Chapter 31
“How is she today?”
From some faraway place, Lexie registered Annie’s voice wafting through the murky haze.
What’s she doing here?
Just thinking the question was exhausting, so she stopped.
Doesn’t matter.
Her mind felt so frail. She couldn’t focus. Enveloped in a warm cocoon of blackness, she let herself sink again. She was so tired, so comfortable, she never wanted to leave.
“The doctor lowered the sedative. She’s just sleeping now.”
Nico.
In her safe, cozy darkness, Lexie smiled. His voice melted over her like warm honey.
Why am I asleep?
Again, just the thought drained her dry, sapped every ounce of energy she had. She could not care less why she was here, so long as she could stay like this forever.
“You look terrible,” Annie said. “You should go, get some sleep. You’ve been in that chair for three days.”
“Not true,” Nico replied. “Occasionally I walk down the hallway. A couple of times I even got as far as the cafeteria.”
Lexie heard the two of them chuckle softly.
Since when were they so chummy?
Cool, slender fingers touched Lexie’s arm, squeezed gently. The contact sent a jolt of awareness through her, like the first rays of sun breaking through storm clouds.
No. Go away. Just let me stay . . .
But the stupor was already beginning to fade. Small sounds penetrated. Footsteps on linoleum floors, unfamiliar voices chattering nearby, clanks and clunks of solid things against hard surfaces.
Where am I?
Inside, Lexie stretched like a cat waking from a nap, testing out her senses, reaching further, luxuriating in the relaxation that still cloaked her.
“She looks so peaceful,” Annie said. “You don’t think she’s dreaming about it, do you?”
“I hope not.” Nico’s voice was thick with emotion. Husky and rough, like he too felt bone-weary.
Oh, Nico. It’s alright, I’m here.
She wanted to hold him, to wrap her arms around him, and never let go.
“So, you and Paul sort everything out?” he asked.
“More or less,” she replied. Lexie could hear the smirk in Annie’s voice. If she’d been in a better state, she would have made a mental note to ask about that later. The fingers lifted from her arm. “Well,” Annie said. “Since you refuse to leave, how about I get you a coffee? A real one, from JoJo’s.”
Nico made a groan of appreciation. “You’re an angel.”
“Be back soon.”
Retreating footsteps echoed, then a door closed. All the other noises became muffled.
Lexie tried sinking back down into oblivion, but it didn’t work. Like it or not, she was becoming more alert by the second. A small moan escaped her. She shifted her head a fraction and attempted to open her eyes. A warm hand picked up one of hers, another came to rest lightly on her forehead.
“Lexie?”
Nico’s breath fanned her face. She noted the anxiety in his tone. Her lids were so heavy, but she did manage to lift them a little. Everything was bright and fuzzy. She let them drop again.
“Can you hear me?”
His fingers stroked her cheek. Lexie leaned into them, whimpering contentedly in response. They could have stayed like that for hours, or seconds, she had no idea which, but eventually, she heaved her eyes open once more, forced them to stay that way, as she looked around and waited for her vision to clear.
At long last, the dark blob in front of her materialized into Nico’s face. It was etched with concern. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with shadow and pain. His hair sat tousled and unkempt like he’d raked his hands through it a thousand times. The five o’clock shadow that usually framed his jawline had grown into a light beard. Yet, despite his haggard appearance, he was still her Nico, the most beautiful man she had ever seen, complete with the conspicuous scar on his forehead. Beyond him were pale blue walls, a white ceiling, and navy hospital drapes. Sunlight shone through a big window to her right, bathing the room in a golden glow. On closer inspection, there also appeared to be a drip bandaged to her hand, the same hand Nico was currently placing tender kisses along the knuckles of.
“Hi,” she croaked.
“How do you feel?”
“My head hurts.”
“Try not to move. I’ll find a nurse, get you some painkillers.”
