50. Garrett
Chapter Fifty
GARRETT
A drenaline flooded Garrett as he jumped the curb, illegally parking the Range Rover next to the construction site entrance where Bethany was waiting.
The barista was standing next to a heavily muscled construction worker with more tattoos and piercings than her.
“Hey!” she yelled, waving him over.
Garrett was already freaked out, but the look of panic on Bethany’s face was a punch to the gut. “Where is she?”
“In there.” The man jerked his thumb behind him.
The burly construction worker didn’t look any calmer than Bethany, but Garrett wasn’t given time to process that because the guy turned on his heel and started running.
He rushed past the chain-link fence securing the site, weaving around tractors and stacks of construction material faster than any man his size had any right to be.
Garrett and Bethany sped after him.
“What the hell happened?” he yelled as they went, thankful the Auric guys insisted on adding cardio to their workout regimen.
Bethany hadn’t been clear on the phone. She just said that Emma had gotten dizzy and confused and had wandered onto a construction site.
“She had a headache and took some medicine. It seemed like a bad one so I told her she should take one more because she looked like hell. After she took it, she started babbling but nothing made sense. It was English but all jumbled and weird.”
Shit. “How did she end up here?” he asked as they slowed to dodge around a lumber pile.
“I went to look for my phone to call an ambulance, but she jumped up and left. I swear she only had a twenty-second head start, but by the time I got out of the booth, she wasn’t in sight. Then I saw her across the street, in front of these gates.”
He spun his head, checking the crowded site. At least ten guys were milling around near the edge of a big pit. “Where the hell is she?”
The big construction worker they had followed grabbed him and pointed. “There!”
Garrett followed the line of his arm, confused. The only thing in that direction was a gaping hole.
And that’s where she was, standing on a rickety-looking grill stretched over an unfinished basement. She was awake and looking around, but it was clear she either didn’t see or understand her surroundings. Her expression was terrifyingly blank.
“ Fuck !” he swore. “Em?—”
Bethany elbowed him. “Not so loud. She’s confused and high from the pain meds. The construction guys already tried to grab her. She backs away whenever anyone gets close?—”
He raised a hand and nodded, ice sheathing his veins. “Okay, I get it,” he breathed.
Emma wasn’t standing in the middle of the small grill. She was on the edge. If she took more than one step back, she’d fall into the pit to the concrete basement floor. It must have been the start of the subbasement because it was a two-story drop, not one.
“We had stopped construction for a few weeks because of a lawsuit,” the construction worker whispered, also worried about startling Emma .
“We just resumed yesterday and started pulling the covers off the basement before installing the rebar for the next floor. She must have come in after one of the trucks. No one noticed her until she was already over the pit. Her friend here chased her, but she was too far ahead and now she’s there,” he added, panic on his rough features.
“Did you call the fire department?” They needed ladders and ropes, and God knows what else.
“My super is on the phone with emergency services to see if they can bring one of the inflatable things they have people jump into. You got here first.”
The Harbor Police must be on their way now. This was their jurisdiction. But Emma’s position was so precarious. Even if they made no noise, they still had to climb ladders to get down into the subbasement.
All the activity might be enough to scare her. Emma could fall at any second.
“I am going to talk to her,” he said, taking several steps to the right where the thickest metal beam began.
The grill was partially suspended over it. Emma was about twenty yards away.
“Emma,” he said in a normal voice. “Baby, it’s Garrett, your husband. Can you look at me? I need to ask you something. It’s real important.”
Ever so slowly Emma lifted her head. Even from this distance, he could see the glazed look in her eyes.
“Does your head still hurt? Don’t nod,” he added in case the motion jarred her. “Just say yes or no.”
She didn’t reply. Garrett swallowed and stepped onto the beam. “Never mind, baby. Stay there. I don’t want you to move. I’m going to come to you.”
“ Wait ,” Bethany hissed. She turned to the construction worker. “Do you have some rope?”
The construction worker didn’t answer. Just turned and ran to a nearby truck. He returned holding a length of yellow plastic rope. Garrett took a few precious seconds to tie it around his waist, tossing the other end to the man so they could secure it.
He began to walk along the beam, one heart-stopping step at a time.
“You were right about the headache medicine by the way,” he said in that same even tone, his movements slow but steady. “The new stuff is crap. You were better off with the old meds. But don’t worry, I’m getting used to being wrong all the time. That’s what marriage is, right? The wife is usually right. You more than most.”
