Gabe hated hospitals. The smells, the waiting, the sadness. He shifted in his seat, anxious for an update. Four people had had to pull him off that son of a bitch who’d fired at Raylene. The others…all three of them were lucky to be alive. If Rhys hadn’t gotten there when he had, they wouldn’t be.
He wanted them to pay for what they’d done to Raylene. The fact that she’d been able to get away under that kind of duress was nothing short of a miracle.
“She’s going to be fine,” said Clay, who’d been good enough to sit vigil with him while the doctors gave Raylene an MRI and a battery of other tests. “Logan and Annie are on their way home. They’re at the airport, waiting to catch a plane to Reno.”
“Does Rhys know anything about these jokers yet?”
Clay hitched his shoulders. “He’ll get whatever he can.”
A couple came into the waiting room, and Clay got to his feet and introduced Drew and Kristy Matthews. Gabe had maybe met them in passing once or twice, but he didn’t recognize them. Truthfully, all his energy was focused on Raylene.
Drew pumped Gabe’s hand. “How is she?”
“Beat up, but okay. How’s Harper?”
“Better now that she knows Raylene’s safe. We’re deeply indebted to her. What she did for Harper…” He paused, too emotional to continue.
“Ray’s tough.” And she was good as gold. Better than anyone gave her credit for.
“Is there anything we can do?” Kristy took Gabe’s hand in hers. “You name it and we’ll do it. Contact relatives…friends. Anything at all.”
“Her brother and his wife are on their way. I think we’ve got everything covered for now, but thank you.”
“Harper would like to see her,” Drew said. “Emily’s with her now, but as soon as Raylene can have visitors, would it be okay?”
“Sure.” Gabe had appointed himself Raylene’s point person, going as far as to tell the medical staff he was her fiancé. Otherwise, they wouldn’t give him any information. “As long as the MRI is okay, they’re planning to release her today.” Which was insane, in his opinion.
“That’s great.”
“You could bring her by the farmhouse.” But Gabe wondered if that was such a good idea for a kid. Raylene was in pretty rough shape.
“Thank you,” Drew said. “I think she needs to see for herself that Raylene’s okay.”
“You may want to give it a few days, for her face to heal,” he said, and saw Drew flinch. Apparently, word that Raylene had taken a bad beating hadn’t spread through the mighty Nugget grapevine yet.
Shortly after Gabe had come to the rescue, Rhys, Jake, and two other Nugget PD officers had responded. They’d arrested Raylene’s attackers and called for two ambulances. The gunman hadn’t gone totally unscathed—Gabe shot him in the arm just before he tried to pull the trigger on Raylene. He’d cried like a little bitch, and was somewhere in the hospital under guard, getting treated.
Everything after that was a blur. At the time, Gabe’s only focus had been on getting Raylene the hell out of there. She’d been barely conscious on the ride over, incoherently muttering about love and kindness and how Gabe was the best man she knew. He’d been too shaken to pay attention, and he was pretty sure the paramedics had put a painkiller in her IV, making her goofy.
“We’re staying a few more nights, just to be here if Harper needs us,” Drew said. “I know Emily is making Raylene a big pot of soup, but if you need anything else, like Kristy said, don’t hesitate to call us.” He pulled a business card out of his wallet and scribbled a phone number on the back.
Clay walked them to the bank of elevators and an older guy in a white coat came out of a pair of double doors.
“Are you Gabe Moretti?”
Gabe got to his feet. “I am. Is Raylene out?”
“She is, and she’s asking for you. Come on back.”
“Did the tests come out okay?”
“They did, and we’re cutting Miss Rosser loose. I wrote her a prescription for a painkiller, and she should see her primary physician in a week if the swelling doesn’t start going down. She should avoid taking ibuprofen for forty-eight hours, ice the ribs, and get plenty of rest.”
Gabe wanted to say, “That’s it?” In the teams, Raylene’s injuries would’ve been nothing. A few broken ribs and a busted-up face came with the territory, and was nothing compared to getting a limb blown off by an IED, or worse. But Raylene had never been in the military, had never been trained in SERE or how to withstand torture. And make no mistake about it: what those people had done to her was torture.
“Counseling?” Gabe asked.
“I would say as soon as possible. In the meantime, respect her boundaries. If she doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t push it.”
Gabe nodded, feeling sick to his stomach. And pissed. All for some goddamn gold that didn’t exist. Rhys had warned him to stay away, but right now Gabe wanted to find out what floor the piece-of-shit gunman was on and wring his damned neck.
