Walk Through the Valley

by Debbie Viguié

  Cindy was asleep on the bed, sprawled on top of the comforter where he had left her. Her parents’ bed was unmade with sheets and covers askew where they had risen quickly in response to his call about Kyle.

  He had been up for almost thirty hours and he was tired. Don’s suggestion that he get some sleep had been a good one. The only question was, how. The room was a mess indicative of the tremendous strain that the occupants had been under the last few days. There wasn’t an unoccupied section of carpet big enough to stretch out on.

  He walked around the bed Cindy was on and sat down on the far edge. He felt uncomfortable, guilty at the thought of just stretching out next to her and passing out. It seemed silly, though, in light of the circumstances. It was a big bed and they wouldn’t have to be touching. Besides, they had slept next to each other in sleeping bags on Kyle’s miserable cattle drive. He kicked off his shoes and laid down. Within seconds he was asleep.

  As Cindy woke slowly she was aware that there was something different. She felt warm and comfortable. Her head was on something firmer than she remembered the pillow being. As she opened her eyes she realized that she had her head on Jeremiah’s shoulder and one arm was flung over his chest. His arm was underneath her neck and wrapped around her back. He was breathing deeply and evenly with his eyes closed.

  She lay very still, her mind kicking into overdrive. They had both been asleep in the hotel room. How had that happened? She barely remembered making it back to the hotel after finding out Kyle was going to be okay.

  She didn’t move. She told herself it was because she didn’t want to wake him, but she knew it was more than that. It felt so incredibly good to be this close to him. She could feel her cheeks beginning to tingle with warmth. She stared at him, as though trying to memorize every line, every feature. It was funny because she realized she already knew them. As she continued to gaze at him she realized that she felt safe and contented and happy in a way she had never known before. She wished it could last forever.

  His lips twitched and his eyelids flickered and she felt a surge of disappointment. This beautiful moment was coming to an end. What would he think if he knew she’d just been laying there watching him? She hastily closed her eyes.

  A few seconds later she heard his voice and felt a rumbling in his chest. “Good morning.”

  She opened her eyes and found herself staring into his. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt her heart begin to beat faster. The moment felt charged to her. She should move, she should get up, but no matter how much she told herself to do either of those things it was like she was frozen, helpless as she gazed into his eyes.

  “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you look in the morning?” he asked, smiling slowly.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “I should have. You do. You always look so very lovely.”

  “Thank you.”

  He reached out with his free hand and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Then he began to stroke her cheek with his fingers. Her skin tingled where he touched it. Slowly he moved his hand down to her throat and then her shoulder. He twisted his body so that he was lying on his side facing her and he wrapped both arms around her, holding her tight.

  She felt herself flushing and her heart was racing faster and faster. She could feel his heart beating as well, strong and steady. He was staring at her, a smile on his face, and his eyes half-open as though he wasn’t quite awake. His lips were only a few inches from hers and she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin.

  She was terrified, but there was a growing part of her that was feeling something else, something that threatened to take hold of her and not let go. She should say something, do something.

  “I’ve never been this close to anyone,” she said.

  That hadn’t been what she’d meant to say. Something funny would have been better, something to break this spell that was weaving around her head and heart.

  He moved closer. His cheek brushed hers and fire raced through her. “Neither have I,” he whispered in her ear, lips brushing the skin.

  She shivered at the contact and he pulled back so that he could look at her again. His eyes were wide-open now, quickening with thought.

  “What would my parents think if they saw us like this?” she burst out.

  “Don’t worry. I told them we were married.”

  “You what?” Cindy said, sitting bolt upright in shock at his words.

  He remained where he was, but a grin spread across his face. “Okay, a nurse told them. Don’t worry, I straightened it out.”

  She picked up her pillow and hit him with it. There were so many emotions coursing through her that she felt sick and dizzy. He quickly sat up, grabbed his own pillow and defended himself.

  She squealed as he got in a good blow. She looked at him and he paused, staring at her in return, eyes questioning. “Game on,” she declared and then swung her pillow at him with everything she had.

  He jumped off the bed and twisted, taking the bulk of the force on his back. Then it was pandemonium as they raced around the tiny room, tripping over obstacles and narrowly avoiding knocking over the lamps. She was half-screaming, half-laughing and after a couple of minutes she was also gasping for breath.

  Suddenly he caught her, pinning her hands and her pillow between their bodies. “Truce?” he asked, smiling down at her.

  She struggled, but he was too strong and she couldn’t break free.

  “Truce,” she wheezed.

  He nodded and stepped back. She had the urge to hit him again with the pillow, but she had agreed to the truce, and if she broke that she knew all bets were off. She sat down on the edge of the bed, pillow still in hand. She hadn’t felt this good in a long, long time. Kyle was going to be okay. Jeremiah was here and he was smiling and the pillow fight had been loads of fun and had helped her work through all the stuff she’d been dealing with the past few days.

