When the Smoke Clears (Deadly Reunions) (32 page)

“We are too.”

Alexia lifted her eyes to his. Dry eyes, he noticed, although her upper teeth were sunk deep into her lower lip. After a minute, she said, “How did the person get in the house?”

“With the alarm code.”

Another short nod as she considered this. “And how did this person get the code?”

“That one I haven’t figured out yet. Or how he got the drop on Marty. She was killed, then hidden in the kitchen pantry with the dog.” He took a step closer, then another.

Finally, he reached the bed and sat beside her. In a smooth move, she turned and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his shoulder. Fortunately, it was his good arm, not the one that still ached from the recent bullet wound.

“Why is this happening, Hunter? What did I do to deserve this? Am I such a rotten person that God has to come after me this way?” she whispered.

He squeezed her shoulders a little tighter and leaned over to place a kiss on her head. “It’s not God doing this. He loves you and wants the best for you whether you can believe that or not.” He paused. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I promise, from now on, I’m not letting you out of my sight until we get this figured out.”

“Thanks.”

They sat there for the next fifteen minutes, not moving, not talking, just . . . being. And Hunter prayed. Without ceasing. For Alexia, for justice, for peace, for wisdom. For God to show Alexia he loved her and was there for her.

She finally stirred and stood. “I’m ready to get out of here.” A pout formed on her lips. “You know, this person is really getting on my nerves. I can’t handle anyone else dying because of me.”

He thought she might let the tears fall at this point, but she blinked them back.

“Nobody died because of you. Two good cops died because there’s a sicko out there.”

He could tell she wanted to argue. Instead, she said, “I want to leave.”

“Have you been released yet?”

“The doctor came by a little earlier. I’m just waiting on the paperwork.”

“Sure.” He lifted a hand to rub circles on her back. “What’s wrong, Lex?”

She raised a brow. “You have to ask?”

He simply stared at her and a frown furrowed her brow.

Finally she said, “I’m not sure anything is actually wrong—other than the obvious. I had a conversation with my mother this morning that I need to process.”

“Want to share?”

Alexia was silent for so long after his question, he wondered if she was going to answer.

Then she said, “My mom needs a bone marrow transplant.”

“And she wants you to get tested to see if you’re a match.”

“I’m not sure if she does or not. I can’t tell if she’s playing me or if . . .” A sigh slipped out and she grimaced. “I hate being so suspicious. Why can’t I just take things at face value?” She told him the rest of the conversation. “So, part of me is hurt, thinking she only wants to make nice to get me to have the test and see if I’m a match. But part of me wants to really believe her when she says I wasn’t supposed to find out because she doesn’t want me believing exactly that.” A shrug. “I do know that she was trying to get in touch with me before she found out about the need for the transplant, so . . .” She stood and paced to the other side of the room, then turned back and waved a hand dismissing the topic. “I’ll think about it and figure out what to do.”

“Would you like to pray about it?”

She froze. “Pray about it? Like . . . with you?”

“Sure. I’ve been praying
for
you—now, if you want, I’d be glad to pray
with
you.”

He waited while she thought about it. “I don’t know, Hunter. That might be a little weird. I wouldn’t know the first thing about praying with someone. I’m just now figuring out how to pray inside my head.”

Her words lifted his heart. So, she’d been praying on her own. He was glad to hear it. “Come here and I’ll show you.”

After another brief hesitation, she stepped over to him and placed her hands in his. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. He could feel her watching him. Not letting it distract him, he focused on the prayer, tuning his heart to the God who would listen.

“Lord, thank you for your unconditional love and your interest in even the smallest details of our lives. You know what’s going on here. You heard the conversation. Alexia has some choices to make. Could you just open her eyes to the truth and lead her to the right decision?” He prayed just a little longer, ending with a request for Alexia’s protection and justice for the one after her. “In your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.”

When he opened his eyes, he found Alexia staring at him. He smiled. “What?”

Her lips curved into a smile and some of the stress seemed to be gone from her face. “That wasn’t so weird.”

Hunter laughed and pulled her into a hug. Then he sobered. “You’ll know what to do, Lex. Trust God.”

“Hmm.”

