Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The first thing I noticed was the beeping. Sharp, electronic sounds that cut through the fog in my brain like knives. My shoulder throbbed with each beat of my heart, and something heavy weighed down my chest.
No. Not again.
I kept my eyes shut. The cabin. I was back in the cabin. Glenda had drugged me again, and now I was waking up to another round of her twisted games. The beeping grew faster, matching the frantic rhythm of my pulse.
What was that beeping?!
I couldn't move my arm. She'd restrained me even more this time. My chest felt tight, like someone had wrapped bands around my ribs. The smell hit me next. Antiseptic. Clean. Different from the pine scents of the cabin.
“Joy.” The voice was male, deep and familiar, but my brain couldn't process it through the panic. “Baby, I know you’re awake.”
It was a trick. It sounded like Graham. But it couldn’t be. Glenda was trying to trick me.
“Joy, you're safe. You're in the hospital.”
Hospital. What? The beeping was screaming now, alarms joining the chorus. My breathing came in short, sharp gasps that burned my throat.
“Joy, listen to my voice. You're safe. You're at LeConte Medical Center here in Sevierville. Glenda is dead. She can't hurt you anymore.”
Graham. That was Graham's voice. But Graham couldn't be here. Graham was the one in the hospital, not me.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart. Let me see those baby blues.”
The tenderness in his voice broke through the terror. Graham never used that tone with anyone else. Just me. My eyelids felt like they weighed a hundred pounds, but I forced them open.
Hospital room. White ceiling with fluorescent lights that made me squint. Machines surrounded my bed, their screens glowing with numbers and wavy lines. And there, sitting in a chair pulled close to my bedside, was Graham.
He looked terrible. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, his left arm hung in a sling, and I could see the edge of bandages peeking out from under his shirt collar.
But he was real. He was alive.
“There you are.” Relief flooded his features as our eyes met. “How are you feeling?”
I tried to speak, but my throat felt raw and scratchy. Like I'd been screaming. Maybe I had been.
“Water,” I croaked.
Graham was already reaching for a plastic cup with a bendable straw. He held it steady while I sipped, the cool liquid soothing the burning in my throat.
“Better?”
I nodded, still staring at him like he might disappear if I blinked.
“Graham?” My voice came out as a whisper. “Are you real?”
His face crumpled for just a second before he caught himself. He reached out with his good hand and cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing away tears I didn't realize had started falling.
“I'm real. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I promise.”
The warmth of his palm against my skin convinced me more than his words. Glenda's tricks were elaborate, but she couldn't fake this. The slight tremor in his fingers. The way his breath hitched when I leaned into his touch.
“What happened?” I searched his face, looking for answers. “How did I get here? How did you get here?”
“What do you remember?”
I closed my eyes and tried to piece together the fragments floating in my head. Running through the woods. The sound of gunshots behind me. Graham's voice shouting my name.
“I remember escaping. The woods. Glenda coming after me.” The memories felt fuzzy around the edges, like looking through dirty glass. “There was shooting. Lots of shooting. And then…”
I concentrated harder, pushing through the fog. More gunshots. The metallic taste of fear in my mouth.
And blood. So much blood.
“Oh God.” The memory hit me like a punch to the gut. “Glenda. She's dead, isn't she?”
Graham nodded, his jaw tight.
“There was blood on me. Her blood.” My voice cracked as the image crystallized in my mind. Glenda’s head… Oh God! The image in my mind made me gag.
The sobs came without warning, tearing out of my chest in great heaving gasps. Graham was out of his chair and perched on the edge of my bed before I could blink, his good arm pulling me against his chest.
“Shh, baby. It's over. She can't hurt you anymore.”
“I know I should feel bad that she's dead,” I hiccupped against his shirt. “But I don't. I'm glad she's gone. Does that make me a terrible person?”
“No.” His voice was fierce. “That makes you human. She terrorized you for weeks and weeks. She drugged you. She kidnapped you. You don't owe her your grief.”
I clung to him, breathing in his familiar scent. Slowly, the panic ebbed away, replaced by his solid presence.
“How did you get there? You were in the hospital.”
Graham laughed, the sound rusty but genuine.
