Chapter Thirty-Five
The night began screwing up when I was halfway to the office.
I called Joe to let him know I was on my way in and to see how busy a night it was.
“The waiting room is full of people who have appointments—not a walk-in in sight,” he told me.
And still, I wasn’t there to see them.
“How pissed is Max?” I asked.
“You know Max,” he said. “He’s going to yell when you get here, but he’s decided he likes being bossy and loud, so we just have to let it run its course.”
I laughed. “Should I stop and get him some pastries?”
“Lord no,” he said. “You can ask Gracie Dawn to pick some up after you get here. These people are restless tonight, Kait. Three of them already walked out, and one piece of work picked a fight with an old man before I had to kick his ass and send him on his way.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” I assured him.
“You told Bastien about the vampire ghost?”
“I did.” I smiled. “He was…happy, Joe.” Then my phone beeped, and I glanced down to see Rick’s name on the screen. “I have another call coming in. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
But it wasn’t Rick. It was Beth, calling from his phone. “Kait,” she said, her voice high and worried. “I didn’t know if I should call you or—”
“What’s wrong, Beth? Where’s Rick?”
“I turned his phone off and put something in his drink to help him sleep. He didn’t look well, and I was worried.”
“Is he okay, Beth?”
My heart was pounding so hard it hurt my chest, and I was abruptly terrified that she was going to tell me Rick had died in his sleep.
“He won’t wake up,” she said. “I wanted to see if you could help before I called the paramedics because…”
Because you drugged a concussed man. You had no right. You have no right to him at all.
I didn’t say it, but I wanted to.
“He’s always had trouble sleeping,” she continued. “I’ve given him a little something before to help him drift off, but something’s different this time.”
“He has a concussion. You shouldn’t have given him anything.”
She burst into tears.
I pushed back my anger and made a U-turn. “I’m on my way,” I told her, and ended the call. Then I called Ben Hayes and asked him if he could meet me at Rick’s house.
“I’ll be there,” he said. “Twenty minutes.”
Next, I called Joe to tell him I was going to be delayed coming in. Honestly, at that moment, I was just worried about Rick. I didn’t care about an office full of impatient clients or Max throwing a hissy fit.
I didn’t care when a ghost appeared suddenly in front of my speeding car, or when I saw that I was going thirty miles per hour over the speed limit.
I cared only that Rick would be okay.
I should have taken him to Shadowfield to recover. When I pulled into his driveway, Beth was standing on the porch watching for me. “I’ve put coffee on,” she said, when I walked up the steps. “And there’s cake.”
She was wringing her hands and her eyes were red, and honestly, I felt sorry for her.
I didn’t know Beth well, but I knew she’d been wrestling with mental health issues for a long time.
If Rick told her he didn’t want her to come back, that he wanted to divorce her, that wasn’t going to go well.
Even though she’d been the one to leave.
“It’s okay, Beth,” I told her, taking her arm and steering her back into the house. “The doctor is on the way. Rick will be fine.”
“Will he?” she asked, peering up at me. “I mean, Kait, if something happens to him, it’ll be my fault. You were right. I shouldn’t have sneaked something into his drink. Would you like some coffee? Some cake?”
She needed something to do. Her nerves were shot and her hands were shaking.
I wondered if she were medicated and if she’d gone off her meds.
I wasn’t going to ask. “I would like some coffee, thank you,” I told her.
“Maybe you could get some cake and coffee ready and listen for the doctor to arrive so you can let him in.”
She nodded. “I’ll do that.” Then she kept jabbering nervously all the way to the kitchen, picking up right where she’d left off.
“Rick couldn’t sleep. He was just sitting there on the front porch, staring at nothing.
He wouldn’t talk to me really, and he was so tired.
So I asked him if I could get him anything, and he said he’d like some warm milk.
” She wrinkled her nose. “Who drinks warm milk? I thought he was losing his mind because of his head injury, and that he just needed to sleep. So I put something in his milk—and he drank every drop.”
I’d helped Rick through one of his sleepless nights by giving him warm milk and sitting beside his bed, talking about nothing until he fell asleep. He’d thought me bringing him warm milk was pretty funny.
When he’d asked for it tonight, I couldn’t help but think he’d really been asking for me.
But I’d left him at the mayor’s and walked away.
“Dammit,” I whispered.
She paused at the kitchen doorway, as though suddenly realizing the kitchen wasn’t where I needed to be. “Let me show you to the bedroom, and then I’ll come back and get the coffee ready.”