He followed the doctor to Raylene’s room. She was sitting on the hospital table in green scrubs. Her own clothes were covered in blood. Other than the chips of blue that shone through her swollen eyelids, her face was so bruised it was hardly recognizable. All Gabe wanted to do was hold her, but he forced himself to give her space. After the ordeal she’d been through, she might not want to be touched.
“You ready to go home, Ray?”
She slowly nodded, and, despite his best efforts to give her breathing room, he gathered her up in his arms. “I’ve never been so scared in my life, Ray.”
“I knew you would come. I knew you’d save me,” she whispered.
“No, baby, you saved yourself. I’m so freaking proud of you.”
She rested her face against his chest. “I thought I was going to die, that I’d never see you again.”
“I’m right here, sweetheart.” He grazed the top of her head with his lips, never wanting to let her go. “You’re safe now. Harper’s safe. All because of you. You done good, Ray. You gave me a heart attack, but you done good.”
“They had our pickax, Gabe. I stabbed them with it. I think I went a little crazy.”
He laughed, even though none of it was funny. The idea of her having to defend herself against three hardened criminals made him want to slam his fist through the walls. But she needed levity and comfort now, not his fury. “Let’s go home, Ray.”
When a nurse came with a wheelchair, he had a difficult time releasing Raylene, but he held her hand the whole way down the elevator. According to the ward clerk, Clay had gone home. As soon as they got to the lobby, he dashed across the parking lot to pull his SUV up to the circular driveway and helped Raylene get into the front seat.
She fell asleep on the drive home. Gabe carried her inside when they got to Logan and Annie’s farmhouse and fixed her a bed on the sofa, afraid she’d wake up if he climbed the stairs. He sat in an overstuffed chair by the fireplace so he could watch over her and send a few texts while she rested, including one to Logan to let him know they were home. Next, he built a fire, wanting her to feel warm and safe.
Not ten minutes after getting a good blaze going, there was a knock on the front door. Donna and Emily clutched boxes, bags, and baskets full of food.
“You planning to feed everyone aboard the USS Dewey?” He let them in and helped them with their packages.
“How is she?” Emily peeked around the corner at Raylene lying on the couch.
“She’s asleep.” He put his finger over his lips, signaling that they should whisper. “Shoot, I forgot to ice her ribs and face.”
“Don’t wake her,” Donna said. “You can do that later.”
It was best to do it as soon as possible, but, yeah, he’d let her sleep. They moved into the kitchen and Donna muscled him out of the way like she owned the place, putting a big pot on the stove and making room in the refrigerator. Emily began unloading the dishwasher.
“I can do that,” he said.
“That’s okay, you focus on Raylene. We made chicken soup. Both of you need to eat.”
Donna finished unpacking the food they’d brought. “I’ll set the table.”
“Clay said she’s pretty beaten up.” Emily put a stack of plates in the cupboard and turned to face Gabe, her eyes tearing up. “What she did for Harper…there are no words.”
“Drew said Harper’s doing okay.”
Emily sighed. “She seems to be handling it better than Drew and me, if you want to know the truth. Now that she knows Raylene’s safe, she’s treating the whole ordeal as if it were a big adventure, like one of her Gallagher Girls novels. When I think about all the ways it could’ve—”
Donna stopped her. “That’s why you shouldn’t think about it.” She came over and rubbed Emily’s back. “Harper’s safe, Raylene’s safe, and Gabe and Rhys caught the bad guys.”
There was another knock at the door and Gabe went to see who it was. Lucky, Tawny, and Cecilia. Gabe ushered them into the kitchen.
“Where’s Jake?” Gabe asked.
“He’s at the station,” Cecilia said. “That’s all I know.”
He and Rhys were probably still interrogating Raylene’s abductors. Gabe suspected Cecilia knew more than she let on but had been sworn to keep her mouth shut. In the teams, everything they did was top secret, which could be awfully tough on a marriage. Gabe didn’t think cops had to be as close-lipped about their cases, but they also couldn’t have their spouses spreading information all over town.
“How is she?” Cecilia asked.
“She’s hanging in there.” Gabe grabbed a few chairs from the dining room. A day ago, these same people would’ve crossed the road to avoid Raylene. Now, she was the town hero.
Cecilia turned to Emily. “Jake said Harper’s been amazing.”