“Nothing would have stopped me from coming after you. I could have had two broken legs, and I still would have been leading the charge.”
Despite everything, I found myself smiling.
“You're an idiot.”
“I’m your idiot.”
“My idiot.” I reached up and touched the bandage on his neck. “Are you okay? Really okay?”
“Couple of stitches. Nothing that won't heal.” He caught my hand and pressed it flat against his chest, right over his heart. “What about you? How's the shoulder?”
I flexed it experimentally and winced. “Hurts. But just a little.”
“Liar.”
I gave him a small grin.
“The doctors said the surgery went well. Full range of motion should return with physical therapy.”
“What about everyone else? Randy and Seth? Simon and Jase?”
“Everyone's fine. Your brothers have been driving the nursing staff crazy, demanding updates every fifteen minutes.” Graham's mouth quirked up at the corner. “Roxie had to threaten to sedate Randy to get him to calm down. Your dad’s even worse when he’s not comforting your mom.”
Relief washed over me. My family was safe. Graham was safe. It really was over.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“It was Ava and Roxie thinking about Glenda’s boyfriend Rob, who Hart couldn’t trace. It got everybody thinking. They finally got a lead on a dead co-worker named Robert Chen who was run over the night you sang karaoke.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Glenda didn’t have a long-term boyfriend named Rob. From what we could gather, she had a one-time date with a co-worker named Robert, who she killed after they went to Louey’s. It was his lake house where you were being held.”
I didn’t understand it all completely, but I tracked it enough. What I understood was that Glenda had killed a man after hearing me sing. I’d think about it later. What I would focus on is that they found me. That was what mattered.
A soft knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. Graham looked toward the sound, then back at me.
“Joy, honey?” I heard my mom’s voice and I burst into tears. “Oh my baby.” I couldn’t see anything past my tears, but I could feel my mom’s palms covering my cheeks, her lips pressed against my forehead.
“Wouldn’t you know you wake up when we’re in the cafeteria,” my dad grumbled.
I held out my arms, and he pushed in beside Mom. I was surrounded by my parents, and I felt almost as safe as I did with Graham. Almost.
“You scared the hell out of us, JoJo.” I could hear the tears in my dad’s voice.
“Of course your brothers didn’t tell us anything until it was all over and you were here in the hospital. You must have been scared out of your mind,” my mom whispered.
I turned my head and looked up at Graham, who was standing on the other side of the bed. “I wasn’t. I knew I’d be rescued.”
Mom and Dad looked up at Graham too. Mom’s face softened. “I’m sure you did, honey.”
“With your brothers, Simon and his team, and Graham looking out for you, of course you’d be rescued.” The conviction in my dad’s voice was rock solid.
“Where are Seth and Randy?”
“They're in the waiting room with everyone else. When the nurse came out to say you were awake, we insisted on coming in first,” Dad said.
I tried to use my right hand to wipe my tears and gasped in pain.
“Oh honey. You’re going to have to be really careful. The surgeon told us you’re going to need bed rest for a while, and then physical therapy. It’ll be good to have you home again.”
I gave Graham a frantic look, and Mom saw it.
“Joy Magill, you are coming home with me. That is not negotiable.” For once, her scary mom voice didn’t scare me. There was no way I was going to leave Graham’s side.
“How long have I been out?” I asked, attempting to change the subject.
“About twelve hours. The anesthesia hit you harder than expected, probably because your system was still processing whatever drugs Glenda gave you.”
The reminder of being drugged made my stomach clench, but I pushed the feeling away. That was over now.
There was a knock at the door. Graham stood and walked to the door, opening it just wide enough to stick his head out.
“You can come in.”
Mom and Dad stepped back, then Randy barreled through the door first, his face lighting up when he saw me sitting up in bed. Seth was right behind him, moving more cautiously but with the same relieved expression.
“JoJo!” Randy crossed the room in three long strides and would have thrown himself at me if Seth hadn't caught his arm.
“Careful, you moron. She just had surgery.”
Randy slowed down but still bent to wrap me in the gentlest bear hug he could manage.