He made to leave but Lexie stopped him by grasping his sleeve. “No. Please, stay. What happened?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “What do you remember?”
Lexie let her gaze drop, tried to think. She was locking up after work. Wade was there, but he had to leave. Didn’t he? Yes. Then she was outside by her car with Kyle. No, that couldn’t be right, could it? Her brain ached, but she pushed through. Wait, there was someone else there. Something happened . . . a burst of fear and recollection pumped something powerful into Lexie’s body. In a flash, she was lucid. Memories bombarded with each other, fighting for a place in her awareness, crashing down on her all at once. Blinding light. Gunshots. Esme. Kyle’s body. Pain.
“Oh!” she cried. Uncontrollable tears welled and fell, on and on, ceaseless and steady. She couldn’t stop them. Nico sat on the edge of her hospital bed and held her tight, stroked her hair, whispered soft words. Too engulfed in sorrow, Lexie could scarcely process what they were, but she took comfort in them all the same. When the torrent slowed, and the powerful racks of despair abated, Lexie’s body rested limply against his. With the gentleness one might offer to a baby, he lowered her back to the mattress.
“Kyle is dead.”
She didn’t make it a question, but Nico nodded anyway.
“I wished he would die so many times, but I never thought . . .” Lexie felt her chin tremble. “Does it make me a terrible person that I feel relieved?”
“No.” Nico paused. “I think what you’re feeling is only natural.”
“He loved me,” Lexie heard herself say. “In his own messed up way, I believe he did. He tried to save me.”
“It would explain why he put you through hell,” Nico replied, his tone carefully neutral. “Why he couldn’t let you go.”
Lexie nodded but refused to speak any more about it. She would say her goodbyes when the time came to lay Kyle to rest, but after that, she would think of him no more. He would be at peace, and she would be free.
More memories flashed. Panic. Fright. Cold metal in her hand. Pulling the trigger. Hearing a shot. An enraged body slamming into hers. Lexie saw herself struggling to keep hold of the gun, remembered it being ripped from her hand. Then nothing.
“Where are they now? George and Esme?”
Nico hesitated. “Dead.”
“Both of them?”
He nodded.
Nico took Lexie’s face in his hands. His eyes were intense. He looked tortured. ”I’m so sorry. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me. I came into your life, and I brought the devil with me.”
“The devil was already here,” she said, and that was the last thing she remembered saying before she woke up again hours later. Night had fallen. Nico was asleep in the chair beside her bed. Though visiting hours were no doubt over, Lexie was glad he’d somehow been able to break the rules and stay. When she shifted, his eyes flew open, and he was back holding her hand.
More flowers had been delivered while she slept.
“Who are they all from?” she asked.
Nico got up to read the cards aloud. Wade had sent a bunch of peonies, his scrawly handwriting saying the staff at Rusty’s was all thinking about her. Annie and Paul sent their love with daisies. A small pot of sunflowers from Cora Radburn’s garden came with well-wishes from the Mercy Cove Police Department.
“What about the Carnations?” she asked, enjoying the simple pleasure of forgetting everything else for a while. “Who sent those?”
Nico picked the card out of the pretty arrangement. “Well, that’s . . . surprising.”
“What?”
“ ‘Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Kindest regards, Colin Rowe.’ ”
“Why is that so surprising?” she asked. “He’s a regular at the restaurant. And a friend, sort of.” Recalling her uncomfortable encounter with him in the ladies’ room at Rusty’s made Lexie’s nose crinkle, and she wondered how a person that strange managed to function in society. She didn’t think on it too deeply though—didn’t have the energy.
Nico told her of Colin’s arrest and everything that had preceded it, including the intrepid capture of Logan Hayes right from the heart of his hostile mountain community—something he said he was sure would come back to bite him in the ass before long. He told her about Bryan Fowler’s unexpected release from prison and his swift death thereafter. She tried to feel anything but glad about that but came up wanting. He shared more details of how George Riley had died, the things he’d said beforehand, how Esme had escaped into the woods. Lexie suppressed a shudder when he mentioned Sara’s grave, undecided if it was beautiful or spooky that she’d died there. When he’d said it all, Lexie leaned into him. Their foreheads touched. The world fell away.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
Lexie sighed. “I’ll forgive you on one condition.”