“She’s a brave girl, our Harper is.” Donna pulled a jug of apple cider from the fridge, got a pot off the rack, and began heating the juice on the stovetop. “And Raylene, she always was—”
“I always was what?” Raylene stood in the doorway, a blanket wrapped around her like a poncho. Her face was blown up like a balloon and had turned a multitude of colors, but she stuck her chin out and held it firm in challenge. “I always was what?”
“Tough as nails.” Donna looked her in the eye and something passed between them. Maybe, like Owen, Donna had known more about Raylene’s childhood than she wanted to admit, or maybe—just maybe—there was an apology in that gaze.
“Sit down, mija.” Cecilia made room at the table for another chair.
“Let me get you something to eat.” Emily ladled the chicken soup into a bowl.
Soon, the kitchen was a hive of activity, everyone rushing around to make Raylene comfortable.
“Did you really whack one of them with a pickax?” Lucky asked.
“Two of them,” Raylene said, and Gabe tried to hide a smile.
She didn’t appear to realize that her status had suddenly changed from town exile to town savior. He wondered if by tomorrow her place on the pecking order would revert back to leper.
* * * *
Monday, Drew called work and told them he wasn’t coming in for the rest of the week. While Harper was treating the ordeal as a big adventure, and had even gone to school, he couldn’t bear to leave her yet. He was having a difficult time letting her out of his sight for even a few minutes.
“Did you see this?” Kristy came into the kitchen with her tablet and showed Drew the headline in the Nugget Tribune: “Prodigal Daughter Saves Child, then Herself.”
Drew scanned the story and chuckled.
“You’re laughing; that’s a good thing.” Kristy gave him a hug.
“Have I told you how happy I am that you came this weekend…that you were here when this all went down?” She’d been a rock. Frankly, he didn’t know what he would’ve done without her.
She’d shuttled back and forth between Sierra Heights and McCreedy Ranch at least a dozen times, making sure Harper was never alone and watching Paige while Emily and Clay dealt with Raylene’s rescue and the aftermath. She’d gone with Drew and Harper to Quincy to identify two of the attackers while the third recovered in the hospital. And she’d called Harper’s counselor, just in case their daughter needed to talk to someone outside the family.
“I’m glad I was here, Drew.” She poured herself a glass of juice and joined him at the breakfast table. “To be candid, it was the first time I felt like part of this family.” By “family,” Drew knew she meant him and Harper.
“You were always part of it,” he protested.
“I’m not blaming anyone.” She held up her hands. “Honest. Under the best of circumstances, blending a family is difficult. And this…well, it was a unique situation.” She forced a grim smile, because “unique” was a euphemism for what he and Emily had gone through during the years their daughter was missing. The odds of getting Harper back after all that time was truly nothing short of a miracle. “And as much as I want to be involved in Harper’s transition, I understand that you and she need time to catch up and make up for years of missed bonding. It doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hard on me. At the risk of sounding like a child, I felt left out. Until this weekend.” She sipped her juice and let out a breath. “It sounds awful, but it took what happened in the barn for me and Harper to really connect.
“She clung to me, Drew. After she ran home and you went to call the police, she clung to me. And it wasn’t because I was the only person around. She knew she mattered to me and I mattered to her. In those few desperate moments, it clicked: I’m her family, I’m someone she can rely on, someone who will always love and protect her. It clicked, and the seismic shift in our relationship stuck, because things have been different between us ever since. I’m no longer an afterthought or a nuisance who takes you away from Harper. I’m someone who is important to her.”
Drew swiped at a tear. Between the arrests and ensuring Harper’s well-being, there’d been so much going on that Drew hadn’t noticed. The truth was ever since reuniting with Harper, he’d been on his own shaky ground as far as reconnecting with his daughter. But while he struggled, Kristy had been relegated to outsider. He’d probably been as guilty of making her feel that way as Harper.
“We’re all important to each other,” he said, and reached across the table for her hand. “And you…you’re my life, Kris. You’re my everything.”
Her eyes grew wet. “And you’re mine. I know it’s been rocky between us. The reason I came on Friday was to give you news, talk it out, and hopefully get back to where we were before Christmas.” Before he’d been complicit in making her a third wheel. “Friday, Saturday, there was never a good time to talk, and then…Sunday.”
When their world had been rocked. But thank God everyone had come out fine in the end.
“News?” he asked.
