No More Running (16 page)

“I’m not really in pain, just a throbbing, but I couldn’t see after I was hit on the head the first time.  It’s worse now though; all I can see are shadows.  Did he say if it would be permanent?”

“We’ll have to do tests, but it may only be temporary until all of the swelling is down.”  I heard an unfamiliar voice speak up.  I hadn’t even noticed anyone coming in.  “With you being able to see shadows, and it not being complete blindness, it may just be that once the swelling is completely gone that your sight will return.”

The doctor, his name ended up being Doctor Evans, sent me to CAT scan and did some basic tests, and pretty much told me time would tell.  By the time I left the hospital a week later, though, my sight had reverted back to what it was in the basement, so I had hope that it would fully return.

Garret had explained what had happened.  It had been Jamie the whole time.  They found more pictures and files spanning two years on his computer where he’d followed my movements, finally catching up with me in Savannah.  The computer also had stuff on it to indicate that Jamie had murdered Chuck.  The Tacoma police department said that dental records for the John Doe they had found matched Chuck.  They are investigating it, but everything points to Jamie, who is now in jail.  When the gun went off, it hit him in the stomach, but alerted the fire department, Garret, and a few others who were searching the remains of the house for me.  So they found us in time to save Jamie. 

Doc was no longer a suspect, and we were still friends.  He said he understood my doubts and probably would have felt the same way, but I knew he only said that to make me feel better.  About a month after everything, he started dating the head ER nurse, and they seemed to really hit it off.  I was so happy for him.

Claire and Stefan were both doing fine.  Stefan had spent a couple of days in the hospital, but was released and the same for Claire.  Garret had pulled her out of the fire, but panicked when he couldn’t find me.  The fire men had to drag him out so they could put out the fire, but Garret refused to leave until everything was out and the remains searched.  Luckily, as you know, they heard the shot.  Garret didn’t really talk about it, but I knew that it had been hard on him.

My sight had returned, mostly, but I still needed gasses to be able to see clearly.  I was happy with that.  I had been blessed more than I had ever thought possible five years before.

One night Garret took me into our back yard, I had moved in with him when he toldme he never wanted to be away from me again, and set me down on a pic-nic blanket he’d set out for us to watch the stars.  We both lay back and looked at the night-time vista before us.  I was nervous because I had something I had to tell him and didn’t know how he’d react.  I was really hoping he would be as happy as I was, but I wasn’t sure.

After a while of lying silently watching the night sky, Garret turned to me and kissed me passionately.  My response was immediate.  My body was set afire with sensations he created with his touch.  We removed each other’s clothes and I pushed him to his back without breaking the kiss.  I pulled my moth from his and licked, nipped, and suckled lower and lower until I reached his rock hard shaft.  I licked the bead of nectar from his tip, his unique taste exploding in my mouth, sending my arousal into orbit.  I ran my tongue down the thick vein on the underside of his cock, making my way to his heavy sack, but he caught me by my hair and pulled me back up to his lips.

“I have no control tonight, and I want to be in your tight cunt before I come.”  He said huskily as he turned us both over.  He reached and took out a condom from his pants pocket and rolled it on before entering my quivering tunnel with a single long, hard thrust.  He set a rapid pace, but I didn’t mind as I was right there with him.  The feel of his length sliding in and out sent me higher and higher into the clouds of ecstasy he always had me on.  Every time he slid home, he bumped both my clit on the outside and my cervix on the inside, stimulating me to the point that I was out of my mind and hanging just on the edge of orgasm.

His rhythm started to falter as I was sent over into the waves of blissful sensation the climax created my body, the walls of my vagina pulsing, milking his cock. 

“My God, Dina, I love you!”  He called as the warmth of his seed exploded into the latex.

After a moment I had caught my breath enough speak.  “I love you too Garret Starr.”

He rolled so we were both on out sides, but his cock never left me and I could feel him getting thicker again as our arousal spiked again, but he pulled out.  I whimpered in protest, but he just chuckled as he tied of the condom and threw it in with the trash from the snack we’d shared while stargazing.

