face with Jillian later."

  Chance's words surprised a bark of laughter out of Rafe. He looked over his shoulder as his cousin, Brynna and the baby, and Ariella came in out of the light summer rain. Rafe used his hold on Jillian to lift her out of the path of their family.

  Their family. That was exactly what they were; the realization practically knocked him on his ass.

  It had a nice ring to it. Because it was where they belonged.

  He'd found his belonging, and Rafe knew it. Now he just had to decide what he was going to do about that.

  But first, they had to figure out who was threatening FCGH.

  All the digging Rafe had done that day, and it didn't answer the most burning question—what was Jessica Ward doing with the liquid drug that she had smuggled out of the pharmacy? No one had a clue.

  He had Larry and Manda, the two supervisors of the pharmacy, searching every record possible to ensure that she hadn't taken any other drugs out of the building.

  Larry and Manda were cooperating, knowing that as her supervisors they were as equally on the hook for not noticing the missing inventory.

  Unless Jessica had been just that good.

  Elliot had brought the news earlier that Jessica Ward had been a false identity. The woman in question did not have two sisters like she had said. What she had was an aging mother with a prostitution record who had shown up at the TSP building to report her daughter Jessica Ames as being missing.

  Jessica Ward had been a woman with a high intellect, an excellent transcript, all the right pharmaceutical credentials, and an upward future. Who had died five years ago from a genetic heart disease at the age of twenty-six.

  Jessica Ames was a high school dropout who'd grown up three blocks away from the worst section of Boethe Street. Who had a rap sheet for drug trafficking and possession with intent to sell going back to when she was twelve.

  Rafe had been there when Allen Jacobson was questioned about that information. It had rocked the other man completely. Jacobson had asked for a leave of absence from the hospital to process what they had learned. Rafe had no choice but to grant it. He hadn’t hesitated.

  It was going to take a while for the other man’s own wounds to heal.

  There was nothing Rafe understood more.

  He was still raw himself, and probably would be for a very long time. Jillian and her family, his family, had helped the healing process to start, but people were not static. One thing could not change in your life and everything just be fixed. Healing was a lifelong process. For all of them.

  He just hoped Jacobson had people in his life that would see that, that would help the other man start on that journey.

  Rafe's next task was addressing the FCGH Board of Directors, and informing them of his plan to fix what was wrong at FCGH once and for all. It was going to be a massive, and dramatic, change.

  Starting with Solpalmitraln.

  Rafe back stepped Jillian into her kitchen, then kissed her once again. Then he let her go. He just stared down at her for a very long time. Until one small hand touched his cheek and she smiled. “We’ll figure it all out, you know?”

  He did.

  127

  Rafe had changed. Jillian had been able to see that from the moment he’d walked into her kitchen the night before. He wasn’t exactly mellowed, but that tension that ran through him constantly was more muted than it ever had been. She’d noticed and studied him as the night had progressed, as she and her family and his had gone through the files Rafe had brought home from the hospital. Everyone had known they were confidential, but no one had given a damn.

  A woman was dead because of those files; they’d left it unsaid that Jillian could have been, too.

  Chance, Rafe, Lacy and her father had been the ones digging the deepest—each bringing skills to the investigation that the rest of them didn’t have. Jillian helped where she could—giving insights into some of the people involved—and did her best to ensure they all had what they needed.

  Jillian had snuck back into Rafe’s bed after everyone else had left, not surprised to find him still awake and thinking. They’d spent most of the night talking instead of sleeping. And then there was loving involved.

  A small smile crossed her lips as she thought about it.

  She had a lot to think about and most of it was six-foot-seven of pure male. Jillian couldn't get the man out of her head, or her heart.

  And she admitted it to herself that she didn't want to.

  They still had to have that talk.

  That ‘This is what I want out of the future; what do you want out of the future?’ conversation.

  She could just imagine what it would be like. She'd look at him, and just tell him the way it was going to be.

  That they were going to be together for as long as they possibly could, and that he wasn't going to get a chance to argue. And for as long as they could meant forever.

  Because whether she had prepared for him or not, whether she wanted it or not, Jillian loved that man.

  She just did. She’d thought about that as she’d snuggled up against his chest and listened to him breathe early that morning.

  Rafe had a large task in front of him, putting all the puzzle pieces together to ensure that FCGH ran as safely and efficiently as it was supposed to. Never before had she quite understood exactly what the COM position entailed. Until she had gotten a close and intimate look at the job through him.