Now for the hard part. “I need to ask you something.”

“What?” she mumbled into his chest.

Hunter gripped her upper arms and gently pushed her back. “I need to know if you saw anything last night. If you had any impressions about your attacker. Anything.”

Alexia sighed. “Somehow I figured we’d get to this.”

“Yeah, you need to tell me exactly what happened.”

Hunter watched her gather her thoughts. She said, “I was in bed asleep. Then the alarm went off. I think. Just for a split second, like when you enter the door and hurry to punch the numbers in.”

He frowned.

“At first I just laid there, wondering if I’d heard right or if I was dreaming.”

“I must have been in the bathroom when that happened. I didn’t hear it go off. But Marty did and probably went to investigate.”

Alexia eyed him. “And when she did, the person was waiting for her?”

He nodded his approval. “Marty was garroted.”

A pained groan escaped her. “That’s horrible.” She blinked her shock. “How can someone
do
that?”

“It’s a brutal way to kill a person.” Hunter felt the anger claw at him. He controlled it and said, “Jimmy was killed the same way. The killer managed to crawl into the backseat of his car and get him.”

“And I was drugged. So, it’s still pretty obvious that this person doesn’t want me dead. Yet.”

“Right. But he’s not afraid of killing. In fact, he’s quite skilled at it.” Hunter paused. “Anything else?”

She filled him in on the rest of it, ending with waking in the hospital with the doctor standing over her.

Hunter took her hand. “I need you to think about something.”

“What?”

“The person who attacked you . . .” He paused, wondering if he should even bring it up. Finally, he said, “Could you tell if it was a man or a woman?”

She lifted a brow. “I . . . don’t know. I mean . . . I think it was a man. But I suppose it could have been a really strong woman. Maybe.” Doubt crossed her face. “I don’t know, Hunter. I’m pretty strong for a woman. I mean, I work out all the time. Becoming a firefighter isn’t physically easy. I’m stronger than a lot of men. So for a woman to overpower me . . .” She shrugged. And wondered at the relief on his face. “Why would you ask that?”

He shook his head and pursed his lips. “Just something Chad mentioned.”

“What was that?”

“He seemed to think the person he saw carrying you out of your house was a woman.”

“And how would he know that? The person was dressed completely in black. I mean from head to toe. And I struggled and fought against him . . . her . . . whoever.” A light pink stained her cheeks. “And I didn’t notice any . . . uh . . . female attributes during my struggle.”

He smiled. “Were you in any kind of state of mind to notice?”

She grimaced. “No, all I was thinking was that I wasn’t ready to die yet. I know the person is taller than I am. That I’m sure of.”

He stood and pulled her up beside him. “I’m six feet tall, exactly. How tall are you? Five six? Five seven?”

“Five seven. And a half.”

His hands rested on her shoulders as he stepped closer. The top of her head came to just below his chin. He liked being this close to her. Memories of their shared kisses surged to the surface.

“Okay,” he said, clearing his throat, “five seven and a half. Now, tell me where you think you might measure against the person who attacked you.”

“About your height. Maybe a little shorter.”

He frowned. “Anything else? Any smells?”

“Just the smell of my own fear.” Alexia shook her head. “No, nothing really. Except . . .”

“Yeah?”

She still stood in his arms and he found he wasn’t in any hurry to let her go. She said, “Maybe . . . fabric softener.”

“Fabric softener?”

“Maybe. But then I was smelling the chloroform and was doing my best to avoid it.” She grimaced. “Only I failed.”

His fingers started a slow motion on her shoulders, offering a light massage. She leaned into it and he felt her muscles start to relax.

“How’s your headache?” he asked.

“Fading by the second,” she murmured as her eyes closed.

Hunter covered her lips with his, pulling her closer, his hand now rubbing circles on her shoulder blade. She kissed him back and Hunter silently thanked God that she was alive and well. Holding her, his senses tantalized by her nearness, the scent of her freshly washed hair, nearly had him on his knees.

And then she pulled back. Wide-eyed, she stared up at him. The red flush on her cheeks said she’d enjoyed the moment as much as he.

