by Jen Blood
Andie was just leaving Diggs’ hospital room when I was rounding the corner: Andie of the bodacious curves, her pretty brunette head in the clouds. I waited until she’d gone before I went to his room and knocked on the door. He told me to come in.
I did.
He was all bruises and cuts and bandages. I was too, I knew, but I didn’t have to look at me. I fought the urge to turn away. He smiled at me when I came in—a real, full Diggs smile, despite all the war wounds. He propped himself up more easily than I would have expected.
“Hey. I wondered when I’d see you again.”
“I was just giving it some time… In case you wanted to kill me, you know. Figured I’d let that fester a little.”
“Let it go, Sol. We’re alive. We bested a crazed serial killer and his minions.” He looked at me. “Or someone bested them, anyway. Your hooded knight to the rescue, huh?”
“I don’t think he qualifies as a knight.”
“No,” he said seriously. “No, I guess he doesn’t.” I sat on the edge of the bed. Diggs took my hand. “How are you? Kat filled me in on the wrist, but… Other things. The death and mayhem. Torture and crazed mind games...”
“I think that takes a little longer,” I agreed. I pictured the gun pressed to his temple. Thought of his body against mine. Sleeping beside him. Running for our lives, my hand in his.
“I thought we should talk about you and me, too,” he said. He couldn’t look at me when he said it, focused instead on our intertwined fingers. “About everything that happened… And what happens now.”
“You almost died,” I said. My voice was rough, but I managed to keep it under control.
He looked up, surprised. “So did you.”
“I know. But with you…” My voice faded. There were people out there watching me. Watching Kat, watching my father. Now watching Diggs. I couldn’t keep my parents safe, but the least I could do was make sure I never put Diggs in that kind of danger again. I wet my lips, and tried to find that molten core within that would keep me strong. I looked him in the eye. Stood.
“I think maybe we should get some distance,” I said. “Just for a while… Everything we went through out there was too intense to just skate through, you know? You should go back to Littlehope. Go back to the paper, and Andie. Get back to your real life.”
He tipped his head to the right, taking me in. Seeing through me the way he always had. “I’m okay, Sol. You don’t need to protect me from anything. Anyone. I don’t care what your phantom said when he had that gun pointed at my head… I can take care of myself.”
I shook my head. Kept my eyes focused on his. And lied through my teeth. “That’s not what this is,” I said. “I just… I don’t think it would work—You and me. There’s too much history. Maybe it’s better if we just don’t see each other for a while.”
“That’s what you want?” he asked.
I nodded, never looking away. My heart ached in a way I’d never even known it could—like some vital piece was being torn away. “Yeah,” I said. “I think that’s what’s best right now.”
“Okay,” he said. He still had my hand. He squeezed it, his gaze finally leaving mine. “You know if you need anything, you can come to me,” he said. “Anytime. Whatever it is.”
“I know.” I thought of his voice in my ear that night: I’ll never let go, Sol. I backed away from him. “It’s the same for you, you know. If you need anything at all…”
“I know.”
I turned my back on him. By the time I got to the door, I couldn’t see through my tears. I didn’t turn around when he called after me.
“I’ll see you around, Sol.”
I nodded blindly, but I couldn’t answer. I slid out the door and closed it behind me. I managed to get down the too-bright hallway to my too-white room and climb back into my too-small hospital bed. Then, I curled up with my face buried in the pillow, and quietly fell to pieces.
Epilogue
A strong, lean forearm tightened against my jugular. I fought the familiar panic I’d been feeling like a shadow these past few months. I rode through the fear. A hand clasped my arm, holding me still. I willed myself to quiet. Steeled my body, forcing myself to a kind of fluid ease that didn’t come naturally. I put my hand on my assailant’s arm. Backed up, shifting my center of gravity while I used my shoulder and my momentum to flip him to the ground.
I followed him down an instant later, straddling his very toned stomach.
Juarez grinned up at me.
“And that’s how it’s done. Very nice.” He started to get up. I tightened my knees at his sides.
“Hang on, now. I’m not finished with you yet.”
“Oh no?”
