His Wedding Date (The Second Chance Love Series, Book 2) (28 page)

"Okay," Shelly said when she could breathe again. "But that doesn't mean I have to leave town."

"I haven't slept in days," he admitted. "When I wasn't staying up nights trying to figure out who wanted to kill Charlie and who was after you, I was tossing and turning in that bed, going half out of my mind trying to remember just how it felt to be with you in that hotel room in Tallahassee."

She swallowed hard. She didn't want to say anything, to give anything away. It was spiteful, she knew, but she liked the image of him for once being the one to lose sleep over her, rather than the other way around.

"Shel, I can't think straight with you around, and if you stay, I won't let you out of my sight, so I'll never get anything done."

"I have some things I need to do myself," she said. "I have responsibilities to Charlie and his wife. He was a good friend, and he put a lot of trust in me. I can't walk away from what he asked me to do."

"Let me take care of those things, just until the police find Grant Edwards and lock him away."

"And who's going to take care of you?"

He came a little closer, and at six-two he towered over her. "I'm bigger than you. I'm faster, and I'm stronger."

"Which isn't going to make a bit of difference if Grant has another gun."

"Come on, Shel. You know size and strength count for a lot, particularly when it's a man going up against a woman."

She didn't say anything. She couldn't. She didn't care for his idea that she was some helpless little girl in need of his protection. But she remembered how powerless she'd felt when Grant had hold of her. Still, she might have gotten out of there by herself. It was possible.

"Shelly, there are a million different ways for a man to hurt a woman," he said. "I don't want you hurt."

"I know, I just—"

He silenced her with one finger that slid across her lips in a paralyzing caress. She shivered in spite of herself, knowing he'd meant only to quiet her, knowing it was becoming impossible to hide her reaction to his touch.

"Do you love me?" he asked.

His words left her reeling. A massive weight settled itself on top of her chest, making it hard to breathe, hard to move.

He couldn't be asking her this, not now. He couldn't back her into this kind of corner. It wasn't fair, and he was an extremely fair-minded man.

"Brian," she pleaded. She started trembling in earnest now, and she didn't see any way out of this.

He knew the answer already. She could see it in his eyes. And she thought he must have some ideas of his own about how he could make her admit it.

"Do you love me?" he asked again.

She closed her eyes, praying this was nothing more than a dream, but opened them again and saw him still standing there. What was the use? He already knew.

"Yes," she said breathlessly. "I do."

She waited for the regrets to come, waited for the uneasiness to settle in between them. She'd always been sure that admitting her feelings to him would only make him uncomfortable.

But he didn't seem uncomfortable at all. If anything, he looked satisfied as hell, though he tried to hide it.

"Then do this for me," he said. "Do this, and I won't ask anything else of you."

"That's not fair," she said.

"I know. It's rotten of me to use the way you feel about me this way, to make you admit it at all, but I'm desperate. And that plane's leaving in an hour and forty minutes. But things are crazy here. I had to stand there last night and watch a very dangerous man–one who's already killed one person—try to choke you and then hold a gun to your head."

"I had to watch him hold the gun on you, too," she reminded him.

"Yeah. Then you know the hell that is. Please, I am begging you, get out of here. Get away from that man, so I can think and do what I have to do. I can't do it with you here. You mean too much to me, and the idea of losing you now, when I just figured out how much you mean to me... Shelly, please?"

"I'm worried about you, too," she said.

"I know. And I'm probably not being fair, asking you to go. But I am asking. Please, get on the plane. All you have to do is give them your name at the ticket counter. Here's the confirmation number, if they have any trouble finding the reservation."

Shelly didn't want to be away from him now. What if all they ever had was this time together? She didn't want to miss a single moment of it.

"I honestly don't think Grant would really hurt me."

"You don't?"

"No."

"C'm'ere," he said. He took her by the arm to the bathroom down the hall and flicked on the lights. He turned her toward the mirror, and he stood behind her. Pulling her hair aside, he showed her two bluish-gray bruises on the side of her throat.

"I was right beside you, and he still managed to do this. Have you thought about what else he could have done? Because I have."

"He didn't even take the safety off the gun," she said, standing still beneath the hands that had settled against her shoulders and watching his reflection in the mirror.

"So? He could have been nervous. He could have thought he wouldn't need to shoot to get what he wanted from you. He might have been plain careless with a gun. That makes him even more dangerous."

He was massaging her shoulders now, his fingers and his thumbs kneading softly but firmly into her tension-filled muscles.

"Please take this," he said, holding out the piece of paper where he'd scribbled down the confirmation number. "I'd take you to the airport myself, but I'm supposed to meet with the lawyer in fifteen minutes, and he has to be in court right after that. I'll call you a cab. You can buy some clothes when you get there, and my mother will be waiting for you at the airport, all right?"

Finally she gave in with a nod.

"Thank you," he said.

He closed his arms around her from behind, locking them together across her chest. He pulled her back against him and squeezed her tightly, letting his warmth seep into her.

For the first time since she woke up alone, she didn't feel so uneasy about the night they'd shared.

"About last night," he said, closing his eyes. His face dropped into the hollow where her neck and shoulders met, his breath so warm it sent shivers shooting across the sensitive skin.

Her body reacted in an instant, her breasts full and aching, her legs turning to mush. Her body remembered everything about his.