The door opened and he turned to face the nurse, who handed Alexia the papers that would spring her. As she signed, the woman rattled off instructions finally ending with, “Call your doctor if you have any problems. And be sure to get some rest.”

“Rest. Right.”

Knuckles rapped on the door. Hunter looked up to find Chad’s large frame standing in the doorway. He smiled at Alexia, then frowned when he spotted Hunter. “Morning.”

“Good morning, Chad.” Alexia’s body language shifted. Hunter thought she might not want Chad here. Which he thought was odd, since he’d probably saved her life last night.

She said, “I hear I owe you a big thank-you.”

Chad’s shoulders lifted in a modest shrug. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”

“Speaking of that,” Hunter said, “how was it you were at Serena’s house that time of the night anyway?”

Chad’s eyes narrowed in anger at his brother’s tone. “What are you implying, Hunter?”

Innocence radiated from Hunter. “I’m not implying anything. I was just curious how you came to be there.”

Another shrug. “I had a call out that way and decided to drive by.” His lips tightened. “I saw Jimmy kind of slumped over the wheel and pulled up next to him to blast him for sleeping on the job.” Chad’s eyes flickered and grief twisted his face for a brief moment. “Then the front door opened and out comes this person dressed in black carrying Alexia over his shoulder.” He shook his head. “It was so weird. So blatant. Like the person didn’t think anything about kidnapping someone from their home and just walking out the front door.”

“You’re right,” Hunter agreed. “It is weird.”

“Anyway, I yelled at him to freeze. He took two steps, then threw Alexia to the ground and took off.”

“And the way he ran was weird too, you said.”

Chad sighed. “Yeah, it was.”

“What do you mean?” Alexia asked.

“I mean . . . women run differently than men. When the person took off, it looked like a woman running.”

“He said it looked like Christine,” Hunter said.

Alexia stared at the brothers. “Christine? Really? Have you two lost your minds?”

Hunter finally allowed a smile to crack and he saw Alexia relax as she realized he didn’t believe it one bit.

Chad flushed and shot Hunter a disgusted look. “I said she ran
like
Christine, not that it
was
Christine.”

Alexia let out a little laugh. “No, it definitely wasn’t Christine.” She frowned. “And I don’t think it was a woman. If it was, she was awfully strong.”

“There are a lot of strong women out there,” Chad muttered defensively. “Those who stay in shape, lift weights.” He crossed his arms. “Firefighters, for example.”

Alexia nodded. “You have a point.”

Chad glared at Hunter. “You know this as well as I do. What about that woman who nearly took you down two years ago? It took you and two other cops to subdue her—and she wasn’t on drugs.”

Hunter grimaced. “Yeah. I remember that.”

“Uh, you guys ready to go?”

All three of them jerked at the orderly’s quiet question. He’d come up without a sound.

“Sure.” Alexia settled herself in the wheelchair, too tired to argue that she could walk out on her own just fine.

Hunter and Chad followed behind.

Hunter’s cell phone rang and he snatched it.

“It’s all in place,” Pete said. Pete was a fellow detective and occasional racquetball buddy. But Pete wasn’t happy about Hunter’s latest request.

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure, Hunter. You better hope Chad doesn’t find out about any of this.”

“Yeah. All right. I’ll be there shortly and we’ll discuss that.”

Hunter caught Chad’s satisfied gleam and knew that he was thinking he was going to get to take her home.

He looked at Alexia. “I’ve got to go. Katie’s got some information she wants to share with me.” His eyes flicked to Chad. “You can take her home, right?”

“Sure.” Surprise flashed across his face. “It would be my pleasure.”

Hunter looked back at Alexia and she motioned for him to go. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tonight around six thirty, right?”

He lifted a brow in disbelief. “What? You’re still planning on going?”

“Well, of course.” She frowned. “I mean if you still want me to.”

“Of course I still want you to. I just wasn’t sure you’d feel up to it. You’ve had some pretty rough days.”

Alexia firmed her jaw. “I’m not letting this creep mess with me any more than I can help it. I’ll go to Serena’s and get some rest and be ready for you to come pick me up.”

“What’s tonight?” Chad asked, the frown pulling his brows to the bridge of his nose.