Chapter 30
30
RAE
A low insistent buzz, the murmuring of voices, and a beeping alarm pulled me from a deep sleep. Blinking against the weight keeping my lids closed, I fought the grogginess. A plain-tiled ceiling with a long florescent bulb hanging directly above me came into view as my vision cleared. Every muscle in my neck protested as I rolled my head to the side. Several machines blinked out of sync, the largest beeping in warning.
I curled my fingers, and thin cotton brushed beneath my fingertips. A white blanket lay along my legs where I rested in the high bed. Metal rails and the machines plus the baby blue gown I wore eased my worried thoughts.
A hospital.
A wince pinched my face, making the skin along my cheek burn, when the flimsy floral curtain ripped away. Full clear bag in hand, a young woman dressed in maroon scrubs stepped through the opening only to pause when our gazes met.
Her lips curled in a kind smile. “You’re awake.” My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, keeping me from responding. “I’ll let the doctor and agent know.” The way her eyes sparkled at the mention of the agent, I knew exactly which hottie she was referencing. “He’s worn a rut in the waiting room while you were in surgery.”
Surgery?
The word clanged in my head while she fiddled with the beeping machine and replaced the empty bag on the metal tree with the full one. Without another word, she turned and left, rolling the curtain back, sealing me back inside the makeshift room.
The desperate urge to pee sent me into motion. But putting weight onto the palm pressed against the thin mattress to help me sit up sent unbearable pain shooting up my arm. A silent cry swept past my dry lips as I fell back onto the bed.
What the fuck? Chest heaving from the pain and exertion that little move triggered, I focused on calming my heart rate before attempting to investigate what the hell happened. My right arm was secured in a sling against my chest. Raising the left sent bolts of pain along the back before I could get a look at the injury.
“Dislocated shoulder.” I snapped my attention to the man who now stood inside the curtain. Dressed in blue scrubs and a long white lab coat, he barely paid me any attention as he scanned the chart in his hand. “You also have twenty-three stitches on that arm you’re trying to rotate. Even more sutures on the inside holding your muscle together.” He finally peered over the clipboard. “I’d appreciate it if you control your curiosity and keep still to not ruin the work I did to piece you back together.”
Feeling reprimanded by the doctor, I sank deeper into the bed to hide from his withering stare.
“Take it easy, Doc.” I released a relieved breath when Charlie stepped through the part in the curtain and paused beside the doctor. “She’s had a rough twenty-four hours. Cut her some slack.”
The doctor gave Charlie a side-eye glare before looking at me. “Now that you’re awake, we’ll move you to a room shortly.” He turned and walked out, calling for a nurse while grumbling something under his breath.
With a feral grin, almost like he enjoyed getting under the arrogant doctor’s skin, Charlie slowly slid the curtain back into place. It did nothing to diminish the sounds and voices of the hospital but helped foster the sense of some privacy, at least.
Charlie kept his blue eyes on me as he dragged a basic-looking chair to my bedside and fell into it. Mud caked his black pants; a bulletproof vest covered his chest. Leaning back in the chair, he closed his eyes and rubbed his lids with an exhausted groan.
“I don’t know who I’m more pissed at, you or that dumb fucker Bronson.”
My ears perked at the mention of Alec. Flashes of memories from the ambulance became clearer.
“Alec,” I croaked. “Where’s…? I need….” The burn in my throat stopped me from saying more.
“He’s still in surgery,” he replied, voice tight with worry. “The fucker took a blade to the lower back and didn’t tell a soul. I’ll kill him if he survives.”
If.
I whimpered and shifted along the bed to sit up. I needed to get out, to get to him. He had to survive.
“Hey, hey,” Charlie said in a soothing voice. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. He’ll be fine. The doctors are doing everything they can. I’m just pissed, and….” He sighed, his hand slipping from where he held my knee. “You two scared the shit out of me. And I need a drink, a three-day nap, and a round with one of those nurses who keep eye-fucking me.”
I huffed out a laugh and rolled my eyes as I settled back against the bed. “Cocky much?” I rasped.
His eyes brightened. “Always. It’s why people like me so much.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes before I gained the courage to ask the question burning inside me. I needed the truth, and Charlie would know.
“He said….” I tried to swallow down the building trepidation. “Said I’m….” His unblinking dead stare flashed in my mind. “Was his sister. Twin. Was it true?”