"I don't think I can put it in to words," he whispered, his lips against her skin. "I could say it was incredible, but that doesn't begin to describe it."

Shelly swallowed hard. The relief was enormous. He didn't regret anything. And now she could hope the night had meant as much to him as it did to her.

"I could say that I've never felt so close to another human being, so in tune with you. Yet as close as we were, it wasn't close enough," he said.

She stood there in his arms, shivering with pleasure, goose bumps rising on her flesh as he started kissing her again.

"I... I don't want to be away from you right now," she said when she could get the words out.

"Sweetheart, I don't want to be away from you, either, but I'm not taking any chances on this. I'm not going to lose you now."

* * *

He dashed out the door with time for nothing more than a single, breath-robbing kiss and a solemn promise to be careful.

As promised, she locked the door behind him and set the security system. She gathered up the few possessions she'd picked up at her apartment, stuffed them all in a small piece of his luggage and tried not to miss him already.

Then she sat down to wait for the cab.

Brian had talked to the police already this morning. A warrant was out for the arrest of Grant Edwards. The charge was murder, among other things.

The police thought it had all started with some kickbacks for looking the other way on a problem on an engineering job. Grant had a serious gambling problem and owed a local bookie two hundred thousand dollars.

Obviously the man hadn't found whatever he was looking for at the firm or Charlie's house or hers, because he was still searching. And it must mean a great deal to him, enough that he was willing to pull a gun on her and Brian.

The police thought Grant Edwards was a desperate man, that he'd do something incredibly stupid very soon and they'd have him in custody within a few days.

Shelly still didn't want to go, but Brian had asked, and it was clearly very important to him.

I'm not taking any chances. I'm not going to lose you now.

After he'd said that, she would have gone to the moon for him.

Shelly heard the cabbie tooting his horn out front. She was turning to leave when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it while picking up her purse and her bag.

"Ms. Wilkerson?" a woman's voice said.

"Yes," Shelly said, relieved that it wasn't Grant again.

"This is Mrs. Thompson."

"Yes," she said, recognizing the woman's name from the nursing home.

"I hope it's all right to call you there. I tried your office first, but they said you weren't in yet and suggested I try your cell phone."

"Of course. Is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid so. Mrs. Williams has developed pneumonia. We took her to the emergency room last night, and they admitted her. I thought you'd want to know."

"Yes," Shelly said, feeling ashamed for not visiting Charlie's wife sooner. Now Shelly had a cab waiting and a plane that wouldn't wait for her.

"Is she—Is it serious?"

"We're not sure yet," Mrs. Thompson said.

"Are you telling me she's dying?" Shelly asked.

"I'm afraid in older people, especially those who tend to be sedentary, pneumonia can be a significant health risk."

"Oh." Shelly sat down. Marion Williams could be dying, and she was all alone in the world. Shelly couldn't stand that idea. "Could I see her?"

"Of course. The hospital is running tests, I'm sure, to see just how serious her condition is. We should know more soon."

She looked at her watch, heard the cab driver toot his horn again and thought of the plane she'd promised to be on.

It wouldn't take that long to go visit Marion. Maybe it wasn't that bad, and she'd just be on the next plane out. Brian would have to understand. Shelly promised the woman she'd be there in a few minutes, then hung up the phone.

She grabbed her stuff, got in the cab and used her cell phone on the way to the hospital to change her flight and tell Brian's mother.

* * *

Shelly walked briskly down the hallway at the hospital with a staffer the nursing home had sent with Charlie's wife to get her settled in the hospital.

"Has a doctor seen her yet?"

"Early this morning, in the ER. They said we just have to wait and see how she responds to the medication they've started."

"I thought Alzheimer's progressed so slowly that it would be years before she died."

"This isn't about her Alzheimer's," the woman said. "It's the pneumonia and, I think, too, Marion losing her husband."

"I wasn't sure she even understood he's gone," Shelly said.

"We've tried to explain things to her as best we can, and I think we finally succeeded. Since then, she hasn't wanted to do anything, not even get out of bed. It's like she's simply given up. Pneumonia on top of that... Well, I don't know if she wants to fight anymore."

* * *

After seeing Marion, Shelly found it easy to believe it was true. The aide who'd cared for her day in and day out told Shelly it might be a blessing. Marion wasn't going to get better. Her death could be years away, after a slow, agonizing deterioration of her body to match what had already happened to her mind. She had already suffered a great deal. She might continue to do so for a long time to come.

"It seems so cruel, to have nothing to look forward to but forgetting everyone you know. She'd have to be so afraid," Shelly said. "I don't want her to suffer. Is there anything we can do for her?"

"This is a good hospital. We bring all our residents here when they need this level of care. They'll do everything they can, but she has a living will that we brought with her to the hospital. Actually, her husband signed that. I'm not sure if it's still in effect now that he's gone. But it directs that she not be put on a ventilator if her breathing deteriorates and that we don't try to restart her heart, if it stops."

"Oh, God," Shelly said.

"If you believe there's a next life awaiting us, a better one... I've seen them together for a few years now. She'd want to be with him."

"Yes, I know that."

"So, the hospital has some questions for you, maybe some forms. Charlie's gone, and he named you to make medical decisions for his wife. I think it may be enough to say you concur with Charlie's wishes, if you do."

That hit Shelly like a blow.

"I know. It's really hard," the aide said.

Shelly nodded. "I didn't expect to have to do anything like that so soon."