“Name it.”
She lifted her face to look into his eyes. “That you forgive yourself.”
Nico thumbed away the tears on her cheeks that just kept coming. “I promise I’ll try.”
The next morning, Lexie was halfway through a cup of Jell-O when a light knock sounded at the door. She turned to see her brother standing there in rumpled travel clothes, a large duffel bag slung over one shoulder. His hair—blond and windswept from the trip—had grown out since the last time she saw him, and she could have sworn he wasn’t nearly as tall, nor did he have such broad shoulders, when he left. His blue eyes that matched her own shone with sorrow against his adventure-tanned skin.
“Hey, sis.”
“Jake.” Lexie held out her arms and he dropped his bag to the ground so he could hug her. She closed her eyes and smiled, feeling more at home in his presence than she had in a long time.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m okay.”
“You should have told me you were in trouble,” he said, still holding her. “I would have come back.”
“I know. The truth is, I didn’t realize how much trouble I was in until it was too late.”
Jake had been photographing caves in Spain when Annie contacted him. After hearing of Lexie’s ordeal, it had taken him a day and a half to trek out of the jungle and another day to arrange a flight home. They had spoken briefly over the phone about everything that had happened, but she knew he had a lot more questions. Fortunately, he had the grace not to ask them, at least not yet.
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“The doctors say I’ll be fine, though I’ll have an impressive scar.” She gingerly turned to show him the bandage on her back where she’d been stabbed. Rather than airlifting her out, they’d flown a trauma surgeon in to repair the damage. She knew they’d done the best they could, but still, her vanity was taking a hit.
“Shit,” Jake exclaimed.
“I know. It’s bad.”
“Calm down, it’s not that big,” he assured her.
“It’s huge,” she sulked.
“Okay, we get it, yours is bigger than mine,” a wheezy voice said from behind the curtain to her left. “It’s not a competition, you know.”
Lexie and Jake both looked over, startled. There had been nothing but silence from that side of the room until now. She hadn’t even realized she’d been sharing with another person.
“Frank? Is that you?”
Jake pulled the drape aside to reveal Sergeant Dekker lying in the adjacent hospital bed.
“Morning,” Frank rasped.
“Oh my god.” Lexie looked him over, noted his pale skin, his mussed hair, the general limpness of his entire body. “What happened to you?”
“I got a hole in my belly the size of a bullet, is what.”
“Wha—How? Who?”
When all he did was turn his head to look at her with knowing eyes, Lexie’s heart sank. She remembered him being with Nico when they’d burst through the door to save her, recalled him leaving to chase down Esme after she’d escaped. She must have shot him, with her gun.
“Oh, Frank. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t do that.” His voice was weak, but his eyes were clear and fierce. “Don’t you take an ounce of blame for the things that woman did.”
Lexie sniffed and nodded her understanding just as Nico walked back into the room, an assortment of vending machine candy bars in his hands. When he saw Frank awake and talking, he let out a relieved gust of air.
“Christ, you scared the shit out of me.”
Frank grinned. “Those for me?”
Nico pressed a Hershey’s chocolate bar into Frank’s palm, using the action to fondly—albeit gently—shake the man’s hand. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been shot. What’s the damage?”
“The bullet went in and came out on its own,” Nico explained, passing Frank a cup of water with a straw in it. “But it perforated your colon on the way through. Made quite a mess.”
“My colon?”
“Yeah, they had to open you up to fix it. You won’t shit right for a while, but you’ll live.” Nico put a hand on his shoulder. “And you’ll make a full recovery.”
Frank puffed out his cheeks. “Well, that’s a relief.”
