Chapter 25 #3
“You stupid bastard,” I heard Chris say, but there was sadness in his voice.
He was moving Derrick to lay him down. We would both mourn the loss of a friend that had never truly existed, while trying to wrap our minds around the fact that he’d tried to kill us all.
I knew it would add to my issues, but right now, all that mattered was that the three of us were still alive.
Elijah was alive. Even if I really hadn’t been able to save him, someone had.
It was over. They were sent for the time, and they won.
◆◆◆
I plopped down in Elijah’s hospital bed with him, refusing to leave his side.
He’d already been checked and they let us know his wound was superficial and that the ringing in his ears should subside in a day or two.
Chris’s colleague had just interviewed Elijah, but they also had Chris’s report, and his comrades were fussing over him as they lamented their own brother betraying them.
They’d taken my statement as well, and we were waiting for Elijah to be released.
They’d already found Will. He was living an hour away and had no idea his son was a homicidal sociopath.
He was coming in for questioning, but he’d told the detective that Derrick refused to talk to him after he left.
He’d still taken the news of all the recent events pretty hard.
Chase, the one who’d been hacking into Elijah’s account with the help of department technology, was sitting in jail, refusing to speak without an attorney.
Danny was in custody at the hospital. It looked like he would live, but not outside of a prison cell.
It was going to be especially bad for Chase inside.
Rory barged into the emergency department, demanding to see Elijah. “Damn, news travels fast here,” I commented as she made a beeline for us.
She hugged him tightly, then looked at me. “You kept him safe,” she said softly.
As much as I wanted the acceptance of his friends, I couldn’t lie.
I shook my head. “No, actually, he saved me. Ran right into an armed murderer to keep me from getting shot. As far as who saved Elijah, you might want to talk to that spooky one-eyed cat and some massive deer with a teardrop shape on his forehead.”
Enyo had been waiting on Elijah’s porch when we’d all trudged out of the woods.
As soon as Elijah opened the door, she ran inside and right over to her food dish, looking at him as though demanding lunch.
He fed her before we left for the hospital.
She didn’t act like anything unusual had happened. It was surreal.
“A . . . deer?” Rory said, looking at Elijah with wide eyes.
“I told you I didn’t make that shit up,” he said simply.
She shook it off, glancing at me then back to Elijah. “So you risked your life for Mason?” she screeched. “For Mason? You dipshit.” She was laughing, though, and she ended up hugging me too, before telling us she was glad we were both okay.
◆◆◆
Chris and Rory came to Elijah’s house with us that night.
The threat was gone, but we were still on edge.
There was one person in my mind who was unaccounted for, but Chris didn’t seem worried about the guy he’d seen in the woods.
Had he been leading us to an ambush, or to Elijah?
Though they’d combed the woods for evidence, no one else had been found.
We turned on the TV and opened a bottle of wine to relax our nerves a little bit. It felt safe enough here, with friends. I felt like I deserved one glass of wine after everything, but I wouldn’t allow myself to have more.
The hero cat was curled up in a chair like she hadn’t left all day.
Like she hadn’t jumped into a car window and attacked an armed man, allowing Elijah to escape.
Like she hadn’t then broken a tree limb to take out one perpetrator, then led a fucking deer where it needed to be.
I stared at her for a minute, unnerved by the whole ordeal.
She lifted her head and opened her eye, looking right back into mine.
Then she yawned and stretched, moving to curl up in a different position, and went back to sleep.
I shook my head and went to set my glass on the end table without looking.
I knocked off the wallet I’d tossed there carelessly, and it fell open onto the floor.
Before I could pick it up, Chris said, “Hey, what the fuck?” I looked at him.
“That’s the other guy I saw in the woods,” he went on, his face twisted in confusion as he looked at my wallet.
My breath caught and I froze, looking down at the photo of myself and Brady in a bar. The photo I kept there to try to remind myself of the good times, even though it had never made me feel happier or alleviated my guilt.
Elijah was looking at it too, his eyes wide. He’d never seen the picture. He looked at me hesitantly. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. I was pretty sure he already knew who the man in the photo was. “What?” my voice came out a whisper, but I wanted to hear what he had to say.
“That’s . . .” He paused, but finally went on.
“It’s the guy who led me to the hole in the church wall.
” He’d given the investigators the story, but had left out the disappearing man.
He’d only told me about it, but I’d been so emotional at the time I hadn’t put thought into it or even connected it to Chris’s story.
He looked at me on the couch, brow furrowed, unsure of how I’d react.
Chris and Rory looked thoroughly confused. “That’s . . . it’s Brady,” I choked out. “My partner. The one who died. The reason I’m in town.”
Rory looked down. Chris looked shocked. He looked like he’d seen a ghost, because apparently, he had. “He’s . . . been around for a bit,” Elijah said softly, but stopped talking and looked away.
“What do you mean?” I asked him, touching his chin to turn him toward me. I needed to hear it.
“He’s the guy in the woods who you couldn’t see from my bedroom window that day,” Elijah said quietly.
“And he was here. I thought it was a dream, but now, I don’t think it was.
He was on the porch swing one morning. He talked to me.
Told me he was a friend and he was trying to help me. He’s still looking out for you, Mason.”
I caught the sob before it escaped. I looked away from all of them and took another sip of wine.
The day had been too much. But the thought that Brady was still my wingman after everything, that he was looking out for me and the person I loved, yes, truly loved, made its way into my heart to try and comfort me.
Elijah sat back, uncertain. I touched his hand and he flipped it over, taking mine and squeezing gently.
Even though Rory and Chris were here, I took his chin again and turned his face back toward mine.
I needed to say it, because I’d almost lost him.
Had come so close that a fraction of an inch or a millisecond would have taken him away forever.
“I love you,” I whispered, then I kissed him before he could say anything back.
I didn’t want to hear the “I don’t know,” or the “I still can’t say it.” I didn’t want to leave an awkward silence; I just wanted him to know how I felt. I hadn’t ever stopped loving him.
When I pulled back, though, he smiled. “I love you too.” And my heart exploded into a million butterflies, because that was all I’d ever wanted.