He was a little over halfway when Emma’s head jerked.
The construction site got so quiet he could hear the construction crew sucking in a collective breath, the sounds of the traffic in the surrounding streets dimming.
“Married?” Emma asked in a slurred voice. She was looking at him now, the puzzled expression ripping him to shreds.
Garrett froze, his heart flying out of his chest, doing a nosedive to the pit. The medication had messed with her so badly that she’d lost her memory again.
Everything they’d built in the last two months was gone. He’d been erased. Again.
Garrett broke out into a cold sweat. “Yeah, baby. I’m your husband. You’re my wife. We live just a few blocks from here. We should go there now.”
He racked his brain, wondering what the hell he could tell her, what would be enticing enough to make her stay put. “We need to feed Meowmus Maximus. He’s our cat.”
Her eyes narrowed, suspicion darkening her features. “You don’t like cats because your aunt’s Persian used to hide under the couch and wait for you to pass him on the way to the bathroom. He would jump out and scratch you up.”
Garrett damn near fell off the beam.
Emma might not remember that they were married, but she remembered that bitch, Duchess. He hadn’t mentioned that demon beast once since they’d been married. No, this was a story he’d shared with her years ago.
Emma remembered something from before the accident.
He willed his heart to stop racing. “Yeah, that cat was a little shit. But Meowmus isn’t quite that bad. He’s little more than a kitten. Just a baby. We’re still training him.”
“To do what?”
Emma’s voice was clearer now. He risked a quick look at her face, continuing to inch along the beam. She hadn’t snapped out of it but her eyes were less clouded.
“The usual. Not to scratch the furniture. Or the legs of my suit pants. He likes to go into my closet and pull them down off the hangers so he can make himself a nest.”
Emma huffed, shifting her weight.
“Don’t move,” he begged. “I’m almost there.”
She took an audible breath, frowning. The fogginess was retreating. It was good news, but Garrett was worried she’d come to and be surprised enough to lose her balance. He had to get to her before she realized where she was.
Four more yards. “Since we’re out now, what do you want for dinner?”
Her head drew back. “Dinner?”
Ignoring the drop below them, Garrett reached out, tugging his wife into his arms. He pressed her against him and shuddered. “Please don’t move,” he breathed into her hair.
In the background, he could hear a mixture of cheering and applause. And sirens.
“Garrett, I can’t breathe.”
The words were muffled because her face was pressed to his chest.
He gave her a bit of space so she wouldn’t smother. “Baby, I’m going to pick you up now. I want you to wrap your legs around me, okay? Then I’m going to carry us back the way I came.”
Garrett tested the grill under her feet, relieved it seemed solid enough to bear his weight many times over. He kept holding her as he picked her up, urging her legs up and around his waist.
“I did marry you,” she mumbled into his shoulder as he hefted her aloft, adjusting her weight more securely.
At least she didn’t phrase it as a question. That was some comfort .
“Yes, you did.”
Keeping a tight grip, he turned with small mincing steps. Ahead of him, the crowd was standing quietly, except for Bethany who was gesticulating wildly.
“C’mon,” Bethany mouthed, hopping up and down.
Ignoring her, Garrett picked a spot above her head—a sign on a concrete wall—to focus on. Keeping his breath shallow so he wouldn’t jostle Emma, he began the careful trek back.
His wife’s warm breath puffed through his shirt. “You tricked me into marrying you.”
“Uh, yeah. I suppose I did,” he admitted. “But you’re pretty happy about it now.”
There was a very long pause. Too long.
“I guess that’s true,” she finally said.
Damn it. She had to stop yanking his heart out of his chest and then putting it back while he was walking over a two-story deep pit.
“I love you more than anything,” he said, cradling her head to his chest. “Do you believe me?”
She hesitated, raising her head a touch. “Yeah.”
“Good. Please keep that in mind for the foreseeable future.”
They reached the edge of the pit. “Why?”
Garrett took two more steps, reaching terra firma, and kept going straight to the ambulance that had arrived in the interim. “Because I’m tying you to our bed for the next month.”
There was the softest of huffs. Laughter. “Been there, done that.”
It was a good thing he was on solid ground because the relief he felt was enough to weaken his knees. She remembered him.
Dear God, thank you.
When a uniformed firefighter stretched out to take her from him, Garrett didn’t let them.