Cold Silence, page 33
Yael pressed the call button for the nurse because they’d wanted to know when Laura woke up so they could run a few more tests.
Laura was recovering from an array of injuries and lacerations and she’d probably have scars over pretty much her entire body, although not on her face. Alex had offered to pay for plastic surgery but Laura was too weak for any procedures right now. They’d arrived in time to prevent Ethan Grice from using any of the power tools he’d had lined up, apparently having raided the school’s workshop.
All things considered, Laura had had a lucky escape. She was traumatized though. She’d cried all day yesterday and had to be sedated.
“I was so worried about you,” Yael admitted. “I’m sorry we didn’t get there faster.”
“I’m grateful you arrived at all. When the room went up in flames, I thought I was going to burn alive and that was the single most terrifying moment of my life.” Laura sniffed. “Anyway, it was my own damn fault.”
“How were you to know?”
“You always warned me of the dangers of online dating. I should have been more careful.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I mean, hopefully the next guy you meet is not a serial killer but I love how brave you are going after relationships. Pursuing your own happiness…”
Laura held herself carefully as she laughed a little. “It’s more the pursuit of orgasms and I think I might give it up. I have a vibrator that’s a lot less trouble and a whole lot more than most of the men I meet, if you know what I mean.” She wiggled her brows.
Yael laughed, the way she was supposed to.
“I’m thankful I didn’t sleep with Owen or Ethan or whatever the hell his name was, but only because he ‘didn’t want to rush things.’” Laura reached for a glass of water on the bedside table. “Ouch.”
“His sexual abuse in prison obviously deeply affected him.”
Laura blinked rapidly. “That’s no excuse.”
Yael leaned over as far as she dared and held out her hand. Laura took it and squeezed. “I know, but I didn’t want you to worry that you’d lost your touch.”
Laura chuckled reluctantly, then sobered. “I keep thinking of that police officer who died on the side of the road after I poked out the rear light.”
“It was the smart thing to do. You weren’t to know it wouldn’t get noticed until you were on a deserted road.”
“It was piss poor luck. That poor man.” Laura held back a sob.
After a moment of silence, Yael said, “You can talk to me, you know. If you need to.”
“Thank you. That reminds me.” Laura licked water off her lips.
Yael tensed.
“I overheard the nurses gossiping when I went up for the CT scan. I was half out of it at the time, but I woke up in the night when you were asleep and checked out the news headlines.”
Yael’s mouth parched and she looked away.
“Apparently, my best friend is notorious in Colorado under a different name. Who would have thought?” Laura shifted up the bed a little, obviously struggling to get comfortable. “I wish I’d known. I’d have been less pushy about trying to hook you up.”
“You’re not mad?” Yael looked at Laura anxiously.
“Oh, honey, I am furious. That authorities traumatized a fourteen-year-old girl in punishment for her brother’s actions. If that isn’t a patriarchal society at work, I don’t know what is.”
Yael played with the fold of the sheet. “Everyone who’s found out in the past has always believed what was written in the press.”
“I once witnessed you rescuing a skunk on the side of the road. I might not be good at picking men, but I’m fantastic at picking girlfriends.”
The knot in Yael’s throat tightened. She hadn’t anticipated such easy acceptance, not from Alex, not from Laura, especially not from Shane. She knew perhaps that was partly on her. She guarded her past so assiduously it probably made her look guilty. Now her secret was in the open again and this time it didn’t feel quite so terrible.
Unfortunately, the press was still after an inside scoop and kept attempting to sneak in to get photographs or an interview. Alex had posted bodyguards on the doors to keep them out. Didn’t stop the nursing staff asking probing questions—about her past and Ethan Grice’s death. Yael had only told them what was already in the media. The story would come out eventually but she wasn’t about to feed the frenzy. Even the thought made her nauseous.
The school had been badly damaged by the fire. She felt terrible that the community was once again suffering but she’d finally made peace with the fact that it wasn’t her fault.
She’d atoned for everything she could. More than she’d needed to in the end.
The door opened and in walked a nurse who was smiling broadly at her favorite operator.
Shane was part of the investigation into what had happened and had been spending most of his time on scene at the school, seeing what evidence they could uncover from the burnt ruins of the gym. He’d also had to explain exactly what had gone down to ASAC Sloan and the other higher ups. The task force commander had come to see Yael late last night and had held her hand for a little while and thanked her for what she’d done.
“Hey there.” Yael couldn’t quite quell the quiver in her voice as she tried to play it cool.
Shane leaned down to kiss her, his hand cupping the back of her head as he took it deeper, kissing her until she trembled with emotion.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, pulling away but keeping hold of her hand.
“Good. Better than yesterday. Did I thank you for saving me again yet today?”
Shane shook his head. “I didn’t save you.”
“Well, you saved me,” Laura said with what sounded close to a laugh.
“How are you feeling, Laura?” Shane asked the other woman.
“A little less fragile than yesterday.”
“Good to hear,” said Shane.
“Time for a CT scan,” the nurse announced.
They both watched as the nurse made Laura climb, complaining, into a wheelchair to go upstairs.