  Rafe was just as intense as his cousin Elliot, who ran the Finley Creek branch of the Texas State Police. Intense, powerful, driven, intelligent—there was just something more about Rafael Holden-Deane than there was other men. Now she understood that.

  He was just as intense as Houghton. Now she understood exactly why Mel had fallen as hard as she had.

  Jillian clocked out, and left a message with Wanda for Rafe. He wasn't exactly happy with the idea of her leaving the hospital without him, but Ari needed her. Badly.

  W4HAV was going to open in less than a month. And there was still so much work to do. Life had just delayed Ari’s plans a little too long. And that wasn't fair to her friend. Or to the people that the charity would help.

  It was a bright day out, the security guards were right there. Jillian crossed the parking lot.

  128

  Allen had sat at his desk for the entire day. His practice was now closed until further notice. Cage Ralstone, his partner, would have to pick it back up when he return
ed from traveling.

  He'd paid for Jess's funeral today.

  She had lied to him for the entirety of their relationship. But Allen hadn’t been able to look at Jess’s mother and not be able to help her bury her only daughter.

  All of the money in Jess's account had been frozen by the TSP. And her mother had loved Jessica fiercely. She didn't understand anything that had happened.

  Hell, neither did Allen.

  He'd paid to bury her, but he refused to attend her funeral.

  The Jessica Ward he had loved had never existed.

  Allen wasn't certain what he was supposed to do next. The thought of going in to FCGH right now sickened him. If he looked out his office window and to the left a bit, he could see where Logan had died. If he twisted slightly to the right, he could see the staff back entrance where Jessica had most likely died.

  The hospital was a large white knife to his gut every time he looked out his window.

  Allen couldn't help but stare out the window.

  Ralstone was out of the country for a week doing relief work in Central America after a hurricane.

  Allen had their entire floor to himself.

  He took advantage of that now, just sitting, thinking, and wondering. Trying to figure out exactly what it was he was supposed to do next.

  He had no clue what it was he was supposed to do. But he couldn’t just sit there any longer.

  He jerked to his feet, and grabbed his bag.

  He wasn't helping himself by sitting in his office brooding over things he just did not understand. He'd be better off crossing the damned street to that hospital and helping Holden-Deane find the answers they both needed.

  Because the truth was that the man who had killed Jess was still out there. Gossip was he was responsible for almost killing Jillian.

  Jillian. The one woman he knew he did not deserve to become a victim ever again.

  He had not been able to protect Jess, but he would for damned well sure help Holden-Deane protect Jillian.

  Allen locked up his office and stepped outside.

  129

  Rafe made her feel safe. Jillian thought about that as she crossed the parking lot toward Travis’ property complex. She waited at the crosswalk, her phone in her hand. As soon as she crossed the street safely, she opened up her text message app and recorded what she wanted to say to Lacy. It would convert her message into text for her friend to read. She needed Lacy to get her ass there.

  Because Rafe made her feel safe and like Jillian again. She half-thought Lacy would understand that, her relationship with Travis would be proof of that. Jillian thought, anyway.

  Jillian didn't know exactly how that would change her world, but she knew it would.

  She needed Lacy and Ari. It was as simple as that.

  He wasn’t exactly the kind of man she’d ever pictured feeling this way about. In the back of her head had always been this idea of finding a quiet, accepting, hard-working man like her father.

  Not one quite as intense as the one she’d fallen for.

  She was ready, but what her next step was she had no idea. Her phone beeped; she looked down in time to see Lacy's avatar pop up on her screen. Lacy was on her way and would be there as soon as Travis got her there.

  Ari had been spending practically every free moment at the W4HAV head-quarters, getting it up and running. She'd already had victims showing up, needing help. They couldn’t be turned away.

  She was working double time now to get things in place. And still coming by to make sure that Jillian was okay. Jillian wasn't much in the mood for painting and moving filing cabinets, but she needed her friends. She wasn't exactly sure what she would say to them—probably something like: ‘Lacy, Ari, I'm confused. I'm in love with him. What the hell do I do next?’

  They’d look at her like she was insane—well, Ari would. Lacy would probably just cackle, and ask if they’d used condoms, or if Jillian was going to make her and Travis an aunt and uncle already—then do whatever they had to in order to help her figure it out.

  Her phone beeped again. It was Ari. Her friend was running late, and had a few minutes to get there.

  Instead of heading into the charity itself, Jillian would head up two flights. She knew Allen was there. Jake, the parcel delivery clerk, had told her specifically when he had dropped off a bundle of letters for the hospital that he had seen Allen in his office on the way in. And that Allen hadn’t looked good.

  Jillian would just check on him for herself. Make sure that he was okay.

