Chapter 39
FAR FROM OVER
He doesn’t know what’s coming and that makes it sweeter.
I didn’t either, once.
My world flipped in an instant, and there was nothing left to save of the one I loved the most. That hollow pit of remorse and regret taught me how to wait, how to plan, how to make pain into my purpose.
Now it’s Blaze’s turn.
Time to strike.
Time to watch for the crack, to find the opening I’ve been waiting for. Then to sit ready and quiet while he pieces it together.
Maybe he’ll beat me to her. Maybe he won’t.
Either way, I will be there to see him fail... and to watch him feel the same raw, familiar hurt that has been mine for years.
“Hey,” Arden said softly when she found him near the nurse’s station six days later. “I brought you a sandwich.”
Blaze turned, the tension in his shoulders easing the moment he saw her. “Thanks,” he murmured, leaning in to brush a quick kiss over her lips. Her presence always seemed to settle him, at least for a second.
But the waiting was grinding him down. Nothing about this made sense. Nothing out of place, no new notes, no new leads. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that the next move was coming.
And it had started here. At the hospital.
Which meant that whoever was behind it could be walking these halls right now.
Too many people knew where he lived. And he’d made no secret of the fact that Arden lived a few doors down. Their names were literally printed on the collection of mailboxes with their unit numbers. All it would take was one person to look and take a walk down.
He hated himself for thinking it, but he’d brought this to her door.
“Are you okay?” she asked quietly, studying his face while she twitched her nose some.
“Yeah,” he said, forcing a smile. “Just a lot on my mind.”
She nodded and opened her mouth to speak, then suddenly coughed, covering her mouth. “Sorry. I brought leftovers from last night for lunch. Too much pepper.”
He frowned, instantly alert as she coughed again, harder this time. “You did this last night too. Why did you eat more of it?” He set the sandwich down and rubbed her back, the movement automatic, her eyes tearing up as she fought back the laugh with the coughing fit. “Better?”
“Yeah,” she managed, still laughing between coughs. “I’m pretty sure I got a red pepper flake stuck on my tongue like last night. I thought I picked them out but might have missed one.”
“I’ll grab you some water,” Maddy said, already stepping around the counter. Always watching, always nearby, her protective streak showed as much as his.
The phone rang, and Maddy turned toward it. “Shelly, can you get Arden some water?”
“I’ve got it,” Erika said, passing behind them. “I’m heading that way anyway.”
She gave a little smile and cleared her throat again. “I didn’t know it’d cause such a commotion.”
He smiled and slid an arm around her waist, the small touch centering him. “Guess you’ve got everyone trained.”
“More like you do,” she said, her voice hoarse now as she sneezed once.
Shelly walked by, snatched the cup of water Erika had filled, then handed it to him to pass to Arden. Like the teamwork they all had with patients. “Here. Drink.”
She took a few slow sips, then the rest. “Better,” she said, exhaling. “Much better. I think I washed it down.”
He nodded, but his hand lingered at her back even after her breathing steadied. The laughter, the easy teasing. All normal. All ordinary.
But he couldn’t shake the itch under his skin that this was far from over.
He looked at his watch, then at Maddy when she hung up. “Have I got time to take fifteen and eat?”
Maddy looked at the cases on the computer. “Yeah, go. Nothing that can’t wait. Spend it with your girl.”
He looked at Arden. “Got the time?”
“Sure.” He took her cup and filled it with more water from the jug against the wall on the way to the break room, then sat in one of the comfy chairs with her next to him.
“How was Gracie this morning?”
“Good. She still doesn’t know what is going on. I mean, that you’re there when she’s in bed.”
Last night, he’d read Gracie a story with Arden and the little girl thought nothing of it. Didn’t even ask when he was leaving. Maybe they could just slide into a routine without explanations.
Might be the easiest thing at this point.
He opened the wrapper on his sandwich and pulled out half of the roast beef on a hard roll, taking a huge bite.
“You’re still good with me being there at night?” he asked quietly. They weren’t alone in the room, but no one was that close by either.
“I like having you there,” she said, her head close to his as he ate. “More than I thought I would.”
“Why is that?”
She shrugged, a small, uneasy movement. “I don’t know. I’m just so used to having privacy and now there’s someone else there more. It’s… comforting, not annoying. Which is horrible to say, but I can’t find the right words.”
Her hand twitched on her thigh. The other pressed to her chest in a move so unlike her.
His head snapped up. “What’s wrong?”
“My chest hurts,” she said quietly. “Like my heart’s racing.” Her breath was coming in quick gasps.
He was already moving, pulling his stethoscope from his pocket. “Hold still.” The moment the bell hit her chest, his pulse stuttered. “Jesus. Your heart’s going a mile a minute.”
“Blaze—”
“Lie down,” he said sharply, rising to help her to the couch. But before she could move, her body went rigid. Her neck twisted, arms jerked tight, then she dropped to the floor in a violent seizure with her entire body twitching and convulsing.
“Get a gurney in here now!” His voice cut through the room.
Two nurses and a doctor rushed in. He dropped to his knees, steadying and cushioning her head and keeping her airway clear while the others scrambled to help.
Within seconds they were loading her onto a gurney, racing her toward the ER, the sound of rubber-soled sneakers rapidly squeaking down the hall.
“What’s happening?” Maddy’s voice broke through the chaos as Blaze ran alongside holding his hand under her head.
“She’s seizing. I don’t know why,” he ground out. His voice barely sounded like his own. His hands in front of him worked on automatic.
Maddy abandoned her station to stay beside him, Shelly and Erika close behind. The team worked fast. Monitors on, IV started, oxygen flowing.
He reached for the crash cart, yanked open a drawer, and grabbed a syringe. “Lorazepam. Two milligrams IV push,” he said, administering it himself. The tremors slowed, but Arden was still unconscious.
“What happened?” Maddy asked again.
“We were talking. She said her chest hurt, that her heart was racing. Then she just went down.”
“She’s running a fever. 101.5,” Erika said. “Was she sick? She was coughing.”
“Not this morning,” he said. His hands were steady, but inside he was unraveling. He flicked a penlight over her pupils. “Dilated. Too much.” His stomach sank. “Get me a tox screen and blood work, now. Run it to the lab yourself, Maddy.”
“On it,” Maddy said, holding his stare as the blood filled the syringe and she was out the door.
He could feel the dread crawling up his spine. Something was wrong—terribly wrong—and he had no answers. No clue what she’d eaten today, who she’d seen, nothing. She couldn’t even tell him.
He was flying blind, and the woman he loved was slipping away in front of him.
“She’s crashing!” someone shouted.
“Paddles!” he yelled.
The defibrillator was wheeled closer, gel smeared, pads pressed to her chest from the shirt that had been cut away as the monitor was flatlining.
“Charging. Clear!”
The jolt hit, lifting her body off the mattress. The monitor stayed flat. His heart was thumping loud enough he thought the entire room heard it.
He swallowed hard, his eyes locked on the screen. “Come on, Arden. Don’t do this. Don’t you dare leave me. Think of Gracie.”
“Charging again!”
He stepped back, hands trembling now.
A second passed. Then another.
A single blip.
Then another.
A slow, fragile rhythm crawled back onto the screen.
He exhaled the breath he’d been holding, his vision blurring as relief flooded in. His hand hovered over hers.
“Stay with me,” he whispered. “I’ve got you. I swear to God, I’ve got you.”