CHAPTER NINE

An hour later, Olivia was lying on an exam table at the hospital. Nate had sent her only after he was convinced that the officer escorting Olivia would stay with her until Nate arrived. After their discovery in the floorboards, it became clear that more work needed to be done on the scene.

Olivia’s leg was throbbing and a nurse promised she would get some pain medication after the doctor had been in to see her. There was talk of x-rays and they even did a blood test to make sure she didn’t have an infection. Olivia was growing restless waiting for the process to move along. She wanted to be helping Nate and Vince with the case. The crime scene had opened up a lot of insight into the murderer.

“It’s the strangest thing,” a nurse in the hall said, stopping just outside the door to Olivia’s exam room. She was talking to another nurse, the one that had been working on Olivia. “Supposedly, she was kept against her will and abused by a crazy man, but she hardly shows any signs of abuse.”

“Besides the slit throat, you mean,” the other nurse corrected her.

Olivia tilted her head toward the door as she tried to understand the importance of what she was overhearing. She knew that the other women had all been sexually assaulted and beaten over the course of multiple days before their throats were slit. This sounded like a pretty dramatic change in behavior for the killer.

“The police are in there with her now, so I’m sure they will get to the bottom of it.”

The nurse returned and assured Olivia that the doctor would be in to see her soon. Olivia shifted on the bed, struggling to get more comfortable. When she heard a familiar voice down the hall, a tingle ran through her body. Nate appeared in the doorway a few seconds later.

“Just sitting around, I see. Typical.” He flashed her a killer smile. “How’s the leg?”

“Remarkably unchanged,” she said, eyeing the bloody bandage. “Were you talking to the victim?”

“I was.” He came into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. “This case is only getting weirder.”

“I overheard a couple of the nurses talking. This victim isn’t like the others.” Olivia stopped talking abruptly when a doctor entered the room. He was a young man, probably around the same age as Olivia. She noted the confused expression on his face when he found Nate in the room.

“I’m sorry. Is this… related to the other situation?” he asked.

Olivia realized that he must have seen Nate interviewing the witness and now thought she might also have been a victim.

“No, it’s not. Not really.” Nate took Olivia’s hand. “My girlfriend just happens to be a total klutz.”

“Ah.” The doctor nodded. “It’s probably good that you’re here. Olivia, we’ll get you stitched up in a minute, but there’s something we need to discuss first. Are you okay having him stay in the room for this?”

Olivia nodded, unable to find her voice. Whatever the doctor was about to say, it didn’t sound like it was going to be good news.

“We got your lab results. I have to ask, how have you been feeling?”

“Fine. I mean, a little tired and the other day I had some nausea, but I just figured it was stress related.” She had certainly had enough stress in her life lately.

“This is probably going to come as a shock to you then.” He glanced back and forth between them. “Olivia, you’re pregnant.”

Time stopped as Olivia stared at him. She heard the words, but she couldn’t comprehend them. It couldn’t be true. She had always taken measures to prevent such a possibility. Except…not when Nate had surprised her in D.C. Neither of them had been thinking about the potential consequences that day.

“I’ll give you two a moment and then I’ll be back in to fix up that leg.” The doctor started toward the door and then stopped. “Congratulations.”

When he was gone, Nate slowly turned to look at her. He was still holding her hand and he gave it a tight squeeze. “Your pregnant?” he said, sounding as shocked as she felt.

“Apparently so.” She still felt numb.

“We’re having a baby.” Nate put a hand on her stomach, a broad grin lighting up his face. “Liv, honey, we’re having a baby.”

“Yeah,” Olivia nodded and smiled as reality finally settled in. She put her hand on top of his. “You’re going to be a father, Nate.”

He pulled her close to his chest and held her for a long time, not saying anything. Finally, he asked, “Are you scared?”

“No.” She pulled back and noticed that his eyes were a little panicked. “Are you?”

“Just a little.” He put a hand against her cheek. “How can you be so calm right now?”

“Because I’m not just having a baby.” She put her hand on his chest. “I’m having a baby with you. We’ll figure it out together.”

He smiled faintly. “You don’t think I’ll screw up the kid?”

“No way.” She put both hands behind his neck and pulled his head toward hers. “This baby is the luckiest baby in the world to have you as a father,” Olivia said before kissing him deeply. As much as she had already loved Nate, she loved him even more now. He had given her the most amazing gift she hadn’t even known she wanted. “We’re going to be a family, Nate.”

The doctor returned and set about stitching up her leg. He seemed relieved that she and Nate had been happy about their surprise news. He must have dealt with plenty of situations where a surprise pregnancy hadn’t been received well. The pregnancy was still very new, so Olivia would have to follow up with her doctor in a couple weeks. Nate was beaming as he helped Olivia limp out of the hospital.

“Get it together, Tucker,” she teased, putting her arms around his waist, her hand brushing over the gun he still had holstered in place. “We can’t tell anyone yet.”

“I can’t help it,” he protested. “I just keep picturing you holding our baby.”

“You are such a sap.” She gave him a tight squeeze. “We have a lot of things to figure out now.”