  Jeremiah’s heart was racing and it had nothing to do with the pillow fight. In a flash he’d understood how much intimacy he assumed with Cindy. He took liberties with touching her that he shouldn’t, that he had no right to. She wasn’t his wife, no matter how many nurses he told otherwise. She was not his to hold in that way and had he been properly courting her from the beginning he would not have dared. But nothing about their relationship was proper or planned.

  He thought about what Martin had told him. If Martin was right and there was a risk of being pulled back into his old life then that should simplify things for him. Somehow it didn’t, though. It just made them feel more complicated. Martin was definitely right about one thing. He needed to sort everything out and soon.

  He tossed his pillow onto the bed, literally and figuratively disarming himself. He sat down gingerly next to Cindy, close enough that they were almost touching but not quite. While he had been sleeping he had felt it when she rolled over onto his shoulder and he had not moved away. He had welcomed the contact with her.

  “Cindy,” he said, folding his hands in his lap and staring at them. “This thing between us, what is it?”

  She had been fidgeting with her pillow, but she went very still at his question. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted, agitation in her voice.

  He forced himself to look up at her. “Neither do I.”

  She licked her lips. “When I told you I’d never been that close to anyone, I meant that in more than just the physical sense. That was part of it, yes, but I’ve also never been this close...emotionally to someone else.”

  He wanted to reach out and take her hand so badly he ached inside. He forced himself to sit still, though. “Neither have I.” He paused then continued, “There are a lot of obstacles in our way.”

  “A lot of differences,” she said.

  “We don’t even share the same religion,” he said.

  “But we do love the same God,” she pointed out.

  “Your people believe they have found their Messiah.”

  “And yours ar
e still waiting for Him to appear.”

  “You don’t know everything about me, about my past,” he said.

  “Not yet,” she countered. “But then, you don’t know everything about mine.”

  “I’m not used to being lost, to not knowing my path,” he admitted.

  “I’ve felt lost for so long that sometimes I think if I ever found my way I’d be truly terrified.”

  “What happens now?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  There was a sound just outside the door and a moment later it opened. Cindy’s parents stepped inside. Don looked at Jeremiah. “Glad to see you’re both awake.”

  Jeremiah wasn’t sure if the interruption was a blessing or a curse.

  “How’s Kyle?” he asked.

  “Better. Doctors say he should be fine. It’s going to take several months for him to heal, but no permanent damage it looks like.”

  “That’s wonderful!” Cindy said.

  “They’re actually transferring him out of the ICU.”

  Jeremiah stood quickly. “Who’s watching over him?”

  “The nurses I suppose. We came back to change into some fresh clothes and then we were going to grab some food before heading back over to see him once he’s settled in the new room,” Don said.

  “Let’s get over there,” Cindy said, standing and heading for the door.

  “What’s wrong?” Don asked.

  “If they’re moving him he’s going to be that much more vulnerable if his attacker wants to try again,” Jeremiah said, following Cindy.

  He heard her mom gasp, but he didn’t have time to make sure they were okay. He and Cindy hadn’t prayed so long and hard for Kyle just to have him killed anyway. He had no idea if Cindy had shared with them their suspicions that what had happened to Kyle wasn’t an accident, but they could deal with all that later. They made it down the hall to the elevator and he tried to focus himself through the interminable ride down to the lobby.

  They burst out of the elevator and ran across the lobby, then outside and across the street before making it back into the hospital. “We don’t know what room,” Cindy said, veering suddenly for the information desk.

  “Kyle Preston’s room number, please. I’m his sister and my parents said he was just moved from ICU,” she blurted out at the startled woman behind the desk.

  “Oh, okay, let me see. He’s in...this computer is so slow...”

  Jeremiah thought Cindy was actually going to leap across the desk and throttle the woman. For his part he was eyeing the group of people huddled in front of the elevator.

  “Oh, here it is. He’s in room 211.”

  “Stairs,” Jeremiah said and ran with Cindy to the stairwell by the elevator. He yanked the door open and they went flying upward to burst moments later out into the hallway on the second floor. They raced past a startled nurse and burst into Kyle’s room.

  A woman gave a little yelp and scrambled to her feet from her seat on a chair next to Kyle’s bed. “What’s wrong?” she asked, hand pressed to her heart.

  “Bunni? Is everything okay?” Cindy panted as she stared around the room.

  “Yes, why? Is something going on?”

  “How long have you been in here?” Jeremiah asked.

  “I don’t know, ten minutes or so. I came in right after they moved him in here,” Bunni said.

  Cindy dropped into an empty chair and struggled to regain her composure. She wondered if there was still a plain clothes officer keeping watch over Kyle like Detective Sanders had said there was the other day. She’d never actually managed to spot someone that she thought might be him. If there was one, why hadn’t he responded to them running toward the room? Was it because he knew who they were?

  “Hey, sis.”

  The voice was weak, but it was Kyle’s. She got back up and walked around the bed to stand beside Bunni.

  “Hey, how are you doing?” she asked, plastering a smile on her face and hoping he couldn’t see how stressed she was.

  “Okay. Been better, but hey.”

  “I was telling him about all the wacky stuff he missed out on while he was here and the rest of us were filming in Canada,” Bunni said brightly.