“Hey.” Nico pointed to the chocolate bar. “Don’t eat that until your doctor okay’s it.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Lexie smiled at the cheeky sound of Frank unwrapping his candy bar while Nico bent over to place a quick kiss on her lips.
“Nico, this is my brother, Jake.”
Jake shook his hand. “Heard a lot about you, man.”
“Good to meet you,” Nico replied.
“Thanks for being here for my sister.”
Nico nodded, glancing at Lexie with love in his eyes. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Small talk reigned for a few minutes until another knock interrupted their conversation. Lexie felt her energy draining, but still she offered Cora a big smile as she entered. Both her arms were wrapped around a glass dish nestled safely in her homemade casserole carrier. The scent of chicken and vegetable soup filled the room.
“I figured you’d enjoy this a lot more than that nasty hospital food,” she said.
“That’s so nice of you. Thanks, Cora.”
“You’re welcome, darlin’. Here, let me fix you a bowl.”
“Make it two,” Frank said.
Cora stopped and turned. “Well, good of you to finally join us, Sergeant. I was getting tired of doing all your paperwork.”
As the pair settled into their familiar banter, Jake came to kiss Lexie on the forehead, telling her he was leaving. “Get some rest.”
“Wait.” She grabbed his arm. “How long are you staying?”
“Don’t worry. Now that I’m here, I’ll be sticking around for a while yet. Got some stuff to sort out.”
“Some stuff, huh?” Lexie dropped her voice to a whisper. “Would this stuff have anything to do with Zoe?”
Jake didn’t answer, but she did notice the sly upward twist of his mouth before he walked out.
As Lexie and Frank tucked into their meals—She, delicious homemade soup; He, some kind of doctor-approved mush lest he tear open his healing bowel—Cora crossed her arms and gave Nico a narrow-eyed look. “A little birdie told me you’re about to become our new chief of police.”
“Acting chief,” Nico corrected.
Cora’s laugh was deep and hearty. “Semantics.”
Lexie got the feeling she was missing an inside joke.
Frank’s head popped up. “Really? How long was I out?”
“Just eat your food,” Nico chided. “I’ll talk to you about it later.”
“As long as you keep in mind that I process the overtime,” Cora said. “You look after me, I’ll look after you.”
“Understood,” Nico chuckled.
Frank fell asleep less than a minute after he’d finished eating. Cora gathered the leftovers and promised to come again tomorrow with sandwiches and apple pie. Lexie made a mental note to do something extra nice for her as soon as she was able, to thank her for her kindness.
Finally alone with Nico, she addressed the elephant in the room. “Chief of police?”
He grimaced. “I’ve been waiting for the right time to tell you. It’s nothing official.”
“What about Adam?”
“Well, he’s got a lot to answer for before he’s taken off suspension. Going MIA during an active murder investigation that had potential to devastate the island’s tourism?” Nico shook his head. “The mayor was . . . not pleased.”
“I can imagine.” She huffed out a breath, equal mixes of shock and joy at the thought of Nico staying here permanently. She’d never brought it up with him, knowing all along that his appointment as lieutenant was only a temporary transfer. Adam had told her so. She hadn’t liked it, but she also hadn’t wanted to talk about it with Nico too soon, before she knew what they were and how she truly felt. How he felt.
“Look, I know this is all moving really fast,” he said. “And I know you and I haven’t had a chance to talk about things . . . the future . . . so, if you’re not okay with me taking the job . . .”
Lexie smiled up at him. “Do you want it?”
“I want you.” He moved in close, tucked her hair behind her ear, the same way he had the day they met. “I want this. Everything else, we can figure out later.”
“Won’t you miss Boston?”
“Probably,” he admitted. “But I’d miss you a lot more if I went back.”
Lexie pulled him in and kissed him. A light, teasing brush of her lips against his. A promise of what was yet to come. “I want this too.”
THE END.