He stopped walking with the car still a few yards away and looked at her. “Do you realize that you and I haven’t even been together a year and now we are engaged and you are knocked up?”

“The only thing more unlikely than that is how right it all feels.” Olivia felt a familiar rush of warmth in her chest when he smiled at her. “You should probably finish moving into my place now.”

“Yeah, that might be a good idea,” he agreed with a smirk. “Actually, we probably need to start looking for a bigger place.”

“And we still need to make this official,” she said, glancing at her ring finger. “Life is about to get a whole lot crazier.”

Nate drove them home, but not before stopping briefly at work to grab some files. Even the news of their pending baby wouldn’t distract him from an open serial killer case. The doctor had told Olivia to stay off her leg as much as possible, so Nate forced her to sit and relax while he made them dinner. Later, she curled up on the couch with her head in his lap as he continued to pour over autopsy reports and crime scene photos. A baseball game was on in the background and the announcer’s voice quickly lulled Olivia to sleep.

The sleep wasn’t exactly peaceful though. A familiar nightmare began to play out and Olivia woke with a start.

“Liv.” Nate’s hand pressed down on her arm. “You’re okay.”

“We can’t do this,” she said between rapid gasps of air. Her heart was still racing as she sat up.

“Do what?” Nate put the files aside.

“Have a baby when there is a serial killer threatening me. He could hurt the baby, Nate.” Olivia clutched a hand to her stomach.

Nate’s jaw clenched hard. “That’s never going to happen, Liv. I would never let anyone hurt you or our child.”

“You’ve said that before,” she said quietly. Her hand moved to the left, brushing over the scar that she still had from the last time someone had wanted to hurt her.

“I won’t make that mistake again,” Nate said through clenched teeth. He still blamed himself for what had happened to Olivia. “Liv, I would do anything to keep you safe. I would die for you.”

“Don’t say that.” The only thing worse than someone hurting Olivia and the baby would be if Nate were killed. It was the one thing she had feared every day for as long as she could remember, even when they had just been friends. She loved that Nate was so good at his job, but she hated that it was such a dangerous job. “I don’t want our child to grow up without a father.”

“Hey, Liv. Don’t get upset. Please.” Nate put an arm around her and pulled her close. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ll solve this case, you and I will get married, and in a few months we’ll have a perfect baby.”

Olivia knew that Nate couldn’t possibly predict how everything was going to turn out, but she felt better just hearing him say the words out loud. She needed to know that he believed everything would be okay, even if she couldn’t believe it herself. It also helped having his arms around her. There was nowhere she felt safer.

“I have a crazy theory about the case.” Olivia pushed aside all her personal feelings. Finding her stalker was the most important thing now. It was the only way she could protect their unborn baby. “Wanna hear it?”

“The crazier the better,” Nate said, stroking her hair.

“I think this last victim was more than just that.” Olivia had been spinning the idea through her head since overhearing the nurses in the hospital. “I think she’s been helping this creep.”

Nate pushed her away gently. “What do you mean, helping him?”

“She wasn’t abused and assaulted like the other girls. That’s not something this guy would stray from unless there was a good reason. Like maybe she was never one of his targets.” Olivia glanced toward Nate’s paperwork. “You talked to her yourself. What did you think?”

“Her throat had been slit, so she couldn’t actually speak. I was able to ask a few basic questions and she wrote down the answers. Her name is Emily Allen. She’s 28-years-old. She said she didn’t know her attacker,” Nate said. “I didn’t mention the weapons we found in the floorboards.”

“Isn’t that alone enough proof that this was different than the others? Why would this guy leave his weapons in the floorboards of one of his crime scenes? It doesn’t make any sense.” Olivia continued, “It always seemed strange that he would be torturing women in Chicago and then jumping on a plane to take pictures of me in D.C. What if he had a partner?”

“It’s possible, but it doesn’t seem likely. It’s very rare for a woman to be involved in murders like this, especially the sexual assault.” Nate’s brow furrowed as he concentrated. “You tell me, has something like this ever happened?”

“It’s not as rare as you would think. Especially if he indoctrinated her when she was still young. She likely doesn’t perceive the rapes as being that terrible if she herself has been on the receiving end of them for so long that it’s begun to feel normal.” Olivia had studied a number of cases like that and each one had been horrifying. “What did you find out about Emily’s past?”

“Not much. Vince ran her background while I was with you at the hospital. She’s only been in Chicago for the last few months. Before that, she lived in some town in Ohio. Maywood.”

Olivia’s heart thudded. “Maywood? Do you have a picture of Emily? Pre-attack.”

“Um, I think Vince threw one in the file.” Nate shuffled through the files until he found one with Emily’s name on it. He removed a photo and handed it to Olivia. “I doubt you know her just because she’s from Ohio, Liv. It’s a big state.”

“I wish that were true,” Olivia muttered, looking closely at the picture. A beauty queen with big, bleached hair and wide blue eyes looked back at her. “Pretty.”

“Not my type,” Nate said, brushing his hand along Olivia’s neck. “But she won Miss Teen Ohio ten years ago.”