“We won’t be long,” Laura joked. “Better make it snappy. I’ll warn the bodyguards not to interrupt.”
“You’re incorrigible.” Yael laughed and ignored the heat she could feel spreading up her neck.
Shane smirked. “You look cute when you’re embarrassed.”
“She always looks cute,” Laura exclaimed as the doors closed.
Yael rolled her eyes.
“Laura seems a little better.”
“She does.”
“Did she say anything about her ordeal?”
“That she was grateful you turned up when you did, and that they didn’t have sex and I think that also means he didn’t rape her, which is something.”
Shane nodded. “It’s a lot.”
Yael shifted and winced.
Shane frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nodded. “Just healing from a bullet wound. I’ll be fine.”
One side of his mouth curled up in a focused grin. “Badass.” He picked up her hand and kissed the tattoo on the inside of her wrist.
A shiver ran over her shoulders and down her spine.
“I am planning to give you a few shooting lessons though. So next time you can maybe pull the trigger with your eyes open.”
She blew out a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.”
“It’s difficult after so many years of insurmountable guilt,” she admitted, needing to be completely honest with him. “I have spent a lifetime alternating between apologizing to people or pushing them away so I didn’t get hurt by their reaction when they finally discovered the truth.” She turned her head toward the window. “It’s why it hurt so much when you told me you’d doubted me.”
“Yael,” he whispered in anguish, slowly exhaling, before touching her cheek. She looked back at him.
“There will never be a time that I am not sorry for what I did. I was destroyed by Scotty’s death. The belief that it was my fault, that I should have been the one to die in his place—” His voice caught. “And then Montana going down in that air crash.” He shook his head. “Give me the chance to make it up to you. Give me the chance to love you.”
Shane’s green eyes were vivid against the drabness of the hospital room.
She loved those eyes. She loved everything about him but she wasn’t quite ready to tell him that. Not yet.
She swallowed. “I’m not sure if you appreciate what life with me might be like. Even now some jerk will be online saying that I’m somehow to blame for both what happened fifteen years ago, and for what happened two days ago. Some conspiracy theorist will have some bullshit story how it’s all connected to some Deep State nonsense or how EG was some kind of invention by the FBI to garner support.”
He smiled at her and kissed her fingers. “And you’ll help shine a light on the truth and track down the bad guys.”
Tears swam in her eyes and she blinked rapidly.
“You really are the bravest person I know.” Shane stared at their clasped hands. “I can’t imagine how difficult life must have been for the teenager you were, especially having lost your immediate family all on the same day. I’m willing to be half as brave as you are if you give me the chance to stand by your side.” His fingers tightened on hers and he stared deep into her eyes. “I will not let you down, ever again.”
“Promise?” she asked with a watery smile.
He kissed her deeply, pulled away slowly. “Promise.”
Yael’s pulse raced. When it slowed back down again, she exhaled heavily. “I guess I’d better take those shooting lessons from you then, huh?”
Those green eyes of his positively glowed. “Does this mean we’re going on a date?”
She shook her head. “Our first date is not going to be on a firing range.”
“Where then?”
Yael hadn’t thought about it. Their entire relationship had evolved when she’d been avoiding the attentions of a serial killer. The thought of being free to do exactly what she wanted was liberating and at the same time terrifying.
“How about sailing?”
He tilted his head. “You like boats?”
“I don’t have a lot of experience but I’ve always liked the thought of learning to sail… That, or scuba diving.”
He grinned. “A friend of mine in the BAU has a sailboat. I’m sure he’ll let us borrow it.”
“You know how to sail?” Yael asked in surprise.
“One of my many skills.” He leaned in closer, intent on her mouth, but only giving her a brief peck. “I’m also a certified scuba instructor.” He quirked a brow and somehow made the suggestion of teaching her to dive sound dirty.
“Hey, where’s your cast?” she asked, noticing his left arm was no longer encased in plaster.
He rolled up his sleeve and rotated the arm. His muscles corded and Yael felt a stab of lust.
“I spoke to a doc here and managed to get an x-ray which showed both bones were healed. I had the guy speak to Novak and then my boss gave permission to leave the cast off, although I have a plastic one for if it gets sore. I have orders to rest it for another two weeks and then I’m good to start training again with the team.”
Her heart fluttered suddenly as she held his dark green eyes. What did that mean for them?
Shane kissed her again. The fact he was so open about them being involved now, that he displayed his affection so lavishly despite everyone knowing the truth about her brother and what he’d done, made her want to well up with emotion. She forced it away. She wouldn’t cry. Ethan Grice was dead. Everyone else had survived. She wouldn’t let her brother’s evil destroy her happiness. Not again.
It was amazing how clarifying her most recent brush with death had been. How liberating.
“So, does this mean we’re actually giving this relationship thing a try?” he asked.
She gripped a handful of sheet tight. “I’m game if you are.”
He slowly uncurled her death grip from the cool cotton and cradled her hand gently between his palms. “Funny, but I don’t want to play games this time.”
“Neither do I. Shane.” She swallowed hard and forced out the words she needed to say. “I think I’m falling in love with you. So, please, if you aren’t serious about a relationship tell me now.”
