Chapter 19
Aiden watched Lynn sleep in her hospital bed, still as stone. She hadn’t moved in hours, just like he hadn’t.
This is all my fault.
He couldn’t believe his eyes when he’d walked in the door. He’d heard the shots as he was walking up the driveway, and instantly knew something was wrong. As soon as he opened the door and saw Lynn lying in a pool of her own blood, all rational thought escaped him. He couldn’t even believe it when he finally realized the other body on his living room floor belonged to fucking Amy, the parts girl. Amy was dead by the time EMS arrived, but Lynn was still hanging on.
The doctors said that Amy missed anything vital (by less than a millimeter) but that the blood loss was something they needed to get a handle on. Now, hours later, Aiden was waiting impatiently for the love of his life to open her eyes so he could tell her he was sorry.
He still couldn’t believe that this was real life; it’d all happened so fast. Like Amy realized her time was limited to get to him, so she rushed her entire plan. He had no idea what Amy initially had in mind for last night, but when he’d gotten out of his work class, one of his tires was flat. He would have noticed it earlier if he hadn’t been rushing to get there on time. He checked it twice before he discovered two screws in the tire, two screws that hadn’t been there when he was changing his own oil at work earlier that day.
So, she’d been smart enough to elongate her timeline with Lynn by those extra almost forty minutes it took for him to change his tire and get his ass home.
All.
My.
Fault.
Guilt ate at his insides while Lynn slept, and there was nothing he could do to appease it. Not until she opened her pretty blue eyes and told him that she forgave him for causing all of this. How could he ever repay her? Make it up to her?
He knew it was dangerous to leave her alone, and he insisted that he go to the damn class that almost got her killed.
He shifted in his chair at the panic that thought caused. How could he ever put her in that position? What if he’d actually lost her? What if he hadn’t made it in time to find her bleeding all over the floor?
“Lynn, wake up, baby. Let me see those pretty eyes of yours,” He whispered softly.
He lifted one of her hands into his and kissed the back of it. She didn’t stir, but the monitor above her head told Aiden that her heart rate was normal, stable.
He could only thank the universe for that, because Lynn wasn’t awake to hear how fucking proud of her he was. He had no idea what happened between her and Amy, but she’d used the gun just like he’d told her to. She didn’t let that crazy bitch win.
“Aiden?”
Aiden glanced up to see Jessica standing in the doorway, wide-eyed and confused.
He stood up to greet her, his arms enclosing her in a hug that was probably far too tight.
“She’s going to be fine, but it was close, Jess. It was too fucking close,” He murmured into her blonde hair.
Jessica pulled away enough to look at Lynn.
“What happened?”
“All I know is that when I got there, Lynn was lying on the living room floor, covered in blood…and Amy, the parts girl from the garage, was on the other side of the living room, dead.”
Jessica gasped and made her way over to Lynn, where she leaned down to smooth some hair out of her face.
“Poor girl, the cops couldn’t give you a run-down of what they think happened?”
Aiden cleared his throat and sat back down, his hands stuck in the longer strands of his own hair.
“They said it looked like she disarmed the alarm system first, before entering the house through the sliding glass doors in our bedroom. It isn’t clear who had the gun first, but there were obvious signs of a struggle in the kitchen. We have to wait until Lynn wakes up to get all the details, but Detective Holden assured me Lynn isn’t in trouble. It was obviously self-defense, he just needs the details to close the case.”
Jessica nodded, and Aiden watched her sit down beside Lynn and take her other hand.
“So, are you gonna ask her?”
“Ask her what?”
“To marry you, idiot. I know you’ve been thinking about it. Mom called me.”
Aiden rolled his eyes and couldn’t help but laugh when he glanced at the woman of his dreams unconscious in her hospital bed.
“Yeah, this seems like the perfect time to do that, Jess. Of course I haven’t thought about asking her now, she probably hates me.”
Jessica shook her head, “Why would she hate you? Because of what happened tonight? Aiden, that wasn’t your fault!”
He scoffed, “Of course it was my fault! This never would have happened at all if it weren’t for me.”
