“What’s happening?” I yelled as soon as I was in.
I looked wildly around their room as they both ran in and out of their closet. My mom was crying as she packed a suitcase, my dad was trying to calm someone down on the phone.
“What is going on?” I asked again, and my dad turned to look at me, his face filled with the terror I’d felt yesterday morning as I’d driven to the hospital.
“Rachel,” he whispered to me, and shook his head, trying to convey that whatever had happened to my sister . . . it wasn’t good.
Chapter Five
September 7, 2013
Eli
IT FELT LIKE I was in a daze, like none of this could possibly be real—but somehow it was. I sat in the waiting room with my parents and younger sister Candice as I waited for the time when I could go into Rachel’s room again. Candice clutched at my arm as her body shook steadily, even through her sleep, and my mom cried quietly against my dad’s shoulder as they whispered back and forth to each other.
Rachel and Candice were three and a half years younger than me, and both were living in Austin attending the University of Texas there. While only Candice was blood, I’d never considered Rachel anything other than my sister. I’d just been with them a little over two months ago when I’d had a business trip here . . . and now Rachel was hooked up to a bunch of machines in a hospital room because of a stalker. The same man had apparently had people following all the members of my family, and had been behind my dad’s car blowing up.
Rachel was alive and would live a normal life, and she was whole, but she in no way would be okay. Not only had she been stalked and tortured by a psychopath, she’d also found out while being rescued that her fiancé was an undercover cop. I couldn’t imagine that conversation was going over well between them in her room, and I hated knowing that my sister was completely broken.
Removing Candice from my arm, I stood and walked to the other side of the waiting room to get away from them as I tried not to break down. Running my hands down my face, I let out a shuddering breath and tried to make sense of all this, but there was no way to. It still didn’t feel real. I just had to be thankful they’d been trying to send a message with my dad, and not trying to kill him; and thankful for Rachel’s fiancé, Kash. If it weren’t for him and the other detectives, they wouldn’t have found her in time.
My throat tightened at the thought of losing my sister, and like I had so many times over the past twenty-four hours, all I could think was that I needed Paisley there with me.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I walked out of the waiting room and down a little vacant hall. After going through the contacts, I stared at Paisley’s name for a long time—just like I’d done yesterday—before finally pressing down on it.
It rang and rang until her voice mail picked up, and my head fell back to the wall when her voice filled the phone. I rubbed at the ache in my chest as I wished once again for all of this to be some fucked-up nightmare.
“Hey, Pay, happy birthday,” I choked out, and cleared my throat. “I wish I could get a box of cupcakes and split them in half with you, but I’m in Texas. Some bad stuff happened to Rachel—and well . . . I’m just in Texas. So go get some cupcakes and eat the tops for me, sound good?”
I ground my jaw as I tried to figure out how to end it. I miss you? This is killing me? I’m sorry for not being the guy need?
Instead, I just stuttered, “Okay, yeah . . . see—uh . . . see you.”
Walking back into the waiting room, I saw Kash was out of Rachel’s room and sitting next to his work partner, and went over to introduce myself. I didn’t like that my sister had gotten engaged without me ever meeting the guy, and I really didn’t like that he’d been keeping the fact that he was an undercover cop from her, but I knew for Rachel’s sake I needed to try to be nice. I cleared my throat when I stepped up to him, and when he looked up at me, I had to clear it again to make sure I’d be okay to speak after the message I’d just left.
“Eli Jenkins,” I said as I offered my hand. “Thank you for saving her. She’s always been like a sister.” Kash didn’t respond. “You’re her fiancé, right?”
Pain covered his face, but he still didn’t respond.
Dropping my hand, I took a step back. “I’m sure it’s been a long day for you. We can talk later. I just wanted to say thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me. I would do anything for her.” He licked his lips and his eyes darted to her door. “Watch out for her, okay?”
For some reason, I knew he didn’t mean right now. And while I didn’t know what had just happened in that room, I knew it hadn’t been good. Nodding, I walked quickly into Rachel’s room to see her straining to keep her cries silent.
“Are you hurting?” I asked as I went to the chair near her bed.
She nodded before shaking her head. “I don’t need pain medicine . . . I need the other half of my soul back.”
I shakily sat in the chair and grabbed her hand. She tightened both hands around mine as I sat there staring at nothing.
My soul.
The ache in my chest and body somehow grew, and I knew—I knew then what I’d lost.
I hadn’t just lost my wingman and best friend . . . I’d lost the only girl who could touch my soul.
September 7, 2013
Paisley
RELAXING INTO BRETT’S side as we walked out of the theater, I smiled up at him as he talked about the movie we’d just seen. I could listen to him talk all day about anything. His green eyes and full lips were always extremely expressive—the British accent was just the cherry on top.