  What had happened to Jessica Ward, and what they had learned about her, had shaken Allen to his core.

  She understood how unsettled that would make him feel. She still hadn’t forgotten that the man who had helped her dad paint Jillian’s BMW had actually tried to shoot Gabby and Brynna and Mel.

  It had taken her months to get to this point.

  It hadn’t helped that Bennett Russell’s son was a first responder that routinely worked the nightshift. Or that Bennett’s wife was a nurse in Oncology.

  Lacy texted back—she was now running later as well; something to do with Horace eating something he shouldn't have. Lacy was going to meet them in Ari’s office with dinner.

  It was so ordinary and normal. Jillian hit the reply button and held her cell closer to tell Lacy she’d see her soon.

  She didn’t get the chance.

  She had just rounded the Claireson Pharm delivery van parked directly in front of the thick flowerbeds when a tall man with hair a few shades lighter than Rafe’s almost bumped into her. Jillian looked up into pale blue eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

  “People…rarely do until it’s too late. Have a nice day, Miss.”

  He scared her. The hair on her arms raised and every instinct she had went on full alert.

  Jillian hurried inside.

  130

  Allen opened his office door, determined to find Rafe and help him find the answers they needed. He didn't expect to see Jillian right there in front of him. "Jilly? Honey, why are you here? Shouldn't you be over at the hospital with Rafe?" Safe and protected.

  "I saw him, Allen. The man Jessica was arguing with the night I was hurt in the stairwell. It’s the Claireson Pharm delivery guy. I think his name is Dan. Or Don. I couldn’t read the name tag. I saw him outside here, with a load of boxes."

  "Are you sure?" Allen studied her quickly.

  "Yes. As certain as I can be post-concussion. I bumped into him out on the street. That's where I realized that I had seen him before. He was the one arguing with Jessica. It was him. He's the one Rafe is looking for." She was shaking in his arms. That sank in.

  Jillian was afraid. Vulnerable. Needing him. Allen pulled her close for a moment. "Stay here. Call Rafe. I'm going to go outside and take a look."

  “Allen, don’t…do anything you’ll regret, ok? We kind of need you around here…”

  131

  Allen opened the door after making certain that Jillian was behind the desk on her phone and started out into the hall.

  The delivery man was right there, a hand dolly full of boxes with Claireson Pharm written on the side. The bastard was whistling as he pushed the boxes toward the pediatrician’s office one floor down from Allen’s office.

  The pediatrics office wasn’t open yet—they’d moved into the building just the week before. There should have been no reason for them to be receiving deliveries of that magnitude.

  Allen looked closer at the top box as the bastard walked by him.

  Whistling. Smirking.

  Solpalmitraln.

  Right there in green and white ink. That drug in that form should never have been finding its way to a pediatric office. Solpalmitraln was never intended for use by children.

  The guy had walked up closer to Allen now. Allen looked into the sonofabitch’s eyes and knew.

  This was the man who had killed Jessica.

  Who had almost killed Jillian. Jillian, who was just one floor above.r />
  The guy looked right at Allen.

  And attacked.

  He wrestled Allen out into the stairwell. Allen fought hard, but they were equally matched and equally as large and strong.

  But the sonofabitch got lucky.

  Allen’s head slammed into the concrete step and the world went black.

  132

  Jillian tried getting ahold of Rafe, but all Fin could tell her was that he was in an emergency confidential and meeting with the Board.

  Fin had told her in confidence that Rafe was basically giving them a kick in the ass ‘This is what is going to happen’ plan. Whether they liked it or not.

  Either it worked. Or he lost his job.

  It didn’t matter. If she had to move clear across the world with that man, Jillian was more than willing to do it.

  She loved him just that much.

  Jillian told Fin what she suspected, and that Allen was out there somewhere. Fin told her she’d pass along the message to Rafe, no matter what.

  And told Jillian to stay right where she was. Just in case.

  If she was wrong, and it wasn’t the delivery guy she’d feel really stupid. But if she was right…

  Jillian wasn’t about to go back out there.

  She texted Ari quickly—her friend still hadn’t arrived, thank goodness.

  Lacy was the same—she and Travis were in the far building almost three blocks up, checking his recent construction.

  They were both safe.

  Elliot’s detectives would be there soon. They’d figure out who the Claireson delivery guy was and whether he was the one responsible for everything. There, done. The end. Then she and Rafe would figure out their future together.

  It was simple.

  Jillian slipped over to the glass door of Allen’s new practice and looked out.

  Where was Allen? Rafe?

  133