He rolled us both. The balance of power shifted. Einstein whimpered from the corner, where his doggy day bed was safely out of the way of the equipment I’d set up in my mother’s basement. There was a heavy bag and a speed bag, an elliptical, a set of free weights, and a bar for pull ups I still hadn’t quite mastered. I really liked watching Juarez do them, though. There was a Gazelle-type-thingy I’d nearly killed myself on twice now, but otherwise I was doing surprisingly well at this new, empowered leaf I’d turned.
Except that I couldn’t sleep without the lights on, of course. And I wouldn’t have full strength in my right hand without at least one more surgery, and would likely always feel some pain. Except Juarez had installed a deluxe security system in the house and I’d gotten a little OCD about making sure it was armed at all times. Except I hadn’t spoken to Diggs in six months, and couldn’t stop dreaming of him.
Otherwise, I was fine.
Juarez was watching me in that way everyone who knew about the ‘incident’ in the northern Maine woods watched me now: waiting to see if I was really all right. He leaned down and kissed me, then rolled us so I was on top again.
“You’re getting good at this,” he said.
“Because I’m part Jedi, part vampire slayer.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Because of that.”
I kissed him again, harder this time. Einstein got up and trotted over, giving a couple of sloppy laps to Juarez’s cheek.
“He only does that with you, you know. It’s because you don’t like dogs,” I said. “He can sense it.”
“I never said I don’t like dogs.”
“You said you like cats better. That’s worse than not liking dogs.”
Jack leaned up and kissed me again. I signaled for Einstein to take a hike, my body warming when I felt Juarez’s begin to respond beneath me.
“You want to take this upstairs?” he whispered in my ear.
I pressed my hips against his. “Do I ever say no to that?”
I got up, then gave him a hand getting off the mat.
“We should eat something at some point this weekend,” he said. “I’ll raid the fridge, see what I can cook up.”
We walked toward the basement stairs. Einstein scooted out in front, no doubt grateful to leave the dungeon. He wasn’t a huge fan of the whole sparring thing. My cell phone rang just as Juarez hit the first step. I checked the number.
“I’m just going to take this. I’ll be right up.”
I didn’t recognize the number, but the exchange was from Littlehope. I waited until Juarez had closed the door before I answered, my heart suddenly running off-rhythm entirely.
“Solomon,” I answered.
There was a pause on the line.
“Hello?”
Whoever was there cleared her throat. “Hi. Yeah… It’s Andie Reynolds—I was dating Diggs for a while. In Littlehope. I work at the paper.”
“Yeah, of course,” I said quickly. “What is it? Is he all right?”
“That’s why I’m calling, actually,” she said. “I don’t know. He quit the paper about a month ago—did he tell you?”
I shook my head. “No… He didn’t mention it.” Because we didn’t speak anymore. I left that part out. “You said you were dating for a while… you’re not toge
ther anymore?”
“No. And I went by his place today to pick up some of my stuff, but he’s not there. I still have a key, though, so I figured I’d just go in and get what I needed.”
“And…?”
“Well, he’s been gone for a while—Which I knew. He went surfing somewhere… But I checked his voicemail, because I still get some messages there sometimes.”
Sure she did. Juarez poked his head back down. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be right up.” I waited until he was gone before I continued probing. “What did you find?”
“A friend of his is missing—Down in Kentucky. I didn’t even know he spent any time in Kentucky. But this friend…”
“Who?” I asked immediately.
“Wyatt Durham,” she said. “You know him?”
Wyatt Durham. I hadn’t heard the name in years. “Yeah,” I said. “He used to be in a band with Diggs back when they were in college. Was it Mae who called?”
Andie sighed. “See… I knew you’d know. It was. She said she was hoping she could talk to Diggs; she thinks Wyatt’s in trouble. Something about a cross… I don’t know. But as far as I can tell, Diggs isn’t checking his messages anymore. I thought maybe you could find him. Let him know. This woman seemed to think it was important.”
Wyatt and Mae were the only happily married couple I’d ever met; he wasn’t the kind of man who just up and disappeared. Not like Diggs, I thought silently.
“Erin?” Andie prompted.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I hung up the phone. Juarez appeared at the top of the stairs.
“You’re officially out of food. I was thinking maybe we could go out for dinner,” he said. “Maybe catch a movie in town.”
I didn’t say anything. He met me halfway down the stairs, studying me intently.
“No movie?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Probably not.”
Coming in 2013:
Southern Cross
Book 3 in the Erin Solomon Series
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