His smile slowly left his face as he brushed my hair out of my face.  “I love you so much Dina Nicole Evans.  Will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”  He asked me.  He reached over to his pants again, but this time he pulled out a velvet box.  He opened it in front of me to show me a beautiful princess cut diamond solitaire set in white gold.

I was so choked up; all I could do was nod as tears of joy fell down my cheeks.  He sat both of us up as he took the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger.  I kissed him with all of the love I had in my heart for him.  It was just like my dream.

When we finally broke for air, I knew I had to tell him.

“Garret?  Do you remember our first time together?”  I asked hesitantly.

He simply nodded, probably trying to figure out where I was going with it.

“Do you remember what we forgot that night?”

He looked at me for a moment, trying to think, and then a huge grin spread across his face.

Epilogue

I never knew my life would turn out like this.  In school, yes I had dreams of marrying my sweetheart, having two point five kids and living out life in that clichéd house with its white picket fence.  Sitting in a rocker, later in life, watching my grandkids play while holding my husband’s hand.

After Chuck turned ‘psycho’, I called it; those dreams for me flew out the window.  I figured then that my life would be one of pain.  Probably short too.  I knew one day he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back, and he’d kill me; which of course he almost had.

Then, Doc gave me hope when he helped me escape that world for one of running and hiding who I was.  I got used to that life, and consoled myself in thinking ‘it could have been worse’.  I lived day to day just glad to still be breathing.  I had Doc as a friend, though he wasn’t there physically, it had helped knowing that someone out in the world had been there for me.

Just to let you know, Doc is engaged!  I know can you believe it?  He went out with the head ER nurse and had a wonderful time.  They had so much in common, and he told me that it felt as if he’d known her forever.  Her name is Julia and she fits in with all of us quite well.

Anyway, back to the story.

After Doc came my
crew
, as I call them.  The best people in the world.  The ones who were there for me and never left or gave up.  The Davis’ were the grandparents I never had.  Yes they considered me their daughter, but I can’t discount my mom, so I love them just as much as I would my ‘grandparents’.  Mr. Davis, Thomas, as he insisted I call him and I finally gave in, was starting to slow down a little, but still stayed in the kitchen baking up a mini-storm.  He did have help now, though.  A nice girl fresh out of culinary school, wanting to work in the shop, and learn the up and downs of the business, before she opens a bakery of her own. 

Mrs. Davis, or Patsy as I now call her, is still going strong.  I can tell she is very worried about Thomas, with him being older than her.  She said it never mattered to her, but she didn’t want to live out her life without him.  I know she is sad, but she will make it.  She said Thomas told her that God had sent her to him to help him live a better life, and he loved her so much for it.  He said he would wreak havoc from heaven if she didn’t live on, and try to be happy after he was gone.  At least until God decided it was her time to join him.  I cried with her when she told me that, it was so sweet.  Hopefully though, they will still have a few years before it becomes an issue.

Claire asked Stefan to marry her.  I know, kind of backward, but she said she’d be old and gray if she waited on him.  She didn’t know he was a silent partner until they were selling their homes to find one that fit both of them.  He wanted to buy the house for her, but she told him that since they both brought home the same salary, which would have been true if someone else did the work he did every day, they should split the cost.  He had seriously thought I had told her his position in the company.  Garret and Claire both had lit into him for that, saying he should have known me better than that.  Anyway, they just up and flew to Atlantic City one night; got married, gambled, and just plain had fun on their honeymoon.  Garret teased them saying they just
had
to steal our thunder, considering they married two weeks before we did.

Our wedding was small, but glorious.  We got married in Margie’s church, surrounded by our friends, family, and coworkers.  The sanctuary was decked out in white and yellow roses. 