“News.” Her face lit up like sunshine. “I’m glad you’re sitting down, because you’re not going to believe it. I’m pregnant! Or at least I think I am. I missed my period last week, chalked it up to stress from all the tension, then, on a lark, took a pregnancy test Friday morning. Positive.”
Something in his chest moved, and for the first time since Harper came home, the prospect of having a baby wasn’t fraught with complexities. It was just…joyful. So freaking joyful that his heart felt ready to burst. “But when? I thought we missed this month’s window of opportunity.”
She lifted her shoulders. “I’m thinking it was the night we skipped Wendy’s dinner because we were fighting.”
They’d had incredible make-up sex—the first time they’d been spontaneous in months. His lips tipped up and he couldn’t stop smiling. “Well, I’ll be damned. No IVF, no fertility monitor, just good old-fashioned sex.”
“Just good old-fashioned sex.” She laughed. “Are you happy? Be honest.”
He pulled her up and danced her around the kitchen. “Happy doesn’t even begin to describe it.” Funny how life worked. He’d convinced himself that having another child would interfere with getting closer to the one he’d lost. But now, now that it was staring him in the face, it suddenly felt like this had always been the master plan.
There’s room in your heart—in your life—for two children, take it from me. The day I met Justin and Cody was the day I started healing. Emily’s words reverberated through his head. When had his ex-wife become so sage?
“Really? Because I’d gotten the impression that with Harper…that you weren’t so gung ho about having a baby right now.”
“I wasn’t,” he admitted. “At least, that’s what my head was telling me. But a second ago, when you said the words I’m pregnant…my heart reacted in a way that was entirely different. I want this, Kris. I really, really want this.”
She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “Good, because I have an idea.”
“Yeah.” He nuzzled her neck. “What’s that?”
“I think we should move here full-time.”
He pulled back and did a double take. Kristy had agreed to their current living situation for him, because of Harper, but it never would’ve been her first choice. She was an urban dweller by nature and loved their life in Silicon Valley.
“Hear me out.” She laughed at his dubious expression. “It’s cheaper to live here, and if we sell our house in Palo Alto, we’ll have a nice cushion if I want to take a year or two off from work for the baby. With a newborn, I don’t know how easy going back and forth will be. This way we’ll eliminate that headache. We’ll be here for Harper, and she’ll be able to grow up with her new sister or brother. And despite what happened Sunday, obviously a fluke, this is a good place to raise children. Watching the way the community rallied around Harper and Raylene was nothing short of amazing.”
There was no denying that Nugget was a tight-knit town. When Harper had gone missing, Drew’s Bay Area neighbors had either looked at him and Emily with recrimination or had been too busy with their own go-go lives to offer succor. Here, the townsfolk stood together in times of need, even with someone as disliked as Raylene. Yep, they certainly took care of their own.
“And given your status as the best Internet lawyer in the land, I don’t think you’ll have a problem working remotely.” She kissed him. “On the days you have to be in the Bay Area, I’ll hold down the fort here. We could even buy a small apartment there. And who knows, maybe I’ll hang out a shingle and take on a few clients here.”
“You’ve got this all worked out, huh?” He kissed her back. Damn. They were having a baby.
“I want you to be happy, Drew. I want you to feel like you don’t have to compromise when it comes to Harper, and I’m hoping you and Emily can find your way to giving her more freedom, even after what happened Sunday.”
He exhaled, because the memory of his daughter running toward them, an expression of abject fear on her face, wasn’t something he’d likely forget in the near future. But, yeah, she was right. They had to lighten up on the reins, or else Harper would grow up to be a complete neurotic.
“What do you say?” she asked.
“You’ll be okay living here full-time?”
“The tradeoff will be worth it, and I’m planning to work hard to make friends here, join some groups, maybe do some pro bono work for that foundation Gia Treadwell founded, the one that helps struggling women get a leg up.”
He started to say that Emily could introduce her around, help her find her footing, but stopped himself. Kristy needed to be independent from his ex-wife and carve out her own niche here in Nugget. He got that.
“We could always move back to the city if you hate it,” he said. “But everything you’ve said makes sense. And, Kris, the idea of being here full-time for Harper, for our new baby…” He choked up a little and had to collect himself. “Thank you. Thank you for making the sacrifice.”
She looped her arms around his neck and pulled him in until their foreheads were touching. “I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s not much of sacrifice. I’ll get to experience full-time motherhood, something we never could’ve afforded in the Bay Area. Besides that”—she paused for emphasis—“I’ve got everything I want right here.”
And so did he.