“I know the way,” I told her. “You go ahead and get that coffee. Maybe pour a cup for Rick, too.”
She simply stared at me, and I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile and then strode away, anxious to see Rick.
I found him tangled up in the sheets, wearing only a pair of blue pajama bottoms, dead asleep. His dark hair was as messy as the sheets, and the bandage on his temple stood out against his pale skin.
I sat beside him, then leaned forward to kiss his forehead, his cheek. “Rick,” I murmured. God, he smelled good. He smelled like forever. “I’m here. I should never have left you.”
I laced my fingers with his and ran my other hand up his arm and over his chest, closing my eyes at the feel of his bare skin against my palm. I moved so that I could half lie on top of him, my lips at his throat.
He never stirred.
I lifted my lips to his ear. “Wake up, Detective. Wake up and kiss me.” Then I whispered something I’d never said to him. “I love you. I love you, Rick.”
Then I felt something else. Someone else, a split second before I heard a strangled sound and sat up to look over my shoulder at the doorway.
Jared stood there with Beth, watching me.
I should have felt him coming, but my mind was too focused on Rick. My mind was too full of fear and anxiety.
When I’d arrived, Beth’s cheeks had been flushed high up on her cheekbones, and her eyes had been full of tears and anxiety. Her face had lost all color and she stared at me, emotions flashing through her eyes so fast I couldn’t read them.
She wet her lips. “Is he…did he…”
“God,” I said. “No, Beth. He’s just asleep.” I held my hand out to Jared and he strode across the floor to take it, his stare going from me to Rick.
“Ben called me,” he murmured. “I was close and came immediately.” He pulled me off the bed and into his arms. “What happened?”
“I should have taken him to the wolves,” I whispered, not wanting Beth to hear me. “He won’t wake up, Jared.”
“We’ll get him to Shadowfield,” he said. He brushed some loose tendrils of hair away from my cheek, then gave me a very light, very quick kiss. “Ben will take care of him, Kait.”
He didn’t tell me it wasn’t my fault or make promises he wasn’t sure he could keep. He just squeezed my arms, then pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down, while I sat once again on the bed beside Rick.
He leaned forward to study Rick’s face, and for a few minutes, no one spoke at all. I’d forgotten Beth was even in the room until she cleared her throat and asked if anyone wanted the coffee she’d made.
“Yes, please,” I told her, for what felt like the hundredth time, and she rushed away.
I pulled the sheets up over Rick’s chest, though his skin felt warm. A few minutes later, Beth hurried back into the room, with the doctor and nurse right behind her.
“Jared,” Ben said. “Kait.”
“Hello, Ben,” I murmured. I slid off the bed so he could have room to work, then gave his nurse a nod. “Belinda.”
Jared moved the chair back and stood as well, and together, we watched, waited, and hoped.
Ben turned to face us finally, and he was frowning. “He came straight here from Louis’s house?” he asked me.
“As far as I know, the mayor had someone drive him home after I left.” I stumbled over the word, because damn me for leaving. I looked at Beth. “Is that right?”
She nodded, then came to stand tentatively at the foot of the bed, as though not sure she should be there. “He sat out on the porch until I gave him his milk. He went to bed quickly after that.”
“Beth gave him something to help him sleep,” I told Ben.
He frowned harder but let it go. “After he went to bed,” he asked Beth, “nothing unusual happened?”
She shook her head. “He just didn’t wake up again.” Then she dabbed at her eyes and hurried to the door. “Excuse me.”
“What are you thinking, Ben?” I asked. “Why the questions?”
“His sleep isn’t natural. It’s not even the sleep of someone who was drugged. With a concussion.” He shook his head in disgust. “Come here a minute, Kait.”
I walked to stand beside him, fear beginning to rise inside me all over again. “What do you see?”
“It’s not really what I see. Lean closer to him. Do…” He waved his hand impatiently. “Something to connect to him. Put your hands on him, close your eyes, and push everything else from your mind. Tell me what you feel.”
I sat beside him and did as Ben asked. I closed my eyes, took Rick’s face between my palms, and focused on how he felt. I focused on what I felt not just with my hands, but my gut.
After about thirty seconds, I opened my eyes and my stare flew to Ben’s. “Magic,” I said. “I feel bad magic.”
He nodded soberly. “Magic,” he agreed. “It’s not Beth’s sedative that’s keeping him under. It’s magic. Someone did this to him, and I don’t think I can pull him out of it. The person who put him under will have to cancel the magic.”