Claire’s Matron of Honor dress was an identical dress to mine, just in a yellow rose color.  I wore a white dress with a peasant top, off the shoulder straps, and the satin material layered and flowing down to my ankles.  I had white satin ballet flats on my feet, which helped with the night of dancing we had where I was passed around to everyone.  I hadn’t told anyone except Claire that I was pregnant.  I was only three months, but I already had a small baby bump.  Luckily it was hidden by the cut and flow of the dress.  We wanted everyone’s attention on our wedding and not the baby.  We decided to tell them all when we got back from our honeymoon. 

Garret took me on a one month Caribbean cruise.  It was wonderful when we finally made it out of our cabin, but was marred by a phone call eight days before we were scheduled to come home.

Margie had a stroke and fell down a flight of stairs.  She died on impact when her head hit a step.  I couldn’t get over the guilt of leaving her, and especially of not telling her about her grandbaby.  I floated through the funeral and several days afterward, lost in my own world, not really knowing what was happening around me, before Garret finally snapped me back to reality.  He literally picked me up and dumped me in a cold shower, which finally allowed me to let the tears and pain, which I’d been holding in, go.  He stayed with me in the shower, his arms tight around me, rocking me, and crying with me. 

It was freeing to let it all go.  I had been holding in so much, trying not to bring down the people around me.  There had been the fire and the aftermath.

Jamie never made it to trial, he finally confessed everything.  When he had gotten out of the hospital in Tacoma, he was still weak.  Chuck had come to him, wanting to finish what he’d started, meaning he was going to let Jamie burn to death for daring to think he could date me, when I belonged to Chuck.  Whatever Chuck was going to use to set Jamie on fire somehow got Chuck instead.

Jamie stated that as he watched, all he could think was none of it would have happened if it weren’t for me.  So he took care of Chuck’s body and searched through his belongings, finding everything he needed to know about me. 

It had taken almost a year for him to recuperate enough, but when he did, he followed me; always missing me by less than a couple of weeks.  He had some reconstructive surgeries to fix his face along the way, finally catching up with me in Savannah.

He decided to play with me, making me suffer, just as Chuck had done.  He said it had just been luck that I got hit by the bullet instead of Claire, and poisoned with Garret.  He didn’t plan it, but didn’t mind it.  He even confessed to trying to just go ahead and kill me by morphine overdose in the hospital, but he got caught by a nurse.  I had forgotten that little bit I’d heard while I was out of it.

He said that he resented Doc because he knew Doc helped me decide when and where to move to, so it was his fault it took so long to get to me, so he had decided to try to pin it all on him, but Doc messed that up for him.

By the time I had finished listening to his taped confession, I was sick to my stomach.  Chuck had been very twisted, but Jamie was completely insane.  He had even talked about the insanity plea, but his lawyer advised against it saying there had been too much thought put into everything, making it premeditated.   He plea bargained down to twenty five years to life with no possibility of parole.  The prosecutor said it was a good deal with his five counts of attempted murder, two counts of arson, and murder as self-defense, which is how they classified it with his particular situation.

Tonight was my one year anniversary as Mrs. Garret Starr.  Claire had Kinsley, my five month old baby girl, and I was planning a romantic night with my husband.  I wanted to let him know that we were almost to the point of being the dream American family.  We had a house with a fence, it was a privacy fence, not white picket, but it was close.  We had a German Shepard named Cujo.  He was a sweetheart, but as a cute little puppy, I had thought it would be a funny name to give him.  I mean who will come close to your yard when you have a dog with the name Cujo.  See?  It instills fear, though if he attacks you; it’s with licks and not bites.  We had one girl; I was hoping the baby I was telling Garret about tonight, that was now on the way, was going to be a boy.

The only question left to make it the perfect life and family.  How do you have the point five child?

About The Author

I am a stay at home mother of three that has always loved coming up with stories.  Since high school, I have loved to both read and write all genres of stories.  I have a couple of earlier works that I loved, but learned a lot from, so hopefully my writing reflects that.  As my children have gotten older and now all have their own things to do, they have encouraged me in my dream of becoming an author.  I have really great feedback from my readers before I even publish the finalized manuscripts, so I really hope that the readers who buy my books enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.