“No, this wouldn’t have happened if some crazy bitch could take a hint, Aiden. It’s not your fault this Amy chick went off the rails, and there’s no way you could have controlled it anyways. Lynn doesn’t blame you for anything.”
Aiden couldn’t escape the feeling that she could blame him though, and that’s what had his head spinning. He almost lost her for good, and now, he wasn’t sure if she would want to stay.
“Aiden?...”
Lynn’s voice filled the room and both him and Jessica leaned closer to her.
“Oh thank God, you’re awake,” He said as he leaned down to kiss her forehead.
He caressed her cheek and smiled down at her.
“I’m so sorry- “
Lynn shook her head as tears filled her eyes. She gripped his hand tightly and kissed his knuckles gently.
“Don’t apologize,” She said hoarsely.
Jessica saved the day by bringing a glass of cool water to Lynn and helping her drink it down before she spoke again.
“This is all my fault, Lynn, please tell me you forgive me,” He begged.
She was frowning as she pulled him closer to her, so he tucked his chair against the side of her bed and sat down.
“I don’t blame you, she was- that woman was fucking insane,” She said.
Jessica cleared her throat.
“I’m so happy you’re okay, Lynn. I’m gonna go grab some coffee…I’ll be back in a few.”
Aiden rolled his eyes and she sent him a wink, something he wanted to strangle her for momentarily.
As soon as the door to her room closed, Lynn spoke up.
“Don’t we have to call the doctors? The detectives?”
“Just- wait a second, Lynn. I want a moment with you before we get interrupted, okay? I want to tell you how fucking sorry I am, okay? I didn’t know Amy was crazy, we barely even spoke to one another. I’ve never had a problem with her before this, and Lynn, you saved yourself. When I got out of class, my tire was flat. I think she put two screws in it before I left the house because it wasn’t flat until I got out of class. That’s why I was so late,” He rambled.
She gripped his hand tighter.
“This isn’t your fault, okay? Amy had it all planned from the get. She had this elaborate scheme where she was going to ‘find,’ me when she saw that you were home, and then you two would bond over your ‘grief,’ together. It was ridiculous, but she wouldn’t listen to reason, Aiden. Her folks lived a couple of blocks over, and that’s how she was keeping such close tabs on us. In her head, her story would have been believable, because of the fact that she had family in the neighborhood,” Lynn explained.
Aiden shook his head and pressed Lynn’s hand to his cheek.
“Why was so obsessed with me? We barely even spoke two words to one another,” He said. Lynn shook her head.
“No offense, but I asked her the same thing, and she couldn’t answer me. I don’t know why she was so obsessed with you.”
“So, what happened?”
Lynn chewed on her bottom lip for a second.
“She called first, told me about how she wanted to kill me. She knew I was alone. She was already in the house, Aiden. I don’t know how she got in, but she boasted about disabling the alarm system.”
“Detective Holden said she came in through the sliding glass doors in our bedroom.”
Lynn nodded.
“She came in wearing a mask. I couldn’t see her face at first. She backed me into a corner in the kitchen, used a signal blocker so I couldn’t use my phone. I tried to reason with her, I really did. Eventually, I realized that she didn’t care one way or another, and that it was her or me. She was determined to kill me and get me out of the way so she could have you.”
The tears started again, and Aiden hurried to wipe them from beneath her eyes.
“The cops said there was an obvious struggle, is that how you got the bruises on your face and the gash on the back of your head?”
She slowly nodded, “At first, she had the gun and I knew I had to figure out a way to get it away from her. I attacked her with the cast iron skillet from the top of the stove. We fought, and eventually, I got the gun. But, then she stabbed me, and everything shifted. She played calm for a while, and we argued, and then she came at me one more time. That’s when I pulled the trigger,” She admitted.
Aiden sighed and kissed her fingertips, grateful that she was awake and talking to him.
“This never would have happened to you if it weren’t for me, Lynn.”
“Don’t. Don’t do that. It’s not your fault and I don’t blame you. We’re a team, we’re in this together.”
“I love you,” He told her.
She smiled sadly, her face bruised and swollen, her tiny body wrapped in blankets.
“I love you, too.”