“We thought we lost you, JoJo,” he whispered against my hair. “When we found that cabin and you weren't there…”
“But I'm here now.” I squeezed him back with my good arm. “I'm okay.”
Seth waited until Randy stepped back before leaning down to kiss my forehead.
“How are you feeling, little sister?”
“Like I got shot in the shoulder and had surgery.” I managed a weak smile. “But better now that I can see you guys are okay.”
“Can we sneak in a few more people while the nurses aren't looking?” Randy glanced toward the hallway. “There might be some folks out there who've been going crazy waiting to see you.”
“How many people are out there?”
“Well,” Seth scratched his beard. “Ava threatened to fight the entire nursing staff if they didn't let her in. Roxie's been pacing holes in the waiting room floor. Then there’s Simon, Trenda, and Jase along with Cousin Emmie. She’s been just as loud as Ava.”
“Let them in.” I shifted higher against my pillows, ignoring the pull in my shoulder. “All of them.”
Randy disappeared into the hallway. I could hear hushed voices and what sounded like a small argument before the door opened again.
Emmie burst through first, her blue eyes scanning me from head to toe like she was cataloging every visible injury.
Roxie and Ava followed close behind, her veterinarian training probably making her assess my condition more clinically.
Jase, Simon, and Trenda brought up the rear, both of them looking uncharacteristically subdued.
“You look like hell,” Emmie announced as she slung an arm around my mom and kissed her cheek.
“Thanks. You really know how to make a girl feel better.”
“I'm serious. You're pale as a sheet, you've got circles under your eyes that look like bruises, and that hospital gown is doing nothing for your complexion.”
My mom pinched Emmie’s side.
“What? I'm being honest. She looks terrible, but she's alive, so I'm counting it as a win.”
“She looks like someone who's been through hell and back,” Mom said pointedly. “Which is exactly what happened.”
Jase positioned himself near the foot of my bed, his usual easy smile replaced by something more serious.
“How you holding up, darlin'?”
“Better now that I know everyone's okay.” I looked around the room. At my family, at my rescuers, and my family who were also my rescuers. “I was so scared that someone would get hurt trying to find me.”
“When I saw that security footage…” Jase’s voice trailed off, but I could see the emotion he was trying to hide. These tough guys had been genuinely terrified for me.
“Okay, we need details,” Emmie leaned forward in her chair. “How the hell did you get away from that psycho? Graham said you escaped on your own before they found you.”
All eyes focused on me, waiting. I glanced at Graham, who nodded encouragingly.
“It was actually kind of ridiculous.” I felt heat creep up my neck. “She wanted to learn how to bake a cake.”
Dead silence filled the room.
“I'm sorry, what?” Roxie blinked at me.
“Betty Psycho Crocker wanted to learn how to bake a cake,” I repeated. “She kept going on about how domestic and perfect I was, and how she wanted to be just like me. So she decided we should bake together.”
Randy's mouth fell open.
“You're telling us you escaped because she wanted to play house?”
“No, after I refused to bake the cake with her, she drugged me again. When I woke up, I was throwing up. I made a bigger production of it than it was. I pretended to pass out; that made her go to the nearest pharmacy. Even though I was tied up, I hopped over to the kitchen, found a knife, and cut myself free.”
Graham's face went white. His good hand clenched into a fist.
“You could have died.” Graham's voice was barely controlled fury. “If she'd given you too much of whatever that was…”
“But she didn't.” I stroked my thumb across his knuckles until his fist relaxed. “I'm okay. I'm here.”
I looked around the room at all these faces. My throat tightened with emotion.
“You all saved me.”
“Hey now,” Randy's voice was gruff. “You saved yourself. We just provided backup.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I mean it. If you hadn't come when you did, if you hadn't kept looking…” I couldn't finish the sentence.
Graham sat back down on the other side of my bed and took my hand, bringing it to his mouth and kissing my palm. “There’s never going to be a time when I’m not going to be there for you.”
Ava wiped at her eyes and glared at everyone in the room. “If anyone mentions that I'm crying, I'll kick their ass.”
That broke the tension, and everyone started laughing. Even through the pain medication haze, even with everything we'd been through, I felt lighter than I had in months.