  Cindy nodded. “Bunni, this is Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Bunni is one of the other travel hosts at the Escape! Channel.”

  “Nice to meet you, Bunni,” Jeremiah said.

  She could tell he relaxed slightly knowing that Kyle wasn’t in immediate danger.

  “Yeah, she’s the best,” Kyle whispered.

  “You’re just saying that,” Bunni told him, but her cheeks turned pink at the compliment.

  A figure darkened the doorway and Cindy looked up to see her dad entering the room. “I convinced your mom to stay at the hotel. I figured it would be safer,” he said, face grim.

  “Everything seems to be okay so far,” Cindy said.

  Her dad moved farther into the room until he was standing on the other side of Kyle. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said.

  “We need to set up a watch so that two people are here at all times just to be on the safe side,” Jeremiah said.

  Cindy nodded. It was the smart move. A chill danced up her spine and as if compelled she turned her head and glanced outside. Two large men in suits were walking by in the hall. There was something ominous about them. One of them had his hand inside his jacket and the other was carrying a bouquet of large, yellow blooms.

  Sunflowers.

  They were heading toward Lisa’s room.

  18

  “Sunflowers!” Cindy shouted as she bolted from the room.

  She collided with a nurse just outside the door and fell, sprawling on the ground. She landed hard enough that the wind was knocked out of her and she lay there, clutching her chest in apparent agony.

  Jeremiah swooped down to help her, but she shook her head and pointed down the hall. He ran, not sure which room was Lisa’s so he looked in each as he ran by, scanning for someone with sunflowers.

  At last he saw what he was looking for and he skidded to a halt and entered the room.

  “Lisa, I presume?” he said to the terrified looking woman in the hospital bed.

  She nodded mutely.

  “I’m the rabbi. I’ve come to check on you to make sure your needs are being met. I know that they have kosher food options here at the hospital,” he said, stalling for time.

  There were two large men in the room and they looked like criminals in nice suits. Possibly some sort of mafia connection. One of them was carrying sunflowers and the other was pulling his hand out of his jacket, leaving the gun he had underneath it in place.

  “I’m sorry it took me so long to come and check in on you, but I’ve had to make quite a few visitations, most of them to people a lot older and sicker than you,” he said, forcing a smile.

  He turned to the men. “Gentlemen, how do you do? I’m Rabbi Silverman.”

  They nodded at him, faces hostile. He pretended not to notice. In his mind he had already formulated a plan for how he would take them both down before they could draw their weapons. He was about to make a move when a nurse bustled in.

  “Oh good, rabbi, I’m glad you found the right room,” she said with a smile.

  “Yes, thank you,” Jeremiah said, realizing Cindy must have sent her. “I was just getting ready to have a nice chat with Lisa,” he said.

  “We should go,” the first thug said to the second one. The second one nodded and put the bouquet of sunflowers on one of the tables. “See you around, Lisa,” the first one said, his voice dripping menace.

  Lisa didn’t say a word.

  The nurse bustled around, doing her duties. Cindy appeared a minute later in the doorway, pale but apparently alright.

  Jeremiah walked over and stood next to her. “We scared them off.”

  She nodded. “I called Detective Sanders. As soon as the nurse leaves, though, I think we need to have a talk with Lisa.”

  “I think it’s pa
st time.”

  As soon as the nurse left Jeremiah pulled chairs up on either side of Lisa’s bed.

  “I’m, I’m not in the mood for company,” she said.

  “I’m not sure that’s anyway to greet the man who just saved your life,” Cindy said.

  Jeremiah nodded. “Yes, because I’m pretty sure that’s what just happened. Care to tell us who those guys were?”

  “No,” Lisa said, fear written all over her face.

  “I know that whoever hit you and Kyle was coming after you, not him. That’s what all the sunflowers are about. The ones with the morbid note, the picture someone put on your phone that I’m sure the detective showed you, and those guys with more sunflowers. Is this all connected to the client you mentioned in that magazine article who had the obsession with sunflowers?”

  “Yes,” Lisa whispered.

  Cindy glanced at him. Now they were getting somewhere.

  “Who is the client and why is he coming after you now?” Jeremiah asked.

  “We can’t help you if you won’t tell us what’s going on,” Cindy said after waiting for several seconds in silence.

  Lisa shuddered and it shook her entire body. Tears filled her eyes. Cindy reached out and took her hand. “It’s going to be okay. We can help. We’re good at this sort of thing,” she said as reassuringly as she could.

  Jeremiah nodded supportively.

  “Shut the door,” Lisa whispered.

  Jeremiah got up and did so then came back to his seat.

  “When I was just out of college, my parents wanted to help me out,” Lisa said. “They helped me get my first design job with a...a friend of theirs. My father did some work for him.”

  “What kind of work?” Jeremiah asked softly, suspecting that it was not entirely above board.

  “My parents own a restaurant. No one ever eats there, but a lot of money goes through it anyway.”

  “They laundered money for him,” Jeremiah said quietly.