Tears welled in my eyes at the wash of pity that overcame Charlie’s tired face. That was all the answer I needed. My chest shook with a sob.
“No,” I cried. “Not true. It’s a lie. It can’t be true.”
He stood and gripped each bed rail to hover over me.
“Calm down or that doctor will come back in here and sedate you. Calm down, Rae.” I sniffled and nodded. “I’ll tell you what I know if you promise me to stay calm and just listen.” He gave me a hard stare before sitting back in the chair. “I validated it all. Even brought in the doctor who delivered you and him. It was true, the twin part. What else he told you while he had you”—his hands fisted at that—“I’m not sure. Alec can fill you in on all the details, but yes, it’s true he was your brother.”
“How?” I needed to know that much now. I couldn’t wait another second without knowing why my mother never told me, why she and my father lied my entire life.
He blew out a breath and looked at the ceiling. “It’s a long complicated story of a woman who was desperate for a baby and a woman who couldn’t afford to care for two babies when one would already be a strain.” Sympathy poured off him when he turned his face back to me. “You weren’t stolen, you were gifted to Stephanie Chapin. To a woman who your birth mother knew would give you a good life.”
“He hated me for it,” I whispered, remembering his rants. “For leaving him.”
Charlie’s lips pursed into a tight line. “I assumed as much based on his background. His life was rough, Rae. I’m not excusing what he did to you or the other murders he committed, but I wouldn’t wish his early life on my worst enemy.”
I nodded, not sure how to take that bit of information.
“What—” I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut. “What was his name?”
“Jared Stark. He was a terrible man, Rae, messed up from years of abuse and drugs. Whatever he told you as to why he fixated on you, why he wanted to get back at you, were the thoughts of a psychopath. They won’t make sense to anyone but him—hell, maybe not even to him. He looked for someone to blame for what happened to him, and probably right around that time, his mom let it slip that he had a sister. He wasn’t right in the head, Rae.”
I opened my mouth to ask the question burning the tip of my tongue, but he held up a hand, stopping me.
“Don’t even think it. You’re nothing like him, Rae, blood or no blood. I’m an excellent judge of character, and I know you’re one of the kindest, sincerest women I’ve met. You’re. Nothing. Like. Him.”
I nodded and cleared my throat while trying to think of something to divert us from this topic. “So for my injuries, there’s the shoulder, the cut?—”
“Slice. Slice, Rae. You jumped in front of the knife. It cut through the length of your tricep. That doctor literally had to stich your arm back together.”
“What else?” I asked before he gave more gruesome details.
“A cut along your cheek needed a few stitches. Other than that, lots of bruising, cuts, and scrapes. I think the nurse mentioned they administered a tetanus shot just in case.”
“Smart. That place….” I looked at the ceiling to avoid his focused attention.
“Rae, I don’t know what happened while we searched for you, but whatever happened, whatever he did or said, it’s over.”
Over. I considered that word. “What does that even mean? It’s not over in my head. I can still feel”—my breathing picked up—“it all. The fear, knowing I was going to die.”
“I know, and it’ll take a long while for those memories to fade, but you’re free, Rae.”
“Free.” I blew out a breath and fisted the blanket with my free hand. “Free.”
“The police no longer consider you a suspect and have almost two dozen previously unsolved murders now solved. No more hiding from the world.”
“What do I do now?” I asked in disbelief.
Charlie’s lips parted into a wide smile. “Whatever you want to do. That’s the beauty of freedom.”
The same nurse from before popped her head through the split in floral fabric and smiled. “Your friend is out of surgery. It went well, and he’s expected to make a full recovery.” With a bashful grin, she dipped back behind the curtain.
Charlie and I let out a relieved sigh and smiled at each other.
“He loves you, you know that, right?” he said, settling back into the chair and propping his head on his raised palm. “He meant nothing he said back at the house. Which, really, Rae? You called the cops on us?”
I chuckled. “I needed time to get away. And yeah, I know, but I still want to hear it from him.” Charlie’s lids drifted closed. “And I have a lot I want to tell him too.”
Closing my own eyes, I relaxed into the flat pillow.
Freedom.
Free from this town, from my self-imprisonment.
Free to live.
And I knew exactly who I wanted to start living my life with.