His expression grew serious again and he tucked her hair behind her ear. “Honey, my job is not great for relationships. I sometimes spend months away from home and often I can’t even call to say why I can’t call. But if you think that’s something we might be able to handle, together…then I’m all in with giving this thing between us a real chance.”
She smiled, her heart feeling lighter than it had in years.
They leaned toward one another, both grinning like loons, but a loud knock on the door interrupted, and then the door burst open with Laura being pushed along by the matronly nurse.
“That was quick,” Yael said on a laugh.
“I warned you.”
The nurse helped Laura into bed and Yael couldn’t help worrying about her pallor. Some of it was the lack of her usual makeup. Some of it was pain.
The nurse left and Shane took a phone call. He went to the door and suddenly some of his team members were striding toward them pushing two wheelchairs. They were in civilian clothes and yet they looked every inch the operators they were.
“You remember Ryan Sullivan?” asked Shane.
Yael nodded.
“This is Aaron Nash, Will Griffin, and Hunt Kincaid,” Shane introduced the others.
“We’ve come to rescue you.” Griffin smiled.
“Goody,” came a raspy croak from the next bed. “Rescue me too, would you?”
Ryan asked soberly, “How are you feeling, Miss Laura?”
“Like I was kidnapped and tortured by a psychopath but the psychopath’s dead and I’m not, so that’s okay?”
“You were lucky to survive,” Will Griffin said solemnly. “You don’t have to bounce back straight away. Take some time to recover.”
The fact Laura was joking about the incident with people she didn’t know was a great sign.
“What do you mean, rescue me?” Yael asked.
“Alex Parker sent his jet for you two,” Nash said. “We squeezed two hospital beds onboard and he even hired a nurse for the trip.”
“A very attractive nurse,” Ryan Sullivan added.
“Who you are not going to distract,” Shane admonished.
“I already distracted her on the way down here.” Ryan looked unabashed as Kincaid and Griffin stared at the ceiling.
“But what I don’t understand is why are you guys here?” Yael asked, looking at the three HRT operators. “You don’t work for Alex.”
“We’re your official FBI escort.” Will Griffin sent her a smile that suggested this should be obvious.
“What about our bodyguards?” Yael asked in confusion.
“We’re better looking,” Ryan told her with a straight face.
“They’re coming too,” Kincaid told her with a twinkle in his eye. “They’re the muscle. We’re the brains.”
Yael clasped the bedsheets in her fists. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re family,” Ryan said simply. “We’re bringing you home. Or at least to a hospital closer to home.”
She fought the tears she knew she shouldn’t shed because if she started to cry she wouldn’t stop. The knot in her throat was getting bigger and bigger and she couldn’t speak.
Shane squeezed her fingers. “Hey, I forgot to tell you. I heard a funny thing on the radio earlier.”
Yael sniffed and blinked, crisis over. He always did that. Pulled her back from the brink of tears. Although he had held her when she’d woken up after surgery yesterday and let her weep all over him.
“What did you hear?” She finally choked out the words.
He turned her hand palm up and stroked his fingers over the snake coiled over her wrist. “I heard there was a mysterious donation of several million dollars toward rebuilding of the school.”
“Really?”
He leaned back and didn’t let go of her gaze. “It was you. I know it was you.”
“You have millions of dollars in the bank?” Ryan asked with an exaggerated stroke of his chin.
Yael snorted. “Not anymore.” She squeezed Shane’s hand before telling them everything. She didn’t want any more secrets. “It was from the life insurance policies I received when my parents were murdered. I never wanted that money but after what the insurance companies put me through, I took it. I put it in the bank but didn’t touch it. Until now.”
Shane leaned down and kissed her on the lips. “I think you’re amazing.”
“I think you’re pretty amazing yourself.” She side-eyed the audience, noting the happy smiles they all wore.
“Your house is all fixed up,” Shane said, pulling away reluctantly. “Or we can stay at my apartment when you are released.”
“Already?” She didn’t miss the implication that they were going to be staying together for the time being.
“Alex said one of his partners took over the logistics. Haley Cramer?”
“Haley fixed my house?”
“I bet it looks even better now than it did before.” Laura smiled tiredly. “Haley has exquisite taste.”
The guys helped them both transfer into the wheelchairs. Shane began pulling her personal items out of the bedside locker and putting them in her lap and then covered her up with an extra blanket. Will Griffin did the same for Laura.
“Are you ready to be wheeled out of here?” Shane asked.
“Are you sure I can’t walk?” Yael grumbled.
“That would be a negative,” said Shane.
“Nyeht.” Ryan.
“Non.” Kincaid.
“Nein.” Griffin.
“Nee.” Laura.
“That’s a ‘no’ then.” She laughed even as she mentally prepared for the onslaught of attention going through the hospital. Her incision still hurt but the painkillers were hardcore. She was going home and for the first time since her brother’s murderous spree fifteen years ago, she didn’t feel alone.
Shane pulled a ball cap over her hair and Ryan handed her a pair of aviators that almost didn’t stay on her nose. Then with a nod to the bodyguards they wheeled her out of the room, so fast her head spun.