“I know her,” Olivia breathed, piecing the puzzle together. “Maywood is only twenty minutes away from Mercy. Emily is three years younger than me. She used to be in the local papers for all the tournaments she won. She was this big tennis star. People thought she would win Wimbledon someday. I never heard anything about her after I moved away.”

Nate’s arm fell away and his entire body had tense. “This can’t be a coincidence. But why would Emily Allen be involved with a guy that is stalking you and killing other women in some sick revenge game?”

“How should I know why people are obsessed with me?” Olivia tried to joke. “You would know better than I would.”

“Ha. Ha.” Nate rolled his shoulders and shuffled the files into a neat stack on the coffee table. “I’m definitely not obsessed with your sense of humor.”

Olivia put her hands on Nate’s shoulders and gently worked the tight muscles. “You need to get some rest, darling. It’s been a long day.”

“Is this your way of trying to get me in bed?” he said.

“Are you saying I have to try?” Olivia quipped back.

“I’m saying, since when have we needed a bed?” Nate changed his mind when his hand grazed over her leg and found medical tape. “You’re supposed to be resting. Stop being a bad influence on me.”

“I’ll just lie there and let you do all the work,” she insisted.

Nate thought it over. “Seems like a good compromise.”

Olivia giggled as he scooped her up and headed toward the bedroom. She laughed harder when he said, “Guess we don’t need to worry about protection this time.”

“It’s a little late for that,” Olivia agreed. “I’d almost think you planned this whole thing.”

“I could’ve never planned for my life to end up this perfect,” Nate said, gently setting her on the bed. “This is all luck.”

“Someday I hope you’ll see how amazing you really are, Nathaniel Tucker.” Before she could say anything more, Nate kissed her and he didn’t stop for a long time.

Olivia tried to fall asleep later, but too many thoughts were crowding her head. Her leg was hurting, though she wouldn’t dare voice that out loud because Nate would blame himself even though it had nothing to do with their bedroom activities.

He had dozed off nearly an hour earlier with his hand pressed protectively over her stomach. It still didn’t feel real to her that there was a baby growing inside. Olivia rolled her head to the side to look at Nate. He was on his side, facing her. Nate didn’t know it, but she often watched him sleep. She liked the way his face softened with the stresses of his job faded away. He looked more like the carefree Nate she had met in college.

“Stop it,” Nate mumbled in a deep voice. He peeled open one eye. “Go back to sleep, weirdo.”

“You’re just too beautiful. I can’t look away.” She said it lightly, but it was also true. Olivia ran two fingers along the hard angle of his jaw.

Now both of his eyes were open and he kissed her bare shoulder. “Now you know how I feel when I look at you.”

“Right.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “We both know I outkicked my coverage with you.”

“I wish you wouldn’t say things like that,” Nate said, his hand softly caressing her stomach. “I wish you could see yourself through my eyes.”

“That would be creepy,” Olivia said, laughing.

“I’m serious, Liv. I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman than you. I’ve been smitten since that party freshman year.”

Olivia smiled. “I don’t doubt that you love me, Nate. I just hope our baby comes out looking like you.”

“I just hope it doesn’t come out looking like another man,” Nate teased, kissing her neck. “Especially if it’s a girl.”

“No chance,” she said forcefully. “Even when we were apart, I never once thought about being with another man. For me, it’s always you. Always.”

“Why?” he said. “I still can’t quite figure out how I got you to fall in love with me.”

Olivia’s hand was on his chest and as she looked at the beautiful diamond ring he had given her, she decided to come clean. “I’ll show you,” she said, extricating herself from his arms.

She left the warm bed and pulled on one of Nate’s t-shirts before shuffling quickly to the closet. Pushing up on her toes, she just barely got her hands around an old shoebox. The shoes that had once been inside were long gone, but the box was something she would keep forever.

Nate sat up in bed as she came closer. Olivia switched on the lamp next to the bed and climbed back in, placing the box in her lap. She had never shown anyone what was inside, but especially not Nate. “I know you think you’re the one that started this relationship because you kissed me first, but I’ve known we would end up together since that college party.”

She removed the lid and reached inside. “Here’s the bottle cap from the first beer you got me at that very party. The ticket stub from the first movie we went to together the next night. Our first picture we took together in that photo booth at that weird bar on Franklin.”

Each item was placed onto the bed until there was a heaping pile of memories. Nate watched the whole thing silently, patiently waiting for her to replay almost thirteen years of memories. When she was done, she said, “You might have kissed me first, darling, but I loved you first.”

Throughout all of it, Olivia hadn’t looked at Nate. She was nervous to be revealing a secret she had kept from him for thirteen years. When outside observers had teased them about their friendship, she had been the first to adamantly insist that it was nothing more. But inside, she had always hoped they would end up together.

“Liv.” Nate sounded slightly breathless. “I had no idea.”

“That was kind of the point,” she said, finally turning to look at him. He was staring at the pile of Nate memorabilia. “How much did I just freak out you? Do you want the ring back?”

“Of course not. I just wish you’d said something sooner.” When he looked at Olivia, there were tears in his eyes. “We wasted a lot of time getting to this point.”

“We just have to make up for lost time,” Olivia said as he pulled her close.